Chapter 79: From Me, to You (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 79: From Me, to You (2)
Around the time Calian and Silike were facing each other, Marquis Evan Brissen’s fierce gaze swept across his surroundings.
A single drop of blood dripped from his tightly clenched fist.
One night.
For an entire night, he had been confined to his bedroom.
Yesterday, after a tense battle of nerves with Alan at the royal palace, Evan had discovered Silike’s betrayal. He had returned to his mansion in a seething rage, and just as he was struggling to suppress it, visitors sent by Lemain arrived.
It was Kaera, the Royal Guard.
Of all people, he had to send Kaera.
Evan had been displeased from the moment he heard knights from the palace were visiting, especially since it was Kaera. They only ever met with people other than Lemain when the King’s personal safety was at stake.
For Lemain to send Kaera to search for Arsen was as good as declaring that he believed the Valkan Vice-Commander’s disappearance was a threat to his own safety. It also showed the immense importance he placed on Valkan, a force that had not even been officially established yet.
This is undoubtedly a visit for show.
By sending the knights of Kaera to search his mansion, Lemain was publicizing who Valkan was created for and what its purpose was. Knowing he was being used as a pawn in such a calculated move, Evan could not possibly welcome their visit.
But the problem did not end there.
“We have come under royal command to search the mansion.”
The knight standing before him—Ren Adrian, the Commander of Kaera—spoke without so much as an introduction. Nor did he show Evan a shred of courtesy.
Knowing exactly when Ren behaved this way, Evan spoke in a voice laced with fury.
“You bastard. Who do you think you are, treating me like a criminal?”
Ren wore the expression he reserved only for criminals—specifically, those who had threatened Lemain enough to warrant Kaera’s direct intervention. “It is a royal command,” he replied flatly.
The oppressive atmosphere didn’t come from Ren alone. The other knights were also fully armed, their expressions uniformly rigid.
Only then did Evan realize his assumption had been completely wrong. Kaera’s visit was not ‘just for show.’ He had expected them to ask a few questions and leave, but that was clearly not their intention.
Soon, Ren gestured to the knights without asking for Evan’s permission.
At his signal, the knights moved in unison. Though they were ostensibly there to find the mage Arsen Hertz, they ransacked the entire mansion as if searching for a tiny coin rather than a grown man.
Unable to endure it any longer, Evan finally roared, “Are you implying I hid that mage here?!”
Ren didn’t flinch in the face of Evan’s explosive rage. Instead, he merely replied in his usual flat, emotionless voice, “Please go to your room and wait.”
With those words, two knights stepped forward from behind Ren and escorted Evan to his bedroom. It took every ounce of his self-control not to draw his sword and cut them down on the spot.
Interestingly, the first person Evan thought of was not Lemain, but Silike.
Because Silike had joined forces with Gray.
Because he had been dragged into bizarre rumors as a result.
Because Silike had betrayed him.
He believed her betrayal was the reason he was now being treated like this by Kaera’s knights, unable to even lift his sword in retaliation.
“I will never forget today, Silike,” Evan muttered, grinding his teeth.
The search didn’t end until the following day. Evan’s mansion was massive, and Kaera’s search was unimaginably thorough.
Evan’s only saving grace was that they hadn’t discovered where he’d hidden Lennon. The entrance to the basement, concealed by a special mechanism, seemed to have gone unnoticed.
“We have confirmed there are no anomalies. Rest well.”
Leaving those brief words behind, Ren turned and left.
After the knights departed, all that remained for Evan was a ransacked mansion and his burning rage.
* * *
At the exact moment Evan was seething, Alan, staring out a window with a sullen face, spoke up.
“Are you certain this is for my benefit?”
He rubbed his bloodshot eyes and let out a long yawn. Lemain clicked his tongue at Alan’s growing insolence, picked up his glasses from the desk, and put them on. “You sound rather ungrateful.”
As Lemain picked up a document, Alan retorted, “I’m only doubting it because he’s shown no sign of returning.”
“Sir Adrian is indeed a meticulous man.”
Alan was currently waiting for Ren, the Commander of Kaera. More precisely, he was waiting for Ren to return so that he could finally go home.
“Meticulous? At this rate, we should be worried he died on the way back.”
The previous afternoon, while Alan was working quietly in his office, he had sensed more than half the knights guarding the perimeter of Lemain’s office suddenly withdraw. Startled, he had hurried over, only to find the King looking perfectly serene. “Since I have sent Kaera out,” Lemain had said, “I’ll have to trouble you to watch my back until they return.”
Lemain had already been dumping his own workload on the man who had only come to tutor his son. Now he was asking him to act as a bodyguard.
“Is Your Majesty planning to demolish the Marquis’s mansion this time?” Alan had asked pointedly.
“I explained that it is a search.”
“You did. But the sheer number of knights you sent makes it look less like a search and more like a demolition. That is why I ask.”
“It’s a search meant as a warning. I was also concerned there might be friction. If a few things get broken in the process, well, it can’t be helped.”
Alan chuckled. “I didn’t know Your Majesty was capable of such petty revenge.”
“Now you do.”
Of course, Ren had set out without knowing that Arsen was still lounging at Alan’s house. To the outside world, however, Arsen was officially missing, so Lemain had initially intended to just play along and pretend to search for him.
But just before Kaera departed, he had changed his mind, dispatching a massive force to thoroughly ransack the Marquis’s mansion. Just as Alan said, it was a petty act of retaliation.
Lemain’s reason was simple: the heated argument between Alan and Evan from earlier that day.
“Even if it is a temporary position, you are still the Commander of Valkan. Since he dared to look down on you, I thought it best to show him exactly what kind of army Valkan is. That is why I raised the intensity of the ‘search.’”
Under normal circumstances, Lemain would never have been able to use a search as a pretext for such a warning. But things were different now, and Alan figured it wouldn’t hurt to let the world know that Lemain had changed.
“Hah… Very well. Since Your Majesty has personally stepped forward to avenge me, I suppose I can wait here until the knights return.”
Without another word, Alan sat on Lemain’s sofa and waited.
One hour passed, then two. The night slipped away, and morning arrived, but Ren still did not return.
Just as Alan was beginning to worry that Ren was prying up the very foundation stones of Evan’s mansion, a knock sounded.
Knock, knock.
Ren had finally returned.
It was unclear what he could have possibly been searching for all night, but Ren entered looking exhausted and delivered his report.
“We were unable to locate Sir Hertz. My apologies.”
He then handed over a piece of paper.
“Additionally, we confirmed that an individual is confined in the mansion’s basement, presumed to be Lennon Brissen.”
The meticulous Commander had found the secret entrance, confirmed Lennon’s confinement, and restored everything to its original state, discovering Lennon’s location without Evan’s knowledge.
Whether this information would prove useful remained to be seen, but it was an unexpected gain nonetheless. Lemain thanked him for his hard work and dismissed him.
“Did you say you held the title of Viscount in Libern?” Lemain asked, changing the subject.
It was a rather abrupt question about Alan’s past, but he nodded nonchalantly. “Though I am the Archmage Alan Manasil wherever I go, I also happen to be a Baron in Secritia and a Viscount in Libern.”
Since he had never bound himself to a single nation, every country he visited had bestowed a title upon him in an attempt to make him stay.
Alan, who had never paid much attention to such things, smiled. “Still, I like ‘Alan Manasil, tutor to the Third Prince of Kairis’ the best.”
At that, Lemain chuckled softly and picked up the document he had been reading.
“So that mouth of yours is capable of saying something agreeable after all.”
“It’s a highly capable mouth. Is there anything it can’t do?”
With that reply, Alan stood up to finally take his leave. Glancing at him over the paperwork, Lemain looked back down at the document and said, “Then in Kairis, you shall be Alan Manasil, tutor to the Third Prince and Count.”
Lemain knew exactly what pretext Evan had used to pick a fight with Alan. Therefore, he intended to bestow a title befitting Alan’s true standing.
“…To bring up something like that as casually as discussing the morning weather.”
Alan chuckled softly as he replied.
* * *
Former Queen Aisha did not die of illness.
Did Randel know? Did he know Silike was involved in Aisha’s death?
Calian quickly concluded that Randel was likely unaware. Recalling Bern’s memories, the relationship between Kairis and Tensil hadn’t been particularly bad even after Randel became king.
Indeed. If he knew the truth, Randel would have come to me to join forces long before Franz ever did.
If Randel had known, he wouldn’t have just sat idly by while Calian worked to oust Silike.
This left Calian with a new dilemma: should he tell Randel, or let it be? He let out a brief chuckle and looked at Silike, who was already staring intently back at him.
For a moment, the two remained locked in a silent gaze.
After the clock’s second hand had swept around twice, Silike spoke.
“It seems you’ve misunderstood something again.”
At those words, a deep sneer formed on Calian’s lips—a look of pure mockery.
“Misunderstood, you say.”
Calian muttered, then burst into laughter.
If Silike could have seen her own expression when he’d asked his question, she would never have dared to call it a misunderstanding. Calian was certain about Aisha’s death, and Silike knew he would never believe her. For her to still claim it was a misunderstanding was laughable.
After a long moment, his laughter died, and he glared at Silike with fiercely narrowed eyes.
“Your unpleasant assumption that I would join hands with someone as insignificant as Gray Brissen—that is the misunderstanding.”
Calian tapped the table. “I have no use for people like you.”
At his words, Silike’s face turned even paler than her hand, which still clutched the letter. She had never expected such informal, disrespectful language from a prince.
Ignoring her shock, Calian looked at her with pity and spoke again.
“But judging by the atmosphere when I arrived, it seems Margrave Brissen—whom I have no use for—has no use for you either.”
“Calian. Watch your tongue. You’ve truly lost your mind.”
“Not as much as you have. How can you keep bringing up my mother with that mouth of yours? You’d have to be completely insane to do that.”
Calian quietly watched Silike’s knuckles turn white as she clenched her fists, then looked away. His gaze swept across the empty greenhouse before settling back on her.
“Don’t bother refilling this greenhouse. You won’t be staying here much longer.”
Calian stood up.
Looking down at Silike with a cold, indifferent face, he delivered his final words—words that would ensure his name was the only thing she could think about.
“From me, to you. I will show you the end.”