Catching a Con with a Con
The bastards who had set their sights on this city and sought to ruin the Offering Festival were the very same ones supplying goods to Prince Brian and Imperial Consort Cleo. They were competent enough to erase their tracks without a trace, and naturally, they had no love for the Castrein family.
Could there really be that many factions like them?
The intelligence network of Hecate's Tavern was second to none. On top of that, they even maintained friendly ties with the mighty Castrein Duchy. Yet if this enemy had the audacity to cripple the heir of House Cortez and attempt to swallow the entire city whole, couldn't they turn their sights on Hecate's Tavern next?
Granted, it was a somewhat far-fetched conjecture.
Even so, by my calculation, this was my best move. Better to persuade them with a slightly forced line of reasoning than to watch them cling to neutrality and fall straight into the hands of an unknown enemy, just as they had in the original novel.
The woman, who had been studying me in silence, took a slow step toward my side. Debbie, having observed the situation without a word until now, shifted her arm as if preparing to strike, but I raised my right hand and waved it dismissively to stop her.
Draped in a sheer, finely woven black fabric, her veil and garments suited her to perfection. Imperial Consort Cleo was hailed as having seductive beauty without equal, but the woman standing before me looked more than capable of giving her a run for her money. With a soft rustle, the veil slipped down, revealing her face.
"I wondered what on earth was happening to make such young ladies go on a rampage out of nowhere."
"Haha."
Young ladies, plural… So Bibi really had made a move of her own. As I uncomfortably averted my gaze, my jaw dropped in spite of myself.
She was breathtaking. Vibrant, rose-red hair cascaded like blooming petals, and her pale wine-purple eyes shimmered with an intoxicating glow. Instantly, my instincts flared.
She has to be a major character in the original work.
No way someone with looks like that was an extra. But did a person like this ever make a proper appearance in the story? I couldn't recall.
"I am Navira, the current general manager of Hecate's Tavern."
"A pleasure, Miss Navira."
"Why should we entertain such an unreasonable request from you?"
"Because I heard you turned down the request from House Cortez." I smiled brightly. "The sole heir of a noble house was on the verge of dying from a virtually irreversible disability. With Cortez's wealth, they could have paid whatever price Hecate's Tavern named. Yet you refused the commission, claiming you couldn't identify the culprit."
Navira fixed me with a searching look.
"A wise decision on your part, but do you honestly expect parents on the brink of losing their child to think rationally? Of course, you did provide the information needed to treat him, but it was incomplete. The temple is thoroughly corrupt, and because you failed to properly convey information regarding House Castrein, things ended up in this dreadful state, didn't they?"
Admittedly, Hecate's Tavern had made that judgment with the client's circumstances in mind. House Castrein had never maintained close ties with Cortez, and people assumed that if a stranger infected with demonic energy was brought before them, the northern duke wouldn't offer earnest treatment—he would treat the boy as a monster to be put down.
If the young count of Cortez died at the hands of House Castrein, it would spark an outright war between the great families. That was an outcome no one wanted.
My view, however, was entirely different.
House Castrein, having lost more soldiers than anyone else on the continent, was ruthless toward those contaminated by demonic energy for one simple reason: they had never found a way to cure it. Every method they had ever tried had proved useless, only driving up the casualty count.
If they were ever shown a definitive way to save a life, they would never turn their backs on it.
"If you were going to hand over half-baked information anyway, you should have washed your hands of the treatment altogether. The Offering Festival was nearly derailed because of the count's desperate attempt to save his son."
"All we did was provide information that the temple had the means to assist the young count. Stealing the holy relic in a reckless bid to keep his boy breathing was Count Cortez's own choice! In the first place, that wasn't a problem with a solut—!"
Navira's words abruptly cut off.
Her eyes darted between me and the sword at my side.
Haha.
Look at that. The 'solution' happened to be standing right here.
With an exaggerated smirk, I lightly tapped the hilt of the holy sword.
Yes, yes, of course you are.
Watching the now-silent Navira, I gathered my thoughts. My hunch had been spot-on: Hecate's Tavern had grasped the full picture of the situation and chosen to hold their tongue. Granted, back then, the intelligence network naturally couldn't have accounted for an impossible divine intervention. But they were an intelligence guild. If the commission they had carried out for a handsome fee was incomplete or flawed, they had to bear responsibility for the fallout.
"What is it you want?" Navira asked, her voice calm once more.
I gave her a radiant grin.
"I want to catch a con artist with a con of my own. To be precise… I intend to reel in every single one of those scoundrels at once. Won't you lend a hand?"
Lisianthus knitted his brows at the ominous gut feeling settling deep in his chest.
"Isn't it just the perfect day for a hunt?"
The companion beside him, grinning obsequiously as he tried to strike up a conversation; the surrounding area; the weather—not a single thing pleased him. Least of all the soldiers loitering aimlessly around him, doing nothing but killing time.
I only tagged along to keep an eye on Titania.
Titania was utterly devoid of fear. In the past, she had provoked fury every single day with shrill declarations like, 'How dare you look down on my noble self!' Yet lately, she acted as though she had forgotten she was an imperial princess altogether.
For someone who once behaved as though she had never lifted anything heavier than a silver spoon in her life, why was she suddenly bouncing about like a freshly caught fish? Brandishing a sword without a trace of hesitation, never uttering a peep of pain even when she got hurt…
Lisianthus himself ran wild without regard for consequences, but that was afforded to him by his reputation as 'the uncontrollable second son whom even the Castrein family gave up on.' People might look down on him on the surface, but because they dared not cross House Castrein, he was rarely in genuine peril. When ignorant young thugs picked fights, all he had to do was beat them to a pulp. The insults and dangers Titania faced, however, were of an entirely different nature.
With every passing day, he found his eyes lingering on her more and more.
Looking back now, he could even begin to understand the insufferable personality of the past Titania, with whom he had bickered endlessly. Who could have guessed that she was looked down upon even within her own palace? Since she constantly threw around lines like, 'I'll tell His Majesty the Emperor to punish you!' he had naturally assumed she was the Emperor's treasured daughter. If only he had known that it was all an empty facade, nothing more than a hollow boast…
Maybe I should have treated her a little better.
In any case, regrets were regrets, and the past was the past. Lisianthus scanned their surroundings and let out a scoff.
"You claim Sir Gregory is busy?"
A sharp, bristling edge bled into his voice, but the man beside him merely offered an unbothered smile.
"Goodness, yes, that is correct. It is the Offering Festival, after all. As the officer in charge, there are numerous matters he must verify and decide. Priest Cronen has also been busy day and night lately."
"And that's why I had to be the one dragged out here?"
"Oh, but with the festival so close, how frivolous would it be to allow demonic beasts and wild game to run rampant! If the dependable Lord Lisianthus wipes them out cleanly today, there will be no issues whatsoever going forward."
Lisianthus narrowed his eyes at the unfamiliar priest, whose obsequious smirk grated on his nerves.
Gregory, busy? Not a chance.
The imperial escort assigned to Titania clearly harbored no intention of truly aiding her. He had anticipated as much from the beginning, which was why he had stubbornly insisted on coming along in the first place. Although Debbie, whom House Castrein had assigned to Titania, was more formidable than four or five ordinary knights combined, you could never know what traps someone might have laid in the shadows.
Her face looked awfully pale this morning, too.
He couldn't shake the image of her groaning as if she were on the verge of death while receiving a massage. He had only ventured out because the temple had raised an enormous fuss at dawn, claiming that packs of wild beasts and monsters were showing signs of attacking. Yet the expedition was dragging on far longer than expected, and they were a considerable distance from the temple.
Granted, the temple stood on open ground, making it easy to see who came and went, but still… As Lisianthus unconsciously cast his gaze in the direction of the temple, his eyes went wide.
"…What?"
"Haha, Lord Lisianthus, are you bored? Perhaps you could take this chance to do some sightsee—"
"No, look. What the hell is that?"
"Haha, I happen to know the finest tavern in these parts, so if we just—gasp!"
The man who had been wheedling him gasped in raw horror.
"F-Fire! The temple is on fire!"
"Crazy—Titania!"
"L-Lord Lisianthus, you cannot go alone! You must check the perimeter—!"
Far across the plains, towering flames were already consuming the temple grounds, blazing so fiercely they could be seen clearly from miles away.