That said, there wasn’t any guarantee we’d be able to sleep somewhere with rooms even though we’d gotten there in time. After all, the hardworking gatekeepers of Vestigo had their spears drawn the moment they spotted our group of Brigandian knights on horseback approaching them. I could admit to myself that their vigilance and high morale—far out on the borderlands of their homeland, and right next to the territory of their most recent enemy to boot—was impressive.
“Pray pardon us for arriving suddenly without notice! I am Viscount Ark McGuine of the Kingdom of Brigandia! I’ve come on urgent business, and I wish to speak to the viceroy!”
When I announced myself and informed them of my business, they started freaking out. Looked like my name and infamy as “the Black Wolf” worked here too—though probably in a bad way.
I waited for a reply while the soldiers talked among themselves. Once they came to a decision, a lone man—probably the commander—stepped forward.
“Is the business you speak of in relation to that of Sir Gale, who passed through here earlier?!”
The bold way he spoke was admirable; despite his bravado, his knees were quaking. It was impressive how he managed to conceal his fears, understand what we were here for, and also say things in a way that only those in the know would understand.
“Yes, it is! I have summarized those matters in a letter, which I request that you deliver to the viceroy!”
While I spoke, one of my subordinates dismounted and approached me. I handed him the letter I prepared beforehand, and he accepted it while giving me the sheathed sword he pulled from his belt. With his hands in the air to demonstrate that he was unarmed, he walked towards the commander.
Really, I would have preferred to put myself in such a potentially vulnerable position, but alas—as the one in charge, I couldn’t take the risk.
Plus, the knight was one of my finest, and I would have disrespected him by not allowing him to perform this task. He too was prepared to risk his life.
Luckily for us (or rather, it was kind of obvious it’d happen this way), their commander didn’t attack my subordinate while he was showing that he wasn’t a threat, and accepted the letter.
“We have received the letter! Please, wait there!” the commander said, handing off the letter to one of his men to deliver.
Now, we just had to hope the viceroy would actually read it...but it’d probably be fine.
I’d looked into our neighbor Sylvario in the past, and had (of course) found info on the border cities in each nation. Vestigo’s viceroy was apparently a bit of a coward who floundered in the face of unexpected situations, but could be decisive upon receiving enough information to act. That was why he’d let Gale in to investigate the princess situation, and allowed him to continue on farther into the country.
If I were inclined to nitpick, I’d think it would’ve been nice if he’d sent us word of the princess’s no-show immediately, but there was no helping that now.
Not many people could keep a level head if a princess was missing and circumstances suggested foul play. I’d bet the viceroy had just thought it was a fluke in the beginning, and that she’d arrive the next day. But because of those thoughts, things were getting a lot worse.
As I was standing there in contemplation, another soldier returned. Apparently, we’d gotten the response we were looking for.
“We have received permission from the viceroy to allow you inside! We will show you the way, so please follow us!”
“Understood. Thank you!”
I yelled back my response, and we proceeded to ride our horses into the city. We did end up getting a lot of funny looks from the townspeople, but of course a bunch of knights from Brigandia suddenly showing up would make them curious. All in all, they seemed bewildered.
Whatever the case was, we made it to the viceroy’s mansion and commenced with our meeting.
“I’m so terribly sorry that someone as famous as yourself had to travel all the way here, Sir McGuine.”
“No, let’s skip the niceties. What in the world has happened?”
“Yes, erm... We received word that Her Royal Highness had left the capital on her way to marry into Brigandia, but on the day she was scheduled to arrive, she didn’t show. I assumed she would no doubt be traveling with a large entourage, and small issues on the road could cause delays. So, I decided to wait. But when she still showed no signs of arriving, I was considering confirming the plans. I was about to send a messenger to the capital, when...”
Damn, it’s pretty much exactly what I thought.
But if they did send them proper word that she’d been on her way, then we could only assume something happened en route.
“Viceroy, have you heard any rumors of large-scale attacks lately?”
“We’ve looked into it, but found nothing. It’s why I don’t believe that anything has happened to them, but...”
It was probably more accurate that he didn’t want to believe, but I’d refrain from hounding him about it since that was completely understandable.
“It seems that one of my knights, Sir Gale, has gone on ahead to investigate, but I gather that you haven’t heard anything from him since. If that’s so, then we’d like to continue on to follow him.”
“That is... You’d what?!”
The viceroy was hesitant to agree to my request, but a certain document I had on hand shocked him speechless—he stared so hard at it he could’ve burned a hole through it. A few seconds later, he weakly nodded back.
The document in question was one signed by His Royal Highness Prince Alphonse, designating me as a diplomatic special envoy. Thanks to international agreements, a special envoy was granted unimpeded travel even during wartime, and was immune from arrest without very clearly committing a crime.
In fact, in cases of self-defense, they would even be forgiven for using force. This clause was enacted apparently because some dumbass royal once attacked a foreign envoy inside their palace. Obviously, diplomacy would be impossible if they were dead, so it was decided that if you can’t talk with words, then you’ve gotta use your sword instead.
Not only did they want to avoid anything like that happening, but international agreements such as this were sworn to God, so they were upheld with extreme strictness. After all, God’s existence meant that a nation breaking an oath could bring about divine punishment and spell the end of their country.
Anyway, His Royal Highness designated me as one of these incredibly privileged special envoys because he foresaw something like this happening.
Honestly, sometimes His Royal Highness’s gift of foresight frightened me.
“Oh, yes. Would you be able to send messengers to the other towns along the road to the capital? With the situation being as it is, I believe that this all would go a lot better if we could travel smoothly to search for Her Royal Highness. Of course, I’ll make sure to let His Majesty the King of Sylvario know how quickly you worked to resolve this issue, Viceroy.”
“Y-You’d say that to His Majesty? Well then...”
The viceroy was still pretty nervous, but it looked like he was gradually starting to accept what was going on. If he let us through now and we found the princess and her entourage, then he would have contributed to our success. And if I, a special envoy, relayed that to his king, then it would equate to Brigandia itself acknowledging it, and his distinguished service would be known internationally.
If she was never found, then just letting us through would show that he at least did the bare minimum to help. There could likewise be huge problems if I kicked up a fuss about everything, but of course I had no intention of doing that, so that risk was almost nil.
On the flip side, if he stopped and turned us away here, and then Her Royal Highness never showed up, the agreement between our nations would be breached. Either war would resume or Sylvario would have to pay further monetary reparations. There would be no way for the viceroy to avoid taking responsibility for that.
With all this in mind, from his point of view it would ultimately be best to let me through, and maybe even make things more convenient for me.
“Please, allow our knights to accompany you. If you will, then I will assist you.”
Oh right—it would be a bit iffy for us to go alone. It’d be different if I was planning on doing something bad, but since I had no intention of doing anything like that, it’d be better for us if they came along.
“I thank you for your assistance, and for your wise decision, Viceroy,” I said, giving the man a knight’s salute.