Chapter 114:

Hugo stared blankly at the band of bandits setting fire to the warehouse.

The bandits, with their faces crudely covered, were clearly Demons to anyone who looked.

They themselves seemed to have little intention of hiding it, not even concealing their protruding horns or stray tufts of fur.

The one Hugo was watching most intently was not Diaboli leading the Demons from the front, nor the dark elf quietly checking the goods in the back.

It was the white-haired human who had taken a step back, supervising everything.

Just what was she thinking, participating in something like this, Til.

If Victor had been here, he might have wondered why Valheit was attacking citizens of the Empire.

But Hugo had little interest in that sort of thing.

It wasn't like it was the first or second day Count Valheit had done something scummy.

He probably had his own noble and disgusting reason for staging such an act, and that was no surprise.

But Til was different.

‘There’s no way she’d participate in something like this without a reason.’

Til wasn't the type of person who burned with a sense of justice and would never do a dirty job.

But she didn't enjoy this kind of work either.

Even in the days when she cooperated with the Three Blades, if she thought an order was ridiculous, she would ignore it just like that.

Mere words that it was the First Duke’s will could never persuade Til.

Recalling Victor’s troubled face, Hugo unknowingly smiled faintly.

Thinking back on it now, it was quite an amusing sight.

‘Is it the final stage now.’

As Til twirled her finger, the Demons who had been diligently destroying the warehouse and stealing goods began to leave their positions.

At a glance, it looked like they were grabbing what they could and fleeing, but it was closer to an orderly retreat.

As if they were expecting a surprise attack from someone.

When he first heard that they had attacked the wholesalers’ warehouses, he had thought Valheit had finally run out of money.

But after seeing the raid in person, he changed his mind.

This is not a simple plunder, but a military operation.

That was Hugo’s conclusion after seeing the looting site firsthand.

That must be why Valheit entrusted the job to Til.

‘The problem is what the objective of the operation is… hmm?’

Til was looking somewhere.

At first, thinking the gaze was directed at him, he gripped his sword.

But the direction Til was looking was slightly different from the hill where he was hiding.

Following her gaze, a sparse forest came into view.

It was a common forest in this area, with nothing peculiar about it at all.

Til, who had been staring at the forest until all the Demons had fled, shook her head and disappeared in an instant.

Still a speed hard to follow with the eyes, he thought, as he rose from his spot.

Normally, he should have tailed Til.

With Hugo’s skills, it would be difficult to chase a determinedly fleeing Til, but it was easy to pursue the Demons under her command.

‘What was she looking at?’

Instead, Hugo became lost in thought, looking at the forest Til had last glared at.

She wouldn’t have acted like that without a reason.

Because it was Til.

Then that means there was something in the forest.

She wouldn't have cared about some merchant agonizing over his burning goods or a curious onlooker.

‘Considering what Valheit has been doing around here, there must be an opponent. That action just now also seemed conscious of an opponent.’

Soon, Hugo made up his mind.

If Victor had heard his decision, he might have frowned and told him to investigate the certain opponent first.

But right now, his superior was busy attending to the old man in the Imperial Capital.

‘I need to find out who Valheit is fighting. To be prepared to cause a commotion in Stetten’s land, this can’t be an ordinary matter.’

Hugo silenced his footsteps and moved to the forest Til had been looking at.

It took less than a minute to get from the hill to the forest, but there was already no one there.

However, faint traces of someone having been there remained.

‘They’re no ordinary bunch. They’ve erased their tracks almost perfectly.’

Judging by the lack of mana, it wasn't a low-level erasure done with magic.

These were guys who moved professionally and systematically.

It was a level of work that anyone not accustomed to this kind of thing, like Hugo, would not even imagine, let alone notice.

‘This makes it even more curious.’

The order Victor had given him was to monitor the situation and find out Valheit’s intentions.

He could report right now that Valheit was carrying out a plunder in the Stetten domain.

Instead, Hugo decided to dig a little deeper into the matter.

He trusted his own intuition more than the organization’s orders.

‘I have to find out why Til is doing something she doesn't even like.’

It was a judgment that also contained a slight personal motive.

***

The promise I knew of with the Duke was not like that.

Wasn't it about helping each other with shady business?

Why is there suddenly talk of eliminating the Commander?

“You look like you don’t know.”

“Yes. That kind of thing, I don’t know it.”

“Hmm.”

Kaseph pushed his masked face forward.

It seemed as if he was trying to gauge what I was thinking behind my eyelids.

I reflexively avoided his burdensome gaze.

“In the first place, how do you know about the promise between me and the Duke?”

“Because the Duke of Leitche made me an offer as well.”

“To help him eliminate the Commander? That seems like a foolish thing to do.”

The Eight Council was a mess like bean powder before Valheit died and was shattered and atomized after his death, but their loyalty to the Commander was quite high.

Especially Til and Kaseph were firm loyalists.

There was no way the Duke, who obsessively gathered information, wouldn't have known that.

“Right. It was a foolish thing to do. But honestly, I was swayed.”

“Pardon? Kaseph of the Karmaflame was?”

“Because he said he would give me the chance to wring your neck.”

His tone and eyes were not joking.

It was clear that he had truly agonized over that condition.

“So, did you decide to take the chance to wring my neck?”

“I couldn’t decide easily. Until the last meeting of the Eight Council. At that time, I made up my mind to refuse.”

Well, thank you for that.

“Did he make that offer to all the members of the Eight Council?”

“I doubt it. The suspicious Duke would not have recklessly increased the number of his conspirators.”

Indeed, it seemed unlikely that Cesare or Avantnik would have kept their mouths shut after receiving such an offer.

Still, a question remained.

“I joined hands with the Duke, but the Duke offered you a deal on the condition of killing me. It doesn’t make sense.”

“To quote the Duke’s exact words at the time, he said that once the job was done and some time had passed, he would sever his cooperation with the Count.”

Considering the Duke of Leitche’s character, it wasn't a very surprising story.

However, it was strange that Valheit had made a promise with such a person.

“If I did join hands with the Duke, what do you think the reason was?”

“Are you asking me that?”

“It’s like Twenty Questions.”

I smiled until my mouth felt like it would tear, trying to hide the fact that I truly didn't know.

It must have worked somehow, as Kaseph didn’t press further.

“The Duke seemed to want to make the Eight Council more of his own organization. As for you… honestly, I’m not sure. Why did you step forward to oust the Commander, that is.”

“Hey now, how can you give up so easily? That’s no fun. Think about it a little more.”

I need at least a clue to even act.

In my current state, I have nothing to say other than that I just don't know.

“…Then I’ll tell you my pure speculation. You were never happy with her being the Commander.”

Was I?

The novel didn't go into the detailed inner workings of the Eight Council, so I don't know for sure.

I think Til, who effectively became Noah’s collaborator, did mention that the relationship between Valheit and the Commander wasn't too bad.

“When did I ever say that?”

“Don’t play innocent. I heard you and her arguing. For the record, I didn’t mean to listen.”

“Of course, you wouldn't.”

Though I pretended to be sarcastic, I was honestly a little intrigued.

As a reader, it was a part I was quite curious about.

Although I had gone around claiming the Eight Council’s Commander was a MacGuffin, I had secretly hoped that the author had prepared a huge plot twist for later.

In the end, it never came out, though.

“…Are you really going to make me say the contents of that conversation?”

“It’s not like we only argued once or twice, if you just say that, there’s no way for me to know when and what we fought about.”

Kaseph let out a long sigh, uncharacteristic of him, as if he really didn't want to talk about it.

It went on for so long that the ground his breath touched crackled and burned.

“It was about her not being fit to be the Commander. That she was too soft, idealistic, and fragile.”

“Hmm. That’s not entirely wrong….”

“You said it wasn’t necessary for her to be on the front lines, so she should take a step back. Saying that you knew the dirty work of reality better.”

Was Valheit greedy for the Commander's seat?

Considering what he did in the novel, he did far too little for someone who coveted the Commander's seat.

“Do you remember the Commander’s reaction as well.”

“Of course. She said that if you became the Commander, the Eight Council would crumble within half a year. It was an excellent insight, just like her.”

It actually turned out similarly, so I had nothing to say.

Even before Valheit died, the Eight Council was already as good as ruined.

This also explained why the Duke tried to eliminate Valheit as well.

Because there is only one Commander's seat, but two people who want it.

He probably judged that after pushing out the most troublesome Anat, it would be relatively easy to push out the unpopular Valheit.

“It seems he was planning to use a curse to eliminate the Commander from the time he made the offer to you.”

“Then it all fits together. Since I was hesitating, he must have found someone else and prepared. That’s why he ended up with such a crude experiment.”

If so, Kaseph’s claim that the Duke was targeting Anat with the curse also made sense.

But considering the Status Window's notification, it also seemed clear that he was targeting Valheit.

‘Was he trying to eliminate both at the same time?’

Perhaps he thought that after eliminating Anat, who founded the Eight Council and gathered the other members, and Valheit, the undisputed second-in-command, he could seize control of the Eight Council himself.

The puzzle pieces were slowly coming together.

The reason why the Commander never appeared until the end in the original novel.

It was clear that the Duke was behind Valheit's death at Noah's hands as well.

Unlike the original novel, the advantage Valheit, or rather I, had was that there was time.

If what they're doing in Ruhindorf is an experiment, it means the Duke's plan is still incomplete.

It meant there was plenty of room to deal with it, whether by threatening or striking the Duke right after resolving this matter.

‘Assuming we can completely ruin this experiment, that is.’

The reason to stop this experiment became even clearer.

“Can you find out where the core relay stations are?”

“I’m in the middle of backtracking. The traces are faint and intricately tangled, so it will take some time, but by lunchtime tomorrow, I should be able to find out for sure.”

“Good. I’ll trust you and get ready.”

Since the opponent also knew that we were on the move, we couldn't give them any more time.

This had to end in one go tomorrow.

Even with Til and Kaseph, it was too much to expect the count shadow corps members alone to handle it for sure before the curse spread.

Of course, I had a card prepared for a time like this.

‘It was a good thing I asked Blaiher for a favor.’

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