Chapter 30
What Do You Take Me For?
Ferda tilted his head.
“What does any of that have to do with plotting and inciting rebellion?”
“You are colluding with a corporation to arm soldiers and constructing roads connecting this region to the empire. Are you not preparing to make an invasion easier?”
The accusation was absurd beyond belief.
Ferda responded calmly.
“I am improving the roads to facilitate supplies and trade and to make it easier for the empire to provide support in an emergency. Furthermore, since I signed a contract with the Pascal Trading Company, it is necessary to build roads for their use. In a land where the only enemies are beasts and monsters, what exactly do you imagine I will do with those roads?”
“The East has defended itself without roads until now. What you are doing constitutes excessive armament and a threatening act against the empire.”
“Defended itself…”
At that moment, Ferda’s previously calm emotions surged upward.
“Have any of you ever seen what is happening in the Far East?”
“No.”
“Have you ever even set foot in the Far East?”
“No.”
“Then you know nothing about what is happening here.”
Ferda himself had not known before coming here.
Although he had attended several meetings of the Far Eastern Defensive Alliance, it was only after arriving that he realized just how dire the situation was.
“To begin with, the Far Eastern defensive line lacked funding, manpower, and even morale. We have only managed to restore it to roughly twenty-five percent of what it requires. Does that look like excessive armament to you?”
“There have been no problems until now. Increasing your armaments when there is no need to do so can only carry such implications.”
“Stop forcing your absurd logic on me. To be frank, the only reason the Dread Queen’s Domain of Valdrova has been able to repel monsters is because of my fiancée, Dread Queen Valdrova. Without her, everyone here would already be as good as dead. The soldiers of the Far East need better weapons.”
“Absurd logic?”
Karl seized upon Ferda’s words and raised his voice.
“I have come here in my capacity as chief inspector! Do you not understand that you are expected to treat me as though I were the Emperor himself?”
Karl shouted to intimidate him.
He attempted to break Ferda’s momentum, but—
“Just now.”
Ferda’s quiet voice silenced him.
Ferda merely sat with his legs crossed, holding his teacup as he looked up at Karl.
Yet there was something within his blue eyes.
Something that could not possibly belong to a human being.
“Did you just raise your voice in my presence, Sir Karl?”
Karl did not allow himself to be overwhelmed by the pressure.
He was the one who had the right to shout.
Ferda was equally furious.
Had this been his usual self, Karl would already have been a corpse.
No, Ferda would have crushed and destroyed him without mercy.
Yet he was holding himself back.
‘Has Valdrova been treated as nothing more than a guard dog all this time?’
Their treatment of her was worse than he had imagined.
Ferda had been vaguely aware of it.
They feared her, but their fear lacked true reverence for the source of that terror.
Ferda wanted nothing more than to send them straight back to the western empire.
But he did not.
He chose to look farther ahead.
All of this was for his fiancée, Valdrova.
In the end, Karl, who had tried to suppress Ferda through intimidation, backed down.
“If a formal investigation begins, you may be punished as regent under imperial law.”
Ferda took a sip of tea before answering.
“Then stop it.”
“With the higher authorities already paying attention to the matter, it is impossible for me to intervene on my own.”
“Is that so?”
Ferda waved his hand with apparent disappointment.
“Then it cannot be helped. I will cooperate fully with the investigation and clear my name.”
Karl finally spoke again, looking frustrated.
“Once it begins… it cannot be stopped.”
“That is unfortunate, but unavoidable. You have fulfilled your duty. You may return now.”
At last, Karl let out a deep sigh.
“Why are you behaving this way? A man of your position should stop pretending not to understand.”
He abandoned his clumsy performance and revealed his true intentions.
His murky eyes fixed upon Ferda.
“Let us settle this amicably. As someone from the Rosnova family, surely you know what the Purge Corps does?”
“Of course I do. You are knights who make a living robbing territorial lords, are you not?”
“That is one way people describe us, yes.”
Karl looked entirely unbothered by the insult.
He formed a circle with his thumb and index finger.
“Simply provide the money intended for my superiors, along with a modest fee for myself. Then we will take a step back.”
“How much?”
Karl spread all ten of his fingers.
“One hundred thousand gelden should be sufficient.”
“Hmm. One hundred thousand…”
Ferda nodded and placed his teacup down.
Luri approached with the teapot and refilled it with warm tea.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“Go ahead.”
“What do you take me for?”
Karl answered as though the question were absurd.
“You are the regent of Valdrova, are you not?”
“Is that truly how you see me? Because I believe you take me for a damned fool.”
“A-a damned fool?”
Karl faltered at the blatant profanity.
“What are you talking about? How could I ever regard the regent in such a manner…”
“Do not worry. I have already been called Valdrova’s kept man and the Rosnova family’s worthless son countless times. It is hardly surprising that someone might take me for a damned fool.”
The very fact that the Purge Corps had come here meant precisely that.
“I know everything.”
Ferda had always admired honorable knights.
Foremost among them, naturally, was the Purge Corps—the organization tasked with monitoring corruption among territorial lords.
“I know exactly how you drive honest lords into ruin.”
That was why Ferda had been more disappointed than anyone when he discovered what the organization had truly become.
“What would happen if I gave you money? Ah, you would say that I paid to silence you because I admitted my guilt. That would turn me into an easy mark for you to exploit.”
The moment one took the first step, one became entangled.
It was like leaping into a thick swamp from which there was no escaping through one’s own strength.
“And then more creatures like you would gather around me one after another, asking me to slip them money like children toddling after their mother and begging for an allowance to buy sweets.”
Similar demands and similar threats would begin pouring in from every direction.
No matter how wealthy a lord might be, his money was not infinite.
Complying with every demand would become impossible, yet resolving the situation would require even more money and power.
Eventually, the lord would raise taxes and begin exploiting those around him.
They drove decent men to the brink and forced them down a path where genuine corruption became inevitable.
That was how corruption continued to spread throughout the empire.
“Knowing all of that, do you truly think I would hand money over to you?”
Ferda had sworn to protect everything Valdrova loved and wished to defend.
There was no chance he would allow it all to become the plaything of worthless scoundrels like these.
“So do as you please. Search as hard as you like for your precious evidence of plotting and inciting rebellion, and obstruct me however you wish. I have no intention of giving you so much as one gelden—not even a single coupe.”
Ferda’s stance was firmer than Karl had expected.
However, Karl was familiar with situations like this as well.
How many times had he seen it before?
Lords who tried to hold out without paying the Purge Corps.
“Then I suppose I have no choice but to bring this matter up.”
Anyone who opposed the Purge Corps was crushed without exception.
Even if Ferda possessed the authority of the Dread Queen, he was still only a brat who had recently become regent.
“I hear you recently killed a noble. What do you have to say about that?”
He was referring to Thessalos Wolcher.
Karl had decided to raise an actual crime rather than one they had fabricated.
“Killed him? Don’t be absurd. Does imperial law arrest people for killing an opponent in a duel?”
“A death resulting from a duel is still clearly murder. There were witnesses, were there not?”
“There were. One of them is here now.”
Ferda glanced toward Luri.
“Tell him. Did I commit murder?”
Luri shook her head.
“It was an execution. We knew he had secretly been researching forbidden magic using monsters, so summary execution was entirely justified.”
“So she says.”
“That charge has nothing to do with the duel! And testimony from your own attendant has no legal weight.”
“Then whose testimony should we hear?”
Karl answered with a sinister smile.
“As it happens, we are currently escorting a witness here. He should arrive at the castle shortly.”
“A witness…”
Ferda merely sipped his tea.
“I would very much like to meet him.”
He gestured as though nothing Karl did could possibly matter.
Ferda’s complete lack of agitation only irritated Karl further.
‘Let us see how long you can maintain that composure. You will soon be groveling at my feet!’
Karl smiled, convinced that he would be the one laughing in the end.
A short while later, the witness Karl had summoned entered the reception room.
He was an elderly lord with a thick, wrinkled white beard.
He was the oldest man in the Far East and held the highest rank after Ferda.
—Ferda Valdrova is a fool intoxicated by his own authority. He is so arrogant that he may soon bring Valdrova’s wrath down upon himself.
He was an opponent who despised Ferda Valdrova and the source whose information had convinced the Purge Corps to act.
“Oh, Count Consilus! Welcome!”
Karl greeted him warmly at the entrance.
Count Consilus did not even glance at him.
His eyes remained fixed on Ferda.
Consilus walked over and respectfully lowered himself to one knee.
“Regent, have you been well?”
Ferda accepted the greeting without ceremony.
“Welcome, Count Consilus.”
It appeared to be an ordinary exchange between nobles.
Yet Karl stood frozen as though someone had struck him over the head.
It was common for nobles to exchange greetings.
However, when meeting an equal or someone with whom one had a poor relationship, a simple nod was customary.
To offer such formal respect was impossible in noble society unless one sincerely wished to express reverence.
‘He is merely observing proper etiquette.’
Karl showed no sign of awkwardness.
The correct course was to remain composed until the end.
‘Count Consilus is on our side.’
Count Consilus was a knight who had sworn loyalty to the Emperor.
He was an old man who had spent his life in the Far East and, until recently, had regarded the young regent with disapproval.
‘Every lord in the Far East felt the same way.’
Karl had already verified it.
Ferda had threatened the lords with criminal charges and sought to rule by suppressing them through fear.
Fear made people submissive.
However, once an opportunity to escape it appeared, they would betray their oppressor faster than anyone else.
Consilus himself had provided that information, so he would undoubtedly cooperate.
After accepting his greeting, Ferda politely indicated an empty chair.
“Please sit. I have no desire to leave an elderly man kneeling like this.”
“Yes, Regent.”
Count Consilus took his seat.
Karl sat as well, cleared his throat, and attempted to take control of the conversation.
“Count Consilus, thank you for coming all this way.”
“Think nothing of it. The timing merely happened to align rather neatly.”
Consilus chuckled and stroked his beard.
Karl laughed along with him before steering the discussion toward its intended subject.
“Count Consilus, you said you knew about the incident involving Thessalos Wolcher.”
Consilus nodded.
“I do. I witnessed it as an observer.”
“Exactly. Would you testify here and now as to the atrocity committed by the Regent of Valdrova?”
“That matter? Yes, you did ask me to speak about it…”
“That is correct. Would you provide your testimony regarding what happened that day?”
Count Consilus glanced briefly at Ferda.
“To state my conclusion first, the Regent of Valdrova…”
He continued.
“…committed no wrongdoing whatsoever in that duel.”
“…Pardon?”
The answer was nowhere near what Karl had expected.
“W-what do you mean? Ha ha. I believe I may have misheard you…”
“I will repeat myself. The Regent of Valdrova committed no wrongdoing whatsoever in that duel.”
Count Consilus had not chosen the empire.
“That day, Thessalos Wolcher activated a spell with the intent to kill Lord Valdrova, while Lord Valdrova merely fought back and subdued him. At the time, the Regent was a First-Circle mage, while Wolcher was a Fourth-Circle mage. The difference between them was so great that the outcome should have been obvious. Yet that Wolcher brat did not understand restraint. Even so, he lost.”
“Yes, he lost. He did lose, but it resulted in the killing of a noble—”
“No. That is not how the matter should be interpreted.”
Count Consilus cut Karl off.
“Even after the duel ended, Wolcher may still have intended to kill him with magic. There is such a thing as killing intent that only the participants in a duel can perceive. The Regent may simply have counterattacked before his opponent could strike. The world of mages is profound in that way. Is that not correct?”
Ferda nodded.
“A mage conceals his final measure until the very end. That is indeed how mages fight.”
“A noble attempted to kill another noble. Even though it ended in failure, the intended victim should have been granted the right to decide whether the attacker lived or died. That was the conclusion reached by the lords.”
What the hell was this?
That was not what he had said before.