Chapter 61
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 61
Death comes suddenly. Even more so for a soldier like me.
Every time a soldier steps onto the battlefield or enters combat, they stand on the boundary between life and death. If I were to die suddenly one day, no one would be particularly surprised. I'd be grateful if they even bothered to grieve for me.
But the death of Nikolaos Custoria shocked everyone. No one had expected his demise. He himself probably never imagined death would find him this way.
Nikolaos...
Lost in thought, I opened my eyes. A crowd of Custoria kinsmen and vassals stood clad in black mourning attire.
We were at the Custoria family cemetery. The funeral was solemn. Few showed any outward display of emotion.
"D-Dad..."
Nikolaos's son, Emilio, was sobbing in front of the tombstone. He was a brat who had once pointed a gun at me, but right now, I felt a little sorry for him.
I shifted my gaze to the second son, Jupe. He wore a somber expression, showing no sign of joy. Even if he were pleased, it was only proper to hide it. Or perhaps he genuinely felt bitter about losing his rival so pointlessly. Like it or not, they were still blood brothers.
Whispers rippled through the crowd.
There were more people clustered around Jupe than usual. With Nikolaos—the strongest candidate—dead, Jupe was now the most likely heir to become the next Family Head.
The funeral wasn't even over, yet they were already swarming like bees drawn to honey.
Nikolaos's cause of death was listed as fatal crushing from a traffic accident. An aerial vehicle had fallen directly on top of him. The exact details were still under investigation.
An unfortunate accident...
...Almost no one believed that. It could have been a genuine accident, but the odds were far too slim.
An assassination ordered by someone.
That was what most people likely suspected. Some even eyed Jupe as the mastermind behind the hit.
But my thoughts ran differently. Well, I had a lead, so my perspective was bound to diverge from theirs.
Was it because of the investigation I asked him to do...?
I might be barking up the wrong tree. But the timing was too perfect. I wasn't dense enough to write it off as mere coincidence.
If he died because of me, it means he uncovered something he shouldn't have while investigating. Information so sensitive that even a high-ranking official had to be silenced.
By my estimation, that was the final destination of the ghost company's funds. Even I hadn't realized the information would be this dangerous.
The eldest son of the current Imperial Guard Captain was dead. This was no ordinary matter.
A heavy weight pressed on my chest. It would be a lie to say I felt no responsibility. Part of me almost wished my suspicion was nothing but groundless worry—that Nikolaos's death had truly been a freak accident, or that Jupe had ordered it. Then I wouldn't have to carry this guilt.
A father who lost his child.
I stared at Heilas, the Imperial Guard Captain.
Fixed on the tombstone, Heilas stood as motionless as a monolith. His profile, caught in a brief glance, was utterly expressionless. He revealed no emotion that might be read as weakness.
I have to report my dealings with Nikolaos to Heilas.
I had been digging into Kinuan, and Nikolaos had tracked Kinuan's ghost company at my request. There was a possibility that Nikolaos's death was connected to Kinuan.
Even Heilas—could he really hold back from questioning Kinuan after losing his eldest son?
In any case, that judgment wasn't mine to make. I had to report it first. If the connection surfaced later, I might be treated as an accomplice.
"Luka."
I looked down at Giselle, who was tugging at my collar. We slipped away from the crowd and stood beneath the shade of a tree.
"It's strange. No matter how I look at it, Nikolaos dying right now makes no sense."
Giselle spoke, her delicate brow furrowed. Her confusion seemed to outweigh her grief. Or rather, it was more accurate to say she showed no trace of sorrow at all.
That was how thin the bonds ran in this family. Then again, even Nikolaos had treated his own children like tools.
There was no need to tell Giselle about my deal with Nikolaos. I stayed silent and let her talk.
"...I don't think Jupe ordered it. Father's retirement is still a long way off. Luka—do you know something?"
Giselle studied me intently, as if trying to pry loose any secret I might be hiding. Sorry, milady, but when it comes to concealing thoughts and feelings, I'm a cut above you.
"If I knew, I'd have told you. More importantly, what's the plan going forward? Now that Nikolaos is dead, won't Jupe have a free run? I saw the relatives flocking to him earlier."
"There's no stopping Jupe right now. But shouldn't you be more worried than me? You humiliated him not too long ago. Once Jupe is confirmed as the next Family Head, he'll push you out. He might even try to kill you."
I scratched my neck and shrugged.
"If I get taken down by Jupe, then that's just the limit of my caliber."
In truth, I said it because I didn't believe Jupe could touch me no matter what he tried. I wasn't like Nikolaos. Jupe couldn't kill me by dressing it up as an accident.
"But you—ah, why? Mmph!"
"Shh. Jupe's coming this way."
I pinched Giselle's lips shut with my thumb and forefinger. Jupe was heading straight toward us.
"What are you two whispering about so merrily, my dear siblings? Let me in on the fun."
"Nothing much. I didn't know the funeral etiquette, so I was asking Giselle. I'm not very well-versed in manners."
At my words, Jupe's face began to twist before he quickly smoothed it over. He must have remembered the time he tried to criticize my table manners and ended up humiliating himself.
"Right, if there's something you don't know, you should ask your siblings. We're always ready to help. Isn't that right, Giselle?"
"...Well, yes."
Giselle answered half-heartedly. She wasn't close to Jupe, just as she hadn't been close to Nikolaos.
"Now, I am the eldest. If there have been any misunderstandings between us, I'd like to clear them up. Actually, let's not beat around the bush. There won't be any more variables, Luka, Giselle. With brother Nikolaos gone, I am the next Family Head. If you harbored any rebellious thoughts, bury them as of today. Out of the goodness of my heart, I'll overlook everything that's happened up to now."
Jupe glared at us as he spoke. It was a blatant threat—a command to fall in line quietly.
"You're being rude, Brother Jupe. We're in the middle of a funeral. Isn't it a bit early for this kind of talk?"
"Is that something a girl who slipped away from a funeral to plot behind my back should say? Ridiculous."
Jupe shot back. Surprisingly, he wasn't wrong. I suppressed the urge to applaud.
For now, Giselle was my ally. And I liked Giselle far better than Jupe. Not because she was a pretty woman, but simply because Jupe was so much more insufferable.
"Since Nikolaos is dead, I'll speak my mind too."
I didn't even bother calling him "brother." To be honest, I had never once thought of him as one. Besides, the mood hardly demanded courtesy.
"You..."
Before Jupe could cut in, I pressed on.
"Nikolaos was hard to deal with because his temperament was the polar opposite of mine. But you, Jupe—you're a soldier, just like me. My skills far surpass yours. Enough to completely bridge the gap between an adopted son and a blood son. Keep that in mind. There's still time. More than enough time for me to earn recognition and rise through the ranks of the military."
I threw down the gauntlet—a head-on challenge. Honestly, there was no need to go this far. But Jupe was acting so pathetic that I just wanted to knock him down a peg. It was a chronic habit of mine—needlessly making enemies.
"What did you just babble? A street orphan bastard dares to forget his place..."
Jupe's voice turned vicious. He wasn't an officer for nothing; he knew how to project an intimidating aura. An ordinary man would have been terrified.
"Young Master Lucaus, the Family Head is calling for you."
Right on cue, one of the servants approached.
"...Father wants you, so go, Luka. But I won't forget today."
I didn't bother answering and followed the servant. Giselle cast a wary glance, trailed after me a short way, then slipped back into the crowd.
Heilas was in a private room prepared at the cemetery.
Creak.
I opened the door and stepped inside.
"You called for me?"
Heilas stood by the window. It seemed he had been watching Jupe and me through the glass.
"Don't tease Jupe too much, Luka," Heilas said softly.
"I just lost my temper for a moment. Did you call me because you were worried we might fight?"
"No, not that... The door's slightly ajar. Close it properly."
I turned, pulled the door, and shut it completely. But the instant I turned back toward the room, my eyes went wide.
Heilas was standing right in front of me. I hadn't sensed even a trace of his approach.
"Why did my son die?"
Heilas's tone was calm. Yet the words themselves were both ambiguous and heavy. I had no idea how much he already knew.
But right now, I had to speak nothing but the truth. If I lied...
...I'll die.
A chill ran down my spine. It felt as though the Grim Reaper himself were pressing a scythe against the back of my neck.
I could feel the deep-seated rage buried within Heilas. And he was one of the Empire's finest soldiers. That rage would not dissipate easily.
* * *
Heilas stood in silence, listening to my explanation.
I laid out everything I had done in the Lower District. Organizing a gang with Gabriel at its head to smooth my investigation and expand my influence; digging into the connection between Kinuan and Tora to find Ken Noma; tracking the ghost company's funding source through Tora's ledger...
...and handing that investigation over to Nikolaos Custoria. Immediately afterward, Nikolaos died in an accident.
"...That is all."
I finished my report, standing rigid with my hands clasped tightly behind my back.
"So that's how it is..."
Heilas murmured, stroking his chin as he took in my words. His tone was dry.
Yet my heart pounded relentlessly. There was no telling when the quiet embers of Heilas's anger might erupt into a raging inferno.
His eldest son is dead.
It was only natural for him to be furious, no matter how superhuman he was at keeping his personal and professional lives strictly separate.
Heilas was an outstanding soldier, not a raving psychopath. Beneath his mask of a cold-blooded warrior, I had occasionally glimpsed his humanity.
"However, we still lack concrete physical evidence that Kinuan is Tora's sponsor. All we have is circumstantial."
I wanted to prevent a direct clash between Kinuan and Heilas. If that became reality, it wouldn't bode well for me.
"Luka, Kinuan must be Tora's sponsor. Because you judged it to be so."
"You trust me more than I trust myself, Captain."
"There is no reason not to trust the capabilities of a competent subordinate and son."
Should I be grateful for this trust, or should I fear it?
"...Then I'll proceed with the mission without changing course."
"If you keep digging like this, you'll become a target of whoever killed Nikolaos too."
"Unlike my brother, I am a soldier."
"Yes—a 'mere soldier.' Which is exactly why it may prove difficult for you to handle. Nikolaos was an imperial bureaucrat. And not a low-ranking one, either. The 'enemy' saw Nikolaos's database access logs."
I frowned as I listened. An unacceptable conclusion took shape in my mind.
"Are you saying the Empire's enemies are rooted within the bureaucracy itself? And in high-ranking positions, no less?"
"It is nothing strange. The Empire has a long history. So do its internal factions. We cut away the rotten parts every time, but there seems to be no end to it."
A surge of anger welled up, almost enough to turn my stomach.
I could, with a hundred concessions, understand why the people of the Lower District or the poor might rebel against the Empire. But high-ranking officials as enemies of the Empire was intolerable. They were the ones who enjoyed more privileges than anyone else.
"We will root out the internal enemies through Kinuan. I feel sorry for Nikolaos, but... his death means we've drawn quite close to the core."
Before I knew it, Heilas had regained his cool composure.
"Personally, I feel I owe a debt to Brother Nikolaos. And it seems there's only one way to repay it."
Someone would have to pay for Nikolaos's death.