“So, what did you find out?”
“A suspicious someone who presumably checks all the boxes. We captured an assemblyman named Alveiro Velburn. After a number of inquiries, most signs pointed to him as the guilty party.”
That was Fynar’s answer to my question. We were currently in Reauxgard’s imperial castle. He’d asked to meet here since there seemed to be progress on the terror attack. I’d been recharging at home these past few days, so I was ready and raring to go. I’d followed Miss Iluna’s wise counsel too, about letting my wives spoil me, and boy, had they!
“The way you said all that makes me think you don’t actually believe it. Am I right?”
“How very astute. Yes, I believe something is amiss. Which is why I thought the two of us should suss out the truth for ourselves.”
“Let me guess, we’re heading to...”
“Indeed. To where that young man is being held.”
We descended the rough stone staircase, our footsteps echoing, and eventually arrived at a prison cell. There were two soldiers standing guard and a middle-aged man with his hands shackled. So this is the guy...
It was obvious from his scruffy beard, his bedraggled clothes, and the fatigue on his face that he’d been here a while. But the thing that really struck me was his eyes, which still exuded power despite his exhaustion. They were eyes I’d seen many times before, radiating a powerful will and determination. Yeah, he’s got the kinda vibe that makes it easy to mark him as shady.
The man noticed us approaching. For a moment, he looked surprised, but then he bowed deeply.
“Well, well. What a pleasure to meet you both, Your Majesties. I hope you’ll forgive me for greeting you in such a deplorable state.”
Apparently, he knew us.
“We don’t mind at all, as we’re the ones who put you in here. So you are Alveiro.”
“Yes, my name is Alveiro Velburn. Since you’ve ventured all the way down here, I take it you have business with me?”
“Indeed we do. We have a few questions for you. I’ll be frank—were you involved in the terror attacks?”
“Damn, Fynar, you weren’t kidding about the ‘frank’ part.”
“We all know why we’re here, so I see no need to beat around the bush.”
True.
“Ha ha. I second that. Very blunt. Then I shall return the favor—it wasn’t me.”
Alveiro sounded very sure, so Fynar pressed him.
“But you’re dissatisfied with the current form of government, are you not?”
“I don’t deny that. I accept that foreigners are in charge of the business of running this country. I have to, since we lost the war. However, it’s wrong for a foreigner to be the head of this country. We won’t be able to move forward that way.”
Alveiro looked me right in the eye as he spoke. Telling me straight to my face, huh? He’s got balls, I’ll give him that.
“Your previous emperor was the one who told me to take on the job.”
“I know. But if you’ll pardon me for saying this, none of you understand the sheer stupidity of human beings. ‘This is the most efficient way to do things. Therefore, that is how we should do them.’ Few people are able to think so rationally.”
The man continued.
“The emperor is the symbol of this country. As such, we cannot accept a situation in which he is a foreigner. That is our logic. You may think we’re being rather self-serving, and you wouldn’t be wrong. That’s why, rather than concluding them right away, my plan was to continue negotiating over the next decade or so, seeking a path to a change of government.”
Ya know, it wasn’t like I didn’t understand what he was trying to say. It was totally reasonable for the people of Reauxgard to want that.
“All right, then. Next question. You recently entered the materials storage facility and weapons depot, didn’t you? Might you have any explanation for either of those visits?”
“Yes. Personal reasons.”
“Personal reasons. I see.”
“Yes. Nothing to do with terrorism.”
Knowing he was under suspicion, knowing his answer would only worsen his position, he still went with it? Huh.
Fynar’s interrogation didn’t end there.
Alveiro claimed that he wasn’t responsible for the crimes, but also that he was also unhappy with the current government. He’d even set foot in the storage facility where the teleportation dagger had probably been hidden, as well as the Third Imperial Weapons Storehouse, the source of the explosives used in the attack, shortly beforehand. He stayed stubbornly silent on that front.
All of that made him look extremely suspicious. Talking to him had also made me realize that he had the resolve and capacity to take serious action if he decided it was genuinely necessary. That was just the kind of aura he gave off. Even if he was a good person who thought terrorism was stupid, when it came to whether he could do it or not, the answer was that he could.
The Demon King next to me. Shendra, the former emperor. That ginger piece of shit who’d died in the war. And Nell’s boss, Carlotta, the lady knight commander. I sensed the same thing in this man as I did in them.
After asking him our questions, we stepped away from Alveiro.
“Interesting. I get why you don’t think he’s the culprit now.”
“While I have no doubt that terrorists lurk around him, I don’t think it’s him. I sense something amiss about everything in these incidents. A certain contrivance on the enemy’s part. Which is why I believe Alveiro being the culprit...”
I finished Fynar’s thought.
“Is too obvious.”
“Exactly. Though we still don’t have any evidence that he isn’t, I can’t help but feel as if the stage was deliberately set for him. Moreover, my intuition tells me that Alveiro is hiding something from us. The only clear thing about any of this is the complicated, tangled web.”
Yeah, he was definitely hiding something. Especially in light of his visits to the materials warehouse and the weapons depot. He’d practically confessed that something had happened when we’d questioned him about those. What was he so desperate to hide at the risk of putting himself at an even greater disadvantage?
“I guess this is a mess we won’t be solving so quickly and easily, huh?”
“Now do you see the bind I’m in? Hence I was thinking I’d ask for your help.”
“I don’t think there’s anything I can do, though. This stuff isn’t exactly my forte.”
“No, there’s something only you can do. Specifically, I want Alveiro to meet him. Since they were such good friends, I thought we could glean some information from any discussion they might have.”
“Uh... Oh. Ohhh. You sly little demon.”
When he saw that I’d figured out his plan, Fynar smiled his usual scheming, amused smile. Thanks to him, I’d remembered that we had our very own wild card.