As I crouched down in front of him, the servant’s eyes darted around wildly.
“Were you trying to assassinate the prince?”
The servant shook his head frantically, as if insisting that was absolutely not the case.
Hmm… His mana scent is rather pure for an assassin.
I removed his gag for the time being.
The servant, breathing heavily, quickly dropped to his knees and bowed his head.
“I had absolutely no ill intentions. Please believe me!”
“You snuck into the prince’s room with good intentions?”
“Th-That…”
“Were you planning to bring him a snack or something?”
The servant bit his lip, apparently unable to come up with an answer.
“There are plenty of ways to uncover the truth without hearing it from your own mouth. Or…”
I gestured toward Kay with my chin.
“I could give you a very diverse range of experiences.”
Whatever he imagined, the servant’s face turned deathly pale.
“P-Please kill me!”
Of course, I had no intention of actually torturing or killing him.
Because…
He might be one of Elhardt’s people.
Considering the reputation Elhardt had built as the guardian deity of Bardia, it was certainly possible.
Even though Elhardt had enough power to break his chains and escape, he had never once tried to leave the detached palace. Yet there was no trace of despair or resignation in him.
He was clearly preparing something of his own and waiting for the right moment.
Then naturally, he must have his own sources of information.
There had to be someone gathering information on the situations in both Bardia and Cradion and reporting back to him.
Though this person might not be that informant.
I stood up and spoke to Kay.
“Kay, bring the prince here.”
“Understood. Ah, but what about his restraints? The chains don’t seem long enough for him to leave his room.”
“The prince can take them off himself, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
“They look like mana-control restraints. He can break those…?”
Kay tilted his head, but nevertheless went to fetch Elhardt.
A little while later, he came trudging back down alone.
“What happened? Why are you alone?”
“When I told him the captain wanted to see him, he said to ask you to wait a little.”
Kay said it with an expression as though he were barely holding back laughter.
“Then he hurriedly started getting ready. Oh, and I think you’ll have to fix his chains later. He completely broke them.”
“So he’s a man who knows how to dress up.”
Carthaeus’s eyes gleamed from beside me.
…Oh dear. This is troublesome.
I had only called Elhardt here so that he could meet this servant who might or might not be a spy.
But he was getting dressed up because he was coming to see me…
Could he have misunderstood and thought I wanted to meet him because I was ready to give him an answer to his confession?
Of course, he would immediately understand the situation once he arrived, but the thought of disappointing him made me feel uneasy.
Completely oblivious to my thoughts, Kay and Carthaeus were busy comparing Elhardt and the Crown Prince to determine which of them was better.
“What if he really is Mikhail, not some fake?”
“Oh, come now. How could that be? He was completely different from that stiff fellow.”
“You never know. Three hundred years have passed, after all.”
Kay, who had yet to meet the Crown Prince in person, was actually taking his side.
“No, really… You have to compare like with like.”
“Exactly!”
I muttered in disbelief, and an immediate agreement came from the side.
“……?”
“……!”
The servant hurriedly lowered his head and pretended he hadn’t said anything.
Did that guy just take Elhardt’s side?
As I stared at him, a bright voice rang out.
“Grandpa, I’m here!”
A woman poked her head into the kitchen where we were gathered. She didn’t look much younger than Kay.
“Come here and say hello.”
Kay beckoned the woman over.
Wow, is she Kay’s descendant?
She calls him Grandpa.
It was both strange and fascinating to see.
I think they have the same mean-looking eyes.
Her dark hair was similar too.
“This is the captain, and that’s the Pope.”
Despite the incredibly concise introduction, the woman seemed to grasp our identities immediately, just as one would expect from the heir to an information guild.
“Hello. It’s an honor to meet you. Please call me Bella.”
He had said he would bring over someone to assist him while also training her as his successor, so it seemed she had already arrived.
“Yes. Nice to meet you.”
“Um… but that person…”
Bella cautiously glanced at the servant kneeling there, bound.
“What did he do wrong?”
It wasn’t the wary gaze one would give a stranger.
If anything, there seemed to be concern in her eyes.
“What? Do you know him?”
“Yes. He’s a client and sponsor of our guild…”
“A sponsor?”
Bella nodded.
“He helped us establish ourselves in Cradion. As far as I know, he’s been supporting our family for a long time.”
“Oh…?”
All our gazes turned toward the servant at once, and he hurriedly explained.
“That wasn’t me. It was my master…”
“Who’s your master?”
At Kay’s question, the servant couldn’t answer and merely bit his lip.
Then—
“I’m his master.”
Everyone turned toward the voice coming from the entrance.
“Oh…”
Carthaeus was the one who let out the exclamation.
It was certainly understandable.
Elhardt had clearly made an effort to dress up, though not quite as elaborately as he had for the banquet, and he was still so extraordinarily handsome that admiration came naturally.
Elhardt strode into the room with a stern expression, knelt beside the servant, and examined his condition.
“Are you all right? I should have warned you beforehand…”
“It was my lack of skill. Nothing happened.”
It probably wasn’t that the servant lacked skill at infiltrating.
After all, I hadn’t noticed him at all until now.
It was simply his bad luck that his opponent happened to be Kay.
Elhardt looked at me as though asking for permission, and when I nodded, he simply tugged on the ropes and broke them apart.
“……?!”
At the sight of Elhardt snapping restraints that even demons couldn’t escape from once captured, using nothing but sheer physical strength, Kay unfolded his arms and straightened up.
“What is that man…?”
“What do you think? He’s the prince who’ll be responsible for Bardia’s tomorrow.”
I desperately suppressed the corners of my mouth from curling up in delight.
“At this point, I’d say his very body could be considered a sacred relic touched by the Goddess herself.”
Carthaeus was absolutely right, so I nodded.
“Exactly. Exactly.”
The Goddess must have painstakingly crafted him from head to toe.
Unlike us, who were watching Elhardt as though observing a spectacle, Bella seemed utterly astonished upon finally learning the identity of her true patron.
“So His Highness the Crown Prince has been looking after us all this time. Thank you so much. And… I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help you before things came to this.”
“It was something the royal family was supposed to do. You have no reason to thank me, nor do you need to apologize.”
Elhardt brushed aside Bella’s gratitude and looked at me.
“Rick is my informant.”
“Yes, I figured as much.”
“I want you to let him come and go freely from the detached palace from now on.”
“You’re the master of this place, Elhardt. You don’t need anyone else’s permission.”
I spoke to Rick, who was peeking at me from behind Elhardt.
“I’m sorry for misunderstanding you. And I’m sorry for threatening you, too.”
“N-No! It’s an honor just to meet a hero!”
A moment of silence fell at Rick’s exclamation.
“……”
“Ah, I’m sorry. I thought you had already told them everything…”
I swallowed a groan inwardly.
Just as Kay had suspected, Elhardt must have become certain of my identity.
And it seemed he had intended to tell me that he knew soon anyway.
All right. There’s no hiding it anymore.
And I shouldn’t.
I was planning to tell him anyway.
The only difference was that the moment had come sooner than expected.
I took a deep breath and looked directly at Elhardt.
“As you’ve probably already figured out, let me properly introduce myself.”
Our relationship would probably be different from now on.
The way he treated me, the look in his eyes—none of it would be the same as before.
And we wouldn’t be sharing a bed anymore, either…
It seemed he had also wished this moment would never come, because his eyes shook violently as he looked at me.
“My name is Iserna Airvayne. I was the captain of the expedition that ventured into the Black Rift long ago.”
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