The Duke continued to address the ashen-faced Julia.

“Drake’s real name is Red Caterpillar. The Black Caterpillar he refers to is the one who murdered your respected father, the former Northern Deputy Duke. That Black Caterpillar was a man of Medea’s father, Duke Laertes.”

“!”

“It was Esdel here who saved Arcadia when the Black Caterpillar tried to kill him.”

“!”

The Duchess looked at me.

“Thanks to Esdel, Arcadia was able to throw the Black Caterpillar off the balcony. He’s dead. Because of Esdel, Arcadia was able to avenge your father.”

“Impossible… how could that be…”

The Duchess collapsed to the floor.

The Duke continued, “We saw all the lies whispered to you by that man.”

“!”

“And the words you uttered.”

“Who would concoct such a plot!”

“I personally followed you, Duchess. That night, I saw you crossing the river on horseback.”

“!”

Julia’s eyes fluttered like a candle in a storm.

‘Your Grace.’

“It was Esdel who captured the Red Caterpillar.”

“You brought him here?!”

The Duchess looked at me. I spoke.

“He’s locked in the underground dungeon.”

“I’m confused. I really don’t understand what’s happening! Brother.”

Julia looked at her brother with desperate eyes.

Arcadia told me, “Show her.”

Suppressing my anguish, I projected the scene of the Caterpillar and the Duchess in the warehouse onto the wall.

After the video ended, Arcadia knelt down in front of the trembling Julia.

“Fool. You were deceived, you idiot…”

Perhaps touched by his sorrowful voice, the Duchess clung to Arcadia’s arm.

“Was I really deceived? Truly?”

Arcadia’s hand rested on his sister’s shaking shoulder.

The Duke declared, “Until everything is clearly revealed, Duchess Nugent will be confined to her room for conspiring with a Southern spy.”

Everything proceeded swiftly.

Two knights thoroughly searched the Red Caterpillar’s body for any weapons or other magic stones.

Fortunately, no other items were found.

The task of interrogating him in the dungeon was assigned to Arcadia and me.

However, the Caterpillar remained silent, not opening his tightly sealed lips even after four days without sleep. His involvement in the fake princess incident, the death of the former Northern Duke’s deputy, and the Red Caterpillar’s intended actions in the North as Medea’s gift remained undisclosed.
Who is behind all these events, the Caterpillar still remains silent, even after a week of being imprisoned. Even when Arcadia sometimes resorted to violence, the Caterpillar remained as if mute, not even letting out a groan.

“What great loyalty! You madman! Long live Medea, huh?” Arcadia exclaimed in anger.

The Red Caterpillar’s transmission stone was under the strict surveillance of Chief Administrator Infidel Nugent. As the head of the Nugent family, he was deeply tormented after witnessing his sister’s wrongdoings. He then apologized to the Duke on her behalf, vowing to do anything for the peace of the North. He also took responsibility for devising the best security measures to protect the transmission stone.

Nevertheless, the transmission stone, still retaining its magic, remains a dangerous item, clearly too burdensome for Infidel Nugent to handle.

“If Magician Adrian Eodel were here, he would have cut off its magic right away! No, he might even be able to reproduce the past records stored in the stone. That would be better, we could use Medea’s face as concrete evidence. Ah, you don’t know? He’s the strongest magician in the entire empire, not just the North.”

In Yora’s room, which had become like our hideout, Bran spoke with a sense of regret.

‘Ah, that Adrian.’

I remembered what the Duke said on my first day joining the Knights after leaving the South. He had mentioned that my distorted face might be due to black magic, and seeing Adrian upon returning to the North might clarify it.

So, that’s Adrian.

“Where is he now?”

“It’s classified information I got from General Mobius, but I’ll tell you.”

“Okay.”

“Yora also knows.”

“Don’t be such a downer.”

Bran grumbled. I found the frequent bickering between Yora and Bran lately quite endearing.

“Recently, there’s been an unusual surge in monster activity beyond the northwestern border. It’s always been common for monsters to swarm when the ice lands melt in spring. But these past few days, their numbers have alarmingly increased.”

“What does that mean?”

Bran clicked his tongue.

“When you face those monsters, you’ll think about the South where you were and say, ‘Ah, it was better there,’ won’t you?”

“There won’t be such a situation, Bran.”

I calmly replied.

“Hmm. That’s how scary it is. If they swarm over the border in groups, it’s just the beginning of a massacre. I’ve only heard about it but never seen it.”

“I see.”

As I listened to the story about the monsters, I thought of Julia Nugent, confined to her room for nearly a week now. She kept pacing around her room, neither confessing the whole story nor apologizing to anyone.

I imagined her like a monster wandering in front of a barrier, feeling a sudden chill.

I felt sorry for Arcadia.

Since that day, Arcadia had been noticeably subdued, barely speaking and avoiding people as if he were a criminal himself.

Thankfully, the Duke, considering the Nugent family, had not yet publicly disclosed Julia’s crime.

The knights guarding her room knew she had committed a crime but did not know the specifics.

Naturally, many suspected her crime, given that her confinement began simultaneously with the imprisonment of a Southern spy in the dungeon.

Days passed by.

Arcadia and I continued our fruitless interrogation of the Red Caterpillar. He hadn’t eaten a single meal since his capture. Despite the probable intense pain, he refused to speak.

Reaching his limit of patience, Arcadia bared his teeth.

“Speak, Red Caterpillar. Unless you want to starve to death.”

“…”

“Or shall I pull out your tongue, like you did to Yora?”

The Caterpillar smirked with his gaunt, skeletal face.
Then the Caterpillar chuckled, his face gaunt and skeletal.

“If you pull out my tongue, how will I be able to speak?”

For the first time since his capture, he spoke.

Enraged, Arcadia kicked the Caterpillar’s face through the bars of the cell.

The Caterpillar rolled and crumpled against the wall, his nose bleeding profusely.

We needed a direct confession from him that Medea was behind everything.

The only thing recorded on the video stone was the Red Caterpillar himself. There was no direct evidence in the footage that the Caterpillar was Medea’s subordinate.

Although he mentioned Medea, a cold judgment concluded that this mention couldn’t be evidence that Medea was the mastermind.

The person we needed to convince with evidence was the Emperor, who absolutely trusts Rahert.

Weak evidence could instead provoke a counterattack from the enemy.

That’s when it happened.

Several knights burst open the heavy iron door of the dungeon.

“Lieutenant! There’s trouble!”

“What? Can’t you see we’re interrogating?”

“The monsters are attacking the northwestern walls!”

Arcadia’s face turned pale.

I, too, felt tense, understanding the gravity of the situation.

“This is serious.”

“What’s happening, Lieutenant?”

Arcadia coldly glanced back at the Red Caterpillar and then left the dungeon without a word. I hurriedly followed him.

“Lieutenant?”

“It means we must leave him here and march out. We’ll have to leave the castle.”