Chapter 171: Chapter 171

This kind of thing had to be confirmed in person. If handled carelessly, a blade could come flying at my throat from anywhere, at any time. Inadequate observation could lead to death.

I’ve experienced that more than once.

Rena was not here to advise me this time. The pendant also still had a long cooldown remaining. All I could do was gather as much information as possible and remain alert. Concealing myself in the shadows of the deep night, I walked through the silent streets.

The night in Grassmere was quiet. Only the occasional patrol carrying torches roamed the streets. Half-asleep soldiers, caught in the grip of drowsiness, missed the shadows hiding right under their noses.

My first objective was to locate the soldiers who had tried to question me earlier. On my way to the gate, something caught my attention.

It was the large tent Chandler had pointed out to me when we walked by earlier. Bathed in cold moonlight, the white tent stood out with an unnatural glow. Armed mercenaries patrolled around it in calm, regular intervals, holding long spears. None of them were dozing off.

There was one problem.

Inside the tent, all signs of life felt blocked, as if there was an interference. Even with my Detection skill, I could only pick up fragments of movement now and then.

It smelled dangerous and felt familiar. The mercenaries patrolled in groups of two or three, moving with disciplined precision. Their actions betrayed rigorous training. They were well-organized.

Where have I seen this before?

The Star Spearmen. Chandler had said they were known for their strict discipline and reliable contract fulfillment. However, reputation, rumors, and interpretations were just talk. I had seen firsthand how the story of the marquis’ death was twisted into absurdity.

Who shapes a reputation?

Maybe it was something that could be manipulated far too easily.

Was Chandler too complacent?

I shook my skull, dismissing the thought.

My priority was to check where Baron Reinberg had gone to report.

I pushed aside idle thoughts and quickened my pace, eventually arriving at the gate.

I examined the guards, but the entire group had changed. It seemed they had rotated while I was still inside the inner castle.

So they switched out? I guess I’ll have to wait here for now.

Wandering the streets aimlessly wouldn’t help. I stood still and waited.

One of the night guards grumbled, "It’s freezing… I’m gonna freeze to death."

I considered kidnapping one for interrogation, but Chandler’s position made that complicated. If I wanted to question a soldier, I’d have no choice but to kill him afterward to shut him up. Besides, I’d promised Chandler not to cause any trouble or stir anything up.

Gradually, dawn broke. Thankfully, familiar faces began to appear.

They should come out soon.

I identified the faces of those who had surrounded me outside the gates the previous day. Two foot soldiers and two cavalrymen again took positions near the gate. However, I noticed one spot was left empty. It was the most important one.

Baron Reinberg was nowhere to be seen. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novel✶fire.net

He’s not going to show up?

I felt a slight uneasiness in the corner of my mind.

Where did he go? And to whom?

"Where’s the baron?" the guards on duty asked the ones coming in for their shift.

"He said he had something important today. Won’t be back until tomorrow or the day after," one of the guards answered.

"So he didn’t leave the city?"

"Don’t think so. Not sure of the details, though."

Of all times, he disappeared now. He was probably reporting on me. Once the higher-ups made a decision, some kind of action would follow.

Unfortunately, I had no hints. I wandered around the streets of Grassmere, deciding to try my luck and searching aimlessly.

Even after spending half the day walking through the city, I didn’t catch so much as a glimpse of him. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Detection could sense presence, but it could not identify individuals. At most, I could get a general sense of someone’s size.

I made my way to the city’s largest tavern, the Tired Axe. Unless someone went far east or west, this place would be the best option for a drink near the gate where Reinburg worked. There was a high chance he was familiar with the tavern.

As I opened the door, the noisy buzz of conversation greeted me. I thought there would be no harm in checking.

As I stepped inside, a server approached me.

"May I take your order?" the server asked.

By now, slipping a silver coin into someone’s hand came naturally to me.

"For your trouble," I muttered quietly.

The moment the server felt the coin’s weight in his hand, his jaw dropped. "Whoa! What can I do for you?"

It seemed money still worked, even more so with war looming.

"Hold on. I just want to look around," I said.

"Ah! Yes, of course! Please, feel free to make yourself at home. I’ll even open up the private rooms for you. Look around as you please!"

The server beamed as he opened the doors to the private rooms. The people inside frowned.

"Do you need anything else?" the server asked.

"No! Close the door, man!" one of the people inside the private rooms shouted.

"Y-yes, sir!" the server replied.

The server guided me through the tavern’s second and third floors, but Baron Reinberg was nowhere to be found.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

I gave him another silver coin as a tip.

"Oh! May fortune bless you forever!"

The server bowed so low, his back nearly touched the floor. I was just about to leave when I heard a familiar name from a nearby seat.

"Hey… about Marquis Leandro."

Leandro?! Are they talking about him?

I instinctively turned around and saw two men sitting at a table clinking glasses.

There was a tall, fat man with ridiculous hair and a beard that reached his ears, and a scrawny man with hollow cheeks.

The skinny one urged the fat man on. "Quit stalling and just say it already."

The fat man continued, "Didn’t he cause that whole uproar in Yublam before he died? They say he wiped out the entire guard and declared he was overthrowing the lord. Can you believe that?"

The scrawny man nodded irritably. "Of course, it made sense. They said he was involved in drug trafficking and human smuggling too."

"Well, sure. But what I mean is… I’m wondering if it’s even possible."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"My brother-in-law’s an admin soldier at headquarters. This isn’t even a real secret either… Apparently, when all that chaos broke out in Yublam, the marquis was all the way up in the far northwest… on a mission."

I let go of the door handle I had just grabbed. My foot was already turning back inside.

The server glanced at me and chuckled. "Our tavern tends to have that effect, you know! Heheh!"

The server cleared a nearby seat and pulled out a chair. Perhaps because of the generous tip, he didn’t bother me with any orders. I sat down and focused on the two men’s conversation.

"A mission?" the skinny one asked.

"Yeah… They said he was tasked with subduing a Frost Basilisk. Strange, right?"

I had seen Basilisks in the Demon Kings’ army. They were vicious monsters over thirty meters long.

So they’re still showing up these days.

Still, if it was that bastard Leandro, the one who took down a Kraken at sea, then a Basilisk would’ve been manageable. It wasn’t surprising that he’d be assigned to kill one in the north.

The skinny man put down his glass and scowled. "The far northwest and the southeast? Then what’s the truth? A man can’t be in two places at once."

"Exactly. That’s why I’m saying… there’s a rumor going around that the marquis isn’t actually dead. Some folks even claim they’ve seen his ghost!"

I wanted to stomp my foot under the table.

They were talking about me. Two random men were openly chatting about what I had done as if it were tavern gossip.

"Then the one in the south must’ve been the real one. The Yublam administrators confirmed it, didn’t they?" the skinny man asked.

"Yeah. People said he had ash-blue hair… and was able to use sword aura," the fat man replied.

"So he’s alive but hiding. The ghost that showed up must be the real Marquis Leandro."

I couldn’t make sense of it anymore.

How far have these rumors spread?

There was no salvaging it now. It wasn’t even worth blaming the boy who fell off the cliff. Everything had already gone off course when I started impersonating the marquis earlier in this life.

I recalled when I told the previous lord of Yublam to kill himself while impersonating Marquis Leandro. Those had been good days.

I had grown stronger than ever, and I also gained new skills. I tore through Rubia’s enemies, both direct and indirect, in the name of imperial law. I made them feel the fear of death and the terror of being hunted. At the time, I even felt pleased with my own power.

After rescuing the boy and revealing myself through Masquerade, I had indulged in a petty sense of superiority. Yet, in the end, what I had done had likely provoked the Empire far more than I realized.

The two-layered rumor of a dramatic suicide or perhaps an assassination by Ember and the Confederation I had crafted was now blurred, overshadowed by this ghost of the marquis.

The ghost of the marquis wanders the south!

The Empire hadn't created that rumor. They couldn’t control it either. The story of the marquis being alive completely buried the question of why the marquis died. Even in the capital, where the imperial secret breeding facilities remained untouched, I had already become a target the moment I surfaced.

This is so damn messed up.

It was time to leave.

I opened the tavern door and headed toward the inner castle.

Still, I should collect the sword and at least say goodbye to Chandler.

I returned to the castle, intending to tell him I was leaving, when I heard a heated argument coming from the direction of the office.

"We ask that all of Grassmere’s blacksmiths be conscripted for wartime. We must repair weapons as we advance," someone said.

Chandler didn’t bother hiding his displeasure and rejected the proposal. "You want to send all our craftsmen to the front lines? Do you honestly believe that makes sense?"

The other man didn’t back down. "It’s an imperial order. And I must remind you, about the city’s security jurisdiction…"

After all that chasing, I realized I had overlooked the most obvious place.

He had come here. Or rather, since he said he was delivering orders from the Empire, it meant he’d already reported to the higher-ups.

Did he already finish reporting on me?

After a while, the man who’d been squawking like a parrot finally left.

I showed up casually and walked in.

Chandler greeted me warmly. "Benefactor! You’re here! I was worried since you hadn’t appeared in a while."

"No need to worry about me. You’re the one who looks troubled," I said.

Of course, the one truly in danger was me, but I wanted to act tough in front of Chandler.

Chandler let out a deep sigh. "You saw it all, didn’t you? Whew…"

The atmosphere had clearly grown heavy.

The first thing he said was unexpected. "Baron Reinberg… wasn’t always like that."

"No. He used to be a respected and principled cavalry officer. He was stationed nearby and served as a protector for Grassmere in emergencies."

"Yes. He was even quite close to my father. Yet, at some point… he turned into a puppet of the Empire. It’s like he became an entirely different person."

He became… a different person?

I turned that phrase over in my mind and gave Chandler a warning. "Regardless, isn’t it dangerous to defy an imperial order so directly?"

I recalled Rubia’s father, killed brutally for his uncooperative stance during the war.

Chandler didn’t look too worried. "They need me to govern Grassmere. My family has ruled here for generations. Besides, I’ve already been very accommodating. I’m an only child, and I have no relatives. If they remove me, they won’t be able to find a proper replacement."

That was a bold claim. Count Ray of Erast, the former lord, had an evil younger brother waiting to take over—the same one who ordered two hitmen to assassinate Rubia.

In contrast, Chandler had no such backup, and his family’s reputation in the city was overwhelmingly positive. At a glance, his reasoning sounded valid, on the surface.

But… will the Empire really play along that nicely?

They had already cleanly eliminated Leandro, one of the Four Swordmasters. In addition, they had spread suspicions that he colluded with a Demon King. This was a group that would crush any presumptions without hesitation.

Sensing the tension, Chandler looked at me and asked, "Do you suspect something?"

"Not sure…" I murmured.

I didn’t have solid evidence to back up anything.

Since I really didn’t have much else to say, I simply gave him a general warning. "Just be careful."

How am I supposed to bring up the story of the breeding facility bugs? How would I even begin explaining Leandro’s death?

I was going to leave it at that and walk away, but something about it just didn’t sit right.

If only this thing worked, I’d feel more at ease.

I gently grasped the pendant hanging from my neck. It remained dark and unlit.

[Time until next activation: 49:41:35…]

There were two days left until I could use it again.