Rebirth Online World

Polymath Redux – The man known as Prince
Chapter XLIV

To many it was a sudden unannounced visit from a forgotten prodigy but to Katy Granate she had feared that this day would eventually come. Standing before her was a slender man with a devilishly handsome face. He leaned back against the open windowsill and peered down at the numerous knights training amongst one another. His long silver hair fluttered in the wind like glittering silk as charming but devious smile etched forward.

“Y- your highness… it’s a bit troublesome for you to suddenly visit like this.”

“My, Lady Katy, you wound me. It almost sounds as though you don’t want me here.”

The first prince, Leon Crom had come down to the knight training barracks to visit an old acquaintance. Katy Granate and Leo Crom, the two had been acquainted since birth, no, more than just acquainted at one time they had both been engaged, though it had since been revoked by the prince’s wishes just soon before he disappeared many years ago.

“No, nothing of the sort. It’s just that I’m kind of in the middle of training my subordinates. So perhaps if you could visit at a later time that would be for the best.”

Before giving Katy an answer the first prince noticed an odd black bird sitting across on an adjacent roof. A bird that appeared to have been charred black yet as the dark is to the night this was simply its natural color scheme. The prince was no bird watching expert but the colors didn’t appear artificially induced. So then why was the prince so fixated on the color of this seemingly harmless bird? That’s because such birds of this coloration did not naturally exist in this part of the country, at least none that he was aware of.

“I see, then please forgive my sudden unannounced intrusion. I must have stirred quite a bit of trouble for you; coming back after all of these years. I apologize.”

The prince walked across the small meeting room and stood before a shelf with some decorative weapons. Some orient blades, knives and other such ornate weaponry that were ill advised for actual battle. Acting as though he were check up on the conditions of these decorative weapons the prince picked up a small knife suitable to be thrown.

“I would be lying to say that I wasn’t particularly troubled but I also don’t mean to say that I’m unhappy that you’ve come to visit me.”

Katy answered with a sigh. She was still unsure of how things would proceed in regards to her arranged marriage with prince now that he had publicly returned. After five long years even she would have trouble accepting the prince’s proposal to have them become engaged again when she’s finally resigned herself with a life of military service.

The prince walked back up to the windowsill with the decorative knife in hand and proceeded to throw it towards the bird. The knife flew in an elegantly projected arc and struck the black bird directly. This seemingly random and barbaric action from the prince had made Katy panicked, wondering if his mood had somehow become sour from what she was saying.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s just that it seems this conversation was being eavesdropped upon. As proof of that the black bird that I struck with the knife has dissipated, see?”

Katy leered out the window to confirm that the bird she had seen had disappeared and left nothing but the afterimages of black smoke. ‘Someone was spying on me? No, it would be the First Prince that was being spied on.’ Katy came to such a conclusion.

“How did you know that wasn’t a real bird?”

“Like the sun, birds around Xagontetia exude a more exotic color, mostly in the orange spectrum due to the natural mana of this city. Birds in the shade of black are do not naturally exist around these parts. You should do well to remember that Commander Katy, you never know in which way enemy forces would be trying to gather intelligence on your army.”

“I shall keep that in mind, thank you for the advice.”

Katy replied with a graceful bow.

“In any case, next time I’ll try to find a more suitable time and have it arranged before hand when visiting but since I’m already here I’ve a certain proposal for you.”

At hearing those words Katy swallowed to clear her throat and prepare for whatever was about to be said. Noticing the tension filling up within her from the anticipation of his words Leo let out a small giggle to put her at ease.

“You don’t have to be so tense; it’s not about the marriage, I’ve come for a different proposal today. But well, we don’t know who could be eavesdropping at this moment; we already found one, so just to be safe I’ll leave this envelope here so be sure to read it after I’m gone.”

The prince withdrew a small white envelope on the table.

“Personally I would’ve liked to stay a bit longer but I cannot distract you you’re your duties for too long so I’ll be leaving now. Then I’ll be expecting to hear from you soon.”

Said the prince as he left Katy Granate in the small meeting room.

…

A large underground complex housed at the basement of the Royal Knight Commission HQ, kept secret from the general populace, this was the place that Tau was being kept. By order of the king himself the ordinary prison was ill-suited to detain a ‘hero’ even if he was a ‘rejected’ one. The king still desired the power that the Hero was capable of using, the power that signified their goddess: Xagon. With such power under his control he thought it would do well to balance the powers that had been awfully tilted in a certain minister’s favor as of late.

To this end the king had allowed a moderate amount of ‘roughing up’ of the hero if it meant that they could get a definite answer from him regarding the case. Physical injuries and such could be easily fixed up and any enmity could also be patched up through careful and considerate dialogue. In all honesty this investigation was merely for the sake of sating the anger from the church faction and proving to the public without a doubt that the hero was innocent, he didn’t particularly care about finding out the truth for his own. In other words this was all merely theatrics.

So being informed the king’s intentions, the Royal Knights were understandably surprised to see Morgana knocking at their gates. The Royal knights were a force specifically under the king so to them Morgana wasn’t particularly an enemy. After all it was she who publicly bashed the church and knocked them down a peg so she was considered a mutual ‘ally’ of the king’s faction. Due to this they were rather unsure of how to handle this situation but for now they had allowed her to enter the premises.

Their common enemy was the church who was banging on about lynching the hero for the murder of their leader. Thus if Morgana could help them prove his innocence in a way that also helped the king’s cause.

“I can’t say that I wasn’t expecting you. But welcome nonetheless.”

The Supreme Commander, Vladimir Zandora greeted Morgana and gave an accusatory glare towards Alice.

“Thank you.”

Morgana replied with a pleasant smile and handshake.

“I’m guessing you want to see the prisoner.”

“Yes, if possible.”

The Commander gave out a defeated sigh and nodded.

“Very well. Perhaps you’ll have a better shot at cracking this case than us.”

Having spent the entirety of yesterday and today at interrogating Tau, the supreme commander was getting tired of it all. Knowing of Morgana’s reputation and intelligence the supreme commander decided to let her in on the case. He understood that the king wanted to be able to control the hero but with the protests from the church it would be lucky if they could just keep him alive.

It was true that the church’s power had waned considerably after the death of the Grand Cardinal. However they still commanded a respectable amount of power and in this case they even had a justified reason to protest to the king. In most situations the king could have easily shut them up but this case was a little different, namely because the hero was being treated as a ‘rejected’ hero and thus invalid. Under such circumstances the king had a hard to just keeping the church at bay thus Commander Vladimir had arbitrarily decided to borrow the wisdom of the ‘saint’.

‘Better the hero stay alive to become useful to the king than to let the church kill him,’ he thought.

Morgana, accompanied by Grimal and Alice were taken down underneath the Royal Knight HQ, on their way they were lightly briefed on the outlines of the case. A large underground complex was built beneath the city that even Mordred didn’t know about as his information gathering was limited to things that happened above ground. It would be possible to warp everyone’s memories and break Tau out of here using Grimal’s temporary mind control but that had a lot of associated problems, namely what happens after the effect wears off. However the major problem was that these soldiers were more different than the weak nobles at the Baliazoural Empire, these were highly trained soldiers and with Grimal’s level being relatively low it was too risky to use it outright.

On the way to the room that Tau was being held captive the view of another guest that had arrived beforehand entered their sights. A tall slender man with silver hair; the first prince, Leo Crom had also come with similar intentions to Morgana. When he noticed their approach he came up to them to greet them as he was also rather curious about the famous ‘saint’.

“Greetings, you must be Lady Daltress, it is an honor to finally see you.”

Prince Leo walked up gave her a small peck to the back of her wrist as a gesture of pleasantries.

“Oh my, I’m honored you knew my name. It is a tremendous opportunity to meet such an esteemed personage like yourself, Prince Leo.”

The two exchanged a deep gaze into each other’s eyes as they were looking up at similar existences. At the moment they spoke each other’s name without even being formally introduced to one another, they had recognized just what kind of person the other was.

Interrupted by a sudden cough by Commander Vladimir the two escaped each other’s hypnosis and continued on with the task they were originally here for. That was to prove Tau’s innocence and it was important to note who it was that was actually able to do it first as the two represented different parties. If the prince was successful first then Tau would be naturally inclined to join the king’s party while if it was Morgana then she would be able to further bolster her position in the country. As such they were both allies against the church and rivals in the search for the truth.

As they continued to move towards their destination Prince Leo posed a curious question to Morgana. In the guise of friendly conversation the prince asked.

“Say, do you know of any birds that are deathly black in color?”

“A black bird? Perhaps you’re referring to a ‘crow’?”

Morgana answered, to which the Prince returned a pleasant smile.

“Ah, they are crows, I see. Having been away from the country for a while I’ve forgotten much about the native species of this country. Thank you for enlightening me.”

“Haah… no problem?”

They continued the rest of the way in silence but an uncomfortably pleasant grin was on the prince’s face. A fact that was slightly worrying for Morgana but decided to ignore that fact for the time being, it was not time for the main event. They were both led to an adjacent room to better view the captive. He was being suspended by his arms and with minor bruises but other than looking uncomfortable he was relatively well kept.

“Tau!”

Alice shouted as she clung to the bars of the cell.

“A, Alice?”

Tau gazed up weakly and saw the cavalcade of people that had appeared.

“Hmm~ So it was him after all…”

Prince Leo whispered under his breath as he observed the ‘hero’ with a satisfied grin.

Morgana too observed but with a slightly differing perspective to everyone else. Since she was well aware of who the truth culprit was the things that she paid attention to were naturally different. For the most part she had come here to check up on how Tau was being treated, and as expected there was some level of caution. This was the ideal situation that Mordred had wanted to set up for the next stage of the plans.

He held the stigma of ‘rejected’ hero thanks to the repulsion trap that Mordred had set up. This was all in preparation for the next act; once Morgana had confirmed the situation her next task was her usual theatrics; she would proclaim that she had absolute trust in the hero and that she was willing to suffer through the same fate should she be wrong. Doing this she would garner the trust from both the hero and admiration from the populace due to her courage.

That was the plan… however…

“This man is innocent.”

A single statement came from Prince Leo’s mouth that had put a halt on Morgana’s plans.