374 - Leonardo's Perspective: The Adorutoru Emblem Facing West 3
Before returning from Lagarette, I wrote a letter to an acquaintance in the Saenard Kingdom. I thought I would need to go to Saenard Kingdom myself at some point, but for the commander of a fortress to travel to another country is unreasonable, so I had no choice but to send a messenger. That said, even sending a messenger to another country requires permission from the capital, so in the current situation, there was nothing I could do. To eliminate this sort of wasted time, Alf headed to the capital to obtain authority, but he still has not returned.
...All I can do for now is send letters to acquaintances on a personal level.
Under the current circumstances, this might have been someone I should avoid contacting, but for Tina's sake, I would use any means available. I do not have the luxury to pick and choose my methods.
Since these were personal letters, I did not send them via knights. Instead, I entrusted them to the Perseashi Church, which bears the name of Perseashi, the god of messengers and communication. It would be slower than having a Black Knight deliver them with relay horses, but if I wrapped a sufficient amount of money, the Perseashi Church would deliver them quickly enough. This time, I wrote as an individual, not as the lord of the fortress, so my excuse should hold.
After entrusting the letters to the Perseashi Church, I returned from the city of Lagarette to the city of Grenore by river. Three days later, Erald arrived, assigned as Tina's new guard. But even with a new guard, without Tina herself here, there was nothing to be done. I wanted more hands for the search for Tina, but Erald, who had just arrived from the capital, seemed a bit confused about coordinating with the Black Knights. Erald was skilled as a silver-white knight, but without the person he was supposed to guard, he was at loose ends. I thought about having him escort Anselm, who had been staying in the fortress guest room since the Harvest Festival, back to the capital as one of his guards. While I was thinking that, before Alf returned from the capital, Solana came to the city of Grenore.
"By order of Prince Alfred, I will be working at Grenore Fortress from today onward."
Alf, having returned to the capital as a prince, seemed to intend to act in his original position from now on. Perhaps I should stop calling him "Alf" and refer to him as "Prince Alfred" as well.
Solana, a maid of Prince Alfred, had apparently been told to go ahead to the fortress and prepare a room for Alfred, who would be coming to Grenore Fortress as a prince. Since she would arrive at Grenore first, she also brought a letter from Alfred.
...As expected of Alf.
The letter contained detailed instructions that the royal family seemed to have decided upon, such as sending Erald back to the capital as Anselm's escort, since there was nothing for him to do in Tina's absence. As a sort of report among the contents, there was also a line saying that Alfred's marriage had been decided.
...I see. So Alf is getting married too.
Alfred is two years older than me, so if he did not settle down soon, it would be unfair to the fiancee who had been waiting for his return. I cannot exactly celebrate until I get Tina back, but still, this is welcome news.
...Ask Ethelbert-sama about the emblem, huh. I hope he has knowledge of it.
Alfred, who had sent Solana ahead to Grenore, closed the letter by saying he would try to catch up with Ethelbert, who would be returning to his territory of Gumons after the summer martial arts tournament. I did not know if Ethelbert would recognize an emblem that even Saenard nobles could not identify, but I wanted as much information as possible. For the emblem, I would have to wait for Alfred's return.
When Alf returned to the city of Grenore as Alfred, the Alfred who had been living in the capital as Alfred also came to Grenore. To anyone who knew nothing, it would appear that Alf, who had gone to the capital, had returned while Prince Alfred had also come. But in truth, their identities had been swapped. Since they had returned to their original positions, I needed to formally correct how I addressed them.
...I think now that the reason King Christoph and the others addressed both Alf and Alfred the same way was so that there would be no problems even if they swapped places.
They did distinguish between them, calling one "Alfred" and the other "Alf," so it was not as if they had planned to confuse the two from the start. The ones who had trouble were those who knew the circumstances and had been calling them "Alf" and "Alfred-sama" separately.
"Commander, a visitor from Lagarette has arrived, along with a letter from the Perseashi Church."
"A visitor?"
"He gives his name as Cidur Blendrel."
"Ah, I see. He is an acquaintance. He was the manager of the hotel in Lagarette."
Hearing a description of the visitor along with his name, I confirmed it was likely Cidur himself and permitted him entry. The letter from the Perseashi Church was probably a reply from my acquaintance in Saenard Kingdom. I was handed the letter along with the news of the visitor, and while I was breaking the seal, Cidur was shown into the office.
"It seems you are facing quite a difficult situation. My heart goes out to you."
From the way Cidur began his greeting, I gathered that Tina's disappearance had come to his knowledge. I had thought it would be too cruel to let Basilia hear the news, so I had told Cody to explain after arriving in Grenore, but Cidur must have gotten the information from somewhere. I suppose I should take this as the mark of a merchant.
Cidur urged me to read the letter first, so I looked over the newly arrived correspondence even with a guest present. By the time I finished reading it, Alfred and Alf had arrived.
"I borrowed Ethelbert-sama's wisdom, and we have discovered the true nature of the west-facing Adorutoru."
"What a coincidence. I just learned it myself."
"Take a look," I said, handing the newly arrived letter to Alfred. The letter from Saenard Kingdom stated that the west-facing Adorutoru emblem was the crest of a kingdom that once existed to the west of the Erath Mountain Range. It had existed about two hundred years before the Empire was born and was now a fallen kingdom. Since it was the crest of a country that had been absorbed into the Empire and disappeared, the acquaintance's opinion was that there was likely no house openly using the west-facing Adorutoru as a crest. If it was being used, it was possible that someone with close blood ties to the former royal family was using it in secret. The acquaintance had even included an explanation of which part of the current Empire the area corresponded to. A generous acquaintance indeed.
"A fallen kingdom's crest. Well, that would explain why we could not find it no matter how we searched."
"If it were something recent, I could request documents, but a crest of a destroyed kingdom is another matter."
The era was not so cute as to say it had never existed. This was the crest of a kingdom destroyed two hundred years ago. It was not unusual for the victors of a war to erase the crest of the losing side or destroy statues of their rulers. The west-facing Adorutoru emblem was likely erased when it was destroyed by the Empire. Someone with blood ties to the former royal family had preserved this emblem.
"...We are almost back to square one."
"Not quite. At the very least, we were investigating both north and west, and now we know we just need to investigate the west."
Since we now knew the direction to search, that was some progress. Alf said we could now concentrate on the west the personnel that had been split between north and west. This Alf was supposed to have been Alfred until now, but without any sense of dissonance, he was supporting me just like the old Alf always did.
"Aaron was compiling the reports on the Mail Fortress area. I hope he gets caught at the checkpoint..."
We now knew the emblem belonged to a fallen kingdom, but its current location was within the Empire. That country had long been a nation that kidnapped people from other lands and secretly brought them in as slaves, so they were accustomed to hiding and transporting people. Of course, the border checkpoints were well aware of this and had long taken the policy of thoroughly inspecting any place where people might be hidden. But the nasty thing about slave merchants was that every time a new hiding place was found, they would create another one. Considering that they were in business, one could call it enthusiasm for commerce, but the goods being transported were human beings. If someone had been sold knowingly, there would be no need to hide them, so those discovered in hiding could almost certainly be assumed to be kidnap victims.
Just as we had agreed to first increase personnel for the western investigation, Cidur spoke up. Come to think of it, he had said he had business at the fortress. When I asked, Cidur said he had business in the city of Grenore, as before, and had taken the opportunity to deliver a message from Jemian.
"It seems the Saenard Kingdom has suddenly offered to pay bail money for a prisoner. The lord asks whether it would be acceptable to accept."
"A prisoner...?"
The Saenard prisoner in Lagarette was William. William was supposed to have been working in the mines, told to earn his own bail money, but apparently his home country had decided to pay it. I was a little puzzled, thinking this should be good news, but then Cidur prefaced with "This is my own opinion, not the lord's words," and tightened his expression.
"I believe there is no way the Saenard Kingdom person did not notice the west-facing Adorutoru emblem. After all, the east-facing Adorutoru is a crest used in their own country. There is no way they would not be aware of a crest facing the opposite direction."
Cidur said that at the very least, William would have realized it was not a crest used in his own country. William had deliberately given false testimony to delay the investigation. Realizing this, the Saenard side was probably rushing to retrieve him. They must have thought that with their country already in disarray from last year's lost war, they did not want me to take a grudge and deliver the finishing blow.
"If you, Leonardo-sama, wish to personally punish the prisoner, you would need to refuse the bail money."
If he was sent back to Saenard Kingdom, it would be harder to lay a hand on him. Whether it was just one punch or dismemberment, if we were going to do it, it had to be now.
"...I have no time to waste on a prisoner."
Rage was simmering up from the pit of my stomach, but I suppressed it and maintained my composure. I was furious at having been deceived, but I could not spare the time to travel to Lagarette just to punch William to death. I was already behind in finding Tina. I did not want to waste any more time.
"Then I will convey that to the lord."
Cidur shrugged, saying that since William would be executed anyway once sent back to his home country, there was no need to do it ourselves. When I prompted him to see if he knew anything else, he said the envoy who brought the bail money had apparently said "As an apology for this offense, we will send salted meat at a later date." Salted meat meant preserved food. Literally, preserving meat with salt.
...So what will be sent is William's head.
At a time when they needed to rebuild their country, their prisoner had caused unnecessary trouble. They likely intended to show their sincerity by cutting off the head of the prisoner who had incurred my wrath, before I could destroy their entire country.
...Tina had told me to be lenient with him.
And that very prisoner, who had survived until today thanks to Tina, had delayed the search for her. This might be a true case of "biting the hand that feeds you." There was no need for me to have written to my acquaintance asking for a reduced sentence.
And so, the search direction has become clear. Now that we also know how they were transported, it might be time to insert Giselle's perspective.
With that, I will be going on a break for the year-end cleaning season. Will fix typos and errors at a later date.