Location: A Private Room in The Velstand Grand Hotel

Time: 6:30 PM, January 15th 2108

Obviously, I was aware that Prince Eren Esterhaert was visiting Velstand. Officially he was here to take part in a trade conference between Velstand and the Pacific Empire, but the unspoken truth was that he was here to push for Velstand’s admittance to the Empire. There were even plenty of rumors about him trying to use underhanded methods to accomplish his goal. None of them are confirmed though.

Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Prince Eren has received a lot of support from the BAA and the reformists in the senate that oppose Prime Minister Oldridge. With their support, Prince Eren hasn’t had to worry about anything he does becoming more than a rumor.

Either way, I couldn’t begin to predict how much of those rumors are true. While I think it’s safe to assume the Prince has gotten his hands dirty to forward his agenda, I also don’t doubt that the Prime Minister is above framing him. Besides, with how close the Prime Minister has become to that monster of a princess I don’t think anyone should blindly trust him.

All that being said, him having Kathrin bring me to his hotel room for a private meeting is beyond suspicious. Why would he be working with the Kaldsen family? If what I’ve heard has any truth to it they should be one of his primary enemies.

“Why did you call for me? I might not yet hold any official positions, but I will still do what needs to be done to uphold the morals of this city.”

I was resting my hand on the hilt of my longsword as I made my declaration. I wasn’t trying to hold it in an overtly threatening manner, but I wanted the prince to know that I wasn’t ruling out the possibility of him being a threat.

Compared to my tense stance he was leaning back at his desk far more casually than I’d expect from a royal.

“You are going to serve us.” He threw a phone at me; which I caught without thinking. “We will contact you when there is something that needs done. That’s all. Leave now. You seem to be the dreadfully boring type, so we’d rather not waste any more time with you.”

“What kind of nonsense is this? Why would I serve you?” I’m referred to as boring so often I decided not to focus on that part of what the prince had to say. “I’m not sure what kind of relationship you had with my father, but my only goal is to serve this city.”

“Then that’s your reason. We are the only hope this city has, but we’re not going to waste time convincing you. You will come to that realization on your own.”

His eyes focused on a piece of paper on his desk. He was clearly trying to draw my attention to it. It was a class register of the ATC, with pictures of all of the students involved. Most of the pictures were blank, but some had childish scribbles on them. Emelia Emin was covered in flowers while Hana was almost entirely scribbled out. Then there were three circled pictures. Kathrin Kaldsen, Devesh Darnal, and myself.

“What is that supposed to be?”

“One of our tools is incredibly lucky. We had her guess which of you would serve us.”

“And you think that will convince me?” It was almost insulting.

“How you come to serve us is not our concern. We only care that you will. Now begone. There is no meaning for this conversation to continue.”

“Yeah, that’s finally something we can agree on.”

I left the room without another word. Looking back, even though his behavior was incredibly disrespectful and childish, it was still rude of me to lower myself to his level.

“I look forward to working with you, partner.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Kathrin was waiting for me in the hall of the hotel.

“You can’t be serious. I have no intention of doing anything for that man. And honestly, I can’t fathom why the Kaldsen family would either.”

“Ha? You think I’m here because of my family? Well, guess that’s right, but not for the reason you’re thinking. If my father or older siblings knew I was planning on working with him they’d put me on house arrest.” Kathrin’s eyes opened wider than normal, and the abnormal excitement usually found in her voice was gone.

On one hand that made sense with what I knew of the situation. I already determined that the Kaldsen family would never help the prince. But on the other it just made things even more confusing. Why would Kathrin be working toward the detriment of her family?

“Why are you doing this? I imagine he must have had something more to tempt you than me.”

“Nope. He didn’t tempt me with anything. I already know what I want, and I realized following him would bring me to it faster than anything else. I’m sure it was the same for Devesh. You’re the one who’s acting pointlessly obstinate. People like you just can’t be honest.”

“Loyalty is not the same as obstinance. I will not just accept this. I’m going to file everything I’ve heard in a report to the Ministry of Investigation and Defense.”

Kathrin pushed off the wall she was leaning against and slid toward me. I flinched for a moment as she crossed the threshold of my sword’s effective range, but sensing no hostility I let her move to within centimeters of me.

“Say, Grant, whatever happened to your father and brother?”

I didn’t acknowledge her attempts at getting under my skin with an answer.

“Oh, that’s right. They were killed by my sister’s agency, weren’t they? Do you even know why? I’m not talking about the official reason; I’m talking about the real reason. Do you know why the ARA got the orders to eliminate them? I’m sure you’ve been thinking about that a lot, but the real reason is far less interesting.”

“Do you know?”

I knew it was bait, but I took it. If she knew the truth I was caught either way.

“Of course. When you have a sister as loose lipped as mine you can hear a lot of things. Listen to this.” Kathrin’s face got even closer to my ear while she started resting her hand on my shoulder. I doubt it was intentional, but the shoulder she was grabbing started to get unnaturally hot. “Turns out, the ARA didn’t even kill your father. It was Hana, but after realizing the mess she was in she asked Vier to take the blame for her. And wouldn’t you know it, Vier decided to protect her.”

I brushed her hand off and tried to take a step back; bumping into the wall.

“Why would Hana kill my father?” Hana and Vier were numbers. They weren’t people. She wouldn’t have acted without instruction to do so.

Kathrin moved forward, once again entering deep into my personal space. Every breath she took burnt the edges of my ear.

“You know how she gets about protecting Oakley, right? Well, apparently Allison told her that your father planned on killing Oakley, so Hana took him out without question. A little overeager if you ask me.”

“What does Allison have to do with any of this? Why would she lie about my father?”

I was aware that Allison’s sister was a woman of immoral character, but Allison herself seemed to feel the same way. I doubt that she was involved with anything her sister had planned.

“Who knows? Maybe you should ask her about it. That’s all I know, so let’s move on to talking about your brother. He wasn’t even a part of the BAA, so why did he get done in?”

“Just tell me already. I’m not interested in whatever game you’re trying to play.”

“He found your father’s death suspicious, so he used some back channels at MID to find out the truth. After that he actually was killed by the ARA. Apparently they determined that him knowing the truth of his father’s death made him a risk.”

“That’s it?” Ignoring the absolute injustice behind my father’s murder, my brother was killed for such a meaningless reason? They thought that he might be a risk after learning the truth?

“That’s it. But hey, now that I think about it, aren’t you in a similar situation? If anyone found out that I told you what happened to your father, wouldn’t they consider you a risk, just like your brother?”

I finally pushed her off of me.

“Is that a threat? Did you tell me that just to try and blackmail me?” A foolish notion. I’d rather die than let myself be compromised.

Kathrin shrugged.

“Of course not. You really are dense, huh? I bet this is a comparison that you’ll really hate, but you’re a lot like my sister. Too serious, completely unable to understand the situation. I was just giving you a warning. If you still wanted to file a report to the ministry that killed your family, go ahead. Just know that you’ll be the only victim.”

Kathrin started to walk away, but she turned around while boarding the elevator at the end of the hall.

“You know, if you want my advice, you should think about what you really want before you do anything rash. But make sure to get a good night’s sleep. We have practical tests tomorrow.”

Kathrin’s voice returned to the normal happy go lucky tone I was used to as the elevator doors shut in front of her.