Witnesses, Slaughter, Master, Undercurrents

Meanwhile, just as John was racking his brains over how to deal with the Phantom Eagle Clan's retaliation.

Elsewhere, the Imperial Capital of Ereno was likewise swept up in no small disturbance.

More than a month had passed since Kevin Perus returned to the Royal Capital from Faoken and submitted that armaments review report. His report was like a stone tossed into a pond, stirring ripples of no small size within the Old Guard Party. Before this, everyone had believed that the envoy from the Western Frontier would give Faoken an "unqualified" assessment.

Yet after he concluded that it "met Imperial standards, with no obvious violations," everyone was left bewildered. Wolf had received the news immediately. After reading the report, the prime minister remained silent for a long while, then said something during an internal Cabinet meeting that none of them could quite understand: "Moses's sons cannot be trusted either."

No one pressed the prime minister on the deeper meaning of those words. Yet after the meeting ended, the Cabinet's senior members could not help speculating whether Kevin's defection had been Moses's instruction or merely his own decision.

Kevin himself offered no explanation.

After attending the Upper House session and submitting the report to the War Affairs Department, he returned directly to the Western Frontier to continue serving as the chief instructor for the training forces. What was even more thought-provoking was that Duke Mosesiris made no statement regarding his son's betrayal. He neither praised Kevin nor reprimanded him.

No one could tell what attitude the Blood Lion Duke held. At the same time, they could not help linking the Neutral Faction's concession on the armaments issue to its previous compromise over the Autonomous Region Restriction Act. Many people unaware of the truth believed this was a sign that the