Four days later, Ras arrived in the Kingdom of Charlgia. The kingdom was located just outside the Argyll Empire’s territory, across the vast and precipitous Cabrath Mountains. It possessed little territory, but it had a long history, and many foreign nations recognized the influence of the Charlgian royal family.
As a result, the capital city of Barlama was often chosen to host international conferences and the like. Built on the shores of a vast lake, Barlama was known far and wide as a beautiful city rich in arts and culture. A network of canals crisscrossed the city streets, while sturdy white walls protected the nation’s subjects.
In recent weeks, the main port leading into this elegant city was overwhelmed by a sudden influx of merchants seeking to ply their wares and cater to the continent’s upper crust, and the customs posts at the border were bustling with people.
A border official ran his eyes over the papers he’d been handed.
“Taras Kaylian… A mercenary, eh?”
He and his interlocutor were in a Chasseur hangar located near the harbor. It was practically necessary to own a Chasseur if you wanted to cross the border safely, due to the dangerous wildlands that separated Charlgia from its neighbors. Even so, a Chasseur was a dangerous weapon, so its use had to be regulated and controlled. That was why any aura knight with one had to undergo an additional customs inspection to enter the country. Naturally, the inspector had the power to reject the aura knight’s entry request and deport them from the border, so it was a good idea to behave oneself around them, no matter how unfriendly they were.
“I’m an aura knight, actually,” Ras replied with a cheerful smile. “I’m just working caravan security for now, though.”
Ras was entering the kingdom under an assumed name. If word got out that a Guardian of Silver was in the country, it would be very difficult for him to carry out his work undetected. Still, while the name on it was fake, Ras’s passport had been prepared for him by the imperial family through the proper means. There was no chance it wouldn’t pass inspection.
“Papers?”
“I have an exit permit from the empire. That should be enough, right? You can have my guild registration card, too, if you’d like.”
“Hmph. So what have you got in this Caladrius? A Chasseur? What trash heap did you pull this one out of?”
Glancing at the vehicle Ras arrived in, the border guard let out a disgruntled snort. It was a jet-black model he’d never seen before.
The Caladrius was in its compact state, with its wings folded in, but even taking that into consideration, it was considerably smaller than the others in the hangar. The body of the unit, where a cargo container was supposed to go, was completely empty, and you could see the machine’s frame beyond, while what armor plating there was had obviously been cobbled together from several different sources. The customs inspector’s evaluation was not far off the mark.
“Even so, it’s been in my family for generations. Please take care of it,” Ras said.
“Don’t you worry about that. Security around here is top notch. And even if it weren’t, I doubt anyone would want to pinch that piece of junk anyway.”
Saying this, the border guard pressed his approval stamp onto Ras’s passport. Ras was impressed by his professionality. It wasn’t rare for customs officers to drum up false charges and try to extort a bribe. If corruption was this rare in the kingdom, then Ras reasoned crime must be relatively low, too. Any would-be assassin would have a hard time moving around in that kind of environment.
“Try not to piss off the guards, will you? They’re all on edge over the summit in a few weeks.”
“Thanks. I’ll be on my best behavior,” said Ras, waving as the inspector departed. Then he took out his pocket watch and breathed a sigh of relief. It had taken longer than expected to make it through the kingdom’s immigration checks, but Ras had managed to enter the country without raising a fuss.
The international summit for signatories of the Shrumland Alliance was beginning in eighteen days. Auriol Ref Argenteia, crown prince of the Argyll Empire, was expected to be in attendance, and it was there he would meet Princess Tishna and fall in love. Of course, while it was meant to look natural, that “chance” meeting had already been planned down to the second by government officials of both countries.
Originally, the plan had been for Ras to accompany the crown prince and meet Princess Tishna at the same time. However, that plan had been scrapped after new information came in regarding the existence of an assassination plot targeting the royal princess.
Ras’s new job was to locate any assassins dispatched to the kingdom and eliminate them, along with their coconspirators if possible. It was for this reason that he arrived in Charlgia a little earlier than planned.
The problem was, the empire possessed barely any leads pertaining to the identities of these assassins. That and Ras was essentially working alone. Auriol’s arranged marriage to Princess Tishna was still a state secret, so the empire could not publicly dispatch any personnel to Charlgia to help fend off the attack. However, Ras couldn’t count on any assistance from the kingdom’s side, either. The empire couldn’t exactly admit to the kingdom that a cabal of conspirators operating out of their own country was planning to assassinate the royal princess. The most the empire could do, besides sending Ras, was to mobilize all agents of the Silver Fangs operating in the kingdom’s territory.
Auriol was expected to arrive in Charlgia seven days before the summit. He would meet Princess Tishna that night. She would be tasked with keeping His Imperial Highness entertained for the duration of his visit. Any assassination attempt was surely going to happen then. If someone wanted to damage the relationship between the empire and the kingdom, that would be the best way to do it.
In other words, Ras had roughly ten days in which to root out and eliminate these assassins. All while navigating the ins and outs of a foreign country. It was a tall order, even for him.
Just then a small girl climbed down from the Caladrius to glare daggers at the departing official. Ras’s traveling partner on this voyage was the girl who proclaimed herself the Vildhjärta’s external access point and whom Ras had named Koko.
“Urgh. He insulted the Vildhjärta!” she whined.
“Calm down, Koko. We don’t want anyone finding out the Vildhjärta can fly. It’s easier to do our jobs if people underestimate us.”
Ras grabbed her by the scruff and pulled her back, half fearing she would assault the border guard if he didn’t.
Inside the Caladrius that Ras had arrived in was Koko’s “body,” the Vildhjärta. Many custom Chasseurs came with their own unique equipment, and the Vildhjärta was no exception. It was equipped with a flight unit for unaided air travel. While it was not completely unheard of for a Chasseur to have one, such a device was nonetheless not standard. If anyone found out the Vildhjärta had one, it would inevitably arouse curiosity. The Vildhjärta was once the personal Chasseur of the Black Blade. It would only take one glance from somebody in the know, and Ras’s connection to the empire would be revealed.
That was why Ras and company had taken pains to hide the Vildhjärta’s identity by covering it in a fake “shell.” The result was rather ugly, but it worked wonders at fooling the border guard. Ras inwardly gave his commendations to Izai and the other engineers at Central Command who had helped produce it.