The Second Outing (1)
The Second Outing (1)
It was just as I expected.
The black knight I was tracking scaled the city wall without meeting any resistance.
Stepping on the wall's protrusions, he climbed to the top, passed right by the guards, and leaped down to the other side.
The soldiers guarding the wall ignored him as he passed right by, acting as if they hadn't seen a thing.
I scaled the wall just like the black knight before me.
Once again, the soldiers feigned ignorance.
Instead, I made sure to memorize the face of every single soldier who turned a blind eye to me.
I let it slide for now, since I was busy, but if all else failed later, I planned to submit an anonymous tip about them.
"Uh, the guy who climbed over after him seemed to be wearing different clothes..."
"Don't worry about it. Things are already a tangled mess right now. If we start questioning every little thing, we'll only make a bigger scene."
"Seriously, why are those kingdom knight bastards making such a fuss anyway?"
"They're the Royal Knights, after all. They're nobles with inherited abilities, so they must have sharp eyes."
"...But his clothes definitely looked similar to that academy student who came with the knights."
One of the soldiers found my clothes suspicious, but in the end, I managed to scale the wall just like the black knight before me.
The black knight crossed the wall and entered the city.
In the dark of night, the streets were deserted.
Despite all the commotion at the wall, there were no soldiers patrolling the night streets, and the knight ran swiftly through the empty streets.
Thanks to the deserted streets, I was able to tail him with ease.
The knight ran through the back alleys as if he'd mapped out the route beforehand, while I followed behind, leaping across the rooftops.
Perhaps suspecting he might be followed, the knight occasionally took detours, looping around or doubling back along his route.
But he failed to spot me as I lay flat on the rooftops.
After taking all those precautions, the place the knight finally reached was a shabby inn.
He knocked on the back door of a spacious but dilapidated two-story building. Someone inside checked on him through a peephole before opening the door.
The knight went inside, and I lay on the roof of the building opposite, keeping watch on the inn until dawn.
Thirteen in total. That was the number of knights in black-painted armor who had arrived at the inn.
A few of them had gashes in their armor, suggesting they had been in combat, while some appeared to be severely wounded.
Those who entered the building did not come back out.
It didn't seem like there was a secret passage. On top of that, people were gathered in the inn's basement.
This was undoubtedly the gathering place of the black knights—no, the conspirators plotting to kidnap the Grand Archduchess.
As the sun began to rise, I returned to the guard post.
I had achieved all of today's objectives.
I had reduced the number of knights crossing the border and identified their gathering point.
It was a pity, but this was enough for today.
Even now, things were precarious. Stirring up any more trouble might ruin the plan.
When I returned before the sun had fully risen, the knights welcomed me warmly.
They all seemed to have been deeply worried.
After I had leaped down from the wall, the other sleeping knights had rushed out as well.
It seemed some of the knights who rushed out had jumped down from the wall after hearing about my situation.
While searching the area in front of the wall, they had found the corpses of the black knights instead of me, and they were debating whether to send someone to the royal palace out of concern for my safety.
"We were worried sick, thinking you were dead. There were imperial knight corpses scattered all over the place, but you were nowhere to be found."
The knights seemed to have realized that I was the one who had killed the black knights.
Well, unless a passing Hero had dealt with them, there was no one else who could have killed them besides me, the one who had leaped over the wall.
If there were knights secretly trying to cross the border from the Empire in black-painted armor, they could only be imperial knights.
I had alerted them to the imperial knights crossing the border and had even slain some of them myself.
None of the knights here would dislike a reserve knight who had achieved such a feat.
"Seriously, if you had received other orders, you should have told us beforehand so we wouldn't misunderstand."
"Exactly. Because of that, we ended up nagging a hard-working knight."
'No, I'm pretty sure I told you beforehand.'
I had explained it properly, but it was the knights in front of me who hadn't listened.
Still, it was an understandable situation, and since my own hands weren't entirely clean either, I kept my mouth shut.
I hadn't received any other orders, and up until a moment ago, I had abandoned my post.
Though I had done it for the sake of the Duchy and the Kingdom, it wasn't proper conduct in a military that operated on a strict chain of command.
It was nowhere near as bad as the soldiers who had turned a blind eye to the imperial knights passing by.
I had laid out plans for other matters, but I was at a loss as to what to do about those collaborators.
As a citizen of the Kingdom, I wondered whether it was appropriate for me to interfere and speak up, and even if I did, whom I should report it to.
There was a high chance that poking around carelessly would only bring me a massive headache.
Thus, I set the matter of the soldiers aside for now. There were far more urgent things to deal with.
As day broke, the border guard post was thrown into absolute chaos.
It was an unprecedented incident in which a massive group had attempted to cross the border.
And they weren't ordinary smugglers, either, but armored border trespassers at the knight level.
Several of those attempting to cross had died, while some had managed to scale the wall in the midst of the chaos.
The biggest issue in all this was that the ones who had uncovered the plot and killed the black-armored knights were the knights dispatched from the Carlos Kingdom.
Scribes from the administration and knights from the royal palace took statements from the on-duty soldiers in a manner that felt more like an interrogation.
The Kingdom knights and I also had to report multiple times.
Fortunately, the knights covered up everything I had done.
They seemed to view me as some sort of spy who had arrived on a secret mission.
Thanks to that, no knight bothered me afterward.
But if the lie I told were ever exposed, I could be thrown straight into prison for deceiving my superiors.
'I must remember to tell the Princess about this.'
The Princess was the only one I could rely on.
Thus, a chaotic day passed.
The scribes from the administration returned to draft their reports, and the knights from the royal palace took the corpses away.
We and the soldiers returned to our original units. Among the soldiers who returned safely were those who had let the knights pass.
The day after things finally returned to normal.
I was recalled to the royal palace under 'the Princess's orders.'
It was because of the promise I had made to Princess Aisha when I insisted on going to the border guard post instead of serving as her escort.
The promise was to return and escort her under special circumstances. Today was precisely such a circumstance—the day of the Princess's outing.
For some reason, the Kingdom knights were once again ordered not to leave the guard post, but I rushed to the royal palace first thing in the morning to escort the Princess on her outing.
At the same time.
In the basement of the inn, they were double-checking whether to proceed with the operation as planned.
"Will this be all right? Some knights failed to join us, contrary to our expectations."
At the woman's words, the mercenary leader Ensio replied.
"There is no problem. It's not as if the knights are participating in this task anyway. We will perform our duties perfectly, even on behalf of the knights."
"The security might have tightened."
The woman worried that the escort would be more stringent because of the commotion at the wall, but Ensio instead showed confidence.
"It will be even more effective if we beat down all those escorts. I will bring more men. That way, Vid can make an even more spectacular entrance."
At Ensio's mention of Vid, the woman nodded.
"Very well. Then we shall proceed with the operation as planned. However, make sure they do not get too worked up. Everyone seems agitated because of the fallen knights."
"Yes, I will be careful."
The woman's final warning did not seem to register with Ensio.
Ensio bowed to the woman and strode energetically out of the room.
Though only a few days had passed, it felt like a long time since I had last seen the Duchy's royal palace.
Standing beside the carriages in front of the palace, I stared blankly at the beautiful structure.
The first to emerge was Senior Havier. Perhaps because he had been staying in the royal palace, his face was glowing.
As soon as he saw me standing by the carriage, he ran straight over.
"Hey, what on earth happened?"
He must have heard about what happened at the wall as well.
Leaving out my own exploits, I told him what had happened two nights ago.
"Whoa! I should have been there with you."
He looked incredibly disappointed at my words.
"Instead of escorting the Princess?"
"...No, not that."
But he shook his head at my follow-up question.
He seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed his stay at the palace.
"It's Young Lord Alex! I heard the news!"
The next to emerge after Senior Havier was Balea.
Dressed in a radiant gown, she flashed a meaningful smile at me.
Fortunately, I didn't have to explain what happened at the wall all over again.
Senior Havier eagerly told Balea the story on my behalf.
But Balea didn't seem to believe him.
After listening to his entire explanation, she approached me and whispered in a low voice.
"You have to tell me everything later."
To secure her help in the future, I would have to tell Balea at least some of it.
Just how much should I reveal?
My head began to throb.
There was one more person I had to worry about besides her.
The Princess approached the carriage alongside the Grand Archduchess.
Dressed in bright outing attire, the two of them seemed to be eagerly anticipating today's excursion.
The Grand Archduchess looked delighted to go out with the Princess, and the Princess was... probably glaring because of me.
"We almost couldn't go out because of the commotion two days ago. It's only because the Princess kept insisting on going that we're able to leave like this."
Even without Balea whispering beside me, the Princess was already glaring daggers at me.
It seemed a significant part of the reason the Princess was going out was indeed because of me.
Standing before me, the Princess spoke in a quiet voice.
"You must explain properly what happened. I've been hearing strange rumors since yesterday."
Yikes. Had the report already reached her?
Then again, this dispatch class was a journey meant to accompany the Princess.
Since I had used the Princess as an excuse, there was no way a report wouldn't have reached her.
"Yes, I will explain it clearly."
At my reply, the Princess nodded, while the Grand Archduchess watched the two of us with a curious expression.
Fortunately, the events of a few days ago had been wrapped up nicely, and I had plenty of excuses, so I wasn't too worried.
Still, there were quite a few things I had to gloss over.
I could only hope that today's events would go smoothly so I wouldn't have to tell as many lies.
After everyone boarded, the carriage set off.
The group heading out was similar to the one before I died.
Senior Havier had been added, and just like before, the Kingdom's knights could not participate.
I deliberately refrained from questioning the fact that the Kingdom's knights were unable to move.
For the Grand Archduchess's heart to be moved, her outing had to unfold exactly as it did before my death.