CH 28

Chapter 28 – All of Them Were Elite Enemy Troops Disguised as Bandits

I hurriedly searched for the Duke, found him chatting with Touko-san, and interrupted him.

“…An assassin?”

“Yes. It was quite dangerous.”

After hearing the situation, the duke nodded his head in understanding.

“Is it safe now?—Well, seeing as you’re not with Yuzuriha right now, that means it’s clear.”

“The presence of the assassin has disappeared. In the first place, the more skilled an assassin is, the more they disappear once they fail.”

“Why is that?”

“Top-class assassins are not disposable, and they know that they can kill their target at the next opportunity.”

“Hmm… How do you see it, Lady Touko?”

“You can call me Touko as usual. Yes, I’m sure some enemy country is really after Yuzuriha. Isn’t that a possibility?”

What does it mean?

When I looked at Touko-san, she explained it to me.

“Since we’re here, I’ll tell you about it, Suzuha’s older brother. Remember when Yuzuriha asked you to come along with us on the Strongest Royal Female Knight Academy’s expedition?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t you think there were a lot of bandits then?”

“I certainly thought that back then.”

“They were elite troops disguised as bandits.”

“Huh?”

I couldn’t help but raise my bare voice.

“No, no, no, you’re joking, right? They were all so weak that even I, an amateur, could capture them.”

“….Let’s not delve into that part, Suzuha’s older brother, it will be endlessly troublesome. The problem is not there, but that there were multiple routes from the enemy nations targeting Yuzuriha and those routes were connected to traitors.”

“……”

“During that expedition, I deliberately gave out incomplete information to several suspected spies individually. Each of them had one route that would be ideal for an ambush, so that if we were attacked anywhere, we would know exactly who the traitor was.”

“And the result was…?”

“Perfect hits. They were waiting for us at all the points we had prepared.”

“Eh…?”

“Of course it wasn’t a coincidence. After that, I personally interrogated them all and made them confess without exception.”

Seriously, aristocrats are scary.

Or rather, being targeted that much, Yuzuriha-san, just how much does the enemy hate you?

“…It’s a shameful story, but right now, the top brass of our country’s military are in a heated conflict between the First Prince’s faction and the Second Prince’s faction. And yet, it’s all on Yuzuriha to clean up the mess on the battlefield. But the harder Yuzuriha works and the more achievements she makes, the more she becomes a target of criticism. It’s a vicious cycle.”

“That sounds like a hellish situation…”

“It is hellish. And from the perspective of enemy nations, if they can just make Yuzuriha disappear, they can sit back and watch as our top officials exhaust themselves with their infighting. And once they’ve worn themselves out, the enemy can attack and easily win. But these idiotic factions think that if they kill Yuzuriha, their own faction will suddenly rise in status and they get all excited and start collaborating with the enemy.”

“Isn’t it better to destroy this country…?”

“I understand your feelings, but aristocrats have a duty to protect the country. That’s why we’re doing our best. And besides, if it’s Yuzuriha, well, she won’t die easily.”

That may be so.

The assassination attempt earlier was only dangerous because Yuzuriha was concentrating all her attention on the sword fight with me, and normally she would have been able to notice it herself.

Because, you see, even I, an amateur, noticed it.

“…I don’t know what Suzuha’s older brother is thinking, but I’ll just tell him that his thought is completely false.”

“What!? That’s so mean!”