The Audacious Threat Letter
The next morning, the dining hall where the knights had gathered descended into utter chaos.
BANG!
Arthur slammed his fist down on the table.
"Is this lunatic out of his mind? He sent a threat letter?"
"I know, right? Pretty antiquated method, if you ask me."
Arendt, on the other hand, simply responded with his usual air of indifference.
Richt, seated across from Arthur, wore an expression of unmitigated seriousness.
"The Security Department is tracing the sender, but they say his identity can't be determined."
"He even disguised his handwriting, huh? Meticulous bastard. Don't you think that's a lot of effort for a prank?"
Letting the murmur of the knights wash over him, Arendt polished off his breakfast without a trace of hurry. Then he rose from his seat before anyone else had even finished.
Only then did Arthur lift his head. "What, where are you going?"
"Errand for the Commander. See you later."
With that terse reply, Arendt strode straight out of the dining hall.
Their reactions are even more entertaining than I expected.
He discreetly covered his creeping grin with one hand.
If the knights were in this much of an uproar, the other side's response promised to be quite the spectacle as well. After all, they'd probably already figured out who the culprit was.
And Arendt's expectations did not disappoint.
The moment he knocked and opened the door to the conference room, the expressions greeting him were nothing short of a painter's palette. Kendrick was desperately fighting down a laugh that threatened to burst out of him at any second, while Diana pressed her fingers to her temple with an expression too complicated and tangled to describe.
And Laios, his face ten times grimmer than usual, was heaving deep sighs—until he spotted Arendt walking in, at which point he immediately began rummaging through his coat.
"Looking for something, sir?"
"Stomach medicine."
"……"
Truly delightful.
Watching Laios actually fish the pill bottle out of his pocket and down its contents, Arendt felt a satisfaction he had never known before.
"What brings you here?"
"A threat letter arrived at the Neumann Merchant Guild, pfft. And they said…… heh heh."
Kendrick's face had gone beet red from suppressing his laughter, and even as his mouth twisted, he forced himself to continue. "Since you have a, khek-hek, personal acquaintance with Guildmaster Neumann…… we thought you might, keh-heh, know more of the details."
But all that effort proved futile. In the end, Kendrick buried his head in the table with a solid thunk, unable to hold back any longer.
"BAHAHAHAHA! I've served as a knight a long time, but never once in my life have I seen anything like this! HWAHAHAHAHA!"
"Sir Kendrick, this is no laughing matter."
Diana gave him a pointed warning, but the laughter refused to die down. He laughed until tears actually welled in his eyes, and only after a long while did he manage to catch his breath and wipe his face.
"Ah, it's been ages since I laughed like that. So, what exactly is going through your head? Don't tell me you're planning a career change from knight to thief?"
"Heavens, no. My head would leave my shoulders before I got the chance. But as it happens, things have turned out quite entertainingly. A threat letter vowing to steal the jewel, of all things."
At Arendt's shameless shrug, Kendrick doubled over again, wheezing with laughter.
"Naturally, letting the whole Order dissolve into chaos over a prank would be undignified. But we can't simply dismiss it either. His Highness the Crown Prince himself has been put through considerable trouble over a few little notes, after all."
"So that was the goal."
Laios let out a groan that said his head was about to split open. Diana, catching the gist from that one remark, went pale as well.
"That man is a genuine menace."
"What can I say? Being young, he gets to pull stunts like this."
Kendrick wiped away the lingering tears and spoke, his voice still laced with amusement. "No telling who the sender is, but someone clearly wants to drag the Knight Orders into this affair one way or another. Clever, very clever."
"Why? Maybe I really do want to steal the jewel. Or maybe it really is just a prank."
With his hands buried deep in his pockets, Arendt flashed a sly grin. "But we still ought to be careful, don't you think? The whole world knows the Neumann Merchant Guild and the imperial family are on good terms. If we just stood by and did nothing, we'd be called heartless."
"Yes, yes, I understand. In other words, you consider this matter every bit as important as all that. Ha, I really needed that laugh."
Kendrick, finally having mastered himself, drew in a deep breath. Arendt seized the opening to ask, ever so casually:
"And His Highness the Crown Prince?"
"Reportedly quite similar to Sir Kendrick, I'm afraid. That poor aide, Zereon, has his work cut out for him."
After Diana's irritated reply, Laios finally spoke up. "His Highness said the same. It's nothing to make a fuss over, but neither can it simply be brushed aside."
In other words: I'm staying out of it, so you three handle it yourselves.
Cantares, imperial dignity flung to the winds, drummed his fists on the desk and rolled around howling with laughter, while beside him Zereon could only offer a strained, awkward smile.
Small wonder Laios had gone reaching for his stomach medicine the moment he faced those two.
The Crown Prince and the apprentice knight got along a little too well at times.
Throbbing anew at his temples, Laios pressed his fingers hard against them. "In any case, we've decided to increase the security detail. Given the atmosphere, canceling the auction doesn't appear to be an option."
"Poor Baron Cromwell, truly. Trembling under a curse, he journeyed all this way in search of a new owner for the thing, and now this happens. What an unfortunate turn of events."
"Now is not the time for jokes. Once again, the entire Knight Orders are set to dance to this insolent apprentice knight's tune."
As Kendrick chuckled and shook his head in admiration, Diana shot him a sidelong glare. "Well, it's come to this…… you do have a plan in place already, naturally, Sir Arendt?"
"Why would I go to the trouble of making a plan? I'm not involved, remember? Though, as it happens, this is rather convenient timing."
Arendt produced three envelopes from his coat and handed them to the commanders. The seal of the Neumann Merchant Guild was stamped crisply on each one.
"They mentioned they had a few invitations to spare, so I collected them. One companion per invitation, that's the limit. Naturally, mine is separate."
Arendt drew out his own invitation and waved it with a flourish, a bright smile spreading across his face. "Care to join me, if you can spare the time? It would be good to look around—and to reassure Guildmaster Neumann and Baron Cromwell, who must be quaking with anxiety."
"Haah……"
In the end, Diana let out a hollow little laugh and accepted the invitation. "Honestly. What kind of farce is this, all over some child's pranks?"
"Truly…… we live through every experience imaginable."
Kendrick also burst into hearty laughter and took an invitation for himself.
"And you, Commander? Won't you need one?"
"Haah……"
At Arendt's pointed question, Laios exhaled a short sigh and accepted his as well. "You will apologize properly to Guildmaster Neumann."
"Apologize? For what? Unlike you, sir, Guildmaster Neumann is quite the flexible man. Look—he was the first to take action, wasn't he?"
Granted, he must have been dumbfounded at first.
But Neumann had deduced exactly what needed to be done. He'd reported to the Security Department first thing, then personally reached out to the attendees.
He circulated word asking guests to reconsider their attendance in case a dangerous situation arose—and judging from what Arendt had heard, a few had apparently withdrawn. Not that it mattered: anyone who still chose to come was volunteering to brave the risk of their own accord, so Neumann could hardly be blamed later, whatever happened.
Besides, with the rumor now spreading through every corner of the imperial palace, the imperial knights had gained an official justification to meddle, however informal. It aligned precisely with Arendt's intentions.
Turning his invitation over in his hands, Kendrick remarked mischievously, "Since this isn't official duty and we'd be attending 'voluntarily,' I suppose I'll have to file for leave."
"If you mention it to His Highness, he'll probably process it as paid."
"Hm. Three knight commanders alone would be a force no one could afford to ignore."
Add one knight brought along by each of them, and that made eight combat-ready personnel on the spot. Resting her chin on her hand, Diana rolled her eyes over to Arendt.
"And I take it that means you expect the enemy to be no pushover?"
"A tiger hunts a rabbit with its full strength, after all. Oh, and one more thing."
Arendt pulled something out of his pocket and set it on the table where the commanders sat.
Clack.
A clear sound rang out, like pebbles striking one another.
The commanders leaned in to look at what he had laid down: five magic crystals, glittering with a radiant violet light.
Kendrick raised an eyebrow. "Magic crystals. What are these for?"
"Take one each. And Commander Diana, Commander Kendrick—hand the other two to whoever accompanies you. No need to return them, though I'd recommend keeping them on your person the day of the auction."
"Well, I won't refuse at this point…… but I confess I'm curious why." Rolling the crystal this way and that on his palm, Kendrick asked with a puzzled frown. "You're just giving these away? For a mere apprentice knight, isn't that an extravagant gesture?"
"If it bothers you, feel free to use them and return them—with interest. As for why you need them, you'll understand when you get there. Any explanation I gave now would go right over your heads anyway."
"Insufferable to the last, aren't you."
A wry smile tugged at the corner of Diana's mouth.
It was an absurd situation. Three knight commanders, each basking in the Emperor's personal trust, were being swept along at the arrangement of this brat of an apprentice knight.
And yet……
What truly astonished her was that none of them felt any urge to refuse. All of them—even the Crown Prince himself—were hanging on that brat's every word.
Tucking away the crystal she'd been rolling in her palm, Diana tossed a conversational grenade toward Laios, who had been maintaining a stubborn silence all this while. "Speaking of which, Sir Laios, you look awful. Is something wrong? Don't tell me you're fretting over your subordinate's misconduct—I'm hardly about to chew you out for it at this point."
"……No, it's not that."
Laios, who had been awkwardly eyeing the last magic crystal remaining on the table, finally worked up the nerve to speak. "Arendt. By your account, the magic crystals are essential to this operation."
"I wouldn't say essential, but it would be better if the knights each carried one."
"Then the ones coming with us into the auction house would be Richt and Arthur, presumably. Correct?"
"That's right?"
Arendt nodded absently. Diana and Kendrick, unaware of what was going on, glanced back and forth between the two with perplexity.
Laios forced himself to stay calm as he pressed on. "……Weren't you simply going to hand the crystals over for free? Then why is it that Arthur and Richt had to pay you two months' salary?"
"Oh, that? If my seniors had refused to the very end, I was fully prepared to just give them away. But when they insisted on paying up, well—no reason for me to say no, was there?"
There has never been a con artist like this one.
When the commanders simply stared at him in speechless disbelief, Arendt shrugged. "It wasn't that I needed the money. I just found it entertaining."
"……This stays secret until our graves."
For the sake of Arthur and Richt, who got fleeced out of two whole months' pay, if nothing else.
Kendrick muttered with a sour expression, and Diana nodded in grim agreement. An apprentice knight running a scam on his own seniors was truly unprecedented in all history.
Watching Laios clutch his chest, his face drained of color, a certain intuition settled over them all: before long, the demand for stomach medicine in the 3rd Knight Order was going to skyrocket.