As soon as I returned to the palace, I looked into my father's death again, but I found nothing.
It had already been three years since the incident, and all of the knights who had been there at the time to escort the Crown Prince had quit.
The demands on royal guards are so strict and demanding that there are many cases where they can't stand it and quit, but, strangely, they all quit.
It was even more suspicious that they all quit less than a month after returning to the capital after subduing the monsters.
“I see you’re hiding something.”
So, that's why the Crown Prince came running to see me yesterday.
“Should I have questioned the Crown Prince?”
The Crown Prince is relatively bad at hiding his emotions, so I think we can figure it out with just a little bit of questioning.
No. If you show it like that, the Emperor might step in, so let's not do that.
If my father was really murdered, the Emperor must be behind it.
“...”
Just thinking about the Emperor made me feel angry.
I was even angrier at the thought that the reason the Emperor killed my father was because of that damn sword.
“Calm down, Adele.”
If I got angry now, I would only become more miserable.
All my anger must be saved for the day when I will make the Emperor penniless and kneel before me.
I took a deep breath, calmed my surging emotions, and then looked through the personal details of the escort knights.
As he was in charge of protecting the royal family, his identity was certain.
“It shouldn’t be hard to find.”
The question is how to meet these people.
If he had received an order from the Crown Prince or the Emperor, he would not come obediently even if called.
Even if he comes, he will come thoroughly prepared with what kind of lie he will tell.
Then what should I do?
“Ah. I guess I can just use war as an excuse.”
When war broke out, military law required that all those qualified as knights participate in the war, except in special cases.
So these people will take it for granted that I call them and will come obediently.
“Yes. Let’s do this.”
Before that, it would be a good idea to find out where they were and what they did after they quit their job as escort knights.
“I guess I’ll have to ask the Information Guild about this.”
Asking Leo for help is convenient in many ways, but I've been using him too much.
I didn't want him to get any more involved in my work.
“When Leo comes back, I’ll have to ask for the ring back first.”
If it had been any other item, I would have just told him to take it as a thank you for his hard work, but since the communication ring was so hard to obtain, I couldn't do that.
It also didn't make sense to hold only one ring when there were two in a pair.
“Come to think of it, I never asked Perdes to return the communication ring.”
You said things like you would pay me a fee and asked me to leave, but you never asked me to return the ring.
Even at the moment when I firmly decided to send him away, it seemed that I could not let go of my unwillingness to send him away.
Stupidly enough.
Knock knock.
Suddenly, I was awakened from my own musings by a sound that pierced my eardrums, and looked at the door.
“Who is it?”
"It's me."
Is this voice Perdes?
I put the documents I was looking at into the dresser drawer and opened the door.
Perdes asked with a smile and a friendly tone.
“I didn’t bother you or anything, did I?”
“No. But this person...”
I looked at the person next to Perdes, trailing off.
He was a suspicious person to anyone who saw him, wearing a black robe pulled down low so that his face could not be seen.
“This person...!”
Before Perdes could finish speaking, the other person pushed me away and entered the room without permission.
I looked at him, somewhat bewildered by his extremely rude behavior.
"Sorry."
Then Perdes apologized on his behalf.
“The Great Sage has a slightly eccentric personality.”
...That’s him.
Even if he was a member of the royal family, I would have wanted to question him about what he had just done, but I couldn't question him if he was a great sage.
He didn't seem like the kind of person who would apologize just because you asked him about it.
No, I should say dragon.
“I’m truly sorry.”
“No. And it’s not something Mr. Perdes should apologize for.”
“That’s true, but...”
Perdes let out a deep sigh and walked over to the great sage who was leaning back on the sofa.
“What if you come in without the owner’s permission?”
“Didn’t she give permission?”
“No.”
“Really? I thought she was allowing me to come in since she opened the door for me.”
The great sage looked at me.
“It was a mistake I made without knowing, so please be lenient.”
“...”
That doesn't sound like an apology, it sounds like a call to fight.
"Ha."
Perdes must have had the same thought, sighing and shaking his head from side to side.
I closed the door, walked up to them, and asked.
“So, both of you, what are you doing here?”
Seeing that the Great Sage came with Perdes, I think he has some business to attend to for me.
“The Great Sage said he wanted to ask you something.”
As expected, my prediction was correct.
When I looked back, Byblos also tilted his head and looked at me.
It was a look of discontent,l as if he was picking a fight.
“I think the Great Sage is very displeased with me.”
"That's right."
“Lord Byblos.”
"Huh."
When Perdes called out to him to stop, the great sage snorted and turned his head away.
“So, why did you come to ask me, who is so unpleasant?”
I sat across from the great sage and asked.
Then the great sage opened his eyes and glared at me.
“I haven’t asked you to sit down yet.”
“Was I in a position where I had to ask you for permission to sit down?”
“That’s right.”
The great sage folded his arms and raised his chin.
“You are just a human and I am a great dragon.”
“Aren’t you embarrassed to say that directly?”
“I was just telling the truth, why should I be embarrassed?”
“...”
Even though he's a dragon, how can he be so shameless?
It was so absurd that I was speechless.
“Enough with the strange story, tell me why you came here.”
Perdes sat down next to me and made a request to the great sage.
The great sage licked his lips and glared at Perdes as if he was displeased, but he didn't say anything.
Instead, he crossed his arms, leaned deeper into the back of the sofa, and asked me.
“I heard that there is a very special place in your mansion that was created by a dragon. Is that right?”
If we're talking about a special place, we're probably talking about the basement.
“Yes, there is.”
“Take me there.”
His demands are as shameless as his personality.
“It’s not hard to take it, but haven’t you heard any other rumors about that place?”
“Are you saying that if anyone who is not a blood relative of the Duke Leopold family enters that place, they will never see the light of day again?”
“And yet you still want to go? You may never see the light of day again.”
“That’s an interesting story.”
The great sage's lips tilted slanted.
“Do you think I would be fooled by a toy made by a child?”
Could it be that he is a child...?
“Red... Are you talking about the dragon?”
"That's right."
The red dragon in the tales I know was an old dragon that was tired of everything in the world and just waited for the day to die.
But calling the red dragon a kid?
“How old are you, no, how old are you?”
“I don’t know. I counted up to 500 years old, but after that, I stopped counting because it was too much trouble.”
So it's at least 500 years old?
Well, given the history of the Duke Leopold family, it would naturally be over 500 years old.
“Don’t worry about useless things, just take me there.”
The great sage spoke arrogantly.
“It will never happen, but if there is even a tiny possibility that something will go wrong and I am wrong, I will take full responsibility for it, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
How can everything you say be so unlucky?
His expression and attitude were arrogant, which made me feel even more unlucky.
“If I take you there, what will you do for me?”
“Ha! You dare to ask me to do business with you?”
“You ask the obvious.”
The great sage glared at me with a fierce expression.
Did you know that I would back down?
I met his gaze calmly without even blinking.
While we were staring at each other as if we were going to eat each other, a large hand intervened.
“Stop it.”
It was Perdes.
He asked the great sage as if scolding him.
“Why do you keep picking on her all this time?”
“When did I ever do that?”
“You kept nagging her, saying things like you were displeased, or telling her not to worry about useless things.”
“I was just telling the truth?”
When the Great Sage blinked his eyes as if to ask what was wrong, Perdes shook his head.
“If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have brought you to her.”
“Then that woman wouldn’t have found out anything.”
“What does that mean?”
Have you found out anything about Diabolos?
When Perdes hurriedly asked him about the meaningful words, the great sage smiled with the corners of his lips raised.
“If you want to know what I’m talking about, take me there.”
“...”
“I’ll tell you everything after I get back there.”
How dare you ask me to do a deal, and then you agree to the deal?
That's funny.
“What do you think? Are you attracted to it?”
“I’m definitely attracted to it.”
“Yeah... ”
“But I will refuse.”
It had already been three years since the incident, and all of the knights who had been there at the time to escort the Crown Prince had quit.
The demands on royal guards are so strict and demanding that there are many cases where they can't stand it and quit, but, strangely, they all quit.
It was even more suspicious that they all quit less than a month after returning to the capital after subduing the monsters.
“I see you’re hiding something.”
So, that's why the Crown Prince came running to see me yesterday.
“Should I have questioned the Crown Prince?”
The Crown Prince is relatively bad at hiding his emotions, so I think we can figure it out with just a little bit of questioning.
No. If you show it like that, the Emperor might step in, so let's not do that.
If my father was really murdered, the Emperor must be behind it.
“...”
Just thinking about the Emperor made me feel angry.
I was even angrier at the thought that the reason the Emperor killed my father was because of that damn sword.
“Calm down, Adele.”
If I got angry now, I would only become more miserable.
All my anger must be saved for the day when I will make the Emperor penniless and kneel before me.
I took a deep breath, calmed my surging emotions, and then looked through the personal details of the escort knights.
As he was in charge of protecting the royal family, his identity was certain.
“It shouldn’t be hard to find.”
The question is how to meet these people.
If he had received an order from the Crown Prince or the Emperor, he would not come obediently even if called.
Even if he comes, he will come thoroughly prepared with what kind of lie he will tell.
Then what should I do?
“Ah. I guess I can just use war as an excuse.”
When war broke out, military law required that all those qualified as knights participate in the war, except in special cases.
So these people will take it for granted that I call them and will come obediently.
“Yes. Let’s do this.”
Before that, it would be a good idea to find out where they were and what they did after they quit their job as escort knights.
“I guess I’ll have to ask the Information Guild about this.”
Asking Leo for help is convenient in many ways, but I've been using him too much.
I didn't want him to get any more involved in my work.
“When Leo comes back, I’ll have to ask for the ring back first.”
If it had been any other item, I would have just told him to take it as a thank you for his hard work, but since the communication ring was so hard to obtain, I couldn't do that.
It also didn't make sense to hold only one ring when there were two in a pair.
“Come to think of it, I never asked Perdes to return the communication ring.”
You said things like you would pay me a fee and asked me to leave, but you never asked me to return the ring.
Even at the moment when I firmly decided to send him away, it seemed that I could not let go of my unwillingness to send him away.
Stupidly enough.
Knock knock.
Suddenly, I was awakened from my own musings by a sound that pierced my eardrums, and looked at the door.
“Who is it?”
"It's me."
Is this voice Perdes?
I put the documents I was looking at into the dresser drawer and opened the door.
Perdes asked with a smile and a friendly tone.
“I didn’t bother you or anything, did I?”
“No. But this person...”
I looked at the person next to Perdes, trailing off.
He was a suspicious person to anyone who saw him, wearing a black robe pulled down low so that his face could not be seen.
“This person...!”
Before Perdes could finish speaking, the other person pushed me away and entered the room without permission.
I looked at him, somewhat bewildered by his extremely rude behavior.
"Sorry."
Then Perdes apologized on his behalf.
“The Great Sage has a slightly eccentric personality.”
...That’s him.
Even if he was a member of the royal family, I would have wanted to question him about what he had just done, but I couldn't question him if he was a great sage.
He didn't seem like the kind of person who would apologize just because you asked him about it.
No, I should say dragon.
“I’m truly sorry.”
“No. And it’s not something Mr. Perdes should apologize for.”
“That’s true, but...”
Perdes let out a deep sigh and walked over to the great sage who was leaning back on the sofa.
“What if you come in without the owner’s permission?”
“Didn’t she give permission?”
“No.”
“Really? I thought she was allowing me to come in since she opened the door for me.”
The great sage looked at me.
“It was a mistake I made without knowing, so please be lenient.”
“...”
That doesn't sound like an apology, it sounds like a call to fight.
"Ha."
Perdes must have had the same thought, sighing and shaking his head from side to side.
I closed the door, walked up to them, and asked.
“So, both of you, what are you doing here?”
Seeing that the Great Sage came with Perdes, I think he has some business to attend to for me.
“The Great Sage said he wanted to ask you something.”
As expected, my prediction was correct.
When I looked back, Byblos also tilted his head and looked at me.
It was a look of discontent,l as if he was picking a fight.
“I think the Great Sage is very displeased with me.”
"That's right."
“Lord Byblos.”
"Huh."
When Perdes called out to him to stop, the great sage snorted and turned his head away.
“So, why did you come to ask me, who is so unpleasant?”
I sat across from the great sage and asked.
Then the great sage opened his eyes and glared at me.
“I haven’t asked you to sit down yet.”
“Was I in a position where I had to ask you for permission to sit down?”
“That’s right.”
The great sage folded his arms and raised his chin.
“You are just a human and I am a great dragon.”
“Aren’t you embarrassed to say that directly?”
“I was just telling the truth, why should I be embarrassed?”
“...”
Even though he's a dragon, how can he be so shameless?
It was so absurd that I was speechless.
“Enough with the strange story, tell me why you came here.”
Perdes sat down next to me and made a request to the great sage.
The great sage licked his lips and glared at Perdes as if he was displeased, but he didn't say anything.
Instead, he crossed his arms, leaned deeper into the back of the sofa, and asked me.
“I heard that there is a very special place in your mansion that was created by a dragon. Is that right?”
If we're talking about a special place, we're probably talking about the basement.
“Yes, there is.”
“Take me there.”
His demands are as shameless as his personality.
“It’s not hard to take it, but haven’t you heard any other rumors about that place?”
“Are you saying that if anyone who is not a blood relative of the Duke Leopold family enters that place, they will never see the light of day again?”
“And yet you still want to go? You may never see the light of day again.”
“That’s an interesting story.”
The great sage's lips tilted slanted.
“Do you think I would be fooled by a toy made by a child?”
Could it be that he is a child...?
“Red... Are you talking about the dragon?”
"That's right."
The red dragon in the tales I know was an old dragon that was tired of everything in the world and just waited for the day to die.
But calling the red dragon a kid?
“How old are you, no, how old are you?”
“I don’t know. I counted up to 500 years old, but after that, I stopped counting because it was too much trouble.”
So it's at least 500 years old?
Well, given the history of the Duke Leopold family, it would naturally be over 500 years old.
“Don’t worry about useless things, just take me there.”
The great sage spoke arrogantly.
“It will never happen, but if there is even a tiny possibility that something will go wrong and I am wrong, I will take full responsibility for it, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
How can everything you say be so unlucky?
His expression and attitude were arrogant, which made me feel even more unlucky.
“If I take you there, what will you do for me?”
“Ha! You dare to ask me to do business with you?”
“You ask the obvious.”
The great sage glared at me with a fierce expression.
Did you know that I would back down?
I met his gaze calmly without even blinking.
While we were staring at each other as if we were going to eat each other, a large hand intervened.
“Stop it.”
It was Perdes.
He asked the great sage as if scolding him.
“Why do you keep picking on her all this time?”
“When did I ever do that?”
“You kept nagging her, saying things like you were displeased, or telling her not to worry about useless things.”
“I was just telling the truth?”
When the Great Sage blinked his eyes as if to ask what was wrong, Perdes shook his head.
“If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have brought you to her.”
“Then that woman wouldn’t have found out anything.”
“What does that mean?”
Have you found out anything about Diabolos?
When Perdes hurriedly asked him about the meaningful words, the great sage smiled with the corners of his lips raised.
“If you want to know what I’m talking about, take me there.”
“...”
“I’ll tell you everything after I get back there.”
How dare you ask me to do a deal, and then you agree to the deal?
That's funny.
“What do you think? Are you attracted to it?”
“I’m definitely attracted to it.”
“Yeah... ”
“But I will refuse.”
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