GBP Chapter 137
Chapter 137
Chapter 137. The Gap (2)
A dim and murky space.
End Order devotees wearing elaborate costumes and masks had gathered in one place.
This space was a 'Phantom Banquet' conducted through sorcery. A revolutionary technique that allowed one to gather through phantoms alone without meeting in person—and yet. The very act of gathering like this was an extraordinary occurrence.
Being associated with dark mages in Britannia was something that brought enormous disgrace and was dangerous enough to ruin an entire family. Being implicated with the Order in particular spelled complete ruin.
Ordinarily, the believers did not know each other's identities, nor did they attempt to learn them.
They had participated in this phantom conference at the risk of having their identities exposed.
All because of Viscount Thornton.
"Blast it all, what on earth was Viscount Thornton thinking, pulling a stunt like that? An attack, of all places, right in the middle of a charity event!"
"Word was that he'd been losing his mind lately—to think he'd go and do something so utterly insane."
"We must all be careful. Rumours are rife that the Queen's hounds have already arrived in Nortaris. For the time being, we must dedicate ourselves to erasing all traces—does anyone have contact with the Order's upper echelons?"
These were people who were simultaneously End Order devotees and members of the Northern upper class. Thrown into a predicament where they were left trembling due to Viscount Thornton's idiotic blundering, they cursed Thornton in one voice.
"I'm going mad myself. I had lent him money at some point……. Do you think something like that could come under investigation as well?"
The woman wearing a fox mask gnawed at her neatly manicured nails, showing signs of agitation.
It had not been money lent for the Order's business. She had not known that Viscount Thornton was an Order devotee—it was an entirely separate matter of lending money at interest to a declining family.
But the situation was what it was. The royal investigators would comb through everything as thoroughly as gleaning a field after harvest. What if her name came up in the process?
The mere fact of having any connection at all filled her with anxiety.
"Miss Fox, please do not worry too much."
"There must be more than one or two people who had monetary dealings with the Viscount. If they lock them all up, half the nobles of Nortaris would be in prison."
Those were the words they said on the surface. But the others were still busy cursing Gilbert and showed little interest in her anxiety.
"Um, excuse me…… everyone? If you would just listen to me for a moment……"
Right at that moment, a low voice cut precisely through her words, buried beneath the noise of the others.
"Ha, I understand that feeling well."
It was the man wearing a lion mask. He had not said a single word throughout the meeting up to that point, and had simply been observing everyone with his arms folded.
His voice, heard for the first time, carried a strange sense of kinship and seasoned depth.
"If even the Lion is in such a position, then……"
"Indeed, I too had arranged financing for him. It was an unavoidable transaction for business purposes, yet I find myself worried beyond measure."
"I see……. Oh, what is to be done……"
The fox mask spoke as though she had found her first ally, pouring out her troubles. The lion mask lowered his voice further still, as though sharing a secret.
"If it is not too forward, might I ask how large an amount it was?"
"Oh, that's……"
"Even just the number of digits would suffice. As for myself……"
The lion mask's phantom brought its mouth close to the fox mask's ear.
"That much?"
Upon hearing the amount, the fox mask was startled. It was an enormous sum that made hers seem paltry by comparison. To think that someone of this magnitude was in the same position—she felt an inexplicable sense of relief.
"Ahh, it is quite a problem. And your situation?"
"Mine as well…… it is not a small amount……"
Having watched the lion mask's sigh, the fox mask too discreetly disclosed her own figure.
"My, my."
"Ahh……"
The two, each letting out a rueful laugh and a sigh. At that moment, the lion mask suddenly made a proposal.
"This is not the sort of conversation to draw out at length here. Would you be willing to exchange contact by some other means?"
"What? Contact?"
"Should not those of us in the same position put our heads together and find a way to ensure the sparks don't fly toward us? The royal lot are far more tenacious than we imagine."
"Do you have some good method in mind?"
"Of course I do."
"Re, really?"
"That is precisely why I'm suggesting we meet, is it not?"
Under ordinary circumstances, the fox mask would never have agreed. The Order's first rule was the preservation of anonymity. Those who had failed to maintain it had already been cut off without mercy and were absent from this gathering.
Yet while everyone else turned away from her, only the lion mask had spoken to her. He had even candidly volunteered a far greater vulnerability of his own first. And atop that, a resonant baritone that somehow radiated an inexplicable trustworthiness.
With her reason numbed by anxiety, the fox mask could not help but find herself tempted.
"Very well."
And so, the following day. Baroness Hohenberg—a well-known figure in social circles, or rather, the fox mask who had reserved a quiet salon—entered inside clutching her pounding heart.
What awaited her within was not the lion mask who shared her predicament.
"Welcome."
It was master angler Jurgen.
And.
"Baroness Hohenberg, you are hereby arrested on charges of colluding with the End Order and providing illegal funds."
Two knights in Royal Guard uniform.
***
"Let go! Let me go! I've done nothing wrong! A lawyer! Call me a lawyer! Do you know who I am?!!!"
Watching the Baroness being dragged away at the top of her lungs, Aiden clicked his tongue.
"I simply cannot understand it. Why would people who have plenty to live on go and join hands with the Order?"
"Because they believe themselves to be special."
Jurgen answered.
"They believe they are special, believe they are different. They think they can take all the benefit and not pay the price."
"Thinking like that must have already destroyed over a hundred families……. Aren't they just thick-headed?"
"Well, perhaps."
As the old comrades exchanged banter— Kaylun, who had handed the Baroness over to the transport carriage, returned.
He still wore the expression of a man who could not quite believe any of it, faintly dazed.
"Remarkable. I had no idea it would succeed so easily."
To summarise what had transpired up to this point:
Just as Jurgen had said, obtaining the records from 'The Ether' was child's play.
[I am not sure how much help I can be. I shall send a letter ahead. —Lily Fontaine—]
After requesting cooperation from Minister of Internal Affairs Lily and contacting the trading company, The Ether submitted without a word of protest the list of buyers who had purchased larger quantities of stabiliser than usual.
"Found it. This person was the representative of the creditors pressing down on Gilbert Thornton."
Next came Ellara's turn. From Gilbert's past debt records, she identified the name of the ruthless creditor who had been strangling him on the verge of bankruptcy.
When this list was cross-referenced, the identity of a single individual could be pinpointed.
A banker who had once wielded considerable influence in the North. It was not difficult to infer that he was likely one of the Order's low-level liaison agents and a middle manager.
There was, however, one problem.
"He passed away two years ago."
He was already deceased. The official cause of death was self-poisoning, but from how the picture looked, in all likelihood he had been cut loose by the Order.
"We had just caught hold of a tail, and it had already been cut."
A pitiful state of affairs. After coming this far, to fall a single step short and lose the trail of those wretches.
"In that case, how about going through his personal effects?"
"That is also a problem. For a banker, his financial affairs in life were apparently rather unsavoury. They're tied up in the creditors' bonds, held by so many different hands that there's no way to get at them."
"……Being Northern nobles, they won't cooperate either."
Even the personal effects that might serve as leads were tied up in the hands of the Northern nobles. They were on the verge of losing heart.
Faced with the troubled expressions of Kaylun and Ellara, Aiden grinned.
"Wait just a moment."
Having departed with a whistle, Aiden soon returned carrying a single hand mirror.
"Where did you go?"
"Picked it up on a stroll—doesn't it look useful? Investigator lords."
It was the mirror that End Order devotees used for their secret gatherings. A Phantom Banquet that allowed mirrors with matching wavelengths to make contact with each other at any time.
"The security was awfully lax. I slipped it out of where it was being kept in the court storage."
"You stole it?"
"Don't be so rigid about it. Isn't it enough to quietly return it later? Besides, the court lot thought it was just an expensive antique."
"Well, that's because……"
Apart from being extraordinarily ornate, it looked like an ordinary hand mirror.
"Now, how does this work? Like this? Like this? Ah, got it."
"Wait! What on earth are you doing!"
When Aiden manipulated the pattern on the back of the mirror, an unsettling dark energy began to rise from it.
"I'm activating it to a usable state."
"Th-that thing is a dark mage's instrument, isn't it?"
"And?"
"'And?' isn't an answer—with something like this, you're supposed to be more careful……. Carry out a Magic Power analysis, disassemble it……"
"Oh come now, while we're being careful, those wretches will have all fled. When it comes to beating the Order's lot senseless, what room is there for that?"
And so Aiden went ahead and fully activated the artefact that had been disguised as an ordinary hand mirror, turning it into a mirror emanating a deeply unsettling aura even at a glance.
Kaylun and Ellara were speechless. Both the raiding of the court storage, and the casual handling of a dark mage's instrument with bare hands. In the Royal Guard, doing something like that would warrant a minimum of 300 incident reports—and be grounds for a dishonourable discharge.
While marvelling at the Secret Burial Unit's extraordinary competence, they also felt they understood why such a unit had had to disappear into the shadows of history.
What followed unfolded with remarkable speed.
Through the activated Phantom Banquet, Jurgen participated in the secret assembly as though he had always been one of their number. The loose ties that had originally bound them made infiltration simple.
They were already in a state of complete panic over Gilbert's failure. Jurgen had simply reeled in, without fuss, the one among them who was trembling with the most fear.
The time it had taken up to this point: a mere two days. Without access to any substantial support, right in the middle of the North, they had apprehended a prominent noble implicated with the Order.
Jurgen made a proposal.
"It would be best not to announce the arrest publicly just yet. Instead, please proceed with a judicial transaction. Would it not be beneficial—both to the royal family, and to the two of your careers—if we could draw out the rats hiding in this North one after another?"
What a thing to lament. The nobles who had once been in collusion with the Order had been almost entirely rooted out, or so one would have thought—and yet here they were, sprouting up again like poisonous mushrooms.
Having once seized them by the scruff of the neck, there was no reason to let go. Once this matter was properly settled, the Ribs business could begin in earnest.
"It will not take long."