Chapter 36: A connection being made

A few hours later.

(But, you know…… I can’t just look for bandits without any clues……)

The client, the Arne Verde Trading Company, wants the clue, so it’s not hard to understand why they want me to look for it as well.

But where to start?

If there were adventurers whose main occupation was such work, Ren would not be one of them.

At the lakeside of the place where he hunted the berserk fish.

Ren sat on the ground and looked up at the sky, feeling the coldness of the lingering snow.

A few clouds were floating in the clear early spring sky.

“…… I mean, why don’t they know anything when the knights were also mobilized for this investigation?”

The bandits are —- No, I can already say that they are a bandit group from the scale of this appearance. The bandits in question seem to have first broken into the workshop of a magic tool craftsman who lives in the imperial capital.

And all they stole were documents and other non-money items.

Anyway, it’s possible that some of them wanted those documents and have already piled up enough money.

“There were too few traces of them, even if they had escaped unnoticed.”

From what I’ve heard, they’re like a fog.

“I’m certain that some of the bandits have the “Dispel” skill, but…”

‘Dispel’  is a type of skill that is effective against seals and other objects that use magic power. The one who was looking for an existence that had refined its power to the limit was Jerukku.

Dispelling a spell is not limited to such seals, but also has a certain effect on magical tools and the like. In the legends of the Seven Heroes, there were many occasions when their power was needed to open sealed treasure chests.

Ren believes that the bandits may have used this power to break down the defense mechanisms of the magical tools and steal them.

The reason is that if you do all you can to destroy it, you will cause an alarm, even if you were a knight.

“I guess I’ll start by asking for advice.”

It is a little too uninformative to characterize this as a trait of those who belong to a band of thieves, but it is a definite story.

Ren decided to talk to the client, the Arne Verde Merchant company, about it.

When he returns to Elendil, he will stop by the guild and ask them to contact him through the guild staff.

“How about after….?”

I looked up at the sky and thought about what to do next.

Someone who belongs to the Arne Verde Trading company can’t be stupid. Probably, they have already thought about what Ren has thought about, and the same should be true for the knights.

Ren wondered if there was anything else to share.

“There’s a Dispel skill user involved with this theft.”

With little information to start with, Ren spent the next few dozen minutes pondering.

He sat on the ground, but with fur under his buttocks. It is the fur of a little boar, a staple of hunting in his native land.

It kept him from feeling the cold, and the cool breeze cooled his head.

——I wonder what I would have thought if this were a scenario in a game.

Part of him wondered about such an idea when he got here, but Ren, who was stuck in his thoughts, finally brought it to reasoning.

“I knew it was from the Imperial Capital……”

First of all, how did the bandits get out of the capital?

Although there are guards everywhere in the imperial capital, it is extremely difficult to investigate theft by someone who is skilled at covert activities under the cover of darkness.

However, this doesn’t mean that knights and guards are idle. They also have a certain level of competence as Imperial City employees, so it was unlikely that they would let them escape so easily.

“I’m stuck on something.”

He kept thinking about that something, but he couldn’t come up with an answer, and he held his head.

Eventually, he put together a few confirmations, said, “Okay,” and stood up.

The ice covering the lake was finally thin and cracked in places. Ren looked underwater with regret, wishing he had had time to hunt more berserk fish in the winter.

The berserk fish, not as wild as they used to be, were swimming leisurely through the water.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

The same night, at the Imperial Castle.

After the bath, Radius’ hair was still slightly damp. His hair was sticking together with sweat floating on his skin.

He sat on the sofa, enjoying the cold drink poured into the glass in his hand, thinking.

“Well.”

He looks at the glass.

His face reflected in it, his brows furrowed.

“It’s still impossible. I don’t care about the fact that it was at night, they couldn’t have gotten away with it as I had heard. Even if they could have escaped, there would have been plenty of clues left to find out what happened next.”

In fact, it was only a few days ago that Radius began to worry about the recent disturbance.

As the third prince, Radius is also busy with his official duties. In January, he completed the final examinations for the Imperial Military Academy’s prestigious special class, and immediately spent his days immersed in official duties. He even went abroad three times in a short period of time.

He wasn’t tired from this series of events.

However, it took him some time to learn more about the case.

Someone knocked on the door of this room.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me, Nya.”

Knowing that it was Mirei, Radius called out to the door, “Come in.”

Mirei immediately stepped in, and in her hand was a letter.

“Have I interrupted your thoughts, Nya?”

“No matter. Did something happen?”

“That’s right nya. I have something to tell you nya.”

The letter was handed to Radius, and she sat down on the sofa without asking for permission.

As she looked at her lord, who was opening the seal of the letter.

“It’s from the Elendil branch of the guild, Nya. Unfortunately, only a few adventurers have been willing to accept the request, but I’m happy to report that it’s a kind of interim report nya.”

I wasn’t pleased that so few had accepted the request, but as Mirei said, I was interested in the interim report itself.

I started reading the letter right away.

“—- There are people who have arrived at the same conclusion we have with very little information.’

“Nya? What do you mean?”

“You may read it. It’s quite interesting.”

Mirei, who had again taken the letter she had brought with her, went through it.

There are a few things in the letter.

The guild contacted the client today with regard to a matter of concern.

The contents of the letter are about the status of the defense equipment in each of the workshops where the thefts took place. The guild is asking for an investigation into how they stopped working at the time the theft occurred. Also, what those defense devices are doing now.

Also, if anyone with Dispelling skill is affiliated with one of the affected workshops.

“It is strange that some workshops have been robbed, but the thieves have left not a trace.”

The recent disturbances suggest that there are collaborators in the capital.

Of course, even the guards and knights who are investigating are thinking about this, and they are investigating with this in mind.

But that’s not all.

“They call it a defense device, but in other words, it’s a magical tool. If there is an intruder in the workshop, it will neutralize them or alert the outside world with a loud noise.”

This time, they were forced to stop working, probably by the Dispelling skill.

The first premise is how the bandits stopped those defensive devices. The defense devices, or magic tools, mentioned earlier are huge. The workshop itself that was damaged was built in such a way. It would have been impractical to destroy all of them if we feared they would be conspicuous.

“And it wouldn’t have been possible to do anything about it from the beginning, except by using the Dispel skill.”

“Yes, it would have been difficult to destroy everything.”

Mirei said knowingly.

“At the very least, it is impossible for a single Dispel skill user to carry out the theft.”

“—- Yes, that’s right. Several crimes were committed in one night.”

Radius said.

The role of the Dispel skill user is not to steal. The only necessary task is to stop the operation of the defense devices in some of the workshops. After that, it’s up to the collaborators to do the rest of the work. So the Dispel user stops the defense equipment and moves immediately. The collaborators sneak into the workshop where the defense equipment has been stopped. This is said to have reduced the time required.

These are the information already obtained from the investigation to date and everyone’s ideas derived from it.

Not only Radius, but also among the knights and guards.

However, the city hasn’t been informed.

They were wary of their opponents and kept as much information as possible to prevent it from becoming known to the public.

“It would be easier to make plans if they belonged to a workshop owned by a trading company nya.”

The answer to why the adventurers who reported this time were suspicious of the people involved in the victimized trading company was what he just said. It goes without saying that those with inside information have an advantage when it comes to putting a theft plan into action.

The first person to be suspected was the person involved, since he was well aware of the situation of those in the same industry.

Also, the fact that they disappeared like fog and didn’t leave any trace behind.

It is also believed that they hid temporarily and escaped at an opportune moment.

“The person who contacted us through the letter may have been able to quickly trace it to our assumption based on what little information he had. But since he couldn’t be sure, he asked us to probe.”

Naturally, it hadn’t been confirmed at this stage that anyone belonging to either of the trading associations was involved with bandits. At present, the line is only thicker.

Still, there was no harm in looking into it.

It would be foolish not to investigate.

That is why many people, including knights, are working on the investigation.

“I heard that the defense equipment used in the damaged workshop was completely shut off from  the inside and outside of the workshop. I can only assume that they modified a part of the stolen defense device and attached it to a carriage or something to escape the imperial capital.”

“Usually, it would take a long time to remodel and repair the equipment nya. But if it is based on a detailed plan as your highness said, it is only natural that they have at least made the necessary advance preparations.”

“That’s right. That’s why the bandits managed to escape without leaving a trace.”

“I heard that the guards in the workshop were also easily defeated.”

“Yes, but the foolish ones are the ones in the workshop.  I can only think that they were afraid that the leak of their technology would become known to the public and didn’t inform the knights immediately.”

It wasn’t until after the incident that the knights were actually notified of the disturbance.

This makes it difficult to investigate even in the imperial capital, where there are many excellent knights, including the imperial guards and even the best knights in Leomel. It would be strange if they did not.

This is a different matter, and there should be some penalty for those who report late.

“I suppose they were concerned that their position might be threatened for the sake of future business, though.”

“Well…. wisdom is the tool of business for these people, Nya. But, Your Highness, could the person who delayed the report also be related to the bandits?”

“I think it’s unlikely, but I also don’t know. We’ll investigate it as well. Tonight.”

But if he really had nothing to do with the bandits……

That is, if he was just trying to protect the interests of the trading company.

“It’s not like I don’t understand the feelings of the victims. But both the bandits and their collaborators know that and are working with that in mind. I can see their trickery.”

Radius, sighing deeply and profoundly, looked at Mirei.

“Mirei, can I ask you to do this?”

“No problem. Leave the trivial matters to me. And you, your Highness?”

“I’m leaving the castle now and going to Eupheim. It’s about Ulysses. I’m sure he will be looking into this matter before I know it, so I will go to see what he thinks.”

Then Radius gets up to change his clothes. Mirei left his room in the meantime and went to work to accomplish what needed to be accomplished.

“… however.”

Radius’ mind went back to the report and the adventurer he had consulted with.

It seems that he had the same question and thought about it as soon as he received the request today.

I’m sure that knights and civil servants will eventually come to the same conclusion as we have. However, the two of us were obviously quicker to notice.

In particular, the one who contacted us this time wasn’t a knight but an adventurer.

Radius was elated by the contact, which seemed to have been made tactfully based on limited information sources.

“We shall meet someday.”

For now, I have other things to do.

After getting dressed, Radius left the castle with a few of his belongings and a Kingsguard knight.

They boarded a magic ship to go to Eupheim.

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