──October 31st, 00:00
Adria’s external office.
High-ranking and senior knights under Deputy Commander Anton, along with nearly all the administrative officers they trusted, were gathered, imrsed in ledger analysis.
"I think we may need to bring in so accountants."
But the flow of funds was far too complex. Split apart and mixed together through dozens of shell corporations, disguised as consulting fees, art consignnt managent costs, and countless other ostensibly legal transactions.
“There’s no ti for that. Goebel will be released soon.”
“We don’t have ti either.”
It was clearly a bribe, but it was impossible to pin it exactly on ‘Goebel’ as the central figure. At this rate, not only was the death penalty off the table, it would be hard to even leave a scratch.
“.......”
Adria stood with her arms crossed, lost in thought.
Goebel was undeniably the cartel's pipeline.
A cunning old fox who had manipulated the Imperial Guard to make contact with the cartel, sucked in dirty money, and expanded his own power base within the Imperial Guard.
‘If I were the cartel.’
She reversed her perspective and imagined herself as the head of the cartel, dealing with the power holders of the Empire.
‘I would never trust those Empire bastards.’
That was the first cardinal rule.
They could just pocket the money and wipe their mouths clean, or even sell the cartel out.
're ledgers like these could never serve as insurance.'
That was the second cardinal rule.
Goebel was the type of monster who was always ready to cut off his tail and flee. aning, the mont things went south, he could betray them and kill them without hesitation.
In that case, what should the cartel do?
“......Jero. Tiana.”
Adria called the two of them. She pointed at a certain "cluster" within the flow of funds.
"A cluster ford by gathering small, fragnted sums of money."
Art auctions.
More precisely, paintings. Goebel actually owned nurous works by master painters and showed them off without hesitation. It was his characteristic vanity and desire to flaunt.
"What if."
Adria’s gaze sharpened.
"The cartel hid sothing in these paintings......."
One could manipulate or sever the flow of funds, but traces left on the physical objects themselves could not be erased.
"What if they hid evidence to blackmail Goebel, or as a safeguard in case he betrayed them?"
Adria turned to face the two. Tiana and Jero's eyes mirrored her own.
"We move out. Right now."
Right now, they had to do sothing, anything. Even if the hypothesis seed absurd, they had to act.
If they just sat around doing nothing, they would simply be put down quietly.
.......
──October 31st, 03:00
Tick. Tock.
The ti was past 3 a.m. Reutern II flicked the ink off his quill pen and laid it down neatly.
The list was complete.
“Ah...... I’m so tired.”
Stretching widely, he looked across from him. Reutern I, his father, sat there with a content expression.
“What are you staring at like that?”
“......Can’t a father look at his son?”
"It's making uncomfortable."
His father shook his head as if filled with pride.
This list was, in truth, a lifeline.
A list of favors, personal appeals, asked for by Reutern II and Reutern I’s close friends.
“I'm going to have a headache too. I have to go outside the Imperial Palace and deal with that guy Max again. Do you know how scary that guy is?”
Reutern II grumbled.
“I’ll buy you whatever you want. If this matter is resolved well, even that villa you’ve always wanted.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Reutern seed to find his only son adorable, praiseworthy, and precious, but Reutern II put on a deliberately serious expression.
“But rember this clearly. It might not work. That Maximilian guy is incredibly strict.”
“I know.”
"I'll really try my best. I'm only doing this because you're my dad."
“Thank you.”
Reutern II felt nervous for the first ti in a while. This was a favor from his father, and his close friends. Even if it ant coughing up the bonds he received from Maximilian as a gift, he had to succeed.
Was this peculiar resolve what people called a sense of duty?
"Off you go. I'll be cheering for you."
“Yeah.”
Reutern II rose to his feet with a look of determination.
Though he was entirely innocent in relation to the cartel matter, he was voluntarily heading to the Knight Order......!
.......
──October 31st, 04:00
Dawn, cloaked in deep darkness.
Adria and her subordinate knights moved in covertly. Knights who had received thorough stealth training at Empire Point were practically no different from assassins.
With the distinctive footwork of knights, they infiltrated Goebel’s mansion and searched through the interior brimming with artworks, avoiding the eyes of the servants.
Ceramics, sculptures, landscapes, still lifes, and countless other artworks. As they swept over the pieces reeking of dirty money with mana detectors, they advanced while checking for any signs of suspicious anomalies.
“......Adria.”
Tiana pointed to a particularly elegant fra. It was a portrait in the hallway, strictly secured with mana-based security devices.
CRACK!
Adria extended her sword and destroyed the device. No alarm sounded. It was due to the nature of the mana she possessed.
“Open it.”
After unlocking the security device, they scanned the canvas ticulously with the mana detector they had brought.
Whrrrr...
The needle of the detector shook violently.
At a glance, it was simply an oil painting of a beautiful woman, but it indicated that a foreign mana had been hidden within.
"I'm cutting it open."
Without hesitation, Adria drew a dagger and slashed the fra apart. A painting worth millions of dollars was split open.
As she carefully examined the canvas, turning it front to back.
“......Found it.”
Words inscribed in blue particles. Based on a logic similar to Active Traces, invisible unless illuminated by a detector.
[From Fellier of Verkina─]
[To Goebel, the leader of the Imperial Guard]
A token of affection left personally by the cartel's boss Fellier, sothing Goebel never could have imagined existed.
“Ha.......”
The feeling surging up inside Adria was voiced instead by Tiana.
“Got you, you fucking bastard.”
.......
──October 31st, 05:00
I was organizing the personnel list in the office. Dieter and the geniuses under his command had ticulously categorized those involved in the cartel scandal based on Fellier’s ledger.
Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4.
The grades were based on severity of the cri and the amount of bribery.
Grade 4s were the ones who would receive standard criminal punishnt or re warnings, those who had only picked up scraps.
Grade 3s were idiots who didn’t even realize cartel money was circulating through the Imperial Palace and just assud it was free cash.
Starting from Grade 2s, there was "clear intent",
And Grade 1s were "practically directly involved with the cartel".
......Zzzzzzz.
A snoring sound ca from sowhere. It was Chiron. He was lying on the sofa, fast asleep.
On the surface, we were in the middle of tense negotiations, and fortunately, there were no Imperial Palace wiretaps in my office.
Knock knock─
The sound of knocking. Chiron flinched and woke up. I gestured for him to leave, and Chiron cleared his throat.
“......Then, I hope you'll make a careful decision.”
With a deliberately serious expression, Chiron exited, and the person who entered, switching places with him, was.
Reutern II.
“......Max.”
I tilted my head. Reutern II had an uncharacteristically tense expression.
“Sir Maximilian.”
He addressed and placed a docunt down.
"......There are so things I'd like to discuss regarding these people."
A sheet of paper listing several nas. I frowned.
"So you've co to lobby as well, Lord Reutern."
“No, no. Not a request... more like a favor? A plea for consideration and leniency? Sothing like that.”
“.......”
I stared at him in silence.
Reutern averted his gaze and scratched the back of his neck.
“J-just read it once.”
I expressionlessly picked up the docunt. I compared the nas written in Dieter’s hit list with those on Reutern’s personnel list.
“Hm.”
Most on Reutern’s list were Grade 3, with only two being Grade 2.
It was a level where I would gladly show leniency. Honestly, even summoning them was a waste. Probably just so nobles panicking ahead of ti.
“......Haa.”
However, politics was never that simple.
Politics was ultimately about taking credit, so I quietly creased my brow. Even favors I would gladly grant had to be made to look difficult.
“They’re on the next summon list.”
However, it wasn’t a lie. The two Grade 2 individuals listed on Reutern’s personnel list were indeed worth summoning and investigating.
Reutern swallowed hard.
“......I figured as much.”
“Yes. They could be referred to the Knight Court─”
“That’s why, that’s exactly why I ca to see you!”
Reutern, as if making a big decision, pulled sothing out from his coat. It was the anonymous bonds I had given him as a gift before, and he placed them on the table with a tap.
"It's my fault for not keeping the people around in check. So I'll take responsibility. Can't we work sothing out with these?"
I was dumbfounded.
Could a scumbag like Reutern actually be showing growth? Or was this just another addition to his endless list of moronic antics?
“.......”
I picked up the bonds. . Reutern's eyes followed them, rolling desperately. His face scread that he was dying inside over giving them up.
“Lord Reutern.”
“Y-yeah?”
Reutern II was an idiot, but perhaps because of that, he had value. His bloodline and connections were useful. If this incident improved Reutern’s standing within the Imperial Palace, it would ultimately benefit as well.
“I recall you were a great help to during the last National Assembly.”
I broached the subject casually.
Reutern’s eyes lit up.
"R-right! Do you know how hard I went around talking you up!"
"Was it perhaps because of sothing like this?"
“No way! Absolutely not! Of course not! I didn’t even know sothing like this was going on! I swear!”
Reutern was clean when it ca to the cartel. The cartel’s money only circulated among those in the know. Reutern had too refined a palate to stoop to picking up scraps or spoiled goods.
"I'll be honest with you. Among the offenses of those on this list, there are so that could be considered relatively minor."
"Really?! Th-then─"
"However, we can't simply let this pass as if nothing happened."
I hardened my expression again. Reutern stiffened just as quickly. A vein bulged on his forehead. If I refused him again, he would revert to his old crazy self and throw a complete fit.
This ant he was at his limit.
“I’ll arrange it so they receive only standard criminal penalties, rather than being referred to the Knight Court.”
At those words, breathed out like a sigh, Reutern's expression brightened.
“......R-really?”
"Yes. And as for these bonds, I won't take them back. It was a personal gift from to you, Lord Reutern."
Reutern’s face brightened in an instant.
"Thank you! Thank you so much, Max! I knew you were the only one I could count on!"
He stood up and spun around as if dancing, but Reutern II was, as always, living in his own little fantasy world.
This man's entire head was a fantasy world.
.......
──October 31st, 05:30
"Yes. Chiron just left Maximilian's office."
The Imperial Guards were moving busily in and out of the Knight Order, reporting various facts to soone, sowhere.
"He was in there for an estimated five...... six hours. Yes."
I could hear them chattering. That’s because my administrative officers were walking around equipped with listening devices.
“Sir Chiron looked very tired and haggard. It's unclear whether there was a physical altercation during the persuasion, but his hair and clothes were quite disheveled......”
Well, of course he’d be tired, we drank heavily. And of course his hair was disheveled;
he had just woken up.
The Imperial Guard mbers had drawn their own wild conclusions about our conversation based on Chiron's appearance.
"I can hear everything, you know......."
I stepped out into the hallway.
Thud. Thud.
I walked down the long corridor and stopped in front of Goebel’s interrogation room.
──Thud!
I opened the door.
The interrogation room, bathed in dim light.
Goebel was still sitting there. The contours of his wrinkled face stood out eerily.
He was an ugly man.
No, he was hideous. The kind of face that made Johann's comnt about my looks being a Talent perfectly understandable.
“.......”
Goebel sat there with his anticipation hidden, and I stood in the doorway, quietly regarding him. Goebel t my gaze in silence.
A long stretch of silence.
The first to speak was the one at a disadvantage.
"I think you already know."
Of course, it was Goebel.
“There are too many tails on this body that no one can trace back to .”
He grinned slyly and continued.
"It can't be helped. But that's politics. Covering each other's dirty laundry and compromising at a reasonable point."
“.......”
"I understand how you feel. I can even accept, to so extent, the animosity the Knight Order holds toward the Imperial Guard. Young blood can run hot like that."
Tap. Tap.
Goebel tapped his fingers on the tal table.
"But in the end, we're all public servants working for the Empire. It ans we're all in the sa boat."
Working for the Empire.
It was precisely because there were too many people like him that the Empire had fallen to this sorry state, but for now, I simply swallowed my disgust.
“What did Chiron say?”
Goebel asked.
Instead of answering, I smiled.
“More than what he said─”
Goebel’s brow twitched subtly.
“I’ve made my decision.”
I had already secured the evidence that could destroy Goebel whenever I wished.
“If Commander Goebel of the Imperial Guard remains in the Guard, then power will remain balanced. Even in a place like that, balance is necessary to prevent any one side from gaining too much dominance.......”
A place like that. Goebel seed to take my words as contempt toward the Imperial Guard and clenched his teeth, and that interpretation was correct.
“......So, listen carefully.”
I leaned back in the chair and fixed my gaze on him.
"A knight of the Empire is choosing to let you live."
Goebel was silent for a long ti. His lips pressed tightly together, as if craving a cigarette. His heart, too, seed to be simring with fury.
"I won't reject your thinking, but I've repeatedly stated that the cartel's money is sothing I know nothing about."
He set aside his personal feelings with care. Because he understood politics well. Because he knew, for now, he was at a disadvantage.
“Yes. Very well.”
I handed him a blank sheet of paper.
"Since Commander Goebel cannot take responsibility, please write down the nas of those who should. You'll need to cut off at least one finger."
Goebel, understanding the aning behind my words, finally burst into laughter.
“Ha ha. Indeed. Responsibility is necessary. Such a pity that one of my n seems to have taken cartel money.......”
He appeared satisfied with this arrangent. Perhaps he was even intoxicated by his own image of coldly discarding even his own subordinates.
But these betrayals will eventually pile up and collapse the ground beneath him. An organization where trust had cracked and loyalty had evaporated was nothing more than a castle of sand.
"......However, I'm not well-inford about the situation outside, so I'll need so ti to discuss. Could you call my subordinates in?"
I stood up from my seat and replied.
“Yes. Understood. Please wait comfortably.”
Goebel nodded in satisfaction.
“Now we’re finally speaking the sa language.”
Indeed, it was the face of a man certain of his victory.
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