Six chapters here! Four more coming tonight (Probably, I'm not sure...)
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"Claus, you should be careful around that boy." Aunt Dayana narrowed her eyes as soon as Alver left.
I nodded with a smile. As expected, Aunt Dayana saw through him.
"Don't worry, Aunt. I know. It was pretty obvious anyway."
"As long as you understand."
Katherine, Rose, and Andrea looked at us with confused expressions.
"Wait a moment, do you mean…"
"It's as you think, Katherine. It was not a coincidence Rose met him today."
Katherine squinted her eyes.
"I see. Now I understand why I thought there was something wrong with him."
"Wait a moment, wait a moment. Alver is an enemy?"
"… I did not notice it."
I looked at Rose and Andrea with a wry smile.
"You two are too naïve. Fortunately, I'm here to take care of you, otherwise, a bad guy could fool you."
"My cute nephew, I think you are the bad guy."
… Aunt Dayana, whose side are you on?
Aunt Dayana's words made Andrea and Rose blush slightly.
"But I don't understand, how do you know he is an enemy?" Rose hurriedly asked to hide her embarrassment. I smiled and answered her question.
"Well, firstly, it's too coincidental that he met you here. Of course, it could truly be a coincidence, but that in itself is suspicious."
"Claus is right." Aunt Dayana nodded. "Usually, making contact with someone familiar in an unfamiliar place makes us lower our guards. That is the reason this kind of situation is very useful to assassinate someone or make people blurt out things they usually will not speak about."
Rose was stunned by Aunt Dayana's explanation.
"Plus, Alver behaved a bit too familiar." I shook my head with a smile and continued. "I mean, we never talked much at the institute, but he behaved strangely familiar with us. That is also something people with ulterior motives do when they want to become close to someone."
"But that is not enough to confirm he is an enemy, right?"
"It's not." I nodded at Andrea's question. "However, he told us about Dina's marriage. That was definite proof."
Andrea and Rose tilted their heads in confusion.
These girls…
Sighing slightly, Katherine looked at them and explained.
"Think about it, according to Alver, he has been in Fort Mist since much before we arrived. However, he brought us news about something that happened in the capital that even we did not know about. How did he learn about that?"
"Hmph! If I'm not wrong, his goal was to agitate Claus in order to make him more vulnerable, or perhaps they want to make him desert and thus they can get an excuse to punish him."
Andrea and Rose were astonished.
"Wait a moment, do you mean that the news about cousin Dina's marriage is fake?"
"Most likely." Both Aunt Dayana and Katherine nodded.
However, I shook my head.
"You are mistaken. It is real."
"Huh?"
"Dina was indeed engaged to someone. The emperor organized a tournament to choose her husband."
The entire place fell silent for a brief moment.
Then–
"Damn him!"
"How does he dare!?"
"Then, cousin Dina…"
Aunt Dayana and Katherine put on ice-cold expressions and Andrea's expression turned worried.
Only Rose, who did not have much contact with my sister, remained silent, but even she was frowning slightly.
"Calm down." I sighed. "The situation is not so bad."
"What do you mean it's not so bad? Dina is about to be married off to some bastard!"
… Aunt Dayana, that bastard is me.
But after hearing Aunt Dayana growl like that, I could not help but feel warm.
After all, the fact she is angry means that she cares about Dina.
Shaking my head, I looked at the four girls around me with a smile.
"Stop worrying. I have a plan. Everything will be alright."
Aunt Dayana and Katherine calmed down after they heard my words.
"Right, a sis-con like you would not be so calm otherwise."
"Mm, with how close Dina and you are, there is no way you would be so calm if she was in trouble."
Yeah yeah, everybody knows I love my big sister a lot.
Rolling my eyes, I stood up from my seat and walked towards the door.
"Are you leaving, Cousin?"
"Yeah. I need to make sure of some things." Replying lightly to Andrea, I waved my hand and bid farewell to the four women.
Then, I stepped across space, emerging a few hundreds of meters away.
As soon as I emerged, a blonde young man appeared in my sight.
Alver.
However, he could not see me. I was using a spell to hide my presence, making it undetectable.
Yes, I'm curious about who Alver's boss is.
Alver continued walking forward, completely unaware that I was following him. Occasionally, he looked back to make sure he was not being followed before continuing with his way.
Five minutes later, he arrived in front of an office and knocked on the door.
I narrowed my eyes. As expected, he came here, huh.
A few seconds later, a middle-aged man opened the door.
General Liko.
"You are here." He said as soon as he saw Alver.
"Mm. I'm back from Prince Claus's place."
General Liko nodded and gestured Alver to enter.
After Alver entered, General Liko closed the door and went straight to the topic.
"How was it? Did you tell Prince Claus the news?"
"I did. However, I think it wasn't very useful."
General Liko frowned. "What do you mean?"
"… How to explain it… Prince Claus's reaction was too calm. Although he seemed a bit surprised, he did not seem anxious about returning to the capital."
"Is it so?" General Liko grimaced. "No, something is wrong."
"Something is wrong?"
"Yes. Everybody knows that Prince Claus's relationship with his sister is very good. Moreover, he is also supporting her as the next emperor. He should have shown a bit of concern if not outright panic after hearing the news."
Alver was startled. He fell deep in thought and looked towards the general.
"Do you think he discovered me?"
"… Perhaps, but I think it's more likely he was already expecting it."
"Huh?"
General Liko closed his eyes and put on a serious expression.
"If I'm not mistaken, Prince Claus already has a plan to deal with this situation."
Alver's eyes opened slightly wide.
"That… That is not possible, right?"
"Not, it is. Prince Claus has been moving one step ahead of us for a long time. I prefer to overestimate him than to underestimate him."
Oh?
This general is not so idiot after all, huh.
To think he managed to deduce this just after hearing about my reaction.
"What are we going to do then?" Alver asked worriedly.
"… We can only inform the capital about the situation. As for us, we will continue with our plan. We need to make sure Prince Claus does not return to the capital alive."