Guest from the Imperial Palace (4)
Someone stood in the hallway outside the door. Light blonde hair, gray eyes, an unyielding posture. Sera Klein.
Roelin froze with her hand on the doorknob. I stopped right behind her. My ex-fiancée had just warned me to be wary of the inspector, and now that very inspector was standing right outside. Could the timing possibly be any worse?
“Am I interrupting?” Sera Klein asked. Her voice remained perfectly calm.
Roelin glanced at me before answering. Why look at me? Did I look like someone who could handle this situation?
“Not at all,” Roelin replied with a short laugh. “We were just about to leave.”
“I see.” Sera’s gaze shifted to Roelin. “Lady Arvina.”
“You know me?”
“I’ve heard the name through social circles.”
Social circles. I never expected to hear that phrase from Sera Klein’s mouth.
“Even an inspector hears such rumors?” Roelin asked.
“When one works for the imperial family, one hears things whether one wishes to or not.”
Roelin’s smile thinned ever so slightly. “Was my story that well-known?”
“Not so much Lady Arvina herself,” Sera said, her eyes flicking briefly to me, “but the engagement with the young lord of Kaindel.”
I let out a quiet sigh. Sera continued regardless.
“It caused quite a stir at the time, as I recall.”
“Did it?”
“Yes. The engagement of such a fine pair.”
Roelin’s smile froze in place. Outwardly she looked composed, but I could see it clearly—she was angry. Quite angry.
“I didn’t expect you to remember even that.”
“I have a good memory.”
“How convenient.”
“It serves me well in my duties.”
Both of them speak so politely. If either one would just show open dislike, I might at least have an excuse to intervene. As it was, only the bystander was suffocating.
I finally swallowed and spoke. “Both of you.”
“Yes, Cian.” / “Yes, my lord.”
Don’t answer at the same time. It only makes this more terrifying.
“…Inspector. Is there a reason you’ve come all the way here?”
“I was looking for the young lord of Kaindel.”
“Me?”
“There were matters I needed to confirm as part of the inspection.”
Roelin shot me a quick glance. Her eyes seemed to ask, Are you sure you’re all right?
Of course I wasn’t. But I could pretend to be. Living among nobles for so long had at least taught me that useless skill.
“Then I’ll take my leave,” Roelin said, offering Sera a slight bow. “Inspector, please refrain from causing the Kaindel family any undue trouble.”
“An inspection is procedure, not trouble.”
“If the one receiving it feels it as such, isn’t it much the same?”
“I do not record feelings.”
Roelin blinked. I mentally applauded. What kind of conversation was this?
“Then I hope the procedure concludes smoothly.” Roelin turned to me. “Cian, don’t push yourself too hard.”
“I’ve been hearing that a lot lately.”
“When one hears it often, there’s usually a reason.”
“…Understood. Be careful on your way. I won’t be able to see you off.”
Roelin gave a small nod and walked down the corridor. I watched her retreating figure before turning my gaze.
Sera Klein was looking at me.
“Why are you staring like that?”
“The two of you seem close.”
“…Well. We were rather close once.”
“I’m aware.”
I pressed a hand to my forehead. Did this woman overhear what Roelin and I were talking about?
“…Did you happen to hear our conversation earlier?”
“Unintentionally. Only the very end.”
“The very end?”
“Something about being cautious.”
That was a relief. Or was it? Even that much was suspicious enough.
“An ex-fiancée is allowed to worry about her ex-fiancé, isn’t she?”
“Indeed.”
“And,” I said, meeting Sera’s eyes, “the Ramal incident doesn’t appear to be simple banditry.”
“Your reasoning?”
“Their equipment and supplies are unusual. The interrogator mentioned testimony suggesting they had a backer.”
I hadn’t told her everything. The woman before me served the imperial family, not me.
Sera didn’t deny it outright. “That does make simple banditry difficult to believe.”
“That’s unexpected.”
“I have no reason to deny it. However, the existence of a backer and the identity of that backer are separate matters.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then we must confirm it.”
At least Sera’s reaction wasn’t that of someone caught red-handed. The chances of Sera Klein being involved in this incident are low.
Sera took a step closer. “There is something I must request. Please guide me to the underground prison.”
“The underground prison?”
“I wish to examine the prisoners from the Ramal incident.”
Of course she did. An inspector didn’t just steal sleep—she politely demanded the stench of a dungeon as well.
I exhaled shortly. “Very well. Let’s go.”
“Will you accompany me personally, my lord?”
“It’s my prison, after all.”
“Strictly speaking, it belongs to the Count of Kaindel.”
“Inspector.”
“Yes.”
“Could you occasionally just let things slide?”
“…Understood.”
The underground prison was still awful. Cold, damp, and foul-smelling. No place for a person to linger. Of course, most of the people inside hadn’t exactly behaved like people either.
Sera Klein’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.
“Are you all right?”
“With what?”
“The smell.”
“The basement of the Inspectorate is not much different.”
“I thought even the imperial family’s prison stench would be high-class.”
“There is no high or low grade to the smell of corpses.”
Hm. That wasn’t particularly something I’d wanted to know.
At the end of the corridor, the interrogation officer was waiting. A middle-aged man whose face bore clear signs of fatigue, a record board in his hand.
“Young master. Good day.”
“Yeah. Give me your report.”
“We conducted additional interrogation on the leader of the armed Ramal group.”
“His condition?”
“He’s in a state where he can speak. However, we obtained no further information.”
“How much did you work him over?”
“Enough that he won’t die.”
Sera’s gaze turned to the officer. “Was the interrogation conducted in accordance with the law?”
The officer’s face stiffened. I quickly cut in.
“Inspector, this is the interrogation site of a bandit leader.”
“I’m aware.”
“And I’ve barely slept.”
“I’m aware of that as well.”
“Then you’re also aware that this question is only making me more tired.”
“I am.”
Don’t say you’re aware. It only makes it more irritating.
Sera looked back at the officer. “Have you kept records?”
“Yes. Time, questions asked, physical condition, and responses—all recorded.”
“Good.”
“……Thank you.”
The officer’s face remained rigid after his exchange with Sera. I understood. When Sera Klein said “good,” it never sounded like praise. It was closer to the sound of a stamp being pressed.
“What do we know?” I asked.
The officer flipped through his record board. “Not much.”
“Be specific.”
“The one who contacted the bandit leader kept their face covered. Their voice seemed altered as well. Equipment and provisions were received at a designated location.”
“Yeah, we’ve heard all that. Did you find out who was backing them?”
“He claims he doesn’t know.”
“What about the sealing string?”
“He didn’t even recognize the term.”
“Then what does that bastard know?”
The officer hesitated for a moment. “That he was ordered to disrupt the Ramal transport route for a certain period.”
“Any specific targets?”
“None.”
“None?”
“Yes. There were no instructions to target any particular merchant group.”
I frowned. Not targeting specific groups, not even avoiding larger ones—just orders to foul up the Ramal route itself.
“It seems the leader wasn’t directly connected to the higher-ups,” the officer continued. “He doesn’t know the source of the equipment, doesn’t recognize the term ‘sealing string,’ and even his previous statements appear to have been things he repeated without truly understanding their meaning.”
“He was bluffing?”
“More accurately, he was repeating phrases he’d been threatened with.”
“Threatened?”
“It seems he was told something along the lines of thinking of his family if he were caught.”
I clicked my tongue. So this guy really was just a tail.
“I’ll speak with him myself. Lead the way.”
The officer guided me to the bandit leader’s cell.
The officer opened the cell door. Creak—
The leader sat leaning against the back wall. The sly ease he’d shown in Ramal had nearly vanished. His lips were split, one eye swollen, dried blood on his chin. He wasn’t dead. He could still speak. But now he looked less like a shadow’s pawn and more like a bandit who’d simply had a rough time.
In short, he’s useless now.
“Still alive?” I asked.
The leader slowly raised his head. “What the hell…” His voice was hoarse.
“You’re alive.”
“……Thanks to you.”
“Not thanks to me. The officer controlled himself well.”
“How…… considerate.”
At least his mouth was still working. His body was practically dead, though.
Then the leader’s gaze shifted to my side. He saw Sera Klein.
In that moment, I fell silent. I could see both the bandit leader’s and Sera’s eyes.
The leader didn’t recognize her. No tension, no wariness, no sign of familiarity. Just mild surprise at the sudden appearance of a pretty woman in his cell.
And Sera’s reaction was the same. There was the usual swift assessment typical of an inspector, but none of the tiny hesitation that came with recognizing a familiar face.
They’ve never met. Either of them.
The leader narrowed his eyes and forced a crooked grin, blood still on his lips. “This time…… you even brought a beauty.”
The air in front of the cell seemed to freeze for a moment. The interrogation officer’s face hardened. If Verdin, our knight commander, had been here, he probably would have punched the man in the jaw on the spot.
Sera Klein’s expression didn’t change at all.
“You don’t know who I am,” she said.
The leader let out a dry laugh. “Heh…… Are you some noble lady from the capital?”
“I’m an imperial inspector.”
The leader’s face went blank. “An…… inspector?”
“Yes.”
“……Ah.”
His reaction was delayed. So was his fear, and his understanding. And that told me everything.
Someone directly connected to the imperial Inspectorate? No. A messenger for some powerful figure in the imperial family? Also no. At the very least, he wasn’t in a position to see the faces of the powerful and act on their orders.
Ah, damn it. A useless bastard.
I took a step into the cell. “The orders you received were to disrupt the Ramal transport route. That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
“Were there any merchant groups you were supposed to avoid?”
“What?”
“Like, don’t touch the big ones.”
“……Nobody said anything like that.” The leader frowned. “Why are you asking me that? We were just told to block the road, so we blocked it.”
“Just like that?”
“Rob whoever passed by, scare the carriages so they couldn’t travel, sit on the path.”
“You didn’t know who would be passing?”
“How would I?”
Useless. Completely useless.
Heat suddenly flared in my head. “…But why does this bandit bastard have such a foul mouth?”
At my sudden crude words, the leader’s eyes wavered slightly. I poured a good potion onto my shoe. Then I pressed my foot firmly against the bandit leader’s leg.
“……Sorry, a-agh!!!”
For a while, the basement was filled with the leader’s screams and the sound of burning flesh.
“That’s enough,” Sera said. “This man is not the center. He doesn’t even seem to be on the periphery.”
“……Seems that way.”
With that, we left the cell with nothing to show for it.
A few days later, news arrived that another noble territory had suffered logistics disruptions due to bandits. After reading the report, I was left speechless for a long while.