Giant Information Guild. Giant Assassination Guild.
In fact, these two groups should have never existed in the first place.
It doesn’t mean that informants and assassins aren’t real professions. Of course, they exist! If you look hard enough, you’ll find several organizations made up of those folks.
What I’m trying to say is that it’s impossible for such people to form massive guilds that hold influence at a national level.
Why, you ask? Well, isn’t it obvious?
A giant information organization that extensively collects everything from simple rumors to state secrets, buying and selling all the information of a country.
A gigantic assassination organization that kills anyone — knights or nobles, it doesn’t matter — as long as you pay them.
There’s no way that public authority would just sit back and let such organizations be. Just one of them, misused, could shake the whole country to its core!
Even pretending to create such an organization would bring a swarm of royal knights ready to crush you!
Therefore, the influence of an information or assassination organization is limited to controlling just one city at most. They couldn’t expand beyond that.
Theoretically.
But of course, in reality, it’s rare for theory and reality to align perfectly.
In this world, massive guilds related to information and assassination boasting kingdom-sized influence actually existed — brazenly.
An organization called the Shadow of the Eagle, which controlled and dominated the entire underworld of Hervor.
How is that possible, you ask? Didn’t we just say that the royal knights would smash such organizations?
The answer was simple.
The head of the organization that the royal knights should smash was, none other than their future lord.
Just like political thugs intertwined with the regime won’t get arrested unless they’re dismissed or the regime changes.
Since the boss of the public authority controls the underworld, how could the subordinate public authority punish him?
Argantir Gardarik Hervor.
Since the leader of the organization was the kingdom’s second prince and heir, the Shadow of the Eagle could smoothly expand its influence without drawing the eyes and hands of public authority.
After wiping out or infiltrating crime organizations scattered across the country, they finally came to govern the entire underworld of the kingdom.
That’s right.
Prince Argantir was a very different human than the frail and ordinary image people had of him.
Could someone who founded a mafia organization at fifteen and became the boss of the entire underworld in just a few years really be considered a kind and weak person?
Being swindled out of his massive personal fortune by investment fraudsters was simply a ploy to move his money into operating costs for the organization, using those swindlers as scapegoats.
The huge support he poured into orphanages was merely a facade to raise the orphans as loyal assassins for himself.
Hiding such skills and pretending to be an ordinary criminal was also to deceive someone who would greatly warn against his capabilities.
I was trying to make contact while pretending to be an executive of such a person.
…Hmm, is this going to be okay?
Thinking about it now, it does seem like a bit of a reckless action.
What if they send assassins in a large unit, calling me a treacherous guy for impersonating an organization? Surely, that wouldn’t happen… right…?
◆◆
“…You need to go here.”
It was alright.
Two days had passed since I conveyed that I needed to meet the boss of the organization to the eagle-masked man.
The organization member who visited the inn where Friede and I were staying bowed politely to me and handed over a small map.
“From this location… it looks like it’s outside the city?”
“Right. If we leave right after breakfast, we should arrive just before noon.”
The location marked on the map was a bit far from Ahilant, but not terribly so.
Maybe about a two-hour walk? The work was surprisingly fast, and it was much closer than expected.
“U-Um, is it really okay…? That could be a trap to draw us outside the city to kill us, right?”
Friede looked up at me, a tinge of worry in her eyes.
As she spoke, she seemed uncertain, her intuition sounding more like a standard fretting than anything else.
Maybe I failed to explain a bit better.
In her mind, Argantir had likely transformed into a ruthless demon — a being who delights in betrayal and assassination, devoid of any blood or tears.
But it’s not that extreme…
“It’ll be fine. If they wanted to kill us, they wouldn’t lead us outside the city in the first place. You seem to have forgotten; this city isn’t exactly our ally, right?”
“Oh… Yes, that’s true.”
I tapped Friede’s forehead lightly, correcting her misunderstanding.
Right. If Argantir wanted to kill us, he would have an infinitely simpler method than steering us outside the city.
His public identity is the prince of this kingdom!
All it would take is to send a single knight, who knows his true nature, to the city with orders to capture us, and the entire city would have turned against us.
The fact that he sent this map means at least he’s willing to hear us out. So, we could relax for a moment.
“And hey, I have you, Friede, right? So there’s nothing to worry about. My brave knight will protect me, just as I protect you as a knight.”
To completely ease Friede’s worries, I flashed a grin and dropped a light joke, which had a good effect but a surprisingly strong side effect.
“…I hope it’s okay to be a bit late, right?”
“Huh? W-What…? No, making the prince of this kingdom wait is… Uh, Friede…?”
“Just walk fast!”
I had brought upon myself a calamity, and as a result, our departure was delayed by a whole hour.
Instead of a sigh, an ugh escaped through the inn’s ceiling.
◆◆
The place Argantir chose to meet was a small hut in the woods outside the city.
It seemed to be the dwelling of an organization member posing as a hunter, with various drying animal skins hanging from the log walls.
“I guess this is it… Hmm, there are more guests than I expected.”
I sighed in embarrassment as I scanned the thickly surrounding woods.
Even if I couldn’t see them, I could feel it. The presence of people hidden among the trees. No, rather, it was more like I felt a low killing intent and blood smell.
It seemed our Prince Argantir was exceptionally sensitive regarding his own safety.
Considering he brought in dozens of assassins and knights.
“Should we kill them?”
What? Where did that notion come from?
Friede glared sharply into the underbrush as she asked. Just a nod from me, and she’d whip out her holy sword and start a full-blown sword fight!
“No, calm down, Friede. That’s not it.”
I hurriedly tried to soothe Friede.
To draw the first blade against the forces that Argantir brought, that would practically be a declaration to end my life.
I currently faced charges of embezzling national funds, attempted murder of a hero party, collusion with an Abyss Priest, and multiple counts of killing pursuers.
Adding on the charge of killing royalty would leave me with no choice but to flee to another country!
“They’re probably just on guard, or doing reconnaissance. If they wanted to ambush us, they’d be hiding themselves much more carefully.”
“Oh, is that so…?”
Did my explanation finally get through? Friede seemed to lower her killing intent. It was a close call avoiding a situation that would turn the country of Hervor into our mortal enemy.
“Haah….”
A sigh of relief escaped me.
Even though Friede appeared cute and innocent, she showed some dangerously reckless traits.
…Wait, why was I thinking about that all of a sudden?
Was it the events of this morning…?
I shook my head to clear the unhealthy memories floating around in my mind and trudged along with Friede toward the log house.
“…You’re here.”
A man standing at the door of the log house looked at us and spoke.
A knight of the kingdom, perhaps. His robust frame oozed strength, and the metal glint of armor showed through his cloak.
Assuming I were to fight him… hmm, I think I’d win.
Instinctively, I measured the power gap between him and myself, and I didn’t feel any significant urgency.
I guess I’ve grown strong enough to surpass a fair number of royal knights by now. Not a bad achievement. For an early stage.
“Disarm yourselves. If you try anything funny, I will kill you immediately.”
The man pointed at the longsword on my waist, speaking in a low voice that felt intimidating.
He probably already expected us to come and was on guard while waiting.
“It’s as you wish.”
I shrugged lightly, showing no intention of provoking unnecessary trouble, then unsheathed my sword and leaned it against the log house’s railing.
Next, I casually placed my backup dagger on top of the railing too.
Friede simply remained still.
Her adorable blade, Nibelung, was kept in a spatial pocket and summoned whenever needed; there was no point in taking it out, and doing so wouldn’t change the fact that she could summon it at any time.
“Hmm….”
After placing our weapons down, the man let out a low tone as he scanned our entire bodies.
His gaze wasn’t filled with lust but seemed to be deliberating whether to conduct a proper body search or just let us through.
If we were male, there’d be no second thoughts, but maybe due to the weakened recognition effect, he realized that I was a woman. Friede was a given.
Thus, he seemed to be weighing his options. Even though he has the excuse of performing a body search as a knight, he probably wondered if it was appropriate to check a woman’s body thoroughly.
When it’s usually the job of female knights or soldiers to handle such matters, it appeared that all the forces gathered here were men.
“…Tch. Well, whatever. Go on in.”
Eventually, he clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction but stepped aside for us to enter.
Muttering “It should be fine,” he seemed to trust the guard knights waiting inside with the prince without a doubt.
If we were to attack the prince, he believed they would be able to handle it well enough.
I was glad about that.
Had he insisted on conducting a body search, I could easily picture Friede calling out Nibelung and beginning a thorough investigation into this man’s internal organs.
Anyway, thanks to that, we could step inside the log house without any unpleasant experiences.
“Finally meeting you. A request for such an audacious meeting, impressive enough to be surprising. Way more than when I found out you were an adventurer.”
And there we stood, facing three men in the room.
Two knights who appeared to be five times stronger than the one guarding the door, and a young man seated in a plush chair, legs crossed, with a delicate face.
“So, take a seat. You mentioned you have something to convey? I hope it’s information I’ve never heard before.”
The ruler of the underworld of the Kingdom of Hervor.
The only royalty with the right to inherit the throne.
“I have come here personally as you requested, so please, tell me an intriguing story. Brunhilde of the Kingdom of Rhine, the hero of Rhine, Friede.”
Argantir Gardarik Hervor.
