#104: Interlude 1—The Chancellor — I Found a Wife Whose Engagement was Broken Off in the Neighboring Country, But She’s Too Cute, What Should I Do? (Wn)

After being secretly guided away, the chancellor was taken to an abandoned house near the royal castle.

Strictly speaking, it was probably more of a shack.

The chancellor frowned at its dilapidated appearance.

It seemed the man who had guided him intended to wait outside. After extinguishing the lantern, he silently gestured inside with his chin. Still wearing his hood over his head, the chancellor stepped over the fallen, useless door and entered.

It was pitch-black.

There was nothing here that could be called a light either. The only source of illumination was the moonlight entering through what had probably once been a window frame.

“Sorry for making you come all this way.”

A voice came from the gloom, and a man stepped into the moonlight.

He was the “leader” of the assassination group known as the Cleaners.

At first glance, he was dressed like a merchant.

He appeared to be in his early forties. No, perhaps he was slightly younger.

The chancellor did not know his exact age.

Nor did he care.

His deeply sculpted features were handsome, yet whether he was in Luminous, Tania, or anywhere else, his face somehow always looked “foreign.”

He wore a cotton shirt and a linen vest. A pouch hung from his leather belt, and he always kept a transverse flute tucked at his waist.

“I would prefer it if you stopped changing our meeting place.”

The chancellor spat the words bitterly.

Originally, one of the man’s associates was supposed to infiltrate somewhere in the Tidros royal palace so that they could exchange information.

“Sorry, sorry.”

The leader laughed without concern.

“As expected of Tidros… My people had a hard time infiltrating the palace. It was faster to have you come out here.”

The leader perched lightly on what appeared to be a window frame.

The entire shack creaked, making the chancellor fear for a moment that it might collapse, but the man himself did not seem concerned in the slightest.

“Well, don’t worry. Two of them have successfully infiltrated. They barely made it in before the final day. What a relief.”

“What do you mean, ‘what a relief’?! How many times do you think you have failed?!”

Despite their repeated failures, the leader showed no sense of urgency, causing the chancellor’s irritation to explode.

Even though he had told them every detail of the schedule, all the attacks had ended in failure, and they had even left behind evidence indicating the involvement of the Kingdom of Luminous.

For the carriage attack, he had even told them the exact order of the carriages, yet this was the result.

The chancellor rebuked him in an angry voice, but the leader continued grinning.

At times, the chancellor could not read this man’s true intentions. Clicking his tongue, he stepped closer.

“There are no more chances. That prince has begun to be affected by the dragon mark.”

At those hushed words, the leader finally stopped smiling.

He directed a piercing gaze toward the chancellor’s face beneath the hood.

“Then… the girl with the dragon mark is genuine?”

“There is no doubt. It appears Shitoen possesses only memories specialized in medical knowledge… but it will be troublesome if other memories are shared with him.”

The chancellor clenched his back teeth.

Those who possessed a dragon mark.

He had first learned of their secret when King Noie, whom he deeply respected, became the representative of the Karaban Union Kingdom.

The beginning had truly been a coincidence.

A friend in Tania had said, “There is something I want to tell you,” so the chancellor had visited him while taking a holiday.

The man was an eccentric who seemed possessed by his fascination with Tania’s hidden history. He had eventually abandoned his wife and children, moved permanently to the Kingdom of Tania, and devoted himself to gathering information.

“I have discovered the meaning behind those who are granted the dragon mark.”

Barely exchanging greetings after so long apart, his friend had spoken with shining eyes.

He claimed it was granted only to those who possessed memories of a previous life.

At first, the chancellor had listened to his friend’s story with considerable suspicion.

The dragon mark was merely a strange custom unique to the Kingdom of Tania. It could be nothing more than that.

However, his friend spoke passionately.

Then let me ask you this. Where did the many technologies that suddenly appeared in the ancient Kingdom of Tania come from?

The sturdy terraced fields that had suddenly appeared.

The irrigation facilities that would not collapse even during disasters.

The accurate calendar that never went astray.

The technology that efficiently utilized every last bit of mineral resources.

Where had all that knowledge possibly come from?

Who had brought it?

“The black dragon, which was deeply involved in the founding of the Kingdom of Tania, carries those souls here from another world for the kingdom’s development.”

His friend spoke fervently, then continued.

“If someone with a dragon mark were successfully married into the Luminous royal family… perhaps that knowledge could be put to use for our country.”

Naturally, even the chancellor could not accept everything without question.

After leaving his friend’s home, he conducted his own investigation.

However, as expected of something so completely concealed, he learned almost nothing. Just as he was gradually beginning to think his friend’s claims had been nonsense, his friend brought a noble from the Kingdom of Tania to meet him.

“Your friend finally wore me down. Well… I have little life remaining because of my illness. If you promise absolute secrecy, I shall tell you a little.”

The noble smiled wryly and showed the chancellor the dragon mark on his calf.

“What knowledge do you possess from your previous life?”

When the chancellor asked with the utmost courtesy, the noble smiled calmly.

“Even if I told you, you would not believe me. More precisely, you would not understand.”

“What do you mean?”

Before the frowning chancellor, the noble deliberately dropped the folding fan he had been holding.

“Why did the fan fall just now?”

“That was… because you released it…”

“Correct. Because I released it, gravity pulled the fan downward. What would happen if gravity did not exist? Or what if I told you there is a world without gravity above this very sky?”

The chancellor stared blankly at the noble’s face.

“We place far too much faith in the idea that words can convey everything. Yet there are things that cannot be understood through words. Sometimes what is lacking is culture, or a minimum foundation of knowledge. That is why I have repeatedly told your friend…”

The noble once again smiled awkwardly.

“Even if you obtain someone with a dragon mark, whether you can actually make use of their knowledge is another matter. Certain conditions are necessary. Forgive my rudeness, but I do not believe Luminous possesses that degree of tolerance.”

The chancellor bristled, but as the noble picked up his own fan, he spoke as though muttering.

“For example… among those with dragon marks, there are some who are special. They can pour their memories into another person and share them.”

“What do you mean?”

“Is it not said that seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times? If someone saw the world where I once lived, they might understand what I mean.”

The noble tilted his head slightly.

“Very rarely, someone with such a dragon mark appears. If the person married into the Kingdom of Luminous happened to be one of them…”

You should take very good care of them.

Even after saying that, the noble repeatedly warned him, “You must never tell anyone about this.”

Soon afterward, the noble reportedly died from his illness.

(If what that noble said was true…)

The Kingdom of Luminous might obtain extraordinary technological knowledge.

The chancellor immediately began working to acquire a girl with a dragon mark.

If there was a girl of marriageable age, they had to prevent her from leaving for another country.

Without telling King Noie of Luminous, whom he deeply respected, the true meaning of the dragon mark, he submitted a proposal asking, “If an opportunity for marriage with the Kingdom of Tania arises, may we accept it?” Noie’s answer was, “Approved.”

The chancellor immediately used every connection and all the money available to obtain her.

A girl named Shitoen Balimore, who possessed a dragon mark, was favored by the King of Tania, was intelligent, and was beautiful.

“Shitoen was genuine…”

The chancellor clenched his fists. His shoulders trembled faintly with anger and regret.

Yet that foolish crown prince and that empty-headed girl had thrown her away.

“So, what will you do?”

The leader’s tone, as casual as if asking what they would eat tomorrow, irritated him even further, and the chancellor glared sharply at him.

“What choice do we have but to eliminate her?! If she will not belong to our country, then we must ensure she belongs to no one. For now, that prince… appears merely confused and has not yet realized what is happening.”

That was right.

The prince was undoubtedly being affected by the dragon mark. It appeared he had been drawn into some kind of memory.

However, he had not realized the cause. To begin with, the Tidros royal family still did not know the dragon mark’s true secret.

When the engagement was arranged, neither the Kingdom of Tania nor Shitoen herself had likely said anything about the dragon mark.

“We must kill Shitoen before the Tidros royal family learns the secret.”

Tidros was already a great power. They could not be allowed to obtain advanced technology as well.

“I do not care if she is made to look like collateral damage or anything else. Eliminate that Mail too. Merely looking at her irritates me.”

The chancellor spat the words. Even saying her name disgusted him. Why was even the wise King Noie trying to acknowledge her as the crown prince’s fiancée? If they allowed a girl like that into the royal family, its collapse would begin.

The leader suddenly burst into loud laughter, causing the chancellor to clench his teeth and glare at him.

“Yes, yes, my apologies. You really do hate Mail, don’t you? She’s a good girl, you know. Innocent and cheerful.”

“Silence!”

“Ah, right. About tomorrow’s attack.”

The leader abruptly changed the subject. He rose from the window frame, crossed his arms, and looked diagonally toward the chancellor.

“After the ball ends, my people will wait for an opening and dispose of her. They may use smoke bombs at that time. Don’t worry, they are harmless to the body. But visibility will worsen, so be careful.”

The chancellor snorted and began to turn away, but abruptly stopped and looked back.

“There is one thing I wish to ask you.”

“Ask anything.”

“The carriage attack.”

The chancellor fixed his gaze on the leader’s grinning face.

The second carriage.

That was what he had told them.

Originally, it should have carried Saryu and Shitoen.

The passengers had changed because Mail had said something unnecessary, but Shitoen had still been in the second carriage.

Originally, only the second carriage should have been attacked.

“Why did you target the third carriage too?”

“It looked like the passengers were different from what we had been told. Sorry, sorry. We made a mistake.”