"I thought we'd finally get a few days to rest after this mission, but I guess fate had other plans..."

Edwin's tone was less a complaint than a resigned sigh. After so long in the war, he'd long grown used to this kind of rhythm.

"Though I suppose it's rougher on Her Highness, having to run around the countryside with us."

He stretched his arms and glanced across the truck at Hielaina.

They had been driving along the rugged backroads for three straight hours. The countryside of Davole had barely a single decent road to speak of, and as a result, the passengers were suffering the inevitable soreness that came with such a ride.

"I've traveled to many places," Hielaina replied calmly, "and not every journey comes with comfortable transportation. This isn't all that bad."

Still, even as she said so, she flexed her arm slightly to ease the stiffness. Inaya, on the other hand, seemed to have gotten used to the rough ride much better than when they'd first boarded.

"Oh? You've been to many places?"

Edwin tilted his head, intrigued. In his impression, a princess wasn't supposed to wander far from the palace unless it was for formal occasions.

"Dobritz, Desnik, Kuninka, New Polodel, Rogla, Nehrul... I've been to nearly every major city in the south, not to mention countless small towns along the way."

Hielaina rattled off the list without pause, as if all those travels were still vivid in her mind — as though she'd returned from them only recently.

"Wow, you've really been everywhere!"

Her answer left Edwin properly stunned. Before joining the army, he'd lived most of his life in one place, and even after enlisting, he hadn't traveled much. Only last year, when the war began spreading across the empire, had he started living a more transient life.

"They were mostly study and observation trips," she continued, "but honestly, they weren't much different from sightseeing. I had a teacher from Surianka with me — he would always tell me about each city we visited: whether it was an industrial hub, a transport nexus, its economic structure, and its key industries. But more importantly, those trips allowed me to step outside my title — to observe things from a more objective perspective."

"Impressive. So... did anything interesting ever happen on those trips?"

Edwin couldn't help but marvel inwardly at this extraordinary kind of 'imperial education.' Still, his curiosity was genuine — a crown princess traveling among the people had to have encountered something memorable.

"Oh, something did happen," she said, "though I wouldn't call it 'interesting.'"

Hielaina could tell what he meant, but among all her lighthearted travel memories, there was one event that had left a deep impression — and that was the one she chose to share.

"We had just finished our trip through Kutpeili Province and were heading to the neighboring Lyses Province. That province is rich in mineral resources — more than half of its cities rely on mining as their main source of income. Our first stop there was a town called Troyana, a sizable settlement on the outskirts of Dravoskom City. The town itself had been founded because of the nearby mines, and most of its residents were miners."

She paused briefly to take a drink from her canteen, wetting her throat — clearly ready to tell the story in full.

"On our first day there, we came across a large crowd gathered in the central square. Opposite them stood several men who, we later learned, were representatives from the local mining company. A few days earlier, there had been a major accident at one of the mines — over a hundred people were killed. Those men had been sent to negotiate compensation with the miners, but after several failed talks, things had reached a standstill. The compensation they offered was far below the legal minimum."

"And then?"

Edwin's expression shifted from eager interest to a frown. The others in the truck remained silent, but every one of them was listening intently.

"Then the miners went on strike," Hielaina said. "The disaster had killed over a hundred, injured more than ten, and left thirty missing. It was a catastrophe that affected nearly every family in the town. But the mine's owner refused to pay fair compensation — naturally, the miners wouldn't stand for it. By the time we arrived in Troyana, the company's patience had run out. They brought in hired thugs, driving trucks into the town from several directions. The moment they got out, they began beating the miners gathered in the square. The workers were completely unprepared, and since many of the victims' families were also present, the crowd began fleeing along a single street — the only route the thugs had deliberately left open."

"Holy shit! What did the police do afterward?"

"The local police and officials had long been bought off," she said quietly. "Government representatives only showed up once, right after the accident — and all they did was spout empty promises. After that, they never came back."

"And you didn't run into danger yourselves?"

Given the scale of it, Edwin's shock was understandable. Even in Dazilet, incidents of corruption that blatant were rare. The worst he'd seen was a mayor quietly granting fertile farmland to his own relatives.

"Not at that moment. You all know how capable Shatiel is — and she had a gun with her. Once the thugs started their assault, we fired a few warning shots into the air. That was enough to stop them from going further."

"Then what happened after that?"

"I revealed my identity and negotiated on behalf of the miners and the mining site workers. Later that evening, the mayor of Dravoskom and the mine owner themselves came to the meeting, and by the next day the provincial governor had arrived after hearing the news. I didn't have much experience, so most of the negotiation work was handled by my teacher. The casualty and missing-person reports, the compensation calculations, and the follow-up procedures took about a week to complete — and it was only after we got involved that the local government even began to take real action."

"…And in the end?"

"It wasn't the end yet."

At this point, Hielaina paused briefly, recalling the entire sequence of events before continuing.

"When government officials and resource developers are corrupt together, it's almost certain there's a deeper problem — falsifying extraction reports, selling resources privately, embezzling state property. Crimes like that are punishable by death. The evidence would have been easy to find with just a bit of investigation. I pointed this out during the negotiations… and that's when they decided to kill us to keep us quiet.

"Only a few people in the palace knew I was traveling incognito, and somehow those officials knew that too. So even if the matter were investigated later, it would have been nearly impossible to trace back to them."

Though Hielaina spoke with a calm and steady tone, everyone listening was visibly shaken.

"Unbelievable…"

Otto couldn't help exclaiming. That was outright treason.

"It was probably on the ninth night. Everyone was asleep when their hired thugs came for us — armed, heading straight toward our house. Luckily, Shatiel discovered their movement ahead of time, and with the help of some brave townspeople who resisted with us, we managed to escape in the chaos. Those officials had earlier invited us to stay in a house in the city with better conditions, but I refused, afraid they might retaliate against the townsfolk once we were gone. Looking back now, if we had really moved into their territory, things would've turned out much worse."

"And in the end?"

"It still wasn't the end."

"Not the end?"

By all logic, this should've been the point where the imperial side could punish those treasonous bastards. What more could possibly happen after that?

"The next day we drove to the nearby military district — since the army and the local government are separate systems, they hadn't been corrupted. After arriving, we explained everything to the district commander and sent a telegram to the palace. Once my father received the message, he ordered the commander to suppress the rebellion. We followed the soldiers back to the town… but by then, those officials were using the townspeople as hostages to force negotiations."

"…Damn… I don't even know what to say…"

Even the battle-hardened Night Knights couldn't help but sigh at such ugliness. The cruelty of the battlefield was at least direct — but this kind of arrogance toward the powerless, the deceit and treachery of political scheming, had a cold, sinister chill to it.

"And finally—"

At last, Hielaina deliberately emphasized the word everyone had been waiting for.

"We had intended to negotiate with their hired thugs and persuade them to surrender. But the Night Knights my father dispatched arrived before we did. They flew in the next day, captured the main instigators, and the remaining thugs surrendered without a fight."

As she finished the story, Hielaina let out a long breath. Even after all these years, it was something she couldn't forget — and, in some way, it had opened her eyes to the realities of the world.

"The incident even made it into the newspapers at the time, though it didn't mention the officials' treason or my involvement. Publicly, the main offenders were convicted of corruption and embezzlement of state assets… but in truth, they were all secretly executed."

When no one spoke, Hielaina went on.

Just then, the truck came to a halt. No one knew what had happened up ahead.

"Probably some mechanical trouble. This old heap does that all the time," one of the drivers muttered.

The driver and his co-driver were both from the transport corps, temporarily assigned to deliver the Night Knights of the 4th platoon to their mission site. The truck behind them stopped as well to check what was going on.

"Is it serious?"

"Not really. Same old problem. A quick repair should do."

After speaking with the driver and confirming it wouldn't take long, Otto began assigning men to keep watch around the area.

"Your Highness," Nordhausen said as he walked up beside Hielaina, who was pacing idly, "you mentioned earlier that the officials in Lyses somehow knew no one else was aware of your travels. How could they have been so sure?"

Hielaina looked at him, slightly surprised. He had been in the truck too, listening to her entire story, but hadn't said a single word — nor shown much reaction at all.

"Ah, I actually have a few theories about that," she said. "But nothing I can prove."

Her surprise faded as she thought about his usual manner. It made sense.

"Only three people knew about my whereabouts: my father, the palace steward, and Parotno. My father can, of course, be ruled out. The palace steward oversees everything in the palace — he would've noticed immediately if I were gone, and he was even the one who personally handed us the prepared luggage. But later investigations confirmed he had no involvement."

She paused. The answer was, in fact, quite clear, and Nordhausen nodded knowingly.

"No one suspected Parotno at the time. The internal investigation turned up nothing of value, so the case was eventually concluded as an act planned and executed solely by the Lyses officials."

Although there were indeed some suspicious points, no concrete evidence could be found to prove that others had taken part in the rebellion. Even so, the Internal Security Bureau had been kept busy for quite some time afterward, and Dazilet's political scene was thrown into a state of inexplicable unrest.

"Before my father passed away, Parotno served as the minister of a department called the Imperial Audit Office. That department… didn't exactly do honorable work."

"..."

Hielaina stopped again. Nordhausen remained silent, so she went on:

"As you know, the Dazilet Empire is a multiethnic, multicultural nation. During its conquests, countless smaller states with different beliefs were absorbed into the empire, which made postwar governance incredibly challenging. In some regions, the empire could act with force and face little resistance, but in others, we had to appoint local people to manage the territories in order to maintain stability. But that was only a stopgap measure. Many of these regions, with their own strong sense of autonomy and loyal leaders, had no real intention of submitting to imperial rule. They kept making little moves behind the scenes. So, the empire came up with a strategy—carrots and sticks—to win them over."

"Carrots and sticks?"

It was the first time Nordhausen had heard the phrase.

"It means showing force on one hand while offering enough benefits on the other to make those regional leaders comply with the central government. The threat of force needs no explanation, while the 'benefits' usually took the form of tolerated corruption, or even direct gifts from the royal family. Over time, most regions were completely subdued, and the few hardliners who refused to yield were handed over to the Internal Security Bureau. That was how the empire's domestic affairs finally stabilized. The primary role of the Imperial Audit Office was to use corruption to control officials.

The department's official duty was bookkeeping and inspection, but that position gave the empire an opportunity to gather information about the bribery and embezzlement within those deliberately 'flexible' administrative zones. Those records could then be used against the officials whenever they became disobedient. After all, corruption was the thing the public could not tolerate—so the imperial government could always imprison them under the pretext of an anti-corruption campaign."

"The Lyses officials were very likely encouraged by Parotno to act against you. Their own corruption probably had already drawn the Audit Office's attention, and they might have received hints or promises from members of the royal family. If Your Highness had really been killed, Parotno would've conveniently removed the only obstacle standing in his way to the throne—by their hands."

As soon as Hielaina finished, Nordhausen immediately picked up the thought, and his deduction earned a nod of agreement from her.

"If that's true, then the usurper had clearly prepared for this long in advance."

"He was indeed well prepared. My father entrusted him with the Audit Office out of faith in his ability, but Parotno used that opportunity to quietly expand his own network of influence. No one realized how deep his arrangements ran—until the day his plot was exposed."

Nordhausen said nothing more, though Hielaina found herself increasingly intrigued by him. He had already shown his analytical sharpness before, and with proper training, he could easily serve as a strategist.

"The truck's fixed!"

With a sharp clank, the hood of the truck was slammed shut. The driver shouted out, and Otto, hearing the news, went to call back the Night Knights who were standing watch.

"How long until we arrive?"

"About an hour or so."

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