Chapter 32

Pursuit

A heavy silence filled every corner of the courtroom.

When the Minister of Administration had spoken earlier, that silence had clearly been based on prior arrangement and unspoken understanding. This time, however, it was born entirely from sheer shock.

After all, what kind of lunatic said something like that to a member of the Imperial Family?

“…”

What surprised everyone even more was that the Prince himself showed almost no outward reaction. He merely opened the eyes he had kept closed until now and looked down at Aiden with a blank, unreadable expression.

“That is an act of lèse-majesté, Mr. Aiden,” the Prince replied gently, his tone remaining largely within the bounds of expected aristocratic composure. “You should consider whether you are truly prepared to take responsibility for your actions.”

Yet, the icy undercurrent in his voice was enough to make even Aiden pause for a second.

“You are free to oppose me and stand in the way of my intentions,” the Prince continued softly. “But do not insult me. Do not insult the Imperial authority. To do so is no different from insulting the Empire and its people, whom I carry upon my shoulders.”

“…”

“As a future ruler, the way I am treated personally is bound to the dignity of the Empire. Do not forget that.”

Every word carried absolute pride in his status as the representative of the nation. These were not spoken out of personal pettiness, but by someone who genuinely believed he carried the weight of the entire Empire.

There was no mistaking the warning behind those words: if they were going to exchange moves, they should do it beneath the surface—not through public scandals that undermined the Imperial order.

That was the line drawn so they could continue to fight discreetly. The Prince was warning Aiden not to cross it again, making it clear that if Aiden chose to be this aggressive in public, the Prince would respond in kind.

‘Fairness. Rules. Integrity. Ruler. Patriot.’

Aiden silently reviewed the keywords the original game had used to describe the Prince and almost laughed out loud.

It was certainly a gentlemanly warning. The man relied on dirty tricks behind the scenes, yet in strange places, he possessed an almost irritating level of high-minded honesty.

The words that followed made that contradiction abundantly clear.

The Prince pursed his lips and lowered his voice until only Aiden could hear him. “I respect you. Not only you, but every citizen who makes up this Empire.”

“…”

“So please do not force me to harm you. Allow me to return you safely to your original life when all of this is over.”

What I want is not your ruin. I want the position you currently occupy as Lionheart’s husband. Do not push further than that. Let me continue respecting you.

‘What a saint,’ Aiden thought dryly.

It was an impressively refined form of hostility.

“I will hear your formal rebuttal to the Minister’s accusation at a later time,” the Prince said, raising his voice slightly. “For now, return to your seat—”

“False accusation carries quite a severe punishment under Imperial law, doesn’t it?” Aiden cut in smoothly. “Severe enough that even royalty cannot simply escape it.”

The problem for the Prince was that Aiden had zero intention of playing on a board his opponent had arranged.

“…What exactly are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying I’m the one giving the warning, Your Highness. Not you.”

“…”

“Stop picking these pathetic fights,” Aiden sneered softly. “Before I return everything back to you twice over.”

For the first time, the Prince’s composure flickered, his expression twitching slightly.

After a brief, heavy silence, Aiden spoke in a clear, carrying voice that echoed across the gallery: “I, Aiden Kellermain, husband of Lionheart, formally accuse the Prince. I accuse you of falsely laying crimes upon Lord Noel that she did not commit.”

He made sure every official, spectator, and knight in the courtroom heard every single syllable.

It was an explosive declaration—enough to freeze the hall even more thoroughly than before.

“…”

Both Minister Rad and the Prince stiffened visibly. They understood the terrifying implications of what had just been spoken.

This was an open, public declaration of war.

It meant Aiden was claiming he possessed enough hard evidence to challenge them directly.

Of course, it was the sort of gamble only a madman would make. If he failed to back it up, his life would be forfeit almost immediately. Challenging a royal heir this openly carried that kind of terminal weight.

Precisely because of that extreme risk, Aiden’s statement now possessed massive public credibility. It completely neutralized the slanderous narrative that had tried to drag Noel’s name through the dirt. Everything they had attempted against her in this courtroom had just lost its political value.

‘That bastard…!’ Rad ground his teeth in silence.

Aiden’s voice cut through the quiet room one last time. “Schedule a separate hearing. I will lay everything out there.”

“…”

“You asked me earlier whether I was prepared to take responsibility for my actions, didn’t you?” Aiden looked straight into the Prince’s rigid eyes. “Have you checked whether you’re prepared to take responsibility for yours?”

✦ ✦ ✦

All of that had taken place just yesterday. Aiden had effectively put his own head on the block to drag the Prince into a direct fight.

“…Wow,” Katya muttered in genuine awe, flipping through a newspaper as she walked beside him.

She had picked up several papers from different publishers, yet every single one carried essentially the exact same front-page headline detailing Aiden’s courtroom defiance.

“This is incredible. The whole Empire is watching.”

“…Thankfully, my personal details were left out.”

That was likely thanks to Noel’s swift intervention, and perhaps even the Emperor’s influence behind the scenes. Somehow, detailed information regarding Aiden’s background had been stripped from the press. Thanks to that, he had avoided becoming a high-profile celebrity overnight. It was genuinely fortunate that while newspapers existed, the internet did not; his privacy was still intact.

‘…More importantly.’

Aiden sighed internally and called up his system interface.

[Quest Info]

▶ The incidents listed under this entry impose enormous penalties upon failure!

◈ Fake Marriage (Important!)

▶ You have been chosen as Lord Noel’s spouse. Maintain your contract with your partner until the end!

▶ A related incident will occur shortly. (D-?)

▶ This is a critically important incident. Its value is equivalent to a 'Main Quest'!

▶ Upon completion, your relationship with the target will change dramatically!

The quest had updated after yesterday’s dramatic scene. The Main Quest log still didn’t state when the next Suppression Battle would trigger, but the Fake Marriage objective had shifted. It appeared the marriage event was once again moving forward alongside the Lord Protector investigation.

“…”

What bothered Aiden was the system note claiming their relationship will change dramatically.

When similar wording had appeared for Katya, she had gone from trying to slice him apart to openly calling him her friend. Compared side by side, that certainly qualified as a dramatic shift.

The real problem, however, was Noel herself.

‘…Isn’t Lord Noel already extremely friendly toward me?’

Calling it friendly was an understatement; at this point, she was almost blatantly overprotective. Aiden understood that Noel felt deeply responsible for dragging him into this mess, but even he flinched at the sheer intensity of her concern sometimes.

If their relationship changed dramatically again, it would almost certainly jump even further in an affectionate direction. What on earth would she do then?

“…”

To be perfectly honest, he was a little terrified. Just look at what had happened right after yesterday’s trial.

‘…She really chewed me out.’

The moment they returned to headquarters, Noel had sat him down and lectured him for hours on end. How do you plan to handle the fallout? What if you get hurt? From her perspective as someone sworn to keep him safe, his stunt in court had been dangerously reckless.

Aiden hadn’t been able to say a word in his defense because it was painfully obvious that her anger stemmed entirely from genuine worry.

‘Thank you.’

Come to think of it, she had even whispered that at the very end of her lecture.

‘You did all of that for my sake, after all.’

‘…I didn’t expect you to go that far.’

Then Noel had practically fled back to her private quarters to hide, though not before telling him to let her know if he ever needed her help with anything. Her face had been bright red the entire time.

‘Hmm.’

Aiden had heard her thank him while thoroughly drunk before, but yesterday had been the first time she said it while completely sober.

Unfortunately, while he appreciated her generous offer, he couldn’t bring her along for today’s task.

“Why not?” Katya asked.

“Because what we’re about to do is something only you can help me with,” Aiden answered.

Katya, matching his pace with quick little steps, instantly broke into a wide grin. “…So it’s something only friends can do together?”

“Hmm. I suppose so.”

Seeing no reason to deny it, Aiden nodded.

Katya, her dark robe pulled low over her face, giggled softly and immediately latched onto his arm, hugging it tightly as if claiming exclusive ownership. She was plainly delighted by his answer.

‘…Are normal friends usually this physically clingy?’ Aiden wondered silently.

He had always known Katya struggled with basic social relationships, but even he had a hard time understanding what the word “friend” meant inside her head. What did she actually consider him? It didn’t feel like romantic affection, but it certainly wasn’t standard friendship either.

‘…Anyway.’

Her physical clinginess was something he could ponder later. There was a far more pressing task at hand.

‘Our immediate objective is…’

He needed to prove that the Prince was using shadow operations to slander and frame Noel. Achieving that required three distinct steps:

First, he had to prove Noel had zero connection to the illegal military weapons smuggled into the capital.

Second, he had to prove the terrorist assault on the Imperial headquarters was entirely unrelated to her.

“…”

Fortunately, both goals could be accomplished in a single stroke if he could locate one specific thing: the covert operational group acting as the hidden link behind all three incidents.

Aiden had already received a crucial hint about them.

‘If I can’t find them, whoever is protecting them is at least a high-ranking noble. You want me to investigate people like that? Are you trying to get someone killed?’

That was what Billy Hagan, the information broker, had told him when Aiden previously asked about the weapon smugglers. Even a veteran broker had backed away out of fear, meaning this organization operated under high-level Imperial protection.

‘The weapon shipments containing Hellfire Bombs, the Suppression Pillars used during Katya’s abduction, the dimensional roots required for the spatial rift…’

Every single one of those items was impossible to obtain through legitimate channels. It was virtually certain that a single, shadow organization was responsible for managing all these black-market operations under orders.

And if such an organization existed, they would undoubtedly hold records and ledgers proving that the Prince and Minister Rad had commissioned those illegal jobs.

At least, that was how criminal networks always functioned in Aiden’s experience as a former con artist.

“Aha. So we came to find their underlings?” Katya asked, nodding in quick understanding once he explained his logic.

Though she was an isolated royal, she had still grown up inside a palace overflowing with political schemes and covert operations. She understood perfectly how shadow work operated: bringing rare, illegal contraband into the capital required a small, tight-knit group of elite operatives working in absolute secrecy.

Dangerous work was always entrusted to the smallest possible team.

And the district Aiden was currently walking through could practically be called the natural habitat for those exact types of criminals.

‘…Back here again.’

They had arrived at the entrance of the Imperial Capital’s underground black market. There was no better place to launch an off-the-books investigation—a lawless den overflowing with illicit goods and untraceable information.

Strangely enough, the place almost felt nostalgic to him now. Come to think of it, hadn’t he met Katya here for the very first time?

“So how are you planning to find them?” Katya asked, glancing around the shady alleys. “Even if they’re hiding somewhere in this market, we don’t have a single clue to start with.”

“It’s like looking for a needle on a beach.”

These operatives had hidden themselves so well that even professional brokers couldn’t dig up their names. The comparison wasn’t an exaggeration at all.

“So…” Aiden offered a faint, slightly crooked smile.

Even he found the blunt solution he had come up with rather absurd.

“Why don’t we just shovel away the entire beach? The needle will have to fall out eventually.”

For some reason, Aiden found himself acting far more reckless whenever he spent time around Katya. Perhaps her chaotic tendency to seek intense thrill simply to “feel alive” was contagious.

“What does that mean?” Katya tilted her head in genuine confusion.

Aiden looked down at her with a calm expression. “Katya.”

“Yes?”

“Life’s been a little boring lately, hasn’t it?”

“…”

The moment she caught his meaning, a wildly mischievous smile spread across Katya’s face.

“…I really am glad I became friends with you,” she whispered, her eyes sparkling.

Whatever crazy scheme Aiden had cooked up, it was clearly going to be extremely entertaining.