"I understand."
On the abandoned watchtower, watching Wyatt's departing back, Li Corleone slowly spoke.
"His Highness has reason to believe that the murderer was one of the Long-Lived Races," he said, subtly gesturing toward Yannick. "So he suspected us?"
Yannick merely smiled and humbly stepped aside.
"There is no 'us.'"
Li fell silent for a moment.
"Perhaps His Highness does not know my race well enough," the Eastern Land member of the Blood Race said softly beneath the moonlight. "The Long-Lived Races of this world do not necessarily all have the protection of a clan. There are solitary ones abandoned by their kin, outcasts who fled their families, and even certain clansmen who secretly violate our race's laws of inheritance and privately give 'gifts' of Source Blood to outsiders, creating unregistered descendants of the Blood Race..."
Tales had never turned around.
He raised his monocular and closely watched the residential area in the distance, occasionally frowning.
"Do you know?"
But the moment the Prince opened his mouth, he interrupted Li, making the Night Kingdom's envoy's eyes turn cold.
"Since Parrot Duke's reforms and the promulgation of the Emerald City Laws, the nobles of the Southbank Territory have developed a tradition that is both shrewd and deceitful."
Tales's voice was distant. He did not lower the monocular.
"If they want someone to keep his mouth shut forever—against his will—they cannot act directly within their territory because of the law. Instead, they put him aboard a foreign oceangoing ship, take him to the high seas for a 'free tour,' and leave the rest to the Sea Shepherd Maiden."
As long as it did not happen within their territory, it had never happened.
Yannick narrowed his eyes at Li.
"Afterward, even the body cannot be found, so there is no way to investigate."