Beast in the Woods, Deep in the Night - Chapter 29.1

Chapter 29.1

William, along with the imperial family and the great nobles of the capital, stopped by Grand Duke Richard’s castle every few years and made an acquaintance with Edgar.

The superficial cause was for the imperial family to have a tour of the territory. The underlying purpose was to advertise to the people that Grand Duke Richard’s family should also hold a banquet and honor the imperial family’s visit.

Edgar neither hated nor liked such an occasion. Having so many people to deal with was annoying, but it was quite nice to have a change in his boring daily life.

However, the second imperial prince, William Heilen, who was two years older than him, was delighted to visit the family.

“You must be Prince Richard. You’re a lot taller than me…”

He was the only son of the emperor and the second empress. The empress’ family was the duchy of Edmond, one of the empire’s oldest and largest merchant families, famous for rumors that they could push back the imperial family with the money they had accumulated.

Edgar regarded William as a rich young master with no talent for hunting and swordsmanship, but William always looked at him with admiration.

The prince was always annoyingly asking about his well-being and showing how close they were, so Edgar had no choice but to respond appropriately.

Even after he faked his own death, he said that there was no way Edgar Richard would have died in a carriage accident, so he came to the grand duke’s territory directly and examined the accident scene.

Due to William’s strange obsession, it was about to be discovered that he was indeed alive, so Edgar secretly sent him a letter to let him know. Thanks to this, William was the only nobleman in the capital to know that Edgar was alive.

After they got involved like that and he started accepting his requests, Edgar began to indirectly influence the political situation in the capital.

The power of the capital of the Heilen Empire was divided into two factions.

Holding power was the undefeated duchy of Valdeon that had controlled the capital for generations, the empress from that family, and Prince Harold, the empress’ son and first imperial prince.

Opposite them was the empress from the duchy of Edmond, who was brought in by the helpless emperor to suppress the first empress’ power, and Willian, the second imperial prince.

The two princes were fighting for the position of the next emperor.

However, in reality, it was likely that the first prince Harold, whose maternal family was the duchy of Valdeon, would be crowned crown prince. Valdeon had formed an alliance with the temple for generations using the family’s strong military power as foundation, and its closest associates had occupied all important political positions.

In particular, in the case of officials selected through examinations, only those who had given Valdeon bribes were able to pass. This was because officials who had already passed and were promoted by currying favor with Duke Valdeon continued to pass down their bad habits.

As Valdeon tried to exert pressure on the merchant guilds, William and the Edmond duchy, his maternal family, rebelled and planned to drive Valdeon and their associates out of the capital. This was an idea that was possible because they had enough wealth to challenge their power.

“The Valdeons are the blacksmiths of the Empire and hold a tight grip on the arms dealers. So Edgar, you have to help me. Your guild is the only one who can bring such weapons from foreign countries while maintaining confidentiality.”

“…”

An incompetent emperor who had no choice but to turn a blind eye to corruption, and the Valdeon duchy that maintained its authority through force.

What Edgar had been smuggling for years through the Black Fang Guild were swords to cut off their necks. It wasn’t that he wanted to see William punish Valdeon for disturbing the order of the capital, putting an end to the corruption, and becoming emperor. Edgar had no interest in the affairs of the capital.

The reason he was helping William was simply because he and his family were giving him a pile of money in exchange for smuggling weapons.

Anyway, the smuggling of weapons for treason through the Black Fang Guild was proceeding smoothly without the slightest mistake.

The problem was that Edmond’s merchant guild had loaded a few samples of new weapons on a ship that was supposed to import spices from a foreign country.

‘The Blue Hammer Guild has detained that ship, and William, that bastard must be in trouble too.’

The Blue Hammer Guild was also famous for selling the information they found at high prices.

Knowing this, William cried for a long time, saying that the mistake he made in his eagerness to quickly see a sample of the new weapons might be the cause that would expose the treason he had been planning for years.

Edgar gladly called Isaac over and asked him to accept the request, as he had brought quite a lot of gold coins with him, asking him to somehow handle the matter.

“Isaac, how are we going to strike them?”

When Edgar asked, Isaac immediately answered.

“Instead of taking a ship to the island where the Blue Hammer Guild’s hideout is, we’re going to attack a few fishing boats on the dockside. We’ll light a signal flare that the guild members are calling for support on the docks and induce support from the hideout.”

“And after that?”

“We plan to hijack the ship of the Blue Hammer guys who came to provide support despite the size of the waves and board it to enter the island.”

“Well, for the elite of the Blue Hammer, waves like that would be easy to handle.”

Hearing Edgar’s comment, Isaac felt a cold sweat running down his back.

He couldn’t believe that he was thinking about getting on a boat without knowing how rough the waves would be today… He felt grateful to Christine again for giving him a chance to revise his plan.

“Then, we should prepare to leave now.”

“Right.”

Edgar finished his conversation with a simple answer and was about to go upstairs again when a mellow voice echoed in his mind.

“Be careful, and come early. I’ll be waiting.”