“......”
No one dared to speak. Gazes filled with shock, horror, and disbelief poured down. Yet Kiole, unaware of the stares directed at him, stood dazed in thought.
‘...What did he just say? I was investigating... the labor conditions... undercover...? What?’
He couldn’t make sense of the situation. But to others, Kiole’s silence and blank expression appeared as though a noble figure, whose hidden identity had just been revealed, was silently grappling with his burden. His face and body, a ss from the blood pouring down his torn forehead, only added to the image.
“......My god.”
The prisoners who had been staring at Kiole with trembling eyes dropped to their knees with a thud.
“It was true after all! His Majesty the Emperor sent soone like you to watch over us...! Ahh!”
“No wonder! You did such harsh labor without a single complaint, never spoke about yourself... all because you were watching and protecting us...!”
“You were hiding your identity with magic this whole ti! Unbelievable...! Oh divine one! Long live His Majesty! Long live Orr!”
So couldn’t hold back their overwhelming emotions, clasping their hands together and praying to the sky as tears stread down their faces.
anwhile, the noble who had been acting all high and mighty until monts ago had gone pale for an entirely different reason.
“Th-This can’t be happening... Soone sent by the Emperor...? Then I...”
He had whipped, wounded, and argued with soone dispatched by the Emperor. He didn’t even want to imagine what would happen once this beca known. But what truly unsettled him was the whisper of his servant, who approached with a face ashen as his own.
“M-Master! I-I think I know who that man is!”
“What? You know him?”
“The youngest son of House Diarca—Sir Kiole la Diarca! I’m certain of it!”
“...What, did you say?”
You must be mistaken. That’s what he wanted to say. But as he looked again at Kiole’s bloodied and swollen face, the features of the youngest son of House Diarca, whom he’d once glimpsed from afar, overlapped perfectly.
It was about a year ago, at a charity party attended by the well-known nobles of the noble faction. His mother had struggled to get him an invitation, just to give him a chance to squeeze into their circle. He had prepared ticulously to build connections, but inside that hall, he’d been treated no differently from a commoner. The scions of noble houses that had lived in the capital for centuries had no interest in so baron’s family that had only managed to purchase a ho in the capital barely a decade ago.
Soday, I’ll stand alongside them, he had vowed, swallowing his resentnt. And among those at the center of the party had been the youngest son of House Diarca. Unlike his siblings, he had chosen the path of a knight. His face, uncannily resembling his father’s, and his arrogant deanor had instantly overpowered those around him.
He hadn’t exchanged more than two words with anyone at the gathering. Aloof to the extre.
The youngest of House Diarca. A noble among nobles.
Kiole la Diarca.
Under normal circumstances, he might have thought it was just soone with a similar face. But rumors of Kiole—who had stirred the capital recently by saving the Empress—were now known to every noble.
So it was true... He severed ties with his father and joined the Emperor’s faction...!
And that wasn’t the only rumor surrounding Kiole in the past year. Countless people had begun to reevaluate him, realizing that the so-called family disgrace had, in fact, always been astute and calculating.
If soone like that had personally co here under the Emperor’s orders to observe the site, it wasn’t just a matter of leaning toward the Emperor’s faction anymore. Only soone who cared nothing for status and moved solely for the Emperor’s sake could undertake sothing this outrageous.
What have I done...
Realizing whom he had whipped, the noble’s legs gave out beneath him.
“Sir... Sir Kiole... la Diarca, was it? Just now, that, th-that was not intentional. I-I was truly... wrongly accused...”
The stamred words ceased the mont he t Kiole’s eyes. Kiole still hadn’t fully grasped what was going on, but to the noble, that blank expression seed to radiate a frosty wrath.
“......”
Thud. In the end, he fainted from the shock and terror. A yellowish liquid trickled between his legs, soaking the ground.
“Master!”
His servant let out a shriek. The overseer clicked his tongue in disgust.
“Huh. So full of energy when hitting soone, and now he faints like a delicate flower. Anyway, we’ll be contacting Baron Radmozel’s house shortly—so take your reeking young master and get out.”
He didn’t forget to issue a final warning to the trembling servant.
“If he tries to flee before then... well. I’m sure you can imagine what’ll happen, even if I don’t spell it out.”
And just like that, the noble was carted away.
As soon as the cart disappeared from view, the overseer turned to the prisoners and spoke.
“You lot, don’t say a word about what you saw today. I’ll be taking this man to get treated, so clean up around here.”
“U-Understood!”
The overseer helped Kiole up. The prisoners rushed forward to assist him voluntarily. So even wiped the blood from Kiole’s face with tears in their eyes. All around, voices murmured prayers of gratitude to the Emperor, to the divine, and to Kiole.
Kiole hadn’t uttered a single word confirming his identity, and yet, everyone was already treating it as truth...
‘I don’t get any of this. My head’s spinning.’
“You can stop pretending not to know now.”
Half-dragged as he was, the overseer spoke offhandedly.
“We t in the East, rember? I appreciate the act, but you don’t have to keep quiet anymore.”
Kiole blinked—then gasped.
‘That’s right! The East!’
Yes. He’d kept thinking he recognized him, and now it clicked. Eastern Hartan.
Back when his father had sent him to train in the East after a scolding, he’d been suddenly kidnapped by unknown assailants. It was there that Yuder Aile saved his life—on the condition that he sign an oath that would beco the source of all that followed.
At the ti, Kiole had glimpsed others who’d been captured just like him. Among them had been a Cavalry mber. Only now did he realize the man standing before him was that very person.
His mories of Yuder Aile and Naham had been so intense that he’d half-forgotten everyone else from that day.
Debran, not realizing Kiole genuinely hadn’t recognized him, gave a soft chuckle.
“Well, regardless, I gotta say—I’m impressed.”
“...Huh?”
The words ca out strange due to his swollen, bruised cheek.
“Commander and Yuder told to keep an eye on you, but... I honestly doubted it. Yet you really did the labor without complaint, even took a beating to protect others. It blew my mind. Who would’ve thought soone like you—soone from House Diarca—could be like that... If I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
Hearing that, Kiole recalled the words the prisoners had spoken, and his emotions tangled into a ss. He opened his aching mouth and asked, uncertainly,
“...What’s going to happen to now?”
“Hm. Commander said that if anything like this happened, you were to declare you were sent by the Emperor and stop laboring imdiately. So, no need to worry about the rest. For now, just get treated and get so rest.”
Debran guided him down inconspicuous paths to a small inn. Entering through the back, they climbed the stairs to a room where, as if in preparation, a hot bath was already drawn. It was a modest space, but after his ti in forced labor, it felt like a palace to Kiole.
“Here. Holy water. Our priest Lusan from the Cavalry made it specially—it’ll work wonders. Drink and wash up.”
Just as Debran said, once Kiole drank and applied the holy water, the pain quickly faded. While Debran stepped out, he bathed and changed into the clean clothes laid out on the bed. Seeing his real face in the mirror for the first ti in ages, Kiole was so overco he nearly cried.
‘What have I even done?’
As the pain subsided, the events of earlier felt almost like a dream. Yet the image of the prisoners standing in front of him remained seared in his mind.
The world would call them filthy criminals, lowborn commoners—but to Kiole, they were the ones who had shared their corn with him when he was hungry and protected him when he was in danger.
“......”
The whipping had hurt like hell—but he didn’t regret standing up for them.
No, not only did he not regret it, he felt... proud.
‘So this... This must be how those who saved in the South once felt.’
Kiole sat on the bed, lost in thought. Then collapsed and fell asleep as if fainting.
“......Ole. Kiole.”
What woke him from his deep slumber was a chilling voice.
“Wake up.”
He was about to instinctively tell the servant to go away—when his instincts, sensing fear, cut him off.
‘That voice...!’
A shiver ran down his spine, and his eyes flew open.
“Yuder Aile!”
“I heard you were hit in the head, so I was a bit worried you’d gotten dumber. But I see you still recognize . That’s a relief.”
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