113. Dinner time (4)
“Whoa…” “I barely escaped.”
After escaping from the emperor.
I went to the funeral home alone.
Actually, I don’t know anything about witchcraft.
It was just an improvised response to prevent the vicious cycle of being suspected by the emperor.
However, that does not mean that there is no way to dispose of the body.
The instigator of terrorism is the hostile forces of Lydia that support Hakim.
If you hand it over to her, she will help you find out about her self-destruction spell.
Thinking like that, I headed to the morgue located in the far corner of the imperial palace.
When I opened the door to the morgue, a man with a hunched back greeted me.
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“See you, driver. “What brought you here?”
“I’m here to retrieve the body of the culprit of yesterday’s incident.”
I spoke leisurely, with my back to him.
But….
“Yes… ? “You mean that body?”
When the undertaker heard me, his eyes widened.
“Okay, is there really a problem?”
“That…” A little while ago, there was a knight who came to receive the body at the imperial command…. I already gave it to him….”
A knight who received a royal commission?
It must be just me, right?
“When did that knight come and go?”
I asked in a serious voice.
Then, he muttered in a very frightened voice.
“It’s coming a little while ago…. He took it with a cart driver….”
I ran out of the morgue.
And then, I ran in the direction the undertaker said.
‘Did the Crown Prince hit the player?’ , A shrewd bastard. ‘It’s really fast to do something like this.’
After passing through the eerie corridors of the imperial palace, we reached the road leading down to the city.
Then, one of the imperial knights and the carriage driver that the undertaker had mentioned began to appear.
“Hey, stop for a moment!”
When I called, they both stopped.
Then he slowly looked back at me.
One of them was clearly an imperial knight with blond hair and wearing a white uniform.
However, the cart driver was from the East.
“I am in charge of handing over the body, so please leave it there.”
I told them while shaking my palm.
“….”
The two people looked at each other and exchanged strange signs.
Afterwards, the imperial knight glanced in my direction….
“Excuse me, but this is difficult because I was ordered first.”
Unlike the arrogant imperial knight, this bastard was very sincere even in unpleasant tasks such as disposing of corpses.
“I have received orders from His Majesty the Emperor. So, you don’t have to do it.”
He answered firmly in a voice that said he had no trouble with this guy.
Then, the imperial knight took a deep breath….
“Honestly, it’s a hassle for a high-ranking knight to dispose of a corpse, isn’t it?”
He quietly looked around.
Then, he smiled broadly and spoke carefully to me.
“I will handle it especially for you, so how about we end things on a good note?”
The imperial knight clasped his hands together.
And then, he suggested it to me with a generous and generous expression.
But.
When I saw his kind expression, I raised the corners of his mouth.
Then he answered with a cold expression.
“Aren’t you an imperial knight?”
A cold word.
The guy who was struck by that one word frowned.
“Yes… ? “What does that mean?”
He calmly approached the embarrassed knight.
At the same time, he pointed to the crisp white uniform he was wearing.
“Imperial knights usually look down on Subangsa.”
I started wrapping my hands in mana.
Then, he clenched his fists and opened his mouth.
“You are never this kind.”
“….”
Imperial knights and carriage drivers who listened to me silently.
They glanced at each other and signaled.
That moment.
The cart driver began to run away toward the city.
The knight took out the ceremonial sword he was wearing at his waist.
Like a pre-planned strategy.
“Yes, I thought so too.”
I swung my fist at the guy’s head.
However, this guy bends his body with quick movements.
Unlike the heavy imperial knights, he was very agile.
“… !!”
The guy lowered his body and swung his sword with one hand.
I retreated and dodged that decisive blow.
And I figured it out.
As expected, his swordsmanship is not that of the imperial family.
It’s awkward, as if you’re using a weapon that doesn’t fit your body.
“Huh… !”
With a short burst of energy, he delivered an honest blow to my neck.
I caught the blow with a hand filled with mana.
“There is no need to hide it, take out your proud sword.”
His eyes lit up when he saw me holding the blade with my bare hands.
No matter how much strength I held in both hands, the sword did not even dream.
“Wow… !!”
The guy had no choice but to let go of his hand.
Instead….
“How dare you block the great cause…? .”
He put his hands behind his back, which was covered by his cloak.
“Even if I die, I will take at least you with me…” !!”
An Eastern knight disguised as an imperial knight shouted.
He took out two pieces of music hidden behind his back.
“… !”
Blades crossing and rising toward my neck.
It would have been dangerous if he had stayed close.
But.
I accepted the long sword he had thrown away.
And before aiming for my neck with the dagger, he swung first.
Kaaang――!!
The guy’s twin swords were interlocked with the long sword.
I stubbornly pushed myself into that situation.
“What kind of power…?” !”
An Eastern knight who blocked a one-handed sword with both hands.
He struggled to hold on to the interlocking daggers.
However, that was all.
Soon, the man’s dagger was unable to withstand the overwhelming difference in power and became misaligned.
Thanks to that, the freed long sword cut off the guy’s arm cleanly.
“… !!”
The boy was unable to let out any moan due to the sudden pain.
He just stares blankly at his right arm lying on the floor.
“Why don’t you throw away your long sword and pick up a short dagger?”
Only then did the knight realize.
My provocation was just a trick to steal the sword.
I immediately cut off the rest of the guy’s arm and tried to chase after the cart driver.
But.
There was no need to go that far.
Because the cart driver was coming back from afar.
“Why…” !”
The knight who lost one arm stared blankly at the cart.
Just by looking at them, I could feel how desperate these guys were.
“Master… ? “What’s going on here?”
Tau and Bashu in uniform.
They grabbed the cart driver who looked suspicious at first glance and returned to the imperial palace.
“Well done, Tau. “You are finally doing your part to raise me.”
“While patrolling nearby, I saw a suspicious person coming out of the palace, so I caught him.”
The cart driver was thrown to the floor where the one-armed knight fell.
The two were nicely surrounded by us.
“But other than protecting Lydia, what are you doing here?”
I asked while wiping the long sword dripping with blood.
Then, Bashu answered on his behalf.
“Lydia is currently in talks with the royal family from Samad. So he had no choice but to be ordered to patrol nearby.”
Bashu crossed his arms alone.
And then, looking down at the suspicious carriage driver and the disguised oriental knight, he asked.
“But who are these kids?”
“Well, take a closer look. Because you might know better than me.”
I said as I put the well-polished sword back into its sheath.
“….”
The two eastern knights stared down at the guy with one of his arms cut off.
Then something occurred to me, and I furrowed my eyebrows.
“This bastard… “You’re a royal guard of the Kingdom of Samad, right?”
The two people glared at the guy with dumbfounded expressions.
Then he grabbed the guy by the hair and took off his wig.
“What on earth are you doing here?”
When the golden wig came off, the black hair characteristic of Easterners was revealed.
“I can’t say….”
“Do you think you have the right to remain silent now?”
The fiery Bashu raised his huge fist.
I searched the cart and warned him.
“Take care of him. “I might self-destruct like this corpse.”
The blanket covering the body was lifted.
Then, the body of the terrorist leader was revealed, roasted to the point that it was frowning.
“Ugh… Is this really the guy His Majesty the Emperor was talking about?”
“Yes, you don’t know how much I suffered because of this bastard.”
I stuck out my tongue in response to Tau’s question.
And then, he rummaged through his charred body with the scabbard.
‘Seeing as they tried to steal it like this, there must be something going on.’
While rummaging through the guy’s body, I suddenly found something strange.
The corpse is missing one arm.
He was one-armed, like the knight I cut down.
“That’s strange, where did one of my arms go?”
“Wasn’t it torn apart by an explosion?”
I looked at the cut that had been cut with the sheath.
Even though it had been torn apart by an explosion, the cross section was very clean.
“No, someone cut this intentionally.”
I turned my head briefly.
And then, looking at the cart driver who was very loosely dressed, he said.
“That was a little while ago too.”
The large, muscular men from the East looked down at the small cart driver.
A black shadow has appeared in his mind.
“Ugh… !”
The two grabbed him like a toy.
Then, he searched his body without hesitation and found a charred arm.
“Your arm is here.”
“Okay, let’s see what our handsome desert royals wanted to hide so much.”
I picked up the arms given to me by the two trustworthy knights.
I was observing closely….
I found a six-point star tattoo engraved just below the guy’s palm.
“Bashu, can you recognize what this mark is?”
Bashu, who came from a noble family, was given an arm.
Then, he looked at the pattern carefully and nodded.
“This…” “It is the family emblem of Hakim’s wife, Princess Tilda.”
“Hakim’s wife? “That lecher had a wife?”
When I snorted and asked, Bashu nodded that he understood.
“Yes, it was an arranged marriage, so we were actually strangers.”
When I heard his words, the corners of my mouth went up.
His wife, Tilda, must somehow get Hakim out of the empire to solidify her position in the kingdom.
She had no choice but to play into the crown prince’s play to rescue him.
‘You came to retrieve his subordinate’s tattoo in order to eliminate any evidence that he was the one behind it. ‘
“Is there a princess named Tilda in the conference room right now?”
When I asked, the Eastern vice-captain nodded.
“That’s right. “You are currently in talks with Lydia.”
“Do you know what it is about?”
Bashu pondered for a moment whether it was okay for him to say this to me, then opened his mouth.
“Now that Hakim has been arrested, Lydia wants to take full authority over the Kingdom of Samad, including the eastern part of the capital.”
That’s a good thing.
Now that the biggest competitor is gone, it’s only right that the kingdom falls into Lydia’s hands.
“However, Hakim’s associates refute that he can easily become king again if he is released.”
“Lydia has already taken control of the eastern part of the empire, so she is arguing that it is right for her brother and man, Hakim, to become the king of Samad.”
Tau also joined in with Bashu’s words.
He looks quite angry, saying their claims are nonsense.
“What good is it that you want to make a bastard like that king?”
I snorted and shook my head.
“They set Hakim up as a scarecrow and try to take over the kingdom for themselves. “In return for rescuing me.”
“It is also important that Lydia is brilliant and has strong military power of her own.”
I nodded to the two knights’ heated words.
Before I knew it, they were telling me the inside story of the eastern part.
“I see. “The princess must be having a hard time.”
I nodded silently.
Then, he picked up his charred arm.
“What are you going to do?”
Tau asked me with serious eyes.
Bashu also looked at me silently.
I looked at their faces intently.
Then, he raised the corners of his mouth and said.
“Anyway, I have to go return the arm to its owner.”
I asked Bashu and Tau to deal with the captured gang.
They are also decisive witnesses to this situation, so I ordered them to be kept alive.
“I will accept it.”
“I was planning on doing that anyway.”
I put my tanned arm in the wooden box.
And then, carrying it around my waist like a gift box, I leisurely headed to the conference room.
“Now then, let’s go give our princess a gift.”
The road to the conference room was very quiet.
It seemed as if the entire area was under control for a very serious conversation.
Dark hallway.
And, a quiet garden within the palace.
If Tau said, the door beyond that garden is the conference room.
I crossed the garden.
Then, I encountered a white-haired old man smoking a cigarette in front of the entrance to the conference room.
“Whoa…” .”
White smoke rose like a sigh from the oriental-style gombangdae.
His red eyes were filled with depth.
‘Red eyes…’ . ‘It’s the same color as Lydia?’
As I silently approached, Nobu glanced at me.
Then he resolutely stretched out his palm to stop him.
“I’m sorry, but outsiders are prohibited from entering this place. “Have you not met our knights under control?”
An old lady speaking in the awkward imperial language.
You can clearly see that he is from the Eastern Kingdom.
“I know. However, I came here because it is for the ongoing talks.”
I politely bowed my head to him.
At the same time, I carefully observed Nobu’s clothes.
A blue, white-backed official uniform that was originally meant to be worn only by Eastern royalty.
Furthermore, seeing as his stomach was slightly protruding, he seemed to be of quite high rank.
“You look like an outsider, so you know about our meeting?”
“Yes, maybe you will understand when you see the gift I prepared.”
The old man accepted his wooden box.
And, the moment you check the contents….
“This…” .”
He saw it.
An important piece of evidence that will be a decisive factor in this meeting.
“Come inside first.”
Nobu guided me with serious eyes.
I followed him into the old-fashioned conference room.
Taudo is from the East.
Bashu, who had served Lydia all his life, could not enter.
Because it is a place where only Lydia’s ‘blood relatives’ can enter.
This is the moment when I, a former commoner, dare to enter such a place.
￣￣￣.
The interior of the spacious conference room was truly spectacular.
Eastern royal families dressed in gorgeous silk clothes.
They were sitting side by side at a long table.
At the ends of both sides of the table are the representatives of each group, Princesses Lydia and Tilda.
Nobu and I naturally approached Lydia.
“….”
Perhaps because of the meeting, the 3rd princess’s expression was grim.
She wore a cape elegantly over her neat school uniform-style attire.
Unlike usual, his eyes were very serious and harsh.
Like a ferocious beast that has just become independent.
But soon she saw us approaching and her eyes widened.
Like a cute leopard cub.
“Bae, Veil and Grandpa… ?”
‘Grandfather?’
I glanced at Nobu again.
Now that I think about it, not only her eye color but also her appearance is strangely similar.
“How did these two people come together…?” .”
I suddenly had an audience with the princess’s grandfather and family.
“While I was taking a moment to get some fresh air, I met a precious guest.”
The Grand Duke of the East raised the corners of his mouth.
Then, he introduced me to his relatives.
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That too in a very strong voice and in Samad language.
“Haa….”
Lydia felt embarrassed seeing her grandfather like that.
Thanks to this, instead of the cool-headed monarch she was supposed to show, she ended up being a girl who had just become an adult.
The Grand Duke of the East is talking excitedly.
He recalled the lucky fox in Eastern mythology and praised the man who accompanied him.
Seeing that, the girl lowered her head under the table.
“Grandpa, please….”
It was a while later that she was able to raise her head again.