My Slain Dragon Bride

Chapter 86: Chapter 86

Chapter 86 - Thieves and Refugees

The Far Eastern Front Alliance Council.

Its second assembly was being held for the very first time. Aside from the annual gathering, there had never been another reason for all of them to meet.

Ferda slowly swept his gaze across the fourteen lords.

Some of them had lost the well-fed appearance they had worn during the first gathering, and sharp jawlines had begun to emerge.

Looking at them, Ferda spoke.

"There is a young man named Stephan."

A young man named Stephan.

It was not the sort of thing someone who had yet to turn nineteen should be called.

Yet there was such weight behind those words that even that slightly condescending choice of expression blended in naturally.

"I trust you all know what kind of person that young man is."

"We do."

"Thanks to him, whenever we need something, we can immediately go and find it."

One after another, they offered words of praise.

The Far East had its limits when it came to self-sufficiency.

As a result, most of them had lived by either settling for less or pretending certain things had never existed in the first place.

Stephan was an excellent merchant who had given them the opportunity to improve their lives.

"The reason you were able to do that is because I made one promise to that young man."

Ferda raised a single finger.

"I promised that I would help him become the master of the trading company."

"The master of the trading company?"

"Young Master Pascal is more than qualified to become the owner of the Pascal Trading Company."

"I think so as well. But it seems the young man has reached the point where he’s ready to give up on that dream."

Silence fell for a moment.

Ordinarily, Count Consilus would have stirred the atmosphere at a time like this, but he merely watched in silence.

He wanted to see the genuine sentiment of the room.

"In that case, shouldn’t it naturally be our turn to step forward?"

A viscount who appeared to possess an overwhelming sense of justice leaped to his feet.

Another lord, inspired by him, also stood and shouted.

"That’s right! Thanks to him, life in the Far East has finally become bearable. We can’t simply pretend we know nothing!"

"If we don’t even think of repaying that kindness, then we deserve nothing less than the Sun’s judgment!"

"Hear, hear!"

There were also several others whose reluctant expressions revealed they were only joining in half-heartedly.

Ferda carefully committed every one of those faces to memory.

"I understand your intentions well. Until the Pascal Trading Company regains stability, I would like each of you to dispatch troops there as an escort. Of course, only to the extent that it does not interfere with the defense of the Grand Duchess’s Territory."

"Of course! We will dispatch thirty soldiers from our standing defense force."

"We’ll send thirty-five...!"

"Forty...!"

The competition to prove their loyalty was becoming overheated, so Ferda had no choice but to cap the number at thirty per territory.

Even so, four hundred soldiers gathered in an instant, along with around fifteen Knights.

Ferda handed the signed agreements to Count Consilus.

"I leave it to you."

"As you wish, Your Highness the Regent."

That meant the issue of merchant escorts was roughly half resolved.

Whether the other half could be solved depended on whether the root cause itself had been addressed.

In the meantime, Ferda decided to do what he needed to do.

"Luri."

"Yes."

"Can you take me to the site of the attack?"

"Do you think I’m your personal shuttle?"

"I simply don’t wish to waste time."

Grumbling, Luri slipped both arms between Ferda’s shoulders and embraced him.

"Hold on tight. If you fall, I’m not coming back to catch you."

Spreading her enormous wings, Luri took flight.

Although it normally took two days to travel from Castle Valdrova, they arrived in less than a minute.

The site of the incident lay some distance from the Grand Duchess’s Territory, in ownerless land.

That alone meant it was both dangerous and worthless.

With the season already grim enough, the scene itself had been ravaged with horrifying brutality.

People from the Grand Duchess’s Territory were guarding the area, preserving the crime scene as carefully as possible.

The ones conducting the investigation were Dragon Spawn dispatched to maintain the Magic Circle.

Commanding them was Administrator Isabella.

Upon spotting Ferda and Luri, she bowed respectfully.

"You’ve arrived. Miss Luri came with you as well."

"Yes. It just happened that way."

Luri visibly disliked Isabella.

It wasn’t the usual conflict between organizations—she simply disliked Isabella herself.

"What is the current damage assessment?"

"There were a total of ten wagons traveling toward the Grand Duchess’s Territory. Three were meant to carry Monsters, while the remaining seven were transporting goods to be delivered to the branch office in Count Consilus’s territory."

The three untouched wagons were those carrying Monster corpses.

Since they were loaded with filthy cargo that few would even approach, leaving them alone was only natural.

"And the casualties?"

"Of the twelve merchants, eleven were killed and one is missing. All twenty-two laborers were killed. Among the twenty hired mercenaries, only two died. You could say the company staff was wiped out, while most of the mercenaries survived."

"Typical."

Even if everyone else died, the mercenaries somehow managed to survive.

"Anything unusual?"

"There is."

Isabella pointed toward where the bodies had been laid out.

Each corpse, marked by a sword wound, had been arranged in neat rows.

Naturally, Ferda assumed they had been organized during body recovery.

"They were already like that when we arrived."

"They were neatly lined up?"

"Yes. Just to be sure, I questioned one of the trading company’s scouts. He claims he never touched them."

Faced with the unexpected situation, Luri muttered in disbelief.

"Perhaps the humans of the Cerdes Continent have become more civilized. Who would’ve thought thieves could be this polite?"

"So it would seem."

Ferda observed the bodies.

All of them lay perfectly straight with their hands folded over their chests.

Was there really any reason to go through such trouble?

"There’s something else strange. Some of the laborers were armed, yet there are no signs of a fight."

"No signs of a fight means..."

"They were all killed in a single strike. In other words, it was an ambush."

Ferda immediately understood.

"They hired thieves instead of mercenaries."

"That seems to be the case."

It was a classic setup.

Yet even such a typical scenario still contained something that refused to make sense.

Luri noticed his hesitation and tugged gently at his sleeve.

"Lord Ferda, if they ambushed the merchants, then they obviously came here to rob them, didn’t they?"

"That’s right."

"But for a robbery, it all ended rather... modestly."

Luri pointed toward the wagon loaded with valuables.

"Look. They didn’t even touch the things over there."

The crate containing the golden candlesticks stood wide open, practically shouting, Here I am!

Even so, the wagons containing valuables had been left almost completely untouched.

The only things stolen were fresh food supplies.

"According to the surviving information, only the merchants would know why."

Ferda stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"The two dead mercenaries."

"Yes."

"Were they perhaps marked with Tracking Magic?"

"I’ll confirm immediately."

Isabella released her Mana and examined the two corpses.

Ferda’s prediction was correct.

"As you said, Your Highness the Regent, both were under Tracking Magic."

"So they killed the ones who became too greedy."

Piecing together the available evidence, Ferda arrived at a new conclusion.

"That missing merchant is most likely the mastermind."

"That seems highly likely. It’s actually a method occasionally seen among small and medium-sized trading companies."

One merchant had intended to betray Stephan from the very beginning by bringing in a band of thieves.

The plan had probably been to stage a complete massacre, pocket whatever profits they could, and disappear.

That rough outline fit the evidence.

Even so, Ferda couldn’t shake his unease.

The full picture still refused to form in his mind.

As he wondered what exactly continued to bother him, he turned toward Isabella.

"What if robbery was never the real objective?"

Luri and Isabella both looked at him.

"Not robbery?"

"What do you mean?"

"Robbery was merely secondary. The true objective was murder and conspiracy. To create the appearance that the organization is collapsing from internal betrayal."

"Murder and conspiracy..."

After hearing Ferda’s theory, Isabella slowly nodded before tilting her head.

"But then something still doesn’t add up."

Showing Ferda the list of stolen goods, she continued,

"If murder was the objective, why take all of the fresh food?"

"Perhaps they were simply short on food."

Luri suggested.

Isabella immediately shook her head.

"If they were desperate for food, they would have taken all the emergency rations. While fleeing, stealing bulky fresh food is something not even third-rate criminals would do."

She was right.

Fresh food was bulky and difficult to preserve.

If this had truly been a hit-and-run robbery, they would have taken the preserved emergency rations instead.

"The only ones who would take fresh food are those desperately lacking food... refugees."

"They’re practically synonymous with thieves."

Meaning there was no guarantee the refugees and thieves had not been working together.

Ferda silently agreed with Isabella.

Something feels wrong.

Again and again, Ferda forced himself to analyze the infuriating situation.

He questioned everything more thoroughly than usual, refusing to leave even the smallest suspicion unresolved.

Just then, one of the Dragon Spawn assisting the investigation leaned over and whispered something into Isabella’s ear.

"We have good news. We’ve confirmed that one of the culprits is carrying an item marked with Tracking Magic."

That was strange.

The two mercenaries who had been marked because of their greed had already been killed on the spot.

"What did they steal?"

"Apparently, they took a single gold coin from one merchant’s pouch. We should be able to track the thieves through it."

"One gold coin?"

"Yes."

Ferda asked again.

"You’re saying they took one coin from a pouch that contained only one?"

"Not exactly. The pouch originally contained five Golden for travel expenses. After deducting one Golden and thirty shillings for operational costs, they took just one of the remaining gold coins."

In other words, from a pouch containing three Golden and seventy shillings, they had stolen only a single gold coin.

"Where is the target heading?"

"Surprisingly... toward the Grand Duchess’s Territory."

It truly was astonishing.

They had gone to great lengths to avoid being tracked, only to expose themselves because of a single gold coin.

They were walking contradictions.

Meticulous, yet careless.

Brutal, yet courteous.

Chaos born from two completely incompatible qualities.

Perhaps...that foolish thief would personally provide the answer.

"I’ll organize a pursuit team immediately and order that every last one of them be captured alive—"

"No."

Ferda interrupted Isabella.

"There’s no need to have them brought to us. We’ll go ourselves."

"We?"

Isabella clearly looked reluctant.

"Your Highness the Regent, it isn’t appropriate for someone of your position to personally eliminate a mere band of thieves. Matters like this should be left to your subordinates."

"She’s right. You shouldn’t involve yourself in something like this."

Luri also sided with Isabella and tried to dissuade him.

But had Ferda been the sort of man to listen, he wouldn’t be Ferda.

"I have the kind of personality that won’t be satisfied unless I do it myself. Besides, I don’t intend to leave even the slightest room for doubt in this matter."

"Doubt?"

"Yes. There must be no doubt."

Only Ferda understood.

Revenge was at its most beautiful when it was flawless.

"This is a revenge play... for Stephan."

A revenge play had to be clean.

When taking revenge for someone else, it had to be even cleaner than usual.

That was the principle by which Ferda lived.

***

Late that evening.

Following the trail they had left behind, they arrived at what appeared to be the campsite of the suspected thieves.

It was nothing like the den of vicious and despicable criminals they had expected.

Instead, around forty men, women, and children were gathered in small groups around campfires.

"Can we eat now?"

"Not yet. It needs to cook a little longer."

"I’m starving! Listen to my stomach! It’s growling!"

"It’s better than dying from a stomachache."

Even though Ferda and Isabella had come quite close, not a single person noticed their approach.

Everyone’s attention was fixed on the campfire—more precisely, on the pot hanging above it.

"It’s ready."

The children erupted into cheers, while the adults smiled.

At least for this brief moment, they had probably forgotten that they were fated to disappear as fleetingly as mayflies.

Whether it was Isabella, Ferda, or Luri...

Any one of them could wipe these people out with nothing more than a flick of a finger.

Instead of moving his finger, Ferda kicked a pot lying on the ground.

Thunk! Thunk!

The men, who had been staring at the cooking pot, turned toward the sound.

A pot suddenly rolling toward them.

When they looked up, they saw a man and two women standing there.

"..."

"..."

A brief silence fell.

The first to break it was a bearded man.

In a panic, he drew his sword.

Shing!

The firelight softly reflected off its blade.

A finely crafted sword that looked completely out of place with his shabby appearance.

Ferda immediately recognized it as one of the swords stolen from the trading company.

"What are you all doing!? Draw your weapons!"

At his command, the others finally grasped the situation and hurriedly reached for their weapons.

"Stop!"

Everyone froze at once.

The one who had shouted was a man wearing half-plate armor.

Unlike the other refugees, who were flustered and unable to understand what was happening, he possessed keen insight.

"Everyone, lower your swords! Put them down, kneel, and place your hands on the ground!"

"What are you—"

"If you want to live, do it now!"

At the man’s words, every man and woman immediately knelt and placed their hands on the ground.

They moved quickly, as though surrender had become more familiar to them than fighting.

It was remarkably quick judgment.

Ferda had intended to make an example of at least one of them before beginning the conversation.

Instead, he had been caught off guard.

The man stood, walked forward, and knelt before Ferda.

"My name is William, the leader of this group of refugees. May I ask... are you Lord Ferda Valdrova, the Regent?"

He asked politely.

His manner of speaking was nothing like that of a third-rate thief.

"Yes."

"And after completing your investigation of the raid... you tracked us here."

"That’s right."

So they had expected an investigation team to be sent after them.

"I’m certain you wish to know the full truth behind this incident. I will tell you everything. But before that, would you please allow the children to eat first?"

He asked with utmost courtesy.

Ferda responded with a cold scoff.

"You vermin who feed on grain that belongs to others... how dare you pretend to be human and beg for sympathy? You have no right to eat."

Ferda slowly swept his gaze across them.

"From this moment on, anyone who moves without my permission will die. Adults, children, the elderly—it makes no difference."

Ferda sat down on the very pot he had kicked over.

"Confess everything properly."

"Otherwise... I’ll begin by killing the children."