Chapter 99
Chapter 99
Chapter 99
Training (3)
'...What?'
Rudian swallowed his saliva at the sudden awkward silence that had fallen.
They weren't exactly glaring at each other, nor was there any hostility.
'But what is this suffocating atmosphere?'
Did something happen between the two of them while I was unconscious?
With such thoughts, Rudian felt cold sweat breaking out as he offered Luciella a seat.
"Please sit, Princess."
"Yes, then I'll excuse myself."
At Rudian's invitation, Luciella, who had been having a staring contest, trudged over and sat down directly across from Rebecca—that is, right next to Rudian.
'...Huh?'
Sitting down itself wasn't a problem, but the moment Luciella settled into her seat, Rudian could see Maria's eyebrows twitch slightly from across the table.
'What's really going on...?'
Unable to grasp the situation, all Rudian could do was blink his eyes.
"Wow, this is my first time in a place like this!"
The awkward atmosphere between the two women was suddenly broken by Rebecca's single remark.
"I see. Rebecca, you haven't been in the capital for very long anyway."
"Yes, this is also my first time drinking something with such a strong sweet taste!"
Rebecca gulped down the syrup-laden beverage and smiled happily.
While Rudian, being a modern person, and the two noble ladies would be accustomed to such flavors, for Rebecca, a country girl, this experience would truly be a whole new world.
As the tension eased with Rebecca's bright atmosphere, Rudian finally turned his gaze toward Luciella.
"What brings you to seek me out, Princess?"
"What... Brings me? Am I not allowed to come find you?"
"Ah, no. That's not what I meant..."
Rudian flinched and shook his head at her unexpectedly sharp response.
This was the first time he'd seen her get irritated, so his shoulders naturally hunched up with tension.
"I'm joking."
Luciella chuckled softly upon seeing Rudian's tense expression.
"I came to update you on the progress of what you asked me before, plus I have something else to tell you."
"Ah, about that matter."
Rudian remembered that he had indeed made two requests to Luciella before collapsing.
But did she really come all the way here just to tell him about that?
"First, we successfully eliminated all the demon remnants fighting in the outskirts. Archduke Quihiller and Maria here joined the pursuit unit and were able to kill the demon Seere who had escaped."
"Maria did?"
Rudian looked at Maria with renewed surprise.
No matter how strong she was, she must have suffered a major blow from the psychic backlash during her battle with Marvas...
"I still had some strength left. If my participation could reduce our allies' casualties, then that's what I had to do."
"That's impressive."
Her matter-of-fact attitude made his inner fanboy feelings want to explode.
"Ahem! Cough!"
Perhaps finding his sparkling gaze burdensome, Maria cleared her throat and turned her head away.
"Secondly..."
Luciella shifted the atmosphere with her low voice.
"Unfortunately, we couldn't track down the demons who went toward the Iskar territory. We informed Count Ricart and his subordinate lords of the facts and requested their cooperation, but it seems no places, including Baran village, suffered any damage."
"Then we can assume they crossed over to the Rohans side."
"That's right. Actually, even if we found them, we don't have the strength to fight them, so it's rather fortunate."
Highest-grade demons are disasters just by existing.
If those bastards had openly rampaged, several territories would have been easily swept away, but fortunately, the commander leading the demons seemed to have a cautious personality and chose not to cause chaos.
Luciella let out a small sigh.
"Actually... While we've avoided the immediate crisis, conversely, it means we failed to prevent the enemy's forces from growing, so we must thoroughly prepare for what's to come."
"You'll be very busy."
"The Information Guild has never been this busy in its history. We've expanded our personnel by over 30% and recruited about two sub-masters that didn't exist before, but even so..."
'If you're that busy, you could have sent a letter instead of coming all the way here...'
Still, Rudian was happy to think that Luciella was looking out for him.
"Now that the internal troubles have been somewhat eliminated, it's time to concentrate all our capabilities on the border territories."
Even without Rudian's advice, the Morian Empire would know that the situation in neighboring countries was turning strange.
That's when Luciella's expression suddenly became sharp.
"And one noteworthy incident has occurred."
"What happened?"
"Just yesterday, the Kingdom of Rohans suddenly notified us that they would be sending an envoy."
"...!"
"The timing is quite coincidental."
The Kingdom of Rohans was the place Rudian had emphasized dozens of times to be careful of.
Historically, it had been the Morian Empire's arch-enemy, but the fact that the kingdom's leadership had been taken over by demons had changed from suspicion to certainty through this incident.
"I, I have a favor to ask of you, Rudian..."
"Of me?"
Rudian swallowed his saliva and focused on Luciella's words.
"Soon, much of the Empire's capabilities will be concentrated on gathering information about the Kingdom of Rohans, but honestly, I don't expect much success from my predictions."
Gathering information about humans and gathering information about non-humans are different levels of difficulty.
It wasn't strange that she had reached such a conclusion.
"So..."
For some reason, Luciella hesitated and trailed off.
Seeing her awkward appearance, Rudian patted his opposite shoulder with his hand and said,
"Please speak. Are we just ordinary acquaintances?"
"Ahaha, that's right, isn't it? Then I'll speak frankly."
The request that came from Luciella was something Rudian couldn't handle.
"Adora. That organization you said you belonged to... Could that organization share its intelligence capabilities with the Morian Empire? Of course, it would be limited only to the Kingdom of Rohans, and we would definitely pay for it."
"Ah..."
Rudian was at a loss for words.
After it was discovered in the past that he wasn't from Psychic Luminous, Rudian had roughly glossed over things by selling the name Adora to Luciella again.
"Adora? What's that?"
Only Rebecca, who knew nothing, innocently tilted her head, while the others waited for Rudian's answer with anticipation.
'H-how should I answer this?'
The value of the information he had provided so far under the name Adora was definitely not ordinary.
Since they were information that would be absolutely difficult for an individual to obtain, he had planned to sell the name of some group and then gloss over it...
They were still accepting that bluff as a valid setting!
—Cause and effect. Divine justice. You reap what you sow.
Adi pressed his shoulders with tentacles while pouring wicked words into his ear.
—Self-inflicted punishment. Evil doesn't go unpunished.
Perhaps harboring resentment about having his creators' names sold, Adi didn't end with the first verse but started the second.
'Shut your mouth!'
In the end, Rudian found himself saying this phrase after a long time.
'Ugh, what do I do?'
Creating non-existent manpower is impossible.
Rudian politely declined by making up a plausible reason that his organization couldn't collaborate with outsiders.
"That's unfortunate..."
"Actually, this matter is already pushing it a bit... And the other guys aren't interested in this matter to begin with."
"Is that so? It can't be helped."
The scale of his lies was getting bigger and bigger, and the word ‘self-inflicted punishment’ that Adi mentioned felt like it was increasingly strangling him.
Seeing her slumped with disappointment, he wanted to do something for her, but if he suddenly spilled high-level intelligence about the Kingdom of Rohans, he'd likely arouse suspicion again.
"Don't worry too much. I also have some authority, so I should be able to provide you with general information."
Luciella seemed to want detailed information about the Kingdom of Rohans in earnest, but that was virtually impossible.
It might be different if he just dropped hints one or two words at a time like now.
Just as the conversation was reaching something of a lull.
"Run! You rice wasters!"
"One! Two! Three! Four!"
"How dare you come in last? You'd all better chant that you're dead for a while!"
'What are those?'
Rudian automatically turned his gaze at the vigorous shouts suddenly coming from outside.
"A knight order... Perhaps?"
A group of men running with heavy objects attached to their arms and legs.
Each one exuded an extraordinary aura, and they were individuals who wouldn't fall short even compared to the Lion Hearts of Iskar.
Luciella recognized their identity by looking at the emblem embedded in their shoulders.
"That emblem is... Red Falcon."
"Ah! One of the capital's five major knight orders..."
"But why are they doing that? They look ready to kill someone."
Hearing the word 'last place,' it seemed they had fallen behind in some performance or competition, but Rudian, who had been away from the capital at the time, couldn't know why they were doing this.
"Die! Just stick your nose in dishwater and die!"
All of them would be experts of intermediate level or higher, but seeing most of the members struggling, they must have been quite thoroughly drilled.
'Hm...?'
Rudian saw a man at the very back of their group who was completing the training without any change in expression.
The problem was that this man didn't belong to Red Falcon.
"Crux?"
"It really is him...?"
For some reason, Crux, the vice-captain of the Imperial Guard, was mixed in with another knight order's training.
And with heavy iron chunks that looked at least twice as heavy as the others' attached to his arms and legs, no less.
"Ah...!"
At that moment, Crux seemed to notice their group and stopped moving with wide eyes.
"S-Sir Crux?"
The leader who had been drilling the knights looked at Crux, who had suddenly stopped moving.
"Sir Garet, may I pause the training for a moment?"
"H-how could there be any question?"
For him, there was no way to stop either the participation of the Imperial Guard's vice-captain and renowned Sword Saint in this training disguised as corporal punishment, or his withdrawal from it.
***
For some reason, Crux requested a private audience with Rudian.
The women who had been with him readily stepped aside at Crux's request.
GULP, Gulp!
Crux, whose entire body was drenched in sweat, seemed thirsty as he immediately downed an entire bottle of water in one shot before even bringing up his business.
'He must have been drilled for quite a while.'
Even Sword Masters don't have unlimited stamina, but to show such a disheveled appearance would require more than just an hour or two.
Rudian stared at Crux in this state and opened his mouth.
"I'm glad you're safe."
Although Rudian had saved Crux's life, he hadn't been able to look after Crux as he immediately entered the fight with Marvas.
Crux had surely been caught up in the battle, but somehow he seemed to have survived.
"Safe... That's embarrassing to hear."
Crux smiled bitterly, then finally stood up from his seat and bowed to Rudian.
"I'm sorry I couldn't properly thank you at the time. Thank you for saving my life."
"......"
"After seeing the fierce battle between you and that Demon King, I realized how presumptuously I had acted. I'm sorry. I won't do it again."
The experience must have been quite shocking, as Rudian never imagined that Crux, nicknamed the 'crazy fighting dog,' would become so modest.
"I accept your apology."
Rudian calmly accepted Crux's apology.
With that, Crux's expression became much more at ease, showing signs of relief.
Rudian noticed that there was something more to Crux's change of heart.
"So... You didn't send away Princess Luciella just to apologize, and you must have some business with me?"
At those words, Crux immediately revealed his real business.
"I would like to request a duel to the death with you, Rudian."
"......"
Rudian was at a loss for words at the straightforward, blunt request.
Not a sparring match, but a duel to the death?
Is this guy really insane?