Chapter 33

Chapter 33 . What Is Justice? (1)

The day after we went out on the city outing.

The lord’s castle of the marquess’s house began preparing for a party.

With the city outing over, Simon’s schedule had finally come to an end, and the matter of Simon and Adria’s engagement had also been settled, so our group would be leaving the lord’s castle tomorrow.

Tonight’s party was the final farewell party to be held before the party from the ducal house departed.

I did not know why this region loved parties so much, but it seemed they were putting even more effort than usual into this one.

This party felt less like one for sending off Adria’s future husband and more like a celebration of the marriage alliance between Duke Gresia’s ducal house and Marquess of Hierro’s House.

The lord’s castle was in an uproar with preparations for the party, and Simon and the others were busy moving about, but I sat leisurely in the guest room, waiting for the person who would come to see me.

Time passed.

Knock. Knock.

"It is Juan. I will come in."

The person I had been waiting for had arrived.

He had turned out to be far more useful than I had expected.

It had cost me quite a bit of money, but since he was working this hard, I felt I ought to pay him a little more attention.

Juan stepped into the room and spoke with a grave expression.

"It is just as you said. The mercenaries are gathering. I have heard that the Red Bear Mercenary Company and several other mercenary companies are calling back the members who are currently outside."

Once that massive bait in the form of the secret passage had been cast, there was no way they would ignore it.

A secret passage leading into the lord’s castle, one that no one else knew about.

They would have to use it before anyone else learned of it.

On top of that, there had been someone who overheard their conversation, so they would have wanted to act before anything went wrong.

Most likely, even in my previous life, Adria had told Martin about the secret passage before she left for the ducal house.

After she departed, Martin and the mercenaries must have infiltrated the lord’s castle through the secret passage and set it ablaze, while the other mercenaries raced toward the ducal house to eliminate Adria.

Looking at it now, it had been an extremely violent way of handling things, but since it had ultimately succeeded, it was difficult to call it a clumsy plan.

This time as well, just as I had expected, they were moving in haste.

I had expected it well enough because I had seen it in my previous life, but even so, the more I thought about it, the less I understood what gave them the confidence to move so boldly.

"You have worked hard."

"Will it really be all right if I do not report this separately to my superiors?"

"Yes. I will report it myself."

"Understood."

Juan bowed politely.

He was different from how he had been when I first sent him out that morning.

It was as though he had changed from an adult indulging the tricks of an aristocratic brat into a subordinate receiving instructions from his superior.

I had told him enough of the circumstances to make him investigate properly, and ever since then, the way he looked at me had changed.

Well, it was a hundred times better than being looked down on, so I could not say I disliked it.

No, to be honest, it felt rather good. Was this why people always wanted to be acknowledged?

But I soon remembered my position and pulled myself back together. I could not afford to repeat the life in which I had failed.

After sending Juan away, I left the room as well.

From this point on, it was no longer something I had to do myself.

All I had to do now was pass the word along to the people who would handle it in my place.

I knocked on the door of another guest room a short distance away.

Knock. Knock.

"It is Alex. May I come in?"

"Alex?"

"Yes. Please enter."

By luck, both the Head Steward and the Knight Commander were there. It seemed I would not have to explain everything twice.

I opened the door and stepped inside.

There stood the Head Steward, smiling as always, and the Knight Commander, who looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"What is it?"

At the Knight Commander’s curt question, I began to speak.

"I have something to say about Martin, the marquess’s illegitimate son, and the mercenaries with him."

To the two men who now showed interest, I told them everything that had happened so far.

How deeply Martin hated the marquess’s house, the hidden story I had heard from Adria, and the secret conversation I had happened to overhear after slipping out through the secret passage with Adria and going to Mercenary Street.

And lastly, the gathering of the mercenaries that I had just heard about from Juan.

At first, both men had shown only mild interest, but as my story continued, their expressions turned increasingly serious.

"This is not some story you made up out of imagination, is it?"

When I finished speaking, the Knight Commander asked the question. It seemed it was difficult for him to believe.

"There is no reason for me to tell such a lie when it would be easy enough to confirm."

"This is not a simple matter...."

The Knight Commander let out a low groan.

Of course he would hesitate. It was not easy to dismiss the words of a child outright, but neither was it easy to accept them at face value.

"I think it would be best to inform the marquess. This does not seem to be a matter for us to deliberate over."

The Head Steward spoke to the troubled Knight Commander. He was right.

In any case, this was not the ducal house. Just as I had told the Knight Commander and the Head Steward, the two of them merely had to inform the marquess.

Was it the experience of old age?

"I believe you are right. We must inform the marquess."

The Knight Commander rose from his seat, and the Head Steward looked steadily at me.

"As you know, this entire matter must remain confidential. The marquess may summon you separately."

At the Head Steward’s words, I nodded.

After the Knight Commander left the room, the Head Steward rose from his seat as well.

"I should go with him and explain it too."

Before stepping out, he looked at me and said,

"If the information you have brought us proves true, then our Gresia ducal house will be placing no small debt upon the marquess. Since that will be thanks to Young Master Alex, I am sure the duke will be pleased."

As always, the old man bowed his head to me and left the room.

I shook my head and pushed the Head Steward’s words from my mind. The matter was not finished yet. There was no need to start thinking about what came afterward.

Well then, my share of the work was done. Now it was time to watch how events unfolded.

Once the two men had left the room, I returned to mine as well.

On the surface, the atmosphere in the castle looked no different from before.

The party, prepared with such effort, was held in grand fashion.

Simon and Adria, who knew nothing of what was happening, attended the party and received people’s congratulations, and the guests who had come to congratulate them were equally eager to build a bridge to Duke Gresia’s ducal house.

Simon, of course, as well as the Knight Commander and the Head Steward, were all busy greeting people.

Naturally, no one approached me, an illegitimate son.

During that idle time, I was able to observe everything around me from the perspective of a third party.

And when I looked more closely, I could indeed see that things had changed.

The Head Steward wore the same expression as ever, but the Knight Commander and the other knights looked slightly awkward, while the knights and soldiers of the marquess’s house also showed hints of tension on their faces.

The guests attending the party praised the marquess’s knights and soldiers for their discipline being even better than before, but the marquess’s own replies were also tinged with a certain stiffness.

When the party ended and everyone was about to return to their rooms, the marquess summoned me.

Unlike the duke, who had called me to his study even late at night in his own home, the marquess summoned me to a private drawing room.

The servant who guided me there waited outside, and the marquess, alone in the drawing room, looked at me as I entered with the weary face of an old man exhausted by fatigue.

The moment he saw me, he frowned.

"Isn’t he still just a child? This is the child who brought in that information?"

It was exactly the sort of thing I had expected him to say. I bowed my head toward him.

"I am Alex."

"Hmph. At least you are a side branch that knows its place."

He received my greeting with a displeased look.

"I fail to see why the people from the ducal house chose to attribute this matter to the merits of a young illegitimate son like you. Perhaps I should question Adria about the secret passage...."

Even the Knight Commander and the Head Steward, who had been watching me all this time in the ducal house, had only been half-convinced.

There was no way the marquess would acknowledge a child like me so easily.

Instead of answering him, I walked over to the corner of the drawing room.

I had already heard from Adria how to find the entrance to the secret passage.

Fortunately, the passage ran beneath this room as well, and the marker for the hidden door was easy to spot.

In the corner of the drawing room, I pressed the regularly cracked bricks into the wall one by one from top to bottom.

Ordinary strength would not have made them budge, but for a noble who used mana, it was entirely possible.

Rrrrrk.

Once I had pushed them all in, part of the floor near the corner began to sink downward.

A staircase leading underground came into view.

After confirming that the secret passage had opened, I turned back toward the marquess.

"I believe it would be best not to inform Lady Adria. She was close with Martin, and she will soon be leaving for our Gresia ducal house. If she were to leave with lingering bitterness toward her wife’s family, it would not do much good for the relationship between the two houses."

From the moment I turned around, the marquess’s expression had changed.

The bored look vanished, and eyes like those of a wily old weasel swept across me.

A tingling sensation slid over my skin.

As expected, a man worthy of being called a marquess could never have been ordinary.

"So I had heard you were a genius, but it was no lie. To possess knight-level skill at your age...."

Once again, it proved that showing one’s ability once was better than saying the same thing a hundred times.

"That is true as well. As you say, the fewer people who know of a stain, the better."

Even the way he addressed me had changed.

With that altered attitude, he asked me several questions, and I answered them all while concealing only a few points.

"For this to be called genius, the maturity seems too different.... Is there even an ability that takes this form...?"

After hearing my answers, the marquess tilted his head.

If he meant an ability, then yes, it could be called that, though not in the sense he was thinking of, so I met his gaze calmly.

After speaking a little longer and making several suggestions, the marquess dismissed me.

Just before I left the room, I heard his voice from behind me.

"What a pity. Such a pity. If things had not become tangled, Martin too could have been of great help to the marquess’s house...."

It was a voice so faint it was nearly inaudible, but it carried deep grief within it.

The following afternoon.

The guests from Duke Gresia’s ducal house left the lord’s castle amid people’s farewells.

Some of the servants who had finished cleaning up after the previous day’s party were granted leave and departed from the castle, and the lord’s castle became much quieter than usual.

That night, perhaps because the marquess’s guests had finally left, security at the lord’s castle and around the city was looser than it had been the day before, and because of that, the mercenaries were able to gather in front of the temple without catching the soldiers’ attention.

Dozens of mercenaries dressed in black clung to the temple walls, keeping watch on their surroundings.

At the head of them stood Benjamin, the captain of the Red Bear Mercenary Company, Noah the vice-captain, and Martin.

"Everyone is here, right?"

"Yes. Everyone we agreed upon at the start has arrived."

In answer to Captain Benjamin’s question, Noah, the vice-captain, replied.

"And you made contact with the count as well?"

"Yes. He is waiting outside the territory. The moment we send the signal that it succeeded, he will come charging in right away."

Benjamin’s brows twitched as he looked at Noah answering in a crisp voice.

"Are you still in poor condition? If you are absent, there may be people who slip through the cracks."

"I am sorry. The internal injury I suffered in that fight still has not healed properly...."

There were no visible wounds on her body, but if she said she was in such poor condition, it was difficult to force the matter.

"It cannot be helped. Then stay ready to assist the moment the signal goes up."

"Yes."

Benjamin turned his head and looked at Martin. He was evidently just as displeased with him.

"Would it not be better for the young master to remain with the count?"

"No. I will go with you as well."

Martin shook his head with a rigid expression.

Originally, Martin had not been meant to take part in the operation and was supposed to remain behind.

But ever since a short while ago, some change of heart had come over him, and he had stubbornly insisted on joining.

Since Noah had ended up being unable to participate, there had been no choice but to let him come along, but if he were to die, it might throw the entire plan badly off course, which was why Benjamin was deeply concerned.

If only they had managed to contact those above, there would have been less to worry about....

But events had moved so suddenly that there had not been enough time to establish contact.

Still, there was no reason for concern. This was a plan they had prepared for a very long time, and the orders from above had never been wrong until now.

Even the fact that they had learned of the secret passage several days ago.

Naturally, this operation would succeed as well.

Benjamin led the mercenaries toward the open door of the temple.

The mercenaries followed behind him, while Noah stepped back with a strange expression on her face.

At that moment, one of the mercenaries entering the temple spoke up with an anxious expression.

"But there’s a rumor that if you enter this temple, you become impotent...."

At his words, the expressions of the other mercenaries darkened as well. They had all heard the same rumor.

Setting fire to the marquess’s castle, the very castle of the lord of the territory, was frightening enough, but becoming impotent was a completely different matter.

"It is a ridiculous rumor."

"Right?"

At Benjamin’s answer, the mercenaries nodded, but their expressions were still full of unease.

With stiff faces, the mercenaries disappeared into the temple building.