Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 93

093

Alfonso, who had been silent for a while, finally spoke.

“Royal Special Investigation Unit, how long do I have to stay?”

“After lunch, you leave after the interview.”

“Interview?”

“Reporters will come to Emerald Palace. You have to tell them that you are voluntarily attending because you are innocent and will diligently cooperate with the investigation.”

“Ugh… I understand. But how did they notice that I was working with the Tricolor Cane Brigade? I disguised myself so that no one would recognize me.”

“Your handwriting. They found out that the handwriting left by the unidentified man who took the southern train and appeared in every area where the Tricolor Cane Brigade appeared is similar to yours.”

“Handwriting? I even signed with my left hand!”

“I think they had a notebook you wrote with your left hand back when you were in the Northern Liberation Army.”

“Ah… Could it be the evidence they took when they first tried to arrest me?”

“Maybe?”

I was a little surprised by Milroa’s persistence this time. It seemed she had noticed something between me and the Tricolor Cane Brigade.

Alfonso asked with a serious expression.

“What should we do?”

“What do you mean, what should we do? I’ve been telling you since earlier. If you open your mouth wrong, things could get twisted, so just keep quiet.”

“You have a plan, right?”

“The real culprit has to show up.”

Alfonso tilted his head at my words. Then, he looked around and carefully opened his mouth.

“I’m the culprit?”

I looked at Alfonso with a pathetic expression. How long have we been together, and he’s still so clueless.

“Ah!”

Only then did he seem to realize something, widening his narrow eyes.

“You’re planning to create one.”

“Yes. I’ve already prepared everything, so wait with peace of mind. You’ll be able to walk out safely in about three days.”

***

Alfonso and I had a top-quality steak for lunch and filled our stomachs.

He had an interview with the prepared reporters.

“Everyone knows what the Royal Special Investigation Unit intends by intimidating my chief! Aide! I, Alfonso, have nothing to be ashamed of before the heavens, so I will personally! Voluntarily respond to the Royal Special Investigation Unit’s investigation.”

Alfonso vehemently appealed his innocence in front of them.

I patted him on the shoulder before he took a confident step toward the Royal Special Investigation Unit. I felt a slight tremor.

“There won’t be any severe torture. Really.”

“I, I believe you.”

I’m not the old me.

I had firmly warned the Royal Special Investigation Unit that they should be prepared if they inflicted even the slightest physical harm.

At best, they’ll just take turns tormenting him so he can’t sleep?

Without a confession, it’s impossible to prove that Alfonso was with the Tricolor Cane Brigade with the evidence the Royal Special Investigation Unit currently has.

Handwriting?

I can reproduce the signature left by the unidentified man in two hours if I practice.

The Royal Special Investigation Unit knows that too. The act of detaining him is more likely to shake me.

I could feel Milroa’s will to create a gap and find a connection between me and the Tricolor Cane Brigade.

It’s not good for Alfonso to be held for a long time. It’s inconvenient in many ways without him moving around in the shadows.

So, after seeing Alfonso off and dismissing the reporters, I went to the White Lion Knights.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Your Highness.”

Gert, the commander, came out to the entrance of the training ground to greet me.

“You heard the news?”

“Are you talking about Alfonso going to the Royal Special Investigation Unit?”

“Yeah, the news travels fast. So, about the knights I asked for…”

“We are preparing.”

I went to the training ground with Gert.

Five senior knights were lined up with their equipment. They were the same people who were with me during the Eastern Pirate Suppression.

I nodded in satisfaction and looked at Gert.

“Everyone has cleared their schedules, right?”

“Of course. As you requested yesterday, everyone here, including myself, has cleared their schedules for three days.”

“Even the commander? The commander doesn’t have to be there.”

“I’m curious.”

“Well… do as you please.”

“Can you explain why you said you were going to move the White Lion Knights a bit?”

“I’m going to catch a group that’s causing chaos in the kingdom. If the real culprit is caught, the Royal Special Investigation Unit will release Alfonso. It won’t be that dangerous. They’re just small fries. The commander really doesn’t have to go.”

“Pardon? Are you perhaps talking about the Tricolor Cane Brigade?”

“That’s right. Today, we’re going to catch the Tricolor Cane Brigade.”

“Today? Are you saying they’re in the royal capital, Barona?”

“No. Their base is in the south.”

“Then it takes more than a day to get there.”

“Ah, don’t worry about that. Just a moment.”

Click. I opened my pocket watch to check the time.

“It’s about time it arrived… Just wait a little longer.”

I looked at the western sky.

About two minutes later, a small dot began to appear in the sky. Soon, the shape became visible.

“Airship?!”

“Let me introduce you. My personal airship, ‘Black Wyvern,’ which was built a few days ago.”

I am the owner of the Aitz Trading Company, which supplies the Red Star Fever cure to the world. Shouldn’t I be operating at least one personal airship?

And a medium-sized one at that.

I couldn’t help but smile as I imagined Milroa’s bewildered expression upon receiving the urgent report that an unidentified airship was approaching the palace.

***

The departure was delayed due to a slight commotion.

This was because the appearance of the unidentified airship turned the palace upside down.

I could have notified them in advance, but I deliberately did it to mess with Milroa, who had touched my nerves by detaining Alfonso.

They probably couldn’t figure it out because it flew in at high altitude as soon as the construction was completed by the Black Anvil Tribe.

She’s probably imagining where I’m going with the Knights Commander on an airship and tearing her hair out, right?

I was thinking that on the deck of the airship heading south when Gert approached.

“Amazing. I’ve been on airships a few times, but this is the first time it’s been so quiet.”

“Of course. The hull is made of ebony wood, which has the strength of iron. The magic engine is the best one from the Aimen Empire, which I obtained with difficulty. Did you know? The Black Wyvern has a new technology called ‘booster’…”

After talking about the Black Wyvern’s specifications for a while, I realized that Gert’s face looked terrible.

He had a look of regret on his face.

“In conclusion, it’s because the Black Anvil Tribe put their heart and soul into making it.”

I summarized it in that one sentence instead.

I was doing what the captains who always rattled off the specifications when asked about the performance of a warship used to do.

“As expected, it’s hard for humans to keep up with the skills of the dwarves. But… you said the destination was the Carini Territory, right? Is the Tricolor Cane Brigade’s base really there?”

“Why, don’t you believe it?”

“No, it’s just that the information you obtained must be accurate. Then, is the Carini family also involved with them?”

“Who knows… what do you think?”

I replaced the answer with a sly smile.

The two executives of the Tricolor Cane Brigade, excluding Mars, ‘Justice’ and ‘Equality’.

I received intelligence that they would meet in the Carini Territory, where the leader of the Tricolor Cane Brigade, ‘The Cane Walker,’ is located.

It’s probably to discuss how to deal with ‘Freedom’ Mars, who is running wild.

I plan to raid the gathered guys with the White Lion Knights and wipe them out.

Dreamers who have devoted themselves to the ideology of republicanism like Mars are at least cute, but those guys are nothing more or less than organized crime members who try to realize their private desires by relying on the Tricolor Cane Brigade.

“Is the leader of the Tricolor Cane Brigade, the Cane Walker, also there? I heard that the Royal Special Investigation Unit has been chasing him, but they haven’t even found a shadow of him.”

“Of course not. Because he’s a virtual person in the first place.”

“Pardon?”

“To be exact… you can think of one of their core executives as playing two roles.”

The virtual person created by one of the three core executives, ‘Equality,’ was the Cane Walker. There’s no way they could find him if they were chasing a non-existent entity.

The Arya Kingdom, which seized the south in the First Lia War in the ‘Future.’ They also hated the ideology of republicanism, so they hunted down the Tricolor Cane Brigade like rats.

In the process, the true nature of the Tricolor Cane Brigade was revealed to the world.

The Tricolor Cane Brigade was not originally created with the pure ideology of achieving a republic.

The underground organization that was in charge of the secret cleanup of the nobles grew by covering up the frame of republicanism, and that’s the current Tricolor Cane Brigade.

‘Mars would be shocked if he knew.’

Well, that’s his problem.

I just have to do my job.

***

Milroa watched the Royal Special Investigation Unit interrogate Alfonso in front of a video screen showing the inside of the interrogation room.

“This is the handwriting you wrote with your left hand when you belonged to the Northern Liberation Army. And this is the signature on the train ticket left by the man suspected of killing Count Malus with the Tricolor Cane Brigade. Isn’t it surprisingly similar?”

“Amazing. To think there’s someone with a similar handwriting to when I write with my left hand.”

“That’s you!”

“Me? Come on, why would I kill Count Malus? I don’t even know him. I saw in the newspaper that he had done a lot of things to be hated, so it’s karma, karma.”

“Ugh…”

The gaze of the Royal Special Investigation Unit member interrogating Alfonso turned to the bathtub filled with water.

Once you enter the interrogation room, it was customary to start with a light wash in there. Then, strangely enough, the water would tell you the answer [a euphemism for torture by waterboarding].

If it weren’t for the Fifth Prince’s threat, Alfonso would have certainly done so.

After briefly suppressing his anger, he glared at Alfonso again.

“Okay, if you didn’t take the southern train, where did you go during your vacation?”

“Haha, I went to a place with good mountains and water where no one was around to experience life with nature.”

“Where is that place?”

“I don’t remember well because it’s a place I arrived at while walking as I pleased…”

The meaningless Q&A between the Royal Special Investigation Unit member and Alfonso continued.

Milroa bit her lip.

Just in case, she visited the interrogation room, but as expected. There’s nothing that can be obtained through Alfonso Einberg.

Her gaze turned to the cruel torture devices in the interrogation room.

Would things be different if she could use those?

‘No.’

Then, is persuasion possible?

‘Impossible.’

No matter what pain is inflicted, no matter what wealth and glory is promised, Alfonso is not the type of person to betray the Fifth Prince. Milroa’s intuition was whispering that.

‘Well, the Fifth Prince has done so much for him.’

She put a cigarette in her mouth out of frustration.

Chiiik- Fwoosh!

“Ah, hot!”

The lighter must have been broken, as the blazing flames burned her hair.

“Countess Milroa!”

Chwahwaak─ Pshshsh.

A subordinate who was drinking a sip of water next to her was surprised and sprayed water at Milroa. Thanks to that, she was able to avoid serious injuries.

“Are you okay! It wasn’t intentional!”

“… It’s okay. Just give me the water bottle.”

She washed her face with the water from the water bottle and wiped it with a handkerchief.

She looked at her messed-up hair and reddened forehead in the mirror.

‘Something else is about to happen…’

She had a guess, so her heart was pounding even more.

The Fifth Prince, who left somewhere on an airship with the White Lion Knights. What on earth is he trying to do?

No matter how much she pondered, she couldn’t get a clue.

“It’s you! You’re the monster who moved with the Tricolor Cane Brigade wearing this vile mask!”

“I’m telling you, it’s not me. You keep saying that. By the way, if the real culprit is caught separately, will I be compensated for this ordeal?”

Alfonso’s sly voice, who was aware that there was no torture in the interrogation room, was heard.

Milroa, who was touching her hair, stopped.

‘The real culprit is caught separately?’

A monster wearing a vile mask with narrowed eyes.

No one knows his true appearance.

In other words, it’s very easy to make a third party the culprit.

‘But why did he fly away on an airship? Even taking the White Lion Knights… Could it be! Could it be!’

What if the Fifth Prince was using the Tricolor Cane Brigade and then abandoning them? Then it wouldn’t be strange for him to know their base.

The identity of the vile mask is something that will end when he massacres the Tricolor Cane Brigade and puts it on the corpse of so-and-so and says, ‘He’s them.’

Milroa made a similar inference, although it was slightly off.

‘If, if the Fifth Prince manipulates it so that a noble involved with the Tricolor Cane Brigade is on our side…’

Thud!

“Countess Milroa! Urgent news!”

She swallowed hard and turned her head towards the subordinate who opened the door and entered without knocking.