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Next day.

The Golden Helmet trio and Kafal headed straight to the royal palace, but only Lucella decided to act separately in the meantime.

It was because a message arrived from the communications bureau that summoned Lucella.

She sprinted from the inn town to a nearby city (while overtaking a fast horse on the way) and then took a carriage from there.

The high-speed carriage had no decorations and features, appearing ominous instead, and inside it sat one man aside from Lucella.

“Good grief I came to Setulev to have a quiet life running the manager business, but I was thrown back into the bloody world.”
“Sorry for the trouble…”
“Oh no, I can’t just ignore it when something so weird is happening before my eyes.”

The suited man with smoothed-down hair smiled nihilistically.

If you were to describe him in a nutshell, it would be “a refined hoodlum.”

He was Ivar McGregor, the man who was running the adventurer manager business in Kugutfulm.

Lucella was acquainted with him due to having the same occupation.

Before they headed to the royal capital, Lucella traced her memories from before she met Kafal and went around explaining the situation to the few acquaintances she had.

Ivar was one of those few, and once he heard her story, he pondered for a while and then offered his cooperation in information gathering.

After that, he headed to the royal capital before Lucella’s group.

“Still, you’ve returned even cuter than before…”
“Hahaha…”

Being told it straight, Lucella felt embarrassed and restless.

Ivar gleaned at the scenery outside and then the look of a frivolous hoodlum disappeared from his eyes, replaced by a strong aura like that of steel.

“Now, this place should be good. The hottest information I have is that Julian Angus is apparently planning to come to the capital unofficially.”
“Julian Angus?”
“There’s Marquis Angus’ domain north of Mount Kuguse. That marquis was the one that commanded the dragon hunt the other day, and Julian is his eldest son. Since the previous marquis died, he’ll soon become the next one.”
“So it’s that guy’s son…”
“He’s quite hasty, so it seems he’s already in Setulev. The route he used is the one that crosses Mount Tado through the connection of teleportation circles. It can pass about ten people a day at best, and can only be used with Setulev’s agreement, but it’s the fastest route if one plans to come here.”

Any large-scale traffic between Setulev and Maltgarz had stopped during the past few decades ever since Kafal settled on Mount Kuguse.

More accurately, Kafal didn’t particularly care about humans crossing the mountain initially, so Maltgartz took its time and put off settling the situation, while Setulev never had the power to deal with them from the start, so by the time they noticed it, Mount Kuguse was overtaken by Variants and could no longer be touched by humans.

That didn’t mean that the traffic between the two kingdoms was completely severed, however.

There was still the route between north and south via Mount Tado which was next to Mount Kuguse.

But that one was a dangerous road even if it had no Variants, so other than part of the reckless merchants that exclusively used that path, the only other travelers were important people who used the teleportation circles set up in various parts of the mountain to travel through it.

Lucella suddenly wondered whether the Seventh Dice members also used that route to get into Maltgartz.

Maltgartz and Setulev had territorial disputes, and they also looked at each other as “the ally of the enemy” and “the enemy of the ally”, but they weren’t officially warring nations, and they also had diplomatic relations.

If the Maltgartz side made up some excuse, the Setulev side would most likely avoid latching too hard on the case. It wouldn’t be a problem to let a few adventurers “defect” there.

“So, what is Julian Angus’ goal for coming here?”
“I can’t say for certain since it’s a secret visit, but thinking rationally, it would be for easing tensions. A de facto apology, if you will. The tension should have increased after they moved the army to Mount Kuguse, and trying to hunt the dragon was clearly to harden their scaffold for the invasion. But they failed. If they have no follow-up means of attack, it would be the least damaging to apologize and have them sheath their swords now. They can still make an excuse and pull back now.”
“The next marquis came here while disregarding the Maltgartz imperial palace? …I mean, I guess it is possible. If we assume this isn’t the imperial palace’s will but the marquis’ individual action.”
“I’m also thinking that to be the case. It would be the most peaceful way to settle this situation. I wonder if he’ll say he came to apologize after the imperial palace kicked his butt, while conspiring behind the scenes.”

Lucella wondered what she would do in Julian’s place.

If it could be treated as one noble’s rash act, it would be able to avoid the cross-national breakdown. Setulev was certainly a small kingdom, but Maltgartz who was stuck in a quagmire war would most likely want to avoid gaining more enemies.

If Setulev, who was just sneakily offering its support so as to not get rolled up in genuine war, were to lose the reason to be careful with Maltgartz and proactively join hands with the Gufare Union… It would certainly turn into a troublesome situation for them, even if it didn’t quite lead to their ruin.

Marquis Angus’ household got the short end of the stick to suffer disgrace in order to avoid that, but the marquis in question was already dead, and dead men tell no tales.

If he pretends that his father was to blame for everything and that he was different, Julian could mitigate the damage that would befall him.

Lucella agreed that move would be able to settle everything in one go.

“So everything might be settled already. Even so, there’s a need to prepare for the next time.”
“I see…”
“The reason I voluntarily came to the royal capital was to check how active Maltgartz’s information network was here. If we can find this out, we can more or less figure out just how serious they are.”
“I’m really glad you’re helping us.”
“S-Sure…”

He was really competent in all fields.

Lucella showed her appreciation in genuine admiration, but Ivar looked away while scratching his head as if he lost his presence of mind.

“Goddamit, even if I know it’s you on the inside, I don’t feel unpleasant when a kid shows appreciation toward me.”
“Ahaha… I’m not sure what to say…”
“Ah well, I won’t complain as long as you give me what I want.”

Lucella took out two gold coins from her wallet and flicked them with her fingers. Incidentally, she got this money after selling off the Variant pelts.

Ivar snatched the gold coins as they drew a sparkling arch.

“Thanks.”
“I should be the one to say that.”
“Good grief… You shouldn’t be so trusting of informants, you know? Those who sell the enemy information to their allies often sell the information about those allies to the enemies too.”
“If you do that you’ll get stabbed one of these days.”
“Bring it on. I’ll know when someone’s out for blood for me three days before they get to me. If I didn’t I wouldn’t be alive by now.”

Ivar said with a ferocious smile of a lone wolf that didn’t rely on anyone to protect him.

Lucella only learned it recently, but it turned out that Ivar used to be an informant with both his feet firmly stepped into the underworld before he became an adventurer manager in Maltgartz.

He was using that experience and the few connections he had left.

“Also… about Setulev’s king. I hope he’s someone reasonable. Even if he said he’d cooperate, if he only planned to take advantage of Mom, I’d obviously refuse it.”
“Huh? You don’t have to worry about that. I mean, In Golden Helmet, there’s—”

Suddenly, a thunderous roar occurred.

With a sound like something large being crushed, a jolting vibration hit the passenger side of the high-speed carriage, which was supposed to be equipped with vibration-damping technology.

“Hyaa!”
“What the-?!”