Chapter 90 – Good News and Even Better News

“…This informant, codenamed ‘Dream,’ who is he?”

“I don’t know. Even the informant who gave me this information said they didn’t know who ‘Dream’ was.”

“Was your informant Ophelia Blumin?”

Silina’s gaze flickered toward Pina at my blunt mention of the Information Guild leader’s name. After a moment, she nodded.

“Yes, Ophelia Blumin. Even she, the head of the Information Guild, couldn’t identify the source. That’s why it’s unreliable.”

“How can she not know who gave her the information?”

“I agree. But what can we do? She said she woke up and it was just sitting on her desk.”

“…So she immediately brought it to you?”

“Yep. She even disobeyed the Cartel’s direct orders to come to me. She’s a very obedient lapdog. So, don’t kill her.”

“How did she get into the academy with it?”

“Ophelia Blumin is a puppeteer, remember? And not just any puppeteer, she controls these strange, almost lifelike creatures. Among them, she has animal-shaped puppets that can deliver information. This time, it was a cat.”

“…Ha.”

My throat felt tight, like it was filled with sand.

A member of a branch Eustetia family, involved in some sort of deal with black magicians.

Honestly, in this day and age, it didn’t really matter whether someone made deals with black magicians, slept with them, or whatever.

Black magicians had integrated into society fairly well. The temporary Black Tower floating over the capital was proof enough.

As for black magicians committing crimes?

They weren’t the only ones.

Statistics actually showed that their crime rate was lower compared to others.

Whether this was because they were mindful of their reputation or if their ideals had genuinely changed, contrary to my suspicions, I couldn’t be certain.

But in this era, people considered their neighbors more dangerous than black magicians.

So, how should I interpret this? Judge it? Accept it? And most importantly, what should I do?

Should I hunt down and kill a member of the Eustetia family just because they were dealing with black magicians?

Is it right to slaughter someone from a branch family just for doing business with black magicians who were now legally recognized and accepted within the Empire?

If I chose the former, I’d need concrete proof. If I acted first and failed to find evidence of wrongdoing, then not only me but the entire main branch of Eustetia would be ruined.

And if I choose the latter? I’d be pissed.

And this situation would become even more of a headache.

“The source isn’t clear, huh.”

Just as Silina said, the information’s credibility was questionable.

I didn’t know who this ‘Dream’ was or if what he saw was even true.

Even if it was true, I still wouldn’t know what exactly was exchanged, why they went to the Black Tower, or what reason the Black Tower had for letting them in.

I had no answers.

But I could make some educated guesses about the content of the transaction.

A branch of the Eustetia family made a deal with black magicians.

What did they receive?

While it’s true that black magicians valued compensation more than anyone, their form of payment wasn’t ordinary.

They rarely desired material possessions.

They seek the intangible, things unseen.

Pleasure, chaos, or favors they could use to curry favor with their masters.

Simply put, they collected leverage.

So, figuring out what the branch family received was more important than what they might have offered.

Then, what did they get?

That tied directly to the reason Shibria, that bitch, was acting so brazenly.

The way she treated me, a direct descendant, like trash, and how she hadn’t even shown her face when the family head arrived.

While the former could be dismissed as personal resentment toward me, the latter was a different matter.

For someone bearing the Eustetia name, such behavior was unacceptable.

To ignore the family head was to disregard everything House Eustetia stood for.

That was practically an act of rebellion.

Against House Eustetia, which commanded both the Eustetia Knights, whose strength rivaled the Imperial Knights, and the Nameless, whose notoriety spread fear across the world.

What could they possibly be relying on for such audacity?

Did they have a way to defeat the Eustetia Knights and the Nameless?

Was there a force backing them even stronger than those two combined?

Impossible.

While he never explicitly stated it, Kerian was, from what I could tell, at least Seventh Rank.

Which meant the Commander of the Nameless was undoubtedly at least Seventh Rank, if not Eighth.

Having a Seventh Rank within the Nameless alone drastically increased their value.

But on top of that, they had an Eighth Rank.

And that Eighth Rank was the Commander of the Nameless.

Eighth Rank.

Equivalent to a Ninth Circle Mage.

An Eighth Rank individual is no longer human, they have fully transcended.

A single Eighth Rank could face an entire army alone.

If we were being honest, a single Eighth Rank could take on both the Eustetia Knights and the Nameless, hoping for mutual destruction.

Or perhaps even annihilate them all and survive.

An Eighth Rank was that absurdly powerful.

And there weren’t many Eighth Ranks in the entire continent.

Even among the Empire’s Six Pillars, renowned throughout the world and hailed as the next Hero, Eighth Ranks were exceedingly rare.

That’s what it meant to be Eighth Rank.

And to think someone had a backer capable of killing the Commander of the Nameless?

Impossible.

Then, I needed to consider other possibilities. How could a branch family possibly win against the knights and the Nameless without directly confronting them?

There was a method commonly employed in the past by demons, black magicians, and those who served under them.

Simple.

Sow discord and destroy from within.

So, what kind of information could be used to divide House Eustetia and turn its loyalists against each other?

I already knew the answer.

That the blood of the Hero doesn’t flow in the veins of the Eustetia family.

That the Eustetia family is not a descendant of the Hero.

Shibria Eustetia.

Hesilia Eustetia.

The branch families rebelling against House Eustetia.

They learned that information from the black magicians.

And what did they offer in return?

The downfall of Eustetia.

The tarnishing of the Hero’s name.

To destroy everything Arisa Eustetia built.

But why would they do that?

No.

That didn’t matter. Their reasons didn’t matter to me.

What mattered now was suppressing the rage threatening to consume me, the urge to hunt down and slaughter every last one of these bastards.

“…Ha.”

“Why don’t you relax a little?”

Silina, however, was calmly sipping her tea, seemingly amused by my reaction.

“If you keep making that face, Pina might actually faint from fear.”

“Hey, want to spar?”

“No.”

“Why not? You’re the one who kept saying you wanted to.”

“Do you think I’d want to be your punching bag right now?”

Silina scoffed.

“And I have to say, you’re really something else. You’re actually thinking of using a princess as a stress reliever.”

“Yeah, you’re right. So unless you want to get hit, shut up.”

“Mind your language.”

“Fuck off.”

“…My god.”

Silina’s eyes widened before she shook her head with a sigh.

“So? What are you going to do now?”

“About what?”

“This situation.”

Just as I was about to say that I was thinking of how to rip these bastards apart, something felt off.

“What’s with that face?”

Silina set down her teacup, a faint smile playing on her lips.

“I’ll help you.”

“…What?”

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Right… There’s something you haven’t told me yet. This information about the snake, did you get it from Ophelia?”

“No, not from Ophelia. And I didn’t hear it from anyone else, either. The information about the underground of the capital… I obtained it myself by commissioning another source. And you aren’t the first to discover this information. Someone else was already investigating it.”

When I received the information from Ophelia, I had noticed how neatly organized it was.

As if it had already been compiled and presented to someone else.

And didn’t Ophelia say herself that what I received was a copy?

But at the time, I brushed it off.

I thought Uranos, as an information guild, just operated that thoroughly.

But someone else requested this information before I did?

And then,

“Why were you investigating this?” I asked.

“Anton de Hermann.”

She answered my question with a name.

The First Prince’s name, no less.

I blinked in surprise, staring at Silina.

“Anton de Hermann knows about this information as well.”

“And? What does that have to do with you knowing it?”

“Don’t you find it strange that Anton knows about this? What if Anton de Hermann was the one who summoned the demons and tried to kill me?”

“What kind of question is that? Do you have some kind of recording device? Are you trying to get me in trouble for treason by baiting me into saying he’s suspicious?”

“If you’re this distrustful of people, you’re sick. Just speak your mind. Or do you want me to go first?”

Silina chuckled, slowly swirling the tea in her cup before speaking quietly.

“I’m going to kill Anton.”