Chapter 99
15. The Blonde Saint
“The North?”
“Yes. We’re certain they took a teleport heading north, but since the Mage’s Guild wouldn’t cooperate, it was difficult to find out anything beyond that.”
Aiden’s subordinate, who had been tailing Angelina, bowed apologetically.
Aiden waved his hand dismissively, though fortunately, his words weren’t too harsh.
“That’s better than getting into a dispute with the Mage’s Guild over something like this.”
“Indeed, Your Highness. There’s no need to unnecessarily provoke the Magic Tower.”
Dominic agreed with Aiden’s words.
“This is enough. You may go.”
He dismissed the subordinate who had made the report and reopened the file Dominic had delivered in the morning.
“Something is definitely suspicious…”
The file contained records of Angelina’s movements since entering the capital.
When she was in Flaubert’s territory, tailing her had been exceptionally difficult due to Ante’s thorough security.
But the capital was Aiden’s domain, where Ante’s influence was naturally weaker.
Aiden immediately assigned multiple people to tail her.
“Library… The Grand Library…”
Though the report only contained mundane details about trips between the Grand Library and the inn, Aiden found that very suspicious.
“They say she’s staying at the inn because the Flaubert residence is under renovation, but when we checked, they’re just adding another indoor garden.”
It meant the construction wouldn’t have prevented her from staying at the mansion.
“I understood why she didn’t go shopping or to salons. From what I’ve seen of her personality, she doesn’t seem to enjoy such things.”
Though they hadn’t met many times, it had been enough to gauge her character.
“If Blake hadn’t shown up, I would have just thought she really liked books. But this is clearly a planned meeting, isn’t it?”
He tapped the line describing Angelina and Blake’s meeting at the Grand Library.
“Yes, I admit I was careless enough to have one theater ticket stolen from under my nose. But it’s too early, even if that was her purpose for coming.”
With the duchy in disarray from the long subjugation, why would he come more than two weeks early for a play when there was so much to organize?
“Indeed. Anyone can see he came to meet Lady Flaubert.”
Dominic agreed enthusiastically.
“So after meeting, they went to a ruined tavern, then teleported north?”
Aiden stood up and walked to the empire’s map on the wall. Using the command baton normally reserved for meetings, he traced above the capital.
“Speaking of the Mage’s Guild… here, here, and…”
He checked all the guilds that led northward.
“Even with teleportation, they couldn’t have gone that far in one jump, so they probably stopped around here, wouldn’t you say?”
Dominic helped with the speculation.
Aiden scanned the area Dominic pointed to. Nothing stood out to him.
“There were six people?”
“Yes. The Lady, the Duke, and four subordinates.”
Dominic showed Aiden the paper summarizing the subordinate’s earlier report. Aiden glanced at the list of names and turned back to the map.
“When it costs millions just to make one move, if they choose this method, it must be for one of two reasons. Either they were pressed for time, or they wanted to shake off their tail. Or perhaps both.”
What place could be so important that they needed to go to such lengths?
Aiden crossed his arms and pondered for a while before turning his head toward the bookshelf as if something had occurred to him. He pulled out one of the files and examined its contents.
It was a file documenting Blake’s subjugation unit’s movements.
“Here.”
He pointed to a location in the file.
Dominic craned his neck to see what Aiden was looking at.
“Kuns… Village? Where is that?”
Although the Empress had said there was no need to pay attention to him anymore, Aiden still kept records of everything as he remained wary of him.
“Blake is the type who values efficiency and minimizes his movements. He avoids staying in villages and prefers camping.”
This was because more eyes meant more chances of spies, and he disliked getting entangled in unnecessary complications.
“He went to a place he’d been before? What for? It’s not even for subjugation this time?”
“That’s what I’m curious about.”
Since Angelina wouldn’t have suggested going to such an unfamiliar place with no connection to Flaubert, it must have been Blake’s idea.
“But teleporting six people all the way there must have cost several million at least. With the scrolls used too…”
“That’s what makes it more interesting. It means Lady Flaubert was willing to spend that kind of money.”
“Ah.”
Since Kadenhart, having just paid off their territory’s debts, couldn’t possibly have provided the funds, this must have been Flaubert’s investment.
“Find out what this place is about.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Dominic added ‘Kuns Village’ to his tasks and spoke again.
“By the way, are you really planning to leave the monster situation to the Order as is?”
“….”
At the mention of another recent headache, Aiden took a deep breath as his head began to throb.
“Even if they say they’re trying to find the mastermind, isn’t this too extreme?”
Aiden had immediately launched an investigation when news of monsters appearing in the capital surfaced.
After visiting the Flaubert villa, the Empress’s surveillance had intensified, so he sent Dominic instead of going himself.
Unfortunately, they hadn’t discovered much. Their investigation overlapped with the Order’s Holy Knights who were looking into the same matter.
They said they had found someone potentially connected to it and were searching for them, suspecting them to be the mastermind.
And since monsters were more efficiently dealt with using holy power rather than palace knights, Dominic was convinced to return to the palace.
Of course, Aiden gave him quite an earful when he returned.
“Hah, whether it’s Blake, Marquis Flaubert, or the Order. When everyone’s so suspicious, running a country becomes very inconvenient.”
Aiden spoke irritably while roughly running his hand through his hair. Then he threw the file he was holding onto the desk with a loud thud.
“While this one and that one are busy with their schemes and desperate to hide them, it’s the people who suffer.”
“Should we remove the Order?”
“Let’s just watch for now. No need to create unnecessary trouble. And above all…”
Aiden’s voice trailed off.
“Above all?”
Though Dominic asked curiously, Aiden just glanced at him and waved his hand dismissively.
“Never mind. Go do your work.”
“How can you leave me hanging like that?”
“I was just going to say that above all, the Order is an entity that must work alongside the Empire. Now go.”
“Ah. Yes, understood.”
Dominic left the room with a satisfied expression.
After confirming the door had closed, Aiden leaned over the desk, supporting himself with both arms, and let out a deep sigh drawn from his core.
‘…Above all, I can’t figure out what Mother is plotting.’
The Empress had been acting strange lately.
Unlike before, when she leisurely frequented salons acting as if she had the world in her palm, these days she rarely stayed in the Empress’s palace.
Judging by the increased number of maids and servants coming and going, the number of spies she employed must have grown, and the number of letters exchanged had clearly changed as well.
But he couldn’t investigate this in detail because of Dominic.
Recently, Aiden had begun to suspect that even Dominic might be the Empress’s pawn.
What sparked his suspicion was that all his outings and secret projects, known only to Dominic, somehow reached the Empress’s ears.
At first, he thought it was just the Empress’s impressive intelligence network and tried harder to escape her grasp.
But as time passed, he sensed something was off, and this suspicion grew stronger while dealing with the monster incident.
He couldn’t understand Dominic’s behavior – how he accepted the Holy Knights’ unreasonable explanations and returned, knowing full well that Aiden disapproved of the Order’s increasingly overstepping remarks lately.
What was even stranger was that instead of coming directly to him, he had taken a detour through the Empress’s palace.
There was no confirmation since he hadn’t stayed long at the Empress’s palace, and there were no witnesses who saw him meeting the Empress directly.
But having worked at the palace for years, Dominic couldn’t have possibly gotten lost, and his palace and the Empress’s palace weren’t positioned in a way that one could ‘pass by’ on the way back.
“Damn it, how is there not a single person I can trust?”
He already knew that the Empress regularly changed the people around him, managing things so he couldn’t form any attachments.
Yet he had considered Dominic his own person, having personally brought him to the palace.
Aiden, after rubbing his face with his hands, stared intently at Angelina’s observation report visible between his fingers.
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