Chapter 58
Information War
“Delphine’s testimony and this latest investigation have made it even clearer.”
La Rouge headquarters.
Inside a building where security had been tightened thanks to the recently secured Posium, three leaders were gathered.
Sitting at the round table, Lin addressed Belli and Marianne.
“Pride returned to the Third District as a runaway slave three years ago. Then, a year ago, she killed a thousand people and gained immense power.”
After that, she became the Empire’s hero—the Marquis of Pride—and, with some mysterious power, manipulated the memories of people throughout the Empire.
“Yeah. That is strange…”
Belli murmured to himself, lost in thought, and Marianne asked with a confused expression:
“To brainwash that many people all at once… How could anyone possibly have that kind of power?”
“Well, we don’t know yet…”
Belli answered with a vacant look, as if his mind was somewhere far away.
“But one thing is certain—it’s something different from Veritas, who uses black crystals.”
“Delphine asked me something,” Lin said in an even tone, looking at Belli.
“She wondered why she was the only one who could remember Pride clearly—whether it might have something to do with her Posium-charging ability.”
At that question, a spark of focus returned to Belli’s face.
“…Yes. That’s exactly what I’m most curious about. We need to accelerate the investigation into her origins.”
A sharp light flickered in his blue eyes, and Lin frowned slightly.
“Belli, I have to ask—you’re not thinking anything strange, are you?”
Perhaps it was because he was so intelligent, but sometimes he acted in ways that seemed… inhuman.
It was as if he were a god watching a chessboard from afar—utterly devoid of human warmth.
Lin’s tone grew slightly rougher without him realizing it.
“She is not a chess piece.”
“…”
But Belli only gave a gloomy smile on his angelic face and said nothing.
Marianne joined in.
“Lin is right. If you treat humans like chess pieces, then how are we any different from the Emperor and his lot?”
Yet even the words of his long-time friends did little to change Belli’s expression.
“But Lin, Marianne,” Belli said in a low voice, his face as unreadable as a statue.
“We are fighting demons right now… And to read a demon’s thoughts, I must become a demon myself.”
A few days later, the long-silent communicator crackled to life.
[“Look out the window.”]
At the sudden instruction, Delphine immediately went to the study window.
A transparent pigeon was sitting calmly on the sill.
Pride must have sensed something and said she would tighten security…
Was she worried someone might be eavesdropping?
Apparently, even the communicator was no longer considered safe.
Delphine untied the note fastened to the magically-created pigeon’s leg.
The instant she did, the pigeon scattered into a handful of light and vanished into the air.
Returning to the study sofa, Delphine read the note and murmured softly:
“A string of disappearances…?”
The paper detailed a series of mysterious disappearance cases that had recently occurred in Netherfield, a town in the Third District.
She couldn’t help but immediately think of the “blond demon.”
Even if the Third District was known for its many strange deaths and vanishings, could this really be a coincidence?
La Rouge had also sensed something odd about these cases and, in the course of their investigation, had found a connection to a high-ranking noble—none other than the Duke of Purcell, one of the three ducal houses.
Her mission was to gather as many rumors and pieces of information about the Duke of Purcell from within the First District as possible.
“An information war, huh…”
After reading the letter one more time, Delphine burned it in the candle flame.
Then, after a short moment of thought, she took out a sheet of stationery.
“Please wait here a moment.”
When Delphine nodded lightly, the servant bowed deeply and left the reception room, closing the door behind him.
The room was decorated to an almost ostentatious degree—pink wallpaper covered in flowers, red sofas, and gold-trimmed porcelain and tableware scattered here and there.
The owner’s taste was plain to see.
While Delphine was taking in the surroundings, the door to the reception room burst open.
“Lady Pride!”
“Lady Megan.”
Delphine greeted her with a smile.
Lady Megan bustled toward her, the feathers on her extravagant dress bobbing with each step.
“My goodness, thank you so much for coming to see me. I was just about to contact you, now that I’m finally feeling a little better.”
She let out a dainty, rather theatrical cough.
Since Delphine had already heard that the lady had been in shock for some time after the recent fire, she wasn’t surprised and replied politely:
“Oh dear. Are you feeling better now?”
“I’m much improved. More importantly, thank you so much for saving me that day, Lady Pride.”
She dabbed at her dry eyes with a handkerchief and added:
“I should’ve joined my husband in death long ago… What’s the point of a widow living all alone?”
“Please don’t say such things, my lady.”
Delphine sat down, doing her best not to recall the rather scandalous sounds she had overheard beyond the waiting room that day.
“That was a terrible incident. I heard the violinist went missing?”
“Yes, but rumor has it…”
Lady Megan lowered her voice for effect.
“…that a burned corpse was found in that waiting room.”
“How tragic.”
Surprisingly, she didn’t seem particularly sad about the death of the man she had been close to.
“It’s a shame. He was so big and wonderful… Of course, I mean his violin. You know?”
She hurriedly added.
“Of course. We’ve lost a remarkable musician.”
“Well, it’s fortunate that none of the nobles were badly hurt. Honestly, who cares if a commoner or two dies?”
Delphine only gave an awkward smile and took another sip of tea.
The woman might have been a little too blunt, but she wasn’t a bad person—this was simply the typical attitude of First District nobles.
“By the way, have you heard the rumor? Apparently, Lord Daze…”
Fortunately, Megan was the chatty sort, and before Delphine even had to ask, she began spilling all kinds of high-society gossip.
Which was exactly why Delphine had come to see her today.
Sifting through the flood of idle chatter, Delphine quietly listened for anything useful.
“…So, you know about the disappearance of the Marquess Humphreys’s heir, right? That’s why the Duke of Purcell is in such trouble.”
“Oh?”
Finally, after circling through all the society news, the conversation landed on the Duke—the very topic Delphine had been waiting for.
She swallowed the ginger cookie in her mouth and asked slowly:
“The Humphreys heir disappeared, but why would that put the Duke of Purcell in a difficult position?”
Megan laughed and waved a hand.
“Oh ho, I keep forgetting you’ve been away from society for a while. You see…”
Lowering her voice conspiratorially, she whispered to Delphine:
“Not long ago, Marquess Humphreys challenged the Duke of Purcell to a duel.”
“A duel?”
“Yes. For reasons he couldn’t disclose—only that his noble honor had been gravely insulted.”
“My goodness. And what happened?”
Delphine widened her eyes in feigned surprise, coaxing the woman to continue.
The Duke of Purcell—head of one of the Empire’s only three ducal houses—was a man who had likely never lifted anything heavier than a silver spoon in his life.
By contrast, Marquess Humphreys was a border lord and decorated war hero in his youth.
“Well, surprisingly, His Majesty the Emperor mediated the duel.”
“The Emperor himself?”
The unexpected news made Delphine’s eyes go wide.
Dueling was a tradition among nobles, fought for the sake of honor—so much so that even the Emperor interfering was considered extremely discourteous.
“Yes, indeed!”
“Do you happen to know why?”
Delphine’s eyes sharpened as she asked, and Megan shrugged her round shoulders.
“Isn’t it obvious? They say the Purcell family has recently come into a fortune in gold.”
The implication being that the Emperor sided with the Duke out of greed.
But from what Delphine knew, it was far more likely the other way around—
That the Duke had joined Veritas, the Emperor’s secret organization, and then suddenly acquired gold and imperial favor.
“In any case, right after that suspicious duel, the Marquess’s son vanished. People are whispering that the Duke secretly took revenge.”
“I see…”
“They say the Marquess has gone nearly mad over it—he doted on his only son, after all.”
“…”
Delphine thought back to the time she’d met Marquess Humphreys at a society party.
Unlike most nobles, he had a commanding presence and a hearty demeanor. He wasn’t the kind of man to be easily broken by a little misfortune.
Then, for the first time since the conversation began, Megan—who had been talking nonstop—added quietly.
