Near Duchy of Blair, in the forest path.
A flash of shining armor appeared briefly among the low, crowded bushes, then disappeared again.
Shortly after, several cloth-covered carts pulled by donkeys appeared, making a loud sound.
“Keep your position.”
When the knight commander raised his hand, the knights who were lurking in ambush prepared themselves.
Once the chariots arrived directly in front of them, the knights moved in perfect coordination at the commander's signal, surrounding the caravan.
“W-Who are you?!”
The few mercenaries who were hired as guards instinctively resisted, but the trained knights were impossible to overcome.
In less than five minutes, everyone, including the convoy leader, was forced to kneel on the ground.
"Oh my God! The Duchy of Blair?!"
The caravan leader's face turned pale when he recognized the crest engraved on the knights' swords – it was the crest of the ducal family.
For knights from a noble family to personally launch a raid like this, it usually meant something directly harmful to the land or family.
But no matter how much he thought about it, he did nothing that could harm Blair.
“Please, there must be something wrong. We are only delivering some items that we were assigned to bring to the Duchy of Blair. We are not even selling them here!”
While the caravan leader was begging in confusion, a horse stopped in front of him.
The one who got off the horse was none other than Liam, the Duke's right-hand man.
“What kind of goods do you transport?”
“M-Most of them are scattered, unrelated things.”
Liam's eyes turned to the cars.
When the knights pulled back the cloth covers and began to search, they found that they were actually filled with ordinary things – threads, needles, and sharpening stones.
I am waiting. You are there, stay still.
Liam approached one of the vehicles and issued an order.
“Empty everything.”
“Yes sir!”
The caravan leader looked anxiously at the knights as they unloaded the carriage.
Soon after, the floor of the carriage was revealed – or rather, a securely fastened panel.
I am waiting!
Before the confused caravan leader could say anything, Liam slammed the sheath of his blunt sword, piercing the wood to reveal the hidden contents.
Inside were thermos mugs and bottles, all designed by April herself.
“Bring His Highness the Duke.”
With a curt order from Liam, the knights moved quickly.
Shortly afterwards, Duke Blair rode into the place on his handsome black horse.
His face showed clear signs of exhaustion from overwork, but that did not diminish the oppressive aura that weighed down on everyone who was present.
“That's it?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The Duke took one of the cups out of the cart, threw it on the floor, and stepped on it.
break!
The fake cup couldn't bear the force, and shattered pitifully.
“As I expected.”
It was a counterfeit product.
With cold eyes, Kaiyan stared at the kneeling caravan leader and questioned him.
"What is this?"
“H-heck…”
The caravan leader, his face as pale as dead, stammered in making an excuse.
“This… someone asked us to deliver it to the Duchy of Blair. We just accepted the mission – we don’t know the details!”
“That's all you have to say?”
"This is the truth! Please believe me!"
“…We will get a more detailed statement later. Take them away now.”
“I am innocent, Your Highness!”
As the knights were pulling the captured group away, Liam, who was still inspecting the rest of the carriage's contents, found something and raised an eyebrow.
“Your Highness, one moment please.”
He approached Kayan, holding a newspaper in his hand.
Kane took the paper and read the bolded titles.
The article claiming that thermal mugs and bottles spread disease included completely unfounded claims.
But most importantly...
“Again, lady elegance.”
There was a meaningful tone in his voice.
* * *
I made an appointment to meet Baroness Bavron again, and then returned to the Grand Duke's residence for the time being.
The Grand Duke must have gathered his own information during that period, and even if we parted again, sharing what we knew so far was an essential step that we could not skip.
Where is His Highness the Grand Duke?
“He just came back and went straight to his office.”
"Thanks!"
After ascertaining the whereabouts of the Grand Duke of Bonita, I went to his office in my outer clothing as I was.
Knock knock.
“Come in.”
As soon as his voice answered my knock, I quickly opened the door and entered.
“Oh…”
Then she suddenly stopped near the entrance.
Because-
My eyes met the Grand Duke, who was in the middle of the office taking off his heavy armor, obviously just coming back from outside.
“If you were in the middle of changing, you should have told me to come back later...”
He wasn't completely naked, but it was impossible to ignore the toned muscles that were showing through his baggy shirt.
I forced my eyes away from him, which kept wanting to return to him, and I blinked rapidly as I fixed my gaze on the carpet.
“I'm just taking off my armor, that's all.”
“Still...”
Watching a handsome man strip down like a model for a photo shoot – it made my heart skip a beat before I knew it!
Are people who are born with beautiful appearance unaware of their influence on others?
Besides, the only attractive and well-built men I knew were the Grand Duke and Ian, so I had almost no immunity to this kind of thing.
As I stood there confused, unsure of what to do, the Grand Duke put down his sword and sat down comfortably on the nearby sofa.
“Was your meeting with the Empress fruitful?”
His tone was dry and indifferent.
She let out a deep sigh in response.
“Well… not quite. She said that if this wasn’t resolved quickly, she would charge me.”
"…Is this correct?"
“Yes, you really scared me.”
Honestly, it wasn't that bad...but I exaggerated a little.
The Grand Duke was the only person I could expose myself to without worrying about jeopardizing anyone's livelihood, because he was not personally invested in the business.
I sat on the couch opposite him, resting my chin on my hand and furrowing my eyebrows.
“What if I end up in the Imperial Palace Prison or something?”
“It won't happen.”
“How can you be so sure? His Highness the Crown Prince might think that this is the perfect opportunity to set a suspicious trap for me!”
I still feel uncomfortable about rejecting the Crown Prince's offer during our last meeting, I mumbled annoyed.
At that, the Grand Duke frowned deeply.
'Hmm?'
Did I say something wrong?
I immediately felt bad that I might be bothering my stingy employer, and looked at him nervously.
Given the situation, he was probably more sensitive than usual.
Because I didn't want to anger him further, I quickly changed the subject.
“Anyway... I heard something strange when I went to meet Baroness Bavron.”
When I told him the news from the Marchioness Stefan, he nodded.
“…While the Princess was in the capital, she traced the whereabouts of the painters who had resigned, and ascertained that most of them headed to the Marchioness of Stefan.”
So you were right.
This would explain how Stefan's family was able to put together a comic book so quickly.
However, we did not have enough evidence to accuse them of spreading rumors about our business.
At best, we can now reasonably assume that they attracted young painters as our reference. But there is no other explanation.
While I was deep in thought, I caught a glimpse of the Grand Duke and noticed a particularly complex expression on his face.
“Your Highness.”
“……?”
“Is something wrong? Your facial expression...”
I asked him carefully, and he quickly removed the worried look on his face and shook his head as if nothing had happened.
“No, oh, and while you were in D.C., we caught another group trying to bring counterfeit mugs and thermos into the Blair District...”
"Wait. Again? I thought you caught one group last time. Wasn't that the end of it?"
“It seems like someone is systematically distributing it throughout the empire.”
“Have you found out who is behind this?”
I thought maybe there would be some progress, since they had already caught two groups.
But the Grand Duke's answer was not as optimistic as I had hoped.
"The merchants transporting the goods were unaware of anything. Even the address given by their customer turned out to be fake – as if someone expected to be arrested."
They were more accurate than I thought.
At the same time, it made me wonder if Stefan's family was the real culprit.
It was suspicious that the timeline matched the time they started a comic book business, but I couldn't understand why they would go to such lengths to sabotage our other projects out of spite.
“Um.”
I kept racking my brain to find a connection between all these problems, and then his voice came back again.
“But… there is one thing that bothers me.”
"Huh? What's going on?"
“The person who submitted the article about the harmful effects of blackout curtains, thermoses, and thermoses.”