Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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—Click.
As the office door closed, Dielo slowly opened and closed his eyes.
Unlike before, a chilling gaze swept over the spot where the contract had been.
—Thump, thump.
At his knock on the desk, Rick entered the office soundlessly.
He already knew what to do, his face light.
“Shall I chase after them?”
Dielo gestured to him.
“Yes. Chase after the one who left a moment ago… no, the one who was swayed by Kartiel.”
Mirta.
He smiled coldly.
He looked out the window and continued.
“For a while, they’ll be watching Argenta. If they try to contact Kartiel, report it to me immediately.”
He would take care of it himself.
He conjured a small flame at his fingertip, then extinguished it.
“Yes, sir, I understand.”
Rick, who had answered cheerfully despite receiving a chilling order, disappeared again as if melting away.
Dielo paid no mind to the man’s reaction.
He knew very well what kind of person the current head of Argenta's intelligence division was.
Mirta would now be completely within Argenta's sight.
She would be monitored even more closely than when she was within Argenta's fence.
“A conviction that it will succeed, huh.”
Dielo chuckled softly.
Krua’s words from a moment ago lingered in his mind.
‘Betrayal isn’t easy either. They need to be convinced that it will succeed.’
His smile deepened.
“That’s right, Krua. Those who pride themselves on their intelligence won’t betray unless they’re convinced that it will succeed.”
—Creak.
The sound of the chair scraping echoed through the office.
He slowly approached the window and gazed at the carriage leaving the mansion in the distance.
“But they have that conviction.”
He whispered as if Krua were listening.
The current head of the family, who seemed particularly unable to handle Argenta's Power properly.
Pero of the Alloze family, who had entered that precarious situation.
Moreover… that Pero was a fake, and it was clear that Argenta would be manipulated by Alloze for a while.
Even if the head of the family had planned the contract marriage with the fake Pero, there were definitely those who would see the situation as unstable.
Because they didn’t know when the real Pero would come.
He thought that those who wanted to defect would naturally emerge.
And Argenta's rules did not forgive such people.
It was time to weed them out.
“It’s urgent, Your Highness.”
Just then, a hurried knock echoed on the office door.
As soon as Dielo pulled the cord, a knight entered, kneeling on one knee and bowing.
“Unusual activity has been detected in the Endless Sea, Sector 4.”
“…Sector 4?”
Following the previous Sector 3, now Sector 4. He narrowed his eyes.
“Field Commander Redius is requesting Your Highness’s dispatch.”
“…!”
At those words, Dielo was genuinely surprised for the first time in a long while.
Redius, the manager of that area, was someone he knew well.
He was the one who had made a significant contribution to Dielo's rise to this position after he had lost his parents in an instant, and he was also his uncle.
And he was a cautious man.
For such a man to request a dispatch himself meant that the situation was more serious than he had thought.
Dielo hurriedly grabbed his coat.
* * *
That afternoon.
It was said that Dielo had left his post due to a sudden dispatch.
“Without any warning?”
It was a bit disconcerting.
He had always told me about even the smallest things, but this time, it meant he didn’t even have the time to do so.
“Yes. There seems to be a problem in Sector 4.”
Pielle, who had been teaching me about the duties of the mistress, replied.
I paused, about to take the documents she offered.
“You’re talking about the Endless Sea, right?”
“Yes.”
Pielle glanced out the window.
The sea was clearly visible from here.
Of course, the monsters and vile creatures there weren’t visible.
“It seems he’s worried about the large-scale attack last time.”
Even if he was a kind and seemingly weak person, he was originally the head of the family, born with strong Argenta's Power.
He wouldn’t get hurt fighting monsters, would he?
“Still, he’ll come back safely…”
I took the documents about Argenta's affairs again.
The title of the file was simple.
“…‘Shadow’?”
Turning the page, it was said that this was also one of the traditions that had existed since the beginning of Argenta, along with the magic contract.
While I was reading the long explanation, Pielle explained it simply.
“The Shadows are those who deliver goods to the families of those who died while performing Argenta's duties.”
“Oh…”
I can say for sure.
Alloze didn’t have anything like this.
As I turned the page, my gaze stopped at one place.
[Additional Allocation for Shadow Recipients This Quarter]
The name written below it.
“Roa…”
It was Roa, who had been called a sinner.
Afterward, he was buried near the sea with the meaning of protecting the Endless Sea.
His family would also receive support from the Shadows.
“The Duke has ordered that Roa’s efforts to burn himself out to salvage the situation at the end be given special consideration.”
Pielle explained, knowing what I was surprised about.
I smiled gently.
“I thought he would.”
Pielle, who seemed about to reply to my words, didn’t answer.
“Pielle?”
When I turned around, Pielle finally opened her mouth.
I clearly saw a strange expression flitting across her face for a moment.
“…Families who receive support from the Shadows can live comfortably for the rest of their lives, unlike the commoners in the territory. Many Argenta people are satisfied with that.”
“Argenta… not the commoners in the territory?”
I raised my eyebrows slightly.
I didn’t think they would provide this kind of support to all the commoners in the territory.
Perhaps the ‘Argenta’ Pielle was talking about referred to the people working in this Argenta ducal residence.
If there were people who were treated so specially, wouldn’t there be talk of discrimination against the commoners in the territory?
But the statistics said otherwise.
It was the territory with the highest loyalty to the Argenta main family than any other territory.
Rather, there were many parents who wanted their children to become Argenta and taught them about Argenta early on.
“Then what are the conditions for becoming Argenta?”
At my words, Pielle showed me a flame at her fingertip.
It was naturally the fire that Argenta handled.
“It’s this Argenta's Power. I’ve heard that the vassals working in the Alloze and Kartiel ducal residences are also those who possess the abilities of each family, but…”
She tilted her head at me as if asking if it wasn’t so.
I nodded.
“That’s right. At Alloze, people who can manipulate Water Manipulation Ability also tend to work in the ducal residence. But the atmosphere is a bit different.”
First of all, not everyone in the Alloze mansion has Water Manipulation Ability.
Even if they weren’t born with the ability, the head of the family could grant it, but there was no way a head of the family would like to give away a portion of their Argenta's Power.
Much less the greedy Duke Alloze.
I tilted my head, turning the page.
“First of all, even those without Argenta's Power are working in the ducal residence… and I’ve never heard of Shadows or contracts.”
This was clearly a tradition unique to Argenta.
Pielle smiled gently at my words.
“That’s probably why the atmosphere of Argenta is different from the two families.”
She pointed to one side of the document.
It was the welfare provided to those who became ‘Argenta’ in the ducal residence.
First of all, Shadow support began for the families of those who became Argenta.
Argenta's families could freely decide where to live within Argenta territory, either in Argenta-only buildings near the ducal residence or anywhere else they wanted.
In addition, the gold coins paid to Argenta per month were equivalent to the annual living expenses of an ordinary commoner family.
“Oh…”
These policies would greatly contribute to raising the honor of Argenta within the territory, as well as increasing the loyalty and sense of belonging of Argenta.
It was then.
—Thump, thump!
A hurried knock was heard.
This wasn’t Dielo’s office, but mine.
Why were they looking for me so urgently?
“What’s going on?”
I asked in a rather loud voice. Then the door clicked open.
“Excuse me, Madam.”
His attire was somewhat disheveled.
There wasn’t a place on his hair or the hem of his pants that wasn’t covered in dirt.
It seemed like he had just ridden in on horseback.
“They’re requesting additional troops from Sector 4.”
“What?”
I widened my eyes.
“Dielo went there, didn’t he?”
Dielo Argenta was the person in this Argenta territory who could use Argenta's Power most powerfully.
And yet they needed support?
“The Duke ordered it himself.”
I widened my eyes.
“…Ah.”
Pielle seemed surprised too, but I was surprised in a different way from her.
After Krua Alloze and Dielo Argenta got married.
And the incident that happened shortly before the real Pero came to this mansion.
In Sector 4, Redius Argenta goes berserk and dies.
It was clear that the incident was about to happen right now.
I fixed my gaze on the knight.
