======[ Argantir ]======
The report from the contract employee, ‘Krimhilde,’ of the Shadow of the Eagle was delivered directly to Argantir as intended.
Even amidst his busy public duties, Argantir promptly found time to check that report first.
Although he didn’t show it in front of the parties involved, the matter concerning the hero and their loved one was a critical issue, far more significant than any ordinary national affairs.
Unless a war had broken out somewhere, this was something he had to prioritize, even if it meant putting administrative matters on the back burner.
And the content written in that report he hurriedly read was…
“…Is she insane?”
It was such absurd information that Argantir unconsciously muttered a swear word.
The “good prince” concept he had maintained within the royal court was momentarily shattered by the level of bewilderment.
Argantir seriously considered the possibility that something might be wrong with his eyes or head, reading the report again slowly.
“No, is she really insane…?”
And he was convinced. The one who was wrong was not him, but the sender of this report.
They say that a human faced with an incomprehensible existence often loses their reason and rages out of instinct, right?
It seemed that old saying was true, judging by how he felt right now.
He was so taken aback that he unconsciously put the cigarette he had tried to put down back in his mouth.
◆◆
A report of the annihilation of the branch organization’s members. It was shocking, but even that could be somewhat forgiven.
It wasn’t that rare for adventurers or knights to joke about being wiped out by a dangerous dungeon.
Of course, it was the first time he had seen a case where two capable individuals, beyond the kingdom’s knights, were present, and the remaining fourteen were all wiped out.
If anything at all, at least a few more should have returned alive. How could only those two come back as survivors?
Could it be that the ‘betrayer knight’ turned against the branch members while exploring the dungeon, slaughtered them, and tried to monopolize the loot?
If it weren’t for the following explanatory details, Argantir would have suspected—no, half-confirmed—that Brunhilde had betrayed him.
“A dungeon where dopplegangers were born? It sounds like a joke, but it seems that part might actually be true….”
The attached research materials on dopplegangers.
Argantir was not a magician, so he couldn’t fully understand the contents, but at least he could grasp that this was evidence of Brunhilde’s innocence.
Not just innocence, but it also proved she was incredibly unlucky.
Anyway, if that dungeon indeed had multiple dopplegangers lurking, it would explain why only the branch members were wiped out.
Separately from that understanding, the branch leader had proven their incompetence to the world in letting things escalate to this point, so it was only right for him to be dismissed immediately.
The problem wasn’t just the news of the annihilation of the members but the request section written separately from the dungeon exploration report by Brunhilde herself.
“She’s asking for a long vacation? By the time this letter arrives, she’ll already have left, so what’s the point of returning it?”
It was an incredibly sudden vacation request.
No, more like a vacation notice.
That notice made Argantir’s mind spin.
Even though he was only temporarily contracted rather than formally registered in the organization, how could one be so reckless?
He couldn’t believe there was someone who could behave so rudely while knowing his true identity.
For Argantir, it was an experience he had never faced before, and it was incredibly shocking.
He had encountered all sorts of human characters while unifying the underworld, but their rudeness could at least be understood within reasonable limits.
The only lessons learned were violence and crime from ignorant scum.
It was natural for those who couldn’t even guess he was a royal to be rude.
“This woman, wasn’t she originally a knight of the kingdom? She’s not ignorant of the nobility that flows through royal blood or its severity, right…?”
Even the ignorant criminals would tremble and bow down as soon as they learned he was the crown prince of this country.
Yet, unlike those, a woman who must have been indoctrinated with all the manners and etiquette of treating royalty was acting so brazenly, leaving Argantir not even angry but just dumbfounded.
“Fine, a one-sided notice is one thing. To not even disclose her destination is overly brazen.”
Essentially, it was as if she was saying, “I’ll wander around on my own, so don’t worry about my affairs.”
A knight of the kingdom—no, anyone under the royal family’s command would never dare to utter such a brazen statement.
If they did, they would be shattered and scattered across the nation that very day.
That was how arrogant the proclamation was. Saying to the royalty that she’d be off for a bit and not to mind her was something else entirely.
“That’s not all.”
The reason Argantir was muttering curses and bewildered was not just because Brunhilde’s attitude was excessively one-sided and rude.
“Two months. Short if short, long if long. During that time, what the hell is she planning to do without revealing her destination?”
The real problem was not her attitude but the content written in that notice itself.
The duration of two months, a vacation without a known destination, made Argantir’s headaches throb.
“This is troublesome… Not knowing the destination means I can’t prepare in advance.”
Argantir chewed the cigarette he had bitten down until it crumbled, exhaling his rising sigh mixed with smoke.
Brunhilde was dangerous.
Not only because of her own strength or her position as the hero’s lover, which she claimed was a false accusation, but simply because Brunhilde herself was a danger.
She spread chaos and misfortune everywhere she went, as if she were cursed.
The Kuuma Rebellion, which tried to bring her into their fold, ended up ruining their carefully planned scheme to take down the hero and was half-destroyed by the church’s purge and internal strife.
The organization shrank to less than half of its peak size.
Out of the six fingers of the executive staff, Ganagl, Hicks, and Hugh Casval were apprehended, Ariane defected from the rebellion, and Ord Zenbel went missing.
Essentially, all the key executives had vanished, leaving only the Rebellion leader behind.
Isn’t the half-destruction of the Kuuma Rebellion a good thing?
If that were the only outcome of the misfortune Brunhilde spread, Argantir might have thought so as well.
But that wasn’t the case.
Brunhilde, who accepted the role of a contract executive and temporarily joined his ranks, was also inflicting misfortune on his organization without malice.
The first order had turned a certain route into a hellish path, no different from a magic circle.
A lake that produced monsters tainted by the powers of the abyss.
The Abyss Priests who tried to use those monsters. The knights and adventurers who tried to hunt them. And even the raiders targeting those adventurers.
All sorts of characters gathered there, and naturally clashed, causing massive casualties.
When counting the innocent dead, it was at least a hundred.
The baron family managing the route was practically annihilated, and several martyrs arose from the church side.
The casualties caused by the raiders, who had practically occupied the entire region surrounding that route, were even greater.
And what about this time?
After exploring a mid-tier dungeon with merely ten floors, fourteen members, being knight-level fighters and adventurers, were wiped out.
Compared to the prior incident, the scale of damages seemed somewhat reduced, but instead, his organization alone bore all the losses.
As a result, the organization itself had suffered even more damage than the first request.
Well, at least it was ‘only’ fourteen knight-level fighters. Though it was painful, it wasn’t an unbearable loss. Argantir thought so.
Not that he had any knowledge of the huge potential bomb that could shake the whole country, which Hilde had deliberately omitted regarding Eleadra.
If he’d known that she had unleashed such a monster onto the surface, he might have tried to cut ties with Brunhilde and clash with Heid to eliminate both.
The omission in the report had inadvertently turned out to be a wise decision. At least for Hilde herself.
“I expected her to be a difficult card to handle, but I never thought the problem would be with the consequences of her bad luck, not her personality or cooperation….”
He thought Brunhilde and the hero would be useful forces.
But actually using them was like having a weapon that indiscriminately destroyed everything around, regardless of friend or foe.
She had clearly been completing the assigned tasks properly, and when it came to calculating profits and losses coldly, benefits seemed to outweigh damages…
“But the very fact that such a thing happened is already an issue that can’t be overlooked. Just because benefits prevail, doesn’t mean we can ignore the losses.”
Even worse, she wasn’t acting with malice—this tragedy occurred merely due to some carelessness and unintended coincidences.
In the short span of a month, with only two orders and combined preparation and journey time.
And now she was being granted two months of free time?
Not even just staying quietly in the mansion, but planning to travel without disclosing her destination?
If he tried to predict what kind of results that might bring, Argantir felt overwhelmed to the point of sighing without any other emotions coming to mind.
◆◆
“…….”
Veloren Esther crumpled the letter she held in her right hand, let out a deep sigh, and pulled out the armor and weapons she used during her active days, cleaning them thoroughly.
She waited eagerly for the second letter that would contain her second daughter’s destination, who had run away leaving just one note behind.
