“You owe me.”
“I understand.”
Marks said as if to remind him, and Patrick responded with a deep sigh.
They watched the execution from a distance from the balcony of the castle.
“Totally embarrassing. It’s a shame. I apologize for the trouble I have caused you. If Noacurio’s image were to deteriorate here, it would have been detrimental to our future.”
“What? Considering the relationship between the two countries, one or two of my men are not worth the trouble. However, if things like this keep happening, I won’t be able to protect them.”
“Yes. I have sent a notice to all the troops to strictly refrain from lawlessness.”
The two of them had a relatively accurate grasp of what had really happened. But then they killed Yuin.
If the Noacurio soldiers’ violence was revealed, there would be widespread opposition to the Noacurio forces among the citizens. That would have been very bad for both Marks and Patrick.
That was why they put all the blame on Yuin and executed him.
For Marks, this was a painful expense. A magician was a valuable pawn.
However, considering what lay ahead, it was not a bad investment. He needed things to go smoothly now, and Patrick owed him a debt of gratitude.
“Even so, what was that knight? A convenient false witness sprang up of its own accord.”
Patrick twisted his head.
Obviously not true, a witness who was willing to perjure himself to incriminate Yuin had sprung up from somewhere.
“… Viscount McGregor, who was in charge of his capture, was suspicious. He may have been working behind the scenes for some reason. Let’s find out more about Viscount McGregor when things settle down. Well, it was convenient in this case.”
“Indeed. I felt a little sorry for him when he died.”
“Yes.”
–His death is the cornerstone of stability in this country. It would be a knight’s wish.
Marks was thinking selfishly.
“There have been some unexpected problems, but… this will allow us to keep things on schedule. Your Highness.”
“Yes, Marquis-sama.”
Marks called out behind him.
There was a handsome young man there. His hair was all pulled back like a wildfire, and his forehead was a magnificent shape. He was dressed in crimson, and behind his lower-rimmed glasses shone silver eyes the color of mystery.
Ghislain “Blaze” Ella Ciel-Terra.
He wore a fresh smile, full of religious inspiration.
“All is as God wills it.”
＊ ＊ ＊
“… So, if I kill Viscount McGregor, I will be strong. This Viscount McGregor supports an orphanage in the city, and he often shows up there. He seems to be in Terra Kaine all the time now, so I’m sure he’ll show his face soon. I’ll wait for that and finish him off. Everis gave me this poison, and three days after taking it, it makes someone look like they’re having a stroke and kills them…”
“Hey, wait, Princess…”
“… What’s wrong?”
“‘What’s wrong?’ Not that! I’m the wrong person to begin with!? No, I know you’re the Princess inside! Why are you possessing like this again!?”
The backyard of the orphanage in Terra Kaine.
There was a small field for growing vegetables, a fruit tree with ivy hanging down, and a battered barrel lying around as a substitute for a bench or something.
In this small garden, surrounded on three sides by the surrounding buildings and the back of the orphanage, Tracy, with his hair down and his armor off, had lost his adventurer’s aura and disguised himself as a wild-looking town girl. As a town celebrity, his presence in a place like this would be quite noticeable, so he disguised himself as a passerby and came to see her.
Panilla (René) was chatting with him in secret.
She wore a frayed dress and had short, shaggy brown hair. Dull brass eyes and a face streaked with freckles. That’s how René looked now. She had nothing in common with her usual appearance except for her age.
Born into a poor family, she ran away with her mother from her violent father, but when her mother died, she was taken in by a temple orphanage. That was her current situation.
The crime took place last night. In the early evening, Panilla was walking out as if lured by the moon, and was ‘omitted below’ by René.
“Because I can’t disguise my presence if I’m not possessing someone. I can’t use any other magic if I’m blocking the presence with magic, you know?”
“That’s not the point.”
Looking indignant, Tracy flapped his apron dress in a resentful manner.
“… That body can’t be returned to its original owner, can it?”
Tracy gave her what was known as a jittery, blatantly accusatory look.
René accepted the accusation with open arms. Tracy’s feelings on the matter were legitimate. Although she had no intention of honoring them.
“I can’t do it by ordinary means. I am too stimulating, and I am too unclean as a vessel for the soul when I am placed inside. When I leave, the vessel will be soiled and will die a slow death. There must be a way to do something about it, but I can’t afford the cost.”
“If you just went straight for the target, you wouldn’t have to use that body, would you?”
“It’s tough to break into a place where the holy beasts are on the loose and secretly poison them.”
Currently, there were about 20 holy beasts placed at appropriate intervals in Terra Kaine.
By arranging holy beasts that were sensitive to evil spirits, they would be able to detect anything that appeared anywhere.
This made it difficult to make the Jack-o’-Lanterns and other spirit-based undead launch a surprise attack. It seemed as though they were reading her moves, or rather, that they were thinking about ‘how to fight the undead army’. It was an unpleasant trend.
At any rate, the inn where Viscount McGregor was staying (apparently several other knights were also staying there) was made one of the places where the holy beasts were on standby. René, who had been scouting the place while using magic to mask her presence, burst out when she saw the tiger-shaped holy beast sitting like a decorative figurine in a garden.
She needed a “human shell” that had not yet turned undead.
From the time she acquired a new body to the time she allowed it to become undead. René was able to blend in with the human race, almost completely turning off any hint of evil. This was an ability that René had beforehand. Ordinary undead could not block out the presence of evil so perfectly. But if someone were to magically examine her body, her true identity would be revealed.
“I suppose I could force my way through, kill them, and get away with it, but … that would interfere with your work. If the knights were slaughtered, the enemy would indeed be alarmed. Of all the places to find a tasty bait, it was here in the city of Terra Kaine. I want to kill him secretly, leaving as few traces of my activity as possible, so as not to interfere with intelligence operations.”
“So you’re going to make the Viscount look sick and kill him?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why you took the girl’s body?”
“Yes.”
“Mmm.”
Time efficiency, safety, and success rate. The balance of these factors was considered when choosing this method.
In other words, in order to efficiently carry out the revenge mission, René used an unrelated person.
René was aware that this was a terrible thing to do. But René no longer had any remorse in her heart.
Since too much atrocity would terrify her, she would ‘try to avoid killing unnecessarily’.
“Even I would like to minimize the number of people I kill like this.”
“Is that so…”
Tracy just nodded as if forcing herself to break her neck.
“… Then I will start my action.”
“Have a nice day. Thanks for your help in gathering information, so I can concentrate on strengthening myself.”
“Am I somehow contributing to the destruction of the world?”
“Yes.”
“Mmm…”
Tracy wrapped in a cloudy, ratty aura.
He felt like there were rain clouds over his head.
“And a stepping stone for the invasion. I had a good idea, and there was no way we wouldn’t use it. When I told Everis about the plan via communication, she said, “That sounds like fun!”
“Oh, that’s right. …I’m partially on board with the idea of helping there.”
It was complicated.
Tracy would now be correcting injustice and unreasonableness. That was why Tracy said he was willing to get on board.
But it will end up benefiting René, in this case.
“Contact me if you need anything, especially when it comes to magic. I’ll help you as long as it doesn’t expose me.”
“Understood.”
Tracy waved over his shoulder and left.
…Starting the operation.
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