[Interest (2)]
Heidrich Elteon.
The legitimate First Prince of the Empire.
The imperial citizens never doubted that the blue-eyed, blond-haired First Prince would naturally ascend to the throne.
However, reality is rarely like the fantasy, and the First Prince was no exception.
It was said that the previous Emperor—the First Prince’s grandfather—had scrutinized every noble house in the Empire when selecting a daughter-in-law.
He had examined every single aristocratic family before finally choosing one woman.
Fortunately, the son who was to inherit the throne seemed quite pleased with the woman he had been matched with.
It was only natural, as she was an incredibly beautiful woman.
Moreover, her family was perfectly, utterly ordinary—how fortunate that was.
The man who became the new Emperor of the Empire grew in power.
He reached a point where he no longer feared the influence of his in-laws.
That was when a new woman caught his eye.
Soon, the Empress’s Palace was built within the Imperial Palace.
The Empress’s family, whose influence had already been formidable, began to pour their energy into wars of conquest from a certain point on.
News of victory echoed every day.
Although the Empress’s faction within the palace grew increasingly powerful, no one issued a warning, as the Empire’s strength was growing right along with it.
"Waaaah! Waaaah!"
Finally, the sound of a baby’s cry erupted from the Empress’s Palace.
It was a boy.
It happened only three years after the First Prince was born.
My half-brother, who is now a full-grown adult over twenty.
Heidrich quietly thought of his brother, who was surely somewhere at this very moment, building his power and hiding his desire for the throne.
Grind.
Hmm. As expected.
Just thinking about it makes my irritation boil over.
The First Prince, Heidrich, is not exactly a pitiful Kongji who sheds tears because he has nothing.
He is more of a tenacious fighter who grits his teeth to protect what should have been his in the first place.
“Your Highness?”
“Ah, my apologies. I’m just a bit tired.”
“Would you like to take a break and start again later?”
“Let’s do that.”
Heidrich thought that perhaps the sound of him grinding his teeth had been a bit too loud.
Still, the reason he wasn’t being completely pushed aside by his half-brother was due to his own competence.
‘Or perhaps, my brother is just very lacking.’
A bitter smile formed on his face before he could stop it.
Regardless, there is only one throne and only one competitor, so in a relative evaluation, it might not matter much whether I am capable or the other is incompetent.
Press, press.
The First Prince, Heidrich, rubbed his temples out of habit, wondering why he always felt like he hadn't finished his meal, when his eyes suddenly shifted to a document.
“Lapisha, she went to the North?”
“Ah, yes. That is the latest report.”
“Why would someone who has always roamed the battlefields go to the North?”
Lapisha was a quite famous healer.
She was known not only for her skill but for her eccentric behavior, the pinnacle of which was her refusal to settle anywhere, instead wandering battlefields and treating anyone in her medical tents, friend or foe alike.
Naturally, both sides would foam at the mouth, but she would wield a whip embedded with iron shards and threaten them:
— You want to take my patient? Only if you’re willing to offer your head first.
Her spirit was so fierce that no one could do anything about it.
Even so, her organization was small, consisting of only a dozen or so disciples, so they could have crushed her with force if they really wanted to. However, because Lapisha was hailed as the absolute best healer for trauma, she was a personage no one dared touch, if only for the sake of the high-ranking officials’ spare lives.
No matter how good potions or healing magic were, they couldn’t reattach limbs that had already been severed.
But the First Prince, Heidrich, was looking for Lapisha’s whereabouts for a different reason.
Lapisha, who traversed battlefields to collect soldiers with severed arms, legs, and shattered skulls.
Commonly known as the White Warrior.
But there was another epithet some people used for her.
The Canary of the Battlefield.
They say miners take canaries underground with them.
To detect the scent of toxic gas before anyone else, right?
Lapisha was the same.
She had such a keen nose for the scent of war—a scent even the Imperial Palace didn't know—that wherever she passed, the flames of war would soon follow.
The problem was that most of the battlefields where the White Warrior descended were places where the Empress’s family stood at the vanguard.
Whether Lapisha was the Empress’s person or the opposite, it was impossible to know for sure, which was why the First Prince received regular reports on the whereabouts of a mere healer.
“There shouldn’t be any signs of war in the North.”
“That is a mystery to us as well.”
The report that Lapisha had settled in the North, claiming she wanted to live using her own proper surname, had already been gathering dust in a government cabinet, so there was no way the First Prince’s faction could understand the situation.
“I’ll need to verify this.”
“I will send an informant.”
The First Prince nodded silently.
In any case, the Canary of the Battlefield had flown, so confirmation was necessary.
‘The North. The North, huh.’
The First Prince rolled the word "North" around in his mouth several times.
For some reason, it was a pronunciation he quite liked.
Back to the North.
Somewhere in a small forest about a day’s walk from the Lord’s Castle.
“Gotcha, you little rascal! Hehehe.”
“Maybe it’s because the weather is warming up. These things are crawling in, aren't they?”
Two hunters spoke in a lighthearted tone, as if they had just caught a bug that had wandered into their house.
They gave each other a thumbs-up, as if they were quite pleased with their new catch.
“Ghh-.”
What was slightly baffling was that what the hunters had caught wasn't a four-legged beast, but a two-legged human—but that didn't mean it wasn't "prey."
A man in a black mask, who had been knocked unconscious after being struck on the back of the neck, was slung over the burly hunter’s shoulder.
“Looks like there are a lot of them around here?”
“That’s three already.”
“Whew. How much is all this worth?”
The two hunters, who had set out to catch a bear that had woken up from hibernation and was full of venom, had discovered a stranger in the dawn, covered from head to toe in black clothes with a mask over his face.
In that moment, they decided to cleanly track the masked man instead of the bear.
The Northerners know.
That if you catch a bad guy, the Lord gives you money, bread, and sometimes even a medal.
“I thought the bad guys were dying out lately, so we wouldn't catch any more, but what a windfall this is!”
“I guess that’s why they say a living mouth never goes hungry.”
“Oh-ho. You’ve been attending the academy, you’re using quite the vocabulary!”
“Hehe. Don’t just say that, you should apply for the next second term. If you don’t want to be ashamed in front of your kids, shouldn't you at least be able to read letters, even if it’s haltingly?”
“Ah, there goes another one.”
“But why are those idiots wearing black clothes in the snow?”
“My point exactly.”
Thwack.
Another masked figure collapsed.
They say there are signs of spring coming, but the North is still covered in snow and ice everywhere.
It’s not for nothing that hunters walk around in white furs.
In that regard, those guys were disqualified no matter what.
But for the masked men, it was a truly frustrating situation.
It’s not like they wore all-black costumes because they were lacking in intelligence.
Their attire was meant for completing missions in the darkness.
They never imagined that while hiding and resting quietly in broad daylight, they would be discovered by Resident 1 and 2—whose names they didn't even know—and attacked without a word.
They had planned to change their disguises once they reached the vicinity of the Lord’s Castle. Really.
They had overlooked the fact that, unlike other territories, the Northern militia were people who could go toe-to-toe with decent mercenary groups, and they were paying the price for not knowing that the residents, having developed a taste for bounty hunting last year, were red-eyed at the thought of a bonus whenever they saw someone suspicious.
Anyway, the hunters, who had successfully transitioned into bounty hunters, scoured the area and discovered and captured a total of five masked men.
Soon after, the five were immediately transported to the Lord’s Castle.
Since their original goal was to find traces of war in the bedroom and office of the Northern Lord’s deputy, they had, at any rate, arrived at their mission location.
“They won’t open their mouths?”
“Yes, Administrative Officer.”
Aiden, who had been surprised by the news that suspicious individuals had been caught first thing in the morning, found the two hunters—who were already grinning from ear to ear, likely having received their reward—more suspicious than the five masked men tied up and kneeling.
It felt a bit different from the "Happy Town" he had imagined, but for now, uncovering the identity of the masked men was the priority.
“What do you think?”
He quietly asked for the opinions of his adjutants standing behind him.
“Those two hunters are the ones who took first place in the tracking division at the 2nd Hunting Competition this winter.”
“They were also training instructors at our barracks when they were younger.”
“They picked the wrong place to mess with, they really did.”
“......”
...Why are the smart ones like this?
“Ah, are you talking about the ones who were caught?”
The one who kept her head the best was, as expected, Kalisa.
“We’ll have to find that out from now on. Jamie, is the technician there?”
“There was one, but he’s at the mine now. He’s also doubling as the disciplinarian for the prisoners.”
“If it’s not a technician, that’s a bit... It’s hard to clean up the bloodstains, you see.”
“......?”
Aiden felt he knew exactly what kind of "technician" that was, and so he shuddered involuntarily.
When he lived in a world where the police couldn't even land a single kick on lowlifes who deserved to be hung in the square and pelted with stones, he used to think, ‘Is this right? Is this really right?’
But a world where they just catch people like prey because they’re wearing masks, and talk about technicians and bloodstains without even exchanging a word, didn't seem particularly sane either.
“Dialogue, let’s start with dialogue, please.”
“Aww, Administrative Officer, you’re too soft. Those guys, it’s obvious just by looking at them. They’re either people who steal information, people who steal heads, or... people who do both.”
Jamie shrugged his shoulders, muttering to himself, “Our Administrative Officer is surprisingly soft,” and added:
“And they’re certainly not the type to answer obediently just because you ask.”
Then, he bared his fangs and growled.
“Did you come from Lontes?”
Jamie’s threatening voice was directed at the masked men. The atmosphere in the front yard of the Lord’s Castle changed instantly.
The soldiers of the barracks and the armed knights openly exuded waves of killing intent.
Aiden felt as if the density of the air surrounding him had changed, and he swallowed a dry gulp involuntarily.
It was his first time.
Witnessing the killing intent exuded by the Northern warriors when they were serious.
“...Whew, I’d only heard about it, but seeing it in person is truly incredible. I can’t even breathe properly. So this is why the Northern soldiers can protect this land with such a small number.”
Roland whispered, his tongue clicking in surprise.
Aiden was even a little grateful to Roland for saying what he had wanted to say.
However, the unidentified spies, whose masks had already been removed, remained silent even though they could fully anticipate what kind of fate awaited them.
In Aiden’s eyes, it looked somewhat like resignation.
But Jamie seemed to have a different thought, as he frowned and muttered, “I told you, they’re not the type you can talk to.”
“Roland.”
At that moment, Aiden, who had been quiet, opened his mouth.
Because if left like this, the five people would certainly become five lumps of meat.
“Does Lontes employ people like that?”
“Pardon? Oh, that is... as far as I know, they don’t. But they could have commissioned a professional organization, and also...”
“That’s enough.”
Aiden didn’t know how investigations or deductions worked in this neighborhood, and he didn’t want to know.
He didn’t dislike torture because he was a humanitarian, but because he thought it was irrational.
‘If you pull out fingernails and teeth, anyone will say anything.’
He didn’t see the point in information obtained that way.
Therefore, although his indirect experience was limited to OCN dramas and Detective Conan, he managed to deduce the truth in a short time.
‘These guys aren’t from Lontes.’
They were people who looked down on the North to begin with.
Moreover, the higher-ups under that Lord were busy preparing to inflate their own wealth by forming quasi-alliances with the North.
It meant they had no reason to go out of their way to stir up trouble.
‘If not Lontes, then who?’
The North is vast.
Naturally, there were three or four other territories bordering the North besides Lontes, but they didn’t have the leisure, reason, or need to spend money to spy on the North.
‘Even if the hunters are experienced, if they caught five of them without a single scratch, they can’t be that skilled.’
Then was the client someone insignificant?
‘No. If that were the case, they wouldn’t have used five of them.’
Aiden thought.
Who would be the employer of such people?
They had sent people who clearly didn’t know the situation in the North, so they must not have any connection to the North.
Their level wasn’t high, but their numbers weren’t small, so the sender must be powerful, but it also meant they didn’t consider this matter to be of great importance.
‘If they didn’t consider it important but still sent people to verify it—’
They were either busybodies who wanted to be involved in everything in the world.
Or they were paranoid people who had to hold and shake everything in their hands.
If not that, then,
‘Ah.’
I think I know what this is.
Because he felt a sense of déjà vu.
So,
‘Factional strife.’
The power struggle between a three-term mayor who had a firm grip on the region and a first-term assemblyman who had just gotten his gold badge was exactly like this.
“It’s the center, isn’t it.”
As Aiden, who had been thinking to himself, lifted the corners of his mouth and spat out a single sentence,
“......!”
The pupils of the men, who had had dead fish eyes, shook uncontrollably.
It was, in every sense, a confession.