Even though Gazell was his friend, he couldn’t let that cloud his judgment. As long as there was a possibility of wrongdoing, he had to do his due diligence and keep investigating, just as he had told Gazell previously.
“At any rate, we need to separate Wels and Nort. You need to intercept all written communications between them and switch them out with false ones. Convince Wels that your spy is Nort’s messenger. After that, follow through and give further instructions. Have the spy close to Nort destroy all communications they can find from Wels, and make sure Cordis doesn’t have any of it saved. If he discovers any in Cordis’s possession, have him destroy those too.”
Alf bowed his head at Romello’s orders and quickly excused himself from the room.
“Wels and Cordis are similar, aren’t they?” Romello murmured once Alf left.
“Do you think so?”
“Yes, their circumstances in life.”
Louis inwardly agreed. Wels didn’t have Gazell’s talent with a sword, and Cordis didn’t have Miles’s constitution. Neither of them was accepted by their families, something that certainly must have made them sad and frustrated. They were probably incredibly sad and frustrated because their own blood relatives pushed them aside.
“They were both overcome by such hatred from not being accepted that they want to destroy their own worlds. I pity them, but that doesn’t mean we should forgive them.”
“That’s true. Compassion is one thing, but there’s also…”
“Letting your emotions get the best of you.”
“That’s right.”
Romello had hammered those points into Louis’s head since he was old enough to take over his father’s work. If you didn’t have compassion, people wouldn’t follow you. But at the same time, you mustn’t let your emotions get the best of you. If that happens, you make impulsive decisions instead of thoughtful ones. The end result is never the one you hope for, and the only one left with regrets is yourself.
“Are you going to tell Merellis?”
“Yes. After we clear Gazell’s name from any suspicion.”
“That’s kind of you. Or perhaps…it’s the opposite?” As Romello pointed out, Louis’s response could be seen both ways. If he told Merellis before they ruled out Gazell’s involvement, she would be burdened with a heavy secret. No matter how much she trusted her father, it would hurt her to know that he was suspected to be involved with this.
So, from that point of view, it could be seen as a compassionate choice that considered Merellis’s feelings.
On the other hand, if she found out he was being suspected, how could she not tell her father? And if he was involved, they couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t move to conceal the truth. Even if he didn’t, Merellis would then have to wonder the entire time whether or not he would. So, in that respect, Louis’s choice had been tough, indeed.
“That’s an unfair question.” Louis spoke in a restrained voice, not betraying his true feelings. He didn’t answer his father directly. “Either way, you said the way Wels operates is very clever, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Alf had a very difficult time uncovering his connection with Count Luhmer, and he’s still having a tough time finding those ores he hid.”
“Perhaps he has been in contact with Cordis and Nort since then?”
“It’s possible. We’ll see what Alf’s investigation uncovers, but I think it’s quite likely. After all, the men who were going to kill the dukes were wearing our military uniforms.”
“Then someone close to Wels must have used the Anderson family name to obtain the uniforms and then sent them to Nort.”
Both of the men paled at the suggestion.
“Sharing confidential information is enough to be counted as treason, but this would count as aiding and abetting an attempted attack.”
“That’s not all. It’s possible he used the ore belonging to House Anderson to forge the swords that would have been used in the dirty deed. Goodness!”
“Yes. If word got out, that could destroy the family. And in the worst-case scenario…the entire family could get the death penalty.”
Louis started trembling at Romello’s words, then hung his head.
His father continued. “And then you wouldn’t be able to marry Merellis, of course. There’s no way the future heir of Armelia would be allowed to marry someone from a treasonous family.”
“Father!” Louis raised his voice at Romello, which was very rare for him.
“Calm down. That’s only if it goes public.”
“I know. You’re not going to tell anyone, then?”
“We only have a cease-fire agreement with Tweil. The war isn’t officially over. I can’t allow the kingdom to lose their hero in such a situation. Now, all this is provided we find out that Gazell is innocent after all.”
Louis felt a shiver run down his spine when he noticed his father didn’t entirely answer his question. He let out a nervous chuckle. “Did you tell me this so that I could become your accomplice, then?”
All Romello could do was smile. Under normal circumstances, he would have to notify interested parties of this right away. But he couldn’t do that this time because House Armelia would face devastating consequences. “Normally, I’d just keep it to myself.”
“There’s no way you could. You’re already working too hard on the situation with Rimmel. How could you do this on your own? Plus…” Louis stared into his father’s eyes. He noticed that there was no fear or panic in them. “I swore I would protect her, and I’m going to do that…even if that means it puts me on the opposite side of you.”
“I see. I feel like I just heard a very passionate confession of love. Anyway, jokes aside…until we have more information from Alf, we need to work on seeing what we can find out about how those men got ahold of our military uniforms.”
“That’s true. I can take care of that. You just concentrate on dealing with Rimmel.”
“I know.”
Louis excused himself from his father’s study and went back to his room to work alone.