I was making the final preparations for an attack on Anheim when Schünzel and Neurath asked me about the letters I had purposefully dirtied. It wasn’t like it was a pressing issue, but seeing as I had no reason to hide it either, I gave them a quick explanation.
That day, I had asked some adventurers leaving in the afternoon to take with them a report regarding Anheim’s governance. I had to submit those things by public route, so I decided I’d send it separately from the one addressed to my father, which I would send directly to our estate later on.
However, I had the adventurers of ill repute leave in the morning with instructions to follow a detour that would take them through several noble domains. The reason I gave for the detour was to ensure that at least one group made it to the capital, in case the main route was impassable. In truth, I kept the adventurer groups separate so they could do as they saw fit on the job—like selling the letter to a noble, for example.
I wanted to remove from Anheim any adventurers suspected of ties to the Salters’ Guild, and this proved a good excuse for sending them far away. If they failed to deliver the letter to the capital, they probably wouldn’t come back here. They might have been thinking they could come back once I had been overthrown, but I had no plans on giving them that opportunity.
The one worry I had was that all three letters might be intercepted, and none would reach my father intact, so I decided to use Morse code. However, I couldn’t deny that I was at least a little afraid that they wouldn’t be able to decipher the letter. Still, even under that worst-case scenario, my father would probably get mad and send someone with a reply, so I only had to wait for that person to get here.
“I’ve got loads of guys envious of me after all.”
“And you deliberately had the letter carried through those nobles’ domains?”
“Yeah. Made sure to tell the adventurers we weren’t on good terms too.”
It’s true I was half just venting about them, but it was also true that those nobles harbored some envy for me that I couldn’t be bothered to care about. Being the son of a count family left my hands full already. I didn’t want any other rank. I had no plans on getting in the way of anyone else’s promotions, and I actually wanted them to just overtake me and get their fancy new titles.
“This is just my prediction, but I think that group is going to go missing in either Count Gahmlich’s domain or Marquess Cortolezis’s. Probably the latter.” Though I didn’t know if that was because they were going to sell me out to a noble or because they’d be put to death just for being a messenger from Anheim.
Marquess Cortolezis had a large fiefdom in the southeast of Wein, and he was from a notable military lineage. Still, I heard that his family had problems. Not only was the head currently recovering from illness, they also were getting some strange looks because he was out in his domain when, as a marquess, he should have been in the capital. The family was so powerful they didn’t have to worry about such things.
“Still, what led the marquess to so despise you?” Neurath asked.
“Hm… Well, I think there are two reasons.”
“And those are?” Schünzel pressed.
I paused, putting my thoughts together in a way that would satisfy both their curiosity.
“First, they have something to say about my position in noble society. The simple reason for this is that I’m at the right age to be a candidate for Princess Laura’s partner.”
It was extremely annoying. Mazel and Laura were a much better match. I had no intention of inserting myself into the picture.
Still, because people viewed me as one of Laura’s possible suitors, few were opposed to her journeying with Mazel to defeat the Demon Lord. In that light, the royal family’s silence regarding rumors surrounding me and Laura allowed Mazel’s quest to continue undisturbed. Just as the crown prince had asked of me after the Demon Stampede, it seems like I’d have to take the hits for Mazel.
“So, those who are vying to be the second princess’s husband see me as a nuisance.”
Still, they couldn’t just assassinate me. Even if it wasn’t me specifically, should any of Laura’s potential partners be murdered, the first suspect would be another candidate. And that was not even counting how big of a deal it would be for a minster’s son to be killed. An incident like that would merit a full-fledged investigation. The risk was too great.
Plus, this kingdom’s royal family was quite adept. One wrong step, and your head would roll too. Thus, it was easy to assume that all they could do to keep me from marrying the princess was to sully my reputation until I was deemed unworthy.
“But I doubt that’ll go well for them.”
“And why is that?”
“Because His Highness the Crown Prince already knows all this.”
I already let him know that I would be spreading bad rumors about myself in the capital. Even if a noble tried to hinder me by spreading them, it would just get swept up into the rumors I was spreading myself. Plus, if there was anyone stupid enough to believe those rumors and try to use them against me, I could just reveal their plans and ruin their reputations. All of this was good for me.
I was sure my father couldn’t be too happy, but I’d just have to apologize for that later.
“I’m the son of a count and minister. Any half-assed attempts would just backfire, and unless they came from a great house as well, there would be hell to pay. That means there’s a limit on who we can assume might try anything on me.”
Since Marquess Cortolezis and I belonged to different factions, I didn’t have all the details on him, but I’d heard he didn’t have the best relationship with the king. If the heir to a minister and deputy chosen directly by the king was a playboy, that would indirectly hurt the king’s reputation as well.