Episode 113

“Phew… I finally got out.”

After escaping from the Emperor, I went to see the undertaker alone.

In truth, I knew nothing about magic.

It was just an improvisation to stop the vicious cycle of being suspected by the Emperor.

However, that didn’t mean I had no way to deal with the body.

The leader of the attack was obviously a hostile force supporting Hakim in opposition to Lidia.

If handed over to her, she would surely investigate the self-destructive spell on her own.

With that in mind, I headed to the mortuary located in the furthest corner of the Imperial Palace.

Upon opening the door to the mortuary, a hunched-over man greeted me.

“Greetings, knight. What brings you here?”

“I’ve come to retrieve the body of the perpetrator from yesterday’s incident.”

I spoke leisurely, hands clasped behind my back.

However…

“What…? That body?”

The undertaker’s eyes widened upon hearing my words.

“Yes, is there any problem?”

“Well… just a while ago, a knight who also received imperial orders came for the body… I’ve already handed it over to him…”

A knight with imperial orders?

That must surely be only me?

“When did this knight come and leave?”

I asked in a serious tone.

Then, in a frightened voice, he murmured,

“Just a little while ago… He took it with a cart driver…”

I rushed out of the mortuary.

And ran in the direction mentioned by the undertaker.

“Did the Crown Prince beat me to it?… Sly child. He’s always quick with such tricks.”

Passing through the gloomy corridors of the Imperial Palace, I reached the gateway leading to the city.

There, I started to see the imperial knight and the cart driver mentioned by the undertaker.

“Hey, hold on a moment!”

Upon my call, they both came to a halt.

Then they slowly turned around to look at me.

One was clearly an imperial knight, blond and wearing a white uniform.

However, the cart driver was a man from the east.

“I am in charge of the body handover, so leave it here.”

I gestured with my palm toward them.

“….”

The two exchanged a strange sign between them.

Then, the imperial knight glanced at me and…

“Excuse me, but I was the first to receive the order, so I can’t do that.”

Unlike the normal arrogant imperial knights, this fellow was very diligent in menial tasks like body disposal.

“I have received orders from His Majesty the Emperor. So, you don’t need to bother.”

I firmly replied, indicating that it was non-negotiable.

The imperial knight sighed deeply…

“Truthfully, it must be a hassle for a high-ranking capital knight to handle body disposal.”

He quietly surveyed the surroundings.

Then, with a broad smile, he cautiously spoke to me.

“I’ll specially handle it for you, so why don’t we end this amicably?”

The imperial knight clasped his hands together.

Then, with a generous expression of goodwill, he made me an offer.

However, seeing his kind expression, I raised the corners of my mouth instead.

Then I replied with a cold, expressionless face.

“You’re not an imperial knight, are you?”

A cold remark.

Pierced by that remark, the fellow furrowed his brow.

“What…? What do you mean by that?”

I calmly approached the flustered knight.

At the same time, I pointed to the stiff white uniform he was wearing.

“Imperial knights usually ignore the Capital Defense Command Unit.”

I began to wrap mana around my hand.

Then, clenching my fist, I opened my mouth.

“They’re never this friendly.”

“….”

The imperial knight and the cart driver listened to me in silence.

They glanced at each other and exchanged a signal.

At that moment, the cart driver began to flee towards the city.

The knight drew the ceremonial sword he had at his waist.

As if it were a prearranged plan.

“Yes, I knew it would be like this.”

I swung my fist towards his head.

But, with quick movements, he bent his body.

Unlike the heavyset imperial knights, he was very agile.

“…!!”

As he bent down, he swung the sword with one hand.

I stepped back to dodge that decisive strike.

And I realized his swordsmanship was indeed not that of the imperial knights.

It was awkward, like using a weapon not suited for his body.

“Huff…!”

With a short exhalation, he delivered a straight strike towards my neck.

I grabbed the strike with my hand imbued with mana.

“There’s no need to hide. Bring out your curved swords.”

His eyes sparkled seeing me grab the blade barehanded.

No matter how much he strained, the sword didn’t budge.

“Choke…!!”

Reluctantly, he let go of the sword.

Instead…

“Daring to obstruct a great mission…”

He reached into his cloak-covered back with both hands.

“Even if I die, I’ll take you with me…!!”

The Eastern knight disguised as an imperial knight shouted.

He drew two curved swords hidden behind his back.

“…!”

The blades surged, crossing towards my neck.

It would have been dangerous if I had been too close.

But I took the longsword he had dropped.

Before he could aim his dagger at my throat, I struck first.

Clang!!

His twin swords clashed with my longsword.

In that state, I persistently pressed on.

“Wh-what kind of strength…?!”

The Eastern knight blocked my one-handed sword with both hands.

He struggled to hold onto his intertwined daggers.

But that was all he could do.

Soon, his daggers couldn’t withstand the overwhelming force and slipped.

Thanks to that, my freed longsword cleanly sliced off his arm.

“…!!”

Shocked by the sudden pain, he couldn’t even groan.

He just stared blankly at his right arm lying on the ground.

“You discarded a fine longsword for short daggers?”

Only then did the knight realize.

My provocation was just a ruse to disarm him.

I was about to cut off his other arm and chase the cart driver.

However, it wasn’t necessary to go that far.

Because, from afar, the cart driver was returning.

“Why…?!”

The one-armed knight just stared blankly at the cart.

Just from that sight, I could feel how desperate these guys were.

“Master…? What brings you here?”

They were Tau and Batsyu in their uniforms.

They had apprehended the suspicious-looking cart driver and returned to the palace.

“Well done, Tau. You’ve finally fulfilled the role you’ve been trained for.”

“We were patrolling nearby and apprehended a suspicious guy coming out of the palace.”

The cart driver was thrown to the ground where the one-armed knight lay.

The two were neatly surrounded by us.

“But what are you doing here instead of guarding Lady Lidia?”

I asked while wiping the blood-dripping longsword.

Then, Batsyu replied,

“Lady Lidia is currently in a meeting with royals from Samad. So, we were ordered to patrol nearby.”

Batsyu crossed his arms alone.

Then, looking down at the suspicious cart driver and the disguised Eastern knight, he asked,

“But who are these guys, exactly?”

“Well, take a closer look. You might know better than me.”

I sheathed the well-cleaned sword and said.

“….”

The two Eastern knights stared intently at the one-armed man.

Then, as if recalling something, they furrowed their brows.

“This guy… he’s a royal guard from the Kingdom of Samad, isn’t he?”

The two looked at him with incredulous expressions.

Then, grabbing his hair, they pulled off his wig.

“What on earth are you doing here?”

As the golden wig was removed, the black hair characteristic of an Easterner was revealed.

“I can’t say…”

“Do you think you have the right to remain silent now?”

Furious Batsyu raised his massive fist.

I rummaged through the cart, warning him,

“Keep a close eye on him. He might self-destruct like this corpse.”

I lifted the cloth covering the corpse.

Then, the charred body of the terrorist leader was revealed, causing my eyebrows to furrow.

“Ugh… Is this the one His Majesty the Emperor mentioned?”

“Yes, you have no idea how much trouble this bastard has caused me.”

I clicked my tongue in response to Tau’s question.

Then, I rummaged through the blackened body with my sword sheath.

“Judging by their effort to sneak it out, there must be something significant here.”

While searching the body, I suddenly noticed something strange.

One arm was missing from the corpse.

It was one-armed, like the knight I had sliced.

“Strange, where did the other arm go?”

“Maybe it was torn off in the explosion?”

I looked at the cleanly cut amputation with my sheath.

For an explosion, the cut was too clean.

“No, this was intentionally cut by someone.”

I glanced over, and, looking at the cart driver clad in very baggy clothes, I said,

“And that too, just a while ago.”

The muscular Eastern men looked down at the small cart driver.

A dark shadow loomed over his stocky frame.

“Ah…!”

The two grabbed him like a toy.

Then, they ruthlessly searched his body and found one charred arm.

“The arm is here.”

“Yes, let’s see what our esteemed royals of the desert wanted to hide so desperately.”

I picked up the arm handed over by the sturdy knights.

Upon close inspection, I discovered a hexagram tattoo right below the palm of his hand.

“Batsyu, can you identify this mark?”

Batsyu, being of noble origin himself, took the arm.

He examined the pattern closely, then nodded his head.

“This is… the family crest of Lady Tilda, Hakim’s wife.”

“Hakim’s wife? That lecher had a wife?”

As I sneered and asked, Batsyu nodded in understanding.

“Yes, it was a political marriage, so they were essentially strangers.”

Hearing his words, the corner of my mouth twitched in amusement.

Tilda, the wife who needed to extract Hakim from the empire to solidify her position in the kingdom.

She had been unwittingly played by the Crown Prince’s own drama in an unavoidable attempt to rescue him.

“She came to retrieve her subordinate’s tattoo to erase any evidence of her involvement.”

“Is this Lady Tilda currently in the conference room?”

Upon my question, the deputy commander of the East nodded.

“Yes. She’s currently in a meeting with Lady Lidia.”

“Do you know what they’re discussing?”

Batsyu hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should speak, then opened his mouth.

“With Hakim’s arrest, Lady Lidia intends to have full authority over the Samad Kingdom, including its eastern capital.”

This was good news.

With the greatest competitor gone, the kingdom would rightly fall into Lidia’s hands.

“However, Hakim’s associates argue that he could easily become king again if released.”

“Lidia has already taken the eastern empire, so they claim that Hakim, her brother and a man, should rightfully be the king of Samad.”

Tau chimed in with Batsyu’s words.

He looked quite angry, finding their claims to be nonsensical.

“What’s so good about that guy that they want to make him king?”

I snorted and shook my head.

“They plan to seat Hakim as a puppet and take over the kingdom themselves in return for saving him.”

“Lidia’s intelligence and her own strong military force play a significant role too.”

I nodded at the fervent words of the two knights.

Before long, they had laid bare the intricacies of the East to me.

“I see. The Princess must be having a hard time.”

I nodded silently.

Then, I picked up the charred arm.

“What will you do?”

Tau asked me with a serious look.

Batsyu also looked at me silently.

I gazed intently at their faces.

Then, I smirked and said,

“Well, we need to return this arm to his owner.”

I entrusted Batsyu and Tau with handling the captured group.

They were key witnesses to this situation, so I ordered them to be kept alive.

“We will comply.”

“We were planning to do so anyway.”

I placed the charred arm into a wooden box.

Then, with the box at my waist like a gift box, I leisurely headed towards the conference room.

“Now, let’s go give this gift to our Princess.”

The path to the conference room was very quiet.

It seemed as if the area was controlled for a very serious conversation.

A dark corridor.

And a quiet palace garden.

According to Tau, the door beyond that garden was the conference room.

I crossed that garden.

Then, I encountered an elderly man with white hair smoking at the entrance of the conference room.

“Huff…”

White smoke rose like a sigh from his traditional Eastern pipe.

His red eyes were filled with sorrow.

“Red eyes… the same as Lidia?”

As I approached silently, the elderly man glanced at me.

Then, he firmly extended his palm to stop me.

“I’m sorry, but this area is off-limits to outsiders. Haven’t you met our knights controlling access?”

The elderly man spoke in awkward Imperial language.

He was clearly from the Eastern Kingdom.

“I am aware. However, I have come for matters concerning the ongoing conference.”

I bowed politely to him.

At the same time, I carefully observed the elderly man’s clothing.

White and blue regalia, which only Eastern royals could wear.

Additionally, the slight protrusion of his belly indicated a high rank.

“You are clearly an outsider, so how do you know about our conference?”

“I am. You will understand once you see the gift I have prepared.”

The elderly man took the wooden box.

And the moment he saw what was inside…

“This is…”

He was speechless.

It was crucial evidence that would be decisive in this conference.

“Come in for now.”

The elderly man guided me inside with a serious look.

Following him, I entered the stately conference room.

Tau, who hailed from the East, and even Batsyu, who had served Lidia all his life, weren’t allowed inside.

Only Lidia’s ‘kin’ could enter.

And there I was, a commoner, daring to step into such a place.

The spacious conference room was indeed magnificent.

The Eastern royals were adorned in splendid silk robes.

They were sitting side by side at a long table.

At each end of the table sat the representatives of each group, Lidia and Lady Tilda.

The elderly man and I naturally approached Lidia’s side.

“….”

Perhaps due to the meeting, the 3rd Princess’s expression was stern.

She was elegantly draped in a cape over her neat, uniform-style attire.

Her gaze was more serious and sharp than usual.

Like a wild beast that had just gained independence.

However, upon seeing us approach, her eyes widened in surprise.

Like a cute baby leopard.

“Vail and grandfather…?”

“Grandfather?”

I glanced again at the elderly man.

Indeed, his eyes, as well as his appearance, bore a striking resemblance.

“How did you two come together…?”

Suddenly, I found myself in the presence of the Princess’s grandfather and her family.

“I met this distinguished guest while taking a stroll.”

The Duke of the East smiled.

And introduced me to his relatives.

In a passionate voice and in the language of Samad.

“Sigh…”

Lidia blushed at her grandfather’s behavior.

Instead of the cool-headed ruler she was supposed to show, she became like a girl who had just come of age.

The excited Duke from the East chattered away.

He praised the man accompanying him, likening him to a lucky fox from Eastern mythology.

At this, the girl hung her head low under the table.

“Grandfather, please…”

It was a while before she could raise her head again.