Episode 135
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 135
Evan’s eyes shot open as he rose from his seat. Elysia, unaware of what was happening, could only blink. Ian set the pipe down and gestured to his brother.
“Let’s talk for a moment, just the two of us.”
The brothers stood and walked over to the desk in the office. Ian rang a small bell to summon a servant.
“Escort her to the deepest room in the mansion. And take that with you.”
‘That’ referred to the sprawled-out man on the floor. At Ian’s command, several more servants appeared and began to move the man. As she was led to the interrogation room, Elysia thought to herself.
Isn’t murder more damaging to public opinion?
In the Nightmare City of <Panic in the City>, it was practically a given that politicians were involved in illegal businesses. It was hardly even newsworthy.
It was common for them to have their faces plastered on the front page of the newspaper, offer a show of an apology, and then seize power once again. The citizens were too busy trying to survive day to day to raise their voices in protest.
Elysia, too, had her hands full protecting them from the daily terror and crime.
In any case…
Weren’t scandals… something you just took some heat for and moved on from?
Considering how visibly shaken Evan had been, as if he’d made a monumental discovery, this information was clearly helpful, but she couldn’t quite grasp why.
Just as she was trying to wrap her head around it, she arrived in a room with a single desk and two chairs.
After tying the man securely to the chair across the desk, the servants retreated to the door. One of them bowed respectfully and asked.
“We have guards posted outside the door as well. Shall we also—inside—”
“Eh, there’s no need for all that.”
Elysia scanned the room once before striding over to the window and drawing the curtains. The brightly lit room was instantly plunged into darkness. Standing with her back to the curtains in the pitch-black space, she snapped her fingers.
“Lights, please.”
The servants moved in perfect sync, illuminating the room. Elysia leisurely regarded the man tied to the chair and twirled her finger.
“I’ll sit by the window. Move the chair for me.”
Elysia plopped down onto the chair that was instantly prepared for her and leaned her arms on the desk. Tap, tap… She drummed her fingertips on the wooden surface, a cold smile playing on her lips.
“You don’t want to die like your colleagues, do you?”
The man turned his head and stared at the wall, deliberately ignoring her. In a monotone voice, Elysia recounted the events that had transpired so far.
“Your first two colleagues who were arrested… I heard they were attacked by assailants while being transported here by carriage. Their limbs were cut off before they were killed. They even took their tongues, as a warning, I suppose.”
A flinch. The man’s body, which had been fixed on the wall, began to tremble.
“The second witness to be apprehended was shot in the head and killed instantly by a bullet fired from outside the window while being interrogated inside this very mansion.”
The man’s gaze, which had been firmly fixed elsewhere, began to waver. Elysia didn’t miss it and continued speaking.
“There was also someone we were tracking for interrogation who was found with his skull caved in, struck in the head with a blunt weapon by an unknown assailant…”
“…”
“They really have terrible luck with employers, those people… Don’t you think?”
She slowly rose from her seat, placing her hands on the desk and looking down at the man. His trembling eyes finally turned to meet hers. With a warm smile, as if granting him mercy, Elysia spoke.
“Do you understand?”
“…”
“It means I’m the last lifeline you have. If you agree to cooperate, nod your head. I’ll take the gag out of your mouth.”
In the dimly lit room, his gray eyes glinted.
“Shall we have a little talk?”
The man, his neck stiff with tension, barely managed to nod. Elysia let out a short laugh and lightly thumped the table with her fist. Then she whispered.
“Good.”
Spitting out the piece of cloth that had been carelessly shoved into his mouth, the man glared at her with eyes full of suspicion. Elysia leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms, and stared back at him.
“Name?”
“Why do you ask?”
“What?”
Elysia’s face contorted into a scowl as she sat up straight, a corner of her mouth twitching upwards. The man flinched and shrank back, cautiously watching her.
Elysia barely managed to calm her simmering anger. I’ve really mellowed out. The old me wouldn’t have let this slide… She ran a hand through her hair, her face a mask of irritation, and shouted.
“Am I calling you ‘hey, you,’ ‘you bastard,’ or ‘that son of a bitch’?”
“What are you—”
“Am I not being polite? Am I not showing you basic courtesy? Do you think I’m dragging this out just for the fun of hearing myself talk?”
The man, who had been about to retort, became noticeably more docile. He lowered his head and mumbled his name.
“Owen Anderson.”
“Is that it?”
“…sir.”
Elysia nodded and wrote his name on a blank sheet of paper.
“What was your job under Alma Heron?”
“I mostly handled transport… sir.”
“Tell me about her.”
The man hesitated, his lips parting and closing. Though it was just the two of them in the room, his face was filled with fear, as if worried someone might be listening. Gulping, Owen whispered in a barely audible voice.
“…She must have made a deal with a devil.”
A devil. Elysia scribbled the word on the paper and asked without a hint of mockery.
“Ah… yes, well… And why do you think that?”
“Do you think I’m crazy?!”
“Well, a little.”
Ignoring Elysia’s indifferent reply, Owen shivered and whispered.
“But, that woman… I heard her talking with a man in a room that no one had entered…!”
A man’s voice? Elysia looked up and stared at Owen, who was trembling with fear. If she stripped away the nonsense about devils, it was evidence that Alma had a male accomplice.
Testimony that seemed insignificant often proved to be surprisingly decisive in critical moments. She underlined the sentence she had written down. The terrified man’s voice grew louder.
“And, and just three years ago, she was an illiterate woman who knew nothing but how to beg on the streets…!”
Elysia, who had been calmly transcribing his words, lifted her head. Owen, his face pale as a sheet, continued.
“How could a woman who couldn’t even read suddenly start making drugs overnight? Unless… unless she made a deal with a devil…”
“A devil, you say…”
Elysia smirked and rested her chin on her hand, lost in thought. Using mysterious powers, possessing a refined beauty, and wanting to plunge the world into evil chaos.
“That’s not entirely wrong.”
Muttering to herself, she pulled out a map. Owen’s eyes widened as he looked down at the map, which was large enough to cover most of the desk.
It depicted in detail the topography of Mare, the capital of Alea and the city where Minerva was located.
Elysia placed a heavy book on the curling corners of the map to hold it down, then tapped her finger on the area around the largest plaza.
“Where is she now?”
“In the first place…!”
Oops, did I say too much? With a hiccup, Owen clamped his mouth shut and darted his eyes around, gauging Elysia’s reaction. She raised an eyebrow as if to say, A little late to shut up now, isn’t it?
“Even if you don’t tell me now, you’ll end up telling me everything later anyway. Let’s just get this over with quickly, shall we?”
“…”
“Dragging this out is just tiring for both of us, you know?”
Owen let out a deep sigh and mumbled with his gaze lowered.
“She probably moved again the moment she found out I was caught. The reason I’m spilling everything… is because I’ve essentially been abandoned.”
“I’m the one who puts the pieces together and forms the big picture. I’d appreciate it if you told me everything you know. I’ll be the judge of your information’s value, so just tell me anything at all—”
“The organization is in the process of shutting down.”
Elysia’s hand, which had been tracing the map, froze. Shutting down? This easily?
This was a woman who had used a single drug to claw her way up from begging on the streets to a position where she could bring nobles to their knees.
Elysia recalled the glint of greed in Alma’s eyes. She was not the type to give up so easily.
So why, all of a sudden?
“Because of the recent incidents… the Madam has been on edge. You know, those people who rioted, shouting that this world is a lie.”
He said they had all been customers who bought Verum from Alma. The moment she realized this, she became extremely paranoid and immediately began to dismantle her business.
She stopped buying raw materials, including the silk tree flowers, and sold off her drugs at a discount. When Elysia asked why she had disposed of all her stock except for a few minimal samples, Owen answered calmly.
“It’s the seed money she needs to start the business again somewhere other than Alea.”
Slam! Elysia shot to her feet, knocking over the table, and rushed out of the room.
*
Pacing around the room Elysia had just left, Evan stroked his chin and asked.
“Would you care to explain?”
“To ensure Cain Ror stands trial, we need conflict within the Parliament.”
The Ror ducal family could be considered the true power in Alea. The king was merely a figurehead, a symbol, while the real authority to make decisions lay with the Parliament. And that Parliament was currently divided into two factions.
The commoner councilmen who had risen to prominence on the back of their wealth, and the nobles who had accumulated wealth for generations. The nobles still held more sway, and the Duke of Ror was treated as their leader.
“But is the ducal family only an object of envy?”
Ian finished his sentence and looked up. His younger brother seemed to have understood everything.
“He’s a thorn in the side of the opposition.”
“They’d be overjoyed if they could put the heir on trial.”
“Of the three confirmed murders, two of the victims were commoners, not nobles. The third was a noble, but from a family that had already chosen to remain silent once. They may be cooperative now, but they might be persuaded to drop the matter if the Ror family offers a hefty price.”
Evan was lost in thought. As a nation with a developed commercial sector, Alea offered relatively more social mobility than other countries.
But that was only relatively speaking. The class system had not been abolished, and most of the key positions in the courts and the Parliament were held by nobles.
Moreover, this was the House of Ror, a name that even most nobles hesitated to speak aloud. Two murders of commoners alone would not be enough to get him indicted.
His expression turning serious, Evan muttered to himself.
“So, we add a charge that they can’t possibly ignore in court…”