Chapter 22: Leave It to Me, All Right?
"Hoo... That’s it for today. Let’s continue the rest with individual training."
Adelia wiped the sweat from her brow with a towel.
"Thank you!"
The White Night Knights all bowed their heads in unison.
Their eyes held sincere admiration.
In addition to her beautiful appearance, Adelia possessed a character worthy of respect.
She never made excuses, never compromised with injustice, and never lost her sense of honor, no matter the circumstances.
She was the very model of a knight.
How could anyone who walked the path of knighthood not admire her?
And yet, when she met the gazes of her own subordinates, all she could manage was a bitter smile.
It felt as though a heavy boulder were pressing down on one side of her chest.
Kael.
It was a name that had kept circling through her mind lately.
Just thinking of it brought a wave of guilt crashing over her.
Kael was the one who deserved praise.
The man who had thrown himself into danger to protect the Empire as a mere guard.
Every honor and every word of praise should have been his.
But reality was different.
He had been stationed in the imperial capital, only to be banished to Nox, a city everyone called a den of criminals.
I underestimated the Crown Prince far too much.
She was so disgusted with her own complacency she could have spat.
The Empire’s real power had already passed into the Crown Prince’s hands. He was, in every practical sense, the current emperor.
The emperor himself was in a state where it would not have been strange for his breath to stop at any moment.
The present Empire was balanced like a house built atop cracked bedrock, dangerous and unstable.
She wanted to do something for the country, anything at all, but Adelia was effectively pinned in place.
One of the Seven Deadly Sins had attacked the capital.
The incident had sent shockwaves through the Empire.
Without Kael, it was impossible to even estimate how much damage they would have suffered.
After that incident, Adelia and the White Night Knights did not leave the capital. They had also intensified their training, preparing for attacks that might come at any time.
...Is this really what it means to act for the Empire?
The knights and the citizens praised her as a "noble knight," looking at her with reverent eyes, but her own heart was stained with guilt.
A stabbing headache throbbed behind her eyes.
Adelia frowned.
"Commander, is something troubling you...?"
A female knight’s worried gaze settled on her.
Adelia hesitated for a moment, then offered a gentle smile.
"...No. I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately."
"I see... This may sound presumptuous, but sometimes clearing your head helps. You always used to say that, Commander. When your thoughts get too crowded, even the tip of your sword starts to waver. Hehe..."
At the knight’s words, Adelia’s eyes widened.
For a moment, it felt as though she had been struck on the head.
Too many thoughts only clouded the truth. She had forgotten that simple fact for a while.
"...Thank you. That really helped."
"R-really?"
"Yes. It did."
Adelia smiled softly and gently patted the knight on the head.
That night, Adelia went to see a man.
"Wow, I never thought you’d be the one to come looking for me."
Kaiser Baren, the Knight of Red Flame.
Known as the "Red Storm," he was one of the Imperial 5 Swords and the most belligerent, rough-tempered man among them.
Baren was always at the center of controversy within the Empire.
No one doubted his skill, but for a knight, he was far too wild and savage.
Rather than valuing the honor of knighthood, he was a man who simply delighted in battle and struggle.
Adelia had come to him precisely because of that.
"First, I apologize for dropping by so suddenly."
"Don’t worry about it. I don’t really care about that sort of thing. More importantly, I’ve got one thing I’m curious about..."
Baren curled one corner of his mouth.
"What the hell did you come looking for me about? Let’s be honest, we’re not exactly close enough to sit around chatting and laughing together, are we?"
An unrefined, rough, feral aura.
It felt as though she were staring at a storm in human form.
A normal person might have been so overpowered by his presence they would have pissed themselves.
But Adelia received that pressure without so much as flinching.
She nodded and spoke.
"I came because there is something I need to tell you."
"Go on, then."
"Before that, I have a request."
"A request?"
"Yes. I’d like us to keep the conversation we’re about to have between the two of us."
At her request for secrecy, Baren stroked his chin and then nodded.
"Fine. We’ll do that."
"I know who killed Harkan of Wrath."
...Twitch.
Baren’s eyebrow twitched, then his eyes narrowed.
"So that’s how it is. You knew all along and were pretending not to?"
"I had my reasons."
"Reasons?"
"Yes. The one who killed Harkan was a guard from the Imperial Guard."
"A guard? You’re telling me some ordinary guard killed that monster?"
"Yes. It may be hard to believe, but it’s the undeniable truth."
Baren’s gaze grew steadily more savage. A flood of murderous intent threatened to swallow Adelia whole.
Yet her expression remained utterly calm.
He watched her as though sizing up prey, then snorted and let the killing intent recede.
"Fine. Let’s say everything you just said is true. Then why bring up something you’ve been keeping buried all this time?"
"Because I trust you, Baren."
"Trust? Hah. Coming from the woman who’s been spouting shameless lies, you’ve got a lot of nerve talking about trust. This is ridiculous."
"As you’ve surely felt yourself, the atmosphere in the Empire is anything but normal right now. Especially..."
"Enough."
Baren raised a hand and cut her off.
The smile vanished from his face.
"You realize what you’re about to say? Can you handle the consequences?"
"Whether I can handle them or not doesn’t matter. I judged it something that had to be done."
Baren frowned.
That rigid, unyielding posture. It was exactly the sort of thing he hated about Adelia.
"So what do you want to say to me?"
"The name of that guard is Kael. He’s in Nox right now. Would you be willing to deliver this to him on my behalf?"
"...And the price? You’re not thinking of using me for free, are you?"
"At a later date, I will grant you one favor."
"Hmm. That’s not exactly a favorable bargain, but..."
Baren twisted his mouth into a grin.
"Fine. I’ll do it. This once."
* * *
Inside the office, silence reigned.
The imperial Crown Prince, Cassian, sat at his desk and calmly turned through a stack of documents.
A mountain of papers stamped with golden seals was piled before him, as always.
Cassian silently processed the enormous workload.
Then, all at once, one document caught his eye.
Cassian slowly picked it up.
Guard Kael, Third District Unit, Capital Guard.
Estimated age: twenty-four.
Place of origin: unknown.
Transferred into the Capital Guard Auxiliary roughly one year ago.
Career history and family background prior to joining the Guard: entirely unknown.
Physical ability and combat sense are rated exceptionally high, even taking into account that he is merely an auxiliary guard.
In particular, his hand-to-hand combat training level is far from ordinary, and despite having no record of formal military education, he possesses practical battlefield response ability.
He is uncooperative with the hierarchical commands of his superiors, but his operational performance is outstanding.
Four months ago, he single-handedly subdued a B-rank wanted criminal and was later awarded for his merit.
No unusual traits in his personality, though he occasionally displays extreme behavior and makes extreme judgments.
It was the personal file of the guard named Kael, whom Cassian had sent to Nox.
No matter how many times he looked at it, the information on the page seemed far removed from ordinary.
The age was only an estimate, his origins were unknown, and even his history before joining the Guard was vague.
He was an individual with a suspiciously obscure background in every respect.
But precisely for that reason, he was intriguing.
What sort of path would he take in Nox, that city of criminals?
This should be interesting.
A faint smile touched Cassian’s lips.
* * *
Nox was in the middle of a period of upheaval.
Iron Thorn and Bipolar.
The two massive forces that had divided the city between them collapsed all at once.
Nox was unlike any ordinary city.
It had earned the disgraceful nickname of a "crime city," a place where countless criminals gathered, and its order was maintained under the management of those criminal organizations.
And then the organizations that had maintained that order disappeared.
It was as if the tiger had vanished from the tiger’s den.
Under normal circumstances, the city should have been swallowed by chaos.
"You’ve been working hard, Boss!"
"You’ve been working hard!"
"...Yeah. Make sure you all eat."
...But contrary to expectations, Nox returned to stability with shocking speed.
The reason was simple.
The appearance of a terrifying new boss named Kael.
A man dressed in a guard captain’s uniform, but ruling like the head of a criminal organization.
That was how the citizens of Nox saw Kael.
"...Is this really right?"
"Don’t ask me. I don’t know either."
It was a somewhat different form from a normal city, but Nox was adapting to the new order at a remarkable pace.
Kael had no intention of tearing the city apart and rebuilding it from scratch. There was already a system the two criminal organizations had shed blood and sweat to create, and there was no reason not to use it. He discarded what was useless, recycled what was worth keeping, and established a new order.
Even evil laws are laws, aren’t they?
...Still, this is a bit of a problem.
It looked as though Kael had unified the criminal organizations himself.
That was not exactly desirable. A major reorganization seemed necessary.
At this rate, I should probably increase the Guard’s manpower too.
Of course, too many people would also be troublesome, but the current Guard was nowhere near enough to maintain public security in the city.
Lost in thought as he walked down the street, Kael came to a stop.
"Luke."
"...Yes."
"Should we hire some people?"
"...All of a sudden?"
"Come to think of it, we don’t have enough guards. We can’t keep surviving on thugs forever."
"That’s true, but... how do you plan to recruit them?"
"Why are you asking me that?"
"...Pardon? What do you mean...?"
At Kael’s look, Luke’s expression stiffened.
"Then leave it to me, all right?"
Pat, pat.
He tossed every annoying matter onto Luke’s shoulders, and Kael headed toward the mess hall with a light step.