Three days later, in the government affairs office of the Grand Ducal Castle in Carmen’s capital.
“The evidence is sufficient.”
The Grand Duke’s voice had sunk heavily.
A taut tension hung over the spacious office, so sharp that even the sound of breathing seemed loud.
On the long table lay the documents Raymond had brought, the testimonies organized by the scribe,
and the sealed pieces of evidence that had already been verified several times, all neatly arranged.
The dim light filtering in through the windows brushed over the papers,
and behind them, the faces of the nobles standing there each bore different calculations.
Behind the Grand Duke’s right side,
one step back, Nereia stood quietly.
Her eyes were closed,
but she seemed to be hearing the currents in the room more clearly than anyone else present.
No sooner had the Grand Duke finished speaking than one noble leaned forward.
“It is too early to jump to conclusions, Your Grace!”
Urgency clung to his voice.
Outwardly, he was pretending to be prudent,
but to Miryeong’s ears, it sounded closer to an excuse.
Miryeong looked at him without a word.
He was not holding a blade, nor was he exuding any threatening aura,
but that only made her dislike him more.
It was the face of someone who could sell out another without even the smell of blood.
“Silence.”
The Grand Duke cut him off in a lower, firmer voice.
The office froze in an instant.
The Grand Duke slowly raised his gaze and looked at the noble who had just spoken.
In his eyes lingered something less like anger than the frayed end of long-endured patience.
“Did you think I did not know?”
The noble’s face stiffened.
The Grand Duke lightly tapped the documents on the table with his finger.
“I have known for some time that some among you have joined hands with the Empire.”
“Nor was I entirely unaware that merchant guilds and nobles within the duchy were exchanging profits under imperial sponsorship.”
He paused for a moment.
The expressions of the nobles in the office began to change little by little.
Displeasure, vigilance, silence.
And an anxiety they could not reveal.
“Even so, the reason I did not strike them down at once,”
“was because I put the order and peace of the duchy first.”
“For overturning the inside too violently can sometimes bring a nation down faster than an external enemy.”
The Grand Duke turned his gaze once more.
It was not directed at one person alone, but at all the nobles standing there.
“But now, the situation has changed.”
At those words, the air in the room sank again.
“The Empire is no longer pretending at friendship or trade.”
“They are reaching out toward Arcu, trying to block the envoy,”
“and using measures from the shadows to erase evidence unfavorable to them.”
“This is no mere diplomatic friction.”
The Grand Duke’s hand slowly came to rest on a map atop the table.
Drawn upon it were Carmen and Arcu,
as well as the roads and borders surrounding the lands between them.
“If Arcu falls, Carmen will be next.”
The words were brief, but no one could easily refute them.
“The moment the Empire swallows Arcu, Carmen will no longer be a buffer.”
“The border will become a front line, and the lands of our duchy will become a passageway for soldiers and supplies.”
“Even then, will you be able to call this someone else’s affair?”
Silence flowed.
Only then did Miryeong let out a slight breath.
At the very least, it was clear that the Grand Duke sitting here had no intention of turning a blind eye.
But whether that alone was enough, she still could not know.
In a place like this, just because the right words were spoken did not mean swords would move immediately.
Rather, the real problem always came afterward.
Raymond carefully opened his mouth.
“Then, Your Grace—”
“We will begin an investigation.”
The Grand Duke took up his words.
“Officially, we will reexamine the movements of the nobles and merchant guilds connected to the Empire,”
“and the attack on this envoy will also be recorded separately.”
“In addition, the evidence brought from Arcu will be kept directly by the duchy from this point on.”
At those words, another noble reacted sharply.
“Your Grace, that action may completely ruin our relationship with the Empire.”
“Relationship?”
The Grand Duke repeated the word and slowly turned his head.
“Even after it has come to this, do you still believe they can be called a relationship?”
The noble closed his mouth.
The Grand Duke looked back at Raymond.
“However, I cannot promise here and now that the duchy’s forces will move immediately for Arcu’s sake.”
“Carmen also needs time to set its own house in order.”
At those words, Miryeong’s brow moved faintly.
She had expected it, but it was not a conclusion she liked.
Raymond seemed to have noticed that subtle reaction, but his expression did not change in the slightest.
“Those words alone are enough for me to understand your intent.”
The Grand Duke gave a short nod.
“But there is one thing I will make clear.”
He straightened his back as he spoke.
“Carmen is not the Empire’s puppet.”
“And on the soil of this duchy, I will not allow everything to proceed according to the Empire’s will.”
At that moment,
Nereia, who had been standing in one corner of the office, very slowly opened her eyes.
Miryeong instinctively glanced in that direction.
No emotion appeared on Nereia’s face,
but strangely, that brief opening of her eyes alone made the air in the room seem to sink once more.
As if someone had already known of this decision long ago.
The Grand Duke lowered his hand for the last time.
“This meeting will end here.”
No one could immediately open their mouth.
In the meantime,
Miryeong thought briefly to herself.
It isn’t over.
This was only the beginning.
—
Immediately after leaving the government affairs office,
Miryeong spoke first.
“Now we can return to Belosa.”
Raymond nodded briefly.
“Yes. For now, everything we can do here is done.”
After finishing his words,
he looked for a moment at Ayla, who was standing to one side.
Ayla still wore an expression that showed she had not shaken off the lingering aftereffects of the meeting just now.
The offer made by the Carmen nobles,
and the protection permitted by the Grand Duke, were both not bad conditions.
But that did not make it something she could answer easily.
Raymond asked carefully.
“Lady Ayla… what will you do?”
Ayla did not answer for a while.
After glancing once at the light shining through the window at the end of the corridor, she loosened her shoulders and said,
“Well…”
She let out a short breath.
“The offer itself isn’t bad.”
“More than anything, it’s hard to think the Empire has completely forgotten about me.”
Her gaze drifted far away for a moment.
“For now, I think I’ll stay here.”
“Like they said, formally signing on as a mercenary here doesn’t sound bad either.”
Hearing that, Miryeong gave a faint snort of laughter.
“Sure. Well, you’ve got nowhere to go back to anyway.”
Then she added with an intentionally indifferent expression,
“And it’s not like you’re going to join our side.”
Ayla immediately glared and shot back,
“Are you insane?”
She wore a look of genuine disgust.
“I’m a free spirit. And what I need is money.”
“You lot can play at peace among yourselves. I’m sick of it now. Completely.”
Miryeong closed her eyes and shook her head from side to side.
“Right, Redhead. You’ll manage just fine on your own anyway.”
She did not try to hold her back any further.
That, too, was Miryeong’s way of being considerate.
“Well, we’ll be going now.”
Ayla stared silently at Miryeong for a moment.
Until just now, her face had been snapping back with retorts,
but when the moment to truly part came, the words did not seem to come easily.
After a short while,
Ayla said bluntly,
“Yeah, White Hair. See you again someday.”
Hearing that, Miryeong glanced back at Ayla.
Ayla turned her head away as if embarrassed for no reason.
Then she clicked her tongue softly and added,
“Don’t go off somewhere and die a dog’s death.”
After a brief pause,
she muttered even more quietly,
“If you’re going to die, die by my hand.”
Miryeong waved a hand dismissively.
“Yeah, yeah. We’re leaving.”
That was what she said,
but a very faint smile hung at the corner of her mouth.
Raymond quietly watched the two women’s brief, rough farewell, then gave a small bow.
“Thank you for your cooperation all this time.”
Ayla did not offer any particular reply to that greeting.
She merely raised one hand and waved it vaguely.
As they passed through the corridor and began walking again, Miryeong did not look back even once.
Ayla, in the end, did not call them to a stop either.
Only after they had parted onto different roads like that
did they head toward the cart they had prepared in advance.
The road back to Belosa carried far less baggage than when they had come.
The scribe opened the document box containing the papers stamped with Carmen’s seal twice to check it,
then carefully loaded it deep inside the cart.
Raymond watched in silence, then personally checked the fastening straps again.
This time, a few sheets of paper were heavier than people.
Just before climbing onto the cart, Miryeong stopped.
Then she slowly turned her head
and looked up at the Grand Ducal Castle they were about to leave.
It was tall.
Taller than any building she had ever seen in her life.
The stone-built walls and towers seemed to reach close to the sky,
and in one corner of the outer courtyard, soldiers could be seen training as they moved in fixed intervals.
It was not merely large.
Within it dwelled something like the weight of a nation that had endured for a long time.
Miryeong said in a low voice,
“Certainly… if Carmen only moves properly.”
She did not finish the sentence, but her meaning was clear.
Raymond understood her words at once as well.
“Yes.”
Keeping his gaze on the castle, he answered quietly.
“If Carmen’s support is added,”
“then even the Empire will not be able to bring Arcu down easily.”
After a moment,
Raymond looked back once more at the document box.
His face held both relief and unease.
“I hope… nothing has happened while we were away.”
Miryeong glanced at Raymond.
Then she spoke briefly, as if it were nothing to worry about.
“It’s fine.”
She tapped the railing of the cart with one hand and continued.
“Rangnan is there, and so is Yun. They’ll be handling things on their own.”
Those words were closer to certainty than comfort.
It was a rough, unadorned trust that did not try too hard to embellish itself or cover over anxiety.
Hearing it, Raymond smiled faintly.
It was a very brief smile, but his shoulders seemed less heavy than before.
“Yes. I suppose they will.”
He did not add anything more.
The Silver Moon Corps.
Now called the Public Security Cooperation Unit.
At first, their journey together had begun with wariness and necessity,
but now, it seemed that name alone had become something he could entrust a corner of his heart to.
Soon, the cart wheels began to turn slowly.
The high walls of the Grand Ducal Castle, the soldiers on the training grounds,
and the sound of footsteps ringing against the stone pavement all gradually receded behind them.
Miryeong sat in the swaying cart without saying anything for a while.
There was a place she had to return to.
And in that place,
danger might be waiting, having drawn closer in proportion to the time they had been away.
The cart did not stop as it moved on toward Belosa.