Chapter 43: The Bad Cop

Holding the new sword, I raised it high so all the nobles gathered in the hall could see.

“Anplus! Anplus!”

The chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling swayed, casting a soft light on my blackened breastplate.

My thin summer cloak fluttered endlessly under the wind magic.

My mood was astonishingly refreshed.

A natural smile spread across my face.

The only slight regret was that this occasion wasn’t solely for me.

Lord Argantius sent me a glance.

An uncharacteristic guilt flickered momentarily on his face.

I took it as an apology for fulfilling a promise that, depending on the perspective, could be seen as deception or exploitation.

“It’s fine.”

I muttered to myself.

Hearing cheers again in the very place where I had once fallen was enough.

I looked at the imperial envoy group.

The envoys, unwittingly used, bit their lips hard as they watched me.

Especially the leader with silver hair and green eyes wore an expression as if he’d been struck.

He kept glancing at the scale breastplate worn by the sky-blue officer-mage beside him.

“How did he cut that?”

“A mere knight captured an ancient?”

I heard them murmuring among themselves.

We had succeeded in seizing the initiative.

Just as I thought that, Argantius spoke.

“We have much time given to us, but there are matters that must be resolved swiftly. Anplus!”

“Yes, Your Lordship.”

“Attend well to the envoy leader. With Ribelia absent, you must represent the house.”

“I shall obey.”

At those words, not only the envoys but even the nobles in the hall looked startled.

“Is he really entrusting the negotiation?”

“Does this mean he’s backing him with power again?”

“I can’t fathom the lord’s intentions.”

“Perhaps he has no intention of negotiating at all.”

“The young master must handle it well.”

“What? The negotiation? Or breaking it off?”

Even as the lord’s son, entrusting a knight without a single official title with negotiations against the imperial family was unprecedented.

Even I thought so.

For now, I couldn’t disobey the lord in this setting, so I had answered affirmatively.

But I knew nothing proper about negotiations.

I had been a diligent model student, but the education and knowledge up to age fifteen were merely at a cultured level—I knew nothing of diplomatic phrasing, rhetoric, procedures, or laws.

I couldn’t employ strategies like Ribelia, who cleverly exploited imperial law to seize rights to the Serenus Marsh.

The green-eyed noble leading the imperial envoys alternated glances between me and the lord.

His pupils trembled almost like spasms.

“A negotiation with a mere knight? With that grotesque armored brute?”

Muttering curses under his breath, he looked up at Argantius.

The moment their eyes nearly met, he flinched in horror and turned his face away.

It was natural.

From his hair color, he seemed close to pureblood, but with different eye color, he wasn’t direct lineage.

He lacked the bloodline to meet ‘Elector Lord Argantius’ directly.

Of course, he likely thought meeting ‘a crippled mage who can’t use magic’ was beneath him too.

I fastened the bestowed sword to my empty left hip.

Due to its increased thickness, it was over 1kg heavier than the standard knight sword I had used.

I approached him first.

He bit his lip once more and said.

“Pleasure to work with you. Sir Anplus. Shall we proceed upstairs?”

I glanced at the corridor between the pillars.

One valet and two administrators were sending anxious looks.

“Follow me.”

I led them upstairs.

From the hall beside the corridor, song from the starting banquet drifted over.

The green-eyed man followed me with two administrators and one knight.

“The rest, enjoy the banquet.”

***

Yes.

The valet guided me to a reception room on the second floor of the mansion.

The valet led, I followed one step behind, and the silver-haired envoy leader two steps further back.

Clack clack clack.

The administrator’s shoes echoed high and clear.

The valet lowered his voice to a whisper.

So faint that even I, one step away, could barely hear.

“I know you’re flustered.”

I gave a slight nod in response.

The valet continued.

“But His Lordship believed your method was needed, which is why he placed you here.”

Hearing that, I took a deep breath.

Yes, if he sent me to such a place, there must be an image of me he trusted.

If he doesn’t trust me, I can only trust him who trusted me.

I don’t know exactly what to do, but I’ll just do what I can.

The valet stopped before the reception room.

Simple refreshments were prepared inside.

The envoy leader and I sat facing each other.

The valet brewed steaming tea and poured a cup for each.

The two administrators sat facing each other at the long side table and pulled out documents.

I looked at the man before me, inwardly tense.

Silver hair neatly tied back, sparkling green eyes, suit impeccably clean like a model noble.

Soon, he spoke in a resigned tone.

“I am Kirie Harcheto Preclarus. Pleasure to work with you.”

Hearing that middle and last name, I drew a small breath.

Branch families—offshoots—use the middle name of the superior house they split from as their last name.

I hadn’t heard of Harcheto, but Preclarus was the imperial family’s name.

He was undoubtedly the closest mixed-blood branch to the imperial family.

Finishing verbal introduction, he drew an ornately decorated dagger from his breast pocket and cut his palm.

Blood verification.

Mixed-blood, but quite impressive color.

“Anplus Intezeron Intezeruto. The pleasure is mine.”

He nodded with a peculiar expression.

I drew my rugged combat dagger from my belt and cut my palm.

Blue blood sparkled transparently like top-grade aquamarine.

Seeing that color, Kirie let out a small exclamation.

“Your bloodline, at least, is genuine. Sir Anplus.”

“Thank you. Lord Kirie.”

“Yet judging by your attire, it suits neither that bloodline nor this occasion. How about showing a bit more courtesy to each other?”

This morning, I had heard the lord’s message via the valet.

Brief advice on attire and certain behaviors.

There was a reason for walking the Hall of Glory in full armor before being sent to the negotiation.

I cautiously inferred that reason.

Believing Lord Argantius knew I would think this way.

Finally, I glanced at the documents our administrator brought.

Filled with lists of damages from construction delays.

Some sentences openly mentioned monster-inflicted harm.

A negotiation with little to gain and much to concede.

No need for our side to placate.

“I believe this is sufficient courtesy toward you.”

Having confirmed that, I spoke as it came.

“Is that the official position of Intezeruto toward Preclarus?”

Kirie asked, green eyes flashing.

The administrator tilted documents to show me.

From certain words that should never appear in diplomatic settings and the administrators’ expressions, I reaffirmed my role.

In my previous life, there was a strategy called good cop, bad cop.

When cop 1 pushes unreasonably hard, cop 2 pretends to restrain cop 1 while gaining favor from the opponent.

Having experienced cop 1, the opponent unconsciously favors cop 2 and confesses or accepts conditions.

Apparently, my role in this negotiation is the bad cop.

The one who frustrates with unreasonable demands.

“You said it well. Official position. Is bringing ancients to the Serenus Marsh, injuring laborers and earth mages, and delaying construction the official position of the imperial family?”

“The ancients have no relation to the imperial house. The imperial house merely sent mind-attribute mage Lobigos to prevent them from attacking the imperial house.”

I knew they’d counter with that logic.

I sneered fully.

“Seems you failed to prevent properly.”

Kirie gritted his teeth.

Their administrator pulled a letter from the document pile and glanced it to Kirie.

Yes.

I mentally rotated and read the handwriting, thinking of it as a picture.

It was a report submitted by a knight.

From contents like surprise attack, ancient escape, knight assault—it seemed written by a knight serving Ventios.

Reading it, Kirie glared at me like a volcano about to erupt.

“Anyway, the past is the past. Didn’t we gather to discuss the future? Cease the lowly sarcasm and get to the point.”

Kirie said in a tone yearning to sarcasm more lowly than anyone.

I could bet next month’s dignity allowance that he didn’t consider it truly past.

“Show it.”

I answered indifferently.

Kirie sighed deeply and said.

“What do you think causes these unnecessary frictions in the border region?”

I chose words carefully.

My heart burned to answer that it was all their greed.

The conflict between imperial house and Intezeruto traced back over a hundred years before my birth.

Argantius, ascending young, dominating the house and pursuing expansion.

The imperial family, wary of such Intezeruto, used countless pretexts and threats to strip Argantius’s electoral rights—that was the start.

A relationship with the first button wrongly fastened.

All later generations like us could do was force ill-fitting clothes together.

I sipped tea and spoke.

“Lady Ribelia and Lord Sormanzer concluded negotiations last autumn.”

“Indeed.”

“Though some unpleasantness occurred, in the end—while not satisfactory—a result everyone could accept emerged.”

I drove the nail.

Declared it a satisfactory result.

Sensing ill omen, Kirie tried to seize the tail.

“Do you truly believe it was an acceptable result?”

“Yes. We Intezeruto had no choice but to endure. With the house heir kidnapped before our eyes, even the officer-mage forces on site overwhelmed—we could only flee without formal protest.”

I firmly cut that tail and continued.

“As I just said, that was merely last autumn. A promise between blue bloods living centuries, a pact between two houses enduring millennia.”

I maximized the rhetoric learned young.

“There seem to be some dishonorable individuals in both houses unable to accept it.”

Kirie openly frowned.

His hand holding the teacup trembled.

“A confident statement.”

“Why tremble in anxiety when speaking truth?”

“Sometimes speaking truth is the hardest.”

He let out an affected sigh.

“There is a point we must address regarding border frictions.”

“Speak.”

“The imperial mind-attribute mage Lobigos has gone missing in the border region.”

“Tragic.”

“As he blocked the ancients, the imperial house suffered no damage, but after his death, ancients swarmed the imperial reclamation camp, killing a deep-blood young mage among great losses.”

“Oh dear.”

“Yet there is testimony that an Intezeruto knight arrived at the imperial camp with the ancients. Hard to believe.”

“Yes. Extremely hard to believe.”

We locked eyes.

Blue light flickered in the green eyes’ blood vessels.

The air grew heavy.

Sparks seemed ready to fly.

“As you know, young nobles are the future of houses.”

“Indeed.”

“The house of Lord Ventios, killed at the camp, demands investigation and blood price.”

He was talent worthy of it.

In future, he would have become a powerful officer-mage blocking our path.

“I understand it’s a hard-to-refuse proposal. However, we cannot grant requests to interrogate house knights based on mere testimony.”

“Interrogate? We seek blood price.”

His brazen attitude made me laugh outright.

“Poorly taught.”

I openly rebuked.

“What did you just say?”

Now Kirie dropped even minimal honorifics.

The administrators exchanged uneasy glances.

I calmly continued.

“Blood price isn’t demanded—it’s taken.”

“Oh? Then you say we may take it?”

That’s the response I wanted.

I listened to the musical melody drifting from the hall.

“You seem somewhat excited—why not test it?”

“Test?”

“Whether you can take it or not.”

Kirie looked at the administrators.

They neatly packed documents into bags and stood against the wall.

No need to limit to words. If desired results come by other means, conversation is—

“Even more so.”

He rose from his seat.

Blue light flashed from his right hand.

Sparkling particles gathered from the air, forming a long, thin ice pillar in void.

Quickly shaped, the pillar became a sharp ice sword.

“In the hall earlier, you tried suppressing our spirit with a sword? I too have trained swordsmanship against knights. I’ll verify that skill.”

Kirie declared coldly, sword hanging low.

Quite confident, it seems.

“You?”

I smiled faintly and raised my sword.

The new sword, drawn in one motion, wrapped around my hand as if delighted for its first task.

Crack, my sword fiercely struck the ice blade’s side.

Longer and better for slashing than my old sword, power transmitted well.

Crash, with a sound like shattering glass, half the blade turned to ice shards.

Toward Kirie, retreating a step in panic, I said.

“Yes. Now I’m curious if your swordsmanship works even with a half-bladed sword.”