Chapter 63

A quarrel had broken out on the first floor of the inn since dawn.
There was only one room left, but two parties wanted it.

Even though the facilities were poor, people kept coming.
There was only one reason.
Compared to other places, the price was very cheap.

“Mm…….”

Since the soundproofing was poor, the commotion reached even the room where Serpens was staying.

“…….”

After tossing and turning for a while, Serpens sat up.
With heavily swollen eyes, he let out an irritated breath and scratched his head.

“……He really left.”

The boy looked at the bed where Lars had been lying.
A neatly made bed.
For some reason, he didn’t like the blanket squared so neatly that it looked as if no one had ever climbed onto it.

Serpens’s gaze naturally moved farther to the side.

“…….”

The person who should have been here wasn’t here either.

Serpens got up.
He roughly fixed his tangled hair, roughly packed his things, and headed downstairs.

His legs staggered.
The boy yawned and rubbed his eyes with both hands.

The first thing that caught his attention was the people arguing.
Serpens glanced over them from the corner of his eye.
He became certain that these were the people who had disturbed his sweet sleep.

Past the commotion, a familiar person sitting near the window entered his eyes.

“Lucas. Do you really not sleep at all?”

At the cold gaze that returned to him, Serpens’s body stiffened for a moment.

“Because ignorant fools disturbed the silence.”

Lucas’s sharp voice was directed at the people arguing.

“Ah, I woke up because of that noise too.”

Serpens joined him at the table.
He wasn’t hungry right now.
So he sat in the chair and swung his legs for no reason.

Lucas repeatedly looked over the people causing the commotion.
Serpens gradually began to worry.
Wouldn’t a major incident happen at this rate?
Of course, Lucas wasn’t the kind of person who would beat someone up just because he was annoyed.
But…….

‘He did knock out some guards once before.’

A person who endured and then exploded was scarier than someone who got angry every time.

Serpens looked back through his memories.
It was before the problem with the Quantums Merchant House had been resolved.
It had been an inn then too.
He couldn’t be sure exactly what the reason had been.
But Lucas had subdued the guards who came looking for him by force.

Serpens had not seen the process.
He had woken up, left the room, and when he came down to the first floor, he had only seen the guards unconscious.
But sometimes, there were things one could understand just by seeing the result.

Lucas disliked noise.

And the boy’s thoughts were exactly right.

Lucas was not in a good mood right now.
The quiet dawn.
For Lucas, organizing his thoughts while looking out the window as it slowly brightened was a sort of hobby.
Because in that moment, his mind was relatively settled.

Today as well, he had been enjoying the dawn as always.
The beginning had been good.
It had been good until the darkness outside the window retreated and pale light began to settle.

But at the end of dawn.
That is, in the moment just before the blue light of the sun turned bright, his rest had been broken.

“We came into this inn first!”
“We asked about an empty room first! If you meant to stay at the inn, you should have taken the room first!”
“I didn’t think anyone would come to an inn at this hour! I was planning to drink at leisure and take it later!”

Because they had started fighting.

“…….”

Lucas let out a small sigh.
Immediately, Serpens shook his head hard.

“No, you can’t. Those people are ordinary civilians.”
“……?”
“It’s true they were wrong to be noisy, but dealing with guards who know how to fight and dealing with ordinary civilians are different matters.”

Lucas looked down at the boy.

“I do not know what you were thinking, but I have no intention of making this troublesome matter bigger.”
“Good. That’s the right call.”

Lucas didn’t continue speaking and looked toward the window.

If he began an annoying argument with the boy, he felt he might mix personal feelings into the training later.
Adding weight for no reason, or increasing the number of repetitions.
Under the pretext of punishment for impertinence.

But he couldn’t do that.
Both training and real battle lost efficiency the moment personal feelings entered them.
That was why he didn’t continue the conversation.
Because what had to be done had to be done rationally.

A little while later.
Serpens spoke to Lucas, who had chosen to remain rational.

“I thought of something earlier. What do you think the Quantums Merchant House is doing now?”
“The Quantums Merchant House?”
“Yes, yes. That person back then…….”

Serpens looked around once, then lowered his voice.

“Didn’t he say something about rebellion and a bloodbath?”

Lucas quietly blinked.
Hearing that made him remember that time.

“…….”

Marl Quantums.
The head of the Quantums Merchant House had detected signs of rebellion from somewhere.
At the same time, he had mentioned Muto Mariposa and said that she, a Sword Master, had someone backing her.

The one leading the rebellion, and the person backing Muto Mariposa.

‘I should consider it highly likely they are the same person.’

Who could sow the seeds of rebellion inside the imperial court?
At the same time, who could command a Sword Master as a subordinate?

Those in the empire who could do both things at once could be counted on one hand.
Someone with enough authority that others would agree when he spoke of rebellion.
Someone with enough power to command a subordinate who was a Sword Master.

Only one person came to Lucas’s mind.
It was an extremely rational judgment, excluding personal feelings.

‘Marquis Girium Levvels……?’

There was no one other than that old man who could do something like this.

In reality, the most powerful person after the emperor was Marquis Levvels.
In terms of title, the former emperor, Duke Evgenia, was higher, but he was old and had no interest in political affairs.
Approaching a hundred years old, there was nothing he could do except enjoy his later years in his territory.

That was why it was an undeniable fact that Marquis Levvels, who was still accumulating achievements even now, had greater practical power than him.

‘That damned old man……!’

Strength entered Lucas’s fist.

The pieces of the puzzle were gradually fitting together.
If the marquis was plotting rebellion, the doubts Lucas had held were also resolved.

For a rebellion, the existences known as Lucas and Lars were massive obstacles that had to be overcome.
However, the marquis had chosen to spend time removing those obstacles rather than overcoming them.

Helena Liberator.
By murdering Lucas’s wife, the Sword Saint left the emperor.
At the same time, his comrade, the archmage, also lost interest in the political situation.
In that way, the emperor, and the empire, lost the great power they had possessed.

Because of the monsters, the political situation became chaotic.
In that situation, the emperor lost two key figures.
Suspicion that he was an incompetent emperor bloomed that way.

Meanwhile, the marquis used the talents of swordsman families and a Sword Master to build achievements.
The nobles found someone new who would protect their safety.
Their trust in the marquis was born in this way.

And so, slowly, everything proceeded according to Marquis Levvels’s plan.

“Lucas……?”

Serpens asked with a flustered look.
He wondered if he had perhaps said something wrong.

“It is nothing.”

Lucas said that, then called an inn employee.
When Lucas told him to eat breakfast, Serpens couldn’t help feeling uneasy for no reason.

“After we finish eating, I intend to go to Quantums.”

Lucas said while drinking soup.
Serpens, who had been chewing on bread, nodded.

“But in the meantime, I intend to train you while letting you digest.”
“I’m fine with that.”
“We have plans afterward, so the morning training will be simple.”
“Simple?”
“We will do physical training, correct your basic posture, then adjust your linked movements, and after that, finish with a short spar.”
“Ooh……. Simple……?”

Serpens tilted his head and drank his soup.
Physical training. Posture correction. Technique adjustment. Sparring.
So there were people who considered this schedule simple.

Well, he thought it could be possible.
Because simplicity was a relative concept.

After leaving the inn, Serpens trained for around two hours.
When that training ended, he had no strength left in his entire body.
Even walking along the road toward the Quantums Merchant House was a trial.

He kept forcing his trembling legs forward.
By the time his mind became hazy, they reached a street he had visited before.

Not far away was Marl Quantums’s residence.
Serpens let out a sigh.
It was partly because he was exhausted, but also because that place didn’t hold very good memories for him.

After walking a little farther and reaching the residence, two lightly armed men blocked the entrance.

“This is the residence of Master Marl Quantums, head of the Quantums Merchant House. What business brings you here?”

Serpens looked back through his memories.
Before, there had been no one guarding the entrance of the residence.
It was not that the current situation was strange.
Was it not normal for guards to be present at the residence of the owner of the empire’s foremost merchant house?
It was simply that the situation being different from before left an impression.

“We have come to see Master Marl Quantums.”

The guard’s eyes swept over Lucas.

“May I have your name?”
“Lucas Liberator.”
“……!”

The guards exchanged a brief conversation.
After that, one of them ran into the residence, and before long, returned with several people.

“That woman…….”

The blond woman standing at the front of them was someone Serpens knew as well.

Steps filled with confidence.
An outfit that was neat but looked expensive.
Overall, she had the look of a neat, polished beauty.
She was Clora Quantums, the daughter of the owner of this residence.

“Hello, Lord Lucas. My father has been waiting for you.”

Clora Quantums’s golden eyes sparkled as if they held the sun.

“Please follow me. I will guide you to my father.”

Serpens and Lucas followed her into the residence.
Receiving the servants’ courteous greetings, they climbed the stairs, and after passing no small number of doors, Clora’s feet stopped.

“Father, I have brought Lord Lucas.”
“Good. Come in.”

When Clora opened the door, Marl Quantums, who was in the room, rose from his seat.
The middle-aged blond man wore the same pleasant smile as before,
and his voice also sounded as charming as ever.

“Thank you for honoring us with a visit. If you wait just a moment, our staff will bring tea and some simple refreshments.”

Lucas shook his head.

“Not at all. I apologize for troubling you so suddenly.”

Marl shook his head as well.
He even waved his hands.

“Please do not say that. I am grateful enough that you visited again. Let us sit and talk first.”

Lucas and Marl took their seats,
and Serpens and Clora sat beside them.

After an awkward current flowed for a moment, Marl opened his mouth and began to lead the atmosphere.

“If you don’t mind, would you hear me out first?”
“I do not mind.”

The smile faded from Marl’s face.

“Do you remember the person named Muto Mariposa whom I mentioned before?”
“I remember.”
“I made inquiries regarding the one backing her…….”

Lucas quietly focused on Marl’s words.
The reason he had come here was to add certainty to his own suspicion, which was still only a hypothesis.

The hypothesis that Marquis Levvels was the root cause of everything.
Various pieces had come together, but there was no proof that he was the one backing Muto Mariposa and at the same time plotting rebellion.
A claim without evidence was merely a kind of insistence.
Even if the marquis’s crime was real, with this claim, no action against him could be justified.

Lucas wanted Marquis Levvels to be the culprit.
Because the one who had murdered his wife was Marquis Levvels.

That was why Marl’s following words forced Lucas to hold onto his reason.

“As a result of our own investigation, the most likely possibility was…… House Levvels.”
“……Is that so.”
“At the same time, it seems most likely that the one leading the rebellion is also Marquis Levvels.”