――The night before the carriage raid.

“I see, so when the gang is attacking the carriage Lunos will come from behind with his knights.”

“That’s right. The masked man with the great sword and the similarly masked woman are under my order. Let them escape together with the two core members.”

“This is necessary for the act, right? Well, this Lunos will perform as best as possible.”

“In the end the man with the great sword will create a firewall, when he does that please let him escape.”

　I called Lunos and F to the mansion to make these arrangements.
　I had to talk to F because I want to move the Imperial Guard Order.
　The F asked curiously out of turn this time.

“Hoh, isn’t it strange to use a two-handed sword while using magic? What kind of man is he?”

“Well, isn’t it fine? You don’t have to worry, F. More importantly, Lunos, perform the best you can.”

“Please leave it to me. I always played the leading role in amateur theatre acts ever since I was a child.”

　Is that equivalent to the culture festival in this world?
　Well, if he was playing the leading role there must have been a lot of girls going kyaa kyaa.
　I feel bad just from imagining it.

　Thanks to this careful planning the raid went well.⌈¹⌋
　Of course, I told Crescent Moon about it beforehand.

“So when are we going to meet that “boss” to make our excuses?”

“I’m not making excuses. I’m just reporting the facts. Well, there’s nothing else we can do. I wanted to go as early as possible, are you fine with that?”

　Gyan was pretty impatient, wasn’t he?
　Not only did the raid obviously fail but the Guard Order’s vigilance also became more severe.
　Further arrangements have to be made for the future, something like this.

“I don’t mind. Can I take Crescent Moon with me?”

“Well, that’s right. It’s necessary to report today’s events as detailed as possible.”

“Don’t worry, Gyan, I’ll intercede well.”

　Crescent Moon will also go with us.
　Strategy success.
　And after beating the mastermind this incident will come to an end.

“Akatsuki, it’s that mansion. Don’t let there be any more blunders.”

　Gyan led us to a single house built on a hill quite far away from Braham.
　It’s considerably huge.
　Its size isn’t much different from Carlo’s mansion either.

“It’s a rather big house. He seems to also have a lot of money.”

　Crescent Moon’s eyes turn into yen marks again.
　Hey hey, we didn’t come here to attack and steal his money.
　Even though I’m a villain I somehow want to still live a good life.⌈²⌋
　Gyan faced the back entrance and knocked the door several times in a regular pattern.
　This seemed to be a code.
　The door was immediately opened and we went inside.

　The three of us were led through a hall.
　Then after waiting for a while a man in a large armour appeared.
　Wearing a suit of armour in the house should be tiring, isn’t that too difficult?

“Gyan, what happened? Why did you bring those guys along?”

　The armoured man had a moustache and haughtily asked Gyan.
　Is that guy the wire puller?

“I, it failed because we got attacked by the Imperial Guard Order. Nearly all of us got ki – -”

“Failure? The Guard Order, you said? And you dare to shamelessly return!?”

　The armoured man momentarily flew into a rage.
　They said you’d die young if you’re too irritable on TV.
　Gyan was tense and tried to desperately make excuses.

“Because of our recent work they somehow got more cautious. Besides, It was the unit led by Lunos and my three comrades got instantly – -”

“Lunos? That Lunos? You said that pretty boy appeared there!?”

　Oh? That guy is jealous of Lunos’ appearance, too?
　Maybe we could become friends.
“Ye, yes. Then when I was about to be killed this person here called Akatsuki helped us and survived somehow.”

“Hoh, you got Lunos?”

　The armoured man stared at my face, judging me.

“No, I didn’t defeat him. However, I shook him off and they withdrew.”

“Hoho, Let’s hear your story, shall we?”⌈³⌋

　At the time I said that sentence another man entered through a door in the back.
　I was very surprised to see that face growing a long white beard.
　Isn’t that guy Viscount Gerg?!⌈⁴⌋
　I just met him as Carlo a few days ago.

“This here is Viscount-sama. It seems it failed because Carlo’s Household troops interfered.”

　The armoured man deeply lowered his head.
　So that means, Gerg was the wire puller?
　However, I didn’t expect this man who is known to be a truly virtuous person to be the wire puller ⌈⁵⌋.
　If I didn’t wear this mask it might have shown on my face.
　He naturally also knew my face so it was good I was wearing a mask.

“Heeh, I didn’t know you were our employer.”

　Crescent Moon seemed to also know Gerg.
　Looks like he’s a celebrity after all.　

“You *******, watch your tongue!”
“Hoho, it’s fine, it’s fine. It’s useless to keep it a secret. Zackary, what is this here? Let’s take a seat and slowly hear their story, shall we?”

　With these instructions, the armoured man called Zackary led us to Gerg’s living room.
　Of course, only Gerg sat down Zackary and we were standing.

“So, how about you tell us your story once again?”

　Prompted by Gerg Gyan explained the situation from the beginning once again.
　Gyan seemed to be quite afraid of Gerg as he was extremely tense and sweated profusely.
　This old man, He looked like a gentle person from the outside but his insides seemed to be considerably bad.

“……Therefore in order for us to survive this Akatsuki here led Lunos away.”

“Hohooh. Not only did he help everyone to escape from that Lunos but also escaped himself safely. Akatsuki, that person seems to possess considerable skill.”　

　Crescent Moon intervened from the side faster than I could answer.

“If it’s this Akatsuki he could even straightforwardly fight that Fitzgerald guy or me”

　It would be the same result as the Sword Fighting Competition.
　Crescent Moon don’t say unnecessary things.

“Do you mean the man who defeated Lunos and became the champion of the Sword Fighting Competition, Fitzgerald? That’s pretty good. Zackary, Akatsuki might even surpass you, too.”

　After hearing Crescent Moon’s words Gerg suddenly became cheerful.
　On the contrary, Zackary stared at me with eyes filled with hostility.
　Looks like I won’t be able to befriend him anytime soon.

“However, this is troubling. It was a pretty good kind of work. It’ll be rather difficult to continue if they keep being so cautious, wouldn’t it?”

　Like I thought they acted on this man’s order.
　Just when I thought about hammer him down――

“Excuse me”

　A girl lowered her head and entered the room with a drink for Gerg.
　She’s a rather beautiful girl but there’s nothing eye-catching about her.
　An iron collar was around her neck.

“Fraudia, is it? Come here.”⌈⁶⌋

“Aah, Gerg-sama, please don’t……!”

　Gerg forcibly pulled the girl’s hand who put down the drink.
　The girl resisted but got drawn closer nevertheless.

“This woman is……?”

　Gyan seemed to recognise this girl.

“That’s right, this is the woman you caught the other day. This woman is Fraudia and Princess Charlotte’s former maid.”
　
Zackary explained to Gyan.

“Hoho, you did a very good job. If it was just an ordinary woman I would have sold her after enjoying her and after receiving the ransom but it’s a different story with the princess’s favourite maid.”

　Gerg said so while hugging the girl who is obviously uncomfortable.

“This Fraudia will be given to Rejum-sama. The prince will surely be delighted as well.”⌈⁷⌋
　Hohohoh, Gerg laughed pleasantly.
　The name of a big one came out again.

　Prince Armandi Rejum.
　He’s the leader of the conservative aristocrats who are against King Franz Johann III plan to centralise the government and the big shot of all big shots having the right to succeed Franz Kingdom’s and Italino Kingdom’s throne.
　I see, so Gerg had connections to Rejum.

“For that reason, I’m handing out this girl. It is said that the princess especially liked this maid. Rejum-sama will surely use her well.”

　I see, so Gerg uses this child to get Rejum’s favour and he will use her as a tool to oppose the King.

“Gerg-sama, I certainly thought you were close to Margrave Medici, though.”

　As I asked that Gergs expression suddenly changed and his tone grew bitter.

“Who would willingly wave their tail to that blond boy? This also was something Prince Armandi instructed.”

　I heard something good there.
　I planned to kill this villain here today but the strategy changed.