Chapter 9

Blenn looked over at the person he had brought with him.

Karbin’s face had gone deathly pale. His hands were bound with what appeared to be a length of rope.

“There was no intruder…?”

The other ministers exchanged shocked glances. It was a natural reaction. A breached barrier was practically synonymous with saying that someone with malicious intent had infiltrated the empire.

“Explain.”

“H-here?”

Rainer nodded calmly.

Not entirely sure what was going on, Blenn cleared his throat before beginning.

“The barrier formula reinforced by the Magic Minister is so complex that most ordinary mages wouldn’t even be able to decipher it. Which means there are only two types of people who could have dispelled that barrier.”

“…”

Everyone in the room fell silent, their attention fixed entirely on Blenn.

“Someone with skill comparable to Lord Rainer, or someone who knew in advance which formula had been used in the barrier.”

Blenn turned his gaze toward Karbin, who stood a step behind him.

“And the people with the easiest access to the barrier formula Lord Rainer provided are the members of the Barrier Division. Isn’t that right, Member Karbin?”

Blenn recalled what had happened a few hours earlier.

More specifically, he remembered the moment Hernon and Karbin had simultaneously caught him when he had nearly fallen.

Mages possessed a special power within their bodies called magical energy. They could also directly sense the magical energy of others.

While examining the powder scattered across the ground, Blenn had discovered something.

A small amount of someone’s magical energy remained within the shattered fragments.

Considering the possibility that someone had unraveled such a high-level formula as though they knew it inside and out, Blenn had begun to suspect that the incident had been orchestrated from within.

If that were the case, the suspects would be the members who had been in the office that night and therefore had access to the barrier.

And among them, there were two people who had been there the longest.

Hernon and Karbin.

Hernon had been on watch duty at the time, while Karbin had been working overtime in the archive for several days.

That was why Blenn had deliberately pretended to fall.

Gambling on the two of them catching him, Blenn had maximized his detection ability the instant he came into contact with Hernon and Karbin.

And he had discovered that the magical energy lingering in the shattered fragments matched Karbin’s.

After that, the rest had been easy.

To catch Karbin’s suspicious behavior in the act, Blenn had deliberately gone to see Seiden.

He had told Seiden that the higher-ups were inclined to let the matter slide, that Rainer had freshly reinforced the barrier formula, and that for the time being, only Seiden, as the supervisor, needed to know about it.

He had even handed over a fabricated document convincing enough to pass as genuine.

And he had done all of it deliberately in front of Karbin.

“But for some reason, Member Karbin secretly took the fabricated document I had prepared and began copying it down. I caught him red-handed.”

Blenn glanced at Karbin.

“He probably heard that the higher-ups were going to let the matter slide and decided to try it one more time.”

The ministers turned their gazes toward Karbin.

He bit down hard on his lip and stared at the floor.

“Member Karbin had placed a magical tool capable of releasing a small amount of magic at a certain section of the barrier early yesterday morning. He had rigged it to activate at around 6:07 AM.”

Blenn continued calmly.

“When the watch member briefly left his post to investigate the magic he sensed near the barrier, Member Karbin used that window to carry out his plan.”

From the moment Rainer had sent out the reinforced barrier formula, Karbin had memorized it in advance.

When Hernon stepped away from his post, Karbin had used Rainer’s memorized formula in reverse to unravel the barrier.

Then, before Hernon could return, he had quickly slipped back into the archive.

This also explained how the nonexistent intruder had managed to dispel the barrier so quickly and evade pursuit.

If he moved quickly enough, stepping outside, dispelling the barrier, and returning to the archive could all be accomplished within three minutes.

And since there had never been an intruder in the first place, no matter how quickly they pursued him, there was no one to catch.

“Is that true?”

Rainer leaned back in his chair and turned toward Karbin.

The other ministers had also begun watching Rainer warily.

If there had never been an intruder to fear and the incident had not even been caused by Rainer’s mistake, then there was no longer any reason to target or reprimand him.

“…Yes. That’s right.”

“Tch. A self-inflicted farce, then.”

The ministers shook their heads in disbelief.

“This is all because of you!”

Karbin, who had kept his head bowed until then, suddenly pointed a finger at Rainer and shouted.

Everyone flinched at the booming voice.

Everyone except Rainer.

He remained perfectly relaxed.

“You probably don’t even remember me, Minister! I worked at the palace for several months after joining the Magic Department. And then… do you know what you said to me on the day I made a mistake?”

Blenn had a pretty good idea.

Something along the lines of, If you’re not going to use your head, why carry it around when it’s so heavy?

“The head is meant to be used. Why carry it around as decoration? Isn’t it heavy? That’s what you said!”

Exactly as Blenn had expected.

“After hearing those words, I decided I couldn’t work here anymore and requested a transfer to the Barrier Division. I thought I’d finally be able to work in peace there!”

Karbin’s voice trembled with resentment.

“But at some point, you started appearing in my dreams. You kept pointing out my mistakes over and over again. The mental strain was unbearable!”

Because of that, Karbin’s work efficiency had plummeted.

Even after transferring to the Barrier Division, he had failed to produce any noteworthy results.

Unable to bear being known as a diligent but incompetent member, he had directed all his resentment toward Rainer.

Then, when he heard that Rainer had recently reinforced the barrier formula, Karbin decided to set this self-inflicted farce into motion.

He intended to make it appear as though the barrier personally reinforced by the Magic Minister had been breached by an intruder, ultimately turning the entire incident into Rainer’s responsibility.

“This is all because of you! I… I’m not at fault at all…!”

When Karbin’s cry ended, everyone’s gaze naturally shifted toward Rainer.

How would he react?

Everyone swallowed nervously and waited.

Rainer slowly rose from his seat.

“Seems like we’re done here. May I leave now?”

Everyone stared at Rainer in bewilderment.

Normally, wouldn’t someone in his position express anger and reprimand the offender? At the very least, shouldn’t he say something to the member who had committed the crime?

“I’ve fallen quite far behind on today’s work.”

But inside Rainer’s head, there was only one thing.

Work.

Work.

And more work.

Blenn couldn’t help but realize once again what a hopeless workaholic Rainer truly was.

“Go ahead. The condition was that the matter be resolved by four, and the Minister’s aide has brought in the culprit, hasn’t he?”

The Administrative Minister, who had maintained his stoic expression throughout the entire ordeal, nodded.

“No one objects, do they?”

When he turned to the other ministers, they nodded with somewhat awkward expressions.

“This man can be handed over to the Justice Minister. He can have his members come and collect him directly.”

“Ah, yes. We’ll handle it.”

Rainer gave them nothing more than a perfunctory bow before heading toward the conference room door.

And, just as before, he grabbed the back of Blenn’s collar and dragged him out with him.

“H-hold on a moment, Lord Rainer…”

Before Blenn could complain about being dragged around by the collar yet again, Karbin, whose shoulders had been trembling, suddenly jerked his head up.

His eyes were filled with rage.

I knew it would come to this.

Karbin had built up an extreme resentment toward Rainer.

The more things went wrong in his life, the more he blamed Rainer for them.

That resentment had driven him as far as committing an actual crime.

And even after all that, Rainer hadn’t paid him the slightest attention.

He had treated Karbin as though he were nothing more than an insignificant stone lying by the roadside.

Karbin’s pride had been completely shattered.

Besides, he was now a criminal and no longer even a member of the Magic Department.

There was even less left for him to lose.

Karbin concentrated magic into his hands.

The rope binding him snapped.

The Barrier Division had not had proper magic-suppressing restraints on hand, so they had hastily used ordinary rope.

As expected, that had been their mistake.

Once free, Karbin swept his hand through the air.

Light gathered in his palm, forming a blade.

It was the most basic weapon form a mage could create.

“Rainer!”

Before the ministers could react or stop him, Karbin burst out of the conference room.

He charged toward Rainer, who was walking down the corridor.

“Lord Rainer! Look out!”

Still being dragged along by his collar, Blenn looked back and shouted urgently.

The blade was about to plunge into Rainer’s shoulder.

But Rainer continued walking forward.

Then, without even turning around, he extended two fingers of his right hand over his shoulder.

The blade stopped.

It could not pierce Rainer’s hand.

A tiny barrier formed between his two fingers had blocked the attack completely.

In that instant, Rainer turned his head slightly and released his grip on Blenn.

He seized Karbin’s wrist—the one holding the blade—and slammed it against the wall beside them.

THUD!

“…”

The ministers who had rushed out of the conference room froze, their mouths falling open.

A cracking sound rang through the corridor.

Multiple large fissures spread across the wall.

“Ugh…”

With his wrist firmly pinned, Karbin glared at Rainer from close range and bit down hard on his lip.

“So I really don’t remember your name or your face.”

Rainer’s voice was calm.

“That must be because you were incompetent.”

His gaze remained cold.

“So what makes you think you’ve done anything well enough to come lunging at me? If your brain were functioning properly, you wouldn’t have made this choice.”

Blenn, who had fallen flat on the floor when Rainer suddenly released him, dusted himself off and stood.

“If you wanted to screw me over, you should’ve been smarter about it.”

Rainer continued.

“Do you have any idea how much manpower is being wasted because of that single stunt of yours?”

He glanced toward Blenn.

“Me, of course. But also the Knights who chased after an intruder that never existed, the members of the Third Border Barrier Division, and that guy over there.”

That guy was Blenn.

“Are you confident you can shoulder all that damage?”

Rainer’s expression remained impassive.

“When you breached that barrier, what if there had coincidentally been a foreign spy outside? What if a real intruder had used what you did as an opportunity to enter the empire?”

His voice was steady.

But the calm, measured pressure behind every word drained the color from Karbin’s face.

“Then even more manpower and time would have been wasted cleaning up the mess you created.”

Rainer stared directly at him.

“Are you starting to understand just how stupid your scheme was?”

“…”

In the end, Karbin lowered his head.

Rainer released his grip.

Right on cue, members of the Justice Department arrived.

Rainer brushed his hands clean and resumed walking down the corridor.

“Are you going to keep standing there looking stupid?”

He tossed the jab toward Blenn, who had yet to follow.

“Ah. Yes.”

Once they had moved away from the commotion, the air quickly settled back into silence.

Blenn stole nervous glances at Rainer.

The man had been muttering under his breath the entire time, clearly irritated by all the work he had been unable to finish that day.

“Um, Lord Rainer?”

Blenn cautiously called out.

Rainer was too busy stewing over his unfinished work to respond.

“Lord Rainer.”

Unable to take it anymore, Blenn quickened his pace and moved ahead of him.

When he abruptly blocked Rainer’s path, Rainer’s eyebrow twitched.

“I resolved the matter perfectly within the time limit.”

Blenn smiled.

“You remember what I said earlier, don’t you?”

Just then, brilliant sunlight streamed through the window.

The light reflected off Blenn’s hair, making it shimmer, while his triumphant expression seemed to come alive beneath the warm glow.

“…”

Rainer stared at Blenn.

His gaze was so intense that Blenn gradually became flustered beneath it.

Then, without warning, Rainer reached out a hand.