Laurent asked Jared about Cedric, but as expected, he only got a similar answer in return.
He was a man so perfect, it was almost inhuman.
"Why do you ask?"
"No reason, just curious."
Laurent shook his head.
It might just be his imagination.
Perhaps Cedric was a little different from the rumors, but even if that were true, it would change nothing.
All he had to do was follow the Third Prince.
Jared kept chattering.
"I see. Well, it's natural to be curious. He's an incredible person. If only His Highness the Prince were more like the Crown Prince, he might be a little kinder…"
The Briol army was approaching Francaise.
They would not stay long, just one day outside the territory, then head straight for the border at Bezos, together with the Flandre family's forces.
The army arrived at sunset and set up camp.
Laurent joined Yuri in the work of pitching the tents himself.
Then, suddenly, a Briol knight came looking for Laurent.
"Sir Laurent."
"What is it?"
"I have some news to deliver."
With a composed expression, as if being considerate of Laurent, he spoke.
"Count Francaise says he will likely be unable to participate in this war."
"What? Did something happen?"
Laurent tilted his head.
His father, Count Lian Flandre of Francaise, had almost never missed a major war that Briol fought.
He stuck close to Fiore Briol much like Laurent did to the Third Prince.
"He says it's a minor illness."
"An illness?"
Laurent was even more surprised.
He had never once seen his father fall ill. The same was true for most knights. With their strong bodies, it was rare for them to be sick.
The knight nodded.
"Yes. The letter says he suddenly developed a fever and finds it hard to move."
"How did that happen…"
"He asked me to tell you not to worry, Sir Laurent. It's not serious, so you should head to the border without concern. He says not to come visit."
"I see…"
"The priests also say it's nothing severe."
Laurent blinked at him for a moment, then nodded.
He could imagine exactly how his father had worded it.
"Understood. Thank you for the trouble."
"Yes, then."
The knight gave a short bow and turned away.
Yuri, who was sitting on the ground nearby, spoke up.
"Laurent, why don't you go see him?"
"No, the war comes first."
"Right…"
Yuri shrugged.
"Don't worry too much. I heard from my eldest brother that Sir Lian is so healthy it's like he'll live forever."
"What?"
"Hm?"
"His Highness the Crown Prince said that about my father…"
"Ah, back when he stayed in Francaise for a long time doing research at the university. They met often then."
"I see…"
"Why? Are you that worried about Sir Lian?"
"No."
Laurent once again felt a strange sense of dissonance, but forced himself to shake off the worry.
Cedric was the Crown Prince, destined to be king of Briol, and his father was a loyal knight who had always stood with the royal family of Briol.
It would be stranger if they hadn't met during his stay in Francaise.
"My father will be fine."
"Of course."
Yuri grinned, then stood and pointed somewhere.
"Hey, look over there."
Laurent turned his head.
"That is…"
Perched atop a thick tree, there was a bird.
It was not large, its eyes calm, its tail feathers elegantly spread, giving it an air of dignity.
And above all, it was entirely white.
"A Chai bird."
Laurent raised his brows. Lately, it was a name he had grown familiar with.
"A rare sight."
"Really?"
"Too much hunting. People want to keep them or make them into stuffed displays. The sad thing is, Chai birds don't breed in captivity. So their numbers keep going down. Even when hunting them was banned by law, people still wouldn't listen…"
That too felt odd.
On the very next day after his strange conversation with Cedric, he happened to see this bird that he normally never encountered.
Laurent forced away the stray thoughts and said,
"You know a lot about birds, Your Highness."
"Not at all. It's just that my eldest brother once told me about Chai birds."
Yuri smiled.
"He said it's a shame that human greed might make that beautiful white bird disappear forever. He told me that if he became king one day, he'd want to take measures to protect it. Impressive, right? He even cares about birds."
Then Yuri laughed out loud, and Laurent followed with an awkward smile.
"I see…"
It was different from what he knew. When he had spoken to Cedric alone, Cedric's tone had been far more cynical.
He had once said something along the lines of, a bird is just a bird.
The gap between the Cedric people knew and the Cedric he had experienced was growing.
"Well then, shall we go see what's for dinner? What do you say, Laurent?"
"Understood."
"Jared! What are you doing, Jared!"
Yuri began moving again, making a noisy fuss, and laughter spread wherever he went.
The atmosphere was so bright, it was hard to believe this was an army on the brink of war.
That was Yuri's power.
Laurent scratched his cheek as he watched his back.
"Hoo…"
Compared to the coming war, it was a trivial matter. And yet, Laurent didn't know why it kept weighing on his mind.
If Ernando were here, he would have sought his advice, but he had been away for a long time.
So Laurent simply swallowed down the emotions welling up inside.
"It'll be fine."
Muttering the words as if to assure himself, Laurent began to walk.
***
Beneath the surface, the war was already underway.
Yuri's party had managed to block the 9th Knight Order, but there was no way the Empire had no agents.
While the Briol army spent the night outside Francaise, an incident occurred.
An alarm rang out with the sudden appearance of intruders.
Yuri was the first to rush out of his tent, with Laurent quickly at his side.
Jared stumbled out late, shouting.
"W-what? What is it?"
"Intruders."
"Intruders? Who?"
"Spies, most likely."
"Spies? But the 9th Knight Order, we already…"
"Not them. I mean the ones who were already here."
Given the vast size of the Empire, there was no way they didn't have an intelligence network.
They would have already been hiding throughout Briol before the war began.
"You mean enemy agents. Doesn't Briol have any of those?"
"Of course we do."
"What's that?"
"There's something called the Briol Friendship Association."
"…"
"Over there."
Yuri moved quickly.
When his figure vanished, Laurent and Jared hurried after him.
Inside the camp, soldiers were already moving about with torches, searching for the spies.
Yuri snatched a torch from one soldier.
"Borrowing this!"
"Uh? Oh, yes!"
Yuri immediately spread his senses and ran in the direction where he felt the enemy.
They weren't alone.
Several spies were attempting to infiltrate the Briol army camp at the same time.
Perhaps to gauge their numbers, or to set fire to the supplies.
Maybe even to assassinate someone.
Still, there was a certain clumsiness to it.
"We'll find out in interrogation."
Yuri kicked off the ground.
He was the fastest, with Laurent, Jared, and the Briol knights following behind.
Francaise had fertile soil and open plains, not the best terrain for fugitives to hide.
"Stop running!" Yuri shouted.
Not that they would actually stop.
While running, Yuri shifted the torch to his left hand, bent down to snatch up a stone, and with a leap, hurled it.
From somewhere in the darkness ahead came a single sharp cry.
"Grab the one who fell!"
Shouting to the knights following behind, Yuri passed the fallen man, picking up a few more stones along the way.
Now, his senses caught four left.
He threw the stones one after another.
Three went down immediately, but the last one moved with surprising agility, narrowly dodging despite multiple stones being hurled at him.
"This bastard…"
Yuri ran faster.
With each step, his footprints sank deep into the ground.
The spy was incredibly quick, but there was no way he could shake off Yuri, who was close to the level of the ten strongest.
In the end, Yuri caught up with the last spy.
"Hey!"
Yuri shouted as he leaped.
"Stop!"
Then he kicked him square in the back.
Already in motion, the spy was struck by the tremendous speed of Yuri's pursuit, and went tumbling forward, rolling across the ground.
At one point, he even bounced when he hit a rock.
"Keuh-uhhk…!"
From the sound alone, it was clear he was already coughing blood.
Yuri approached and shone the torch over him.
"Maybe I went too far?"
It was a pitiful sight. His face must have hit the ground — his front teeth were completely gone, blood pouring down.
Yuri scratched the back of his head.
"See, you should've stopped when I told you. Let's go."
He grabbed the spy's ankle and dragged him along.
Each time the man's body caught on something, a groan escaped, but Yuri didn't care.
"Hey, you got them all together over there?"
"Yes!"
Thus, the five imperial spies were thrown down in the middle of the camp like sacks of grain.
Briol's knights surrounded them.
"Hey, who are you?"
"Do you want to die?"
"How dare you spy on Briol?"
"Should tear your limbs off. You'll be crawling for the rest of your life."
"You'll never eat anything but porridge again."
"You said goodbye to your mother before you came, right?"
They hurled threats like common thugs, intimidating the prisoners.
This was the reality of knights.
Yuri pressed a hand to his forehead.
"Laurent."
"Yes."
"If you only train with the sword from a young age, you end up like that."
"Yes…"
"Martial skill is good, but you have to read books, develop social skills, and so on."
"True words."
Sharing a brief moment of agreement with Laurent, Yuri stepped forward.
"Move aside, that's not how you conduct an interrogation."
"Ah, yes, Your Highness!"
"I'll show you what a real interrogation looks like."
"Ooh…"
The knights stepped back, ears pricked.
Yuri had risen to fame through his feats in the Allied Army, so the knights accompanying him for the first time held a certain curiosity.
The Third Prince, praised as Fiore's successor — what kind of skills did he have?
And in interrogation, what kind of ability?
Yuri grabbed one of the fallen intruders and squatted in front of him.
"Hey."
"…"
"I'm going to count from one to ten, so answer before then. If you don't, a slap is coming your way, okay?"
"…"
"Got it or not?"
"Y-yes…"
"Alright, here's the question. Why did you infiltrate? Counting to ten now. One, two, three, four…"
A slap rang out.
"Hurts, right? Don't want it to hurt more, right? Keep your mouth shut again, and it'll be two slaps next time. That means twice the pain. Counting again. One, two, three, four…"
The knights in the back glanced at one another.
It was too sloppy to be called an interrogation.
Was this really the same Third Prince who was said to have slaughtered orcs like a butcher?
They were starting to wonder if all his fame was exaggerated.
Just before Yuri's second slap landed, the man spoke.
"T-the Empire ordered us…"
"I see."
The confession came instantly.
As the knights stared in surprise, Yuri turned to them with a wide grin.
"This is interrogation. Only works if your hand stings like mine."
"Y-yes…"
With each slap from Yuri, the prisoners started talking freely.
The knights watched in stunned silence.
It wasn't like a single slap knocked out teeth or burst eardrums — he was just smacking them lightly on the cheek. Yet, each time, the infamous imperial spies spilled their secrets.
"Your objective?"
"Y-yes, I'll tell you. Count numbers, assess troop size, and if possible, burn the supplies…"
"Truly vile bastards."
"S-sorry…"
Slap!
"S-sorry! Please stop slapping me…"
"So you do care about your own pain."
"S-sorry, sorry…"
The knights stood dazed, watching.
And then, among them, Laurent suddenly felt something strange.
One of the five, the one who had not yet been interrogated, was sitting there staring blankly at him.
At first, Laurent thought it was coincidence, but the man's eyes clung to him with unnerving persistence.
Laurent stared back, studying him.
He looked… almost absent, as if his soul had left.
Then suddenly, he smiled strangely. Slowly, he spread both arms to the side and began moving them up and down.
Like the flapping of wings.
Laurent was startled, taking a step back.
No one else seemed to notice, focused as they were on Yuri's questioning.
Flap, flap.
Laurent felt as if the two of them were alone, watching each other.
And then—
"Your Highness!"
The man flapping his arms suddenly pulled a dagger from his inner pocket and began slashing wildly.
Yuri stepped back.
But the stabbing didn't stop.
It was so sudden, even Yuri couldn't react in time.
"Damn…"
All the other spies nearby were dead.
Their throats were cleanly cut, no chance of survival.
"You bastard…"
Yuri growled.
"So you're the one who dodged the stones till the end, huh. You bastard…"
But the man's eyes weren't on Yuri.
Still staring at Laurent, he turned the dagger toward his own neck.
"Hey!"
He slit his own throat.
And so, all five spies met their deaths in an instant.
"Damn…"
Yuri let out a sigh.
"My mistake. I should have stopped him."
"It's fine. We got all the information anyway, didn't we?"
"That's true, but…"
"Still, an impressive interrogation technique, Your Highness."
"Right?"
"Yes."
"Let's search their bodies."
The knights searched the corpses of the spies.
Nothing much turned up.
But then—
"Wh-whoa!"
One of them suddenly jumped back in fright.
"What is it?"
"This crazy bastard…"
He pointed at the body of the last spy, the one who had swung the dagger.
"What was he carrying in his coat?"
"What is it?"
Another knight approached and searched the corpse.
Then he, too, recoiled in shock.
"Wow, this guy… he's creepy…"
"What is it?"
The knight reached in and pulled something out.
"Why the hell was he carrying this?"
For a moment, everyone fell silent.
Inside was a taxidermied white bird.
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