Unlike when the snake monster had appeared, Mona remained silent. Dominic pulled his gaze away from her and spoke urgently toward Rihart.
Rihart answered coldly.
Startled by Rihart’s dispassionate assessment, Dominic bit his lip late and sharpened his senses as far as they would stretch.
His mana sensitivity was on the lower side compared to the other Black Knights elite.
Even so, having faced a frenzied black dragon and monstrous raptors firsthand, he soon realized that the nauseating, unsettling aura characteristic of creatures lost to chaos was absent.
Dominic conceded that he had panicked for nothing, yet he could not help clicking his tongue at the scene before him.
Mona, who had kept quiet the entire time, suddenly spoke up.
Where she pointed, bluish vine-like plants clung here and there.
Gasping softly, Dominic recoiled.
Looking closer, the vines were faintly pulsing like blue blood vessels.
At that sight, Dominic covered his mouth.
Rihart knit his brows as he watched the monster clinging to the withered tree trunks.
‘How convenient.’
Of all things, a monster that withered timber.
It was the perfect situation to misinterpret as the aftermath of a frenzied beast, just as Dominic had.
‘Even if intentional, it would serve as an impeccable excuse to claim an honest mistake.’
Naturally, an official might have mistaken a plant-type monster sprouting by chance for a frenzied beast, hastening to seal off the forest and creating the present situation.
Yet Rihart’s sharp intuition told him this was no mere mishap.
He glanced at Mona.
At Rihart’s question, Mona answered with an ambivalent expression.
Mona tilted her head.
“…”
Natasha, who had been listening intently to Mona’s explanation from behind, gasped in surprise.
It was because Mona had abruptly reached out and snatched one of the bluish seeds floating in midair.
Without even applying force, the seed crumbled to powder in Mona’s hand in an instant.
“…”
Rihart crushed a ghostly blue seed in his hand, narrowing his eyes.
“Then is it possible someone intentionally brought this seed and planted it around here?”
At his premise, Lewis waved a hand as if that were preposterous.
Yet Mona’s fingertips gave a slight twitch.
Rihart did not seem inclined to dismiss this as mere coincidence, and Mona held a similar view.
After a brief moment of thought, Mona confessed candidly.
“…”
A faint curl touched the corner of Rihart’s lips.
He had intended to act on intuition regardless, but Mona Bellose had made him all the more certain.
Though the exact reason remained unknown, someone had gone so far as to fabricate the appearance of a frenzied monster just to keep the expedition from entering this place.
If so, the mere fact that the expedition had stepped foot here was likely an unexpected variable to that party.
And in human affairs, when plans went awry, flaws were bound to show.
With a brief nod of his chin, Rihart advanced slowly, cutting through the weakly drifting bluish seeds.
Their destination was right before their eyes.
***
With a bang, the thick door flew open.
A retainer of Marquis Walther dashed into the office without catching his breath and gave his report.
The hulking middle-aged man who had been gazing out the window turned around, flying into a rage.
As a member of the Military Council, Marquis Walther held a position that gave him access even to classified documents concerning monster subjugations.
Following orders from ‘above,’ it had been Marquis Walther who secretly slipped in the report claiming monsters were running amok along the upper boundary.
Yet the expedition was heading straight into the area he had gone through the trouble of barricading.
What sort of absurdity was this?
Marquis Walther spat out a coarse curse at the unforeseen complication.
‘Still, the phenomenon resembles a monster frenzy closely enough that even if exposed, I can feign ignorance.’
The problem was that his master had commanded him to block Rihart from accessing that route.
‘…Presumably, he fears the expedition’s mission being shortened.’
For Rihart to merely engage in social circles within the capital was a threat in itself.
Rihart Cronel.
Wherever he stood, all surrounding things naturally lost their luster.
A man born with a mana core blessed by the gods, who shattered the record for the Empire's youngest Sword Master.
On top of that, even his lineage was impeccable.
Rihart was the only son left behind by the Emperor’s sole twin sister—in other words, the Emperor’s one and only nephew.
Some might argue that no matter how purely imperial Rihart’s blood was, he remained merely of a collateral branch.
Yet the circumstances were tangled.
The Crown Prince, the Empress’s only child, lay bedridden with his life hanging in the balance.
Even so, the Emperor refused to recognize the other princes born of concubines as successors, turning a cold shoulder to them entirely.
The Emperor demonstrated trust only toward his nephew, Rihart, promoting and exalting him as the hero of the Empire.
‘Of all people, that bastard holds succession rights to the throne…’
What made him all the more dangerous was that he commanded the absolute loyalty of the imperial soldiers.
‘That monstrous fiend…!’
To return alive even when a black dragon had appeared.
Throughout the subjugation, Marquis Walther had responded lukewarmly to Rihart’s requisitions for military supplies and provisions.
Because of that, whenever he recalled the man’s ice-cold blue eyes, a suffocating terror gripped him.
‘This is bad.’
Dripping with cold sweat as he paced the office in agitation, Marquis Walther came to an abrupt halt.
Yes.
Now that things had come to this, he had no choice but to disrupt the expedition’s mission through other means.
‘The teleportation magic circle Rihart is pouring so much effort into…’
He would ruin that instead.
