A warm, sunny afternoon.
Perdes was meeting with the nobles of the Marshal's Office.
“Retrieving Owen is important, but protecting the palace is more important.”
“That’s right. The nobles of the Eastern and Southern territories said they would send knights, but we cannot completely trust them with the safety of the palace.”
To be exact, Perdes was as still as a sack of barley, and only the officials of the Marshal's Office chatted among themselves.
Even if he is a puppet commander-in-chief, it is worth asking him at least once.
The Marshal's Office officials did not speak to Perdes or even glance at him during the entire meeting.
Perdes twisted his lips at that fact.
Since it was something that neither of them wanted, he had no idea that the Marshal's officials or knights would treat him well or that he deserved to be treated well.
He was just trying to save face without tiring either of them out, but he never thought he'd get ignored like this.
Perdes was getting really annoyed.
Perdes, who had been watching to see how long he would be ignored, finally ran out of patience and stood up roughly.
Knock, bang!
As the chair fell over with a loud crash, the managers' eyes were focused on him.
Perdes smiled and spoke to the officials who looked at him with surprised or puzzled eyes.
“I guess I’ll be going now.”
“Yes? But the meeting is still..."
“No one is going to ask me for my opinion anyway, so what’s the point of me staying here any longer?”
When Perdes pointed this out openly, the embarrassed officials coughed or turned their heads away.
“I apologize, Your Highness. We were so focused on talking amongst ourselves...”
"No."
Perdes cut him off firmly. He didn't want to hear any excuses, and he didn't need to.
“Once everything is decided, I’ll organize it into a document and bring it to you. Well, judging by your attitudes, I don’t think you need to read that either.”
“That. How could that be! Absolutely not!”
“Well, we’ll just have to wait and see if it’s true or not.”
Perdes left the conference room with a cold smile.
Perdes left the central palace straight away and headed outside the castle, not to the Spring Palace where Adele was.
After renting a horse and robe at the horse rental shop, he headed to the post office.
The post office was bustling with people having business to attend to.
Although the waiting line was long, the royal family and high-ranking nobles were able to use it right away without waiting.
But Perdes waited until the end because he did not want to reveal his identity.
“Hello, Your Highness?”
However, as soon as he approached the counter, his identity was revealed without any reward.
“Right, right now, to the VIP room...!”
“Yes.”
When the employee tried to make a fuss, Perdes waved his hand and tried to stop him.
All it took was one person noticing it.
“I’m just going to find the letter, so there’s no need to make a fuss.”
“What kind of letter are you talking about...”
“The sender is Raold. The password is the strongest on the continent.”
Raold was Leo's fake name, and Strongest on the Continent was also Leo's code.
Even if the fake name was okay, the password was too childish.
So Perdes suggested they change to something else, but Leo refused.
They say that if you do something childish, you won't forget it, and other people won't find out about it or something.
He's not sure about the latter, but the former definitely worked.
“Please wait a moment.”
The clerk rummaged through the lockers behind the counter, then after a while brought out a letter and handed it over.
“Here is the letter you were talking about.”
"Thank you."
As soon as Perdes left the post office, he opened the letter.
The letter was written in neat handwriting.
It was a so-called 'ghostwriting service' where a post office employee wrote down what Leo dictated instead of using Leo's own handwriting.
This is a service that uses the Magic Communications Network, a post office communication network, and all you have to do is tell the recipient what you want to convey.
Then, the post office worker writes the contents of a letter and delivers it to the recipient.
When requesting a ghostwriting service, you must set a password to prevent someone else from taking the letter.
Although it was faster and more convenient than sending a letter, it had the fatal flaw of having all of its contents exposed.
So, he didn't use it unless it was a very urgent message or something that everyone should know.
Perdes wasn't too keen on using this service either, but he had no choice but to do it if he wanted to quickly receive the results of Leo's research.
Anyway, if you don't mention the name, the average person won't know what it's about.
“As expected, he couldn’t find anything.”
He expected it to be like that since it had only been three days since he asked, but he was completely disappointed when he actually saw it with his own eyes.
Perdes sighed deeply, crumpled up the letter, and put it in his pocket, intending to burn it later.
“Since I’m here, I might as well go to a used bookstore.”
Because maybe someone sold a book about Diabolos.
When he thinks of Diabolos, Byblos naturally comes to mind.
'By the way, where did Byblos go?'
Perdes hadn't seen him since that day, so he must have gone far away.
No. Since Byblos can use teleportation magic, the distance traveled shouldn't matter.
“Lord Byblos.”
Perdes called out to Byblos, wondering if he was hiding nearby, but there was no answer.
Looks like he's not there.
Well. Perdes doesn't have to worry since he's not the type of person who'll go somewhere and get into trouble.
Perdes already had a headache from other things, and he didn't want to worry about Byblos.
As Perdes shook his head slightly to brush away Byblos' worries, someone caught his eye.
Bright blonde hair and golden eyes glimpsed through the loosely pulled-down robe.
'Crown Prince?'
If his eyes were not deceiving him, it was clearly the Crown Prince.
He never thought he would meet the Crown Prince in a place like this.
Perdes' head tilted.
Just as he could leave the palace at will, the Crown Prince could also leave the palace freely, but the problem was timing.
The Crown Prince was extremely busy, having to take care of state affairs in place of the sick Emperor and also having to fight for recapture.
'Well, it looked leisurely the last time I saw it.'
At that time, they might have had some leeway since the Allied forces had not invaded, but not now.
There was no time to leisurely wander the streets.
It was strange that such a Crown Prince was walking around the streets without any knight escorts in sight.
Because the Crown Prince was a coward who had a knight escort him even when he went to the bathroom.
“I smell something fishy.”
That too, very much.
Perdes stroked his chin and watched the back of the Crown Prince as he walked further and further away, then pulled his robes down tightly and followed him.
***
Knock knock.
“Lord Perdes.”
I knocked several times, but there was no answer.
Count Martina said.
“I heard he went to the meeting of the Supreme Command, but it looks like he hasn’t come back yet.”
"I know."
I wanted to ask what the outcome of the meeting of the Supreme Council was, but it's too bad.
“Then let’s go to the post office first.”
“Are you going to use the ghostwriting service?”
"Yes."
Because that's the fastest way to get my message to the Knights of Leopold.
“How will the Count send a message to the Knights?”
“I have a magic communication ring from the head butler, so I will send a message through that.”
Yes, that's usually the case.
I also exchanged a magic communication ring with the general butler, Haness, but I borrowed it for a while to contact Leo.
I need to get the ring back quickly so I can contact the Duchy again easily.
I would have liked to buy another pair of magic communication rings, but they were not something I could just buy as I wanted. No matter how much money I had.
“Just in case, tell the Count’s butler to write down my message exactly as it is and send it to Leopold’s estate.”
“I will do that.”
“Then the ghostwriting service only lasts until 5 o’clock, so let’s hurry.”
Let's hurry, we have to stop by the bank too.
I took Count Martina's carriage and headed straight to the post office outside the palace.
I looked out the window to get a feel for the capital city.
The streets were more chaotic than usual, perhaps because of the news of the Allied invasion.
People's faces were filled with worry.
Looking at that face made me feel sick, so I closed the curtains.
And I kept my eyes tightly shut until I arrived at the post office.
How much time has passed like that?
The carriage that had been running diligently arrived at the post office.
Count Martina got out of the carriage first, and then he followed.
“Huh, Your Excellency Duke Leopold!”
When the guard who recognized me shouted loudly, everyone's attention was immediately focused on me.
The employee ran over and spoke politely.
“I will guide you to the VIP room. This way.”
Count Martina and I followed the staff into the VIP room.
As soon as I sat down, another employee brought me tea, and before I could even drink it, a high-ranking employee came in.
“It is an honor to serve you, Your Excellency the Duke. And Count.”
I nodded absentmindedly and picked up my teacup.
“It would be an honor.”
On the other hand, Count Martina accepted it with a kind smile.
The employee spoke with his eyes sparkling like stars.
“Your Excellency the Duke and His Highness the Fourth Prince, it is a pleasure to meet you both.”
...What?
“Oh my, what a good dream I had last night...”
Bang!
“What did you just say?”
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