Chapter 20

Chapter 20. Revealed Truth (1)

“It’s true.”

When Aslaf ignored him as if telling him not to lie, Ungus grew indignant and held out his palm to him.

“With this hand! With this very hand, I carried a letter stamped with Alexei I’s fake seal and delivered it to Untet. Dozens of Rong tribe members passed it around and looked at it, but no one, not a single bastard, realized that letter was fake.”

Outwardly pretending not to be interested, Aslaf looked elsewhere, raised his cup, and took a sip.

“Oh, really? Then it must’ve been properly made, not some sloppy thing. Who made the fake seal? I doubt you made it yourself.”

He listened carefully to learn who had made Ungus deliver the fake letter from behind the scenes.

“How would I make something like that? Marquis Georg made it. The marquis said he’d give me one hundred gold coins if I delivered the fake letter. When I asked what would happen if people found out it was fake, he told me to compare it with my own eyes. Even when I looked, I couldn’t tell it apart from the real one.”

Drunk and excited by his pride over the success of his scheme, Ungus proudly blabbered about the crime he had committed long ago.

‘Georg. So it was you.’

Aslaf gripped his cup so tightly that his hand hurt.

As expected, it had not been a coincidence that the Rong tribe had failed to respond to the request for mercenaries.

Marquis Georg had clearly been planning to isolate Alexei I and drive him into a corner long before the war began.

He had forged the seal, bought off the messenger, blocked communication between Alexei I and the Rong tribe, Alexei’s strongest mercenary force, driven a wedge between them, and prevented them from joining the campaign.

‘Georg. You must pay for your crimes.’

His rising fury made Aslaf’s throat burn without his realizing it. He picked up the bottle, filled his cup to the brim, and drank.

If the fake letter had only led to Alexei I’s death, he might not have been this angry.

Because of Georg’s scheme, the Rong tribe and the Empire had stopped trading and had opposed and rejected each other for a full sixteen years. The Rong tribe had suffered hunger, and the Empire’s borderlands had groaned under the Rong tribe’s plundering.

How many people had died, been injured, or starved to death because of it?

Even now, the distrust and hatred planted by Georg continued.

“If that’s true, what happened to the gold coins? Why are you living in a cabin like this?”

Aslaf continued questioning him, but Ungus was already dead drunk and dozing. Collapsed over the table, he mumbled words Aslaf could not understand.

“If people know... I have money... that’s bad....”

Ungus sprawled there and fell asleep, snoring loudly.

It seemed he had continued living in the cabin because people would grow suspicious if he suddenly became rich.

Now that Aslaf had discovered the mastermind, all that remained was revealing the truth.

Aslaf left the cabin and went home.

He took the ledger from his transactions with Ungus and went to find Untet.

“I have discovered who forged Undine’s letter.”

“Who is it?”

Untet, the chief who knew every detail of his tribe’s affairs, leaned forward in disbelief when Aslaf, an outsider, uncovered a culprit even he had not known.

“This is the remaining-balance ledger Ungus wrote for me while trading with me.”

Aslaf showed him the receipts and ledgers where Ungus had written down the items and amounts during their credit transactions.

“The handwriting is the same as the letter, isn’t it?”

Untet looked closely at the handwriting.

“Wait. I also have a ledger from my transactions with Ungus.”

He brought the ledger he had kept from his own dealings with Ungus and compared the handwriting.

“You are right. It is certainly Ungus’s handwriting. To think Ungus would....”

Untet pressed a hand to his forehead as if dumbfounded.

He seemed unable to believe that Ungus, who had neither strength nor power, had committed such an outrageous act.

He crossed his arms and sank into careful thought.

“But can we conclude that Ungus forged it with only this?”

“There is more than enough reason. A few days ago, in the marketplace, Umkton cheated Ungus out of his money and beat him, didn’t he?”

“That is true. They say everyone in the marketplace saw it. So he held a grudge and did this.”

After hearing Aslaf’s explanation, Untet gradually became convinced that it was Ungus’s doing.

“This is not the first time Ungus has used a fake letter.”

Aslaf brought up what he had truly wanted to say.

“Not the first time?”

Untet looked at him with a grave expression.

“The letter from Alexei I that he brought sixteen years ago was also forged.”

“What did you say?”

Even Untet, who rarely showed changes in emotion no matter what happened, opened his mouth in shock.

“You mean that letter wasn’t sent by Alexei I?”

Aslaf nodded.

“Would you show me the letter once more?”

When Untet took out Alexei I’s letter, Aslaf explained the differences between the forged letter and the other letters.

“Alexei I’s seal has the eagle’s claws. The fake seal has no claws. The feather shape is not delicate either.”

“Now that I look closely, they are different.”

Only then did Untet realize that Ungus had deceived him for sixteen years.

“How could something so absurd....”

Untet’s face turned bright red with anger.

“You have no idea how much happened because of this letter. How many people died and were injured....”

He suppressed his rage, but his trembling beard spoke of his emotions.

The discord with the Empire must also have been cruel to the Rong tribe, who could not trade and went hungry.

“Why would Ungus do something so terrible?”

“He says Marquis Georg bought him off and gave him the fake letter he made. He did not do it alone.”

Aslaf relayed the story as he had heard it from Ungus. Untet seemed to understand everything only now.

“Marquis Georg? No wonder.”

Being wise, he grasped the situation at once.

“He drove a wedge between us ahead of the war so that our Rong tribe mercenaries could not support Alexei I.”

After learning the enormous truth, he pressed one hand to his forehead as if his head throbbed. Then, after letting out a long sigh, he sprang firmly from his seat.

“Let us make Ungus pay for his crime.”

Untet went with Aslaf to find Umbeji.

“We have found the one who forged Undine’s letter and beat Umkton. Convene the chiefs’ meeting so we can judge him.”

Umbeji’s eyes widened at the claim that there was a true culprit. In his heart, he had been certain Unbelin was the culprit.

“Is that true?”

Untet showed him that the handwriting in the letter was the same as the handwriting in Ungus’s ledger. Since Umbeji had also traded with Ungus, he compared it with the handwriting in his own ledger and realized that Untet was telling the truth.

“Ungus, that tiny fry, dared touch our son?”

His eyes rolling in rage, Umbeji immediately convened the chiefs’ meeting and ordered Ungus to be brought in. Ungus, not yet sober, was dragged in bound.

“You wrote this letter, didn’t you?”

Ungus blinked and shook his head.

“No, sir. It was absolutely not me.”

“The handwriting in this letter and the ledgers you wrote is the same. It is the same when we look at other ledgers too.”

All the chiefs nodded.

“I also have a ledger Ungus wrote for me, and the handwriting is identical.”

“He took revenge because he was humiliated at the marketplace the day before.”

Umbeji shouted at Ungus.

“If you had a complaint against Umkton, you should have requested a fair trial. Instead, you framed an innocent person with a forged letter?”

Of course, Ungus must have made that choice because he could not win a fight in a fair trial. However, in Umbeji’s position as great chief, Ungus had disturbed the tribe’s order by using a false letter to shift blame onto someone else and take revenge instead of following the fair trial that was the Rong tribe’s tradition. If such a thing was allowed, the Rong tribe’s traditions and order would fall into chaos.

“I-I was wrong. Please forgive me just once.”

With everything exposed, Ungus went pale and begged desperately.

However, all the chiefs turned away from him with cold expressions.

Once all the chiefs were convinced of his guilt, Ungus bowed his head and begged.

“Umkton hit me, so I only hit him back. Umkton did not die. So please spare my life.”

Appealing to their sympathy, he begged for his life, saying he had not committed such a grave crime.

Umbeji’s eyes blazed with hostility, as if he wanted to kill Ungus. However, it was also true that Umkton had struck him first in front of everyone. Because of what Umkton had done, Umbeji had no choice but to gauge the intentions of the other chiefs.

“What do you think? Speak your opinions.”

Some of the chiefs held grudges against Umkton as well, so a few of them leaned sympathetically toward Ungus. Some pouted and scratched their heads as if to say Umkton had done something worthy of being beaten, and that Ungus had enough reason to take revenge.

“If I had not risked danger to smuggle food from the Empire, all of you would have starved.”

At Ungus’s appeal, the chiefs looked at one another in distress.

At that moment, Untet stood and spoke.

“This is not the first time Ungus has forged a letter and committed fraud.”

“What?”

Everyone murmured in surprise.

Untet held out Alexei I’s letter.

“The letter from Alexei I that Ungus brought sixteen years ago is also fake. If you look closely, the seal looks different from the letters before it. The handwriting is also slightly different from Alexei I’s handwriting.”

At Untet’s words, Ungus let out a groan of despair.

“Now that I look closely, it really is different.”

“The wording and the handwriting are a little different too.”

“Why didn’t we know back then?”

“We were too agitated by the claim that trade would be suspended.”

“That’s right. There is no way Alexei I would have done this to us.”

The chiefs compared the letters and lamented.

“We trusted Ungus. To think he would deliver a forged letter.”

“We were completely toyed with by Ungus.”

“And for sixteen years, no less.”

The chiefs were furious and at a loss over the fact that the entire Rong tribe had been deceived by Ungus for so long.

“N-no, it wasn’t me. That letter is real. I did not forge it. I truly received that letter directly from Alexei I and delivered it.”

Ungus denied it and made excuses, but it was no use.

Untet stated in a heavy voice, as if driving in the final nail.

“Marquis Georg forged the letter. You delivered that fake letter and received one hundred gold coins.”

“H-how do you know that....”

Ungus’s face turned white. Only then did he remember telling Aslaf about it while drunk.

“I was drunk and talking nonsense. I absolutely....”

At that moment, Umbeji’s subordinates, who had searched Ungus’s house, entered carrying a sack. When they opened the sack and poured it out, gold coins came spilling down.

“Are these not the gold coins you received from Marquis Georg?”

“No. This is money I saved from what I earned over the years.”

Ungus denied it to the end, but no one listened to him.

“All the gold coins are coins of the Duchy of Galleon engraved with Marquis Georg’s face, are they not?”

“Looking at the year engraved on them, they were minted in the year the letter was delivered.”

Seeing the facts uncovered so far, the Rong tribe realized the truth.

“Now I understand. Marquis Georg plotted this so we would not participate in the war.”

“That is right. If one thinks about it with common sense, Alexei I would have needed our mercenaries if he was going to war. There was no reason for him to turn his back on us.”

The Rong tribe realized that Alexei I had not betrayed them and that everything had been Marquis Georg’s scheme, and they beat their chests in anger.

“We were fooled by Georg and could not fight alongside Alexei I.”

“That is why Alexei I died and why we became so poor. If not for that, we would still be living well without worrying about food. It is unjust.”

Their anger at being deceived by Marquis Georg’s scheme poured onto Ungus, who had been bought off by him and deceived the Rong tribe.

“Marquis Georg is one thing, but Ungus stabbed his own Rong tribe in the back? Is he insane?”

“We were completely deceived. Ungus, how could you do this to us?”

“To us, you are worse than Marquis Georg because you betrayed us when we trusted you.”

“You devilish bastard.”

“It is all because of that bastard that we live starving in this pathetic state.”

Under the rain of accusations, Ungus did not know what to do and darted his eyes around.