Why me?
I wondered if I had heard him wrong and turned to look at Elhardt, only to see his expression had gone stiff.
Unbelievable as it was, it seemed they really had ordered me to attend the banquet at the Imperial Palace as well.
“There’s no need to worry about formal attire. We have something prepared.”
Did the Cradion Imperial Palace even keep spare dresses on hand?
Well, if that was the case, then…
“But why is there suddenly a banquet?”
“To promote friendship between the two nations, I presume?”
“If that’s the purpose, shouldn’t they remove this chain first?”
“That…”
“Why don’t you at least make the suggestion? My master hasn’t caused any trouble in the Imperial Palace, has he?”
“…I will make the request.”
They weren’t going to make him attend a banquet while wearing restraints, were they?
If so, then it only made sense to set him free while he was confined here all alone.
“Then I’ll send someone tomorrow morning.”
The servant glanced at me with a slightly weary expression as I continued saying everything that Elhardt, who had remained silent, should have said. Then he quickly left the room.
By the time Chamberlain’s presence disappeared from the hallway, Elhardt spoke with determination.
“Let’s pretend I’m sick.”
“Huh?”
“If you say you have a raging fever and can’t attend the banquet, there’s nothing they can do.”
I stared blankly at him.
“Why wouldn’t I go?”
This was an opportunity to see the high-ranking figures of an enemy nation with my own eyes. There was no reason to turn it down.
Besides…
“I’ll be able to eat lots of delicious banquet food.”
Elhardt stared at me with a flustered expression.
“It could be dangerous. It’s obviously a trap.”
“It’s fine. I’ll just get through it.”
There was only so much I could accomplish with excuses.
I didn’t have much time anyway, so it would be better to confront the situation head-on.
“Fortunately, we have a whole day.”
“A day is far too short. Can’t you just listen to me this once? If something happens to you, I…!”
The sight of a man who had remained unfazed even by brutal violence now anxiously fidgeting made me feel a little sorry.
“I’ll be careful. Elhardt, don’t you trust me?”
Even so, I couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by.
When I leaned in close and tried to persuade him, he let out a groan of distress before eventually nodding.
“…But you must never leave my side.”
“I’ll try.”
I would stay by Elhardt’s side as long as the circumstances allowed, but there was no telling how things would unfold.
“So I’d like you to give me a crash course.”
I was planning to sneak into the Central Palace tonight and investigate information about Cradion.
For that, I needed to do some preparation.
I needed to know the basics and who the key figures were in charge of relations between Cradion and Bardia.
“But before that, can you tell me one thing?”
Elhardt asked me with a solemn expression.
“Why are you doing all this, and for whom?”
It wasn’t a question I could answer easily.
The days when I had founded Bardia with a grand dream lay directly behind me.
Someday, even heroes would die, and cities and nations would decline and disappear without a trace.
Nothing could last forever.
And yet, perhaps I was nothing more than a ghost of the past, desperately trying to restore the brilliance of those days.
“…For the dead.”
I couldn’t bear to go to the graves of those who had waited for the expedition to return empty-handed.
I felt like I needed to have something to say to them.
So that I could proudly tell them that I had returned safely.
“And also, for myself.”
I’ll do everything I can, then retire with a clear conscience.
“Does that answer your question?”
“…….”
Elhardt stared intently at me, and for a moment, the corners of his mouth softened into a gentle smile.
“Why are you smiling like that?”
I raised my eyes and asked, and he slowly blinked.
“Hm?”
“You just smiled like this. So pretty.”
I poked the corner of his mouth with my finger.
This time, Elhardt didn’t even blink.
Even though I was casually touching his cheek, he simply looked at me.
Then, out of nowhere, he asked a question that caught me completely off guard.
“Do you think I’m pretty?”
“What? You look like someone who’s never heard that before.”
Slightly flustered, I replied as though it were nothing important, but he gave no response.
“…….”
“You’ve never heard it before….”
How could someone who looked like this have never heard such a thing?
‘No, why am I even thinking about this?’
I slowly withdrew my hand from his face.
If anything, I was beginning to worry that I might look like a womanizer in Elhardt’s eyes….
“Um, well, let’s get back to the main point. We don’t have much time…”
I awkwardly changed the subject, and he nodded.
“Let’s do that.”
As he said it, he smiled as prettily as he had before.
“I’m not particularly good with words, but I’ll do my best to explain.”
Even though he could have asked me all sorts of questions and been suspicious, was it really enough for him to simply ask one thing?
I hoped he wasn’t so cornered that he had no choice but to trust some suspicious stranger who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“I’m not sure where to begin.”
Elhardt lowered his eyes and thought for a moment before speaking.
“I suppose we should start with the massacre committed by Caleb, the great mage who ascended the throne after the founding king.”
“…Huh?”
“The country was practically split in two at the time.”
Who did what?
***
What I heard from Elhardt afterward left my thoughts in complete disarray.
‘Caleb did something like that?’
Caleb, who became the second king of Bardia, purged the founding families, as well as nobles and members of the knight orders who had followed the previous king, accusing them of treason.
The kingdom was thrown into turmoil after losing its pillars of support, and amid the chaos, Caleb himself disappeared seven years later.
When the great mage Caleb, who had also been the head of the Mage Tower, vanished without a trace, the mages who had followed him scattered throughout the continent, leading to the decline of magic.
‘I thought he was a decent guy.’
The image of Caleb enthusiastically explaining magical theories to me regardless of whether I was dozing off came to mind, making my heart feel even heavier.
Bardia, which I had wanted to remain strong forever, faced a major crisis after only a few decades and was unable to escape being pushed around by the newly established nations.
Even so, it had managed to endure for a long three hundred years.
But now, it was truly at the end of its rope.
The reason was that Cradion, founded during Bardia’s period of turmoil, had suddenly declared itself an empire under its current emperor and launched wars of conquest.
‘Especially since the Crown Prince was the one who actively pushed for the occupation of Bardia, right?’
The portrait of Mikhail, the founding king, still remained in Bardia’s royal palace.
Because of that, the people of Bardia who saw the Crown Prince had been thrown into an uproar, wondering if he might be Mikhail’s reincarnation.
After all, just judging by their appearances, the two looked remarkably alike.
‘What a strange coincidence.’
Wasn’t it a little too strange to dismiss it as mere coincidence?
‘Especially that I returned at a time when someone like him exists.’
I couldn’t explain it clearly, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was some connection between us.
‘At times like this, you start by investigating the people around the key figures.’
That was why I had infiltrated the third floor of the Central Palace as soon as the moon had set.
The Foreign Affairs Department, which functioned almost like the Crown Prince’s right hand, was located there.
‘If they had already laid the groundwork to isolate Bardia, then the Foreign Affairs Department would be the vanguard.’
Using the layout and security system I had observed during the day, sneaking in was relatively easy.
However, if there was one variable…
“This is Count Bellow’s office.”
It was that Elhardt, who had tried to stop me from going out at night, had ended up following me.
After spending so long with people who would simply obey without complaint whenever I made a decision and gave them an order, perhaps I had lost the ability to persuade someone.
No matter how I thought about it, moving alone would have been more efficient. How had I ended up bringing along a prince as huge as a bear?
‘It’s not as though he hasn’t been useful….’
After moving together, I had realized that Elhardt’s physical abilities were truly beyond the limits of a normal human.
Things I had thought were only possible through magic were incredibly easy to deal with when he was around.
As we broke through the security network protecting the Central Palace and reached the third floor, I didn’t need to use a single spell or even a single power.
If there was one thing he seemed untrained in, it was probably fine control over his strength.
‘I wonder what happened to him to give him a body like that.’
I quickly stepped forward before he could smash the doorknob.
“I’ll open this.”
Elhardt looked back and forth between my face and his hand, then nodded.
The corners of his eyes drooped slightly, making him look somewhat… dejected.
‘Surely I’m imagining it.’
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