One of Three

The capital’s central district.

House Sagittari’s estate.

A mansion with a pool and garden in the heart of the city — luxurious.

Mirei, walking beside me, saw the pool and her eyes widened.

“Special Officer! Look over there!”

“Want to drown?”

“I want to swim! Ah, I didn’t bring a swimsuit! What a waste!”

Swimsuits were something I developed.

In Karakas, people originally swam naked, but I aligned with Dragon Princess to create the culture of swimsuits.

Why?

The soldiers needed to play in the water.

The Imperial Military where humanity gathered had a high percentage of women.

Women had exposure concerns so they hesitated to swim…… to encourage it, I created the garment and culture called swimsuits.

Even when exhausted from battle, letting soldiers play in the water once revitalized them — it was good all around.

So swimming became a popular sport in Karakas.

“……”

I followed Mirei’s gaze toward the pool.

The imperial palace also had a pool.

And this estate’s pool design resembled the palace one.

A few nobles had built similar ones with my permission, and this was similar too.

Those days.

My wives, children, and I all gathered wearing swimsuits and played.

Lisera and Miriel holding hands, walking slowly together.

Orca and the eldest son competing at swimming to see who was faster.

The eldest daughter tried backstroke, using her own body as a skipping stone and bouncing across the water surface, causing quite a commotion.

The empresses chose daring or matching swimsuits to show me.

When they sent glances saying they’d be wearing this tonight so come find them.

I’d receive them, pretending not to know.

It had been happy.

“……”

The others all stopped too.

Not just one but two people stopped, making everyone think something had happened.

Iselen.

She also stood still, staring at the water surface.

Though called the Queen of Assassins and an object of fear, bitter emotions lurked in her profile now.

“Special Officer?”

“……”

My eyes met Iselen’s.

Had we both recalled the same time?

Whoosh.

Iselen turned her body and started walking again.

With quick strides as if shaking off lingering attachment.

When I walked again too, Mirei chattered beside me.

“……But that person is the Queen of Assassins? Eeek. She’s scary.”

“You’re marked, so be careful, Mirei.”

“D-don’t scare me! And I told you to call me Rei!”

“Got it, X-ray.”

I answered casually and looked ahead.

An enormous three-story mansion.

Enemy territory where Dierk lurked.

The estate.

A man who’d been waiting in the reception room jumped up.

It was Uren Sagittari.

“Headquarters Commander! Welcome to this humble place, honored guest!”

“You should welcome this person more than me.”

I jerked my chin toward Iselen.

But Uren simply shook his head.

“Officially, the headquarters commander ranks higher! Haha, not that I’m slighting Your Majesty! Hahaha, just second place, that’s all!”

“……”

Too straightforward, aren’t you?

Everyone looked incredulous, and Dargal behind Uren covered his face.

And a human woman beside Dargal bowed to us.

A petite beauty.

“Everyone, I apologize. This person makes verbal blunders so often……”

“Hahaha, my dear! What are you saying! Even when I make mistakes, you and Dargal support me well!”

“……Mm, who might this be?”

“Ah, this is my wife Mezrin! Hahaha, her health is so poor she can’t go out much, but she seems fine today!”

Mezrin bowed in greeting to us.

“Welcome. Empress Iselen, and everyone from Librata. I’ve heard much about you. While you stay this weekend, please make yourselves comfortable.”

“Hahaha, go unpack first! I have so much I want to talk about with the headquarters commander!”

Servants took our luggage and split left and right.

I asked in passing.

“You’re housing guests separately?”

“Ah, yes. We’ve arranged the large room in the west wing for Her Majesty! And the large room in the east wing for the headquarters commander! That suits both your ranks!”

I glanced at the dark elf man beside Iselen.

A familiar face — Albert.

The guest room.

After the servants placed the luggage and left, I examined the room.

For today’s visit, I’d only brought Mirei and Kalbina.

Since it was an unofficial friendly exchange, I couldn’t bring many people.

I’d prepared troops on standby, but…… even if something happened, they couldn’t rush in immediately.

“Hmm.”

At least the room looked fine on the surface.

Knock knock.

A knocking sound.

“Come in.”

“Excuse me.”

The one who opened the door and entered was a dark elf — Albert.

Albert, who approached quickly, bowed his head toward me.

“You called for me?”

“Yeah, I want to hear the honest situation.”

Albert had caught on from just my look and came.

No ordinary capability.

That’s why he’s a dark elf high-ranking officer.

Albert gestured toward a chair for me.

Meaning to sit comfortably since this would be a long story.

When I sat, Albert spoke.

“Her Majesty has accepted my counsel and intends to reconcile with Librata.”

“You believe that?”

“……I apologize, but I cannot permit disrespectful words toward Her Majesty from an outsider.”

Diplomatic phrasing.

But Albert didn’t take Iselen entirely at face value either.

I slapped my knee and said.

“Just speak more honestly. I’m not in that leisurely a position either. You absolutely can’t afford the Queen dying, right?”

Dark elf information transmission.

The Queen of Assassins, Iselen, was the core of that network.

Even if by chance her son Orca existed……

“Actually, the Queen of Assassins is exposing herself far too much. The political situation is already chaotic, yet she personally jumps into a place like this? Reckless.”

Iselen was strong in her own way, but had clear limits.

Dark elves lacked combat ability.

I spoke calmly.

“Of course, being reckless has advantages too. Enemies targeting Iselen will bare their fangs. But it’s still too dangerous, isn’t it?”

“……Yes, everyone thinks so to some degree. Honestly, we think coming to this scene personally is too reckless.”

Albert spoke earnestly.

“I apologize. Her Majesty is making incomprehensible judgments particularly regarding this matter. We think there must be a greater purpose, but……”

“……”

The dark elves were also gradually failing to understand the Queen of Assassins’s actions.

I’d proposed settling this here, and Iselen had accepted.

After thinking briefly, I spoke.

“How much do you know about Dierk?”

“There are those who drank Dierk’s blood and those Dierk bit. The former are terminals, but the latter are stronger and serve as relays. They enable smoother command.”

“Those who drank are terminals, those bitten are relays……”

I thought for a moment and said.

“Dierk would want to spread blood widely to infect people. But blood doesn’t spring up infinitely, right?”

“Yes, that’s why we understand it took so long.”

“If we just strike Dierk’s main body, does it end? Everyone gets freed from his control?”

Albert nodded cautiously.

“……Yes, we presume so.”

“……”

The reason Albert particularly chose his words.

The reason Iselen had declared Dierk an experiment.

Considering even the Seven Sin God’s methods……

My guess was probably correct.

I spoke quietly.

“Then who are Dierk’s candidates?”

“You likely already know. Uren Sagittari, Dargal Sagittari, and Uren Sagittari’s wife Mezrin Sagittari. We think one of the three is the main body. However……”

“Can’t rashly make a move.”

Luke Kedrik had exposed his demonic nature first and even committed civilian massacre.

But Uren and Dargal were properly Imperial Military executives and members of the twelve houses.

We can’t just stab and go ‘oh, this one wasn’t it’ and deal with it.

The same goes for the wife Mezrin.

“Still, you must have prepared something separately? You didn’t come planning to just pick one of three at random.”

“Well, that’s……”

“It’s not that plan I’m thinking of, is it? Creating fake evidence and pushing forward?”

Flinch.

Albert couldn’t hide his shock.

I’d deduced it knowing Iselen and the dark elves’ methods of handling business.

I looked at him drowsily.

“Did you get cooperation from factions in the Imperial Military that conflict with Sagittari?”

“……Mmm.”

Knock knock.

Another knock.

“Rigen, are you in there?”

Without waiting for an answer, Kalbina opened the door and entered.

She approached, saw me and Albert, and spoke.

“Sorry to interrupt when two men look friendly. Can siblings talk privately?”

“The dark elves received bombs from the Imperial Military side?”

“……”

When Kalbina looked at him, Albert shook his head.

Kalbina scratched her head and said.

“Yeah, I don’t know how you knew, but yes. I also heard it secondhand so I wasn’t certain. There are views within the military that don’t look favorably on House Sagittari.”

“So to destroy Sagittari, they’re leaking bombs again? Ugh.”

“It’s extralegal investigation. If evidence is ambiguous, they’ll create it and interrogate.”

I shook my head.

“I understand what it is, but in this case it’s too dangerous. And there could even be undeserved casualties.”

“What?”

“The apostle’s main body is one, and the other two are just victims. When we only need to kill one, we’d be killing all three wholesale.”

Albert spoke carefully.

“……Given the situation, it can’t be helped?”

“The aftermath won’t be manageable. Luke Kedrik was fine because there were many witnesses and his evil deeds were clear. But killing House Sagittari’s heir, his wife, and his cousin? Even with clear evidence, it becomes too chaotic. Plus the Imperial Military will rebel.”

“……”

“Even though you received cooperation from within the military, those guys can turn on you anytime, right? Not good handling.”

We might inadvertently incite an Imperial Military coup while trying to deal with Dierk.

I clicked my tongue.

“If we rashly try to deal with all three, the aftermath is troublesome. If the situation becomes chaotic, we might actually lose the real Dierk. Plus we can’t just pick one based on gut feeling.”

“Why not?”

“Because we need to present logic and evidence for the other two people to accept and cooperate with the aftermath.”

Kalbina scratched her head.

“You’re right. Then what are you planning to do? Dierk’s identity is ambiguous, and even if you point them out, won’t they deny it?”

“If it’s irrefutable evidence, I’ve already prepared everything. Albert.”

“Yes.”

“Can you trust me and have dark elf forces on standby? If any commotion occurs, they’ll need to enter House Sagittari.”

“……Dark elf agents raiding a twelve-house estate. That would become quite a political problem.”

Albert smiled bitterly.

“From the moment I counseled Her Majesty, I resolved to die. I will trust and follow you.”

“Right, thanks for trusting me.”

I stood up.

“Let’s bait them.”

Which of the three is the main body.

A method to make them jump out on their own.

I’d just finished thinking it through.