Avenge the Emperor, Avenge His Highness Hilde

The Empire's politics had always been treacherous. Now that Hilde was dead, they had become even harder to predict.

Ryan could not see what anyone stood to gain from it.

"His Highness Hilde was a member of the Enric family and Lord Lais's child. His birth gave him an exalted position, and he led the Enric faction."

"With him dead, the Enrics will seek revenge like mad. The Black Swan Assassin killed him, so their vengeance will ultimately fall on the Church of Dawn."

"So no one benefits from Hilde's death. That's why the Imperial Nobles never thought he would be killed."

"But his death does have victims."

"The Church of Dawn... The Enric members of the Imperial House now have an overwhelming desire for revenge against the Church of Dawn. This 'assassination' has destroyed every hope they had left. And Emperor Columbus IV bears an irreconcilable hatred for the Church of Dawn too."

Ryan looked up, struck by a sudden thought. Hilde's death seemed to have united the Imperial House.

"What the hell? After all that, Hilde, the man who stole the Magic Crystal Cannon, was actually on the Emperor's side?"

"Did the Emperor know?"

The Emperor probably... didn't. Why had Hilde gone so far on his own?

Ryan realized Count Gardner appeared to have been used. But the count had been too timid, and the matter had ended up in Ryan's hands.

Hilde had probably resented Ryan and Gardner for disrupting his plans. So he had died in Calais Province, taking care to choose a place with lovely scenery.

"Whew!"

Ryan took a deep breath. The old man could hold a grudge.

Still, for the sake of the Magic Crystal Cannon, Ryan decided to let it go.

He had made this trip for profit, after all. He had