Chapter 129

Chapter 129 Departing again

“…Have you received any news from Dida?”

It had been two weeks since Dida had departed, but we hadn’t heard from him at all .

As time passed, we couldn’t help but begin to worry .

“No . ”

“Well, then . How about the other research teams?”

“The safety on the streets seems to have gotten worse . To this day no report has come in, probably because local residents are afraid of the Boltique family . There’s also the possibility that they’ve formed some kind of mutually beneficial partnership with officials . ”

“I see…what does the Boltique family want? Do they want to stand against me…no, against Duke Armenia’s family?”

“I don’t think that’s likely . For an organization like this that has been powerful since long ago, there’s no reason for them to suddenly start acting up . ”

“That’s also true…then the only thing I can think of is that someone is acting out under the name of the Boltique family . ”

“Milady, there’s more news to report . ”

“What is it?”

“Dawson seems to be moving toward the east . ”

“…Huh?”

“This morning he left from the capital . I thought that he was going back to the capital, but he seems intent on heading east . Could he be headed to the eastern region?”

“Why would he do that now? I thought he came here to speak to me . ”

“I don’t understand it at all . Here’s a list of the people he has interacted with since arriving here . ”

Picking up the document provided to me by Tanya, I began to read .

None of them seemed particularly suspicious .

Even so…

“Look into this merchant’s whereabouts . Also, increase surveillance of Van . ”

“Van…huh?”

“Yes . If he’s heading toward the east at this moment in time, there’s a lot he could do . Although it’s also possible that other nobles were involved, this seems too early for it to have been them . In terms of territory, he seems most suspicious . If there’s time left over, it’s best that you look into other nobles as well . ”

That was when there was a knock at the door .

Walking into the room…was Dean .

“Dean, perfect timing . ”

“Sorry . I had some of my own matters to attend to, so I was late . ”

I told him the situation .

As I spoke, the expression on his face became serious .

“When I left you, I heard an uncertain rumor . That was that one of your aides is actually a member of a fallen family, and is secretly funneling away money from citizens . That’s why an individual who had trained in the knight’s order began acting to correct your supposed wrongdoing . That could be what this is about . ”

“…Where did the rumor come from?”

“We’re currently looking into it . I’m guessing that it was probably some noble who started it…but it spread among local citizens . It’s quite unbelievable . ”

“I see…”

“Milady, Dida…”

Tanya seemed to want to say something, but stopped herself .

“I trust Dida . No, I want to trust him . At the moment, I’m just worried . Even so, I want to resolve this before a small conflict turns into a big one . ”

I thought about it for a bit . Then I had Tanya call Sebastian to me .

“What is it, milady?”

“Sebastian, I’ll be away from here for the next week or so . I hope that you can manage territorial business while I’m gone . ”

“I understand . I’ll work my hardest . ”

Hearing my command, he furrowed his brow as if to say something, but let his head drop instead .

“Milady, could this be…?”

“Precisely . I plan to travel to the east . Thankfully there isn’t much work piled up at the moment . If you’re the one managing things, it should all be fine…Because of all my work, I’ve exhausted my body and am currently resting, so all responsibilities go to you . Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yes . I’ll inform all that you remain within the walls of this mansion . ”

“But why do you want to go to the east?”

“First of all, I want to take this time to go to the village offices in the east . I think that my position should be useful . Most importantly, I want to confirm things with my own eyes . Second, if possible I want to gain the whereabouts of the Boltique family . Finally, there’s how to deal with the young man from the knight’s order . My plan is to distract him while we’re in contact and resolve things that way…As for who’s coming with me, Dean and Ryle should do for now . Tanya, after you confirm additional surveillance for Van, you can come as well . ”

“Understood . ”

Dean and Tanya both bowed their heads at the same time .

“All right, then, Dean . Go and call Ryle . We’ll prepare ourselves and depart shortly . ”