The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

I wasn't completely oblivious to what was happening.

I could deduce what kind of information Alice had discovered. The memories of that time were still lodged firmly in a corner of my mind.

In particular, it was not easy to forget the face of the person who had smashed my face with his fist. If it wasn’t my face under that fist, it would surely have been Claire’s, and adding that thought made it even more unforgettable.

I had made some efforts to look for that man on my own. However, I hadn't sought help from others. Unlike Alice, who had forcibly twisted things using imperial authority, I had moved quietly, without drawing anyone’s notice.

But I had not found him. In fact, I hadn’t looked for long. In this altered timeline, he had never been connected to me, so I felt there was little point in searching for him.

However... it seemed that Alice had different thoughts on the matter.

“Do you know where this is?”

As we looked out of the carriage, Alice asked me.

The scenery outside was a beautiful and peaceful territory. There were no poppy fields, and no beggars by the roadside. Most of the people walking around appeared to be well-dressed and ordinary.

A narrow river flowed, and a stone bridge crossed over it. On the other side of the bridge were rows of uniformly designed brick houses, reminiscent of works set in the industrial revolution.

The carriage was heading toward the edge of this residential area. It seemed as if the river marked the boundary, with a cluster of brick houses on the other side, while this side was almost undeveloped grassland.

And I remembered that place.

There was a hill not too far away. A tall tree should stand there, even if someone might have chopped it down. The hill would still be there.

And from that tree, I had watched the carriage of the Count explode. I had seen the people inside turned to pulp. I had seen innocent horses caught up in the explosion.

Now, there was no trace of that scene. That was to be expected.

While the overall layout hadn’t changed much, the number of brick houses across the river had significantly increased. Some buildings looked different from what I remembered. I was sure of this because I had already wandered through the spaces between those buildings several times. I could even accurately recall the interiors of some.

Especially that one building in the middle, which looked remarkably well-maintained compared to the others.

I furrowed my brow slightly.

Was that building still... used for that purpose?

“......”

I wasn’t the only one with a stiff expression. Mia Crowfield, who was sitting next to Alice, had a similarly tense face.

Despite her somewhat youthful appearance, Mia Crowfield was around the same age as us.

She was old enough to vividly recall the day her father died, so she must have known what this place was.

Yet she said not a word.

She could have asked why I had brought her to such a place.

The carriage came to a stop in front of the well-kept building.

Knights were already stationed at the entrance. The same was likely true inside the building. Police officers were also present, though they looked utterly bewildered. Beyond the knights and police, imperial knights and local knights stood facing each other, their postures tense.

While the number of imperial knights was smaller, they weren’t lacking in spirit. It was just a gut feeling, but I thought that if a fight broke out, the imperial knights would likely come out on top.

The reason the carriage had made it here safely was probably due to that spirit.

“Father is quite impressive.”

As Alice stepped down from the carriage, she spoke with a somewhat indifferent tone. Her gaze was directed at the local “knights” confronting the imperial knights.

“It’s obvious that they would hate him so much, yet they allowed this private army to form.”

“...The Crowfield territory shares a border with the Kingdom of Belbour.”

Mia Crowfield countered Alice's statement, but Alice shrugged it off.

“Those people don’t seem like they’re ‘supporting’ the Imperial Army.”

“......”

Even Mia Crowfield could not refute that statement.

But Alice didn’t glare at Mia Crowfield or show hostility. Instead, she looked just like she did at school.

Rather, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that she looked a little concerned.

Alice turned her head to look at the building again. Then she lowered her gaze back to Mia Crowfield and said,

“Inside, there will be information you might not want to know.”

“Me? Not want to know?”

Mia Crowfield attempted to glare at Alice, but her expression was closer to hostility than she might have liked.

If my father had done something terrible and I was unaware, with only the memory of him being a loving and proud father, and he had been unjustly murdered, what would I do?

What if the daughter of the person who had commissioned his murder came to me and said, “Your father is not the good man you think he is”?

...Thinking of it that way, Mia Crowfield appeared to be exerting her utmost self-control. Perhaps the imperial knights surrounding us and Alice were aiding her in maintaining that self-restraint.

“Right.”

But Alice replied without hesitation.

“......”

Mia Crowfield’s expression reset, surpassing hostility and returning to a neutral state. It seemed she felt a twinge of anxiety at seeing Alice speak so casually.

Mia Crowfield had been living in close quarters with Alice for the past several months. And a few months is enough time to judge a person’s character.

Mia Crowfield knew that Alice wasn’t the kind of person to make jokes about such matters.

“Still, are you going to enter with us? It might be a huge shock for you.”

“......”

Mia Crowfield’s head slowly drooped before it shot back up suddenly.

Her eyes were trembling, and her lips were pulled down. Her face was considerably paler than usual.

Yet the expression that emerged on her face was one of noble determination.

“Alright.”

Mia Crowfield said in a somewhat trembling voice.

“If you two are coming out like this, I won’t shy away from facing it head-on. My father is not that kind of person.”

“......”

Alice let out a very slight sigh.

“Good, then.”

Alice turned her body and began to walk. I followed, as did Mia Crowfield.

The knight standing by the door opened it for us.

Inside the building... it was definitely a structure with windows, but it felt too dark.

*

As we walked, the only sounds were the creaks of the old wooden stairs under our feet and the sound of our footsteps.

If there was anyone being subdued inside by the knights, we should at least have heard some complaints, but there was no such sound, creating a sense of unease.

The imperial knights were stationed intermittently in the narrow corridor. Though their attire seemed like it should creak, they stood like statues, ready to greet us. They were exceptionally well-trained.

The smell I remembered from my last visit was gone. Fortunately, it seemed that the place wasn’t being used for “that purpose” anymore.

“This way, Your Highness.”

At the corner of the second floor, a knight was standing in front of what looked like the smallest room.

As Alice, Mia, and I approached silently, the knight opened the door for us, just as he had done when we entered the building.

And inside was—

“What do you think?”

As we stepped inside, Alice turned her head slightly toward me. She didn’t fully turn, so I couldn’t see the expression on her face, as it was obscured by her hair.

However, I could clearly sense the contempt in her voice.

Inside the room lay a middle-aged man sprawled on the floor, subdued by the knights. His arms were bound behind him. He looked relatively older, yet his physique was still robust, but he lacked the strength to push aside the knight who was sitting on his knee.

...He had looked terrifying when I had seen him as a child.

A few books were scattered on the floor. They were novels revered as classics.

Next to those books lay a shattered pair of spectacles, one lens cracked.