Chapter 150
Valdemar Golt
“You intended to give Baron Wolcher’s territory to that man?”
It was Luri who asked the question.
Ferda had returned to the castle after leaving the town hall.
“Yes.”
“And what did he say?”
“He said he would think about it.”
That was where their conversation had ended.
Alberdo was a free spirit, so Ferda could not bind him to one place.
Nor had Ferda tried to persuade him any further.
“Doesn’t that mean he rejected you?”
“Probably not.”
Alberdo was a wandering knight who belonged nowhere.
Even before Ferda made his offer, countless nobles must have offered him territory and a knighthood.
He had undoubtedly rejected them all without hesitation.
Alberdo knew that if he spoke indirectly, others would interpret his words however they pleased.
Had he intended to reject Ferda’s proposal, he would have said so plainly.
The fact that he had said he would consider it meant that the possibility remained.
There was still a chance he would choose to settle here.
Ironically, Alberdo’s distrust of Ferda had created the possibility that he might accept the title.
But Ferda did not mind.
Someone loyal to me…
A man capable of standing in his way when he began walking down the wrong path.
That was the kind of loyalty Ferda truly needed.
The temporary stables expanded for the Spring Festival had grown quiet, leaving Alberdo with a place to sleep outdoors.
Before sunset, he began inspecting his equipment.
Alberdo might skip sleep, but he never neglected his equipment maintenance for even a single day.
“…Hm?”
Alberdo paused while tending to his club.
Countless demons had attacked him, and many who boasted of their strength had tried every imaginable method to destroy this weapon.
Every last one of them had learned of their failure after being reduced to bloody pulp.
That was only natural.
His weapon had been forged from Great Dragonstone, a legendary material said to be as hard as a dragon’s fang.
As far as durability was concerned, no ordinary force could damage it.
And yet—
A mark unlike anything he had ever seen had been left upon the club.
There was one thick indentation, with four comparatively smaller marks beside it.
No matter how he looked at them, they were clearly shaped like fingers.
After leaving the town hall, Alberdo had selected a place to spend the night.
His armor was too heavy for him to stay at an inn with rooms on the second floor.
As though accustomed to such circumstances, Alberdo found the stables and settled inside.
“……”
As he stared at the marks, Alberdo recalled the armored knight who had stopped his attack.
When two attacks collided and canceled each other out, the weaker side naturally suffered the greater impact.
At the moment his strike was blocked, Alberdo had understood.
He could not defeat that suit of armor through strength alone.
The knight was a powerful being who stood above even Alberdo, who had spent his life killing colossal monsters.
“……”
Alberdo did not dwell upon it.
In a struggle where people killed or were killed, the survivor was the victor and the dead were the defeated.
He cast aside his idle thoughts and resumed maintaining his weapon.
***
On a bright morning, Crown Prince Alexander Arken was waiting for someone outside the gates of the Empire.
“He really is arriving today, isn’t he?”
“Yes. He will undoubtedly arrive sometime today, so perhaps you could wait just a little longer…”
The adjutant fidgeted nervously.
He had every reason to.
Another adjutant had died the previous day.
The reason was that their guest had failed to arrive yesterday.
It had clearly been nothing more than Alexander venting his anger, but no one had dared point that out or protest.
Such was the authority of the Crown Prince.
The adjutant’s throat tightened at the thought that he too could die just as meaninglessly.
Fortunately, that did not happen.
A magnificent carriage accompanied by an army emerged from the forest and rolled onto the plain.
“He is here!”
The Crown Prince, who had been muttering arrogantly, abruptly sprang to his feet.
The carriage was so enormous that imperial law permitted only the Emperor to possess one of its size.
Even the reckless Alexander broke into a cold sweat at the sight.
There was only one man capable of making even the haughty Crown Prince—who constantly looked down upon everyone else—tremble with fear.
The banner of that man’s family drew steadily closer until it reached Alexander.
An elderly man covered in age spots stepped out from within the carriage.
He was Grand Duke Valdemar Golt.
“Thank you for honoring us with your visit, Grand Duke Golt.”
Unlike Alexander, who welcomed him with a friendly smile, Valdemar’s face held no emotion.
His eyes seemed to regard Alexander as a pathetic child.
“I never imagined I would live long enough to hear the word ‘thank you’ leave your mouth.”
“You are one of the great pillars of the Arken Empire. Is it not only natural that I show you proper respect?”
“And yet I heard you spent all of yesterday singing about how infuriating it was to have to bow your head to that son of a bitch.”
“Oh, surely not! I would never say such a thing.”
He had, in fact, said exactly that.
It was impossible to determine who had leaked it because Alexander had quite literally gone around singing the words. It would have been stranger if no one had reported it.
“Do you think I would so much as blink merely because a brat like you cursed me?”
Valdemar remained completely composed.
Alexander normally flew into a rage whenever someone looked down on him.
But before this man, fear came first.
Grand Duke Valdemar Golt.
He also held another position: Chief Commissioner of the Arken Emergency Response Council.
From this moment onward, this man would have the power to decide whether Alexander lived or died.
Alexander bowed his head respectfully and pleaded,
“At the upcoming public hearing… I ask that you deliver a fair and rational judgment.”
“A fair and rational judgment…”
Rather than answer, Grand Duke Golt straightened his back and began walking.
Alexander followed behind him like an attendant.
“Where is the carriage?”
“It has been prepared near the entrance. It will depart as soon as you board.”
“Very well. You may leave.”
As Alexander watched him walk away, he cursed inwardly.
You lustful old bastard, still chasing women even at your age…
Alexander knew that Valdemar had long desired his younger sister, Stella.
Once Stella began developing the voluptuous figure inherited from their mother, a beauty capable of bringing nations to ruin, Valdemar had sent countless requests and gifts to the Emperor, asking for her hand in marriage.
When her marriage to another man was eventually arranged, Valdemar had even fabricated every argument he could in an attempt to have her fiancé hanged for treason.
Then, immediately after Stella died, he had changed targets and begun pursuing Olivia.
Alexander knew in detail every corrupt and wicked act Valdemar had committed in his desire to possess an imperial princess.
Even so, he did not dare challenge him.
“Brat.”
That was what Valdemar always called Alexander.
Alexander flinched, worried that the man had somehow read his thoughts.
“What is it?”
“You will accompany me during the entrance ceremony.”
Alexander’s eyes widened.
“Y-You mean I am to enter alongside you?”
“Is there a problem?”
“No. None at all.”
Valdemar had despised Alexander since he was a child.
This would be the first time the two of them entered an event side by side.
Only now, when he was already nearing middle age, had Alexander finally earned a place beside Valdemar.
But it did not take long for him to understand the man’s true intention.
The reason became clear from the cheers that erupted the moment they entered.
“Grand Duke Golt!”
“May Altesia protect the Grand Duke!”
The thunderous roar was filled entirely with praise.
Some offered prayers to the gods, while others extolled him in their own ways.
Valdemar smiled and raised one hand.
Wherever his gaze fell, cheers erupted so fiercely that people seemed ready to lose their voices.
“Brat. Smile.”
“Pardon?”
“Do not make me say it twice.”
“Ah, yes!”
Realizing that he had been overwhelmed by the atmosphere, Alexander forced a smile and waved as well.
The lukewarm reactions from the places he looked toward did not escape his notice.
Even though the sight made him want to scowl, he stubbornly maintained his smile.
“Do you understand now?”
Valdemar asked the question without warning, but Alexander understood exactly what he meant.
Grand Duke Valdemar was greeted with cheers from everyone.
Alexander merely made everyone uncomfortable.
It forced him to recognize his own standing in the most painful manner possible.
“What reaction do you think they would have if I drew a dagger right now and stabbed you?”
“……”
“Of course, everyone would be horrified. They would say that I had stabbed the Emperor’s son. But how long do you think that outrage would last?”
Not long.
Every noble who had tried to expose this man—and even those who had actually done so—had failed and disappeared without a trace.
It was inevitable.
No matter how much of a lecherous old man he was for coveting Alexander’s own sister—
He was also a war hero who had fought for the prosperity of the Empire.
He was its face.
Its father.
He was the final pillar of the Empire, an absolute power that could not be brought down.
That was the kind of man Valdemar Golt was.
“And you believe you are in a position to demand that I deliver a fair and rational judgment?”
Only then did the Crown Prince realize what he truly needed to say.
“I beg you.”
Alexander continued smiling and waving.
“I, Alexander Arken… desperately require the mercy of the great Grand Duke…”
His head remained proudly raised, but his spirit had already sunk to the ground.
Only then did Valdemar ask with satisfaction,
“What is it you want?”
***
The Black Bandana’s headquarters had once been the hideout of illegal distillers who produced contraband liquor.
True to its nature as a hideout, its exterior resembled either a hunter’s shelter or a place occupied by some vicious beast.
Yet despite its appearance, the deeper one went inside, the larger and more complicated it became.
Its size and structure were beyond comparison with an ordinary castle.
Because of this, the Black Bandana’s headquarters was commonly called the Ant Nest.
The organization’s core executives, who had been scattered across the continent, had now assembled there.
The moment the blockade of the Far East was lifted, the Black Bandana summoned every executive.
Garnet Swallow, the head of the organization, spoke.
“The Empire is in a state of emergency.”
“Naturally. A monster of that magnitude appeared within imperial territory…”
“The destruction of an entire legion is probably the greater issue.”
It had been an unprecedented incursion, and the scale of the damage could not simply be ignored.
This was not an incident that could be allowed to fade away without consequence.
Fault and responsibility had to be clearly determined.
In other words, information would be everything.
It was more than enough to attract the attention of the Black Bandana, an organization that dealt in secrets.
“Two weeks from now, the Emergency Response Council will begin its postmortem.”
It would be a meeting that examined everything from the origin and cause of the incident to its final outcome.
There, they would determine who was responsible and decide what punishment should follow.
“Isn’t the outcome obvious? They’ll point to the Crown Prince.”
The person with the greatest responsibility for the legion’s annihilation was Alexander Arken.
Even if he became the primary suspect at the meeting, Alexander would not be able to throw one of his usual tantrums.
The council’s chief commissioners possessed enough power that even the Crown Prince could not treat them carelessly.
“The Crown Prince will say a few words, and then they’ll finish by cutting off the head of someone beneath him as a scapegoat. It’s obvious.”
Even so, they were ultimately all part of the same circle.
They would exploit the Crown Prince’s weakness for their own benefit, then let the matter pass.
Anyone could see that coming.
“If it were that simple, I would not have summoned all of you.”
If events unfolded that way—
“The problem is that this matter will not proceed so neatly. When responsibility moves down the chain, it will not point to the operations staff beneath him. It will point somewhere else.”
“What do you believe will happen, Boss?”
Garnet answered,
“They will point to the Far East.”
The Far East.
All of that land could be grouped together under one name:
The Princeps Territory of Valdrova.
“Public opinion is currently forming among imperial citizens that the Far East may be responsible for this incident.”
“That is strange. As far as I know, no one said anything for an entire week after the First Legion was wiped out.”
“Then the rumor was spread deliberately.”
The Imperial Intelligence Bureau had been moving even before the subjugation campaign ended.
It spread false information through taverns frequented by commoners, congregations at churches, and women gathered around public washing places.
In information warfare, taking control of the narrative first was paramount.
—The Imperial Army only suffered so many deaths because the Far East failed to respond, right?
—Ungrateful bastards. Without the Empire’s protection, they would have died miserable deaths long ago, yet they do not even appreciate its grace.
Those who knew nothing had no choice but to believe such claims.
And that belief began turning uncontrollably against the Princeps Territory.
“With public opinion becoming this hostile, even the Regent will be unable to do much.”
“They must covet the Far East’s assets quite badly.”
Only two years ago, the Far East had practically been treated as nonexistent.
Some of its lords had even clamored to be transferred to other regions.
Yet remarkably, all of those complaints had now fallen silent.
The turning point had been the appearance of Ferda Rosnova.
From that moment onward, development within the territory had accelerated rapidly.
The Pascal Company, the greatest trading company in the Empire.
The Dandolo Company, which had held the position immediately beneath it.
Ferda had secured both of them, allowing him to control nearly half the flow of the Empire’s common economy.
And it was not merely a matter of wealth.
The territory possessed unique magical-engineering technology, making its future potential impossible to measure.
All of this was enough to raise the morale of the eastern lords.
The recent encirclement battle had served as hammer and anvil, forging their heated enthusiasm into something even harder.
The Far East was emerging as a single political force.
Naturally, the Empire could not view that development favorably.
“It seems difficult for the Regent to resolve all of this on his own. He’ll want our help, won’t he?”
“Now this is what I call an opportunity. It’s been a long time since we made some serious money.”
The executives laughed among themselves as they discussed how heavily they could overcharge him.
Rather than join their amusement, Garnet poured cold water over the mood.
“We will not sell the information.”
“What? What are we supposed to do if we don’t sell information for money?”
“Are you saying we should simply abandon the Far East and let it collapse, Boss?”
Garnet maintained a stern expression and remained silent.
One by one, the laughing executives began to realize what she meant.
“Surely… you are not proposing that we begin Cracking the Egg?”
Disbelief spread through the room.
Garnet answered,
“I am.”
“Are you serious?”
“If you declare that stage, won’t our own position become dangerously unstable?”
The room filled with objections.
Garnet had expected this resistance.
That was why she had repeatedly asked herself the same question before raising the subject, and even before the meeting began.
Is this truly the right decision?
One mistake would make it impossible to turn back.
It would not be merely her own ruin.
Everyone would fall.
And by everyone, she meant even the ancestors who had preserved this secret organization across generations would be disgraced.
“I considered it again and again before reaching this conclusion.”
Even so, the same answer had returned to her mind every time.
“To carry on my father’s will—and beyond that, the will of our ancestors—the Black Bandana will begin Cracking the Egg as of today.”
The die had been cast.