Chapter 1211: Hello, We Got The Names~
Chapter 1211: Hello, We Got The Names~
I thought we might have problems entering the upper district since, to the guards, we should be some random group of tourists showing up at their gates.
But I guess they must have issued some kind of notice to some people to let us in because when we walked up to the gates and got stopped by the guards, one of them immediately came forward to let us in and guide us all the way to the palace.
No, Prime Minister Masuyama had already gone off to do his own stuff so this guy wasn’t letting us in just because he was there.
When we reached the palace gates, a maid was waiting at the entrance of the palace and she took over in guiding us into the palace itself.
No words were exchanged but I guess they all knew why we were there.
I idly wondered if this maid was also one of our Family’s maids and I turned to look at Katsuki.
A slight nod of her head was all I needed to see.
Now I’m wondering if there were more servants that were affiliated with our Family than there were of servants who were not affiliated within the palace…
We were brought up to the upper floors of the palace where we were seated in a waiting room, presumably to wait for the King and Queen to arrive.
The waiting room this time seemed to be bigger than the last one as there were also couches for everyone on my side to sit on instead of the last time where there were only two couches.
Katsuki remained directly behind me while Emilia took my side once again, though Odeta also joined her on my other side as an intimidation factor on our side.
Granted, I don’t think seeing someone bigger in size would work on them since the King himself already told us he had fought stronger monsters before but it was something I guess?
I was about to ask how long we would need to wait when the doors slid open to reveal Prince Hisami standing at the doorway.
“Ah… Good day, Lady Aster,” He greeted with a bow.
I stood up and returned his greeting with a curtsy, “Good day, Prince Hisami. I fear I have to admit that I was not expecting to see you.”
“Unforutnately, my parents are occupied right now so I will have to be the one to receive you, you have to forgive us for that.”
I would have accepted that as the truth if it wasn’t for the fact that they have been trying to trick and manipulate me ever since I met them.
So I have a feeling that they were intentionally sending the prince to meet me instead while they’re probably listening in on the conversation somewhere.
Since I don’t have proof of that anyway, I simply nodded at his explanation without any fuss, prompting him to take the seat across from me.
“So… Did something happen, Lady Aster?”
It took me a moment to realise that he was asking that question because he didn’t think that we had already completed our information gathering and probably came running back here because we encountered a setback.
I gave him my business smile before I answered, “We have already found who are the ones responsible for the attempted assassination that day, Prince Hisami.”
He blinked at me and the fact that he was slow in responding told me he definitely didn’t think we would have completed our side of the contract this quickly.
“W… Who was it?”
“Ironically, the Wanderer’s Guides and the Progressive Collective were both responsible for it. Both sides had sent assassins to attack you.”
His brows furrowed, “Are you telling me that both of them were working together to attack me?”
I nodded, “That is exactly what I am saying, Prince Hisami.”
I wasn’t exactly sure how he would react to the news but him rising up to his feet to glare at me was certainly not something I had expected.
“I thought that you would be serious about this, Lady Aster,” He growled at me, his brows furrowed in clear anger. “I even vouched to the King and Queen that you will definitely deliver on your promise and yet, you returned to us with such a far-fetched lie.”
I narrowed my eyes slightly, “A lie? I am not lying to you, Prince Hisami.”
He shook his head, “You’re an outsider so you didn’t know this. But those two groups are mortal enemies. They will sooner kill each other on sight than to actually work together for any reason at all.”
I tilted my head at him, “Is that the reason why you believe that I am lying?”
“Of course. It is simply impossible,” He huffed before getting ready to leave.
I raised my hand behind me and Katsuki immediately deposited the folders in my hand which I then placed on the table in front of us.
“What if I told you that the assassins involved didn’t even know that they were working together with a different group and it was the upper leadership that tricked them into working together?”
He stopped and half turned back towards me, his eyes darting to the folders on the table for a moment before looking back at me.
“Are you telling me that it’s the leadership of both organisations that is working together?”
“Technically, they are the same people, so they’re working for themselves.”
He frowned, “What do you mean?”
“A specific family of nobles in your country had infiltrated their family members into both organisations a few years ago and worked their way up the chain to install their own people as the leadership of both groups. Now they are making use of them to further their own goals.”
He stared at me silently for a good minute before he finally asked, “Do you have proof of this?”
I gestured at the folders on the table, “What do you think these are supposed to be? Recipe for the most delicious cake in the World? Actually… If I had a recipe for such a cake, I wouldn’t be giving that to you.”
He ignored my comments about the cake and went over to the folders to pick them up and start reading them, flipping through them quickly.
Since I already knew he wasn’t the muscle brain that he tried to pretend he was when we first met, I wasn’t worried that he couldn’t understand the contents of the folders he was reading.
Sure enough, he stopped at a particular piece of information and his eyes widened before he flipped back through another folder, doing the exact same thing I did when I figured out that the names of some of the leaders of one side were the same as the other side.
He looked up at me, “Is this… All true?”
I tilted my head very slightly, “Are you doubting the information that the Nilm Family’s information network has provided you? If you think you can get more reliable informants elsewhere, then your parents were fools to even have accepted this contract to begin with.”
He gulped audibly and looked back down at the papers in front of him.
“This… Some of them… I even knew them personally… I would never have thought they were the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes… To think that they have been doing this behind our backs this entire time…”
I waved at him, “So I am here to discuss our next course of action. Unless you are not able to decide this and need your parents to be the ones to decide and you need to go consult them?”
He shook his head, “No. My parents have given me full authority to deal with this matter since I was the one that was targeted by them after all. I can decide this without consulting them.”
Oh? That’s convenient then.
I gestured towards the papers in his hands, “I assume since you’ve already seen the names, you have an idea who is the real mastermind behind this, am I right?”
He gritted his teeth and nodded, “Minister Nanba… The current minister for Internal Affairs and head of the Umake Family… I should have known… That bastard had been doing everything he could to try and prevent Prime Minister Masuyama from implementing many of his ideas. We all thought that he was just simply being cautious about the new ideas but now I know it was just him trying to make sure that Masuyama’s ideas do not impede on his own plans. It doesn’t make sense for him to continue to go against the Prime Minister after he had already proven himself to be dedicated to the country!”
Well… Let’s not tell him that Masuyama is actually one of our people…
I cleared my throat, “Ahem… So… Prince Hisami… What would you like to do now? Should we capture this minister of yours?”
He spun to me and his brows furrowed, “No. We will set an example. Prepare whatever you need, we are going to slaughter their entire family.”
Oh wow, alright then~
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