Prince Argentir was a young man with a delicate face, neatly cut platinum blonde hair, narrow eyes, slightly curved eye lines, and slightly upturned corners of his mouth.
He was probably twenty-two years old?
His face, which seemed to be gently smiling even when expressionless, certainly could look weak and harmless to others, I thought.
Of course, to me it felt completely different. Rather the opposite, you could say.
In the world I had lived in, characters with smiling squinting eyes were invariably villains, traitors, or serial killers.
Argentir, as seen through my eyes, also had the impression of someone who could suddenly draw a sword, cut a person in two, and casually grin.
Since a girl who actually does that in real life was standing next to me, I didn't particularly feel afraid or threatened by seeing a squinting-eyed villain in person, though.
* * *
Was he trying to gain the upper hand from the start?
As soon as he saw us, Argentir accurately pinpointed the identities of me and Friede.
Not just my identity, which was still under weak perception interference effects, but also Friede's identity, which I thought few people knew except for Gunther's party.
It would be a lie to say I wasn't surprised. Honestly, I was quite shocked.
It felt like an National Intelligence Service employee who suddenly came to my workplace and recited the breakfast menu I ate today.
It seems the information network of Black Eagle's Shadow was far superior to my expectations.
...Surely they don't know what we did this morning too?
"Thank you for graciously coming despite my rude invitation, Your Highness Prince Argentir."
I politely greeted him with one hand on my chest according to the etiquette I had read in books, then sat down on the chair placed in front of Argentir.
"Ah. Um... Th-thank you, Your Highness!"
Friede, seemingly very awkward with court etiquette, stumbled over her words before roughly expressing her thanks and quickly coming to sit next to me.
Self-introductions weren't necessary. The other party already knew the identities we were going to reveal.
"It's fortunate you're aware it was rude."
"..."
Argentir scolded me.
I couldn't refute since it wasn't wrong.
Looking at it objectively, what I had done was threaten a prince of a country to come here if he didn't want his private life exposed.
Without even mentioning anything about my own identity.
...Now that I say it out loud, it really does sound like a crazy thing to do. Without the knowledge from the original work, it was a reckless plan I couldn't have even conceived of, let alone attempted.
Of course, I was certain. That Argentir would come here.
If his personality and ideology were the same as in the original novel, he wouldn't be able to ignore the message I sent.
Well... I should probably apologize anyway.
I bowed my head slightly and apologized politely.
The fact that he was explicitly pointing this out probably meant he wanted to hear my apology to be satisfied.
"...It was unavoidable on my part, but even so, it was undoubtedly my fault for being rude. For that, I sincerely apolo-"
"Not necessary."
...Oh, is that not it?
Argentir cut off my words in a firm tone. His tone said to put away such nonsense.
"Don't waste my time. Do you think I came all the way here to receive an insincere apology?"
How can you say it's insincere? Even a child who blew their parents' retirement savings on cryptocurrency couldn't look more apologetic than I did right now.
"...I beg your pardon."
Of course, it was a forced expression, but still.
"If you're aware that you've been rude, you should apologize with something substantial enough to make up for it, rather than with empty words. So tell me. Didn't you presumptuously mention my brother's well-being?"
Argentir ordered me to stop the nonsense and quickly tell him about Heid. As expected, he seemed very interested in his brother's well-being, just like in the original work.
Just as Heid had a lot of interest in his younger brother's well-being.
Of course, neither side's interest was positive.
The first prince who had his right of succession taken by his younger brother, and the second prince who obtained his brother's right of succession. Anyone could see it was a perfect setup for brotherly love to fall apart.
Yet outwardly they were known to get along well, but that was just a facade and the reality was close to the opposite.
To the extent that Black Eagle's Shadow, originally created to support his brother from the shadows, was now being used for completely different purposes.
"Yes, I'll tell you."
I nodded.
Originally, I had planned to negotiate my desired conditions first before starting the story... but seeing how this man was talking, it seemed like he might just cut off the conversation altogether if I did that, saying I was being impertinent.
It wouldn't be strange if he drew his sword, saying he'd listen to the story slowly in the organization's underground prison.
So it seemed better to reveal the information first and then demand compensation afterwards.
It would be quite problematic if Argentir decided to just listen to the information and then wash his hands of it... but given the difference in our positions and status, pushing too hard would only disadvantage me.
Well, if Argentir's personality was the same as in the original work, it shouldn't be a problem.
The Argentir in the original work was ruthless enough to raise orphans as assassins by binding them with gratitude, but he was surprisingly thorough with rewards and punishments.
In other words, he wasn't a bad person to deal with. As long as you didn't get on his bad side.
So...
"A few days ago, an Abyss Priest contacted me. Believing the false accusations against me to be true, he aimed to draw me in as a comrade."
Believing that Argentir's personality would be the same as in the original work, I decided to bring up the story he wanted to hear before the conditions.
"False accusations? That's a very interesting perspective."
"...Most of them are false accusations."
I claimed that the charges against me were false accusations while avoiding the prince's gaze with a dignified attitude.
Although there were some things I actually did mixed in, just because 20% truth is mixed into false accusations doesn't make the entire accusation true, right?
So I was dignified.
"Hmm... let's put that aside for now. Continue."
"Yes. He wasn't even an ordinary Abyss Priest. He was a finger of the Exorcism Reversal Society... that is, a high-ranking Abyss Priest."
Argentir let out a low hum and slightly opened his narrow eyes.
It seems he's starting to get a bit interested. If he's dominating Hervor's underworld from the shadows, he must have heard about the Exorcism Reversal Society.
"The name he revealed himself was Ord Zenbel. As you may know, he was once called the Nightmare of Bizenwerk-"
"That Beast Implanter?"
"...Yes, that's right, Beast Implanter Ord."
I agreed in a disgruntled voice.
That derogatory nickname, Beast Implanter, it seems it was a much more widely used title than I thought. To the extent that he immediately recalled that nickname upon hearing his name.
I understand now why Ord's doppelganger threw a fit as soon as he heard that word.
If the whole world remembers you as Beast Implanter, I think even my personality would have become as dirty as a rag used to wipe vomit.
He was a pitiful guy in his own way. Though I don't feel sympathetic.
"Ord demonstrated his ability to command monsters to prove himself, then made me a proposal. He said they had a plan to assassinate this country's hero, and proposed that I cooperate with this."
I explained in detail the proposal the Beast Implanter made to me, their plan, and how I dealt with it.
Including the fact that the Ord was not the real Ord but a doppelganger.
Perhaps it was more interesting than expected, as Argentir listened attentively to my story, repeatedly nodding his head while resting his chin on one hand.
"—That's what happened."
And then, as soon as I finished my story, he expressed his satisfaction with light applause.
"Excellent. Very excellent. It was an extremely interesting story. If we turn a blind eye to the problem of there being no physical evidence."
So he's pointing out that part after all. As he pointed out, my story had no evidence to support it.
If only Ord hadn't been a doppelganger, I could have presented his head as physical evidence, but unfortunately, since he was a doppelganger, he had long since melted away.
"There's no evidence, but... I swear by the goddess it's the truth. I have not the slightest intention of deceiving Your Highness with a plausible lie-"
"There's no need to go so far as to swear. Verifying the credibility of information is our job to handle."
Fortunately, Argentir expressed that it didn't matter since he would look into the evidence himself. Saying that's exactly the role of an information guild.
But, if that's the case, why did he explicitly mention and point out that part? I don't understand the reason.
I hope not, but... could it be he just wanted to scold me?
This Argentir. Earlier too, and now as well, he's clearly not hostile towards me, but he keeps snapping at me strangely.
As if I had caused him some great hardship.
Honestly, I've wanted to snap back at him since earlier, asking why he's acting like this, and if he has a problem with me, to speak plainly instead of sniping sarcastically.
Of course, I held back because I felt like I'd receive an execution order rather than an answer if I did.