Interlude 2 — The Leader

After leaving the shack, the chancellor was guided by his associate back inside Tidros Castle.

Only after confirming that did the leader murmur.

“Dispose of them, huh?”

He pinched his chin and narrowed his eyes. A faint clatter sounded, and one of his associates entered through the doorway.

“Leader. We have obtained the items in question, so I came to report.”

The leader accepted the pouch offered by the man dressed entirely in black and casually pulled out what was inside.

They glinted.

Bathed in moonlight, they shone brightly and stabbed at the leader’s eyes.

“There’s no mistake. These are Fiana’s golden buckle and jade necklace.”

“Regrettably, the sisters appear to have died under torture, just as the rumors said. Considering that none of our information has leaked so far… they must not have talked until the very end.”

“Oh, really? So my daughters are dead.”

He said it so casually that the man in black was left speechless. Perhaps he should have put a little more emotion into his voice. Maybe even shed a tear.

He wondered whether that would have been the normal reaction, but it was already too late. Pretending to cry now would only unsettle the man even more.

“It is regrettable that they died, but even though they were my children, they did admirably by not revealing information about the organization. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“I completely agree.”

His associate agreed with the remark he had casually added. The deep bow he gave was probably meant to express respect.

What a nuisance, the leader sighed inwardly.

Although assassination was his line of work, if he did not show some human emotion, his associates’ hearts would drift away from him. People feared things they could not understand.

That was why the leader had acted as though he cherished Mone and Roze in front of his associates.

Or at least, he thought he had.

He had never loved his children in the first place.

He had only been attached to Mone and Roze because they carried Fiana’s blood.

He had met Fiana in a back alley of the Kingdom of Tania.

She had been soliciting customers, so he bought her services.

The reason was simple.

Although she had hidden them beneath her clothes, she wore a buckle and necklace far beyond what someone of her status should possess. When he asked about them, she said she was the last remnant of a fallen noble family.

He had planned to deceive her and steal her valuables.

Her face suited his tastes, and her reactions were amusingly unlike those of a prostitute, so after enjoying himself to his heart’s content, he casually raised the subject.

“If you want money, shall I buy that golden buckle from you?”

It would fetch a fine price if sold. He would deceive this naïve woman and buy it from her for next to nothing.

He offered Fiana what seemed like a reasonable sum.

He had assumed she would be overjoyed.

Yet Fiana showed a puzzled expression.

“Is something like this rare? Hmm.”

When he frowned at her reaction, Fiana spoke proudly.

“I have knowledge from my previous life. My family has fallen now, but we were once connected to the royal family. So…”

“Enough with the preamble. What do you mean?”

“So, in the world where I lived before… countless things like this could be made.”

Alchemy.

The leader suddenly became intensely interested in the woman.

What Fiana was speaking about might have been some kind of secret related to alchemy.

It was said that people with unusual knowledge occasionally appeared in Tania. They were supposedly protected by the royal family and used their abilities for the sake of the nation, but…

(I may have found something valuable.)

At the time, he had been beside himself with joy.

He took possession of Fiana and gave her whatever she wanted. When she wished for children, he even allowed her to bear them.

However.

He could not obtain the knowledge.

No, the knowledge existed.

Inside Fiana.

But he could not understand what it meant.

Electricity, radio waves, chemical substances.

He could not even imagine the things Fiana spoke about. Were they not magic?

How were they different from magic?

Yet he did not think Fiana was lying. Rather, she herself was irritated, asking, “Why don’t you understand?”

He could not imagine the things she asked him to prepare.

Later, after giving birth to her second daughter, Roze, Fiana fell ill. She suffered from puerperal fever for a long time and died when Roze was barely a year old.

The only reason the leader had kept Mone and Roze at his side was because they were “Fiana’s daughters.”

Perhaps one day they would awaken some kind of memories, just as Fiana had.

Until then, he could simply employ them as Cleaners.

Those who did not work did not deserve to eat.

Around that time, the chancellor, one of his clients, brought up something interesting about a girl named Shitoen Balimore.

A girl bearing a dragon crest was to marry the crown prince of their kingdom.

Though it was confidential, she possessed special knowledge and talents. He had asked the leader to protect her carefully so that no danger would befall her.

Upon asking for further details, the leader learned that she possessed knowledge from a previous life.

The leader had been ecstatic to discover a woman like Fiana.

This was a second chance granted to him by heaven itself.

He had to take her. He had to make her his.

It would become troublesome if the crown prince doted on her. He would lose any opening to exploit.

Therefore.

He incited the girl who had been watching the crown prince longingly and offered her to him as a mistress. Just as expected, the crown prince fell for the girl and began treating Shitoen coldly.

That gave him an opportunity to approach Shitoen.

He would speak gently to her and make her interested in him. He would make her grow attached to him.

That was what he had intended.

Yet, unbelievably, the crown prince broke off the engagement and sent Shitoen out of the country.

And as the wife of a prince of the Kingdom of Tidros, no less.

That made taking her difficult.

“Assassinate Shitoen.”

When the chancellor gave that order, the leader thought it was only natural.

Destroy her before someone else could take her.

That was essential.

However.

What if Shitoen had value?

What if she knew the method of alchemy?

If Shitoen’s ability had nothing to do with alchemy, then she was unnecessary to him.

He would kill her as the chancellor ordered and collect a generous reward.

However.

If she had value, that would be different.

Around that time, he learned that his daughters wished to leave the organization.

It was also around the time he himself had begun to give up on them.

Those girls possessed no special abilities.

In that case, there was no point in supporting them, and merely keeping them close was a nuisance.

And so, he gave them one final order.

The assassination of Shitoen El Tidros, the third princess consort of the Kingdom of Tidros.

From the beginning, the leader had expected the assassination to fail.

Renowned experts had already been defeated. There was no possibility that Mone and Roze could kill her merely by taking advantage of an opening.

The leader had only one objective.

To show Shitoen the golden buckle and jade necklace that had belonged to Fiana.

What would Shitoen think upon seeing the buckle and necklace? Would she say, “Is something like this rare?” just as Fiana had?

If so, Shitoen would have value.

He had carefully observed her reaction, but unfortunately, her knowledge seemed to specialize in medicine.

Perhaps he should kill her after all.

However, what made him begin reconsidering was…

The chancellor had said something strange.

“If Shitoen possesses a special ability, she will be troublesome. We must dispose of her immediately…”

That special ability was apparently “the ability to share her knowledge with others.”

That’s it, the leader thought, clapping his hands.

With that, he might be able to understand the world Fiana had spoken of.

(If she possesses the ability to share information, that changes everything.)

He wanted her.

Alive.

The leader tightly gripped the buckle and necklace and chuckled. His associate remained silent for a while before cautiously speaking.

“Then… what method shall we use to dispose of Shitoen and Mail?”

“Hmm? Ah. Right, I was ordered to dispose of them, wasn’t I?”

The leader blinked.

What nonsense is that dim-witted chancellor spouting? he thought with an inward sneer.

“But think about it carefully. That girl with the dragon crest has value. Doesn’t she? Rather…”

The leader laughed and slipped the buckle over one finger, spinning it around and around.

“The chancellor may be the one who has become worthless and gotten in the way.”

The gold caught the moonlight and scattered glittering reflections throughout the room.

The leader gazed at it in rapture.