77. long mission (2)

After work hours, the headquarters of the Knights of the Jackdaw fell into silence. Theodora chewed her lips and continued to read the official document on the desk.

I order the dispatch of the Jackdaw Knights as the 3rd escort.

The Jackdaw Knights will take the lead in solving the royal family’s big and small affairs while performing escort duties and receiving direct orders from the royal family.

In addition, Theodora Benning is appointed as the temporary assistant captain of the 3rd Royal Guard.

Ugh.

The pen Theodora was holding was crushed.

Count Benning’s intentions were so obvious that they were even explicit. No matter what you do, you won’t be able to escape my grasp. After all, you are a being subordinated to the family.

“It’s the worst.”

The broken pen dripped from Theodora’s hand.

In the end, what unfolded was a thorny road. It is not a path that only one has to walk, but a path that the Knights who share the joys and sorrows together must walk.

“Do you think I’ll go softly?”

I had no intention of walking quietly down the street.

Theodora’s eyes shone brightly.

—

“What kind of person is the second prince, His Highness?”

After sending personnel from the royal family, Rione and Paola noticed Theodora’s rapidly deteriorating mood and quickly got out of the headroom. Normally, he would have tried talking to him at least once, but it was because the present Theodora was literally spraying death.

“Your Highness of the 2nd Prince?”

At Rione’s question, Paola rubbed her chin.

“I don’t know much, but I do know that he has a dignified personality and a handsome appearance. People inside and outside say that he is a fairly intelligent person, but…”

Lione was not ignorant of the fact that being proud of a child of the royal family was a nicely packaged word for being arrogant. Rione realized that this mission would not go smoothly.

“…Any other evaluations?”

“Evaluate, as for what kind of person Your Highness is, I have only heard rumors floating around all the time. I don’t know exactly.”

“What if that rumor?”

Lyone tilted her head. Paola closed her eyes as if trying to dig into distant memories.

“…Do you know the story about the first prince?”

At the story of the first prince that came out of nowhere, Rione’s eyebrows furrowed as if she had no idea what was going on. Paola looked at Lione’s expression and shrugged.

“Have you heard the rumor that the first prince is the son of the concubine…?”

As if hearing about his background for the first time, Rione opened her eyes wide.

“then…”

“Don’t even know. You didn’t even exist in this world when His Highness, the first prince, was born.”

“I only knew that he was the son of a deceased wife.”

Paola shook her head.

“Those with clear ears must have heard the story and the situation when the first prince was born. On one day, two children were born to the royal family.”

prince and princess. One is the son of a concubine, and the other is the son of a concubine.

Coincidentally, the king’s concubine passed away shortly after giving birth.

And proclaim the birth of the eldest son in the kingdom. However, as the years went by, the prince’s appearance resembled that of a deceased concubine rather than that of a concubine, who was supposed to be his mother.

And, the royal family was postponing the crown prince appointment ceremony.

“Has there ever been such a rumor?”

“Usually those who talk so much are the ones who don’t know how precious their lives are. Those who have heard the story but remain silent are the wise ones.”

Paola spoke metaphorically of the end of those who spoke softly.

“The royal family prevented rumors from spreading outside the capital, but we couldn’t completely eliminate rumors from within the palace.”

“Where did you get those rumors going around?”

Lyone asked as if it were absurd.

“When I was a soldier, I worked at the royal palace. In fact, it wasn’t just one or two people who were killed for silence. I was on the lucky side.”

Paola let out a big laugh.

“So, what does that have to do with His Highness, the second prince?”

“The 2nd Prince is, without a doubt, the son of the royal wife.”

“What happened after that,” Paola hinted, “wasn’t it obvious?” Fights and quarrels, all sorts of rumors and gossip, dirty rumors. Lyone said with disgust.

“I don’t want to go to the palace all of a sudden.”

“I used to get along well, but why are you doing that?”

The fact that Beninga, who had the royal family in her hands, was openly pushing the second prince was a fact that most people connected with the royal family knew.

“I’m a battle mage, not a gambler playing on a sloppy political platform.”

“I don’t know, from the time I joined the Knights of the Ravens, which had already begun to reorganize, our destiny became a game on the political board.”

Paola seemed relaxed. Could there be anything in the world where this man would lose his composure and be embarrassed, Rione wondered.

“Will war come?”

It was anxiety.

The situation in the palace was like a warehouse full of gunpowder. Rione hoped her question would be formally denied, but Paola answered in a gruff voice.

“There is nothing more foolish than shedding blood in a civil war. How could he be harming himself when it would not be enough to unite over enemies outside?”

But,

Paola clicked her tongue.

“…Currently, the biggest foreign enemy of the kingdom has been defeated.”

Behemoth is dead. The monsters in the no man’s land cannot cross human territory for a while. Paola, who reaffirmed that fact, was calm.

“It means that the greatest cause to prevent war has disappeared.”

I tried to refute or deny it, but it was useless. Even if a five-year-old child sees it, the shadow of chaos is swaying all around.

“…What will the king think?”

Rione muttered like that to herself.

“Your Majesty will have no choice but to be careful. Isn’t it tantamount to a treason taking place in the name of a succession fight?”

The word treason was spoken very easily by Paola. At Paola’s words, even the bold Rione had no choice but to look around with her pale complexion.

“What are you going to do if someone listens to you, Vice-captain?”

“Isn’t it okay since no one is listening? I hate living without notice.”

Despite Rione’s accusations, Paola only sighed. Rione tried to ignore the pain in her head and decided to change the subject.

“By the way, wasn’t something strange today, Captain?”

Sitting in the office, unable to hide some kind of anger, Rione recalled their leader, who had a hard expression on his face – the spirit was quite bloody to say it was hard.

“Well, Captain Theodora, isn’t there always a part where you’re unhappy?”

When Paola responded jokingly, Leone frowned. Paola changed her attitude, wondering if this wasn’t a topic to be taken off as a joke.

“It was strange. After the Behemoth battle, my emotional ups and downs weren’t that great.”

“…Did you hate being involved in the political arena?”

Lyone said worriedly.

“It could be. The appearance of the leader… well, that’s why, rather than being strange, it was like seeing the leader of the early days.”

Lione nodded her head, thinking that she was right.

“…even though it’s more bloody than back then.”

“Compared to a little while ago, back then it was aegyo. It was just a level where the blade was standing.”

Theodora’s sharp attitude was especially directed at the existing members of the Knights of the Raven.

“Mostly, it was directed at Maxim.”

Maxime Apart.

Hearing the name of an old member he hadn’t heard in a while, Rione recalled a forgotten question.

“Come to think of it, what did Mr. Maxim do to the captain, so he was hated?”

“hate? Did you see that as hate in your eyes?”

meaningful words. Lione asked Paola what she was talking about.

“Didn’t you watch closely?”

“Watch closely and sleep, isn’t it the vice-captain who was close to Mr. Maxim in the first place?”

Lyone said as if complaining.

“I don’t think it was necessary to be close to each other to know… Hey, you’ve never been in a relationship, have you?”

Rione blushed at Paola who suddenly asked a rude question.

“No, why do you think there isn’t?”

“Well, it seems I was the only one who noticed, at least roughly.”

“You noticed, who knows what speculation it might be.”

Rione still made a ballman sound with her face stained red.

“It seems that there was some kind of relationship between the captain and Maxim before. See, the captain and Maxim are from the knight academy classmates.”

“You have to be able to say nonsensical things… We are from the same jockey, but it could be that we simply don’t get along.”

“In your eyes, does the captain seem like someone who would openly show his dislike for simply because he didn’t get along well in school?”

Of course not, Rione shook her head.

“Of course not… then what is it?”

“It couldn’t have been more than just friends…”

“stop. So far.”

Paola crossed her arms and smiled at Rione who laughed. At that laugh, which seemed to be teasing herself, Leone secretly distanced herself from Paola, as if feeling repulsive.

“Uh huh, are you going to miss this interesting story? This probably has something to do with the former vice-captain, Christine…”

“Fun and sleep…”

Leone sighed as he tried to say more.

“I don’t know where Mr. Maxim is now, so what’s the use of talking like this?”

“no no. Rather, it is a story that can be told without him.”

Lyon’s expression darkened. The story of old colleagues whose whereabouts were unknown was approaching quite painfully for the still young wizard.

Paola sighed inwardly as she saw Rione like that. If I had chosen life as a knight rather than a scholar who would shut herself up in the Mage Tower, something I should have experienced at least once.

“…Will Maxim and Christine be all right?”

After the battle of the Behemoth, at the request of the Jackdaw Knights, the Marquis and Count Agon generously mobilized their manpower to search for the missing people.

And the search, in which all talented people from the frontier were mobilized, was over in one month.

What the search team was able to find over the course of a month was a wrecked evacuation wagon, traces of a fight in the mud, and a corpse blown up by the water that had washed up on the riverbank. It didn’t take long for the body to be identified as that of Roberto Miller.

“If you still think about it…”

“Lion.”

Paola cut off Rione’s repeated thoughts. Worrying about them now was of no help to her personally or to the Templars as a whole.

“…sorry.”

Paola had no choice but to comfort her with a small assurance.

“They will be fine.”

And, I add a word to not become more depressed.

“Do you know? The two of us might have left the escape of love…”

“It seems that Vice-captain thinks of everything that way.”

Knowing that he brought up such a story on purpose, Leone struggled to raise the corner of his mouth.

“No, I’m half serious. Maxim himself kept denying it, but the relationship between the two was unusual.”

…Even so, Paola seemed to be genuinely enjoying the conversation between a man and a woman. Rione decided to match the Eolchu rhythm this time.

“You were a blessed man, Mr. Maxim.”

“Everything. I asked the former vice-captain the same question I asked Maxim, but he blushed from embarrassment.”

Paola laughed softly as she recalled the memories of that time. Looking back on the past is here. I have more things to worry about now.

Is the guy doing well?

With her last thought about Maxim, Paola left the main building of the Knights with Rione.