Chapter 197
Chapter 197: The Master of the Trade Route (34)
While everyone’s eyes were fixed on the gold bars, I turned around.
Something was glinting in the sunlight from far, far away.
And I knew exactly what that brilliance was.
Then, when I subtly nodded my head—
――――――.
A sharp arrow came flying and pierced straight through the wagon.
“……”
A moment ago, the air had been bright with business, but now a tense silence blanketed the scene.
Only the knights reacted swiftly, drawing their swords.
But by then, it was already far too late.
The paladins and Western knights who had received the secret map I had discreetly sent them—
Had already surrounded this place.
「Drop your weapons, all of you. You are completely surrounded by the Holy Knights of the Silver Truth Church, the official religion of the continent.」
A voice transmission rang out, shouted by a knight who had reached the realm of Swordmaster.
The isolated forest trembled in response to that voice.
Surely, to the innocent, it would have sounded righteous and divine.
But to the guilty, it sent sweat trickling down their spines.
The men on either side of me were already drenched in cold sweat across their foreheads.
“What… what’s going on?”
“I’m not sure either… Why would the knights of the Silver Truth Church be here…?”
Even Lud, who had been so relaxed, was clearly flustered this time.
But the most panicked of all wasn’t him—or even Count Anton.
It was the knights of the Principality of Sique.
A city-state that risked diplomatic disgrace if their black-market dealings were exposed.
“Count Anton, this isn’t what we agreed to. Who are they…?”
For someone who had been pursuing private gain behind the king’s back, this was the worst-case scenario.
He quickly shouted at the soldiers to retreat.
As long as there were no concrete witnesses or evidence, they could still cut their losses and flee.
Startled, Lud and Anton tried to stop him.
At this point, there was no going back…
They were determined to retrieve whatever investments they could and escape.
“What are you talking about?! Just hand over the money, we’ll be fine!!”
“Silence…!! We’re not going through with the deal in this situation!!”
But the president of the Medical Association, having gone too far already, had lost all reason.
He signaled to Anton, and the barons, long accustomed to shady business, gave orders to the mercenaries.
“Deploy the smoke! We’re withdrawing now!!”
Such preparedness, even for this kind of situation—
That was Count Anton’s specialty, honed over decades of exploiting the South.
Ssshhhh――――――.
The mercenaries simultaneously launched smoke bombs.
A choking cloud quickly filled the forest, thick enough to make it hard to even open one’s eyes.
“Don’t let them get away! Arrest every last one of them!!”
The paladins placed a hand over their left chest.
And radiant protective shields formed around them, shielding their eyes.
However, even with that, they couldn’t capture all the mercenaries.
While the nimble fighters created chaos, Lud and Anton managed to slip away in the confusion.
“I won’t let you escape.”
The commander of the Paladins, Alex, who had been observing the entire scene with his eyes wide open—
Leapt high into the sky…
Then slashed down his sword from above the mist.
Directly onto Lud’s escape route.
KWAANG!!
“Ughaa…!!”
The middle-aged man collapsed onto the cracked ground in front of him.
The Paladin Commander firmly blocked his path and pointed his sword at him.
“President Lud. I’m disappointed in you. I always knew you were rotten, but to think you’d stoop to black-market dealings.”
His blue eyes blazed with an eerie light.
Truly fitting for the First Sword who protected the Saint.
“You will be escorted to the capital to stand trial.”
“Ghhk…!!”
However, Lud clenched his jaw and stayed silent, as if he still had something left to rely on.
Sensing that something was amiss, Alex swung his sword widely, sweeping away the thick smoke.
In that instant—
The Paladin Commander realized that Anton and Roger had vanished.
“Damn it…!! Pursue them to the end!!”
While he shouted—
Anton had boarded a carriage stationed beneath the cliff just below the forest.
Even I, who had barely managed to catch up, was climbing aboard as well.
“Where are we headed?”
“I don’t know! Just run for now!!”
The carriage was loaded full of Anes that hadn’t been delivered yet.
“In this situation, shouldn’t we at least dispose of the evidence?”
“Are you crazy? If I do that, Lord Eric will come after me himself…!!”
The man, his elegant white suit now disheveled, shouted frantically.
Well, considering how long he had been doing dirty work with Eric, he must’ve known exactly how Eric handled failures.
“But if you're caught along with the evidence, everything you’ve built up until now will be lost!”
“……”
Anton shut his eyes tightly and pulled the reins hard.
How had it come to this?
“Eric… that damned bastard… if only he hadn’t meddled with the trade route…”
“You’d be better off ditching all the evidence and turning yourself in. I have a way.”
I spoke to him with a solemn expression.
“I have acquaintances in the legal world. If things go well, you might even be able to keep your title as count.”
In the Empire, simply maintaining one’s noble status was enough to ensure survival.
In other words, he’d still have a chance to recover.
“This operation is so large-scale that even Eric can’t cover it up. Are you really going to cling to a sinking ship until the end?”
Anton stared blankly at me.
His thick neck heaved heavily, then he finally swallowed hard, seeming to calm down.
Then, the man who once ruled the South murmured dazedly.
“You… who the hell are you?”
Even with things escalating this far, I remained disturbingly composed.
Even after coming here under Eric’s orders, I was quick to betray him.
“Now that I think about it, it all went wrong after you showed up…”
The skin beneath his eyes twitched precariously.
In the rattling carriage, he murmured absently.
“Don’t tell me… you went to the gun shop just to get the map of this place… and hand it over to the paladins?”
“……”
I simply gave him a faint smile in response.
That same despicable smirk from the original connoisseur, who had once willingly taken on the role of Eric’s shadow—and trusted him more than anyone.
“Is that really what matters right now?”
The carriage rumbled on until it finally stopped in front of a bridge.
The only passage connecting this remote forest to the Empire’s border.
And there—
“You’d better think about saving your own life first.”
A massive traffic jam of carriages had formed.
On a road where no more than three carriages passed on any given day—
Today, there were easily over a hundred.
Anton instantly realized that this bizarre situation was my doing as well.
“You bastard…”
But I couldn’t have cared less.
As the carriage came to a halt, I stepped down lightly and pointed toward the edge of an endless cliff, where the ground was nowhere in sight.
“Well, look at that. A perfect spot to dump something.”
Anes was a potion.
The moment it was thrown off this cliff, it would mix with the water and scatter into the sea.
Eric’s investment—worth hundreds of millions—would vanish with the ocean tide.
“Shall I lend you a hand? I was once a cadet too, you know. I can manage a bit of heavy lifting.”
“……”
Count Anton wiped the cold sweat from the back of his neck.
At the same time, he cast a nervous glance at the piles of Anes loaded onto the carriage.
Soon, true to his quick-thinking nature, he made a decision.
“Tell me, if you’re hoping for Eric’s downfall… does that mean you're on Lady Echina’s side?”
“That’s right. I want her to come out as the final victor in the trade route competition.”
With my hands clasped behind my back, I walked toward him.
Then, narrowing my signature thin eyes, I spoke.
“If that happens, she’ll become the ruler of the Grand Duke’s house in the North.”
I pointed at his pitch-black pupils with my finger.
To a man who had chased wealth and power all his life—
“That’s exactly why Eric lost his mind and drove you to ruin. If he loses here, it really is the end for him.”
This time, I gently patted his shoulder.
And like a monarch’s secret adviser, I whispered softly.
“Are you really going to keep trusting a man who, for the sake of his own survival, dragged his longtime partner into hell?”
I shrugged, adding that if Anton did possess such touching loyalty, I wouldn’t stop him.
Then, I gave the carriage stacked with Anes a light tap.
“We’re out of time. These paladins—they’re among the Empire’s best, you know.”
“……”
Perhaps sensing his defeat, the heavyset man lowered his head in silence.
He then asked one last, pitiful question.
“If I surrender… will Lady Echina protect me and my family?”
At last, the question I had been waiting for.
In response, I gave him a very honest answer.
In times like this, realistic answers were more trustworthy than false reassurances.
“You’ll probably have to serve your full sentence. But as for your family and your assets, the Lady and I will protect them to the very end.”
I took a seat lightly beside him in the carriage.
Watching the paladins closing in from the distance, I added,
“In return, after your release, you’ll have to stick to legal work. Our Lady doesn’t tolerate those who act unjustly.”
“Those are comforting words to hear… Means she has loyalty.”
In a situation where the kind of nobles he used to think were fools had become the most reliable—
Perhaps out of shame, he let out a hollow chuckle.
“Don’t destroy the potions… I’ll surrender.”
The mercenaries who had followed stared at one another, gauging the situation.
I gestured in their stead.
“Everyone, get down and kneel. Unless you think you can break through this bridge.”
The coachmen descended from their carriages, which filled the bridge entirely.
A group of Northerners stared coldly at the few remaining mercenaries.
Sensing their numerical disadvantage, the mercenaries dropped their daggers and gear to the ground.
Then, they raised both arms and knelt.
――――――.
The paladins arrived just in time.
As their commander, Alex, approached, I waved my hand.
“They’ve all agreed to surrender—!!”
“Well done, Lord Roger!!”
Anton stared at me in silence, clearly surprised at how familiar I was with the commander.
Following Echina, deceiving Eric, and even being chummy with the official religion of the Empire.
Having played king in the South all this time, he likely never imagined such a man existed.
“……”
He realized it—
That he had placed all his faith in Eric, and in doing so, had narrowed his own perspective.
Afterward, he surrendered himself quietly to the paladins.
「――――――」
Military region of the Southern Empire, South Line.
The commander of the Southern Knights, who oversaw the entire region, stared nervously at those who had been brought in.
Count Anton and Lud, President of the Medical Association.
Just days ago, he had shared drinks and laughter with them.
Yet now, the ones who once burned bright like an unyielding sun had been dragged in by the paladins.
Perhaps it was because they were now facing a power beyond power—
They had meekly handed over authority to the Holy Knights.
No one dared defend Anton here—doing so could mean being dragged down with him.
Loyalty built on money and corruption proved weightless.
But then…
There was one person who returned, unshackled.
He glanced sideways at me, the one returning casually among the knights.
Our eyes met.
And I slowly shook my head at the Knight Commander.
A look that said: If you don’t want to get caught up in this, stay quiet.
“While we interrogate the two, Lord Roger, please come this way.”
“Of course. I expected to be questioned as well.”
With a bright smile, I walked into the interrogation room.
And there—
Someone waited, their face hidden beneath a hood.
I quietly took a seat across from them.
“It seems the end of our journey is finally in sight.”
“It does. It’s just ahead now.”
The hooded woman slowly revealed her face.
Radiant silver hair. Beautiful, noble eyes.
“Will you be alright? If it’s revealed that you orchestrated all of this… who knows what Eric might do.”
This went far beyond simply trapping him in a scheme.
Anyone could see it was filled with malice.
Eric might very well send an assassin after me.
But for someone who had already been marked for death by him—
There was nothing left to fear.
“Let him try again if he wants.”
I smiled faintly at her, who had come all the way to the South herself.
Then added—
“I’ll just fight to survive all over again.”
The interrogation was conducted fairly, not by the Southern Knights but by the Holy Knights.
And the news that came out of it—
Spread across the entire Empire.
「Breaking News: Unauthorized potion Anes found to have been smuggled into the Principality of Sique.」
「The mastermind revealed to be Count Anton, but the true figure behind it all—Eric Luton of House Luton.」
Even within the highest halls of the Imperial Palace…
And—
“……”
To his father as well, who sat with stern dignity in his office, unfolding the newspaper in silence.