In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 4 Page 9

  “What do you believe the culprits’ goal was? To frame Sir Touya for the crime and have us imprison him?” This was... some hefty grudge I’d gone and earned myself.

  “It’s strange that there were even any bandits out in the western district in the first place. It may not be the nobles’ district, but it’s a well-guarded area, so there’s no way a group like that should’ve been able to move around freely without getting picked up by the patrol or reported for suspicious activity.” He had a point. Without the aid of someone on the inside, it would’ve been impossible to pull off a feat like that.

  “The question is, what are you planning to do next?”

  “I guess I’ll just go catch the real culprit and clear my name. That seems the quickest way to resolve this.”

  “Indeed, but how exactly do you plan to do that?

  “What do you mean, how? We’ve already got their faces right here.” I pointed to the images of the fake knights projected by my [Mirage].

  “Run search. Find the fake knights I met yesterday. As for the range... They should still be within the capital.”

  “Searching... Search complete. Displaying.” Lyon and Neil were slightly startled when Cesca suddenly began speaking out of nowhere, but their expressions instantly turned sour when they saw the pins on the map now projected in the air.

  The search results were pointing to... An area in the nobles’ district. On the inner side, at that. It was an area full of people of very high social status. It was even in the same area as Sue’s, or rather, Duke Ortlinde’s, estate.

  The points on the map moved through the nobles’ district before stopping in front of one place in particular, at which they vanished from sight.

  “Hm?”

  “Targets have entered a barrier preventing the trace ability of search magic. I am no longer able to track them.” Whoever the culprit was, they had a barrier up just in case. Always could count on sleazy nobles to do that kind of thing.

  “Whose estate was it that they entered?”

  “...That was Marquis Rygel’s estate, no doubt about it. It all makes sense now.”

  “Indeed it does.”

  Marquis Rygel? I didn’t know if they expected me to recognize the name, but he must’ve been a bigshot to have the title of Marquis.

  “Sir Touya, do you recall the incident with Viscount Barrow?”

  “...Not ringing any bells. Who was that, again?” The two knights simply shrugged their shoulders with a face that said they’d been expecting as much. What?! I’m serious! I don’t remember the name of every two-bit villain I take care of!

  “Viscount Barrow was the father of a certain ex-knight trainee that you beat to a pulp just recently. They’re the family that were disbanded after their boy tried to raid your mansion.”

  “Oh! The spoiled rich brats! Yeah, I remember them.” There was no way I could’ve been expected to remember their names, though. I didn’t exactly care much for them. Still, I’d have understood if it were the remnants of that house who had a bone to pick with me, but where did this Marquis guy fit into the picture?

  “A member of Marquis Rygel’s bloodline had taken one of the Barrows as a wife. They were pretty close, those houses. They were more like a protege house, I suppose. Also, while it’s incredibly distant, Marquis Rygel has some royal blood in him from some generations ago. The Marquis has been trying to get his son married to Princess Yumina for quite some time now. A large part of his claim being that his lineage was surely the most suitable. Naturally, His Majesty has been refusing the proposal. The boy himself was judged as being a mere brat who’s being propped up on a pedestal due to his family’s influence, too.”

  To sum up, what this meant was that this Marquis Rygel must have found out about my engagement to Yumina from the Barrows, and now for their own plans as well as to avenge the Barrows’ fall, the Marquis was trying to get me out of his way. He’d have had no complaints if the bandits got me, and even should they fail he would just frame me for their murder. Of all the slimy tricks...

  “Though you haven’t ever openly committed any crimes before, you’re plenty infamous among the general populace as it is. The Marquis most likely planned to emphasize this fact as proof that you’re not qualified to marry the princess, and that his own son would be a far better choice, no doubt. There are rumors that the Marquis is willing to stop at nothing to marry into the royal family.”

  Hrmph... I was starting to get pretty pissed, but it had nothing to do with the fact that I was being targeted. Learning that these people only wanted to use Yumina as a tool to boost their own influence had lit my fuse.

  “...Hypothetically, let’s say these guys were the masterminds behind the whole thing, and that they’d tried to have me assassinated. How serious a crime would that be considered?

  “Fairly serious, I’d imagine. I highly doubt His Majesty would take the Marquis’ side, either. The Marquis has been a stubborn old coot on par with Count Balsa for years, contesting the king’s decisions at every turn.”

  On the same level as Count Baldy... So basically, a walking ball of sheer incompetence? The more I learned about him, the more I learned that my guess had been pretty much spot-on. There were rumors that he was involved in some crooked dealings, and that he had vehemently opposed the trade and alliance deals with Mismede due to his inherent contempt for Beastmen.

  Lyon didn’t even try to hide his dislike of the man. I couldn’t really blame him, considering his girlfriend was Olga and all.

  “Still, even if we confront the Marquis with what we have now, it’s obvious he’d play dumb to the end. That would be why he hired bandits, non-representative of his house, for the initial assault. The fact of the matter is, were it not for your magic, Touya, we wouldn’t even have this lead to go on.” That was true, too. Even the fake knights that had tricked me could easily be saddled with all of the blame, letting the Marquis get away scot-free. Considering the state of things already, that seemed a highly plausible outcome.

  “Without solid evidence, even the king couldn’t press an accusation like that. How do you plan to find any such evidence when they’ve gone to such lengths to cover their tracks?”

  “Oh, that’s easy. If we can’t find any evidence right now, then we just have to make some.” I slipped a ruthless grin onto my face and began plotting my next move.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “And? What became of the brat?”

  “The Deputy General and the Commander of the First Order paid a visit to his house this morning. He was escorted to the knights’ headquarters last we saw of him. We can assume they’ll launch their investigation into his background before the day is out.”

  “Kuhahaha! Yes... Excellent. Those filthy rats that call themselves adventurers should know their place in the world. Any commoner who gets in my way deserves to end up like this!”

  “You did it, Papa! In yooouuur face, commoner! Eehehehehe, now I’ll be the one to marry Princess Yumina! Me and me alone!” Standing out on the terrace, facing the garden, was a man laughing in delight. He was a large-built man in his fifties, wearing a luxuriously expensive-looking suit. He sported a very small mustache and was the master of this estate; Marquis Rygel.

  By the Marquis’s side stood his only son, who was currently puffing out his cheeks in joy. He was a blubbery little specimen of a man who, despite only being in his twenties, already had a receding hairline. A layer of grease seemed to coat the man’s balding cranium as well.

  Standing before these two, out in the garden, were a pair of particularly notable men. They were the false knights who had appeared the night before at the Marquis’s order, as well as the true killers of the bandits in the street. They also happened to be the Marquis’ private guard.

  “Next, we must sneak stolen goods into his belongings. For good measure, you understand. When that arises during the inspection, his crimes will be twofold!”

  “Stolen... Stolen goods, sir?”

  “You know, the
ones you brought back after assaulting that one trade caravan last month. We can use that! When it’s announced that the princess’ fiance was a savage bandit, the whole country will be in an uproar!”

  “You’re the boss, boss...” The fake-knight also worked part-time doing highway robberies under similar orders. This guy was an honest to goodness Marquis de Bad.

  “For the finishing touch, we’ll make sure the fact that the princess’ fiance was a murderer and a thief and a jaywalker is rubbed in the public’s faces. With this, I shall approach the king and demand that the engagement be called off at once. The king will have no choice but to oblige, given the circumstances. The people simply would not accept a man known as a violent criminal as the husband of the princess! We’ll prove to everyone that the king is simply not capable of choosing a suitable partner, then take full advantage of that! I can already see him the very picture of shame!” The Marquis grinned gleefully to himself. So convinced of his victory was he that even his reflection in the glass window seemed alive with a rapturous joy of its own.

  “...And this is how you plan to get Princess Yumina to marry your son?”

  “Ehehehe! I can’t wait! Once the princess belongs to me, I think I’ll bully her a little! She always looked down on me with those cold eyes, that impudent brat! I’ll have to make sure and spend plenty of time training her how to service me as my wife!”

  “Do with her as you please, just don’t play with her so hard that she breaks. Remember, your job is to knock her up and get those kids out. She’s only useful to us while she can still get pregnant. Don’t forget that, boy.”

  “Ehehehe! I know that, Papa! I’ll knock her up nice and good, and then that’ll make you into the new king’s grandpa!” The boy’s indecent laughter rang out into the night. As though infectious, this filthy laugh spread to the marquis as well. Their whole putrid conversation was loud enough to be heard echoing down where we were in the garden.

  “Touya, my boy. I believe this is quite enough. Any more and I fear my ears shall rot off.”

  “Yeah, I was feeling the same actually.”

  “Wh-What the devil?!” The marquis was intimately familiar with the voice presently emerging from the mouth of what should have been a member of his private guard.

  By our good friend’s orders, I canceled the illusion cast by my [Mirage] spell.

  The marquis’ private guard slowly began to take on his true form.

  “Your Majesty! But how!? That’s impossible!” Made to gaze upon His Royal Majesty the King of Belfast, who had been here from the very beginning, was evidently such a fright that it made the Marquis fall to the ground on his backside. By the king’s left and right were Lyon, and Deputy General of the Knight Order, Neil.

  “Wha-Wha-Wha... What is the meaning of this?!”

  “We took the liberty of borrowing your guards. Right about now, the real ones are a prison cell confessing to things we hadn’t even accused them of yet, I’d imagine. We were able to get more than enough information from them to prove my innocence, but I felt that the king should hear your side of the story personally, so I took the liberty of escorting him straight to your garden.”

  “...Perhaps there is a grain of truth in your accusations, Marquis. I must indeed be a terrible judge of character, what with having learned that I’ve been letting a scoundrel like yourself loose on innocent people.” The king spoke to the marquis in a deep, intimidating voice, not unlike the terror of thunder itself. The king was absolutely and completely enraged.

  “This can’t be happening! I set up a barrier around this whole estate, even the garden! You can’t use magic in here!”

  “That’s it? A regular barrier? The most that does is exclude you as a target from any spells aimed at the area it’s cast on. That’s why teleportation magic or search magic ceases working the moment the spell interacts with the barrier. However, if it’s myself that I’m casting a spell on, then your barrier is powerless to stop that. It wouldn’t protect you very well to block any magic cast against me, after all. So, my [Mirage], an illusion spell that I can cast on myself, is able to slip straight past your barrier without a problem. Maybe you should’ve spent a bit less time on evil plotting and a bit more time studying the very basics, at least.”

  “Insolent knave! Do you not understand that you are in the presence of a marquis, you bottom-feeder?! Know your place!” Perhaps the lecture was a tad much, as it seemed to have sent the marquis off indignant with fury. Did he even understand his own position?

  “I’m being insolent, am I? Tell me this, Sir Marquis, which of us is the one who committed murder, pinned the crime on an innocent man, plotted against the king he was sworn to follow, and as if that weren’t enough, used bandit groups to assault and rob innocent people? That was all stuff you did, right? In my opinion, I don’t believe you’re even deserving of being spoken to in a polite tone of voice. Hey, pigboy, let me hear your opinions on the matter. Well?”

  “P-Pig?! How dare you?! Don’t think you can get away with talking to me like that, commoner! I’ll make sure you never—” I wasn’t in the mood for these charades, so I closed the distance between us faster than they could blink, then lifted the fat bastard from the ground by his collar.

  “...You’re the one I’m the most pissed off with right now, piggy. You sure had lots of fun going on about knocking up my future wife... If I ever hear another word like that come out of your mouth, I’ll rip your tiny pecker off, shove it down your throat, and then stitch your mouth shut. You’ll be sucking yourself off for the rest of your days. Understood? Nod if you get the message, asshole.”

  “E-Eek?!” I threw all the malice I could muster in the boy’s direction with my every word, only to find that he’d wet himself and passed out from fear.

  It was absolutely disgusting, so I tossed his piss-stained body against the wall.

  “A-Alexander!” The marquis let out a scream at the sight of his son’s body being thrown aside.

  His name was Alexander? That’s the least fitting name I can possibly think of for that sack of shit.

  “Intruders! Intruders on the grounds! Take them out!” At the marquis’s command, the full force of his private guard came rushing out from their rooms into the garden.

  They were apparently exactly the sort of pathetic underlings you might expect to find, since it was clear that they didn’t so much as recognize the king in-person. They drew their swords and pointed them in our direction.

  “Marquis Rygel, do you understand the gravity of your actions at this moment?”

  “Silence! I’ll just subject you to brute force, instead! Guards, cut those men down! Leave not a single one standing!” The marquis was so mad that His Majesty the King’s words were no longer even reaching him. He was a completely lost cause at this point. Basically, he’d gone berserk.

  “Guess we can safely add ‘high treason’ to his list of crimes.”

  “Idiots, the lot of them.” Lyon and Neil each let out a heavy sigh.

  It didn’t exactly take a genius to consider that there was no way the king would come out to a place like this in person without taking any precautions whatsoever. The king made eye contact with me, so I took Brunhild from my hip, then fired a single loud shot straight up into the night sky.

  The explosive noise was their signal to move out. The royal knights swarmed the garden in great numbers within an instant.

  “Who... Wha... How...?!” Outnumbered this heavily, the marquis’s private army had no choice but to surrender. The marquis himself turned pale as he watched his private guard throwing down their weapons one after another.

  “Marquis Rygel, your title is hereby revoked on counts of high treason and attempted assassination of the crown, among various other petty crimes. Your guilt is clear as day. Just give up.” The king’s words shocked the marquis so hard that he fell to his knees. Neil brought some rope to bind his arms with.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “Responsibility for this inciden
t rests entirely upon my shoulders. There is no excuse for what you went through, Touya.”

  “Not at all. You managed to bring an enemy who had kept himself hidden for a long time to justice. All’s well that ends well, Your Majesty.” I tried to appease the king, who had taken a bow before me.

  The day after the incident, I had gone with Yumina to the Royal Castle. I was curious to find out what happened to the marquis and his son. Naturally, they had both been given severe punishments.

  “Won’t this be kind of a big deal, though? I mean, he was technically a marquis and all.”

  “Not at all. The whole affair is entirely sorted. He was a man that Yumina was never fond of to begin with, so I never cared to delegate any important matters to him anyway. I now have an open estate to offer to any of the more responsible nobles should they perform a great enough service. I consider this a good thing.” Meaning he’d known all along that the man wasn’t to be trusted ever since Yumina first saw straight through him with her Mystic Eyes. In the end, she was more right about him than any of us wanted her to be, however.

  “Both of their souls have been caked thick with mud since I’ve first known them. I always knew that they were thinking despicable thoughts on the inside, but I didn’t imagine that they would go this far... I had taken him for one to participate in petty power struggles, not high treason. It seems I’m still far too naive about the world.” Yumina’s Mystic Eyes were remarkably sharp, but not so omniscient that they told her exactly what kinds of evil thoughts one might be having. Seeing Yumina looking all dejected gave my hand a mind of its own, and I was patting her on the head before I even knew it. Don’t be so hard on yourself, I wanted to say.

  Marquis Rygel was marquis no longer. The incident had set an example for all of the other nobles, and sent a message that none, not even those with blood relations, however distant, to the royal family, would be pardoned for their corruption.

  Ex-Marquis Rygel was executed, and his son, Alexander, was sent off to work in the mines for the rest of his life.

  It turned out that the boy took after his father a little too closely, as his own expansive list of crimes was uncovered after that night. I’d heard that he had even been using his family’s private guard to kidnap women from the streets. Naturally, his father had covered it up each and every time, letting his son do as he pleased. Evidence also arose that Viscount Barrow had been involved in these very dealings in the past, too.