Published: August 10, 2026
While Ordnance repeated Aub Dunkelfelger's words three times, Mount after Mount began pouring out of the other building.
Their swift movements and sense of discipline were admirable, but they were completely ignoring us.
Ferdinand's cheek twitched. He abandoned the still-talking Ordnance and hurriedly formed a new one.
"Aub Dunkelfelger, before heading to the royal palace, please report on the situation over there. If you are in a hurry, leave one group of knights behind for reporting and communication."
Ferdinand complained as he sent Ordnance flying off, "Don't just throw things away halfway through," and only a small portion of the group of Mounts that had been dashing out of the detached palace stopped in midair and returned to the detached palace.
"Justox and those in the second and third squads, interrogate the Arensbach people. Hartmut and those in the fourth and fifth squads, interrogate the Lanzenave people. I want as much information as possible about their actions after moving from Arensbach to the noble academy, and about Gervasio, who is not here at present. Keep in mind that we do not have much time, and work quickly."
"Yes, sir!"
With a light wave of his hand, the knights began moving the prisoners. Turning his back on them, Ferdinand looked at the remaining knights.
"The sixth squad will take Alstede and move to that building. Seventh and eighth squads will continue the search that Dunkelfelger left off. Rosemine and her Guard Knight will accompany me."
After assigning the interrogation and search duties, Ferdinand put me on his Mount and started heading toward the Dunkelfelger knights.
Alstede, carried alone and suspended in midair by one of the knights of the sixth squad, was screaming.
Being hung in midair is scary. I felt a little sorry for Alstede, and asked Ferdinand, "Lord Ferdinand, why are you only taking Alstede? She is so frightened it almost makes me feel sorry for her..."
"Because she is accustomed to obeying those stronger than herself, I judged that she would be the easiest to obtain information from among the prisoners. Also, from the fact that she had secretly become aub, I judged that she possessed information on par with Dietlinde's, making her the most suitable person for me to question."
Since we couldn't get any normal information out of Dietlinde, and Bragius would probably just dodge and evade questions, Alstede seemed to be the easiest to handle because she was used to obeying others.
...What is that? That's scary.
"That idiot hanging in midair was the one who opened the boundary gate and allowed the Lanzenave ship to enter. Considering that, she is the root cause of everything. She brought in the Lanzenave people, several nobles died, and Leticia suffered a deep wound to her heart. Hanging in midair is no punishment at all. Alstede, despite knowing how dangerous and foolish it was, could not resist and obeyed Dietlinde and Georgine's unreasonable demands. It should be easy enough for her to comply with my request that she reveal everything she knows."
Alstede, thrown onto the balcony, was so terrified that her teeth would not stop chattering.
While waiting for Alstede to calm down enough to speak, Ferdinand seemed to decide to hear Dunkelfelger's report first. In this detached palace, Heisshitze and nine other knights came together.
"What was Dunkelfelger thinking, to launch everyone all at once?"
"Dunkelfelger's first priority was rescuing the royal family and defending the noble academy. Since this was a request for aid from the Zent, it could not be helped."
Heisshitze spoke with a crisp expression, but being suddenly left entirely to our own devices was troublesome.
While asking Heisshitze how much of the search had been completed, Ferdinand entered the detached palace and ordered the Arensbach knights he had brought with him to search the underground level in particular.
"Come to think of it, there were a lot of strange tools in their rooms. We gathered them here."
The room Heisshitze led us to had been filled with many unfamiliar tools.