Chapter 135. Turning Point (4)
The dark mage incident that had erupted in the North was of a scale that made internal concealnt impossible.
The royal family dispatched investigators. The End Order had provided them with precisely the justification needed to send royal personnel into the North without having to consider the Northern nobles' backlash. Of course, it was equally true that the Order was a genuinely dangerous entity.
Dispatched as investigators were Kaylun and Ellara—Royal Guards and senior knights. Unlike their previous visit, when they had co under the guise of escort for Her Highness the Princess, this was an official visit, and so both were in full uniform.
The mont they stepped off the train, Ellara spoke in her characteristic flat tone.
"Sir Kaylun, may I go to a hot spring? My skin has been terribly dry lately."
"If you want to write a formal incident report."
"If I write the report, am I allowed to go?"
"Of course not. Do you take the End Order so lightly?"
Kaylun clicked his tongue in disapproval.
She had been a sharply disciplined sort during their cadet days. Having been assigned to the relatively quiet duty of escorting Her Highness the Princess, Ellara had gone entirely slack.
"Sir Ellara, this mission is of high priority. The End Order has made a proper move for the first ti in ten years. We may well be facing a storm of bloodshed."
"That sounds fine. I'm better suited to that than politics anyway. Oh my, Cola. This was awfully good."
Brushing off Kaylun's advice without a second thought, Ellara bought two bottles of Cola from a boy carrying an ice box.
"It's being sold in the capital now too, isn't it."
"Might the original taste be just a little more special? No need to worry so much. Sir Kaylun, we do have a reliable ally joining us."
Kaylun reluctantly accepted the bottle Ellara offered him.
"I am talking about the importance of mindset."
He was not impressed with Ellara's lack of discipline, but Kaylun did like Cola. Since Y&P Trading Company had established a bottling factory in Albion as well, Cola had been drawing quite extraordinary popularity within Albion.
The Royal Guard in particular felt that craze directly and acutely.
It was good for recharging depleted energy after gruelling training. And the carbonation pouring down a throat cracked dry with thirst was sothing special. Moreover, knights who put their bodies through such rigorous conditioning had enormous appetites, yet with Cola on hand, there was no fear of feeling bloated.
"Well? Does the original taste differ?"
"Remarkably the sa."
To be supplying a beverage of perfectly identical taste across hundreds of kilotres— That was a skill in itself, if one called it a skill. The more one looked, the more extraordinary the abilities of Y&P Trading Company appeared.
"Is my mory mistaken? Wasn't CCC originally near the square?"
"That's right, it was near the square. It seems they've moved."
The two were taken aback the mont they stepped out of the Central Station. The chicken shop that Her Highness the Princess had been so thoroughly enamoured with had changed location in the interim.
"Perhaps business was poor and they relocated?"
"That's what you get for running sothing like a restaurant in Britannia."
Walking on without much thought, the two spotted another CCC signboard. A signboard with a red logo embroidered on a white background—and stamped with the Royal Warrant Certification Mark.
"Hmm?"
"Oh? There's one here too?"
A long queue stretched out in front of this one as well. Only then did Kaylun dredge up a fact he had been setting aside in his mind for so ti.
"Ah, so that's what a Franchise is."
"You know of it?"
"Sothing about recruiting affiliates and expanding a standardised business model? I had forgotten."
"So it is. There's a branch na beneath the signboard."
Ellara's curiosity was piqued. Strictly speaking, the two of them were deeply entangled in the circumstances that had led to Chicken receiving the Royal Warrant.
The two had committed the blunder of neglecting their supervision of Princess Luiza. What Y&P Trading Company—which had protected the Princess—had proposed as the price of silence was a single report. That had snowballed until CCC was awarded the Royal Warrant.
What followed had also been quite a spectacle to behold.
CCC, the first ever recipient of a Royal Warrant in the culinary category, had reportedly generated queues longer than those of a holy pilgrimage. Connoisseurs from every corner of the kingdom had reportedly bought train tickets bound for Nortaris just to try the Chicken.
She had filed it away as 'sothing like that happened, I suppose' and moved on……
"Co to think of it, I've never actually tried it myself."
"Tried what?"
"The Chicken."
"Is that so?"
"Yes—I couldn't step away while escorting Her Highness……"
"Ah, right. After that, all the Chicken that ca in went to Her Highness, I imagine."
Ellara had little interest in food or cuisine, as befitted a thoroughbred Britannian, but she found herself growing curious at this point.
"Shall we try it? The queue looks shorter than before."
"Sir Ellara, you have not co here for leisure."
Kaylun's dry rebuff. But Ellara joined the queue with the conviction of a ruled line. When Ellara sulked, she tended to keep it up for quite a long ti, which was troubleso.
"Your Chicken Full Spread is ready. Our classic Fried Chicken and Seasoned Chicken, plus our new nu item, Ganjang Chicken. For the sides, Mashed Potato and Coleslaw. Cola is available for free refills at the dispenser over there."
A variety of chicken pieces arranged neatly atop a basket lined with coated paper, side dishes and all. The food arrived almost simultaneously with the order.
"There are a lot of custors, so it seems they fry in advance."
"For sothing pre-fried, hmm, it's hot."
The two glanced around them, removed their gloves, and sowhat awkwardly took their first bites of Chicken.
Crrrrunch!
"!!!!!"
"!!!!!"
They were both the sort who rarely showed outward emotional expression, and were regarded with a sort of peculiar wariness even within the Royal Guard. And yet.
"My goodness……"
"Oh my……"
This flavour was beyond anything they had imagined.
"So fried food……. could be this crispy."
It was an awe-inspiring taste, texture, and flavour that expanded the very horizons of one's palate. Would even a slaughtered chicken not go to its grave satisfied, at this?
Ellara and Kaylun's hands moved busily toward the Seasoned Chicken and Ganjang Chicken.
"Nom nom nom, so this is why they could open branches everywhere."
"Chew chew chew, Sir Ellara. Finish eating before you speak."
The Seasoned Chicken, long renowned for its reputation, was of course excellent as well. But the one that shattered the rising ceiling of expectations—and pleasantly so—was the Ganjang Chicken, touted as the new nu item.
"I find myself quite taken with this Ganjang Chicken."
"Ganjang……. What is that?"
"It is an Eastern sauce made from soybeans, as I understand it."
Ganjang Chicken was a bewitching thing. The batter was slightly different from the other chickens, but the salty, savoury depth that kept stimulating the tongue gave it a different quality from Seasoned Chicken—an addictive quality that was all its own.
Ellara in particular seed thoroughly smitten.
"Th-this Ganjang Chicken……. I'll be able to get it in the capital, yes?"
"That would probably be difficult."
"Why! It's being presented to Princess Luiza too!"
"That's because CCC set up a dedicated royal supply store in the capital. Exclusively for royal supply."
The mont she heard that, Ellara ordered three additional portions of Ganjang Chicken.
***
With their stomachs full, the two made their way to the lobby of Prifell—the finest hotel in the North after The Richfield Hotel.
"……Tsk, the Queen's hunting hounds have arrived."
"The nerve of them……. Strutting about as if this were their own front yard."
The atmosphere of the lavish lobby turned cold as though a great block of ice had been dropped into it. The mont the socialites of the Northern social circles caught sight of the Royal Guard uniforms, whispers erupted.
"Why of all places did they choose sowhere like this for the eting point……"
A reaction they had anticipated, but unavoidable. The contact who had requested the rendezvous had nad this hotel lobby as the location.
In those people's eyes, it must appear rather galling. The Northern nobles were already on poor terms with the Queen, and yet here she had sent her blade under the pretext of a justification that could not be refused.
On top of that, they may well have been wallowing in an inferiority complex—the humiliation of being unable to even properly carry out a large-scale event like the end-of-year charity gathering. Nobles were, by their nature, a proud lot.
"The dark mages are just a pretext—they're really just here to stir up trouble, aren't they."
Kaylun muttered low.
"So of them have sharp instincts."
On the surface, this dispatch was for the purpose of tracking the Order—but behind that lay the Queen's additional directive. To summarise the long and roundabout order concisely, it amounted to: 'Whatever it takes, find the Rosemore family's weakness.'
Of course, he had no intention of neglecting the pursuit of the Order either.
"What sort of person is our ally?"
"You don't know?"
"My security clearance is lower than Sir Kaylun's."
Kaylun stroked his beard. It was classified information, but they had co all this way—Ellara was entitled to know.
"Have you heard of the Secret Burial Unit?"
"The Secret Burial Unit……. Surely not—?"
Ellara shuddered.
The Secret Burial Unit. Like the Royal Guard, they were the Queen's blade—but the nature of the Secret Burial Unit was entirely different.
Specialists in sabotage operations, agent abduction, and the pursuit and elimination of dark mages. A blade coated in poison.
Accordingly, all information pertaining to them was considered the highest possible classified secret.
Not only their operational details, but even their affiliation left no trace in any official docunt. Even the na 'Secret Burial Unit' was not their official designation, but rely a 'nickna.'
"……I see."
Ellara's cheeks had gone rigid. A perfectly natural reaction.
The Secret Burial Unit mbers Kaylun had encountered during dark mage subjugation campaigns, back when he was less experienced than he was now.
There had been so friction back then. As with any unit, there was a competitive awareness between them—and here the Queen's blade and shield had co face to face.
Kaylun had laughed inwardly at the ti.
Their combat ability was a touch below the Royal Guard, or roughly comparable. Unless one was speaking of the Secret Burial Unit's commander, it seed like no contest.
And yet—those who were deployed to the front lines were, how to put it. An entirely different dinsion.
It was not a matter of combat ability being higher or lower. Their way of thinking about the battlefield, the desperation and venom in it, the extre ntal fortitude, the ability to overturn the situation through unimaginably unconventional ans, and a tenacity that never let go.
When everyone judged a thing impossible, they stepped to the front line on their own initiative, and produced results.
Just thinking about eting one of their mbers was enough to make even his own heart stir—he who had co to consider himself a veteran of so standing. To say nothing of Ellara, who lacked that experience.
"We'll go in."
He opened the door of the guest room designated as the eting location.
"Well, well, the Royal Guard gentlefolk have arrived."
A tall man with a deeply pulled-down fedora and a shaggy beard welcod them. A faint, forgettable impression—the kind one would forget imdiately regardless of where they saw him.
But the eyes. Eyes like a well-honed dagger brought back the shudder from that day.
"I'm Aiden, head of the security team, attached as assistant for this occasion. Well, feel free to address informally."
"Kaylun Hawthorne."
"Ellara Vance. A pleasure."
As they were about to exchange an ordinary handshake, Kaylun's brow furrowed.
"Wait. Who is that man?"
"Forgive the late introduction."
Having been so occupied keeping their attention on Aiden, they had failed to properly observe the room. Yet there was a man calmly extending his hand in greeting.
"Jurgen, representative of Y&P Trading Company. It's been a while."
He smiled pleasantly and held out his right hand without a care in the world.
There was no chance of forgetting that brazen face. The commoner who had gone on about the duties and rights of the Royal Guard—at the very mont Kaylun had been trying to sweep the incident under the rug in the na of the Royal Guard.
And simultaneously.
'I am well aware of Sir Kaylun's loyalty and selfless devotion to the royal family.'
'Let us leave it at that.'
He was also the person Lily had stepped forward to restrain, right at the mont Kaylun had been attempting to gauge his true nature.
"This gentleman, our commoner businessman, will also be cooperating with the investigation."
Even with Aiden's breezy introduction, Kaylun could not take his eyes off Jurgen.
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