A Single Choice
The next day.
We boarded a carriage bound for the Imperial Palace in the capital.
It would take half a day to reach the capital. Having set out early in the morning, we would arrive before the sun hung overhead.
Today's schedule was simple: arrive, meet the Crown Prince for a meal, stop by the gardens in the afternoon, then return home.
The weather was perfectly clear. The gray sky that had been dumping snow day after day had cleared at last, and for the first time in a long while the heavens were blue. Ania seemed to like it — she gazed out the window, humming softly to herself.
"Are you enjoying yourself?"
"Of course. Absolutely."
Seeing Ania looking forward to a date for the first time in ages brought a small smile to my face — but only for a moment. The uneasy feeling returned, and my foot started tapping again.
Why on earth did the Crown Prince invite us…?
Ever since Eldrigon said he would invite us to a meal, a strange anxiety had taken root. An instinctive unease I couldn't explain.
Of course, Eldrigon Leonhart had a personal friendship with Ania, so inviting her wasn't strange. But this invitation was nominally for me — to commend me for capturing the black mage Yuren in the Brontë Territory.
Was there really a special reason, though, to invite the son of a count family — and not even a particularly distinguished one like the Radners — to the Imperial Palace just for catching a single criminal?
I knew the Crown Prince had some interest in me. As the husband of a little sister he cherished, he would naturally worry and take an interest. But that interest should center on Ania; I should be secondary.
That was how it ought to be… yet I couldn't shake the feeling that Eldrigon's attention was fixed on me.
"Is something worrying you?"
"No. It's nothing."
As I sat lost in thought, Ania leaned her shoulder lightly against my arm and asked. The early spring breeze through the carriage window stirred her golden hair, carrying a sweet fragrance with it.
Ania smiled lightly.
"You don't need to worry. Big Brother Eldrigon isn't a scary person."
"I know that, but…."
Eldrigon clearly held goodwill toward me. That much was certain. I was confident he wouldn't threaten me in any way.
But Eldrigon was clever and wise. He saw through people's hearts, seemed to perceive things others couldn't, and thought ahead of what others hadn't even considered. So I couldn't read even an inch of his thoughts. That alone was what I feared.
"Is this man certain?"
"Yes. He is."
At the same hour, in the capital of Calcedbar, within the Imperial Palace of the Empire.
Leaning slantwise against a sunlit window, Eldrigon Leonhart looked over a document and let out a small sigh.
"It matches Yuren's statement completely."
"I see… Did you use interrogation magic?"
"Yes, we did."
"The result?"
"It is the truth."
Eldrigon set the document lightly on the desk. Looking at the face and name at the top of the page, he closed his eyes for a moment and sank into thought.
He deliberated. What choice was the one he ought to make? But no matter how hard he thought, Eldrigon could not tell what the right choice was.
"Investigate once more."
In the end, all he could do was defer the decision.
"Your Highness. No matter how many times we check, the result is the same."
"Even so — just once more. Please, Gerard."
At the Crown Prince's earnest expression, Gerard let out a heavy breath as if he had no choice, and bowed his head.
"…As you command."
After Gerard left, Eldrigon picked up the document from the desk and looked at it again. He wanted to believe he'd misread it… wanted to believe it was wrong… but no matter how many times he looked, it was the same.
The identity of the one who had threatened Edward and Ania from behind Yuren was…
Edward Radner's half-brother, the bastard son of the Radner family.
"Yohan Radner…."
A man who possessed enormous wealth through business, yet no one knew the nature of that business — which had made him a suspect. And now Yuren's confession had laid out perfect evidence.
The man who had been selling drugs in the underworld and plunging the Empire into chaos… was none other than Yohan Radner.
He had asked for re-verification out of a desire to deny it, but Eldrigon already knew. No matter how many times they re-verified, the culprit was Yohan Radner.
Interrogation magic could perfectly distinguish truth from falsehood. Before that accuracy, not a shred of falsehood could exist.
"Hmm…."
All the evidence was in place. He need only go and arrest him. Lock him in the deep underground dungeon and make him repent his crimes. But if he arrested him, his identity would inevitably be exposed.
The fact that the man who had secretly distributed drugs through the Empire's underworld was Yohan Radner — a bastard of the Radner family — would become known throughout the Empire.
If that happened….
"The Radner family will never climb out of the pit of dishonor."
Ania, married to Edward, would suffer the same.
Eldrigon leaned his head against the office window and closed his eyes. Just thinking about it made his head throb.
The Empire's justice and peace… and the family of the little sister he cherished most, and her husband…
Neither was something Eldrigon could give up. But with his own power he could not save both — so he had to choose one.
Outside the window, the Brontë family carriage began to come into view. Eldrigon drew a deep breath, straightened his clothes and hair, then crumpled the document on the desk with both hands.
"Hoo…."
He had to make a single choice.
As the Crown Prince of the Empire… or as Eldrigon Leonhart, who cherished Ania Brontë…
"Ania, it's been so long! Edward, thank you for coming as well!"
After arriving at the Imperial Palace and undergoing a body search, we headed to Eldrigon's reception room. Eldrigon greeted us with a bright expression.
After a light embrace to mark the reunion, Eldrigon started toward the dining room before anyone could speak.
"You haven't eaten yet, have you? Let's have a meal first."
It was the same during the meal. He welcomed us throughout with an attitude of pure gladness, and mid-meal he even brought up the matter of Yuren to properly credit my achievement — never forgetting the courtesies.
Yet none of it felt calculated. Eldrigon Leonhart was simply that kind of man. Born the Emperor's son, raised from the start as the man who would one day lead the Empire. Every action that looked like aristocratic etiquette came as naturally to him as breathing.
So any effort to find an answer to my uneasy intuition was wasted.
"How is married life? Is Edward treating you well?"
"Yes, of course. He treats me better than I could ask for."
"I'm glad. It seems the advice I gave you worked a little."
The meal ended amid small talk, and even during tea with dessert I couldn't read any particular sign from Eldrigon.
It made me wonder if I'd simply been imagining things. Eldrigon was progressive enough to be the first in the Empire to recognize the usefulness of flintlock guns — so perhaps he simply didn't think rank needed to matter in personal friendships.
But when the meal was over and we were returning to the reception room, Eldrigon stopped walking, lightly put an arm around Ania's shoulders, and said:
"Ania, go on ahead to the reception room. There's an important matter I'd like to discuss with Edward for a moment."
Ania nodded without comment and headed for the reception room with the knights. Eldrigon tilted his head as if to say, follow me.
The place we arrived at was his office. Bookshelves lined both sides; a red carpet stretched in a straight line across the floor. At the end stood a raised dais with a desk, and a long window behind it. A luxurious, immaculate office.
Eldrigon walked ahead, sat at the desk, and by then his expression had turned serious as he looked at me.
"Edward."
He opened his mouth heavily and called my name.
"Yes, Your Highness."
I bowed my head in reply.
And in that moment, I understood why Eldrigon had called me.
The contents of the novel I'd read three years ago — something I'd forgotten for a while — suddenly came flooding back.
"About your brother Yohan… do you know anything about the business he's supposedly running?"
"Yes…."
"So you already knew."
Yohan Radner's arrest. And… the crisis of the Radner family.
"I won't assume you stood by knowing of Yohan's deeds. You simply couldn't lay a hand on him, I expect."
Eldrigon stroked his chin and asked,
"What do you want to do? Should I bury this case for your sake… or should I arrest Yohan Radner for the future of the Empire?"
If Yohan were caught, the Radner family would take a heavy blow. A drug dealer emerging from a noble house was a dishonor beyond imagination.
Even so….
"The future of the Empire, Your Highness."
"I thought you'd say that."
This was the right choice.