Volume 22 Sidestory 2, Settlement of the Dark Side

Dion was currently staying at the Nansen Inn.

Initially, Dion had planned to stay at the Tower Inn.

He did not think it was necessary to do as he was told by a man he did not know, but one of his subordinates advised him to leave the Tower immediately.

As it turned out, he was right, but that didn’t matter to the frustrated Dion.

However, even though he tried to ignore the advice and stay in the Tower, something happened to change the situation.

One of his men, who was waiting in the city outside the Tower, reported to him that he should contact his father immediately.

By “father,” he naturally meant Dion’s father, the current head of the Viera family.

The fact that Dion was able to move so freely was due to the tacit approval of the head of the Viera family.

However, as a condition for coming here, he was told that he had to contact his father if asked.

Since he had made that promise, he could not ignore the report.

At the inn in Nansen, he communicated with his father, Adelmo, the head of the Viera family, over a long distance.

He came all the way out from the Tower because he was uncertain whether he would be able to make contact from inside the Tower.

Moreover, it was only because of the ducal family’s financial power that communication was possible despite the distance.

Adelmo immediately answered the call using a worn-out tool that he had bought with his money.

Adelmo, who was usually so calm and composed, was unusually a little flustered.

Inwardly tilting his head, he tried to greet him, but Adelmo stopped him and immediately started talking about his business.

There was a request to pull out of the Tower immediately.

Dion was flustered by the abruptness of the request, but immediately asked why.

Adelmo, however, did not answer, but simply told him to come back.

Dion was puzzled, but he had no choice but to listen to Adelmo.

After all, the Duke’s family was paying for his stay there.

He left Nansen in full dissatisfaction, determined to come back again.

At this time, Dion had no idea that he would never be able to step into the Tower again.

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Having finished communicating with Alec, King Filip of the Kingdom of Flores immediately called the duke.

The reason why he was able to communicate directly with Alec was because Alec had previously sent him a direct communication tool.

At first, he thought it was a joke, but it was a magical tool that could communicate with Alec in the Tower at any time.

Moreover, unlike existing magic tools for communication, it was not even disposable.

Although he was skeptical at first, when he realized that it was true, he asked Alec if it could be mass-produced.

That was to be expected.

A user-friendly magic tool for communication was something that had been studied for many years, but had not yet been realized.

If it were known that such a device had been realized, the developer who succeeded in developing it would be the first to be targeted by other countries.

However, when Alec told him the reason why it could not be mass-produced, he had no choice but to give up on the idea.

The materials used in the product were extremely expensive.

They were not on the level of national treasures, but the materials used alone would have cost a fraction of what a small country would have paid for them.

The rarity of the material was one thing, but it was impossible to defeat the monsters from which it was harvested.

Filip was not foolish enough to ask who killed such monsters.

After all, Alec was in a tower that had already been conquered.

The fact that the material was taken from a monster that appeared in the tower naturally meant that the person who killed the monster was probably someone who had already conquered the tower.

There was no way they could have carelessly touched such a person.

Filip noticed that Alec was communicating with him using such an expensive communication device, and immediately asked him what he wanted.

In the first place, it was unusual for Alec to go out of his way to communicate in this way.

It was natural to assume that something happened.

And when Filip heard the request from Alec, he changed his expression to one of despair.

Alec added at the end, as if he understood his father’s distress.

“It’s not something to worry about right now. Rather, he probably already lost interest in it. But what could happen next time… I don’t want to think about it.”

Filip nodded deeply at his son’s words and thanked him even more deeply.

“I see. I’m sorry. I appreciate you letting me know.”

“No. I want to reduce trouble here as much as possible.”

Filip thanked Alec once again for telling him so, and then immediately started to act.

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“Get your son out of the Tower immediately.”

Filip, who had called Adelmo, quickly cut him off without saying anything else.

“What…?”

Adelmo understood what Filip meant and immediately started to argue… But he was unable to speak because the king turned his palm toward him.

“I understand what you want to say. I have no authority to restrict your son’s actions… But when it comes to matters of state, that is a different story.”

“…What do you mean?”

Adelmo asked, unsure of what Filip had said.

To probe, of course.

And Filip, too, had nothing to hide from Adelmo on this matter, so he quickly told him what was going on.

“…If it was just an adventurer or a merchant from this country, it would be a different story. But the person in question is the heir to a duke’s family, I can’t just ignore it.”

Adelmo’s face paled slightly after hearing all the details from Filip.

Filip was somewhat taken aback by the duke’s expression, as he would not normally show such an expression.

“Well, how in the world did you get that information…?”

Adelmo was still not aware of this information, so he naturally wondered how Filip had been able to obtain it.

“You know that I have my own channels, don’t you? Rather than that, you should quickly call your son back, as I said before. I don’t want a reenactment of the city of Sajival in this country.”

What happened in Sajival had already spread around the world.

And, of course, so was the cause of it.

That was why each country had spies acting as investigators, but they were limited to gathering information.

They understood that any unnecessary espionage would be met with retaliation.

Naturally, this information was passed on to Adelmo.

“Well, you know… Can’t they just leave the Tower? Instead of going back to the country.”

Adelmo advised, and Filip’s expression turned doubtful.

“Hmm? Well, that would be fine, wouldn’t it?”

“Well, in that case, finding Princess Floria is…”

Adelmo, who wanted to get blessing into his house somehow, really wanted to find Floria and turn it into a fact.

“Oh, I see. I haven’t told you yet that Floria is already in the hands of the Tower Managers, have you?”

“Wha… What?”

Adelmo was astonished by the information suddenly brought to him.

“Well, I’m sorry. I had informed the members of each of her former fiancée’s families, so I thought you would have been informed as well.”

Adelmo’s shoulders slumped in an exaggerated manner at the King’s apologetic words, knowing inwardly that he was lying.

Adelmo’s mind was not so weak that he could not comprehend what Filip said.

“…I see.”

“Mm. I’m uncertain if that’s a good thing or a bad thing for this country, but… Well, as long as we don’t make any unnecessary moves, it should be fine. That’s why I’m asking you to take care of that matter.”

With that, Filip ended the meeting with Adelmo.

After seeing Adelmo off with an indescribable expression on his face, Filip made arrangements to make sure he knew what to do next, and then started his next task.