Wyatt Kash Fernal, whose jet-black hair was streaked with white, lay in a reclining chair in a soft silk robe. Warm sunlight streamed through the transparent glass ceiling, bathing him in its glow.
During the cold winter, Fernal enjoyed lying in the glass house after breakfast each morning, reading miscellaneous books or dealing with a few unimportant matters of state.
Unhurried footsteps sounded behind Fernal. Their familiar rhythm told him almost immediately who had arrived.
Two dutiful Imperial Palace Guards emerged among the flowers. Wearing bright silver plate armor and blue cloaks, they held out their longswords to stop the Imperial Palace Steward, Meredith, five paces from the Bohemian Emperor.
"Your Majesty, I have something to report."
Fernal did not respond immediately. He opened his eyes and stared idly for a while, amusing himself by guessing what Meredith had come to report. Only after several minutes did he lift his hand from the chair's armrest.
The four eunuch attendants standing in a corner of the Glass Garden immediately hurried over without a sound. Each took hold of one corner of the reclining chair, and together they smoothly turned Fernal 180 degrees on the spot to face Meredith.
Once that was done, the four eunuch attendants backed away.
"What is it?"
"There was an assassination attempt in Noble City at two o'clock this morning."
"Oh? Who died?"
Fernal was accustomed to such things and thought little of Meredith's report. Security inside Noble City might have been tight, but the place was crawling with petty schemers. Trouble was inevitable when so many nobles gathered together.
Assassinations happened in Noble City practically every year, claiming seven or eight noble scions or heads of households annually.
That was also the main reason the Bohemian Emperor had established Noble City and herded the landed and court nobility into it.
All the better if they fought. If they did not, Fernal would have to wonder whether those fellows gathering together so amicably were planning to replace their emperor.
Subordinates tearing into one another were nothing to fear. It meant they needed an arbiter, an emperor above them to dispense justice.
But if the nobles united, the Bohemian Empire would have to rename itself the Bohemian Republic.
Relations between nobles were best admired from afar, not examined up close.
In essence, nobles who lived far apart could get along very well. Bring them close together, however, and interests, values, and all manner of other reasons would inevitably turn them into enemies.
So Meredith's report not only failed to alarm Fernal, it actually pleased him somewhat.
His position as emperor had grown a little more secure.
But Meredith's next words disappointed Fernal.
"No one died. The target was the eldest prince of the Kingdom of Bagnia."
"Oh..."
Fernal found that rather a pity, but he soon sensed something odd.
"Someone tried to assassinate the Bagnian Musician? Did he offend someone after arriving in Inyama? Or does the equipment for those infantry regiments awaiting rail shipment exist only on paper, with nothing actually in the warehouses?"
Meredith lowered his head. He understood what the emperor meant.
Was he asking whether someone had embezzled it?
And whether the embezzler had then staged an assassination attempt to conceal his actions, divert attention, and buy himself time to balance the books?
"No, Your Majesty. There are indeed discrepancies in the quantity and quality of the infantry regiments' equipment, but they are minor issues, nowhere near enough to constitute a crime."
Meredith was discreetly informing the emperor that corruption did indeed affect the weapons and equipment being transferred from the National Armory.
But the officials managing the warehouses had only skimmed a little. They had not dared to pull anything too big, so it remained a minor issue that did not warrant drastic action from the emperor.
Fernal's expression remained calm, betraying nothing of his thoughts on the matter.
"Then who tried to assassinate the musician?"
"The Inyama Police have already begun investigating the incident, but... they dare not pursue it."
"Hmm?"
Fernal's keen instincts immediately put him on his guard.
"Why not?"
"At the scene, the Patrol Unit members and police killed one assassin and captured another alive. They also found three Rifled Flintlocks... firearms supplied exclusively to the Peace Dove."
Fernal narrowed his eyes, a dangerous gleam shining within them. The sight frightened Meredith, and he hurried to explain.
"I checked the serial numbers on those three firearms. They were all issued to the Black Dove, and the Black Dove agents issued those three rifled weapons are currently out of contact.
"And the two assassins at the scene were certainly not Peace Dove agents."
Meredith hastily shifted the blame.
"So what is the truth of the matter?"
"I request Your Majesty's permission for the Peace Dove to participate in the investigation of this assassination attempt."
"Granted."
Fernal looked directly at Meredith, his face expressionless and his voice calm.
"I want the full sequence of events, especially the reason those three firearms appeared in the assassination attempt.
"I do not care whether the Bagnian Musician lives or dies. I only want to know whether the Peace Dove in Inyama has slipped out of control."
Meredith abruptly bowed his head, his face filled with fear. He knew this incident would cost lives-and many of them.
The Peace Dove was an instrument of espionage and assassination created by the Bohemian Emperor to deal with the feudal nobles within the empire who had grown too powerful to control.
And when that dagger turned back toward its master, its sharpness would become the chief reason for its destruction.
Those three Rifled Flintlocks should not have appeared in Noble City the previous night. They and the Black Dove team to which they had been assigned should have been lying low, with no active assignments.
Now those three flintlocks had been used, and the three Black Dove agents were nowhere to be found. Whether they were dead or alive, it meant someone had taken an instrument of the state and used it for private ends without authorization.
If Bagnia's eldest prince died, then so be it. There was still a younger prince in Inyama who could take his place.
But the Peace Dove slipping out of control was what truly struck a nerve with the Bohemian Emperor. It meant someone had reached out and grasped the hilt of his sword, quietly eroding his authority.
That was the main reason the Patrol Unit and police in Noble City had not dared to investigate further after discovering the three flintlocks.
They could not investigate, and they dared not. If they uncovered nothing, Fernal would exile the entire families of everyone implicated to the frontier.
If they uncovered something, the emperor would certainly kill those implicated. But before they died, those people would also be more than capable of killing the investigators and their entire families.
The appearance of those three flintlocks had escalated an assassination attempt into a political incident.
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