"Morō"
"Killed?"
Harvis's words made Shien's heart tighten.
"What happened?" Shien turned his gaze toward Harvis and said gravely, "House Laifirut is Tier's mother's family, right? I heard they valued Tier's talent and had always intended to bring her back, but I never heard they wanted to kill her."
Therefore, Shien had never imagined that the information Harvis revealed would concern Tier's life and death.
Seeing Shien grow serious, Harvis also knew that his information had indeed been correct. This Viscount Poztut had an exceptionally close relationship with House Elbain's daughter.
Ordinary people would not know such information. Only someone as resourceful as Harvis could uncover it.
After all, Shien and Tier had never acted particularly close in public. Their relationship was hidden even more deeply than Shien's relationship with Roxie, so ordinary people could never have known.
Harvis had seized upon that point and concluded that Shien was someone worth cooperating with.
Thus—
"Let me start from the beginning."
Harvis considered his words before beginning his account.
"Actually, this matter begins ten years ago."
Ten years ago was precisely when the royal capital suffered an attack from the Slayer Faction of the Old Demon Faction.
According to Harvis, everything had begun then.
"Before that year, the relationship between the Empire and the Kingdom was not especially friendly, but it was nowhere near as tense as it is now," Harvis said. "Although the Empire and the Kingdom had fought several wars throughout history over their shared border, those wars were limited to the frontier and had not reached the point of affecting their domestic conditions."
Shien knew about this as well.
The Empire had been founded earlier than the Kingdom.
Because the Kingdom had been established a thousand years ago by the Hero who defeated the Demon King, and that