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Express Wagon
After leaving the Merchants Guild, Hikaru quickly searched for Nino. He got two pieces of information from the Merchants Guild. First, Count Zepetta’s accusation caused the Minister of the Right to lose his position. Second, the progressive nobles had now joined the Imperial Council, the bastion of the conservatives.
「Hikaru! You’re walking too fast!」
Lavia and Paula were clueless as to what was going on with just this information.
「Why are you in such a hurry?」Lavia asked.
「Things are progressing faster than expected.」
「Faster?」
「I think whoever plotted to assassinate the Emperor… or rather, attempted a failed assassination is a progressive noble.」
「H-How do you know that?」
「I’ll explain later. For now, we need to find Nino—There he is!」
Nino was in the middle of some kind of negotiation with a well-built merchant. By the smile on their faces, they were either acquaintances, or they had made a decent transaction.
「Nino!」
「Hmm? Oh, Hikaru! What’s the matter? I told you to go see the sights.」
「Come on, man.」the other merchant said.「There’s nothing to see here in the sticks!」
「Good point.」
The merchants burst into laughter.
Hikaru grabbed Nino’s arm.「We don’t have time for sightseeing. I want to go back to the capital.」
「Wh-What?」
「Are you done buying kounatsu?」
「Oh, um, yeah. I just finished talking to this man.」
The well-built merchant smiled. 「My kounatsu are the best.」he said.「They’re so shiny. If you’re heading back today, we can have them loaded right away.」
「Uh, uh…」
「Load them up, please.」
「Hikaru! If we leave right now, we’ll be right in the mountains by nighttime! We’ll be practically begging the bandits to attack us!」
「You don’t have to worry about the bandits. Quick, load your wagon up. We’re leaving as soon as possible.」
「H-Hey…」
Hikaru insisted to have his own way. They left Treeland in a hurry that same day.
It looked like a storm just passed through the room. Furniture were toppled, picture frames crooked, curtains were stained with wine, and bottles and plates lay scattered about.
All of them were of the highest quality, but the owner of the room didn’t care. He kicked a bottle. It hit a table and shattered.
「Damn that miserable bastard… He will pay for this!」
Having lost his position overnight, the Minister of the Right had gone out of control.
「Now, now. Please calm down, Your Excellency.」
「Yes. We will return you to your post soon.」
His followers, fellow nobles, were gathered around, consoling the minister.
「I didn’t expect the Prime Minister to be so intolerant. When you are as handsome as His Excellency, the ladies would flock to you.」
「Indeed.」
The Minister of the Right’s affair with the Margrave’s wife was, in a manner of speaking, an open secret in high society. The only person who did not know about it was the Margrave himself.
If their affair was made public, both the Minister and the Margrave’s wife would lose face, but no noble in the palace could criticize the Minister. For better or worse, he was a leading figure of the conservatives, and one of the pillars that supported the empire.
「Why did Count—No, calling a small fry like him a Count is infuriating. Why did Zepetta bring it up now?」
「It must have something to do with the attempted assassination on His Majesty.」
「Yes. But we can’t do anything without proof.」
Crack. The Minister had stepped on a plate.
「If we don’t have proof, we’ll just have to make one.」
「How do we do tha—」
Turning around, one of the nobles yelped at the Minister’s glare. His eyes bore hair-raising malice.
「An eye for an eye.」he said.「He made me suffer such humiliation. I’ll pay him back a million fold!」
It was not the grumblings of a loser, but a howl that signified the start of a war.
The wagon was on its way back to the capital. Nino couldn’t help but wonder how things ended up this way.
「You want to deliver kounatsu to the head of Full Stomach Diner, right?」Hikaru said.「I received news that Luna the S-rank adventurer had taken care of the bandits.」
Hikaru finally managed to convince Nino. He actually didn’t know if Luna was able to hand over the soldiers disguised as bandits to the authorities. But it was true that they were taken care of.
「So, Hikaru. You said you were going to explain the situation.」Lavia said bitterly, perhaps because she didn’t have time to take a tour of Treeland.
「Of course. I think we need to return to the capital as soon as possible. Something big might be happening soon.」
「What kind of something?」
「A clash between the nobles.」
Hikaru couldn’t care less about their feud, but all this started with the assassination attempt on Kaglai. He had a feeling this wouldn’t end within the palace walls.
Ordinary citizens might get caught in the crossfire. If he didn’t do anything knowing he could’ve stopped it, he’d feel guilty. So Hikaru decided to do whatever he could.
「First of all, I told you that I ran into Luna, didn’t I? She told me the emperor was nearly assassinated.」
Hikaru and the girls were walking beside the wagon. There was no space inside the wagon for them, since it was filled with kounatsu. A fresh citrus scent drifted from within.
「They deliberately didn’t kill Kaglai.」
「I don’t get it.」
「There was no one in his bedroom.」
Lavia and Paula exchanged glances, unable to follow.
「Listen. There is no Stealth user in this continent who can hide from my Mana Detection. I’m willing to bet on that. I had my Detection on when we entered Kaglai’s bedroom, and there was no one there. I didn’t see any magic devices.」
「Ahuh, and then?」
「I think Kaglai went to bed soon after our meeting. It was already quite late then. The next time he was seen, he was bleeding. Which means we’ll be suspected right away.」
「That’s why Luna went after you.」
「Yup. After we left, no one came in contact with Kaglai until he was found bloody. There was just no opportunity. That means there was no assassin.」
Lavia blinked repeatedly. She didn’t seem to get it.
「In other words, there are only two possibilities: one is a suicide attempt by Kaglai himself.」
「What?! Suicide?!」
Surprised by the unsettling word, Nino turned around. Lavia forced a laugh, and made some random excuse.
「You’re too loud.」Hikaru said.「We’re talking about highly-classified information, you know.」
「S-Sorry. I couldn’t help it .」
「Same here, Hikaru-sama.」Paula said.「Please stop beating around the bush! It’s like being forced to read a mystery novel where you don’t know the killer until the very end!」
「My bad.」Hikaru apologized.
As a matter of fact, there were mystery novels in this world as well. But in a world with magic, murders with creative setups—like locked-room murders—were useless. Whodunit mystery murders instead were mainstream here. Not that there were a lot of them anyway.
「Kaglai had no motive to kill himself, so we can count that out. We’re not even close enough that he’d want me to be the last person he saw before he died.」
「So what’s the other possibility?」
Hikaru nodded.「The other one is—」