Rewrite That Witch
CH037 · Rewrite
☕ Support

Chapter 37: Family History

“The danger isn’t as great as you think.” Roland leaned back slightly and let Pine turn the words over. “Where there’s danger there’s usually opportunity. And I know your family’s history with both.”

He had read Barov’s notes before coming down. The Pine family history was brief and specific: Nana’s grandfather had been a common soldier under the old Lord of Longsong, the man who had held the western border before Ryan’s family consolidated power. During a Months-of-the-Demons incursion, a group of demon beasts had broken through the patrol line near the Chishui River and begun running through a settlement with no walls. The grandfather — a patrolman then, with no military rank and no obligation to the settlement — had turned toward the beasts instead of away from them. He had sent for reinforcements, organized the settlement’s militia on the spot, and held the beasts until the reinforcement arrived. The deed had earned him a knighthood, a barony, and a piece of territory in the fiefdom of the Longsong Stronghold’s lord at the time — a man named Joe Kohl.

“Your grandfather earned his knighthood during the Months of the Demons,” Roland said. “A group of demon beasts broke through near the river. He rallied the town militia, held them in place, won.”

Pine’s jaw set with something that was not quite pride and not quite pain. “He did. There was one in particular — some hybrid, part deer, part bull. Legs thicker than a man’s torso. When it charged the ground shook.” He looked at the table. “My father told the story until I had every detail memorized. He stood at the edge of a shallow trench, lured the thing toward him, let it build speed — then dropped into the trench at the last moment with his sword wedged between two stones, tip up. The beast’s momentum did the rest.” He exhaled. “The horns still hang above our fireplace.”

“Faith, courage, and compassion,” Roland said. “The old three.” He let it settle. “The territory he received was in Joe Kohl’s fiefdom. When Kohl was elevated to the duchy of the southern border twenty-five years ago, the relationship changed. Kohl’s attention moved south. Your family’s standing in the old fiefdom—” he chose the word carefully — “diminished.”

Pine said nothing, but the acknowledgment was in his face.

“Your agricultural income fell. The trade routes shifted.” Roland kept his voice neutral — this was observation, not accusation. “You’ve been managing a decline.”

“Yes.” Short and flat.

“I see someone who hasn’t coasted on what his family had,” Roland said. “You train. Your hands show it. The guards you hire when you go out are working men, not ceremonial retinue.” He paused. “You’re a fighter, Mr. Pine. You’re not like most of the minor nobility in this town, who winter in Longsong Stronghold and consider Border Town someone else’s problem.”

Pine looked at him with the expression of a man who has been accurately described and is not sure whether to be gratified or suspicious.

“The opportunity in front of you is the same one your grandfather took,” Roland said. “Border Town has walls now. We have weapons the demon beasts have never faced. We are not going to hold this wall with prayer and conventional arms — we’re going to hold it and I intend to reward the people who hold it with me.” He looked at Pine directly. “Stay through the Months of the Demons. Serve on the wall. When we come through — and we will come through — I’ll grant you a territory east of Border Town and confirm you as Viscount. Your family’s standing, formally extended in a direction Joe Kohl can’t revoke.”

The silence was long.

“If I stay,” Pine said carefully, “can I send Nana to the stronghold? Only until the beasts have passed.”

“Longsong Stronghold has the Church’s networks throughout it,” Roland said. “The moment Nana’s ability becomes known there, I cannot protect her from that far away. Here, I can.” He paused. “And Border Town will not fall. When the beasts come, I will be on the wall with my people. Our opponents are animals — powerful ones, but animals. Your grandfather beat one in a trench with a fixed sword. We have walls, trained militia, and weapons your grandfather could not have imagined.” He met Pine’s eyes. “If the situation becomes truly catastrophic — and I mean genuinely catastrophic, not merely difficult — I will have a boat at the dock for Nana and Anna. They will be out of danger before the wall falls. But the wall will not fall.”

Pine sat with it. He looked at his daughter, who was sitting quietly beside Anna with her hands folded, watching him with an expression that was trying not to be hopeful and failing.

He stood. He went down on one knee — the full knight’s salute, clean and practiced, the posture of a man who was raised on the form. “I’ll stay. And I’ll fight for you, Your Highness.”

After Pine and Nana had gone, Roland stayed at the table finishing his tea.

Anna had remained in the room. She was watching him from across the table with an expression he recognized now: not quite reproach, not quite impatience, but close to both.

“About what I said,” he began. “If things went badly—”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said.

“I was describing a contingency—”

“I’m. Not. Going. Anywhere.” She looked at him without emphasis, without drama, the way she said everything that mattered to her. As though the statement was simply a fact of the room they were sitting in, like the temperature or the grain of the wood.

Roland looked at her for a moment, then looked at his tea.

“All right,” he said.

Discussion

Suggest a change