I felt for a moment that I had said something wrong.
After all, what I said was no different than offering myself to Epherna.
“You must, of course, be disguised.”
“…Ah.”
Phew. As expected, he seems to have a plan in mind.
“Is there a particular reason why you’re sending me to the Imperial Capital?”
“There are two reasons. First, there’s no one like you—your lineage as a Dragonkin is unparalleled across the entire duchy. No, I dare say, anywhere.”
His words made me frown slightly.
“How can you be so sure?”
I’d only started collecting rumors about the Dragon Clan a week ago.
I had gathered more than ten rumors since then, and their authenticity was still unclear.
Yet Dairon was confident that there would be no Dragon Clan near his duchy.
“A while ago, ‘they’ came to see me.”
“‘They’…?”
I was puzzled.
There were hardly any individuals Dairon would refer to so reverently.
He was not only the lord of the Eastern Duchy but also the Knight Commander of the Empire.
A man who would never easily bow his head to anyone.
“They instructed me to send you to the Imperial Capital, saying it would be better for you.”
“Who exactly said that?”
“I cannot tell you.”
“…I see.”
I sighed inwardly but nodded in agreement.
If someone like him couldn’t divulge it, there must be a good reason.
…And I had a rough idea who it might be.
“Understood. Then, tell me the second reason.”
“As said by As, a major banquet is expected to occur soon in the Imperial Capital.”
“A banquet?”
“Isn’t the Empress’s coronation anniversary approaching?”
“Ah…”
I had completely forgotten.
“As acts as a double agent connecting the Imperial Court and the duchy. He occasionally sends information about us to the court and, in return, gathers intelligence from the palace to report back to me.”
Was that so?
I had no idea.
…Wait a moment. That means—
“You haven’t been reporting on me, have you?”
“Of course not. At most, there’s been a report about a suspicious man infiltrating the duchy.”
If that’s all, I’m relieved.
“Anyway, I would like you to go to the banquet in my stead as an envoy.”
“In any case, I’d like you to attend the banquet as my envoy.”
“You’re not going yourself?”
“I have things to take care of.”
“…Understood.”
It seemed less like he had tasks to complete and more like he simply didn’t want to go.
But since it was his personal matter, I decided not to probe further.
*****
The annual coronation anniversary banquet.
Next to the Empress’s birthday, it was the most important occasion in the Empire.
For this day, Merien, the Chamberlain of the Imperial Palace, spent days and nights reviewing documents and stamping approvals.
Her husband, Valtean Edrick, carried out errands assigned by her as one of the palace staff.
Despite the grand term “assignments”, his role mostly consisted of running small errands.
Buying supplies for the banquet or dealing with merchants.
Even in the Empress’s palace, mundane tasks required dedicated personnel.
“What are you staring at, Ray?”
“…Huh?”
“Snap out of it. What are you even looking at?”
Valtean followed Ray’s gaze.
It was just some fruit.
“Do you want to eat it? Should I buy it for you?”
“…I was just looking.”
Ray claimed he was simply zoning out and stood up.
“Hey, you little punk. Why are you so spacey these days?”
“…I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I retired.”
“You think life ends after retirement? For guys like us, retirement is the start of life, you idiot!”
Just a year ago, Ray had been the Commander of the Astrape Special Forces.
After resigning from the Special Forces, he took up a position as a palace servant alongside Valtean.
Like Valtean and Ern, Ray specialized in infiltration operations.
Being a palace servant was a role he had mastered long ago.
“Hey, Commander.”
“Didn’t I tell you to call me ‘brother’?”
“Yes, Brother. I wanted to ask something.”
“What is it?”
“What do you think your nephew wants to be when he grows up?”
“Why are you suddenly asking that?”
“Just curious.”
“How would I know? The kid’s only four. Dreams are still a long way off.”
“…I see.”
Ray pondered.
For some reason, he felt a connection.
After retiring, his life had turned gray.
Perhaps it had been that way from the start.
When the tasks he had to do disappeared, freedom remained.
But instead of feeling liberated, an emptiness consumed his mind.
So he sought something to do.
Although Valtean had helped him secure a job in the palace as a servant, it wasn’t a matter of what he had to do.
What he truly needed was something he wanted to do.
As a servant, he didn’t have much to occupy himself with.
Perhaps it was out of consideration from the other staff, or maybe there simply wasn’t much work to begin with.
Unlike his time in the Special Forces, he now had an excess of free time.
Ray needed to find what he truly wanted to do.
“Brother, don’t you know of anything fun to do?”
“Fun? Where’s this coming from all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know. Life feels so dull these days. Like there’s no meaning to it.”
“…”
This was a common trait among former members of the Special Forces.
Having endured brutal training from a young age and lived solely for the Empire, they often didn’t know how to live for themselves after retirement.
Valtean was no exception.
After his retirement, he wandered aimlessly, as if he had lost the meaning of life.
Sometimes, he thought that if he hadn’t met Merien, he might have died a lonely death somewhere on the continent.
“What did you want to do during your downtime back in the Special Forces?”
“During those days? Well… I used to go out to eat with the team or watch plays.”
“Then just do that.”
People often mistakenly believe that life’s purpose must be something extraordinary.
“Stop overthinking it, kid. Just live. Who cares if life feels dull?”
Living for others, for food, or even for oneself—any of those reasons are perfectly fine.
But they, the former operatives, often forgot this simple truth.
“If you’re looking for something interesting… don’t you have anyone you like?”
“No.”
“Then find someone. I’ll introduce you to a good woman.”
“I’m not really interested.”
“Then go travel or something. For example, Ern’s goal after retirement was to open an orphanage.”
“Really?”
It was true, even if Ern had ended up meeting the current emperor by chance.
If he hadn’t met the right woman, Ern might very well have become the head of an orphanage, raising orphans.
“Wait, is that how he met Her Majesty?”
“Not quite.”
He’d simply ended up buying a house, only to discover that Princess Epherna was living there.
It sounded absurd, but it was the truth.
“You didn’t know?”
“This is my first time hearing the full story. What a crazy coincidence.”
“It really is.”
No one could have predicted it.
A retired soldier stumbling upon the First Imperial Princess, a figure unknown even to the Empire’s citizens.
That soldier not only discovered her but also stole her heart.
And ultimately, she died as a result.
“Brother.”
“What?”
“For some reason, I don’t feel like the Commander is dead.”
“You too? I feel the same.”
Perhaps it was their instinct as former comrades in the Special Forces.
If someone had died, they were dead.
If they hadn’t, they were alive.
This was something they could often tell unconsciously.
They had seen countless cases of people declared dead only to return alive, and vice versa.
Having never seen Ern’s body, they found it hard to believe he was truly gone, even when told he had died.
“Not showing up for three years does make it seem like he’s dead… but it still nags at me.”
“Yeah. Honestly, I can’t believe it at all.”
Though it was more emotional speculation than logical deduction, their instincts were deeply rooted in experience.
Perhaps because of this, as the conversation continued, Valtean suddenly felt something.
A weight—a hand on his shoulder.
When he turned his head to see who it was, he spoke in disbelief.
“…I knew this would happen.”
*****
Disguises have their limits.
Especially when created with magic.
The Imperial Capital was covered with detection and protection spells, measured in meters.
Using shoddy transformation magic would result in instant exposure.
Thus, there was only one solution.
To appear as someone else, even without magic, one had to use a disguise crafted from physical materials.
“Seriously, the knights’ craftsmanship is terrible! Look at this disguise skin—it doesn’t even have any blood!”
Judging the provided disguise skin as insufficient for infiltrating the Imperial Capital’s banquet, Ern sought out the best disguise craftsman he knew—Valtean.
“Tsk, Tsk… That’s what happens when you trust knights to handle this sort of thing.”
If the knight who provided Ern with the disguise heard this, they would have been furious.
“Still, they put in some effort. It should hold up for about a day.”
“That’s not good enough. It needs to last at least a week without detection.”
“…Fine. Come back in two days. I’ll make it for you.”
“Thank you. We’ll discuss the rest later. Let’s call it a day for now.”
One never knows when they might be tracked.
Even in the Much-Sector, being near the capital meant that recognition was always a risk.
Ending the brief conversation, Ern cloaked himself in transformation magic and quickly disappeared into the market crowd.
Whatever had happened, Valtean and Ray watched his retreating figure with concern.
“Hiding his survival from Her Majesty… What’s he planning to do if he’s discovered later?”
“…I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.”
