Suddenly, I realized there was one more thing I needed to report.

I took out the transmission stone that the red larva had been carrying from my pocket.

“Your Highness, the larva was carrying this.”

“A transmission stone.”

You know about it.

The Grand Duke spoke, reading my expression.

“Most transmission stones are like this, with an opaque core visible inside a transparent stone. The North also keeps about ten transmission stones on hand. On the battlefield, information is directly linked to life.”

“I see. Your Highness, it’s a transmission stone connected to Lady Medeia. My identity… was revealed to her.”

“…”

“While I was capturing the larva with the image stone, it was also transmitting my appearance to her. I’m sorry.”

I bit my lip in regret.

Continuing to act as a double agent was necessary to dig up information from the South, but now a major avenue had been blocked.

I felt upset.

The Grand Duke spoke.

“Perhaps it’s for the best.”

“?”

“Now we have no choice but to face them head-on. As you know, I prefer direct confrontation over subterfuge.”

I almost smiled without realizing it.

Suppressing my expression, I opened my mouth.

“I’m also confident I won’t lose in a direct confrontation.”

“Haha.”

The Grand Duke laughed. It felt like a cool breeze blowing in and fading away.

This laughter of yours, which can be seen very rarely, calms my troubled heart.

Even in this serious situation where a spy has infiltrated the North, I end up smiling without realizing it.

[This is the timeline separator]

After activating the image stone in front of Arcadia, I left the Grand Duke’s office.

And I waited for him to see everything.

The sound of the image stone leaked out through the door. As time passed, the last sound I had recorded could be heard.

– Why betray Lady Medeia for such a foolish Grand Duke? An incompetent political cripple who just wanders around battlefields. What do you gain by siding with such a bastard? Ah! Is it because your face is like that, so you’re taking the side of a fellow cripple?

– The real fool is someone like you.

‘Ah, I didn’t show that part to the Grand Duke yesterday.’

It was a bit embarrassing.

I wandered around far from the Grand Duke’s office. I didn’t want to eavesdrop on the conversation between the Grand Duke and Arcadia.

After a while, I returned to the front of the office. There was no sound coming from inside.

I waited aimlessly.

Shortly after, the office door opened and Arcadia came out.

His face was, sadly, in a miserable state.

A face mixed with despair and regret, anger and anguish.

Seeing that face, I couldn’t bring myself to lift my head.

I could feel him swallowing numerous emotions as he discovered me.

“I’m sorry, Deputy Commander.”

Those words spilled out. It was all I could say.

“What nonsense.”

A deeply sunken voice.

“Thank you sincerely for… allowing my sister to be stopped even now. If it weren’t for you, something I don’t even want to think about might have happened.”

“…”

“I’m truly grateful, Esther. Again, to you, I keep incurring debts I can never repay.”

Debt, Arcadia? That’s not the case.

My heart aches.

He walked to the end of the corridor and pressed something on the wall.

Then countless bell sounds began to be heard from within the walls of the main castle, no, the entire Grand Duke’s castle.

A soft yet dignified sound that woke everyone in the fortress.

I later learned that it was a signal to summon all the knights of the Northern Knights and open the underground prison of the castle at the same time.

[This is the timeline separator]

The red larva was imprisoned in the prison tower of the Grand Duke’s castle, deep underground where not a single ray of natural light entered.

And Julia Nugent was secretly brought in.

Not even realizing she was being brought in, she entered the Grand Duke’s office with a haughty face and paused upon seeing the expressions of the Grand Duke, Arcadia, and myself.

I silently activated the image stone.

The past image of the larva with red hair from its colorless days was clearly projected onto the gray wall.

The appearance from when we met at a tavern in the Empire.

[Listen carefully. When you return to the North, make sure to build a friendship with Julia Nugent. I’ll send a letter later.]

The red larva speaks as if giving orders, spitting out Julia Nugent’s name with contempt.

Julia’s face turned pale. Although it was his appearance before dyeing his hair, she recognized the red larva.

[Do you know who assassinated the Acting Northern Grand Duke?] [The Black Bug was burned to ashes anyway. If it hadn’t died like that, I would have killed it myself someday.]

The face of the lady watching the video gradually turned pale. As if she would melt like pure white snow.

She cried out in a shrill voice.

“W-what is this? Why did you call me here to show me such an unpleasant video?”

“Julie.”

Arcadia called his sister’s nickname.

“That guy is Drake. He’s an assassin from the South and Medeia’s henchman, and the one who created the ‘fake princess’ in the incident you’ve heard about. And… you’ve been deceived by him.”

“…Ha!”

The lady let out a sharp exclamation.

“That’s impossible, brother. Is it that Southern wench who brought this video? How can you be sure this video is real? That woman is clearly a Southern spy!”

“She was a spy.”

The Grand Duke’s low voice reverberated through the space.

“A foolish gift Medeia sent to me, thinking she was a double agent. The luck Arcadia and I gained in this life.”

‘Your Highness.’

The Grand Duke continued speaking towards the pale Julia.

“The real name of the guy called Drake is Red Larva. The Black Bug he mentions is the one who killed your father, the former Acting Northern Grand Duke, who deserves respect. That Black Bug is a man of Lahert Grand Duke, Medeia’s father.”

“!”

“It was Sir Esther here who saved your brother Arcadia when the Black Bug tried to kill him.”

“!”

The lady looks at me.

“Thanks to Esther, Arcadia was able to throw the Black Bug off the balcony. He died. Because Esther was there, Arcadia was able to avenge your father.”

“…It can’t… it can’t be.”

The lady collapsed to the floor.

The Grand Duke spoke.

“I’ve also seen all the lies he whispered to you.”

“!”

“And the words you uttered.”

“Who could have slandered me like this!”

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

“!”

Julia’s eyes shook like a candle in front of a typhoon.

‘Your Highness.’

“It was Esther who personally captured the Red Larva.”

“You brought him here?!”

The lady looks at me. I said,

“He’s imprisoned in the underground dungeon.”

“…I’m confused. I really don’t know what’s going on! Brother.”

Julia looked at her brother with desperate eyes.

Arcadia said to me,

“Show her.”

Suppressing my painful heart, I projected the image of the larva and the lady from the warehouse onto the wall.

After the video ended, Arcadia knelt on one knee in front of the trembling Julia.

“You fool. You were deceived, you idiot…”

Did his sorrowful voice reach Julia?

“Ah…”

The lady clung to Arcadia’s arm.

“Was I really deceived? Really?”

Arcadia’s hands wrapped around his trembling sister’s shoulders.

The Grand Duke spoke.

“Until all matters are clearly revealed, Lady Nugent will be confined to her room on charges of collaborating with a Southern spy.”

[This is the timeline separator]

Things progressed swiftly.

Two knights thoroughly searched the Red Larva’s body.

It was a process to check if he had any weapons or other magic stones.

Fortunately, no other items were found.

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

However.

The bug kept his mouth firmly shut. Even after four days without sleep, he didn’t lose his mind.

The fake princess incident, the death of the former Acting Northern Grand Duke, what the Red Larva tried to do in the North as Medeia’s gift.

He’s still keeping silent about who’s behind all those events. Even after being imprisoned for a week.

Although Arcadia occasionally used violent means, the guy didn’t even utter a groan, as if he had no tongue.

“What amazing loyalty! You madman! Long live Medeia?”

Arcadia was furious.

The Red Larva’s transmission stone was strictly monitored under the responsibility of the Chief Administrative Officer, Infidel Nugent.

He, the head of the Nugent family, was greatly distressed after witnessing his younger sister’s wrongdoing with his own eyes.

Then he begged the Grand Duke for forgiveness on Julia’s behalf and swore to do anything for the peace of the North.

It was also he who prepared the best possible security measures to protect the transmission stone.

However, the transmission stone still containing magic power remains an ominous object.

It’s clearly too much for Infidel Nugent to handle.

“If Magician Adrian Eodel were here, he would have cut off that magic power immediately! No, he might even be able to recreate the past records left in that transmission stone. That would be better, we could preserve Medeia’s face as clear evidence. Ah, you don’t know? He’s the strongest magician not just in the North, but in this entire empire.”

Bran spoke regretfully in Yora’s room, which has now become like our hideout.

‘Ah, that time.’

On the first day I left the South and joined the Knights, the Grand Duke had said.

That my distorted face might be due to black magic, and if I returned to the North and showed it to Adrian, we might be able to find out.

So that’s the Adrian.

“Where is he now?”

“It’s confidential information I heard from Major Moby, but just between us.”

“Okay.”

“Yora knows too.”

“Don’t be a killjoy.”

Bran growled. The sight of Yora and Bran bickering frequently these days was cute.

“The movements of the monsters outside the northwestern border are not looking good. While we were away in the South, the magician went to check on them, as it’s always been the case that monsters gather when the icy land melts in spring. But in these few days, their numbers have increased unusually.”

“What does that mean?”

“Tsk tsk.”

Bran clicked his tongue.

“If you encounter those monsters, you’ll be thinking, ah, the South was better after all, won’t you?”

“That won’t happen, Bran.”

I replied calmly.

“Hmm. That’s how scary they are. If those creatures cross the border in hordes, it’s just the start of a massacre. I’ve only heard about it, never seen it myself.”

“I see.”

As I listened to the story of the monsters, I thought of Julia Nugent confined to her room.

Even though it’s been almost a week since her confinement, she’s been pacing around her room, neither revealing the full story of the incident to anyone nor apologizing for her wrongdoing.

That imagined sight, like a monster wandering in front of a barrier, gave me a chilling feeling for a moment.

I’m sorry for Arcadia, but.

Since that day, Arcadia has been pitifully withdrawn.

He barely spoke and avoided people as if he himself were a criminal.

Fortunately, out of consideration for the Nugent family, the Grand Duke hasn’t yet publicly revealed Julia’s crime to everyone.

The knights guarding her confined room know she committed a crime but don’t know exactly what crime she committed.

Of course, since her confinement started at the same time a Southern spy was imprisoned in the underground dungeon, many people guessed her crime.

[This is the timeline separator]

Several days passed.

Arcadia and I were continuing our fruitless interrogation of the Red Larva today.

The larva hadn’t had a single meal since being captured. Despite the severe pain he must be in, he didn’t open his mouth.

Arcadia, feeling the limits of his patience, bared his teeth.

“Speak, Red Larva. If you don’t want to starve to death.”

“……”

“Or should I rip out your tongue and kill you? Like you did to Yora?”

Then the larva smirked. With a face so dried up that bones were visible.

“If you rip out my tongue, I won’t be able to say anything, will I?”

For the first time since being captured, he opened his mouth.

An angry Arcadia kicked the larva who had stuck his face out through the iron bars.

He rolled and crashed into the wall, then crumpled. The nosebleed that burst didn’t seem to stop.

We need the guy’s direct confession that Medeia is behind this.

The image stone only contains the appearance of the Red Larva. There’s no direct evidence in the video that the larva is Medeia’s subordinate.

The guy did mention Medeia, but judging coolly, that mention can’t be evidence that Medeia is behind this.

The person we need to convince with evidence is the Emperor who absolutely trusts Lahert.

Flimsy evidence could rather provoke the enemy’s counterattack.

That’s when it happened.

Several knights threw open the heavy iron door of the underground prison.

“Deputy Commander! Something terrible has happened!”

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

“The monsters are attacking the northwestern wall!”

Arcadia’s face turned pale.

I couldn’t help but feel tense as well. Because I had already heard the general meaning of this.

“This is bad.”

“What’s going to happen, Deputy Commander?”

At my question, Arcadia turned to look at the Red Larva with cold eyes.

Then he left the prison without a word. I hurriedly followed him.

“Deputy Commander?”

“It means we have to leave him here and go on an expedition. Leaving the castle empty.”