Chapter 150 - Waldemar Gold

“Were you trying to give Baron Vulture’s territory to him?”

The one who asked that question was Luri.

Ferda had returned from city hall and come back to the castle.

“Yes.”

“And what did he say?”

“He said he would think about it.”

That was how the conversation ended.

As much of a free spirit as he was, Ferda could not bind him.

Ferda did not try to persuade him any further either.

“Doesn’t that mean he turned you down?”

“I do not think so.”

A wandering knight tied to no place.

Even before Ferda made his offer, countless nobles must have tried to give him territory and a knighthood.

Each time, he had flatly refused.

Because if he spoke in circles, Ferda thought he would interpret it however he liked.

If he had intended to refuse Ferda’s offer, he would have said he refused.

Saying he would think about it meant there was room for choice, and that there was a possibility he might set foot here.

Because he did not trust him, the possibility had arisen that he might accept that title.

It was a contradictory situation, but Ferda did not care.

‘Someone loyal to me means...’

A man who could stand in his way when he was heading down the wrong path.

That was the kind of loyalty he needed.

Alberto left city hall and chose a place to sleep outdoors.

His armor was heavy, so staying at an inn with rooms on the second floor was impossible.

As if he was used to it, Alberto found a stable and stayed inside.

The temporary stables that had been expanded in preparation for the Start of Spring Festival had grown quiet, and thanks to that, there was room for Alberto to sleep rough.

Before the sun set, he inspected his equipment.

Alberto might skip sleep, but he never skipped maintenance for even a single day.

“... Hm?”

While Alberto was tending to his club, he spoke.

Countless Demons had rushed at him, and those who prided themselves on their strength had used all sorts of methods to break this weapon.

But every last one of them had experienced that failure while beaten into a bloody pulp.

Of course they had.

The weapon he used was made of great dragonstone, a legendary material said to be as hard as a dragon’s fang.

In terms of durability, it would not break at all under any ordinary strength.

And yet, on that club...

There were marks he had never seen before.

One thick mark, and beside it, four relatively smaller marks.

No matter how he looked at them, they were in the shape of fingers.

“Hm...”

Looking at those marks, Alberto recalled the armor knight who had blocked his attack.

When two attacks canceled each other out, the side with relatively weaker strength took the greater impact.

When his attack had been blocked, Alberto had felt it.

In simple strength, he could not defeat that armor.

The knight was a noble being who stood higher than he did, even though he had been killing colossal demonic creatures alone.

“Hm...”

Alberto did not dwell on such things.

In a field where people killed and were killed, the one who survived was the victor, and the one who died was the loser.

He shook off his idle thoughts and finished tending to his weapon.

On a bright morning,

the Crown Prince of the Empire, Alexander Arken, was waiting for someone in front of the imperial gates.

“He is coming today, right?”

“Yes, Your Highness. He will certainly arrive within the day, so if you would wait just a little longer...”

The adjutant was flustered.

He had no choice, because another adjutant had died yesterday.

The reason was that the visitor had not arrived yesterday.

It had undoubtedly been simple venting, but no one could point that out or protest.

That was what the position of Crown Prince meant.

His throat tightened at the fact that he, too, could die pointlessly.

But luckily, that did not happen.

A splendid carriage and an army had passed through the forest and emerged onto the plain.

“He is coming!”

The Crown Prince, who had been muttering arrogantly, sprang to his feet.

A carriage of a size that imperial law allowed to no one but the Emperor.

When the hopeless scoundrel Alexander saw it, cold sweat naturally ran down his back.

A man who could make even the insolent and arrogant Crown Prince, who always looked down on others from above, tremble in fear.

That man’s family flag drew closer and closer, until it reached the Crown Prince Alexander.

An old man covered in age spots stepped down from within.

He was Grand Duke Waldemar Gold.

“Thank you for honoring us with your visit, Grand Duke Gold.”

Unlike Alexander, who welcomed him with an amiable smile, there was no emotion on Waldemar’s face.

His eyes looked as though they were staring at a pathetic whelp.

“I never thought I would live to hear the words ‘thank you’ come out of that mouth.”

“You are a great pillar of this Arken Empire, so is it not only natural that I show you respect?”

“For that, I heard you were singing yesterday about how foul it felt to have to bow your head to that son of a bitch.”

“Oh, surely, surely that could not be true.”

In truth, he had said exactly that.

It was hard to even guess who had leaked it, and since he really had sung it out loud, it would not have been strange no matter who leaked it, so he could not even track down the culprit.

“Well, would I so much as blink because you cursed me?”

He was composed.

Alexander was the sort to flare up in anger first when someone looked down on him, but with this man, fear came first.

Grand Duke Waldemar Gold.

By another title, he was the senior committee member of the Arken Emergency Response Headquarters.

Because from this moment on, this man would determine whether he lived or died.

Alexander bowed politely and pleaded.

“At this public hearing... I ask for your fair and rational judgment.”

“Fair and rational judgment, you say...”

Instead of answering, Grand Duke Gold straightened his back and began walking.

Alexander followed behind him like an attendant.

“The carriage?”

“It has been prepared near the entrance. Once you board, it will depart immediately.”

“Understood. You may go now.”

Watching his back, Alexander cursed inwardly.

‘You old bastard, chasing women even at your age...’

Waldemar had long been aiming for his sister, Stella.

Around the time her chest and hips had begun to develop after their mother, a beauty capable of toppling a nation, Waldemar had sent countless requests and gifts to the Emperor, saying he wished to marry Stella.

In the end, when her marriage to another man was decided, he had desperately forced matters in order to hang her fiancé for treason.

And after Stella died, he immediately changed targets and began aiming for Olivia.

Alexander knew in detail the corruption and evil deeds Waldemar had committed in order to covet the Princess.

Even so, he did not dare touch him.

“Brat.”

That was what Waldemar called Alexander.

Alexander felt pointlessly guilty, wondering if his true thoughts had been read.

“What is it?”

“We shall do this entry ceremony together.”

Alexander’s eyes went wide.

“W-With me, you mean?”

“Is there a problem?”

“No, sir. None at all.”

Because he knew Waldemar had detested him terribly since he was young, this was the first time the two of them would stand and ride together in the same place.

Only after reaching an age where he was almost middle-aged did Alexander finally stand beside Waldemar.

But he understood the man’s intention before long.

It was because of the cheers that rang out as soon as they entered.

“Grand Duke Gold!”

“Altes! Protect the Grand Duke!”

That thunderous sound was all praise.

Some offered prayers to god, while others extolled him in their own ways.

Waldemar smiled and raised his hand.

Wherever his gaze turned, cheers erupted as though the crowd would stop breathing.

“Brat. Smile.”

“What?”

“Do not make me say it twice.”

“Ah, yes!”

Realizing he had been overwhelmed by the atmosphere, Alexander smiled along and waved his hand.

It caught his eye that wherever he cast his gaze, the response was lukewarm.

Even in a situation that made his face want to twist, he kept smiling steadfastly.

“Do you understand now?”

Waldemar asked out of nowhere, but Alexander understood what he meant.

Grand Duke Waldemar, cheered by everyone.

Alexander, who made everyone uneasy.

It made him painfully aware of his own place.

“If I were to draw a dagger right now and stab you, what kind of reaction do you think that would cause?”

“...”

“Of course everyone would be shocked. They would say I stabbed the Emperor’s child. But how long do you think that would last?”

Not long.

The nobles who had tried to expose this man, and those who actually had, had all failed and vanished without a sound or rumor.

It was only natural.

No matter how much of an old lecher he was, coveting Alexander’s own sister...

He was a war hero who had fought for the Empire’s prosperity, its face, and its father.

He was the Empire’s last pillar, an absolute power that could not be brought down.

That was the man called Waldemar Gold.

“And you think someone like you is in a position to demand fair and rational judgment from me?”

Only then did the Crown Prince truly realize what he had to say.

“I beg you.”

Alexander smiled and waved his hand.

“I, Alexander Arken... desperately need the mercy of the great Grand Duke...”

His head was held stiffly high, but his heart had already struck the floor.

Only then did Waldemar ask, as if satisfied.

“What do you want?”

The residence of Black Bandana had once been the hideout of illegal operators who produced bootleg liquor.

Befitting a hideout, its exterior looked like a hunter’s shelter or a place occupied by a vicious beast.

But contrary to its exterior, the farther one went inside, the more its scale and structure became so vast and complex that it could not be compared to an ordinary castle.

Because of these characteristics, Black Bandana’s residence was commonly called the anthill.

There, the core executives spread across the continent had all gathered.

As soon as the blockade of the far east was lifted, Black Bandana summoned all its executives.

The leader of the organization, Garnet Swallow, said,

“The Empire has gone into emergency mode.”

“Of course it has. A demonic creature of that scale appeared inside the Empire...”

“The fact that an entire corps was annihilated is probably bigger than the demonic creature.”

An unprecedented invasion, and a scale of damage that could not be overlooked.

It was not something that could be glossed over, and the rights, wrongs, and responsibility for this situation had to be clearly determined.

In other words, it was a situation where information was life.

It was more than enough of a matter for Black Bandana, a secret intelligence organization, to pay attention to.

“Two weeks from now, a postmortem hosted by the crisis response headquarters will begin.”

A meeting that would go over everything from the source and beginning of the incident to its very end.

Through that, they would determine the person responsible for this situation and carry out punishment.

“Will it not be an obvious story anyway? They will point to the Crown Prince.”

The person ultimately responsible for the corps’ annihilation was Alexander Arken.

Even if he became the focus as a suspect in this meeting, Alexander could not fly into a rage.

After all, those senior committee members held power so immense that even the Crown Prince could not dare treat them carelessly.

“It is obvious it will end with the Crown Prince saying a few words, then cutting off the tail by sacrificing some head beneath him.”

Even so, in the end, they were all in the same boat.

It was obvious without even seeing it that they would use the Crown Prince’s weakness to take their own gains, then move on.

“If it were that simple, I would not have called you all here.”

If things flowed that way,

“The problem is that this issue will not flow that way. The matters that should flow down to the heads beneath him will point not to a subordinate operations staff officer, but elsewhere.”

“What do you think, boss?”

She said,

“It will be the far east.”

The far east.

That was land that could all be grouped under the name of Grand Duchess Valdrova’s territory.

“Currently, public opinion among the imperial citizens has formed around the idea that the far east may be the main culprit behind this situation.”

“That is strange. As far as I know, there was no talk of that for a week after the 1st Corps was annihilated.”

“So it was deliberately spread.”

The Empire’s intelligence department had been moving continuously since before the subjugation was concluded.

They spread false information, focusing on taverns where ordinary people often came and went, the faithful in churches, and women at the washplaces.

In information warfare, gaining the advantage of taking the lead comes first.

“So the reason the imperial army died like that was because the far east did not respond, is that it?”

“Wicked things. Without the Empire’s protection, they would have died on the streets long ago, and yet they do not even know gratitude.”

Those who knew nothing had no choice but to believe those words, and that belief turned uncontrollably against the Grand Duchy’s side.

“With public opinion turning against them like this, the Regent will not be able to do much either.”

“It seems they are very eager for the far east’s assets.”

Until just two years ago, the far east had been as good as nonexistent.

Some of the far eastern lords had been crying out for permission to be sent to other regions instead.

But surprisingly, even those who had cried out had grown quiet.

Remarkably, the turning point had been the appearance of Ferda Rosnova.

From that point on, the territory’s development had increased rapidly.

The Pascal trading company, the Empire’s greatest merchant company, and the Dandolo trading company, which had held the position of second place.

By obtaining those two, he had seized half the flow of the Empire’s commoner economy.

And since it was based not only on simple economic power, but also on the unrivaled technology of magical engineering, the territory’s potential was beyond measure.

All of that was enough to raise the morale of the lords.

Through this encirclement battle, using hammer and anvil, they had forged the heated fervor even harder.

As the far east was rising as a single power, it could only look unpleasant in the Empire’s eyes.

“It seems difficult for the Regent to resolve all this himself, so he will want us after all, won’t he?”

“Ah, it has been a while since we got to make some real money.”

The executives chuckled as they discussed how much they would overcharge.

Instead of joining the chuckling atmosphere, Garnet poured cold water over it.

“We will not sell the information.”

“What? If we do not sell information for money, what are you planning to do?”

“Are you going to say the far east is none of our business and just let it collapse, boss?”

Garnet kept a solemn expression and closed her mouth.

Then the executives who had been chuckling began to catch on one by one.

“Surely... are you proposing cracking the egg?”

The atmosphere turned incredulous.

Garnet answered.

“Yes.”

“Are you serious?”

“If you declare that stage, will our position not become dangerous?”

The atmosphere was one of dissuasion.

Garnet had expected this opposition as well.

That was why, even before bringing this up, and even before this meeting began, she had repeated it to herself again and again.

Was this the right thing to do?

If she made one mistake, there would be no turning back.

It would not simply be her ruin.

Everyone would be ruined.

And by everyone, that meant even her ancestors, who had maintained this secret organization, would be disgraced.

“I have agonized over it again and again, and this is the conclusion I reached.”

Even so, the same answer had come to her mind over and over.

“To carry on my father’s will, and further, the will of our ancestors, we will enter cracking the egg as of today.”

The die was cast.