Volume 7 - CH 2

Chapter 2 – Shadow of The Empire

Apparently, the butler guided Eto to the office of Margrave. As soon as they entered the room, Eto found a sofa set, which Margrave sits alone there. And there is also a solid office desk in the back.

Eto then sat down on the sofa opposite of Margrave as suggested by the butler.

“It’s been a while, Margrave-sama. Thank you for accepting my request for the visit.”

Eto thanked the Margrave for giving him some time to have a visit.

“No, I was the one who troubled you for accepting my reckless request.” Margrave lightly said.

Margrave seems to be in a good condition today, as his face is redder and his breathing is calmer than when Eto talked to him in the bedroom the other day.

“Without delay, this is the key Margrave-sama entrusted to me.”

Eto took out the key out of his pocket and put it on the table. Margrave glanced at the butler who was waiting near the door to have him receive the key. And then, the butler put a white bed that was tied with a gold string in front of Eto, like it was an exchange for the key.

“That’s the reward for the request. I want you to receive it.”

Hearing that, Eto hesitated whether he should receive it or not, but when he thought it was natural for adventurers to receive some rewards after completing his job, he decided to take it.

“Thank you very much.”

“Umu.” Margrave nodded, as if he understood even Eto’s momentary hesitation.

After that, Eto began to talk about what he had seen at the southern fort, but apparently, Margrave already knew about how the fort fell to some extent, which was probably reported by his own information network. Besides that, Eto also told Margrave that after the fall of the fort, the Acting Lord Riesenbolt was also taken as a prisoner.

“So he couldn’t even fight and die, huh…” Margrave muttered.

Eto couldn’t guess from the expression of Margrave whether the word came from anger or sadness toward his son.

“Thanks to the effort of your group, I am sure this territory will gradually stabilize. Thanks for your hard work. This should make it difficult for the Empire to attack us.”

“The Empire?”

“Umu.”

Margrave nodded and stared at Eto’s face, giving him a dubious look.

“What? Is there no one who suspects that it was the Empire that bombed the Great Frederick Bridge?”

Not only that, Margrave even grasped that the explosion of the Great Frederick Bridge was most likely caused by a magic circle. And he said he also had an idea about the said magic circle.

“More than 40 years ago, when my grandfather ruled this territory, a war between our Kingdom and the Empire began. Of course, even before the war started, there had been skirmishes near the border, but at that time, the skirmishes happened to happen at the same time. Gradually, both sides were cornered to the point where they couldn’t retreat from the war.”

Saying that, Margrave looked far away, as if remembering the old days.

“At that time, I was just a Captain in the Order of the Knights. I was also taught to hate the Empire, so I ran around the battlefield to increase my achievements.”

At a moment, Margrave’s eyes relaxed a little when remembering those days, but soon it returned to his usual expressionless expression.

“And what we were most wary of at that time was the detonation formula used by the Empire. Because it can cause an explosion in a timed manner, and you can’t even feel the increase in magic power like when a magician uses magic.”

“It’s like…”

“Yes. It’s very similar to the situation when the Great Frederick Bridge exploded.”

Margrave also said that the detonation formula itself was a technology that the Empire had independently made.

“Even now, our Kingdom is still unable to imitate the Empire’s detonation formula. Rather, it’s probably because only a few people actually experienced its power in the war, so news of its usefulness hasn’t reached the capital. Because, forty years ago, the war was flashy only at the beginning, and after that, the stalemate continued and the ceasefire negotiations began.”

It was the first time Eto heard that the detonation technique using a magic circle was the Empire’s unique technique. That was also the reason he didn’t think the Empire was the culprit when he encountered the explosion in the Great Frederick Bridge.

“How much do you know about the detonation formula?”

“There are a few characteristics of the detonation formula written in the book about magic circles. It is said that it is hard to detect the magic circle with magic power detection, and it can be installed and detonated anytime, so it is often used for traps. However, I didn’t know it was made by the Empire and unique only to them.”

“I guess this is how the era has changed. People nowadays can’t instantly associate the situation where the Great Frederick Bridge was blown up and the detonation formula used to explode it with the involvement of the Empire. Which means, not many people knew about the war 40 years ago, huh.” Margrave said, as if speaking to himself.

Eto was staring at Margrave for a moment before asking.

“Is the Empire going to attack this Kingdom?”

“I don’t know. No war has happened for forty years now. However… Let’s see, for veteran Knights and Knights on the border, that detonation formula will only remind them about the Empire, which is pretty inexplicable. For a military operation, blowing up the Great Frederick Bridge with that method is just bad. If the Empire was really going to use such a bold plan, it would have been worthless if the large army of the Empire had not attacked this territory.”

“It would be worthless effort?” Eto asked because the way Margrave put it was interesting.

“Yes. Because that will only warn the Kingdom unnecessarily. If the involvement of the Empire becomes clear, it is obvious that they will be at a diplomatic disadvantage. So, such a bold strategy would be a worthless effort unless they took at least one fort of the Kingdom.”

From the Empire’s point of view, it would certainly be a loss if they only got a little gain after causing such an unnecessary turmoil.

“In other words, someone is trying to make us think that the Empire was involved in that?”

“I wonder. It seems this kind of incident also happened before when the young Emperor was newly enthroned. Unfortunately, I also didn’t know about this since it was a story that I read in a history book.”

“That just shows that there is that much history between the two countries.”

“Aa. A long history of war.”

As Margrave said with a sigh, he suddenly started coughing. And as the butler who was waiting on the gate trying to help him, Margrave stopped him with his hand.

“If you’re interested in history, you can browse this castle’s collection as you like. Kamaran, did you hear that?”

Margrave looked at the butler.

“Eto-sama, please don’t hesitate to tell me when you want to visit the library. I will guide you there.”

The tall, white-haired butler said while bowing deeply.

“Thank you very much. Please allow me to excuse myself here. Thank you for telling me such a valuable story today.”

Eto bowed to Margrave and proceeded to leave the room.