I Became the Childhood Friend of the Northern Duchess – Chapter 222

At the same time, Shepard, dispatched as reinforcements due to the bandit annihilation, clearly revealed his discomfort at being dragged around aimlessly.

It was strange, no matter how I thought about it. Even if the bandits lurking near the capital had a relatively strong organization, it didn’t make any sense that we couldn’t even catch a hint of them.

Eventually, Shepard went to speak with the commander of the unit, the head of the Lukeville Family, to express his exasperation.

If his master hadn’t explicitly commanded him to finish the job without any complaints while helping, he would have long since given up on the whole thing.

“Lord Lukeville, is it still not done?”

“This is quite embarrassing. It seems they are moving quite organized; it’s hard to find any traces aside from faint footprints. We even mobilized mages, but…”

“What? Are you saying the bandits have a way to evade the mages’ tracking? What the….”

For the first time, Shepard, who had never interrupted anyone’s words until now, showed signs of anger.

Though he pretended to be emotionless, he was actually controlling his feelings by manipulating his body to suppress them infinitely.

“Can you give us just a bit more time?”

“How many days do you need?”

“We can’t give a definite answer, but we can at least guarantee finding them within two days. If not, feel free to cut us off from the reinforcements.”

They appeared very polite, but ultimately, the meaning was that they didn’t want to drag it out any longer nor hear any more scoldings from others.

When they had pleaded for him to come urgently with letters, Shepard couldn’t help but grind his teeth at how quickly they had flipped their attitude.

‘Should I just go back?’

No matter how large the bandits’ scale was, at least in Shepard’s view, the private soldiers from the Lukeville Family were not enough to handle them.

After all, his first thought upon meeting this unit was, “Do we really need reinforcements?”

But the problem was what his master, Albrecht, would think about it.

Over 90% of Shepard’s reasoning was focused on his master’s opinion.

If his master insisted he stay here until the bandits were successfully eliminated, he had to comply.

‘For now, I guess I’ll have to ask my master.’

With a completely emotionless expression, Shepard turned away from Derfein, who was facing him.

If time had to be delayed here, it would be better to rudely contact Albrecht.

Just as he was about to activate the communication device shaped like a ring, it happened.

Bam.

The little gemstone engraved in the center of the ring dimmed and broke off the contact.

Surprised, he tried to reactivate it several times, but the response was the same.

It seemed like it was intentionally blocked by something.

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem…?”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

When Derfein stared at him with a confused expression as if he had solidified, Shepard retorted sharply.

In places where the magical energy wave was strong, there were times when it didn’t operate as intended, but this was still a valuable item and shouldn’t be affected by ordinary interference.

‘Could it be this man’s doing?’

Shepard briefly suspected that the Lukeville family had been up to some trick, but he quickly dropped that line of thought.

After all, why would they do such a thing? He couldn’t let his judgment be clouded by anger.

‘Alright, maybe his expectations turned out to be correct.’

Meanwhile, Derfein, who was observing the whole situation with a foolish expression, inwardly cheered.

If things dragged on too long, the enemy could contact the head of the household, so a method to block communication had been strategically provided by the Robeheim Family, all while pretending to track the bandits.

This left him with two options.

Wait for a reply that would take at least a day if he sent a messenger, or give up contact and stay trapped here longer.

From Derfein’s perspective, the worst-case scenario would be that they leave immediately, but Edgar was oddly confident that possibility was low.

“…For now, I will contact the head of the household and stay an additional day until a reply comes. Meanwhile, if you catch any traces of the bandits, let me know.”

Shepard wanted to step up, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so.

The range in which he could use magic had to be confined to what his master allowed him to.

Why? Because he was disguised as a man who was a vassal of the Bertus Family.

He wasn’t even a mage, so he had to act like an ordinary civilian in public settings.

It was all quite troublesome.

“I’ll do my utmost to find them as quickly as possible.”

“Please do.”

Shepard quietly turned his sharp gaze over Derfein from top to bottom before silently walking out of the army tent.

A strange sense of unease bubbled up deep within his chest.

* * * * * *

Thud.

“Who goes there!”

At the sound of something collapsing on the other side, a soldier roaming through the forest aimed his spear at the underbrush and shouted.

Seeing that there was no immediate response, he signaled to a comrade waiting nearby with a bow and slowly approached.

Soon, rustling noises emerged from the bushes, and two men dressed in the Bertus Family’s uniforms appeared.

One was bleeding from his legs and arms, being supported, while the one doing the supporting wasn’t in perfect shape either.

“The emblem of the Bertus Family…! Friends? What happened to those wounds?”

“Sorry. We were ambushed by the enemy.”

With the unexpected news, the two soldiers, who had been aiming their spears and bows, exchanged shocked looks.

They had already been suspicious due to a lack of contact with the soldiers guarding the entrance, but the appearance of enemy troops was beyond what they expected.

“An ambush…! Bring the injured over here. We need to call for reinforcements immediately…”

Just as the man was about to ask another soldier to relay the message, the man supporting the injured stopped him.

“It’s… it’s okay. Thankfully, there weren’t too many of them, so the soldiers on the scene were able to handle it. At least, we need to….”

“I see. Then we will report to the higher-ups while taking care of the injured. You should rest here and receive treatment.”

“We have a few more trailing behind, so I’ll go with them.”

Could there still be wounded left behind?

The soldier thought with a stiffened face that there must have been quite a fierce battle.

He then hurriedly approached the injured soldier and helped him with the empty shoulder.

‘Now’s the time!’

At that moment, the man supporting the injured soldier, Leonel, glanced back at the injured soldiers following behind and sent a signal to Edgar, who was in the main unit.

With this, the surrounding guard soldiers would be diverted toward the entrance, and their numbers would naturally increase.

If they took advantage of this opening, reaching the enemies’ base could be entirely possible.

Most importantly, having reported they had eliminated enemy troops, the higher-ups wouldn’t worry about reinforcements.

‘Thanks, Leonel.’

Edgar silently expressed his gratitude to Leonel’s signal and moved stealthily with the remaining soldiers, hiding among the dense forest.

According to the terrain map, they were almost there.

There might be a few small battles along the way, but against a small number of soldiers, they should be able to handle it without much noise.

If they could just reach the castle, it would be half a success.

With that thought, Edgar hurriedly moved forward.

He was worried about the friend left behind in the enemy’s center, but he believed they would find a way to get through. They had promised each other.

* * * * * *

Upon returning from a temporary absence, Albrecht immediately checked if anything unusual had happened.

Recently, he had been feeling anxious, leading him to frequently travel to the Imperial Palace, and perhaps because of that, he had become somewhat neglectful of what was occurring back at the main estate.

The reports contained no significant anomalies.

It was just that the army dispatched from the Robeheim Family had scattered across various northern regions, clashing with foreign tribes, and the most intense battlefield had been where Yulken had appeared.

‘But unexpectedly. It’s not the current head of the household, but Yulken who stepped up.’

He wondered if it was because she was a woman and still lacked battlefield experience that she took to the front.

As far as Albrecht knew, past heads of the Robeheim Family had grown up experiencing battles from childhood, making it a bit surprising.

However, on the other hand, it also seemed plausible that being the first female head of the household, such a consideration had been made.

Since she was also a father of a daughter, Yulken might have not wanted her to face the dangers of the battlefield at such a young age.

Regardless of the reasons, it was good news from his perspective.

At a time when the Robeheim Family couldn’t monitor the area, a plan to reclaim the Symbol of Dominion had to be formulated. For that, Shepard’s return was essential.

‘By the way, the crown prince is away. He has always been a man who enjoys wandering.’

Today, after listening to the news at the Imperial Palace, Albrecht tilted his head slightly but quickly dismissed the thought.

Due to Barthus distancing himself from the household, his relationship with the crown prince had soured somewhat. He had always taken his younger sister on trips, sometimes even going off alone to some distant place and returning without notice.

However, soon after, a piece of news brought in by a woman was enough to make him frown.

It was reported that some intruders had been spotted on the way to the castle, known as the Forest of Mana, by outsiders.

Fortunately, it was said that all enemies had been dealt with, but somehow, the anxiety did not easily dissipate.

‘It can’t just be some petty thief.’

No sane thief would raid a Marquess’s stronghold just to steal a valuable item.

If that were the case, they would have to be seen as a more decisive attacking force, and there weren’t many groups openly hostile to the Bertus Family.

The most likely possibility now should be the Robeheim Family.

However, their main forces were currently scattered across the northern regions, and moreover, they had no substantial justification to take action.

Even if they learned of the crown prince and Beatria’s troubles, what kind of proof would they present to raise their swords? Most importantly, the emperor wouldn’t be able to side with them since his family was taken hostage.

‘No, something’s off here.’

With that thought, Albrecht narrowed his eyes and began organizing the reports he had received.

Thinking about it, the timing didn’t quite add up.

Immediately after Barthus and Beatria had their secret discussions, he had visited the Imperial Palace to check, but nothing had happened.

Soon after, Kelrag, the chief of the Carvita Tribe, had left Robeheim Castle and joined his fellow tribesmen to rally the tribe.

Right after that, the Robeheim Family had set out to subjugate, and in the meantime, a significant chunk of the Bertus Family’s main forces had left to aid the Lukeville Family.

Separately, none of these seemed out of place, but if these events were pieced together, it would pivot the narrative toward them being preparatory maneuvers aimed at attacking the Bertus Family.

If the Helbenior Couple’s secret talk was indeed a process to request support from the Robeheim Family?

In that case, the Robeheim Family responded and sent Kelrag as a decoy before pretending to rally the foreign tribes for a massive sortie.

However, there would have to be troops expended for that, so if they had requested the Lukeville Family to redirect the attention of the Bertus Family’s main forces?

Moreover, currently, unidentified intruders had been causing a commotion outside the castle.

It was reported that all major forces had been dealt with, but just how much of that was true, one could not discern at this time.

Could all these occurrences be dismissed as mere coincidence, even amidst such a situation?

‘I need to discuss this with Shepard.’

Albrecht immediately infused magical energy into the communication device shaped like a ring and attempted to contact Shepard, who was heading toward the highlands.

However, for some reason, the light emanating from it swiftly dimmed, and the ring showed no response.

Something was wrong.

Albrecht realized that, but by then, it was already far too late.