Even if the knights couldn't see it, they couldn't fool Brentian's sharp eyes.
Callius smiled as if he had no intention of deceiving him in the first place.
"You're bolder than I thought."
A vein bulged on Brentian's forehead as he watched Callius laughing, seemingly oblivious to the severity of the situation.
"Do you know what she's up to and you're still helping her? If it's discovered that the Empress's jewels came from Ronheim, Kavala will think we're behind the whole thing!"
Brentian was furious.
He couldn't understand why Callius was so indifferent—and why he was so willing to help Chloe, who was clearly a Kavala spy.
"That would give Arrental the perfect pretext to completely destroy Ronheim!"
As he spoke his thoughts aloud, he became more convinced.
Chloe must have come here to give Kavala an excuse to obliterate Ronheim entirely.
'Couldn't the fire in the Empress's warehouse have been planned from the start?'
Isn't that suspicious?
From what Brentian had observed, Chloe didn't seem that bold. Rather, she appeared timid and passive. Moreover, she seemed so fragile that it was difficult to believe she could even support her own body.
How could such a person sneak into Kavala's treasure vault in a palace with so many eyes watching? How did she have the nerve to set fire to the warehouse and escape with so many treasures?
Brentian raised these doubts to Callius.
"It's absurd to think she would do something like that alone! Just think about it. Can you imagine it?"
The entire situation was riddled with questions.
It was also suspicious that she had recently ordered Mainz to collect and sell Vermis mushrooms. Who could have leaked that information to Chloe? How on earth did she know something that even the merchants of Arrental didn't know?
"How could someone who was so surprised by the snowfall—not even knowing how much it snowed in the North—know about things like Vermis mushrooms? Something even Northerners barely know about? Something seems fishy."
It was also questionable why the money earned that way would be used for welfare funds. She had no obligation to return her personal property to the people. Besides, she hadn't even officially met the people of the territory yet—wasn't this being overly generous to the point of suspicion?
'The Prince showed his affection for the people of the territory, so the Princess may have noticed it and is trying to win them over. To completely captivate Callius.'
He couldn't shake the feeling that everything was orchestrated by Kavala's hands.
Callius looked at Brentian, who was practically stamping his feet with frustration, and spoke heavily.
"I guess in your eyes I look like a pathetic fool who's crazy about women and can't tell right from wrong."
"..."
Brentian closed his mouth, stung by the words.
Honestly, he wanted to ask if that wasn't exactly the case. But instead, Brentian appealed earnestly to Callius as both a subject and a friend.
"If this continues, we could all die. Those jewels will eventually be tracked down. No matter how much trickery we use, it's only a matter of time."
"It's just a matter of time. I suppose."
Callius nodded absentmindedly.
"If you knew that, why—!"
"That'll do. Chloe's goal is to buy time. While Kavala is distracted tracking down those gems, we'll figure out a way to stop her."
"And how can you be so certain of that?"
Callius pointed to a spot on the map of Ronheim spread out on the desk.
"Isn't this where the gold mine is?"
Brentian looked at Callius with a confused expression.
"I'm going to create a teleportation magic circle there."
Callius told Brentian the story he had shared with Chloe—about the archmage from the Magic Tower who would help them establish the circle.
Brentian was even more shocked when he heard this.
"How can you believe that story? A great wizard from the Magic Tower? There's no way such a person could exist—or that they'd help us!"
Callius said bluntly:
"We'll find out whether it's true or not when the wizard actually appears. There's no need to assume it's a lie already, is there?"
"But why on earth would a Princess want to revive Ronheim? Don't you find it strange that the closest heir to the Arrental throne would turn her back on her own empire and focus solely on raising Ronheim?"
Callius stared intently into Brentian's anxious eyes.
Brentian waited for Callius to speak, his agitation subsiding slightly at the sight of that calm gaze.
Callius slowly opened his mouth.
"So wouldn't she want to stop Kavala more than we do?"
"What?"
Brentian's eyes widened.
"What was the position of the closest heir to the throne? You must have felt it clearly when you went to Arrental. How did Chloe's influence seem there?"
"..."
"She was forced to grow up under the care of the Empress after losing her mother at the age of seven. Rumors swirled around her as she grew. People were quick to mock her."
"..."
"Does Chloe look to you like the madwoman the nobles of Arrental were gossiping about?"
Brentian couldn't agree or disagree—he hadn't observed Chloe long enough to make a definitive judgment.
Looking at him as he stubbornly kept his mouth shut, Callius continued calmly without pressing.
"What do you think Prince Andrea felt when Chloe was being treated like a madwoman, unable to establish any position for herself?"
"..."
"Didn't you see it clearly? Prince Andrea was acting so arrogantly, as if he'd already ascended the throne."
"..."
"Now think about it. Do you think Chloe would want to be Kavala's puppet—or does she harbor vengeance against her?"
Brentian cast his wavering gaze downward.
Callius drove the final point home.
"Think about how you would act if you were in her shoes. If you still have something to say after that, let's talk again."
"...Yes."
Brentian's voice was lukewarm as he answered.
Unable to refute Callius's words with any concrete evidence, Brentian backed down.
But deep down, he still believed that Chloe couldn't have stolen the treasure on her own.
"I need to find proof. Something that discredits her—or something that proves her innocence beyond doubt. I need to find something solid."
After Brentian left the office, Callius sat in contemplative silence, mulling over what Brentian had said.
"It's absurd to think she would do something like that alone! Just think about it. Can you imagine it?"
Callius felt a pang of frustration as he recalled Brentian's expression—the man had looked like he was holding back the words "come to your senses" that were on the tip of his tongue.
'His reasoning makes sense.'
It wasn't that Callius didn't understand Brentian's doubts. After all, Brentian hadn't seen the secret passage in the palace.
'If only he had seen it, he would understand how Chloe could have done it.'
Callius was acutely aware that there was a secret passage in the Arrental Palace.
Because he himself had once saved his own life thanks to that very passage.
"Shh, you mustn't tell anyone that something like this exists here. Understand? It's just you and me—it's a secret."
It was an old memory, but the voice of a girl whispering to him in the secret passage of the palace still came back vividly.
When he was young, Callius had once recklessly infiltrated the Arrental Palace, blinded by his determination to avenge his mother's death.
It had been a time when he was consumed by vengeance and couldn't see anything else clearly.
Then an angel had appeared before him.
"Hide here. Stay hidden and come out when it's quiet outside. Got it?"
"Let go of me! I have work to do! What do you know?!"
"I know! I know because... my mother passed away, too!"
"...What?"
"I know that feeling too!"
Callius sat in his chair, closed his eyes, and let out a soft chuckle as he recalled the incident.
It had been over a dozen years ago, but the memories of that time were still vivid.
A young girl with tear-streaked cheeks and determined eyes. A girl who had hidden him away in the secret passages when guards were searching for the intruder.
A girl who had understood his grief because she carried her own.
'I never knew her name. I never saw her face clearly in the darkness.'
He had always wondered who that mysterious savior had been—the girl who had risked herself to protect a stranger driven by vengeance.
And now, as he sat alone in his office with only the crackling fire for company, a realization began to dawn.
The timing. The location. The loss of a mother.
Callius opened his eyes slowly, staring at the dancing flames.
'Could it have been...?'
He didn't finish the thought. Not yet. But somewhere deep inside, a puzzle piece had just clicked into place.
And everything—everything—suddenly made a little more sense.
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