Chapter 111 - How Can Spring Come Without Passing Through Winter? (2)

"Since Your Majesty has asked me to become an exemplar for others as a member of the royal family, I cannot help but show myself taking the initiative and setting an example."

At my exemplary response, the old marquis let out a sigh of relief. The King didn't express it either, but he seemed somewhat pleased with my obedient answer.

"Keep in mind that rights come with responsibilities, and from now on, ensure that you can be an exemplar to others as a member of the royal family by taking the initiative and setting an example."

At the King's words, I let out a soft chuckle and replied.

"Instead of doing so from now on, how about right now?"

At my words, the King frowned.

"A spy."

Looking at such a King, I spoke.

"If I were to catch a spy, could I be called a true member of the royal family who takes the initiative and sets an example?"

The King's expression had already stiffened hard.

"In the past, when I headed to the North following my uncle, there was a spy hidden among the royal infantry that followed me. I thought it was someone Your Majesty had planted to monitor my uncle and me."

"This is the first I'm hearing of this."

Hearing a voice as rigid as that stiff expression, I turned my head.

The Palace Count was standing there.

"Your Majesty. I was the one who did it."

Receiving my gaze, the Palace Count stepped forward and dropped to his knees.

"You did?"

"Forgive my presumption, but when His Highness the First Prince was heading to the North, his temper was exceedingly foul, so I dared to overstep my bounds out of concern that he might make a misguided judgment in his youthful vigor."

"Count Ballorhard was by his side to guide him, yet you did something useless."

"If you punish me, I will gladly accept it."

The King lightly tapped the armrest of his throne.

To punish him immediately was awkward since it was done out of loyalty, but to let it slide was difficult since the crime of daring to monitor a member of the royal family was not small.

"If you are to apologize, it should be to the party involved, not me."

The pondering King gave me the choice.

It meant that it was up to me to decide whether to punish the Palace Count who dared to plant a spy on a member of the royal family, or to forgive him.

"Your Highness. Please punish me."

"Yes. If you did wrong, you must be punished."

I did not decline.

"I will accept any punishment without bitterness."

"It won't be sweet, though."

My choice was punishment, not forgiveness,

"Because I've never seen a bastard call it sweet after his head falls off."

And the severe punishment of death at that.

"It is something he did out of loyalty. The punishment is excessive."

At the King's words, I shook my head.

"If it was truly done out of loyalty, then it would be as Your Majesty says."

I looked back.

The Palace Count was still bowing his head to me with a guilty face. But it was not the face of someone who genuinely believed he had committed a crime worthy of death. Shamelessly so.

"The spy's name is Joseph, he was hidden among the royal infantry, and he stated that his purpose was not to monitor me personally, but to observe the movements of Winter Castle and the North as a whole."

The Palace Count stepped before the King again and defended himself.

He claimed that he only wanted to prepare for any potential discord considering the radical nature of the former Count, and that he had no other intentions.

The King seemed to be convinced by the Palace Count's excuse.

"It wasn't to prepare for discord, but to figure out the movements of the North, which the Empire's surveillance cannot reach."

"Your Highness! I cannot bear this! I have lived solely for the well-being of the Royal House to this day! If you tell me to die, I will die! But I cannot die with the stigma of having served two masters!"

The King defended the Palace Count, who sounded as if he were vomiting blood.

"The Palace Count's family has served the Royal House for generations. I will pretend I did not hear the Prince's words."

"Just because the father served the Royal House with loyalty doesn't mean the child is bound to do the same."

At my response, the King replied in a stiff voice.

"That is a leap of logic and wild speculation."

"Your Highness. The Palace Count is not the kind of person Your Highness thinks he is."

Even Marquis Bielefeld stepped forward to defend the Palace Count.

"I see. I must have misunderstood."

I took a step back.

When I backed down so readily, the King and the marquis instead put on bewildered faces. It seemed they expected me to stubbornly throw a fit and insist on punishing the Palace Count until the end.

Why would I do that?

I just shrugged at the King and the marquis who were looking at me.

The King declared that I had insulted the Palace Count's family, which had been loyal to the kingdom for generations, and ordered me to be confined to my quarters for three days as the price of my rashness.

I replied that I would do so.

Of course, I had no intention of actually staying cooped up in my quarters for three days.

Late at night, two days later, Gunne came to see me. I quietly watched her hand gestures before standing up from my seat.

"Then I leave the rest to you."

Bowing her head slightly, she disappeared like the wind.

I stealthily left the Prince's Palace, bringing only Arwen and Karl along.

Even going so far as to disguise ourselves, which was unlike me.

As soon as we escaped the royal palace, Gunne appeared before me.

"Did you do what I ordered?"

Instead of answering, she lifted her cloak. A long piece of the green cloak had been sliced off. Come to think of it, the white face revealed beneath the cloak was exceptionally pale today.

"You've worked hard."

When I gave her shoulder a light pat, she took the lead.

Following her as we wandered this way and that through the alleys of The Capital, a grand mansion appeared. It was a mansion as massive as the Prince's Palace, and its security was just as strict.

「This way.」

Gunne guided us while moving along the mansion's walls.

「Wait here.」

Following her as she stopped at a certain point, we hid our bodies in a deeply shaded spot under the wall.

After waiting for a long time, a presence was felt from inside the wall.

SWOOSH.

And not long after, a shadow wearing a black cloak pulled down low popped out from inside the mansion.

The suspicious figure, who lightly leaped over the high wall as if jumping over a shallow fence, looked around for a moment before taking a step.

At that moment, a mighty aura appeared from afar. It had not quite reached the level of a Sword Master, but it was an aura that came very close to it.

"Do not move."

As soon as the low voice ended, the sound of iron armor clashing began to echo from all directions.

CLANK, CLANK.

And Royal Knights dressed in golden armor and royal guards appeared.

It was a tight net of encirclement that completely surrounded the area.

A middle-aged knight emerged from among the Royal Knights. He was someone I had in my memories as well.

Was he the Vice-Commander of the Royal Knights? I had seen him standing next to the old knight a few times.

"The crime of daring to trespass into the King's quarters deserves death, but if you obediently reveal who is behind you, I shall take it into consideration and show leniency."

Seeing the suddenly appearing Royal Knights and royal guards, the suspicious figure panicked and looked around.

"Do you not know where you are, daring to cause such a commotion!"

Another group came running from afar.

"This is where the imperial ambassador stays!"

They were the imperial knights and escorts protecting the mansion and Marquis Montpellier.

"Who dares to cause a commotion in the middle of the night..."

The one who appeared to be the leader of the knights stepped forward and shouted, only to trail off when he recognized the Royal Knights.

"Why are the Royal Knights in a place like this..."

"There was an intruder in the King's quarters last night."

At the middle-aged knight's words, the imperial knight frowned.

"Are you suspecting us?"

"Of course not. We just caught the culprit, as a matter of fact."

Saying so, the middle-aged knight pointed in our direction.

"Come out."

At those words, I stepped out of the shadows and stood before the knights. Then, I pulled back the hood of the cloak I was wearing.

"Y-Your Highness? Why is Your Highness...?"

The middle-aged knight recognized me and his eyes widened. Looking at the murmuring Royal Knights, I spoke shamelessly.

"There is no moon, the air is stuffy, and it's quite a poor night for a stroll. Don't you think?"

I said the last part while looking at the suspicious figure.

The suspicious figure, surrounded by the Royal Knights and the imperial knights, could neither do this nor that and was frozen like a stone statue.

"Grab him. And make him kneel."

Looking at the suspicious figure, I ordered the Royal Knights.

The Royal Knights carried out my command without a moment's hesitation.

I could definitely feel that my status had changed from before.

The suspicious figure even drew his sword and desperately resisted, but the Royal Knights were the kingdom's finest elites. When not one, but five or six such knights lunged at him, his sword was instantly snatched away and he was forced to his knees on the ground.

"Hold on."

I stopped a Royal Knight as he reached to pull off the suspicious figure's cloak.

"I will check."

"He is an unidentified person. Why would you take on such a risk?"

It was a statement befitting a stiffly upright Royal Knight.

"Me? I'm a Sword Master, you know?"

But it was also a statement that wouldn't work on me.

Looking at the Royal Knights who shut their mouths, I approached the suspicious figure and pulled back his cloak.

GASP!

"Why is that man here!"

The Royal Knights who recognized the suspicious figure sharply drew in their breaths.

"I told you."

I ignored the reactions of those around me and spoke to the suspicious figure.

"My punishment wouldn't be sweet."

At my words, the suspicious figure, the Palace Count, turned ghastly pale.

* * *

"Tell me in detail exactly what happened."

Late at night, I had a private audience with the King.

"I cast a bait, and a fish simply bit the bait."

"Are you saying the fish was the Palace Count?"

I nodded.

The King had reprimanded me for being rash, saying I had cornered a loyal subject with wild speculation. But I had not been rash. I had only acted as if I were rash.

That way, the Empire's spy would feel a sense of crisis but wouldn't cower too much.

"How did you know?"

"I had placed people to watch beforehand."

"How did you know the Palace Count was a spy?"

At the King's words, I shook my head.

"I didn't place them on the Palace Count."

The one I placed under surveillance wasn't the Palace Count, but the imperial ambassador's side. I had the Sword Maidens watch Marquis Montpellier so that bastard couldn't try any tricks, and it led to an unexpected gain.

I learned that there were people secretly coming and going from that bastard marquis's mansion.

The Sword Maidens cleverly tailed those secret guests, figuring out all their identities.

Surprisingly, among them was the Palace Count, who managed the affairs of the royal palace.

Hearing my explanation, the King's eyes gleamed.

"Do you have a list?"

Without a word, I pulled a sealed envelope from my coat and handed it to the King.

As soon as the King received the envelope, he tore open the flap and checked its contents.

Skimming the list, the King squeezed his eyes shut. And for a long time, he did not open his mouth.

It was an extremely shocked face.

It was inevitable.

The names of the nobles written on the list I handed over were not just one or two. The names of nearly half the kingdom's nobles were written on the list.

Even if not all of them were spies, it was safe to say that at least half of them were selling the kingdom's information to Marquis Montpellier.

In other words, it had to be seen that at least a quarter of the kingdom's nobles had sided with the Empire.

And that only meant the number of those revealed was at that level, so for a King who had fought against the Empire his entire life, saying his heart felt devastated would be an understatement.

"Why didn't you tell me from the beginning that you had such a list?"

At the King's words, I just shrugged.

Would I have wanted to put on such a childish play and endure such a hassle?

"Would you have believed me if I did?"

I said the Palace Count was a spy, but he didn't buy a single word of it.

In such a situation, if I had thrust a scrap of paper at him claiming it was a list of nobles colluding with that Montpellier bastard, like hell he would have believed me.

The King must have been convinced by my words, as he no longer brought it up.

"It is a pity. The Palace Count's actions of coming out of the imperial ambassador's mansion late at night are certainly grounds for suspicion, but we cannot cast out the Palace Count based on that alone. Since you cast the bait anyway, it would have been better if you had waited a bit longer for the hook to set properly."

At the King's lamentation, I chuckled.

"What did that fellow say?"

"He said it was unfair but admitted he acted in a way that invited misunderstanding, so he felt deeply responsible and would step down. He stated that he would retire to the countryside as soon as he finished handing over his duties."

"Let him step down."

The King frowned. It seemed he found it unexpected that I, whom he thought would advocate for severe punishment, would say such a thing.

"A noble who has enjoyed power in The Capital for a long time is retiring to the countryside. He may have lost his power, but his wealth will not be small."

Perhaps understanding my words, the King's eyes gleamed.

"That's just right for attracting bandits."

"Or perhaps someone holding a grudge might be drawn to him. After all, how many enemies must he have made while enjoying his power?"

For instance, the eldest son of the royal family, or the First Prince, or me.

I had already made up my mind to dispose of that Palace Count bastard, and whether he retired to the countryside or defected to the Empire, I intended to chase him to the very end and exact the price.

And the only price a traitor had to pay was death.

When I smiled bleakly, the King smiled along with me.

Then he suddenly dropped his smile and put on an awkward face. It seemed he was completely unaccustomed to having such conversations with me.

It was the same for me. Feeling needlessly awkward, I stiffened the corners of my mouth and feigned ignorance.

I was stealthily trying to get up from my seat when the King asked me.

"I shall take some time and weed out the nobles on the list."

"There is no need to push yourself to deal with them. The time will come soon anyway."

"The time?"

I lowered my half-risen bottom back down.

Then I stared intently at the King.

"Before that, isn't there something we need to talk about first?"

Although my heart had softened quite a bit from seeing a different side of the King, I still vividly remembered the soldiers of Winter Castle who had died waiting for reinforcements.

My uncle's final moments remained perfectly clear in my eyes as well.

So I asked.

"Why did you abandon the North?"

The reason he had forsaken the North when it could have been protected.