episode_0088

Alexander opens the door and comes in, pretending to be surprised.

“His Majesty the Archduke. Are you awake?”

– each

“Yes. I just woke up.”

Alexander slightly bows his head at my words.

“It is a blessing for the empire that Your Majesty has awakened.”

“Haha. Thank you for saying that. Please sit here.”

I offer him a seat across from me, and he sits down on the sofa.

A boring time passes by as we briefly exchange stories about the current situation.

My feet started to go numb

Alexander says:

“But I heard you were looking for me in a hurry?”

I smile and nod at those words.

“Yes. I heard that His Majesty Ioanes and the National Assembly members were worried because of me. Additionally, I will think carefully about your suggestion and give you an answer.”

-gulp.

Alexander swallows softly.

He will feel it too. From now on, it’s a fight between you and me.

“Hehe… We are satisfied that His Majesty the Archduke is conscious.”

I laugh internally at those words, but don’t show it.

But where are you trying to get rid of it?

I feel like I’ve given up on making an impossible request, but…

I have no intention of letting go easily.

“First of all, we fully understand that you are concerned about your sister-in-law’s safety due to my injury. If I were in the same situation as His Highness Ioannis, I would have acted the same way.”

Hehehe. How do you feel? You must be nervous because you don’t know what I’m going to say, right?

In the worst case scenario, even if I end the alliance and lose a little bit of prestige, I might reveal to the emperor faction that I have taken advantage of Epirus and Ezip.

But I don’t think so.

There is no need to create uncertain risks for no reason.

“Hehe… No. Still, I see you are so fine. Perhaps His Majesty Ioanes, your close friend, will understand.”

As expected, Alexander, who is very cautious, does not take the bait I prepared.

I was going to change my mind if he said it was okay here and asked me to get engaged to Princess Joy or send him to Nicaea.

“Thank you for saying that, but…”

I gesture to Agrippa and say:

“According to this friend, I heard that you made a very strong request.”

He shakes his head at my words.

“Heh heh… I guess General Agrippa doesn’t know much about diplomatic investigation.”

His words make me laugh.

It is ridiculous that they are trying to resolve this situation under the pretext of a diplomatic investigation.

“Is that possible? Even though he serves me as an ugly person, Agrippa is a genius who can be counted on one hand as a hero of this era.”

He answers my words by rolling his eyes.

“But you don’t have any expertise in diplomacy yet…”

I get a bit annoyed by the rather boring Zen questions, so I get to the point.

“Representative Alexander.”

I say, interrupting the conversation.

“Yes?”

“I believe that Nicaea is behind this incident.”

Because if I say this, you can’t help but get angry.

The reason why Ioannes and Alexander came to Agrippa…

They must have come to Agrippa to appeal that they did not do it.

And also taking advantage of it.

But what if I tell you right here that I am doubting them?

“Grand Duke… Your Highness? Do you really believe the assassins’ absurd claims?”

I smile as I look at Alexander, who speaks loudly as if he is slightly angry.

“Yes. I have doubts, right?”

As I spoke leisurely, Alexander tightened his eyes and spoke.

“Grand Duke! What are you talking about? Are you really doubting us innocent people?”

I laugh inwardly as I see Alexander shouting as if his face turns red.

It’s noticeable.

It is truly a sight to see him get angry as if he is being wronged.

Well, it’s okay to be angry.

We need to avoid rumors that they were trying to assassinate the emperor at all costs.

“Grand Duke! This is a hostile act that disrespects our Kingdom of Nicaea! Are you suspecting us, our allies, without any evidence?”

-Pisik.

Even if there really was evidence, would they admit it?

I don’t know if this is conclusive evidence that an anti-counterfeiting spell has been applied. There is no such evidence anyway.

So they won’t admit it.

But will I be able to persuade other nobles?

The answer is no.

I’m sure the nobles will support Ioanes, who has a higher reputation than me.

They may claim that I am fabricating evidence, fabricating a play, and persecuting the emperor in order to eliminate a rival.

My current image within the empire is that of a power that rules the empire with the emperor hostage.

So, I bring out the secret weapon I prepared a long time ago.

“I heard from Agrippa that you claimed that there is a force trying to disrupt the relationship between us and the Kingdom of Nicaea, right?”

Alexander, who was furious at my words with a bright red face, spoke.

“Yes! I said so.”

-Pisik.

Now, let me take it back exactly as you said it.

So I speak calmly, hiding my sinister thoughts.

“I agree with that statement. There is no reason for His Highness Ioanes, who is brilliant, to betray us.”

There is no reason to betray…

It’s funny to say this when we’re all trying to betray each other, but… politics is always shameless.

“But why are you doubting us?!”

I say that with a smile.

“His Majesty Ioanes can be trusted, but he seems to be not good at managing his subordinates. Isn’t it hard to believe?”

Alexander’s eyes tremble as he pretends to be angry at my Zen question.

It’s natural that you probably won’t get the point of what I’m saying.

-Ugh…

“Do you know what this is?”

I hold out six palm-sized pieces of paper.

Of the five, two are remittance statements sent by Epirus Bank and the third is a bill issued by Epirus Bank’s account.

Expensive theft and forgery prevention magic is applied to large bills and remittance statements issued by banks.

Bank-related documents have long been used for fraud, so this is natural here.

If you try to arbitrarily change the numbers, letters, or seal on a document issued by a bank, the ink color of the letters will turn red.

Alexander’s expression hardens as he accepts what I offer him.

“This is evidence that funds were sent to the forces of the opposing principality from the bank account of Epirus. If you look closely, you can see that it even has Epirus’ bank account number.”

In the past, when Ioanes signed a truce with the opposing principality, thinking that he had provided financial support to the opposing principality.

I asked for this.

These are the documents.

Thanks to this, the mandate period, which was originally thought to be 99 years, was reduced to 90 years, but the facts proven by this document are so important.

I readily agreed.

“Uh… um…”

Alexander rolls his eyes and does his best to get out of this situation.

But I have no intention of leaving him obediently.

“Now, what do you think? Representative Alexander?”

That paper is conclusive evidence that Johannes’ funds were flowing to the opposite duchy.

The money flowed to the Epirus bank from the opposing principality, and the account information was already confirmed by the Epirus bank.

And of course, the account was an Epirus treasury account, but the details were not included there on purpose.

We need to provide a suitable escape hole so they can make lame excuses.

Well, if you were Alexander, unless I was an idiot, you would think I would have checked the account information.

I open my mouth as I look at Alexander, who tries to ask for an answer again but cannot speak.

“I think His Highness Ioanes probably didn’t know either. But it is proof that there are forces in Nicaea who are trying to divide us.”

I also have no intention of fighting them right now.

Even though the Grand Duchy is currently powerful, it is still less than a month since the war ended…

Because we can’t afford to go to war again.

“Hehe… This… I really want this…”

Alexander’s eyes roll.

He must be doing some calculations.

It’s going to be complicated, of course it’s bound to be complicated.

Are you obediently accepting the favor I am offering you here, or are you claiming that it is manipulation?

You can argue that it is manipulation.

Rather, it would be a good idea to submit this to Congress for an official audit.

Then, the audit will most likely focus on Epirus…

It will inevitably be revealed that Ioanes stole Epirus and then tried to harm me for handing Epirus over to him.

Well, even if the audit is canceled due to the imperial faction’s opposition…

As long as you’re in parliament.

You will notice that Ioannes has taken Epirus from the imperial faction.

The imperialist members of the National Assembly are not fools, and they will have no choice but to strongly suspect the connection between Ioannes, who intervened in the civil war of the opposing principality, and the Bank of Epirus.

“Heh heh… I am once again amazed at the intelligence of His Highness the Archduke. I never thought that such a subversive force would exist in our country.”

Alexander pretends like nothing is wrong.

I expected that he would readily admit it.

Anyway, neither Ioanes nor I have any intention of fighting right now.

Ioanes… he wants to swallow up the empire, and I don’t want his land torn apart right now.

What I want is for Ioane and the emperor faction to fight each other and become weaker.

I will destroy them both in one fell swoop.

So I hide my thoughts and speak with a smile.

“So, it seems that the engagement and marriage will have to be delayed for the time being… or at least until it can be proven that there are no seditious forces in Nicaea. Isn’t it impossible to send my sister-in-law to a place where her safety is not guaranteed?”

Alexander rolls his eyes.

It requires some thought, right? How do you feel?

Do you feel like I have to accept your logic as is?

“Yes… according to the peace agreement…”

I nod my head at those words.

“I also have no intention of breaking my promise. However, there are seditious forces in Nicaea, and they are trying to assassinate me and the emperor in faraway Rome. How can I convince my family?”

Alexander nods his head at my words.

“I understand. It’s a natural thing to say. It’s a natural thing to say. Hehe… Thank you so much for this information.”

I say this with a smile as I see Alexander bowing his head to me several times and saying thank you.

“Thank you for your understanding. As expected, I felt like I could communicate with Representative Alexander.”

“I also felt that I was on the same page with His Highness the Archduke.”

-Pisik.

Is that really all there is?

“But that’s it. In the end, we suffered great damage due to seditious forces. In the end, the interior of the Grand Duchy was ravaged by the enemies.”

Alexander looks sad at my words.

“I am very sorry. We should have done a good job of controlling internally… but we are shamed because something unpleasant like this happened.”

That’s not the end, right?

“In addition, didn’t they kidnap the current emperor and Princess Joy to provoke a fight between our two forces? Actually, I was seriously injured.”

Alexander sighs at my words.

“Kew… I really have no shame.”

“I want to be compensated.”

Alexander, who was pondering something about my words, opens his mouth.

“It’s natural. We will also report to His Majesty Ioanes and request permission to provide appropriate compensation.”

I nod my head at those words.

“Thank you at least for your words. First of all, we need to conclude this matter, so please report to your home country and contact us.”

At my words, Alexander wipes his cold sweat with a handkerchief and says:

“Haha… I’ll stop then… I have to report this important matter to His Majesty Ioanes as soon as possible.”

I smile at those words.

“Yes, please take a look.”

After confirming that he had retreated, I turned to Agrippa and smiled brightly.

“How about it? Did you see anything and feel something?”

Agrippa nods slightly at my words.

“If His Highness had become a conman, I think he would have become very successful.”