After we reached the village and put down the unrest, we informed the rest of the army waiting in town that they were to climb the mountain.
The messengers for that had gone down the mountain, and today they returned with the second follow-up contingent.
In fact, Ikuto, who had joined those personnel, had come back as well.
He returned the day after we finished our investigation at the crater.
Naturally, the results of the investigation weren’t ready after just one day, so I stopped my experiments for the moment and listened to Ikuto’s report.
“We have identified the miscreants who targeted Princess Asha. The mark we placed on them led to the rear of the lord’s manor. There are two servants and ten others involved.”
I had been on guard against assassination ever since my early days in the palace, and I’d discussed countermeasures with my close aides.
According to them, if I were attacked, ensuring my safety would be the top priority, and capturing the assassins would come second.
So I had been thinking of a way to track them afterward.
The principle was simple.
Take a vitamin that glows under ultraviolet light, add chemicals and magic to make it last a little longer.
Then create an ultraviolet light based on the Minor Lightning Lamp.
And with that, you have a mark that can only be detected by our side, as long as we have the ultraviolet light.
“So, when you shine this light on it, the mark glows.”
“What the hell is this…?”
General Wagelis tried to peer into the light with an expression of utter bewilderment, so I hurriedly snatched it away and turned it off.
“You can’t look into it. It could even blind you.”
“That makes it dangerous, damn it!”
“It’s my fault for not warning you enough, but I didn’t think you’d do something like a child.”
When I said that honestly, everyone around us held their breath, desperately trying to stifle their laughter.
Perhaps General Wagelis was aware he had acted unbecomingly for his age, because his fur stood on end and he clenched his teeth.
“Ahem. We will not make progress like this, so I will continue my report. As I said, we were split into two groups and lacked manpower, so I borrowed the help of the maid waiting in town and one of the laborers.”
Ikuto was referring to Nomariola and the garden apprentice.
They had the two of them keep watch on the lord’s manor, while they first investigated the ten people of unknown affiliation.
“From the way they were hiding in a district inhabited by those of poor security and financial hardship, we presumed they were people with a shady trade. When we gathered information from the surrounding area, we learned that they had begun coming and going within the past month. Since they made no move, we waited until night and infiltrated the lord’s manor. Based on the marks, we identified the room. They turned out to be two of the lord’s servants.”
Once that was clear, Nomariola and the apprentice moved.
Apparently, they made contact with the servants in the lord’s manor and, without drawing suspicion, even learned those two people’s names, backgrounds, and relationship with the lord.
I knew Nomariola was shrewd, but the apprentice seemed to be the type older people doted on, and he apparently caught hold of a longtime servant to gather information.
“From there, we also learned the internal layout of the lord’s manor, so we paid another small visit at night.”
“Hey, is it really all right for the First Prince’s aide to be doing that?”
Even General Wagelis had to interject.
But there was something we hadn’t told him, so it wasn’t as if Ikuto was putting himself in danger.
In truth, Sephira, who was not affected by terrain, had also spent a night descending the mountain and scanned the inside of the mansion for us.
Ignoring General Wagelis, Ikuto took out an already opened document.
“I have brought this letter, which clearly states that the criminal guild is lending personnel to harm Princess Asha.”
I had already heard the contents from Sephira, but I accepted it and read through it.
It was so plain that it hardly seemed addressed to a lord, and it did indeed contain wording about targeting someone with black hair, presumably me.
It offered to help kill me for no money, an exceptional deal, while at the same time hinting that there was someone behind the scenes providing funds.
And it bore the mark of the Saipol Group, the family that had organized the criminal guilds in the nearby region.
“Well, they’re the source of an organization that went so far as to storm the palace. I suppose they wouldn’t think twice about targeting a prince out on the frontier. So just driving them out of the imperial capital wasn’t enough to teach them a lesson.”
As expected, they seemed like people who would only cause harm if left around during Terry’s reign.
I handed the letter to General Wagelis.
“With this evidence, could you arrest the entire Saipol Group?”
“…No.”
General Wagelis answered with heartfelt displeasure.
“If we’ve still got this land’s problems on our hands, we’ll need actual reinforcements. But the major lords in the surrounding area, who ought to be cracking down on illegal organizations as part of the ruling side, are famously in bed with the Saipol Group.”
Simply put, we didn’t have enough hands.
On top of that, the very people we most needed to make allies were certain to turn against us.
“It’s impossible right now, but if we bring this to the proper place, maybe. If I recall, there was a marquis who led the charge in crushing the criminal guilds in the imperial capital. If he’s got some kind of grudge, he might move.”
“No, that person is a little…”
When I denied it without thinking, General Wagelis looked at me suspiciously.
“The best option would be for the emperor to order the army to crush them already. First Prince, can you move the emperor?”
“I’m sure he’d move, but if we do it that way, His Majesty is likely to take the loss. If possible, I wanted to create an established fact that we have to act on our end while I still have this freedom.”
The army led by General Wagelis was here to quell the unrest and merge the village called Wabili into Karu Village.
They were not permitted to simply go down the mountain on their own and attack the Saipol Group.
Unauthorized military action could even be treated as rebellion, and there was a possibility that troops would be sent against us as a rebel army.
“Our opponents are criminals who like targeting the weak. I don’t mind going at them, but first we’ve got to prove this is genuine.”
Seeing General Wagelis thinking positively, I couldn’t help confirming.
“General Wagelis, are you all right with this? Faction-wise?”
“Faction? Minister of Military Affairs Cherico isn’t the kind of person to flinch against criminals.”
At General Wagelis mentioning a name I didn’t know, Herkov waved a hand sideways.
“No, no. Not the factions within the army. The palace side.”
“More importantly, the ones most likely to be targeting Lady Asha like this are the faction of Duke Lukaios, to which your father-in-law belongs.”
“Huh? He’s His Majesty’s dresser. There’s no faction for him but His Imperial Majesty’s.”
At Wearerel’s addition, General Wagelis looked up from the letter.
My close aides were just as surprised; none of us had imagined he wasn’t aware of his father-in-law’s faction.
Come to think of it, he had seemed ignorant about the palace interior as well, only having a rough grasp of things.
“It seems it would have been more accurate to view him not as someone belonging to a faction, but as a pawn inside the army that people of that faction can use.”
General Wagelis seemed to sense, even if he didn’t understand it, that Ikuto had spat poison at him, and he growled.
Seline, who was there with us, raised her hand slightly.
“Um, if I may speak in his defense, General Wagelis does not get along very well with his wife, and he is not especially close to his father-in-law, either. This time, the fact that his father-in-law went out of his way to come and warn such a son-in-law made him wary of Your Highness, and…”
“In other words, you are not denying that this father-in-law spoke ill of Lady Asha, with whom the army ought to be cooperating, and fed him false preliminary information.”
Wearerel pointed out that this was not a defense at all.
“If we’re talking about cooperation, that First Prince is plenty bad himself. The gap between when he’s being quiet and when he pulls something is too damn extreme, and he thinks that if he keeps his mouth shut, no one’ll find out.”
Yes, this probably wasn’t a false accusation about selfishness like before.
Stopping the army and placing him under house arrest, and the assassination too? Oh, and maybe going to investigate the poisonous wind?
Still, he seemed to be aware that he had been led around by the preliminary information, because he folded his thick arms and, without saying anything more, made a grim face.
“Right. For now, it’s enough if you understand that I do intend to return to the imperial capital.”
“I agree on that point. If you can manage something with your complicated arrangements and fussy little plans, then do it. Since you’ve been telling me in detail not to do this and not to do that, you must have something in mind.”
His way of saying it was rough, but it seemed he had at least learned the basic pattern that if I spoke up, it was because there was something to be done.
“For this army to move, just obtaining the letter isn’t enough, right?”
“First we’ve got to do something about this village. If we go down the mountain before that, it’ll be treated as unauthorized military action. We’ve got to start by doing something about those villagers who do nothing but curse each other whenever they meet face-to-face… We’re the army. Our premise is suppressing people by force, but you’re not using that, right? Honestly, even the negotiators I brought with me are out of ideas.”
They had already begun discussions on the incorporation, but it wasn’t going well.
From what I’d heard, in the end, each day’s talks wouldn’t even conclude unless General Wagelis shouted the villagers into silence.
“On top of that, we’ve got no choice but to capture the petty lord who received this letter and make him testify. But targeting a prince isn’t just risking his life; it’s enough to have his entire house abolished. Even if it’s the truth, he won’t say it.”
“Hmm… Yes, all right. I understand.”
“Huh?”
When I nodded, General Wagelis questioned me brusquely, looking like he didn’t understand.
“We have the letter in hand like this. What we need now is the lord’s person and his testimony. In that case, I’ll do something about that part.”
General Wagelis’s small ears twitched rapidly, as if he suspected he had misheard.
“Oh, and I’ve also thought of a way to resolve the antagonism between the two villages. First I’ll make a prototype, and once I have results, I’ll report back.”
I had come here having thought things over, but as expected, there were still many things I couldn’t understand until I actually arrived on-site.
Feeling a little excited, I considered where I should begin.
Regular update
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