Chapter 209
"Well then—let's hear your excuses, Arnold?"
In the throne room, Father said coldly.
Franz stood beside him, while Erik, Gordon, Konrad, and Henrik were there as well. All the key people involved in the reception had gathered.
The only one I couldn't see was Brother Trau. Of all of them, he seemed the most likely to take my side, so where had he gone?
"I have no excuses, Father."
"It is 'Your Imperial Majesty,' Arnold."
"There's no point, Your Imperial Majesty! This man sent Leonart outside after breaking the castle's lockdown! Leonart, who tried to cut down our elder brothers! Neither of them is in his right mind! They should be imprisoned at once! The culprit, the captain of the guard, still hasn't been found, and he let that strange younger brother escape alongside the Griffon Knights who may be his accomplices!"
"I didn't break the castle's lockdown, Henrik."
I told Henrik, who was taking such a hard line.
Hearing that, Henrik glared at me.
"What? Don't spout such nonsense! You sent Leonart outside the castle!"
"I didn't open the gates and send him out. He left through the sky. I didn't break through anything."
"Do you think such a ridiculous technicality will fly?"
"It's not a technicality. Sealing the castle is the Imperial Guard's responsibility. No one said he couldn't leave by air, and the skies weren't sealed off. So I sent Leo out to take a walk. If anyone's at fault, it's the Imperial Guard."
"How can you say something so absurd!?"
Henrik turned bright red and angrily confronted me.
But Father looked exasperated, while Franz, standing beside him, was actually laughing.
"Franz. What's so funny?"
"My apologies, Your Majesty. I simply haven't seen such masterful blame-shifting in quite some time."
"That is not something to be proud of, Arnold. According to the report, you used Elna to restrain the Knight Commander. Is that correct?"
"That's a misunderstanding. The Knight Commander was frightening, you see. After all... Leo was the one who drove his younger brother to his death. I thought he was about to attack me."
Konrad couldn't hold back any longer and began laughing at my words.
Seeing that, Gordon glared fiercely at Konrad.
"That is highly inappropriate, Konrad."
"What am I supposed to do about that, Brother? Tell Arnold."
"Hmph... Arnold. Answer seriously."
"I am answering seriously."
I said, feigning innocence.
A vein began throbbing on Gordon's forehead.
He looked ready to burst. I wouldn't have minded if he did.
Yet, unlike Gordon, Erik looked at me calmly.
"Arnold. Even when you have a reason, you rarely take action. Yet you knowingly sent Leonart outside despite understanding the commotion it would cause. I believe there must be some reason for that."
"I see. That may be so."
"Then tell us. For what reason did you send Leonart outside?"
"Will you listen to me seriously?"
I said, turning my gaze toward Father.
With everyone intent on judging the person who had caused the trouble, no one would take anything I said seriously.
I couldn't afford to have my words dismissed as ravings. Unless they were willing to listen to me and accept that there must have been a reason, there was no point.
Neither an excuse nor a defense would do. I had to avoid speaking from a position of weakness. What I wanted to do was explain.
However, there was no one here who was completely on my side. I was still merely the prince who had caused trouble, and my position remained weak.
So I tried talking nonsense. Perhaps Father decided we would get nowhere like this and quietly nodded.
He had shown a willingness to meet me halfway.
"Of course I'll listen. There must have been a reason, yes? Tell me about it."
"Then allow me to explain my theory. Let me state my conclusion first: Saint Leticia is probably still alive."
"What?"
Father narrowed his eyes, while the other princes fixed sharp gazes on me.
That was an even more absurd claim than the nonsense I had been spouting before.
But Father had said he would listen, so he did not interrupt me. I continued my explanation.
"Let me give you the evidence for that belief. First, the circumstantial evidence points to the captain of the guard as the culprit. But if the captain of the guard were part of an anti-Imperial faction, he would never leave behind evidence proving his own guilt. Even if the Kingdom's captain of the guard killed the saint, the Empire would bear no blame."
"...You seem to have reached the same conclusion, Franz."
"I concluded only that the captain of the guard was not the culprit. I never even considered the possibility that Saint Leticia was alive. Your Highness, please continue."
As expected of the Chancellor. He had noticed the strangeness in that room. Even so, that was all he knew.
The imperial family is one of the continent's most distinguished lineages, having incorporated people of exceptional aptitude into its bloodline for generations. Even a member of that bloodline would have to observe carefully to notice the anomaly.
That was the secret of Leticia's corpse. Franz, a commoner by birth, could never have noticed it, no matter how hard he tried. That was probably why, despite sensing something strange, he had not opposed sealing the castle.
It was a crime staged to look like the captain of the guard's doing. Even so, there was still a sufficient chance that the culprit remained inside the castle.
But that wasn't the truth.
"My second piece of evidence is the Magic Research Order. Silver wiped out their base, but documents were found there about using Saint Leticia in magical experiments. You saw them too, didn't you, Father?"
"Yes, I did."
"Then didn't you notice anything strange? The Magic Research Order was a group of people obsessed with researching magic. Their purpose was to pursue magic. Yet they had made no plans to capture Saint Leticia. They had only made plans for how to use her. Doesn't that seem as though they were acting on the assumption that she would fall into their hands?"
"Someone abducted the saint and handed her over to the Magic Research Order?"
Erik asked me this question.
His expression was far more severe than before.
The more plausible my story became, the worse it was for the Empire. His reaction was only natural.
"That would be the natural conclusion. However, Saint Leticia's corpse was definitely there. If that really was Saint Leticia's corpse, then the Magic Research Order gained nothing. The only ones who benefited were the Kingdom and the culprit. The Kingdom would treat the captain of the guard as the culprit and blame the Empire for failing to send pursuers after the real culprit, while the culprit gained time to escape. Since the scheme was so elaborate, the culprit probably isn't still in the castle."
"Silver destroyed the Magic Research Order's base. Could they have changed their plans because of that?"
"That is possible, but... since the Magic Research Order had infiltrated the Imperial capital, it is almost certain that they had some kind of cooperative arrangement with someone. Once they entered into such an arrangement, handing over the result would be only natural. Besides, the Imperial capital can't have been the Magic Research Order's only base."
If the Magic Research Order had been destroyed as an organization, that would be one thing. But only one base in the Imperial capital had been destroyed. An old criminal organization would surely have members scattered all over the place.
Even if they couldn't hand her over in the Imperial capital, they could have done so somewhere else. It was also possible that the people who had been in the capital and the people who were supposed to receive the saint were entirely different groups.
There was no end to the possibilities.
"Then... what exactly was that corpse?"
"Yes. That corpse is precisely the evidence that Saint Leticia was abducted. Didn't you or my brothers notice something strange about it?"
"...I don't make a habit of staring at corpses. Did you notice something?"
"Yes. I was observing it—very carefully."
For an instant, Father frowned. Erik did the same. Gordon snorted, looking down on me with contempt.
His expression seemed to say it was all mere speculation.
"So what if there was something strange about the corpse? You're simply not used to looking at corpses, aren't you?"
"Let me ask you this, then: if you're so used to corpses, how did you fail to notice anything strange, Brother Gordon?"
Gordon's eyes turned bloodshot at my words.
Gordon took a step forward and moved as if to come at me, but Father stopped him.
"Gordon. Calm down."
"A good-for-nothing like him mocking me is an insult to my pride!"
"I couldn't care less about your pride. If Arnold is right, then he noticed something you failed to notice. You deserve to be mocked."
"Do you intend to believe Arnold!?"
"It is worth verifying. Bring Saint Leticia's corpse here. However... if no one notices anything unusual, you know what that means, don't you, Arnold?"
"Please. Do as you wish."
With that, I lowered my head slightly.
I had somehow made it this far.
Just one more push.
If my theory were proven correct here, the way everyone present looked at me would change. That wasn't desirable, but this was for my brother.
It couldn't be helped.
Being underestimated was just another part of my strategy. My goal was to make Leo the Emperor.
This time, I would give it everything I had—no holding back.