Belin Under Suspicion
After the Emperor left his seat, the members of the Imperial Shadow Group gathered as one, their faces grave in heavy silence. Under the murderous aura Keltazar radiated, those around him could barely breathe, holding still as if their lives depended on it.
For a full ten minutes Keltazar said nothing. Then, slowly, he opened his mouth.
"There's a traitor among the insiders... Which bastard... Just which bastard..."
Keltazar himself had already confirmed the materials spreading across Interrunner. The Red Gate Vortex Annihilation Plan. It was exactly what it sounded like—a simple scheme to use large-scale mana bombs to raze the entire area every twenty-four hours. It was a revolutionary method for wiping out mutant monsters that could not otherwise be handled, and at the same time the most inhuman approach imaginable. Because it meant beheading humans right alongside the monsters.
Keltazar let out a long sigh, with no idea where even to begin containing the damage.
"What leaked is an actual agenda of ours. Anyone who received this document wouldn't be some low-ranking nobody... But then who in the world...?"
Someone who might raise a banner against the Empire. Suddenly Keltazar recalled a conversation he had once shared with Lacart, commander of the Imperial Execution Squad.
— Upper management treats every person like a tool, and that's why things ended up like this. If they'd treated people as people, it never would have gone this far.
The words Lacart had spoken while they discussed the matter of driving Leos out. They had clearly been laced with resentment—resentment that bordered on rebellion against the Emperor.
Impossible. Lacart worked harder than anyone as the Imperial Family's dog. And right at his side sits Paron, the Imperial Family's own spy, as his closest aide. I've never heard a single report of suspicious behavior from either of them.
The Execution Squad had obeyed the Imperial Family like livestock for a very long time, and Lacart had led them all, completing every mission without fail. He was an elite. The man beside him, Paron, was a spy whose weakness the Empire held in its grip. The idea that either of them would betray the Empire was simply unimaginable.
Who is it... Just who...
The problem was that, aside from Execution Squad Commander Lacart, it was difficult to find anyone who both harbored resentment toward the Imperial Family and held a high enough rank to have received the annihilation plan in advance.
No. I've been thinking about this wrong. What if the document was leaked to their subordinates?
The ones who had received the document were the high-ranking commanders, but it was entirely possible that information had leaked to their subordinates while the papers were stored on a Distance device or left in an office. If one considered the possibility of a leak, the first people who ought to be suspected were the members of the Imperial Shadow Group itself.
Keltazar turned a blood-chilling gaze on the Shadow Group operatives and spoke.
"The Imperial Shadow Group was the first to be given the annihilation plan—before anyone else. The reason His Majesty the Emperor pointed at us and raged so fiercely is almost certainly because he suspects the information may have slipped out from among our ranks. Let me say this in advance: I do not trust any of you."
Keltazar drew his sword, raised it high, and swung it toward the chest of the man trembling in front of him.
Slash!
The blade carved through the man's chest, and bright red blood sprayed into the air. The man struck by the sword clutched his torso and writhed in agony. But he did not scream. He knew that any action that further irritated Keltazar would send the next strike straight for his throat.
"Suspicious. Why are you shaking so hard? What is it you're so afraid of?"
"I-I was only... because Lord Keltazar seemed so angry..."
"No. No, that's not it. Could it be that you were the one who smuggled out the information? You're afraid of being found out—isn't that right?"
"Th-that's absurd! I... I am loyal enough to lay down my life gladly for the Execution Squad—how could I ever leak something like—"
"We'll know once we check."
At Keltazar's gesture, the knights nearby closed in at once and began dragging the man away. Even as he was hauled off, the man shrieked in desperation.
"Lo-Lord Keltazar! This is unjust! You know me! Why would I... why would I ever steal that information?!"
Keltazar ignored him completely and issued an order to the knights hauling him away.
"The bastard was trembling abnormally while looking at me. He must know something. Torture him until he talks."
"And if he never talks to the end?"
"Then torture him until he dies. Make it as painful as possible."
"It will be done."
Once the man had been dragged off, the rest of them desperately clutched their own trembling hands. Belin swallowed dryly as she watched the scene.
This is insane... Why in the world...
If one thought about it rationally, the first people to bear responsibility when information leaked would be the Imperial Shadow Group. And yet a member of the Imperial Shadow Group was supposed to have stolen the information—and then simply stayed here instead of fleeing? Unless the person was trying to commit suicide, it made no sense.
A cold assessment suggested it was more reasonable to suspect a traitor on the outside than one on the inside. But Keltazar muttered like a man who had lost his mind.
"His Majesty the Emperor is disappointed in me. He looked at me with the same eyes he uses for the other trash. This cannot be. I devoted my entire life to him... If he casts me aside, I will have nothing left..."
Keltazar began to shed grotesque tears. Whether from his abnormal degree of loyalty or something else, the look the Emperor had given him must have been a tremendous shock.
Belin kept her mouth shut.
Keltazar addressed the members of the Imperial Shadow Group once more.
"Do not rest easy simply because you have not been dragged off yet. Show even the slightest suspicious behavior and I will have you tortured at once. I will torture you again and again until you answer. Even if you beg to die, you will not be allowed to die—you will thrash forever in agony. If you have already betrayed us, then take your own life. If you try to flee, I will chase you into hell itself and make certain you die."
The moment crisis struck, Keltazar began suspecting his own comrades first. Watching him, old memories began to crawl up through Belin unbidden.
"Lord Leos, the settlement this time is short by quite a bit."
"How much?"
"About three hundred gold... There's a discrepancy. If it had been sold at market price, the money wouldn't be missing. Look at the ledger—someone entered a fake market price. It says a ten-gold item was sold for eight gold, but if you check the actual market rate at the time, it's clearly a ten-gold item. And right now the byproduct prices have actually gone up further. There's no way around it—someone quietly pocketed two gold. Looking at the pattern, it seems like quite a lot has been skimmed this way."
"Belin, why are you suspecting Darek?"
"Darek was in charge of disposing of the byproducts, and I've been tracking the market fluctuations consistently. There's no conclusion other than that Darek skimmed it."
"The market price could have shifted suddenly."
"No... Did you not understand what I just explained?"
"Maybe Darek just suddenly wanted to sell cheap to a merchant. And when you're dealing long-term and moving large volumes of byproducts all at once, sometimes selling below list price is actually the better play."
"Lord Leos... are you serious right now? You know that doesn't make sense, right? Dumping a massive stock of byproducts at twenty percent under market? Are you joking? I'll just go check myself how much they actually paid."
"Don't."
Leos had looked at Belin with something like anger, then smoothed his expression and spoke again.
"No matter the situation, you must never suspect your comrades. For people like us who walk the line between life and death, that is the most important thing."
"But... letting something like this slide isn't trusting your comrades—it's just being stupid."
"In human relationships, there are times when you have to be a little stupid. Times when you have to pretend not to know even though you know, and times when you have to accept a loss even though you know it's a loss."
"I find that hard to understand. And that bastard... He was always badmouthing you, Lord Leos—claiming you stole his achievements and so on..."
"If I press Darek on this mistake, what happens to him?"
"It gets reported upstairs, and he'll probably be expelled."
"Right. And then the others start suspecting each other. Wondering if the people who handled disposals before also skimmed money the same way. Once you start suspecting, that's the end. Once relationships go wrong, you can't put them back. Those three hundred gold matter less to me than our members. Darek is my precious disciple too."
Belin simply closed her mouth. She had realized that further words would no longer get through. She gave Leos no answer, turned her back, and headed outside. Toward her retreating figure, Leos spoke once more.
"I'll cover the money myself. Don't say a word—not to the comrades, and not to Darek either."
"Yes. I'll do that."
Once she was back in her room, Belin had thought to herself:
"It's so stupid. Isn't this just being an idiot? Who's going to appreciate you for acting like that? You use people properly when it suits you, you suspect when there's reason to suspect, and you punish when there's reason to punish—that's how a group actually runs. That good-guy act is annoying. Why does he make it look like I'm the only bad person..."
Faced with Leos's one-sided trust, Belin had briefly imagined something. If she ever revealed of her own free will that she was from the Imperial Shadow Group and asked Leos for help... maybe he would accept her? That foolish thought.
But she had only snorted and buried her face in the blanket.
As if. That man would be the same as everyone else.
Watching Keltazar immediately turn suspicion on his own comrades the moment the crisis broke, Belin felt it in her bones: Leos's past behavior had not been foolish at all.
The sensation of being suspected by a superior from the same organization was filthy and sticky.
Without meaning to, Belin looked at Keltazar with a gaze laced with hostility. And his eyes met hers in turn.
In the next instant Keltazar strode quickly over and stopped right in front of her. Belin flinched and averted her gaze. But Keltazar did not miss that fleeting moment. He thrust his face close to hers and whispered coldly.
"Belin. What's with that expression? Why are you making me doubt you?"
Belin's arms began to shake violently as cold sweat broke out across her skin. She had to respond properly. One wrong word here and she too would be dragged away for torture.
"Belin. I'm talking to you. Why are you looking at me with those eyes? Why are you trembling like that?"
Then, quietly, Keltazar began to draw the sword at his waist.