IDGM 68

Chapter 68

The knights might be deceived, but not Brentiann’s eyes.

As if he had never even intended to hide it, Kallios grinned broadly.

“You’re bolder than I thought.”

Seeing Kallios smiling as if he knew nothing, veins bulged on Brentiann’s forehead.

“Do you even realize what you’re helping her with? If it’s discovered that the Empress’s jewels came out of Ronhaim, everyone will believe we orchestrated everything! The Empress will think it was all our doing!”

Brentiann was burning inside.

Why was Kallios so indifferent, and why was he helping Chloe—a woman who was clearly a spy from Kabbalah—this much? He couldn’t understand it.

“That would give Arental the perfect pretext to utterly destroy Ronhaim!”

Speaking his thoughts out loud only reinforced his conviction.

Yes, Chloe had undoubtedly come here to hand Kabbalah the justification to crush Ronhaim once and for all.

Wasn’t even the fire in the Empress’s treasury all part of the plan?

Suspicious, wasn’t it?

The Chloe he had observed didn’t seem so daring.

If anything, she appeared timid and passive.

She even seemed so frail that supporting her own body looked like a struggle.

How could someone like that sneak into Kabbalah’s treasure vault inside the heavily watched imperial palace without anyone noticing?

And with what guts could she set fire to the vault, steal a hoard of treasures, and then slip out unseen?

Brentiann raised these doubts to Kallios.

“For her to have done all that alone is impossible, Your Highness! Think about it. Can you even imagine it?”

Everything about her was riddled with questions.

Even having Mainz harvest and sell Vermis mushrooms recently—suspicious, if one wanted to doubt her.

Who could have given Chloe that information?

How could she know something that even Arental’s merchants barely knew?

This was the same girl who was shocked just seeing snow piled up, not even knowing how much falls in the North—yet she somehow knew about Vermis mushrooms, which even Northerners barely know of? Suspicious, very suspicious.

And then using the profits as welfare funds—why?

She had no obligation to return her private wealth to the people of the territory.

She hadn’t even officially met them yet. Wasn’t this an almost excessive kindness?

Perhaps she noticed how much you liked the people, Your Highness, and decided to play to that.

All just to ensnare Kallios completely.

It all smelled like collusion with Kabbalah.

At that moment, Kallios, watching Brentiann stamping his feet in agitation, spoke heavily.

“To your eyes, I must look like some pitiful fool, blinded by a woman to the point of losing all reason.”

“……”

Brentiann flinched and fell silent.

Honestly, he wanted to retort, Isn’t that exactly the case?

But instead, he appealed earnestly, both as a vassal and as a friend.

“This could get us all killed. Those jewels will be tracked down eventually. No matter what tricks we use, it’s only a matter of time.”

“A matter of time. True enough.”

Kallios nodded calmly.

“Then why—!”

“Because that’s enough. Time—that’s what Chloe is buying. While Kabbalah is busy chasing after those jewels, we’ll find a way to stop her.”

“How, exactly?”

Kallios pointed at a spot on the map of Ronhaim spread across the desk.

“Isn’t this where the gold mine is?”

Brentiann looked bewilderedly at him.

“There, we’ll create a teleportation magic circle.”

Kallios then shared with Brentiann the conversation he had had with Chloe.

The moment Brentiann heard it, he leapt up.

“How can you believe such a story? A great mage from the Tower? Someone like that can’t possibly exist!”

Kallios cut him off firmly.

“Whether it’s true or not—we’ll know when the mage actually appears. There’s no need to dismiss it as false already.”

“Why would the Princess even want to revive Ronhaim? Isn’t it strange that the heir closest to the throne would abandon Arental and focus only on building up Ronhaim?”

Kallios gazed steadily into Brentiann’s anxious eyes.

That calm look made Brentiann settle down, waiting for him to speak.

Kallios began slowly.

“Which means she must want to stop Kabbalah even more than we do.”

“What?”

Brentiann’s eyes shook.

“Think about the position of the heir closest to the throne. You must have felt it when you visited Arental yourself. What did Chloe’s influence look like there?”

“……”

“She lost her mother, the Empress, at age seven, and grew up under the Empress Consort. While she grew, all kinds of slander spread around her. People laughed at her face.”

“……”

“To you—did Chloe ever seem like the madwoman Arental’s nobles called her?”

Brentiann had not watched Chloe long enough to give a firm answer, so he could neither agree nor deny it.

Seeing his silence, Kallios didn’t push but continued calmly.

“And while Chloe had no standing and was mocked as insane, what was Prince Andrea like?”

“……”

“You saw it clearly too. Andrea swaggered as though he already sat on the throne.”

“……”

“So tell me—do you think Chloe would act like Kabbalah’s puppet, or harbor vengeance against them?”

Brentiann lowered his wavering gaze.

Kallios delivered the finishing blow.

“Put yourself in her shoes. How would you act? If you still have something to say, then we can talk again.”

“……Yes.”

Brentiann’s voice was lukewarm.

If she’s stupid and incompetent, maybe she’d choose the first path. But if she has any wits at all, surely the second.

That’s what he thought, but saying it aloud would only turn the argument childish, so he wisely chose silence.

One couldn’t just complain without evidence.

That would be nothing more than petty grumbling.

And given that Kallios already seemed to trust Chloe more than him, Brentiann knew that whining would only ruin whatever trust remained.

Damn it.

Since he had no solid grounds to refute Kallios’s words, Brentiann backed down—for now.

But in his heart, he still believed Chloe could not have stolen the treasures alone.

I need proof. Something concrete. Whether it proves she can’t be trusted, or that she can be. Either way, I have to find it.

After Brentiann left the office, Kallios brooded over his words.

“For her to have done all that alone is impossible, Your Highness! Think about it. Can you even imagine it?”

Seeing Brentiann’s expression—biting back the urge to tell him to wake up—Kallios instead felt stifled.

But it is possible.

It wasn’t unreasonable that Brentiann couldn’t understand.

After all, he had never seen the secret passageways of the palace.

If he had, he’d know exactly how Chloe could have managed it.

Kallios knew very well that such hidden passages existed.

He himself had once survived thanks to them.

“Shh. You must never tell anyone about this place, understand? It’s our secret—just you and me.”

Even though it was a long-ago memory, the voice of that young girl whispering to him in the palace’s secret passage was still vivid.

In his reckless youth, Kallios had once sneaked into Arental’s imperial palace alone, declaring he would avenge his mother.

Blinded by vengeance, he saw nothing else.

And before him, an angel appeared.

“Hide here. Stay hidden until it’s quiet outside, then go out. All right?”

“Let go! I have something I must do! What would you know?”

“I know! I know… My mother died too!”

“…What?”

“I know how it feels too!”

Sitting in his chair with his eyes closed, Kallios recalled that day and chuckled faintly.

Though more than a decade had passed, the memory remained sharp as ever.