Do you have a problem with necromancers?

Chapter 52 Confessions Without Evidence

The ancestral elven capital, the Imperial City, and the Tower of Babel in the center of the Imperial City were both built on Mount Saint Somar in the north of the city.

Near the northwest foot of the mountain, there is an ancient royal icehouse. Historically, elven mages were responsible for making ice inside, which was specially supplied to the elven royal family for cooling off in the summer.

Unlike elves, humans don't possess an innate affinity for magic, so hiring a mage to create ice for the royal family is a bit of a luxury.

Royal servants would collect ice in winter and store it in ice chambers beneath the imperial city, then bring it out for His Majesty to enjoy during the hot summer months.

As for the abandoned royal icehouse at the foot of the mountain, it was also taken over by the Imperial Guard and used as a warehouse to store spare military equipment and armor.

The scenery here is beautiful, and there are also the gardens and villas of the capital's nobles not far away. Therefore, few passersby will pass by in the vicinity. It is a natural place to hide people, imprison them, and torture them, without worrying about outsiders finding out.

The responsibility of interrogating and torturing these assassins naturally fell to Besalia, who was skilled in this area.

Dark elves certainly possess a remarkable racial talent for torturing and abusing without killing. In short, less than an hour later, Bersalia brought out the interrogation results.

“The person behind it all is Duke Darkros,” she said succinctly. “This duke had a beloved lion cat that died six months ago, and the duke himself was devastated by it.”

"The heretics found an opportunity to contact the Duke, claiming they could resurrect his beloved cat in exchange for the sacrifice of seventy-seven women to the devil. The Duke agreed, gave them a large sum of money, and sent them to the Serpent's Nest in the capital to carry out assassination missions."

"The venomous snakes initially targeted prostitutes, as these women were often involved in crimes of passion with their clients, so their deaths were less likely to arouse suspicion. Later, as things escalated, the prostitutes became afraid to go out at night, so they had to switch to burglary."

"The Inquisitors and Witchers were unaware of this matter; they were assigned by their superiors to prevent the Imperial Guard from conducting a thorough investigation. Your arrest and interrogation of them made Duke Darkros very nervous, so he paid another large sum of money to have the heretics and vipers try to rescue the man to avoid being implicated."

"What a boring story." After listening to Berthalia's account, Renn couldn't help but sneer. "A two-month-old lion cat is only worth about 10 silver crown coins on the market, yet it has involved dozens of lives."

“You don’t understand, that’s no ordinary cat. The Duke raised it like his own child,” Berthalia chuckled. “If your child died, would you go to any lengths to resurrect him?”

"Nonsense, it only takes me a few seconds to revive someone, why would I make such a fuss?" Renn said dismissively.

Bersalia chuckled awkwardly, forgetting that this guy was a seasoned necromancer.

"So what do you plan to do?" she continued. "Although Duke Dacros is not a powerful nobleman in the court, his grandfather once served as the Prime Minister of the Empire. Any attack against him will arouse full vigilance among the nobles of the capital..."

"...would be seen as a hickory border nobleman favored by the royal family, an offense and humiliation to the nobles of the capital." Raine finished her sentence for her, and said thoughtfully, "So for now, I can only submit the investigation results to Her Majesty the Queen."

“That’s true,” Berthalia agreed. “After all, we don’t have solid evidence, and the confessions of these few criminals are clearly not enough to bring down Duke Dacros.”

"Why should I overthrow Duke Darkros?" Renn asked, puzzled.

Bersalia was stunned. After a moment, she suddenly burst into laughter.

"Oh dear, it was my fault." She reached out and hugged Renn's neck, laughing loudly. "I subconsciously mistook you for a knight with an overflowing sense of justice like Ellina. If it were her, she would never show mercy to such powerful and innocent people who harm each other."

"Are you implying that I have no moral bottom line?" Renn asked with a gloomy face.

"No, I like that you have a rational and decisive judgment, and that you are not bound by certain rigid moral principles," Bersalia said tactfully.

"Hmph!" Renn ignored her sweet talk. Duke Darkros had sent men to incite the crowd at the camp gate, trying to smear Renn's face with excrement; he was determined to repay this grudge.

The reason I say "I have no need to overthrow Duke Dacros" is that the imperial family and the nobles of the four borders are now mostly on the verge of being outwardly united but inwardly estranged.

Why should I personally lead the charge? Simply handing the blades to the two emperors will surely make the Duke pay a heavy price.

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In the private garden next to the Amazonian memorial, Queen Margarita carefully read through the confessions of the assassins and heretics.

“There’s no concrete evidence,” she said quietly. “Their testimonies alone are not enough to convict a duke.”

“If Your Majesty requires it,” Raine said in a deep voice, “I am willing to be Your Majesty’s vanguard, even if it means assassination in secret, to personally kill this man!”

“No rush.” Margarina had no intention of killing Duke Darkros. After all, his relationship with other nobles in the capital was very complicated. Forcibly bringing him down would cause a series of chain reactions, and even the royal family might not be able to get out unscathed. However, she was still satisfied with the loyalty that Rein had shown at this time. “I will take this statement first.”

“Continue investigating in this direction, and try to obtain irrefutable evidence that they cannot deny. Ryan, I look forward to your performance.”

“It is my honor to serve you, Your Majesty.” Renn bowed.

After seeing off Queen Margarita, Renn began to feel that the situation was getting a bit tricky.

From the perspective of the commander of the capital's garrison, the serial murders in the southern city must be solved to give the public and the royal family an explanation; otherwise, he could be attacked and made the scapegoat at any time.

However, from the perspective of the royal family, forcibly killing a renowned duke of the capital without solid evidence would inevitably lead to a lose-lose situation for both the royal family and the nobility.

Therefore, in Raine's original plan, the Queen should send someone to target Duke Darkros, making him pay a price and be forced to stop and cease his evil deeds.

Next, he ordered Ryan to find a scapegoat and announce to the public that the case was officially solved. As long as no new victims emerged, the public would naturally have no grounds for complaint.

But the Empress clearly did not mean that, otherwise she would not have instructed him to "continue the investigation".

This is a very bad sign, meaning that the Queen has other ideas about this case. And given her intelligence, there's a high possibility that she might make things worse.

Raine had no intention of becoming a tool the Queen could discard at will.

He needed to prepare as quickly as possible to ensure that if the "city gates caught fire," the fire would "just right" reach Duke Dacros.

As for whether the Duke will believe this is a royal conspiracy, that has absolutely nothing to do with Rein.

Who would doubt that an imperial garrison commander would overestimate his abilities and try to provoke a conflict between the royal family and the nobles of the capital?

Not long after Ryan returned to the commander's office, the family knight Mather suddenly came to the door with a message, saying that servants of the Darkros family had come to the inn where the family's troops were stationed and respectfully presented an invitation to Ryan Fahr to have dinner together.

(End of this chapter)