Chapter 72

Having resolved the incident in the village of Catena, Nazelbert and his group had returned to the manor in the central district. Once the various legal proceedings were finalized, Earl Apo and Baron Kigyonne were stripped of their noble status and placed in the high-security prison within the Sutrena territory alongside their co-conspirators.

Earl Apo’s young son inherited his father’s estate, and until he came of age, he would be guided by an assistant dispatched by the Second Prince after negotiations with the King. There was likely some other scheme behind the Prince’s excessive efficiency, though.

On the other hand, the Kigyonne family, which consisted only of daughters, had no heir. Since the title was only granted for a single generation, the remaining family members were forced into a situation where they had to find work. All the wealth they had amassed through illicit means was confiscated, and the Baron’s lavish mansion was sold off to Bell.

Given that the third daughter acted the way she did during her maid interview, the future looked bleak for them; however, since they possessed the education of the nobility, they likely wouldn’t struggle to find employment if they had a change of heart.

The young sons and daughters of the low-ranking nobility who had gathered at the Baron’s mansion had lived lives of pure luxury on their parents’ dime, but they had not personally dipped their hands into criminal activity. While they weren’t arrested, the investigation into Baron Kigyonne’s additional crimes ended up exposing the transgressions of other nobles one after another, leading to a string of arrests of various heads of houses.

Their families generally followed the same path as the Baron’s.

A lot had happened, but thanks to the monster counter-measures implemented by Nazelbert, Agnes, Torre, and Tony, the damage caused by magical beasts in the town of Catena had decreased significantly.

Since then, Lilianne had been sent to a facility for minor offenders, where she began a life of working like a commoner.

Since the facility allowed for free visitation, Torre had already started acting restless and fidgety.

Nazelbert wondered if he should warn him later not to intrude too frequently and become a nuisance.

After a busy period of rushing back and forth between the town of Catena, the fortress, and the manor, a day for actual rest had finally arrived.

Nazelbert had decided that today, of all days, he would rest no matter what. Recently, he had hardly been able to find any time to be alone with his wife, Agnes.

Sutrena, located at the southern tip of the Kingdom of Desnim, had a climate slightly different from other regions that experienced four distinct seasons.

It was warm throughout the year, divided into a clear dry season and a rainy season where heavy downpours occurred in the mornings and evenings.

Incidentally, the dry season was currently ending as the rainy season approached; temperatures were actually higher during the rainy season.

Watching the garden clear up after the rain, Nazelbert took a seat in a chair placed on the terrace.

Agnes was letting the wyvern Geni play in a pool the previous lord had built in the garden.

From a short distance away, Dunk—who was kept inside a fence—watched them.

Dunk, a magical beast of the Grani species, seemed to have grown accustomed to Agnes; he was occasionally given carrots and patted on the head. However, he had not warmed up to Nazelbert, who had captured him, and remained wary.

“Lord Nazel! Is your work finished?”

Agnes noticed him and came running over with a smile.

Upon seeing her—or more accurately, seeing what she was wearing—Nazelbert froze in his seat.

The chest area of her blouse was soaking wet from the pool water, rendering her undergarments visible through the fabric.

“Agnes, put this coat on!”

“Huh? But Lord Nazel’s coat will get wet. Is that alright?”

“Of course! Kelly, arrange for a swimsuit for Agnes immediately. Make sure it is as modest as possible.”

Lately, among the nobility in the Royal Capital of Desnim, playing in pools had become a status symbol, and swimsuits were particularly trendy among the youth.

Kelly, standing quietly on standby a short distance away, gave a perfect response: “A swimsuit has already been measured and ordered; it should arrive tomorrow.”

It wasn’t that Agnes was interested in the trends of the nobility; she likely just wanted to let Geni play. Once Dunk got used to things, the two of them might start playing in the water together.

“Lord Nazel, won’t you bathe with us? It’ll cool you off.”

His adorable wife sent a sparkling gaze his way. Nazelbert surrendered in a single second.

“Let’s go!”

Yes, let’s bathe!

In this manner, Nazelbert spent a fulfilling holiday at the pool with Agnes.

The next day, having safely received her swimsuit, Agnes began letting Geni and Dunk play in the pool. Nazelbert felt that while it was a slightly different use than originally intended, it was fine as long as his wife looked happy.

The following day, an incident occurred that shook Nazelbert’s composure while he was in his office: he heard that Bell had arrived to deliver Agnes’s swimsuit.

Kelly had said she ordered it, but he hadn’t realized she had asked him.

Even though there were few merchants in the frontier, he couldn’t help but feel that their dealings were becoming a bit too skewed toward a single individual.

Nazelbert considered the fact that there seemed to be a rather substantial connection between the two of them.

“There aren’t any swimwear shops for nobles in Sutrena, so the merchants who handle them are limited. Even so, this is a bit much.”

There was something about Bell that had been weighing on Nazelbert’s mind.

He claimed to be a merchant, but he bore a striking resemblance to an acquaintance Nazelbert had met once long ago.

He had thought it impossible at first, but the more he turned it over in his head, the higher the probability became that it was the same man.

Consequently, after returning from the town of Catena, Nazelbert had reached out to a mutual acquaintance to verify the facts. And—

“…To think it really was him.”

It turned out that “Bell the Merchant” was actually a temporary guise for the First Prince, Bertrand, who was supposed to be in the Royal Capital.

To begin with, the first and last time Nazelbert and Bertrand had ever met was when Nazelbert had gone to the castle for his Prince Consort education. Bertrand was a prince who suffered from a severe illness and was supposedly frail, rarely able to leave his room.

Lately, he was said to be permanently bedridden, to the point where no one but his wife—whom he had married for political reasons—was even allowed in or out of his chambers. He had heard the Prince’s condition was that dire.

Because of that, he was uninvolved in any power struggles for the throne and had been largely forgotten by the public.

“Was it all a lie?”

The Prince had disguised himself as a merchant and was making a killing out here on the frontier. Considering he had handled the aftermath of the Baron Kigyonne incident, he had likely turned quite a profit.

At the same time, Nazelbert could guess that he was the person operating behind the scenes for the Second Prince.

Second Prince Leonard was fundamentally indifferent to others, holding the mindset that as long as his own life was safe, nothing else mattered. While this was part of a survival strategy for someone who had lost his backing the moment he was born, he was very unreliable as a Second Prince.

However, that same Leonard had recently begun forming his own faction.

Nazelbert had sensed something was off ever since he was invited to Yarata’s house by the Second Prince.

That was why he planned to corner Bell today and demand an explanation.

The matter of Agnes’s swimsuit was also on his mind, but first, he wanted to know the reason the Prince was in Sutrena acting as a merchant.

Just as he stood up to go investigate, there was a knock-knock at the office door.

“Lord Nazel—?”

Hearing his wife’s voice from the other side, Nazelbert practically jogged to the door.

“What is it, Agne—”

He started to speak, but this time, Nazelbert’s composure and reason threatened to fly off to the far side of the stars.

Standing before him was Agnes, clad in her brand-new swimsuit. Moreover, it was a revealing two-piece set.

“What do you think? Does it suit me? Bell gave it to me as a gift, separate from the one we bought. He told me I should show it to you…”

“That bastard.”

At Nazelbert’s words, a look of anxiety flickered across Agnes’s face.

“Is it… not to your liking?”

“It’s very much to my liking! Agnes, you look adorable in anything you wear.”

Nazelbert gave his wife a tight squeeze, then led her toward the guest room where Bell was reportedly waiting.