No matter how much Allen thought about it, there was no way he could get connections in the empire. But then, one possibility did come to mind: The Adventurer’s Guild.
The guild was used by all sorts of people, and this was a Frontier town. While it lay within the kingdom’s territory, it couldn’t really be called part of the kingdom—it was an ambiguous place. Sometimes people from other nations came here, so even if he couldn’t get a direct connection, he might at least find some kind of lead. However...
“Hmm... Ways to get into the empire, huh? Even for the Adventurer’s Guild, that’s a tall order...”
Apparently things wouldn’t be that easy. That was the answer he got when he visited the guild and asked Lisette, who was working the reception desk.
“I figured it’d be tricky, but I thought maybe you’d have imperial folks coming through here sometimes.”
“Well, if that’s all you need, sure, it’s possible. But these days, if someone from another country wants to enter the empire, they need at least a connection to a noble.”
“Ah, a noble, huh? Yeah, that’s definitely not easy.”
Plenty of people passed through this town, but it was rare for imperial nobles to do so. Not unheard of, but unusual enough, and getting their help to enter the empire would be even harder.
“Hmm... There’s no other way in?”
“Not as far as the guild knows. Sure, you could sneak in, but I wouldn’t recommend it. There’s no telling what’ll happen if you get caught.”
“Well, sneaking in is just asking for trouble.”
Even so, that might be the only option left. If he wanted Noel to guide him, he risked dragging her and the others into trouble, so that was a last resort.
“By the way, why are they being so strict? It’s not like it’s always been this way, right?”
“Hmm... Well, things have changed. The empire used to be about accepting, or more like absorbing, other nations. But now they’re completely allergic to outsiders.”
“Allergic to outsiders? Why?”
“Well...I don’t know how much you know about the current state of the empire, Allen, but you do know it’s in a bit of chaos right now, right?”
“Sort of, yeah.”
That was only because the empire he remembered had been like that, but even then, they hadn’t restricted entry this much, so things must have been even more unstable now.
“They’d been a bit unstable for a while, but the Champion made it a done deal. The outsider allergy is basically their fault.”
“The Champion’s fault?”
The empire was indeed an aggressive, expansionist nation, which made it unpopular abroad. But it hadn’t been a dictatorship or an “evil empire.” Allen couldn’t think of any reason for Akira to have gotten involved.
“You mean the Champion did something? Like assassinating the emperor?”
Of course, he was joking. As far as Allen knew, the emperor’s assassination had never been made public. He’d just been probing, but Lisette’s reply caught him off guard.
“As if the Champion would do that. No, it’s the opposite. She caught the emperor’s assassin.”
“She...caught the assassin?”
The words shocked him twice over. For one, the fact she said it so openly meant the assassination was public knowledge. For another, Akira had been the one to resolve it. Both were completely different from the knowledge of events that Allen possessed.
“I thought it was pretty famous, but I guess the Champion did something similar in this country, didn’t she? I suppose it’s not strange you’d only know about that. The empire’s still another country, after all.”
Lisette seemed satisfied with her own reasoning, but Allen found her words surprising all the same. If she meant the incident involving Craig, then yes, Akira had been involved. So it wasn’t that strange that something similar had happened elsewhere...but still, hearing it stated as an obvious fact when he’d known nothing about it felt strange.
There were more pressing matters, though. Switching gears, Allen voiced a question that her explanation had raised.
“Catching the emperor’s assassin sounds like a good thing. So why did it make the empire allergic to outsiders?”
“Normally it would be a good thing, yeah. But for the empire, it was a problem. Remember I said they were already unstable?”
“You did. So?”
“The cause was the emperor’s assassination. The empire had planned to use the capture of the assassin as a turning point to rebuild. But it was the Champion—a foreigner—who did it. Instead of stabilizing the situation, it just made things worse.”
“You mean...that’s the reason?”
“Exactly. They say that because a foreigner meddled, the empire’s still in chaos, so they decided to shut everyone out.”
It was so absurd that Allen couldn’t help but sigh. Lisette’s expression suggested she shared the sentiment.
“That’s just shifting the blame, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Pretty much. Still, I wouldn’t say it’s totally incomprehensible. If they didn’t clamp down, they’d just keep spiraling. It’s a desperate measure.”
It was understandable, but that didn’t make it any less of a nuisance.
“Speaking of nuisances...it’s bad for you, Allen, but even worse for the elves. I hear the ones living in the empire are treated like foreigners and getting the short end of the stick. No wonder they’d give up on the empire... Oops!” Lisette caught herself, clearly regretting her slip.
Allen wasn’t about to press her, but...elves giving up on the empire? That made him think of Noel, the Elven Queen, being here now, and when she’d been in the royal capital before. The word “exile” drifted through his mind.
Hmm...makes it all the more important I don’t cause any trouble.
She was probably in the capital under the pretext of other business. If someone from the kingdom stirred things up, it could draw unwanted suspicion. He’d have to act carefully.
And maybe that was why Lisette had been telling him all this. It wasn’t strictly necessary to go into such detail unless she was deliberately warning him not to act rashly. Guild jobs were an adventurer’s responsibility, but if someone caused trouble in the empire on a guild job, it could still reflect on the guild. In that, her caution made perfect sense, though he didn’t recall telling Lisette anything about Noel...
“Hmm? Something on your mind?”
“Nah...just thinking that even if you call yourself new, you really are a proper guild receptionist.”
“Of course. Even if I’m still green, standing at this desk means I’ve got to take the job seriously.”
Allen hadn’t underestimated her, but maybe he’d been a little too casual. He shrugged in surrender. Sneaking in had always been the last resort, so if it could be avoided, so much the better. The problem was that no other method had appeared.
“By the way, is this urgent?”
“No one said it was, but I’d like to get it done quickly.”
If it had just been about money, he could have taken other jobs, but this wasn’t that simple. Judging by Noel’s reaction, she wasn’t going to let it go. No matter how long it took, she’d want to head to the mountain she’d lived on. She didn’t need to stay in town for that—she could return to the empire first—but Allen was sure her personality was much the same as the Noel he knew, which meant she’d stay until the job was finished. That was clearly a problem, and while it wasn’t strictly his problem, he couldn’t just ignore it. So the sooner it was over, the better.
“Hmm...I feel like if we took our time, we could work something out, but...no, that’d just cause trouble. Guess I’ll have to use the option I was hoping to avoid.”
“You mean we’re back to sneaking in?”
“No, please don’t do that. This is to stop you from doing that. I might get chewed out, but...well, she’d have something to gain too, so hopefully that’ll make her agree.”
“She? Her?”
Maybe Lisette had someone in mind as a contact. If they’d been a safe choice, she’d have just introduced them—so the fact she was reluctant was worrying. What could this mean?
“Ah, perfect timing.”
“Eh?”
Allen followed her gaze toward the guild entrance.
Standing there, having just walked in, was someone he knew, someone he’d only seen earlier today.
“Huh? What’s with you two staring at me? Do I have something on my face?” Anriette, looking puzzled, tilted her head.