Chapter 279

Georgen Northern Branch Chief's Office.

"You've done excellent work."

Branch Chief Yulant commended Inspector Borhi. Borhi smiled and nodded.

"Thank you."

"With results like these, you could transfer to Central."

"You're too kind."

"No, no. If you want to..."

"That really won't be necessary."

Borhi turned his gaze toward the window. A lightly swirling snowstorm. Just looking at it seemed to bring the bitter cold upon him.

"The north suits me better."

He added quietly.

"Snowstorms. Serving as a watchman protecting these icy walls from the barbarians of the north... It feels like my calling."

"......If that's how you feel, then I can rest easy."

The branch chief placed a hand on his shoulder. Borhi dipped his head slightly.

"Oh, right. What happened to Sergeant Paul from Central?"

That rookie had no parents to begin with. Meaning no one to back him up.

"With that much circumstantial evidence and testimony, he is clearly an agent."

"Thank you. Then, about the request I made earlier..."

"Of course."

The branch chief gave a small laugh at Borhi's request.

Borhi would fill Georgen's ranks with people from his hometown. People he knew well, brought from snow-covered mountain villages.

"With your investigative ability, you need people who can support you. But... Larkordak Camp is off limits. It belongs to House Jackal."

"Yes. That's fine."

Jackal. A family that acted like Central's nobles in the north.

Their military strength was indeed well regarded. The current house head had once been assessed as someone comparable to Sebastian.

Of course, that had been thirty years ago, when Sebastian had been an inexperienced man in his twenties.

"That alone is more than enough. Thank you."

"Ha ha. All right. Off you go."

Borhi left the branch chief's office.

Quite a few people approached him in the corridor.

They had not yet been issued Georgen agent uniforms, but they soon would be. New faces, along with countless agents who already followed Borhi.

"......"

Borhi stood among them with a stern expression. They all lowered their heads.

His sharp gaze swept over them, then suddenly stopped.

"Sergeant Elmer!"

He spotted Elmer, newly discharged from the hospital.

"You could have rested longer!"

Borhi approached the limping man on crutches and smiled brightly.

Elmer greeted him with an expression that seemed embarrassed, or perhaps guilty.

"This is Sergeant Elmer!"

Though he knew better, Borhi deliberately took Elmer's hand and raised it.

"He played a highly effective role in apprehending an agent from Georgen Central..."

Bang!

At that moment, Georgen's front gate burst open as though smashed apart. People rushed in from outside.

Northern Branch agents hurried to stop them.

"What are you people doing..."

"Good to see you, Inspector Borhi."

A familiar face called out to Borhi from among them.

Gewin of Georgen Central.

Borhi asked coldly.

"Inspector Gewin. What do you think you're doing?"

"Before that, release our Paul."

"......"

Borhi stared at Gewin.

"Hey. You'd better open your eyes properly. Do you know who we are? Do you know who we are?"

"Huh?!" Gewin barked, eyes bulging and neck rigidly stretched.

"We are the Sentinel Knights."

Administrative Officer Hans showed his identification first.

Borhi silently clenched his teeth, while Elmer and the other agents' eyes widened. Gewin gave an awkward cough.

"......It means you picked a fight with the wrong person. That Paul was a close classmate of Sir Maximilian Ebenholtz!"

Meanwhile, Sentinel personnel had already gone underground and brought Paul out of the detention center.

"Paul! Are you all right? Our Paul! Our Paul!"

Gewin followed after Paul.

"Our Paul has been through so much! You really have! Seriously..."

Administrative Officer Hans stepped before Borhi instead. Hans smiled as he faced Borhi's stiff expression.

"Pleasure to meet you. I am Hans Wenzel, administrative officer of Maximilian's First Office."

"......It seems the Sentinels can involve themselves in the north as well?"

Rather than return the greeting, Borhi narrowed his eyes fiercely.

Hans replied calmly.

"The Sentinels can intervene anywhere when it concerns the Empire's security."

Then, meeting Borhi's gaze,

"Inspector Gewin was right."

The corners of his mouth hardened coldly.

"You targeted the wrong person."

* * *

Outside a hotel somewhere in the north, Yvette stood before the luxury car Halbert Goring had rented.

"......Ms. Yvette. Have you finished your preparations?"

She merely nodded at the question from Narcissus, who was disguised as the driver.

"Let's go!"

Just then, Goring emerged, heavily scented with perfume.

Yvette swallowed a sigh and climbed into the back seat with him.

"Well, I managed it somehow."

"......Thank you, Sir Halbert."

Yvette halfheartedly went along with Halbert's self-congratulation as they headed toward Northern Camp Larkordak.

Yvette stood before its enormous iron gate.

"This camp is operated by House Jackal. You know the Jackals, don't you?"

Larkordak developed the north's vast untamed wilderness. Inside, people were imprisoned and made to dig frozen ground with shovels and pickaxes.

Yvette smiled faintly.

"Of course. I heard no one can leave once they enter..."

"Ah, that's an exaggeration. Naturally, there are prison terms here as well."

Halbert Goring raised a hand before the entrance.

"Sir Halbert Goring. We've been expecting you."

As though the arrangements had already been made, the camp superintendent came to receive him.

"This way."

The superintendent opened a small door beside the main gate and led them inside.

The camp was gray within. Its snow-covered walls and rooftops. The faces of its people were all similar shades.

"Lady Yvette. Tell this person his name."

"Yes..."

Yvette gave the camp superintendent his name.

The imprisoned Master's real name.

"Yes. I will check the list momentarily."

......

Larkordak's visiting room... no, its reception room.

Yvette blankly stared at a bundle and an urn placed on the table.

"......"

Thump.

Halbert Goring placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I hear the Master died a few weeks before we arrived."

Halbert lowered his voice. Yvette nearly lost her senses. Her body spun with dizziness.

In other words, the Master was already dead.

She had gone through so much hardship to rescue the Master...

"......Superintendent. How did this man end up in Larkordak?"

Yvette asked the camp superintendent.

"Ah. One moment. The report..."

With Yvette watching, the superintendent hurriedly picked up the report, unable to hide their flushed cheeks.

"Here it is. Suspicious conduct was observed, and he was arrested by the police following a resident's report... That is all."

"......"

There must have been Revolutionary Faction lackeys within Northern Georgen as well.

The Master had not disclosed their identity even to most of the Revolutionary Faction. Had the Master ended up being killed in the camp without a name for that reason?

In a way, it was a comedy.

"But how did this person die?"

"Who knows? Perhaps he had a chronic illness."

A chronic illness.

Yvette gave a hollow laugh. What a ridiculous load of bullshit.

"But what was your relationship with this man?"

"......"

A bundle containing his belongings. An urn containing his remains.

Yvette looked between them and answered.

"He was from my hometown."

In any case, the mission had failed.

There was no reason to remain here any longer.

"What about these belongings..."

"You may take them. Dealing with the deceased's possessions is troublesome for us as well."

"Yes. I will."

Yvette opened the bundle of belongings. Inside were papers resembling a will.

Long sentences...?

"......"

But Yvette read the contents differently.

No, this itself was a cipher used only by the Revolutionary Faction.

Sentences hidden within letters. A map hidden within the spaces.

Yvette stared at the papers for a long time.

"......Lady Yvette. Are you all right?"

Halbert asked worriedly. The camp superintendent was busy stealing glances at her face and body, until Halbert's shoulder suddenly knocked into his torso.

"......Ha."

Having deciphered everything, Yvette lowered her head.

There was a reason no one had known the Master until now.

This Master had not been the first Master. Perhaps this Master had not even been the second.

The name Master alone had been passed down this way, each bearer remaining nameless...

[ ......Though I depart so emptily, I hope that you who read these words will carry on after me. For the flame we hold, for the cause we must achieve... ]

The Master's next directive was to entrust me with the duty of becoming Master.

"......"

Yvette kept her eyes lowered for a long time, trembling with an emotion she could not name.

......

Inside the car on the way back.

Yvette leaned against Halbert Goring's shoulder. She appeared to have fallen asleep from exhaustion.

With an expression like he possessed the world, Halbert told Narcissus in the driver's seat,

"Slowly. Drive as slowly as possible."

"Yes."

As they moved gently along, a black car stopped ahead of them, facing them.

Halbert frowned.

"Who is that bastard?"

"......Could it be an inspection?"

"Ah, damn it."

Honk!

The horn suddenly blared from in front of them. Yvette jolted awake and lifted her head from Halbert's shoulder.

Halbert's rage instantly soared.

"Those crazy bastards! Do they know how important this moment is? Who are you? Do you want to die?!"

Halbert got out of the car. Leaving him to shout furiously, Narcissus in the driver's seat asked,

"What about the Master?"

"......Already dead."

"W-What?!"

Narcissus flinched and started to turn toward her, then fixed his gaze forward again.

"What are you talking about?"

"I said the Master was already dead. The Master died after three months in confinement."

"Then..."

"Instead, the Master left me something and a name."

"Something and a name?"

"......Yes."

Yvette nodded slightly.

"The thing is probably where bonds, accounts, or something else have been hidden. And the name... He wants me to become Master."

"Huh..."

Narcissus swallowed and ran a hand through their hair.

Yvette smiled bitterly.

"Narcissus. What do you think?"

Narcissus, acknowledged as genuine by the false Master, and Lily.

"......What you think matters."

Narcissus returned the question.

Yvette let out a long sigh first.

"I could do it well, probably. Maybe dozens of times better than the previous Master?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, asshole. I was born fucking beautiful. You fell for me too, honestly. Your attitude changed at some point, didn't it?"

Her tone changed without warning.

Narcissus smiled with a small snort, as though unable to help it.

"Then isn't that good?"

Narcissus's words.

Isn't that good?

The intention to entrust the name Master to me...

Yvette's expression suddenly darkened.

"......"

Why was that?

Someone's voice rose in her ears like the scent of flowers.

"Go far away."

They said hearing was the memory most quickly forgotten.

"As far as you can."

That really was true.

Already, she could no longer clearly recall his tone.

"......No."

Yvette quietly shook her head.

"......"

Narcissus said nothing for a moment. They did not move.

"......No?"

Suddenly, a word slipped from Narcissus.

"Yeah. I... I think I'll quit now."

Narcissus's expression, reflected in the rearview mirror, hardened.

Narcissus forced a smile and asked,

"Why? Lily, you just said it yourself. That you think you can do it well."

"Yeah. But... it isn't fun anymore."

Yvette looked out the car window.

"Since it isn't fun... Narcissus, I'll leave it to you. Either of us can do it, right? I think you'd do well too."

"......"

Narcissus turned around.

From the driver's seat to the back seat.

Yvette filled his suddenly wide-open pupils.

"Then."

Grit. The sound of teeth grinding.

"You're a traitor?"

"......What?"

Narcissus's hand slipped inside his coat.

Time seemed to stretch and slow. The instant the gun barrel emerged and aimed at Yvette,

Bang!

The windshield shattered as bullets rushed in.

"!"

A bullet struck Narcissus directly in the back of the head. His body was thrown back and caught against the car seat.

His nearly crushed face remained fixed on Yvette.

"......"

Brain matter, fragments of eyeball, optic nerve, shards of skull.

Covered in such things, Yvette could only blink.

What was happening?

When she shifted her gaze beyond the window, Halbert Goring was staring somewhere.

Not at her, but at someone approaching her.

With eyes as though he had seen a ghost.

Step. Step.

Then footsteps came through the shattered windshield.

Soon, someone bent down and looked inside.

Knock knock.

A pointless knock.

"Pleasure to meet you."

As Yvette turned around unsteadily,

"My name is Maximilian."

A cool voice introducing himself settled over her.

Maximilian.

A man standing with the snowstorm at his back, whose face was so beautiful that he felt like a calamity.

Smiling more dangerously than a gun barrel, he said,

"I heard about you from my friend Paul."

* * *

Northern Georgen's interrogation room.

"......"

"......"

The two of us sat in silence.

The lights were kept as low as possible. Someone with sharp eyes might recognize me otherwise.

"What will happen to Sergeant Paul from now on?"

Yvette was the first to speak.

"That friend will retire."

Her shoulders trembled faintly at the word retire.

Even that gesture was still an act.

She was quite an impressive woman.

"......May I ask?"

Yvette asked carefully.

"Did Sergeant Paul say anything about me?"

"......Yes."

I smiled slightly.

"He said you were the most beautiful woman he had ever seen."

That was not a lie.

I simply no longer cared about an individual's appearance.

"More than your appearance, it was your inner beauty."

When I mixed in a little lie, Yvette smiled bitterly and shook her head.

"He saw me wrong. My looks are what is prettiest."

She rubbed the tabletop with her fingertips for a while.

"Could I perhaps meet him?"

"......No."

I answered firmly.

"You probably never will."

"Why?"

I considered it for a moment.

What should I say? How could I make Paul leave naturally?

"......A chronic illness. He does not have much time left."

A chronic illness.

Yvette wore a blank expression.

"Is it... very serious?"

I nodded.

"At most, two months. He has been taken to the capital now. It seems his condition worsened rapidly after being held in detention for so long."

Yvette bit her lip.

At the lie I had casually made up, she gripped the edge of the table and fell into thought for a long time.

"......So his health was why he had no choice but to drop out of Empire Point?"

I simply watched as she put the pieces together on her own.

"Well, I guess you could say that."

"Then... Sir Maximilian. What was he like at Empire Point?"

What was I supposed to say to a question like that?

"......He was a kind friend."

In any event, I had to draw as much information as possible from her.

"But he did not want to hurt others."

When people find an empty space in another's past, they try to fill it with their own imagination.

Even more so when the person is someone they want to know.

"......Just like now."

Yvette continued with a bitter smile.

"Sergeant Paul... told me to go far away. As far as I could."

As far as possible.

I repeated it quietly, then shifted my gaze.

"To do that..."

I handed her the statement as she considered it.

"You must write down what you know."

In other words, she had to completely betray the Revolutionary Faction.

"......"

Yvette merely looked down at the statement. She neither spoke nor acted. She did not even seem to be considering it.

"......"

I waited calmly too.

Someone like Yvette could not be handled forcefully. I did not know what path her life had taken, but one thing was certain.

Beauty such as hers was surely a curse in this world.

"Paul asked me something."

I lowered my voice.

"He asked me to protect your safety, whoever you may be."

Yvette's breath wavered.

She raised her head and looked at my face hidden by the dim light.

Eyes asking whether she could trust me.

"......I am not someone with many friends."

How many people had I met in my life whom I could truly call friends?

It was not a lie, so an emotion I had not intended entered my voice.

"That is why I want to cherish the friends I have left."

"......"

She stared blankly into my eyes.

"I see. I never thought someone like you would come all this way for one friend..."

She smiled, still not losing her pretense.

"Then can you believe everything I am about to say?"

We were almost there.

I did not avoid her eyes.

I merely cast the final bait.

"On Paul's name."

She would betray the Revolutionary Faction.