Chapter 260: The Hoenir’s Act of Terror
Could there be a more dazzling, more spectacular fireworks display than this?
The explosion that erupted from this shabby brothel swallowed up the entire surrounding area in an instant.
Fire, along with epidemics, was the greatest disaster a city could face. Countless citizens and soldiers were mobilized, struggling desperately to put out the flames. They began tearing down nearby buildings to keep the blaze from spreading.
"Knock down the support beams so the fire can’t jump across!"
"Damn it, a spark caught! It’s spreading! Aaagh!"
"There are still people inside!"
It was a densely packed district where the buildings were crammed right up against each other, so the fire spread without end. People bolted in every direction and scrambled to evacuate. It was pure chaos.
"Sir Streit! What in the world is going on here?!"
Fried, who happened to be making his rounds at the time, gave his soldiers the order to fight the fire and then rushed over to me at the scene. What was going on? How was I even supposed to explain this?
It was all so bewildering and absurd that I couldn’t get my thoughts in order. A series of explosions this enormous couldn’t possibly come from nothing.
It was proof that something had been inside this building. And that something was very likely barrels of gunpowder. The Hoenir had used the old man as bait to lure me here.
Why would the Hoenir, who were supposed to be on our side, try to assassinate me?
That was the fundamental question. Could it possibly have been the Grand Duke’s order? Now, of all times?
And the moment their assassination attempt was discovered, the Hoenir inside had blown themselves up. As a result, the whole area was engulfed in flames. Everything was a mystery. The only key to solving it was this man lying unconscious.
Boom!
Another explosion went off.
A wave of scorching heat washed over me.
Fried hurriedly called for reinforcements, and the entire garrison stationed at Rheinkalsen Castle was mobilized. But even after half a day, it wasn’t enough to stop the flames that kept spreading without end.
Crash! Whoosh!
And then the rain, which hadn’t fallen once throughout the entire civil war, came down today.
As if it had been waiting for this very moment.
"Oh, Lord! Are You sending us the blessed rain?"
"Hallelujah! Everyone, pray!"
Maybe the Lord really had come to our aid.
Nature visits trials upon mankind, and it bestows blessings as well.
Exhausted, the people sank to the ground and burst into joyful cheers. Their faces were caked with soot, but everyone was overjoyed. As the embers slowly died out, the rain finally allowed them to breathe a sigh of relief.
And at the same time, fury surged up inside me. The Hoenir’s act of terror had clearly targeted me, and critical supplies had vanished in a single moment.
I still didn’t know their true aim, but for now I took my men and ran to the gunpowder warehouse. The supply unit wasn’t under my jurisdiction. It was a force directly under the crown prince’s command.
"Viscount Romberto is away? Then open the door first!"
"Y-you can’t do this!"
Viscount Romberto was the supreme commander of the supply unit.
With no other choice, I shoved past the supply unit’s guards on my own and forced my way in. Flustered supply officers came running out to stop me, but it was useless.
Because I also held the authority to inspect the unit. It was one of the powers the crown prince had granted me. So even if I turned the supply unit upside down, I could justify it under the banner of inspection.
By the nature of gunpowder, it isn’t all stored in one place. If it were all kept together and an explosion were to occur, all the critical supplies could be lost at once, so it had been split among four locations.
Absurdly, even the supply bureaucrat was nowhere to be found. The supply commander stepping away was one thing, but the man who absolutely should never have left his post had done exactly that. So I pressed the lower-ranking supply officers for answers.
"H-he hasn’t been seen since this morning!"
"Why didn’t you report it to your superiors?"
"Th-that’s—well! Agh!"
I kicked the hemming-and-hawing supply officer in the chest and ordered him bound. We searched every warehouse at once, and we found the answer in the warehouse on the outermost edge.
Bang!
The members who entered the warehouse combed through every inch of the interior. Following them in, I ordered Anton to open a gunpowder barrel. After opening it, Anton turned to me with a stunned look on his face.
"Commander! It’s filled with sand!"
"Pry open all five barrels!"
All five barrels were filled with sand. The five barrels of gunpowder stored in this outer warehouse had been swapped out for sand without a trace. Quite a bold stunt they’d pulled.
Piecing together everything up to this point, the Hoenir had infiltrated this place, where security was relatively lax, made off with the gunpowder, and tried to use it to assassinate me, but they’d failed.
There were still plenty of questions, but the picture of what had happened was coming into focus. My teeth ground together. The assassination attempt was infuriating enough on its own, and now five precious barrels of gunpowder were gone.
That left only fifteen barrels. Gunpowder didn’t exist in the Duchy of Beren, and buying it from neighboring countries was far too risky and came at an exorbitant price. Most critically, it would take far too much time.
While my chest tightened with frustration, the smell of blood pricked at my nose.
My sense of smell was sharper than most, so I picked up on the faint scent of blood.
In the corner of the warehouse, a stretch of wall was covered with a layer of straw, completely unremarkable. To block rain and moisture, the walls of a gunpowder warehouse are covered with straw like this. But it seemed there was something behind it.
Blood was dripping, drop by drop, from beneath that straw.
When the members tore away the straw, a horrifying sight was revealed.
"...This would be the missing supply bureaucrat, wouldn’t it?"
"Most likely, given the circumstances. Probably."
Two corpses came into view, nailed to the wall with their necks twisted a full one hundred and eighty degrees. One was a middle-aged man presumed to be the supply bureaucrat, and the other looked like a prostitute. She wore a yellow ribbon marker.
What a spectacle. Why were a prostitute and a supply bureaucrat lying dead in a gunpowder warehouse? Because the supply officers had been up to no good in this outer gunpowder warehouse, and the Hoenir had clearly exploited it.
"Grrr. Bring those bastards here."
The supply officers were dragged in like dogs. They were horrified when they saw the supply bureaucrat’s corpse nailed to the wall. They had no idea why the supply bureaucrat was dead.
But they knew exactly what they’d done in this warehouse.
"Tell me everything. What were you doing in here?"
"I-if I talk, will you let me live? Agh!"
Begging for your life when you can’t even read the room?
Irritation boiled over, and I beat him senseless. If Anton and the members hadn’t held me back, I might have beaten him to death. I held inspection authority, but punishment wasn’t mine to mete out.
They’d be referred to a court-martial, and ultimately the crown prince would hand down the verdict. Knowing the crown prince’s temperament, these men were as good as dead. Anton hurriedly wiped the blood that had splattered across my face.
Once the supply officers came to their senses, they trembled and confessed that they’d been using this outer warehouse as a brothel. To keep the critical supplies under strict guard, the supply unit wasn’t permitted any private outings.
So the supply officers who wanted to bed women from the occupied territory had disguised supply transport wagons to smuggle in prostitutes, and for several days they’d taken turns having a grand old time, or so they said.
"..."
They say that when a person is truly dumbfounded, they’re left speechless, and that was exactly the state I was in.
Reaching the other warehouses had been impossible, but such an enormous hole had been opened in the outer warehouse’s defenses. The Hoenir had used it to sneak in and make off with the gunpowder.
