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“Hey, what’s the meaning of this!!!”
Regal DeBell was fuming with anger.
Recently, three retainers have sent in notices of resignation and expressed their wish to migrate to the Ars Territory.
According to Rosythian Law, it’s possible to migrate to another territory if you submit a notice and pay the migration tax.
After that would be the agreement between the two territories.
Regal was left with no choice but to accept.
He had no reason to keep them from leaving after all.
There’s no justifiable cause to keep people with no history nor outstanding crime from migrating.
Moreover, if he screwed up to three people in their requests to migrate, he’d be labeled as a narrowminded ruler.
There’s no way he’d sacrifice his reputation just for such a lowly matter.
However, Regal was annoyed at leaving the just as that.
Therefore, he sent an official letter of protest to Almis Ars.
‘Stop poaching our retainers.’ Or something along those lines.
However, Almis Ars responded with the following:
“We, poaching your retainers?
No, we’re not doing anything of the sort however

perhaps there might be some of our new appointees who have indeed come from the DeBell Territory.”
Almis Ars humbled himself and apologized to Regal.
With that, Regal got satisfied and laid down his arms.
However, the disaster did not end there.
This time ten more people migrated to the Ars Territory.
There was a rumor circulating there that to become king, Raymond Rosyth was trying to win over Almis Ars into his faction. That Raymond, in exchange for Almis’ support, entered into a secret agreement with him where he would hold Regal in contempt and annihilate the DeBell territory so he could grant it to Almis.
Furthermore, it was rumored that the Non-Relative Faction’s retainers, i.e. Bermet and his clique, were conspiring with Almis and Raymond to screw over the DeBell clan.
Thus, Regal was met with no choice but to doubt the Non-Relative retainers.
Everybody who had been poached were all non-relative retainers after all.
Regal ordered his own retainers (naturally, the relatives) to keep watch on the non-relative retainers with comparatively high posts and their relatives.
Nevertheless, he limited himself to observation to the very end.
This was because he was never able to completely verify the veracity of the rumors. Besides, up until now Regal couldn’t believe that Bermet himself would betray him.
“Everything turned out well huh, Yal-san.”
Yal’s subordinate, who right now is acting as the merchant Yal’s apprentice, happily said so.
“We went through a lot of trouble spreading those rumors, huh. We incurred some expenses too.” (Yal)
Yal managed to win over 32 people for Almis. Amongst those, thirteen people, especially three were quite capable so he personally headhunted them.
The nineteen others remain at the DeBell Territory. Although they aren’t by any standard excellent people, they are helpful and reliable.
Actually, they help in gathering information for Yal and in circulating rumors and misinformation.
For a huge fee, however.
Those people, although they live decently with their present status, are never satisfied.
The Ars Faction has no need for those people.
Although these people aren’t personnel that the faction will welcome cordially, these people are troublesome beings they had to welcome otherwise they’d backstab the faction. Besides, people who had betrayed someone once tend to keep on betraying others.
They’re going to be disposed one way or another in the confusion after the end of the civil war.
Naturally, Yal has no intention to tell Almis about them. Almis is the type of person who’s worried about killing innocent people after all. Plus he’s the type to show disgust in breaking promises.
Yal has been entrusted with independent powers by Almis.
One of these powers is the freedom to not report something.
This is how Yal forcibly interpreted his powers.
That there are somethings you are better off not knowing.
“By the way, although I think it would be fine to do so, but is it not allowed to spread a rumor that Sir Almis would be directly succeeding as king?”
“Well, I also don’t think that’s bad. Almis is not a typical candidate in the succession after all.
On the other hand, Raymond Rosyth is the second contender for the throne ((next to Regal.)) The current rumors, therefore, have more credibility, right?
Furthermore, the Ars territory and DeBell territory border each other. It would be a problem if per chance Regal invades.
If we stick with Raymond’s rumor, we’d get an excuse against having Almis attacked after all.” (Yal)
(TLN: Sorry, I don’t get the sentence so I winged it. Tell me if you know. ăƒ©ă‚€ăƒąăƒłăƒ‰æ§˜ăźæ–čăŒçŽ‹ă«ăȘă‚‹ăšă„ă†è©±ăȘă‚‰ă€ă‚ąăƒ«ăƒ ă‚čæ§˜ă‚’èšŽăŁăŠă‚‚ćŁćźŸă‚’äžŽăˆă‚‹ă ă‘ă«æˆă‚ŠăŸă™ă—)
Regal’s territory does not border Raymond’s so there’s no way Regal could destroy Raymond. On the other hand, his territory is connected to Almis’ so should he feel like it he could go and destroy Almis.
If they spread the rumor that Almis would become king, there’s a chance that might happen.
At present, should a war occur it will certainly become a very big mess. That is something the must be avoided at all costs.
Almis, too, in order to avoid that, deprecated himself to Regal in order to show that he has no intention of directly antagonizing him.
Regal should probably be not confident in whether Almis and Raymond would come together.
Earnestly apologizing to him just like last time worked wonderfully when he came to us.
It would be great if Regal would come to think of Almis as a worthless being.
Either way, we’ll have him vigilant against an enemy greater than Almis that doesn’t even really exist.
“Now then, next would be the last fortress, Bermet
.Unless we get rid of this man, our plans won’t be successful.” (Yal)
I keep getting information that this guy is quite a capable person.
If the rumors were true, then that old man should have already noticed.
That King Rosyth has no intention of having Regal DeBell succeed to the throne.
The circulating rumor that Raymond Rosyth would succeed as king is nothing but a rumor after all so as a matter of course it doesn’t mean he understands King Rosyth’s real intentions.
Regal DeBell only became the leading candidate by chance about two to three years ago.
If he succeeds the throne, the authority of the king would become greater because the DeBell territory would be added to the areas under the throne’s direct control. With this, the total area of the crown territories will surpass that of the clan territories combined. In other words, power would be more centralized.
This is the main reason he became the leading candidate for the throne. It’s not about his skills or anything like that.
Raymond’s territory is small that the power balance would stay the same even if he becomes king.
To achieve the Rosyth clan’s wish to centralize power, it has become necessary that Regal becomes king.
That’s why the DeBell Clan and its branches do not doubt that Regal will become king.
Since humans won’t believe what they don’t want to believe, the clan is thinking that the situation won’t easily change.
However, should Bermet notice King Rosyth’s intention
.
He’d probably propose to Regal that they ally with King De Morgal to steal the throne and Princess Julia.
Since the easy way of getting the throne by marrying Princess Julia would be gone, the only thing that’s left is the bad way – getting the throne even if you end up being De Morgal’s vassal.
Regal might look brave but he is a timid man.
Just remember of the war with King Ferrum and you’d understand.
He won’t be able to choose by himself a decision akin to betraying his own country.
Furthermore, his pride was high at the same time.
Therefore, he probably won’t be able to stomach just being a vassal to the De Morgal Kingdom.
However, if you remove the person pushing Regal’s back then he should not be able to choose that game changing policy.
Furthermore, Bermet is the lynchpin of the Non-Relative Faction. If he gets punished with something like a demotion then an outpouring of dissatisfaction is sure to occur.
At any rate, in order to make Almis king, it is imperative that Bermet gets eliminated.
Thus, to achieve that
.
“Now then, shall we execute our plan?” (Yal)
“Lord Regal, as a matter of fact, I have something to report but
.”
“What?”
“There’s a possibility that Sir Bermet will defect to Almis Ars. We have received reports that suspicious people were being seen near Sir Bermet’s residence late at night.”
Regal frowns.
Honestly speaking, they have no evidence that would prove Bermet was truly betraying the clan.
Would a loyal retainer who had been serving him for so long really be able to betray him?
Right now, Regal still believes in Bermet.
However, recently, a lot believed it would be better if they were to put Bermet under observation. Even as a token effort, they should probably put him under surveillance.
“I understand. Put him under surveillance. Two, no, three people. Put Bermet under observation. Should nothing happen within a week, then Bermet would be in the clear.” (Regal)
Just like this, three people were assigned to observe Bermet’s residence.
“It went smoothly, yes?”
Yal and his subordinate laugh together.
The eye-witnesses who reported Bermet were nobody else but Yal and his subordinate.
Naturally, there’s no way they have directly reported to a retainer of the DeBell Clan. They first passed the rumor on to several merchants who then passed it on to the DeBell Clan’s Official Purveyor.
This person was the one who then directly reported to the DeBell Clan.
So long as they aren’t investigated conscientiously, they won’t be traced.
They seemed to have succeeded even though they used a somewhat dangerous method.
Regal has begun to suspect Bermet and has put him under observation.
However, this is still not enough.
It still needs one push.
“Now then, shall we use this?”
Yal has the corpse of a falcon in his hands. It is a corpse they received from Soyon. They had her deliberately kill a falcon while soul-riding another one.
A cylinder is attached to its foot.
This cylinder contains a fake letter addressed to Bermet.
In other words, they’re making it out to be a letter from the Ars Clan to Bermet that has fallen when it was attacked on the way by a wild falcon.
Should they manage to skillfully show this to Regal later, then he would come to completely doubt Bermet.
The problem is how should they go about this.
If they directly sent this to Regal or any of his subordinates, then as a matter of course Yal’s background would be investigated.
Even if you say the time they acted as merchants and the time they poached estranged talent from Regal’s camp were a little bit off from each other, they still overlap.
With this, everything they have worked for would have come to naught.
The method they’d use would be


Once every month, the DeBell Territory opens a public market. Merchants would gather here to sell their goods.
To reach this place, there’s a path every merchant would have to cross.
“Now then, if we leave this here, then passing merchants would pick it up and send it for us sooner or later.”
Yal and his subordinate turned up in that path early in the morning, before the sun has risen. There they leave behind the falcon’s corpse.
Merchants, at the bare minimum, should be able to read letters so they should be able to understand what the letter inside the cylinder would be about.
They should be able to immediately notice how important the letter is and would immediately send it to the authorities.
Had they done this late at night then a cat might come to snatch it away.
Had they done this when the sun has risen then the merchants would have gathered already and they won’t be able to place the corpse on the path.
This is just the perfect time.
“Then let’s see how this goes. If it fails, we’ll just have to revise the plan and try again.”
“You’re right. Let’s pray a cat won’t take it away.”
The two take their leave.
A few minutes later, a merchant happens to pass by and picks up the falcon.
Normally, he would’ve ignored the corpse, but he noticed the strange cylinder attached to its foot.
Furthermore, it seems that the cylinder was quite the high quality.
He did not peek inside.
Since the cylinder looks as if it’s purposely designed and since they purposely used a falcon, then there’s no mistaking that it’s important classified information.
If he had peeked inside, then he’d be in huge trouble.
There’s no option left but to kill people who know important secrets
.The merchant kindly says no to such a prospect.
One way or another, the cylinder managed to reach Regal’s court. Regal reads the letter inside the cylinder.
The letter was clearly addressed to Bermet. It’s about what social position Bermet would be granted after he betrays Regal.
Unfortunately, the sender has not written a signature, name nor left behind a family crest.
However, judging by the current state of affairs, the one who sent this letter is without doubt either the Ars Clan or Raymond.
Regal calmly states:
“Grant a reward to the person who brought this letter. Furthermore, add twenty more people to the team observing Bermet.”
Bermet visits Regal’s court with a heavy heart.
Certainly, after having been posted with more than 20 guards, he would have understood that he is currently under suspicion.
At this rate, he’d end up being killed.
However, he probably won’t be given a chance to explain himself, too. Regal is a stubborn man who refuses to yield once he has decided, after all.
Bermet’s heart was overflowing with anger against Almis Ars for having done such foul play, with anger against Regal for having readily believed such a plot, and with exasperation towards himself for having been defeated.
“What is it, Bermet?” (Regal)
“No,
Lord Regal. Actually, I am already old. I have already stood firm in the path that Lord Regal becomes king. I intend to humbly retire in this place.” (Bermet)
After declaring such, Bermet leaves Regal’s palace. Regal did not even have him detained.
Thus, he returned to his residence.
Since he has lost his loyalty to Regal, he has also forfeited the blessings of the “Divine Protection of the Great King.”
An illness that had held him back since long ago then rapidly progressed. Just like that, Bermet breathed his last.
He was 82 years old.
However, Bermet was probably happy.
Since his family and relatives were spared from being accused of rebellion.