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DAWN would be breaking any moment now.
I looked up at the lightening sky and realized the fighting had finally stopped.
We’d captured the enemy leader. Their encampment was full of strangers who were unconfirmed as enemies or allies, and the main force of the royal knighthood was heading straight for them. Realizing they had no hope of winning, the remaining enemies began throwing down their weapons and surrendering.
“Take these two to the fortress,” I instructed the knights from the main force as they rushed into the encampment.
In addition to being tied up, the enemy leader and his subordinate’s magic was bound. They were dragged off to await their fate in the fortress’s dungeon. Of course, the Intelligence Department would take point on their interrogation.
“Beast Knights Legion! We’ll take care of things here, so you go search for Les. With the help of your animal partners’ keen sense of smell, you should be able to find him quicker than anyone else, right?”
I recalled something Les had told me… Wild bears had an excellent sense of smell, but tracking engaged their primal instincts, and once they found their “prey,” they usually ripped it to pieces.
But this was Les, the man who’d poured every ounce of love he possessed into all of the animals under his care. There was no way the wild bears would attack him… right?
“Thank you!”
The beast knights didn’t waste another minute, turning and running from the encampment to begin their rescue mission.
It’s better this way… They have a better chance of finding him faster than I would.
“All right, back to business! We’re going to search every last inch of this place for clues!”
First things first, we went through the documents inside the tent and the supplies they’d transported here. In the process, we came across something puzzling.
“Director, look at this.”
One of my subordinates pointed to a box that contained several platinum coins from the Linus Empire.
“See if you can find anything else from the Linus Empire.”
If it was just the money, that was fine. The Linus Empire was a massive country with a long history. Many people collected money from the Linus Empire rather than that of their own country, reasoning that its value was more stable.
“Director Seerio, we’ve located the inventory list.”
Among the disarray of paperwork, Rinali had found the records of supplies delivered to this encampment. All of the things you might expect for a military campaign were listed: weapons, magical items, medical supplies, and food rations. However, it didn’t list the source of any of these goods.
“Was there anything else listing a name?”
“No… Not that we’ve been able to locate so far, at least.”
It couldn’t have been easy gathering such a large amount of supplies. I would go as far as to say it was probably impossible for these items to have been sourced from Icoux or the Alliance of Nations. Meaning there was a high likelihood that enemies had infiltrated The Kingdom of Gaché, the Linus Empire, or Milma.
Either that or the Church of Divine Creation in Farshia might’ve had a hand in it.
Unfortunately, unless we found some kind of concrete evidence, that was all nothing more than conjecture.
We searched every corner of the encampment and turned up a few clues indicating that at least some of the supplies had most likely been sent from the Linus Empire.
One crate believed to contain weapons was marked with the symbol of the Linus Empire’s blacksmiths’ guild.
We also discovered a letter that was unsigned but embossed with the crest of a noble family from the Linus Empire. The wax seal used to close the letter was common, but the paper the letter was written on was watermarked with a distinct design.
“Figure out which noble family uses this crest.”
Let’s head back to the fortress and see what the enemy leader has to say.
After communicating with the main force and confirming they would take care of things here, my subordinates and I returned to the fortress.
“Good job out there today, Seerio.”
The person who came out to greet us as we arrived back at the fortress was none other than the Provincial Lord of the Dierta Province’s son— the Kingdom of Gaché’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eugene Dierta.
“What are you doing here, Lord Eugene?”
“What do you mean, ‘what am I doing here’? Contrary to appearances, I do take my position as Duke Dierta’s heir seriously, you know? I heard that the fighting had gotten particularly brutal, so I came to check it out.”
To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t expected him to even be in the country. Eugene always seemed to be traveling somewhere or other, so I’d assumed he was probably wandering around Icoux or the Alliance of Nations as if he was on a leisurely vacation despite being well aware of the danger.
“So, what did you find?”
“…There’s no concrete evidence, but it’s possible the Linus Empire might secretly be involved,” I said, showing him the letter we’d discovered.
Eugene immediately recognized that this was watermarked letterhead because he used a magical item to shine light through it so he could see the design.
“This is…” Eugene seemed surprised by the embossed seal. It appeared he recognized whose mark this was. “This is the crest of Earl Helios of the Linus Empire.”
“Helios? I’ve never heard of them.”
“I may be remembering incorrectly, but I believe they preside over a small, mostly rural province close to the border with the Alliance of Nations.”
If this information was correct, it meant that Lady Nefertima could be in danger in the Linus Empire at this very moment.
“I will request Gouche to make it an official order as soon as possible, but in the meantime, please get right to work investigating the connection between this incident and Earl Helios. We need to figure this out before anything happens to Duke Osphe’s children in the Linus Empire.”
Technically, I couldn’t obey this order. The Intelligence Department was a part of the Royal Knighthood, and the Royal Knighthood didn’t answer to the nobility. The only things we acted on were direct orders from the king and requests from the citizens.
“Please bring me orders from either the king or the general. If not, we will be guilty of treason for what we’re about to do.”
“Of course. I’ll return to the royal palace immediately and request a royal decree.”
So it’s come to a royal decree, has it? That just goes to show how priceless the beloved child Lady Nefertima is to the royal family.
“Oh, also…” Lord Eugene was just about to turn and walk away when he stopped and called over his shoulder to me. “It seems that Lestin Ogma has somehow survived.”
Those words filled me with instant relief. He’d been saved. The beast knights had made it in time.
I wouldn’t learn the true meaning of these words until later.