Chapter 89:

“I don’t know who it is, but they’ve done something interesting.”

Victor muttered as he looked through the newspaper.

Even before the Council of Dukes meeting began, the daggers of the Three Blades had already started investigating Brauder’s kidnapping.

The group Johann Geller suspected the most was a group of Vestol merchants called the Assembly of Well-being, with whom Brauder had recently had a deepening falling-out.

The Three Blades’ investigation had also been centered around the Assembly of Well-being.

But then, someone had started a smear campaign against Vestol.

As if trying to pin all the blame on them.

“The timing overlaps too conveniently. It makes one needlessly suspicious.”

Johann Geller, who received the report in the morning, still suspected Vestol, but Victor’s thoughts were different.

The story of Vestol using curses had been around for a long time, but it had been dismissed as a mere conspiracy theory.

To nurture it and make it explode like this, there had to be a clear intention.

This incident made Victor suspect three possible culprits.

The first was Werner Chartra, who was continuing his investigation into pro-Vestol figures.

When it came to hatred for Vestol, he was second to none, but he wasn’t the type to use such an underhanded method.

The second was the young guard officers within the Imperial Army.

They were notorious for their secret oppression and attacks on the people of Vestol.

They were the types to spread such nonsense without hesitation, but their power had been greatly diminished by a recent series of investigations and internal crackdowns.

The last one was, of course, that old snake.

Count Valheit, who had been staying at a villa near the Imperial Capital since attending the Council of Dukes meeting, had no clear charges against him.

He was simply a being who would be suspected whether there was a reason or not whenever something like this happened.

He was also the person Victor suspected the most right now.

“He recently visited the land where the demons live, and he’s been in and out of the People’s Medical Center, so how could I not be suspicious.”

As if to fuel Victor’s suspicion further, a report came in that morning that Werner had announced he would investigate the Assembly of Well-being.

It was known that Werner and Valheit were in a cooperative relationship.

Could he be moving Werner to frame Vestol?

The problem was that all of this was mere speculation.

With the First Duke’s orders, he couldn’t commit resources to investigate Valheit based on a hunch alone.

“In the end, do I have to move alone?”

It was fortunate, at least, that with Werner beginning his investigation into the Assembly of Well-being, the Three Blades had become relatively idle.

It was a natural result, as Werner, using the Emperor’s order, began to control information as he launched a formal investigation.

Although a considerable number of the Three Blades were still assigned to surveil the Assembly of Well-being, the need for Victor to command them so tightly had decreased.

“Sorry to the old man, but sometimes you need to trust your gut.”

Having thus persuaded himself, Victor moved quickly.

Valheit was not an easy opponent.

He had to save every minute and second to even have a chance of barely tailing him.

A subordinate, seeing the commander suddenly emerge in full gear, was flustered and raised his voice.

“Where are you going?”

“For a walk.”

“What about the investigation?”

“Maintain the current state. There won’t be any major incidents for a while anyway.”

He heard his subordinate shouting something, but he was already too far away to make out the words.

‘He’ll manage on his own. It’s not like Werner is the type to act rashly.’

Having irresponsibly shaken off his worries, Victor’s mind was soon filled with a single thought.

‘Now then, where do I find Valheit?’

***

Slowly but surely, anger and fear towards Vestol spread.

People’s responses to this were varied.

Some left inquiries at the Vestol embassy, while another gentleman went to the newspaper company in person.

A very agitated person was arrested for throwing a stone at a Vestol merchant.

Most gathered in small groups and chattered about the news in the papers.

Although there were more people who tilted their heads than those who believed in the curse-casting Vestol doctors, the topic of conversation showed no signs of dying down.

At least, that was the case on Schwaben Street.

On the way to Old Man Strauss’s appraisal shop, everyone was talking about it.

“You’re saying there was a response.”

“He sent letters to four places. Among them, he even personally confirmed the contents of two.”

Ede nodded his head confidently.

Things were going as planned, up to the point where the People’s Medical Center got scared and asked for help.

Now, I had to figure out which of them was suspicious.

“You weren’t caught, were you?”

“Probably?”

As I frowned at Ede’s vague answer, Ede made a grimace as if wronged.

“Of course I wasn’t caught by the guards. It’s just that there are many eyes in the Imperial Capital, so I can’t be certain.”

“Who are you referring to, when you say many eyes.”

“The Imperial Army, the police, the Ravens, information brokers, the Three Blades… there are more than one or two sets of eyes monitoring what’s going on.”

“The Three Blades are here too.”

“Their numbers have increased recently.”

There was no way they wouldn’t be here when Johann Geller was on the move.

I could roughly understand why he couldn’t be certain.

“Let’s go back to the director’s letters. To whom did he send them, and what were the contents?”

“In the morning, to the Vestol embassy….”

“That’s a given, so let’s skip it.”

Around the time lunchtime was ending, the Vestol embassy hastily issued a statement.

It was a statement denying the raised suspicions and urging for the protection of the Vestol people.

It was a natural response, and thus, I could guess the content of the letter the director of the People’s Medical Center had sent.

It would be a mundane message asking for help because strange rumors were spreading.

But that wasn’t the information I was looking for.

“Excluding the embassy, he sent them to three places: a Vestol merchant guild called the Assembly of Well-being, Professor Zain’s assistant, and the Borgia Liquor Guild.”

“The letters he confirmed, who were they sent to.”

“The Assembly of Well-being and the Borgia side. To the Borgia side, he sent a message to postpone the next smuggling shipment delivery date, and to the Assembly of Well-being, he asked to set a date to meet and discuss that matter.”

The one to Professor Zain’s side was probably about spreading some other strange invention.

The fact that there was a connection between the Eight Council and the People’s Medical Center was both good and bad.

The possibility that the Eight Council might be involved in the Kranacht incident was quite troublesome, but thanks to that, it was easy to track.

“Contact Cesare and Professor Zain and tell them to explain their relationship with the People’s Medical Center. Tell them to report everything, without leaving out a single trivial detail.”

I didn’t think those two were directly involved.

Cesare and the Borgia Liquor Guild were likely just helping with smuggling in the middle, and Professor Zain wasn’t the type to go through the trouble of conducting experiments in another country.

If so, that left only one suspect.

“Assembly of Well-being. What kind of place is it.”

“Um, it’s one of the many merchant guilds formed by Vestol merchants. The products they handle are insurance and loans, but their reputation isn’t very good. There are a lot of coercive demands for repayment.”

Just from that, it didn’t seem to have a major connection to the Kranacht incident.

Considering how thirsty for money he was, did he take out a lot of loans?

“Are there any unusual details?”

“Master Werner announced he was launching an investigation. I don’t know the details because he was sparing with his words. Also, he recently had a falling out with Brauder.”

“A money problem?”

“That’s the biggest part. I heard Brauder borrowed a lot. However, there are rumors that there were other problems, but they are unsubstantiated.”

If Brauder and the People’s Medical Center were involved, it was highly suspicious.

However, I didn’t think that was the final destination.

It didn’t make sense for merchants to cast a curse on an entire city.

Could there be an employer behind them?

“Understood, I will look into that side….”

I turned my head.

There was nothing unusual other than the messy office.

“What’s wrong? There’s nothing there.”

“…It’s nothing.”

Ede, who looked again at the place I had glanced at, confirmed there was nothing and scratched his head.

“I’ll be on my way now.”

“Are you going to look for an Assembly of Well-being?”

“Well. I’ll have to think about that.”

“Geez, what kind of answer is that?”

Leaving the grumbling Ede behind, I went outside.

I walked slowly and expanded the range of my Search.

‘As I thought, I wasn’t mistaken.’

I barely managed to catch a single thread of hostility.

As I narrowed the range and increased the output, I could feel it a little more clearly.

Someone was following me.

But aside from the Search, I couldn’t feel at all that I was being tailed.

There were only a few people who could follow Valheit without being detected at all.

Among them, even fewer were capable of thoroughly suppressing their hostility.

‘Is it Victor?’

If the Three Blades were active in the Imperial Capital, it was natural for Victor to be here too.

I didn’t know why he was tailing me, and alone at that, but he probably wasn’t following me with goodwill.

‘Did the Three Blades find out who kidnapped Brauder?’

No, if that were the case, they would have deployed the entire Three Blades to monitor and track Werner and me.

There was no reason for him to move alone.

Is he testing me?

Or a personal investigation?

Either way, it was endlessly annoying.

I could shake him for a moment with Vanished Shadow, but Victor wasn’t the type to give up because of that.

Now that he had started chasing me, it was obvious he would stick to me tenaciously.

As I was contemplating what to do, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.

‘If I can’t shake him off, why not use him?’

He must be tailing me blindly because there’s no evidence to prove my connection to Brauder’s kidnapping.

If I give him a plausible piece of evidence and make him follow that, would it work?

The problem was what to use as bait.

A shallow trick wouldn’t work.

He would soon realize it was a trap and come after me again.

I thought about passing it on to Werner but quickly gave up.

Werner was too precious to be used as bait.

The authority to investigate officially under an imperial order was not easily obtained.

Besides, if it was revealed that Werner had instigated the kidnapping, Blaiher, who had appointed Werner, would also be harmed.

I turned my steps and headed back to the appraisal shop.

As I entered, Ede stared at me blankly.

“Why are you back?”

“That assistant of Professor Zain, the one who received the letter from the director, where does he live?”

“I already told them to report to Professor Zain?”

“A use for him suddenly came up.”

Although he tilted his head a few times as if he didn’t understand the situation, Ede wrote down the address.

“This is where he lives, but I don’t know if he’s there right now. He might have gone to work.”

“That’s not very important.”

“Huh?”

“What’s important is that I’m going there.”

Leaving Ede, who was lost in thought about what that meant, I went outside again.

The destination was a shared housing district not far from the eastern commercial district.

As I began to walk quickly, Victor’s speed, who was following me, also increased.

It took twice as long as usual because I mixed in feints of shaking off a tail here and there.

The 4-story shared apartment building, which looked like it had been built a long time ago, could not be called a good residence even with polite words.

I went to the house at the very back of the 3rd floor and knocked on the door.

As Ede had said, there was no response.

I knocked on the door persistently.

“Who is it?”

A voice weary with fatigue was heard.

As I turned my head, a man with thick glasses was looking at me with a wary gaze.

“Do you perhaps live in this house?”

“I do, but….”

“I’ve come in connection with Professor Zain.”

At the words of Professor Zain, the other person’s expression darkened.

The man with thick glasses, who let out a long sigh, opened the creaking door.

“Please come in for now.”

“Thank you.”

I gave a slight nod and went inside, checking on Victor’s situation.

He was hiding in a corner, not even a twitch.

He took the bait, so now all I had to do was set the hook properly.

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