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Vol 02 Chapter 63: Scheme II

「What is going on?!」

Rigal Dibel was furious.

Initially, the resignation letters of three of his vassals and their requests to move to the territory of Aris arrived at his office. In the laws of King Rosais’ Country, it was possible to relocate to another territory if one filed a notice and paid a migration tax.

Also, the consent of both lords was necessary, so if he really wanted, he could stop them from leaving, but in truth, Rigal had no choice but to approve. After all, there was no reason to obstruct them from leaving.

There was no valid reason to prevent the migration of people who had not committed any crimes. Moreover, fussing about the relocation of merely three people would earn him a bad reputation as a narrow-minded lord. He couldn’t afford to gain a bad reputation over such a trivial matter.

However, Rigal couldn’t bring himself to approve it without protest. So, he formally lodged a complaint with Almus Aris.

He requested that Almus Aris cease poaching his vassals. However, Almus Aris responded:

「Poaching vassals? No, I haven’t done anything of the sort… But it’s possible that some of the newly recruited talents might be from Dibel’s territory.」

Almus Aris apologized to Rigal in a humble manner. Rigal was satisfied with this and didn’t escalate the situation any further.

However, the tragedy didn’t end there. This time, ten vassals resigned and went to the Aris territory.

Subsequently, rumors started circulating that Raymond Rosais had brought Almus Aris into his faction to become king. The rumors also said that Almus Aris had made a secret agreement to support Raymond Rosais’s succession to the throne, in exchange for his help, Raymond Rosais would condemn Rigal Dibel, and destroy the Dibel Family, afterward, Almus Aris would receive Rigal’s lands. There were also suspicions that the non-blood related vassals of the Dibel Family, including Belmet, were conspiring with Almus Aris and Raymond Rosais to set up Rigal.

Given the situation, Rigal had no choice but to start suspecting his non-blood related vassals. All the ones who had been poached so far were non-blood related vassals.

Rigal instructed his vassals (only his blood-related ones) to monitor those non-blood related vassals who held relatively high positions and their relatives.

However, he limited his actions to surveillance only. He hadn’t confirmed if the rumors were true, and Rigal couldn’t quite believe that Belmet would betray him.

◇

「Things have gone well, haven’t they, Iarl-san?」

Iarl’s subordinate, posing as a disciple of the merchant Iarl, said happily.

「It was a struggle to spread the rumors, and it cost us a good deal.」

Iarl had recruited thirty-two people to Almus’s side; of those, thirteen were directly brought to Aris territory, and three of them were of particular interest due to their talents. The remaining nineteen stayed in Dibel territory as spies.

Although they were not exceptionally talented, they were useful. In fact, they provided a lot of information to Iarl and helped spread rumors, though it cost a great amount of money.

These people were adequate for their current positions but were not satisfied. Such individuals were unnecessary to Almus.

They were not talented enough to warrant special treatment, but if not treated as such, they would easily betray their master. Additionally, once someone betrays, they tend to develop a habit of it. They were that type of troublesome person, but as spies, they were quite useful.

Nevertheless, Iarl planned to dispose of them in the confusion after the civil war ended.

Naturally, he had no intention of informing Almus about this. Almus is a person who despises killing the innocent and breaking promises.

Almus had entrusted Iarl with full authority over the operation, so he used this authority to not inform his kind master of the darker parts of the operation. It’s better not to know things that one doesn’t need to know.

「Why did we not spread the rumor that Almus-sama himself would succeed to the throne?」

「Well, that would have worked as well, but Almus-sama is not generally considered a candidate for the throne. On the other hand, Raymond Rosais is a strong contender. It’s more credible, right? Besides, Aris territory and Dibel territory are adjacent. It would be problematic if Dibel decided to take care of the competition and attacked us. Also, with the rumor of Raymond-sama becoming king, Rigal Dibel can’t attack Almus-sama, as it would only give an excuse to Raymond-sama to end the Dibel Family when he ascends the throne.」

Rigal cannot attack Raymond because their territories are not adjacent, but he could easily attack Almus’s land as they are neighbors. Spreading the rumor that Almus will become king could potentially provoke an attack from Rigal.

If war broke out at this stage, it would undoubtedly become a quagmire; the only ones who would benefit from that would be the neighboring countries, so that must be avoided at all costs. Almus was also behaving submissively towards Rigal, showing no intention of open hostility for the same reason.

Rigal must think that Almus had teamed up with Raymond due to a lack of confidence in being able to defeat Rigal alone. The groveling apology from their previous conflict was now paying off.

It would be great if Rigal considered Almus not worthy of his attention. Nevertheless, Rigal was now distracted and focused on a non-existent internal enemy instead of Almus, and that was a great thing for them.

「Now, the last stronghold is Belmet… Our plan won’t succeed unless we remove that man.」

While gathering intelligence, Iarl heard countless times of Belmet’s competence.

If the rumors about his competence are true, that old man must have already realized that King Rosais has no intention of allowing Rigal Dibel to succeed to the throne.

Currently, the rumor was that Raymond Rosais would become king, but that was just speculation, it wasn’t necessarily King Rosais’s intention. Just a couple of years ago, Rigal Dibel was considered the prime candidate for the throne succession.

If Rigal Dibel became king, the Dibel territory would be added to the lands already controlled by the king, significantly increasing the king’s power. The size of the territory controlled by the king would easily surpass the combined territories of the other patrician families, effectively establishing centralization.

This was the main reason why Rigal Dibel was the top candidate for the throne succession. His abilities were irrelevant. Since Raymond’s territory was small, him becoming king wouldn’t alter the power balance between the king and the patrician families.

To achieve the Rosais Family’s cherished goal of centralization, it was necessary for Rigal to become king.

Therefore, the Dibel Family and its allies had no doubts about Rigal becoming king. People only believe what they want to believe, tend to avert their eyes from what they don’t want to see, and do not expect the situation to change so easily.

However, if Belmet had realized King Rosais’s intentions…

He would advise Rigal to enter a secret pact with King Domorgal and use his army to usurp the throne and seize Princess Julia. Since the easy path of marrying Princess Julia and receiving the throne was no more, the only option left for Rigal to obtain the throne would be the path of asking for the help of King Domorgal and become a vassal country to his country.

Rigal Dibel might appear to be a brave warrior, but he was actually a complete coward. His battle with King Ferme illustrated this clearly. He isn’t able to make a decision as grave as completely betraying his own country on his own.

At the same time, he was also extremely proud. He would find becoming a vassal of King Domorgal intolerable.

Without someone to push him, he would not be able to change his strategy or choose to become a traitor.

Moreover, Belmet was the leader of the non-blood related vassals. f Belmet were to be demoted or punished, the discontent among them would surely explode.

In any case, for Almus to secure the throne, removing Belmet was essential. To that end…

「Shall we proceed with the plan?」

◇

「Rigal-sama, there’s something I need to report…」

「What is it?」

「There’s a possibility that Belmet-dono is in collusion with Almus Aris. Recently, suspicious figures have been spotted near Belmet-dono’s mansion late at night.」

Rigal frowned. He honestly could not believe that Belmet had truly betrayed him.

Could a loyal retainer who had served him so faithfully all his life truly betray him? Rigal still wanted to believe in Belmet.

However, recently there had been increasing voices among his relatives suggesting that it might be wise to keep an eye on Belmet. It seemed prudent to place him under surveillance, even if only for appearances.

「I understand. Let’s place him under surveillance. Have two, no, three people watch overBelmet. If nothing happens in a week, then Belmet is clear.」

Thus, constant surveillance was established around Belmet’s mansion.

◇

「It worked out well.」

Iarl and his subordinate laughed. They were the witnesses who had spotted suspicious figures around Belmet’s mansion and had reported this to the blood-related vassal faction.

Of course, the two didn’t directly go to inform the vassals of the Dibel Family. Instead, they used several merchants to relay the information until it reached the merchants serving the Dibel Family vassals.

It would be difficult to find their traces unless they were thoroughly investigated. It was a somewhat risky tactic, but it seemed to have succeeded.

Rigal had taken the bait; he was beginning to suspect Belmet and had placed him under surveillance. But it still wasn’t enough.

One more push was needed.

「Now, shall we use this?」

Iarl held in his hand the carcass of a hawk. He had asked Soyon to kill this hawk using her own hawk, specifically for this purpose. Tied to the dead bird’s leg was a cylinder.

Inside the cylinder was a fake letter addressed to Belmet.

The setup was to make it appear as if the hawk carrying the letter from the Aris Family to Belmet had been intercepted by a wild hawk and died along the way.

If they could successfully show this to Rigal, he would undoubtedly become fully suspicious of Belmet. The challenge was how to present it to him.

If the letter was delivered directly to Rigal or his soldiers by his own hand, Iarl’s background would inevitably be scrutinized. Even though the period during which he operated as a merchant in the territory and the time when defectors emerged in Rigal’s camp were slightly different, there was enough overlap to be suspicious.

Moreover, a rigorous investigation would likely reveal that all the defectors had met with Iarl at some point.

That would be dangerous for him and undo all their efforts. He would have to use a more subtle method…

◇

In Dibel territory, a market was held once a month. Merchants gathered to conduct their business.

There was a specific road that all merchants had to take to reach the market.

「All we need to do is leave it here, and a passing merchant will deliver it for us.」

In the early morning, before sunrise, Iarl and his subordinate arrived at the road and placed the hawk’s carcass there. Every merchant could read at a basic level and would understand what a cylinder tied to a hawk’s leg meant.

The merchant would quickly realize it was something important and would deliver it.

Timing the placement of the carcass was critical. If he left it too early, a cat might take the carcass. If he waited too long, there might be too many merchants on the road to place it unnoticed. He had to place it at just the right time.

「Now, let’s just wait and see how it unfolds. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll just have to go back to the drawing board.」

「Indeed, let’s hope it doesn’t get snatched up by a cat.」

The two of them left.

A few minutes later, a merchant passed by and picked up the carcass of the hawk. Normally, he might have ignored it, but a strange cylinder was tied to it, which looked rather expensive.

The hawk appeared to have been attacked by another, larger hawk. It was probably an attempt to deliver a letter via hawk that got intercepted by the larger bird.

The merchant decided to deliver the cylinder. He didn’t try to peek inside.

Such cylinders were designed to reveal if they’d been tampered with, and using a hawk for delivering a letter implied it contained important information. The last thing the merchant wanted was to put himself in danger only to satiate his curiosity.

◇

The cylinder was quickly delivered to Rigal. He read the letter inside, the letter was clearly addressed to Belmet. Its contents outlined the position that would be granted to Belmet after betraying Rigal. While the sender’s name or Family crest wasn’t mentioned, the context suggested it was undoubtedly from the Aris Family or Raymond.

Rigal said quietly.

「Reward the person who brought this letter and increase the surveillance on Belmet by twenty men.」

◇

Furious, Belmet made his way to Rigal’s office. It was clear to him that he was under suspicion; twenty watchers were too many to go unnoticed.

If he didn’t clear his name, he would soon face death. Yet, he knew pleading his case with Rigal would be futile; once something got into his head, he seldom changed his mind.

Belmet was filled with rage towards Almus Aris for devising such a despicable scheme, towards Rigal for readily believing it, and with frustration at his own defeat.

「What’s wrong, Belmet?」

「Excuse me Rigal-sama. The fact is, I’m getting on in years. The path for you to become king is already set. I think it’s time for me to retire.」

With those words, Belmet left the mansion without waiting for Rigal to stop him and secluded himself in his own residence.

After losing his loyalty to Rigal, Belmet also lost the protection of Rigal’s [Blessing of The Emperor], the disease the blessing had been keeping at bay progressed rapidly, and Belmet passed away in short order.

He was eighty-two years old.

However, Belmet might have found some solace in his end. His Family was spared from involvement and thus saved.