Chapter 64

While the adults talked, Serpens watched the others’ reactions in discomfort.
It was not because his body ached from training, or because the room’s elaborate decorations made him uncomfortable.

‘What? Why is she staring so much?’

It was because the woman sitting in front of him was staring straight at him.

Since coming here, Serpens had not said a single word.
Part of it was because he had nothing to say.
But the biggest reason was Clora Quantums, the woman sitting in front of him.

‘Isn’t the conversation beside us a hundred times more interesting than me?’

He couldn’t understand it.
Tremendous information about the empire was flowing from close enough to touch if he stretched out an arm.
Marl’s distinctive merchant’s way of speaking made it twice as interesting.
It was a conversation that naturally drew attention…….

So why was she looking this way instead of focusing on that!

“What?”

Unable to endure it any longer, Serpens opened his mouth.
It was a small voice, low enough not to disturb Lucas’s conversation.

“Hm?”

Clora tilted her head slightly with a faint smile.
The way her expression consistently feigned ignorance was so irritating.
Serpens barely held back the urge to flip the table.

“There has to be a reason you’re staring that hard!”

He struggled to keep his voice down.
He knew Lucas and Marl could hear his voice.
But they showed no sign of caring.
That was why he had to lower his voice even more.

“You’re that kid from back then, aren’t you?”

It wasn’t a question.
A question was when one asked about something one didn’t know, or something one was curious about.
But there was certainty in Clora’s eyes.
How could those sparkling eyes, as if they would only hear the answer they wanted, belong to someone asking a question?

“What do you mean, that kid from back then?”

Serpens played dumb.
He knew very well that it would be useless.
But he didn’t want to give her the answer she wanted right away.
Didn’t it feel like a loss to obediently follow the other person’s intention?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Serpens stuck out his lips in a pout.
He didn’t know how it looked, but he was in the middle of a small act of rebellion.

“I’m not asking because I don’t know. You’re the kid who had the money you stole taken from you back then.”

Unfortunately, to the other party, it only looked like cute grumbling.

Clora had been dealing with customers since she was even younger than Serpens.
Among them had been drunkards, other races, and even heads of other merchant houses.

She was used to dealing with people who played dumb.
A merchant had to know how to naturally play dumb in a transaction.
Clora and Marl Quantums both did it often.
Because that was one of a merchant’s basic skills.

Compared to underhanded people who hid large sums of money and plotted what came afterward…….
The defiance of a thirteen-year-old boy was no different from a child’s whining.

“I’m not a kid!”
“Oh my? Why are you getting angry?”
“You’re the one who took the money from me one-sidedly! And besides, that money wasn’t stolen!”
“So you are that kid.”
“I said I’m not-”
“Shh.”

Clora brought a finger to her lips with a playful expression.
The glance she cast subtly turned toward the conversation taking place beside them.

She moved her red lips and spoke without sound.

“Quietly.”

Serpens let out a disbelieving laugh.

‘Whose fault is it that my voice got louder?’

If he were to argue the details, of course, he had been the one to speak first.
But had she not made him speak to her?
Yet she was making an expression that said, ‘There is a conversation going on beside us, so please show some manners,’ so he had no choice but to be annoyed.

“Hah…….”

Serpens did not want to deal with Clora.
So he turned his body completely and sat facing the two adults.

Lucas was taking part in the conversation with an expressionless face, as always.
In contrast, Marl Quantums wore an extremely serious expression.

“A viscount I had traded with for a long time tipped me off. He asked whether I had any intention of joining a great undertaking being planned by a high-ranking person.”

Marl let out a deep sigh as he recalled the past.

“Finding out who that high-ranking person was proved simpler than expected.”
“Did you pay him money?”
“No. I reduced the price the viscount’s family had to pay in their transactions with our merchant house. Sometimes, reducing the money one pays is more profitable than increasing the money one receives.”

Clora slowly nodded beside him.
Her eyes, directed toward her father, shone with respect.

“They said the identity of that high-ranking person was Marquis Girium Levvels. That great plan is, I expect, a rebellion targeting His Majesty the Emperor.”
“Do you have proof that it is rebellion?”
“The viscount who provided the information implied that there would be a large power struggle, that many were already on the marquis’s side, so victory was guaranteed, and that I should support their side. If I combine the recent political situation with those words, there is only one answer.”
“……Rebellion.”
“That is correct.”

Lucas breathed quietly.
Anger began to rise from deep within him.

But he suppressed that anger.
There were still things left to confirm.
And acting emotionally would be a loss.
Only by handling revenge more rationally could he produce the result he wanted.

“The chance that this viscount was lying-”
“There is none.”

Marl firmly cut off Lucas’s words.

“After hearing the viscount’s words, I threw out comments about rebellion to several nobles I trade with, and they took the bait immediately.”
“Several?”
“There were nine nobles in total to whom I leaked information. Of those, seven had joined hands with the marquis.”

Lucas quietly stared at Marl.

It was true that he had come to this man to confirm the doubt he had harbored at the inn this dawn.
But he had not expected it to confirm his certainty this firmly.

“That is strange. If it were the marquis, he would have told the nobles to watch their mouths.”
“That is exactly why it was easy for the nobles to take my bait. I knew information I could never have known unless the marquis had told me directly.”
“…….”
“The nobles may have failed to watch their mouths because they were pleased that I held the same intentions as them. It may be boasting, but the support of my merchant house is one of the cards that can overturn the state of a power struggle.”

Marl’s words were correct.
If one were to start a rebellion, it was necessary to secure the supplies needed for it.
Arms, food, people, and so on.
Because one had to prepare for every possible contingency.

That was not all.
After starting a rebellion.
That was when supplies would be needed most.
After a power struggle, supplies were needed to replenish lacking resources and soothe the angry public sentiment.

A situation where a massive amount of supplies had to be secured.
In such a situation, the Quantums Merchant House would become a very reliable card.
Because no matter what anyone said, Quantums was the empire’s foremost merchant house.

“That is impressive.”

Lucas’s words were sincere.
The evidence that Girium Levvels was leading the rebellion.
All of it was information only Marl and the Quantums Merchant House could have gathered.

“Not at all.”

Marl gave a bitter smile.
Lucas asked him.

“What is the reason you believe the marquis is the one backing Muto Mariposa?”

At this point, this was not particularly important information.
Because the fact that the marquis was plotting rebellion alone had made Lucas’s suspicion true.

Now that certainty had been added to his suspicion.
Lucas had no intention of forgiving the marquis.

“They say the person who delivered the information about the rebellion was Muto Mariposa. If so, it becomes obvious who is backing her.”
“……I see.”

A brief silence flowed through the conversation.
In the meantime, Serpens hurriedly swallowed his saliva.
He had been so focused on the heavy atmosphere that he had forgotten even to swallow the saliva pooling in his mouth.

Even if he could not understand it exactly, he could read the flow.
This situation, where words like rebellion and the like were going back and forth, was extremely exciting.

Though anxiety did rush over him whenever Lucas let out a long breath…….

‘It’ll work out somehow.’

His belief that Lucas would handle even this well shook off that anxiety.

“Then…… Sir Marl, are you certain Marquis Levvels is behind everything?”
“There is no such thing as certainty in this world, but…… all the evidence I have found points to him…….”

Marl stopped speaking and shook his head sharply.
He exhaled forcefully and opened his eyes wide, making it clear he had resolved himself to something.

“Yes. I am certain he is the one behind it.”
“I see.”

Lucas slowly nodded.

A brief silence.
Then he gave Marl one final question.

“Sir Marl, why are you trying to stop the rebellion?”

Marl Quantums was a merchant.
He was a man whose trade was personal profit.
If he had not told Lucas the truth, and if he had joined the marquis’s rebellion,
he would have gained tremendous profit.

And yet, he chose the side that would stop the rebellion.
Why?

Marl turned his head and looked at Clora.
He smiled gently and stroked his daughter’s head.

“As I told you before……. A rebellion for selfish desire is bound to bring a bloodbath. I cannot allow such a bloodbath. Because I am a father and a husband.”

‘A father and a husband…….’

Lucas closed his mouth and cast his gaze beyond the window to the merchant street.
Marl’s answer circled in his head.

He stared blankly out the window.
Deep inside, anger began to boil.
How long had it been since he felt such a clear emotion?

Lucas quietly controlled his anger.
He vowed revenge.
But the time for it was not now.

There was something he had to resolve first.
He had to kill the monsters, enter the mysterious vortex, and resolve the problem.
Revenge would come after that.

Only then, with a clear mind,
would he be able to focus solely on revenge.

The north of Oratio.
A man arrived at a territory called Baros, located beneath a massive mountain range.

His dark red hair and the tie loosely fastened over his refined tailcoat fluttered in the fierce wind.
He passed between white buildings while lightly humming.

“Could that be…… Lord Lars Musica?”
“I think it is.”

The people who passed by him slowed their steps.
Some whispered quietly, and some followed from a distance.
The closer he got to the center of Baros, the louder the murmurs in the street grew.

The man’s steps headed toward the Academy.
Because there was someone he needed to meet inside the empire’s only training institution.

“What brings you here…….”

The eyes of the guard protecting the Academy’s main gate shook.

“Lord Lars Musica?”
“Hutcha!”

Lars threw his nameplate made of blue jade.
The guard reflexively caught the nameplate flying toward him.
When the guard saw the name written there, he froze on the spot.

“D-Did you come to see Principal Frost?”
“Correct! I can find the way myself, so you don’t need to worry.”

With a face full of smiles, Lars headed toward the principal’s office.

Lars Musica was the empire’s archmage.
He was someone many people admired.
Most of the Academy had their eyes shining at his visit.
However, there was also someone who didn’t welcome him.

“Principal Frost! I’m here!”

When Lars flung the door to the principal’s office wide open, Frost’s eyebrow twitched faintly beyond the long desk.
Frost’s hair shone like blue ice, and her blue eyes were endlessly cold, as if frost had settled over them.

Lars smiled brightly and said.

“I told you, buttoning your coat all the way to your neck makes you look stuffy.”
“Buttons exist to be fastened.”

Lars was someone who held a special position at the Academy.
Someone even Principal Frost could not treat carelessly.
It was not simply because of his power.

“What brings you here so suddenly, Chairman Lars?”

He was the chairman of this Academy.
A pillar of the Academy who provided astronomical funding every year.

That was why Lars was an unwelcome guest.
An opponent with both great power and a high position.
Most of all, their personalities were far too incompatible.

From his mouth came a request.

“Would you become my attack magic, Principal?”

For a moment, Frost doubted her own ears.
Become his attack magic?

“……Pardon?”

Without question, it was the kind of request she had never heard in her life.