* * *
Even if they shared a goal, if their methods differed, Lowell couldn’t consider them true allies.
“Rude, but not a bad deduction. Pretty close, too.”
The Crown Prince responded calmly, in stark contrast to the rough tone he had used moments earlier.
“But if I really meant to use Felix purely as bait, I wouldn’t have given him any information at all. I know he’s not foolish enough to spill secrets even if betrayed.”
“Then…”
“I trusted in the Duke’s strength. I believed he would act in line with my intentions.”
The Crown Prince shrugged lightly, leaving the rest unsaid.
“I only know a fraction, but magical restraints don’t work properly on me. Well, not entirely — if I amplify my mana explosively, I can break the restraints. Plus, within a certain radius, I can suppress magic. So even if I were dragged into the ritual, I could escape at any time.”
It was possible because the amount of magical power Felix possessed had never been fully measured.
“Yeah. If the Duke could pinpoint the ritual’s location, I planned to storm in myself. If you want to call even that a form of bait, I won’t argue.”
“Then all the more reason you should’ve told me earlier, don’t you think?”
“If the Grand Duke starts acting like he knows, they’ll just become more wary.”
The Crown Prince’s explanation wasn’t enough to completely convince Lowell, whose priority was Felix’s safety, but logically, he couldn’t deny it made sense.
“Then you should explain where you got that information and what other plans you’ve got.”
“I saw some coded documents back when I was with the Clarke family. At first, I didn’t even realize it was coded or think it was important. But after Your Highness said the Clarke family was involved in this plan, I dug through my memory and figured it out.”
Lowell made an excuse that even he thought sounded weak. He had considered dozens of other lies, but none held water.
The most realistic story was admitting he was originally a pawn of the Clarke family but switched sides because of his feelings for Felix.
But even that lacked credibility—no one would hand over critical information to a mere pawn.
“Do you expect me to believe that? Maybe the Grand Duke, who’s completely lost his mind over you, fell for that, but even passing monsters would laugh at that explanation.”
The Crown Prince predictably scoffed.
“Isn’t the reliability of the information more important than its source right now?”
“Or you could be setting us up for a trap.”
“Then allow me to share everything I know. If even a single detail contradicts what Your Highness already knows, feel free to kill me on the spot.”
“Lowell! How can you say that?!”
Felix’s voice echoed throughout the cave at those words, but Lowell’s expression remained unchanged.
“I only said it because I’m confident that won’t happen.”
The Crown Prince stroked his chin, intrigued.
“Then why reveal this now?”
“Because if I spent more time trying to trace the source of the information, it would only deepen the suspicion, like now. And more importantly…”
Lowell let out a long sigh before continuing.
“I know where the final ceremony will be held, but I didn’t know the location of the temporary site set up for preparations. But the magic circle for the ceremony has to be drawn and infused with magic at least half a month in advance, so it’s only now that I can confirm the information I had.”
The Crown Prince noticed how Lowell subtly slipped in the detail that the mock site and the final site were separate.
“Fine. Even if I can’t fully trust you, your information is worth cross-checking.”
With that conclusion, the Crown Prince eased his aggressive stance.
“But even so, Lowell, I can’t take you with us to the capital. You know why, don’t you?”
The question was directed at Lowell, but the Crown Prince’s eyes were fixed on Felix.
“I know. I never intended to go all the way to the capital. If there are people already after me to capture me, sending Lowell to Nix would’ve been even riskier. That’s why I’ve only accompanied you this far.”
“And what was your plan after that?”
Even though they were talking about him, Lowell had no say in the matter.
Power often stripped him of the right to speak.
“I was going to put him on a ship from the next town and send him to an island.”
“You mean Creno Island. The one with the Temple of the God of Peace. Certainly safer than most places.”
“Are you saying that’s no longer true?”
Felix frowned. Since Creno was far from Nix, his intel was bound to lag behind the Crown Prince’s.
“No, there’s been no reports of problems on the island itself. But the territory across from it belongs to Arendelle. He’s one of the noble faction involved in this mess and desperate to make a name for himself. I’d wager there are black mages stationed there. Which means the odds are high that black mages have infiltrated Creno too.”
Lowell recalled the pompous, foolish noble, Sage Arendelle, who’d tried to pick a fight with Felix like a flaming idiot.
From what Lowell had investigated, the son may be a fool, but the father, who held real power, was a politically ambitious schemer.
‘So he was willing to let his own land rot just to seize more power.’
The novel only briefly mentioned that “the remaining black mages were eliminated,” so Lowell hadn’t realized the situation was this dire.
“And what makes you think the black mages have spread that far?”
“You’ve been busy with battlefields and rarely visited the capital, so you wouldn’t know. The plan to control the Emperor’s mind through the ritual is less than five years old. But spreading black magic to weaken the royal family, who symbolize light magic, has been happening for over twenty years.”
In other words, black magic had been spreading gradually since the current Emperor’s coronation.
As the Crown Prince explained, Lowell had to admit that while his information was significant, it was only a fraction of the full picture.
“Even the Festival of Blessings is no longer about celebrating the Empire’s might—it’s just nobles aligned with black mages trying to manipulate His Majesty.”
Lowell felt like all the puzzle pieces were clicking into place.
Poisoning Felix’s drink, agitating Lowell to shake his emotions—it was all part of the plan.
“Once this is dealt with, we’ll need to purge the black mages too. I’ve heard more reports of monsters descending on villages lately—it’s likely they’re reacting to the black magic spreading.”
Felix wasn’t the only knight who’d been dispatched frequently this year to deal with monsters near civilian areas.
Nix only had one incident, so it was relatively safe.
The closer to the capital, the more reports there were.
“Then where is truly safe?”
“There’s no place nearby that’s completely safe.”
“Then I cannot move any further.”
“Count Davon’s estate beyond these mountains is reliable. In an emergency, he can shelter you at least once.”
“That’s not enough. It needs to be nearly perfect.”
There wasn’t a single place in the entire Halo Empire that could guarantee absolute safety, but there were some things Felix couldn’t compromise on.
“That option ended the moment we started heading toward the capital.”
Once again, the Crown Prince derailed the conversation, and Lowell, unable to hold back, cut in.
“I wasn’t going to mention this, but… If the Emperor truly made me a target, going to Nix would’ve been more dangerous. They’d have captured me too and used me as a hostage.”
That’s why, even after realizing the journey to the capital was more dangerous than expected, Lowell didn’t regret his decision.
* * *
