The Crows' Tower
Killian set the glass he had been holding down on the desk in his office.
“The Crows, huh.”
His golden eyes, fixed on me, were honed to a razor’s edge.
I couldn’t afford to yield here.
I clasped my hands behind my back and tightened every muscle along my spine.
“Explain it properly.”
“To be precise, it’s the ‘Crows Tower.’”
“Is there some problem with the way Knox exchanges letters?”
Killian asked as he poured strong liquor into his half-empty glass.
He looked perfectly at ease.
And the fact that he had regained his composure was not a good sign for me.
Still, I had come this far. There was no retreating now.
“There is no problem. It’s about what to do with those candles sitting out in plain sight.”
The decisive clue that had snapped all the scattered pieces into a single picture.
It was the candle placed inside the Crows Tower.
“Candles that produce a milky-white flame around the wick are mostly used by the lower classes. They’re cheap and burn for a long time. After checking, I found that the candles supplied not only to the carrier-pigeon tower but throughout all of Knox are the same type. These low-grade candles have one useful trait.”
I gazed at the candle quietly burning on Killian Knox’s desk.
A pure, vivid red flame without a trace of white flickered there.
“Once it cools and hardens, it peels away easily. For the lower classes, that makes it simple to collect the overflowed wax and remake new candles. For Knox’s real intelligence department—the one that opens every letter traveling by carrier pigeon to inspect its contents—it’s convenient because it leaves no trace that the envelope was ever opened.”
The instant I uttered the words “real intelligence department,” the veins on the back of Killian Knox’s hand bulged blue as he set the bottle down.
Surprised, are you?
Good. I’d landed a blow.
“Of course, everyone in Knox seems to believe it’s simply a cost-saving measure, so there’s no need to replace all the candles. Nor is there any need to shorten the time letters spend in transit, since that gives the real intelligence department the window they need to open sealed correspondence and compile the information.”
It was advice offered with a measure of genuine intent.
They were only tiny clues that even I had nearly overlooked.
Yet Killian Knox appeared rather offended.
“You keep saying strange things. The real intelligence department?”
His short, scornful laugh was ice-cold.
Even the liquor glass gripped in his large hand looked like a threatening weapon.
It was fortunate I had taken the at-ease stance early. At the very least, my trembling hands would not be visible to him.
“That is the darkest secret of Knox I have uncovered. Not the publicly visible intelligence department led by Grayer Knox, but the genuine one that exists somewhere within Knox.”
“So according to you, even though Knox already has a perfectly functional intelligence department, they are nothing but puppets?”
“Correct.”
“Why?”
Because I had faced Grayer Knox’s intelligence department myself.
Hundreds of letters passed through the Crows Tower every single day.
They lacked the skill to process such a vast, unrefined flood of information.
High-value or truly useful intelligence never arrives waving a bright red flag.
Just as I had nearly been swept down a side path by the secret history of the previous duke and duchess, refining random information and weaving it together with other clues was not something anyone could do.
If Knox’s public intelligence department had possessed that ability, dealing with them would have been far more difficult.
The taste in my mouth turned bitter as I carefully selected the words I would speak before Killian Knox.
No wonder it had collapsed so easily.
Neutralizing Knox’s intelligence department had been one of my proudest achievements, yet the true organization had existed apart from it all along.
“I am truly sorry to say this to Your Grace, but the assessment that Knox’s intelligence department is incompetent is hardly a secret. It’s common knowledge—so common that even someone as lowly as myself has heard it. Not only Grayer Knox, but even the loyal retainers who have devoted their entire lives to the ducal house…”
“Enough of that nonsense.”
“Ahem. In any case, I believe the one truly leading the real intelligence department must be someone far more capable than Grayer Knox. Someone like Dupont Clancher, Your Grace’s closest aide.”
For a fleeting moment, something like amusement flickered across Killian Knox’s eyes.
“Did you learn that by sneaking into Decon Gold’s office?”
“Th-that… it wasn’t exactly…”
“You really shouldn’t lie.”
His tone was gentle, as if soothing a child, yet it carried an unmistakably chilling warning.
“…I confirmed that an enormous sum of funds is allocated each year under Dupont Clancher’s name.”
“It seems Decon failed to lock his documents properly.”
In truth, the problem had been his assistant rather than Decon himself, but I felt no particular loyalty to defend Decon Gold in front of Killian Knox.
Then a sudden realization sent a chill racing across my skin.
I had definitely shaken off my surveillant and moved in secret?
“B-but how did you know I went to Decon Gold’s office…”
“I believe I already told you—I can know wherever you go.”
Killian Knox answered in a perfectly ordinary tone.
To me, however, it sounded like a death sentence.
He had spoken of dragon’s kin and the like, but I had assumed it was something like a compass that merely indicated direction.
A long leash, tied so I could not run too far.
Yet he could detect my movements even inside Knox Castle?
The more despair flooded my face, the more pleased Killian Knox appeared.
“Not bad.”
To hear him offer something resembling praise.
It was infuriating, but my current position was no different from that of a dog he was raising.
A foolish mutt that came running eagerly at any bone casually tossed my way.
“Then…”
A tiny ray of light seemed to pierce the heart that had been slammed to the floor by a far heavier leash than I had anticipated.
Had I guessed correctly?
Was he not going to kill me?
Could I… survive?
But Killian Knox crushed the fragile sprout of hope before it could fully rise.
“Your imagination is rather impressive. However, waiting five days was hardly worth it.”
He shook his head as though disappointed.
“I praised you for being quick-witted, and this is all you managed to dig up?”
“Imagination…!”
So you’re going to play innocent?
A competitive spirit I had forgotten for some time flared to life inside me.
“Your Grace has been neglecting an incompetent intelligence department.”
I stared directly at Killian Knox’s smooth, now thoroughly irritating face and continued.
“One wall of the fortress called Knox has collapsed, yet instead of rebuilding it, you have merely stood by and watched.”
“So you claim there must be a real intelligence department? The evidence for such an assertion is terribly thin…”
“No.”
I deliberately cut him off.
“With all due respect, this is not based merely on Your Grace’s attitude. The evidence is the Knox Ducal House itself.”
“The Knox Ducal House itself?”
One of Killian Knox’s eyebrows rose sharply.
“Is the Knox Ducal House not still standing tall, its power undiminished? If a real intelligence department did not exist, Knox would have collapsed long ago—at the hands of formidable rivals, if not quite equal to Knox itself.”
“If there are indeed bastards with the audacity to challenge my power.”
“There are. The Constans Marquisate in the south, the Limberg Viscountcy in the west, and the Wickers Count family in the north. If even two of them joined hands, Knox would be forced to feel nervous.”
Killian Knox tilted his head slightly. His face remained as cold as an ice sculpture, yet somehow I could tell.
He was extremely displeased.
“If what you say is true, then I am a negligent duke. I have not even attempted to rebuild the collapsed intelligence department.”
“How did you arrive at that conclusion?”
There was no way he could have failed to understand everything I had painstakingly explained, yet the way he twisted my words around made irritation surge through me as well.
“Aren’t you deliberately leaving it alone because this is Knox’s weakness?”
It was interesting.
“So that is why, during the previous spy incident, you kept Grayer Knox alive even after forcing him to kneel before everyone?”
The little thing was acting as though she had read straight into his heart.
Even though Killian himself could not glimpse inside that round little head at all.
“Hmm.”
As if the eclipse that had already passed was returning once more, a sudden impulse surged through Killian’s mind.
“If.”
Killian willingly followed that urge.
“If you were me, how would you revive the collapsed intelligence department?”