Audience
Audience
I had no way of knowing what decision the Grand Archduchess would make after her outing.
But I had done my best to ensure she would make the best possible decision. Her choice was now out of my hands.
Besides, now that I had eliminated the most troublesome person, it was time to take care of the remaining matters.
Before returning to the border guard, I met with one more person.
It was someone I absolutely did not want to see.
He hated me too, but I hated him even more. After all, he was someone who had tried to kill me.
But I had no choice but to meet Viscount Daniel.
"I didn't expect you to come looking for me. What is it?"
I hadn't expected to seek him out, either. But I couldn't think of anyone else.
"A few days ago, when the commotion broke out at the border, I saw imperial knights scaling the walls. There, I..."
I told him what had happened atop the wall on the day of the border disturbance.
I told him everything, from the knights in black-painted armor scaling the wall to the soldiers pretending not to see them.
"...Pathetic as it is, this has nothing to do with me. Shouldn't you report it to your senior knights or the Duchy officials?"
The Viscount listened to me with amusement, but didn't show much interest.
He seemed to think there was nothing in it for him.
If that were all there was to it, it wouldn't have helped him at all.
What I wanted to tell him was what had happened next.
"I managed to track down the knights who scaled the wall. I know where they're hiding."
When I said that, the Viscount's expression changed.
"Is that true?"
"Yes. I got back late because of it, but fortunately, the other knights let it slide."
"I heard you dealt with those trying to cross the border. Was the person you pursued one of them?"
The Viscount knew more about what had happened that day than I'd expected.
I'd heard from the knights who went to the border guard that they had nothing to do with the First or Second Princes.
Still, it seemed that information was reaching the Viscount to some extent.
"Yes. Fortunately, I was able to tail them without being noticed."
"So you know where the imperial knights who secretly crossed the border are gathered..."
At my words, he fell into deep thought.
His demeanor was completely different from just moments ago. He seemed to have realized how he could profit from what I'd told him.
I gave his greed a gentle nudge.
"Their swordsmanship was similar to that of the people who attacked the Grand Archduchess. I don't know imperial swordsmanship, but there's a good chance the knights who crossed the border that night are working with the ones who attacked her."
There was no way mercenary swordsmanship and knightly swordsmanship were the same, and Vid's swordsmanship was different from theirs as well. But no one else knew that.
In any case, it was certain they were working together. I had nothing to hold me back.
Besides, even if what I'd said wasn't true, it didn't matter to the Viscount.
With his skills as the Second Prince's confidant and strategist, he could easily link the two incidents and make it a fact.
After pondering for a long while, the Viscount nodded.
"I understand now why you came to find me, and why you started by telling me about the soldiers who turned a blind eye to the knights."
The Viscount narrowed his eyes and glared at me.
"You mean you had no one else to report this information to? With soldiers this corrupt, even if you told someone else, it wouldn't reach the top."
"There was no one I could trust."
At my words, the Viscount looked satisfied for the first time.
It wasn't a lie.
There was definitely no one I could trust. Just as he said, there was no way to know who the informant on the Duchy's side might be.
The knights who let the soldiers go, and the scribes who released the mercenaries and Vid—all of them were hard to trust.
But I couldn't simply tell the Grand Archduchess through the Princess or Senior Havier, nor could I ask Senior Benjamin.
Telling the Viscount in front of me had a better chance of succeeding than telling Senior Benjamin.
But more than anything, the Viscount was in the middle of negotiations with the Duchy.
Under the Second Prince's secret orders, he was meeting directly with the Grand Prince.
To get anywhere, there was no one else I could trust but him—someone who could speak directly to the Grand Prince.
And he needed a good bargaining chip, like the one I'd just offered him.
"Very well. Tell me where they are, and I'll report it to the Duchy."
After much deliberation, he decided to use my story as a bargaining chip.
"Thank you."
It was a relief. Honestly, without him, I had no other option.
"You're smarter than I thought. I don't dislike guys like you. I'll keep you in mind even after we return to the Kingdom."
I bowed my head at his words.
For someone who used to hate me, that must have been a grand compliment. But I wasn't pleased in the slightest.
No, honestly, I felt a little sorry for him.
With what I had done and the information I'd just shared, it was certain these negotiations would end successfully.
That was why the Viscount was so delighted.
But I still hadn't forgotten that he'd tried to kill me.
I had no intention of simply watching him succeed.
Even if the negotiations went well and he returned to the Kingdom with the results, they would mean absolutely nothing if the man himself didn't make it back alive.
The road from the Duchy to the Kingdom was very long. No one could predict what might happen along the way.
I gave the Viscount the location of the inn where the knights were gathered, as well as the number of black knights assembled there.
Looking confident, the Viscount headed toward the royal palace.
This time, I returned straight to the border guard without stopping anywhere else.
The knights were astonished by what had happened during the Princess and the Grand Archduchess's outing, but that incident was only a small part of everything that had unfolded today.
It had been an incredibly long day.
After returning, I collapsed into sleep as if I were losing consciousness.
After that, ordinary days passed.
I spent my time standing guard atop the wall, listening to the knights' chatter, and occasionally running errands.
Nothing special happened. There were no accidents, and no one tried to cross the border in secret.
The problem was that I hadn't heard any news of the black knights gathered at the inn being arrested, either.
Instead, a visitor came looking for me.
It was a knight sent from the royal palace.
"His Majesty the Grand Prince summons you."
"Pardon?"
The look on my face as I asked must have been incredibly stupid.
Fortunately, the other knights didn't realize the Grand Prince had summoned me.
Hearing that I was being summoned to the palace, they probably all assumed the Princess had called for me.
I double-checked my Academy uniform and followed the knight to the palace.
When I arrived, a noble who appeared to be the chief steward meticulously explained palace etiquette to me.
Fortunately, the Duchy's court etiquette was almost identical to that of the Carlos Kingdom. Having experienced it once in the Kingdom, I was able to learn it easily.
Meeting the Queen and meeting the Grand Prince were entirely different matters.
On my way to the audience chamber, I didn't run into anyone I knew.
I couldn't see the Princess, the Grand Archduchess, or even Balea.
Guided by the chief steward, I arrived at the audience chamber shortly afterward.
The massive doors swung open, and I stepped into a grand hall.
No one else was in the magnificent audience chamber.
There was only one person seated on the dais far ahead.
A robust, middle-aged man wearing a crown.
That intimidating—or rather, charismatic-looking—man was the Grand Prince of this Duchy.
"I greet the Grand Prince. I am Alex."
I placed a hand over my chest and saluted him as a knight.
The Grand Prince stared intently at me.
There was no murderous intent in his gaze, but with his massive build and stern face fixed on me, my mana felt as if it might flare up on its own.
Suppressing my mana with all my might, I listened as the Grand Prince spoke.
"So you are the son of Duke Gracia."
"Yes."
"And an illegitimate son, at that."
I missed my chance to respond to the Grand Prince's next remark.
"Even if you are the Princess's escort, I have no reason to summon a student of the Royal Academy."
That was exactly what I was most curious about.
Why on earth had the Grand Prince summoned me?
Neither the escorting knight nor the chief steward had answered my question.
Honestly, they hadn't seemed to know, either.
"But I heard an interesting story."
So what, exactly, was this interesting story?
"During the negotiations with the Second Prince, Viscount Daniel brought up your name."
Pardon? The Viscount said what?
"He claimed you were the apprentice knight who informed him of the hiding place of the imperial knights who had snuck into the Duchy."
Why had the Viscount brought up my name?
"He claimed he was the one who ordered you to find out, but it's not as if I'm ignorant of the Kingdom's situation. Why would the Second Prince's confidant entrust such a task to the Princess's escort?"
Ah, I think I understood why the Viscount had brought up my name.
The Viscount had dragged me into this to prepare for the possibility that things might go wrong.
If a problem arose, he would blame me; if things went well, he would take credit for giving the orders.
Unfortunately for him, the Grand Prince knew the circumstances in our Kingdom all too well.
"And you're no ordinary escort, either. You're the escort whom the Queen herself personally enrolled in the Academy."
No, he didn't just know the situation well; he knew it inside out.
"You've caused quite a few interesting incidents in the meantime. Your skills are impressive, too. It seems you were also the one who dealt with those imperial knight bastards who died outside the border recently."
I thought only the knights knew about that. Had he figured it out just by looking at the corpses?
I was starting to get a little scared.
Surely, he didn't know that I'd killed Vid and hidden his body, right?
"The information you provided is good, but it's difficult to just sweep them away recklessly. This isn't something a citizen of the Kingdom like you should hear, but there are more than a few bastards entangled in this. Besides, there was also business to conduct with the Empire."
The very reason I'd told the Viscount was that so many people were entangled in this.
By the way, what was this "business" with the Empire?
Surely, it wasn't a request for support in becoming the next king of the Kingdom, was it?
"But it seems what those imperial bastards want is different from what I had in mind. How dare they run amok in my country, among my people? Do those imperial bastards care more about my daughter than the Kingdom?"
The Grand Prince grimaced. An even more terrifying aura than before emanated from him.
At any rate, it seemed the Grand Prince was truly furious.
The incident in the shopping district seemed to have made things far worse than they had been before my death.
And they had even gone so far as to summon knights.
It seemed the changes I had made had only escalated the situation.
"I'll deal with those knight bastards when the time is right, so you, Alex, should focus on other matters."
Other matters? No, more importantly, his tone had suddenly changed.
"Alex, you also know it's impossible for Aisha to take the throne, right?"
Suddenly, the Grand Prince brought up a completely different topic.
"Those piece-of-shit nephews of mine are absolutely not fit to be king."
On top of that, he was badmouthing the princes.
I hadn't said a word so far, but now it was even harder to respond in any way.
"As an illegitimate son, perhaps you can understand. How I feel, being unable to become king simply because I was the younger brother."
No. I don't. And I don't want to know, either.
"Still, since my elder brother hasn't died yet, I plan to wait and see for a bit."
Could you please just keep waiting and seeing forever?
My head was spinning from listening to the Grand Prince ramble on.
This was not the kind of conversation one should have with a mere illegitimate son.
"My disappointment in the Empire is profound after this incident. I feel I must protect my daughter as well. So, when you all return this time, I plan to send my daughter to study abroad in the Kingdom with you."
Wait, that came completely out of nowhere.
But the Grand Prince's words were the best thing I could have hoped to hear.
'Nice!'
I cheered inwardly.
But the Grand Prince's words didn't end there.
And I was fully prepared to do my absolute best to listen to whatever else he had to say.
"Alex, since you're escorting Aisha at the Academy, you can look after my daughter as well while you're at it."
Wait, I take that back.
That was a request too difficult to accommodate.
The Princess alone was exhausting enough to deal with, and now the Grand Archduchess too?
The Grand Prince was clearly aiming for the next throne of the Carlos Kingdom, and yet he wanted me to escort his daughter at the Royal Academy?
I'd always intended to do my best, but this was truly out of the question.
Standing before the Grand Prince, I began to seriously contemplate suicide.