“The injuries were more serious than expected. Emergency treatment has been administered, but full recovery will require a few more sessions. If it had been just one or two wounds, it wouldn’t have taken this long — but when I examined him, it was faster to look for what wasn’t injured.”
“……That bad?”
“Yes. That bad.”
Edwin studied Laurent with a skeptical eye. Could someone with not a single uninjured spot on their body have gotten up on their own and grabbed Edwin by the collar? He had assumed that even if someone came back drenched in blood, if they could still move, they weren’t in critical condition.
For Edwin and every member of the domain troops, that level of condition was commonplace. That was why Edwin had privately thought little of Yuan’s injuries.
But now that the word serious had come from a recovery mage’s mouth, he could no longer afford to dismiss those injuries lightly.
“Is he…… doing better now?”
“Yes. He regained consciousness a short while ago. His condition is more stable than I expected, as well.”
That Yuan? Edwin had privately anticipated an uproar the moment he came to. He’d expected Yuan to grow agitated at being called a criminal — to try to sway people, to lash out, to appeal his circumstances to Edwin.
And yet — stable, he’d said.
Either the injuries were as serious as Laurent claimed, or he hadn’t yet fully grasped the reality of his situation. Either way, if Yuan was awake, Edwin had one thing to do.
“……If he’s stabilized, bring Yuan here. I need to hear what he has to say. If he says he can’t walk, pass along the instruction that he is to put his account in writing.”
“Understood.”
Laurent saluted and hurried out of the tent. Hakin, who had been sorting through documents at Edwin’s side, watched Laurent rush off and asked:
“You won’t be conducting the interrogation yourself?”
The tone made it clear he was nearly certain Yuan wouldn’t come. Edwin was of the same mind. Yuan wouldn’t come.
Unlike Edwin, who spent the majority of his time suppressing Rifts in the west, Yuan had always prioritized the family’s internal affairs and maintaining his standing in political circles. The backing of his family name carried weight, but it was his natural beauty and his gift for navigating society that had made him the darling of aristocratic circles.
He had his own pride in his appearance and in his dignity as a noble — and given that, he would no doubt focus on recovering his physical condition for the time being.
And if movement was difficult, he might assume Edwin would come to him directly for the interrogation — so Edwin had cut off that expectation preemptively by framing the instruction as a written report.
“Accommodating Yuan every step of the way would eat up too much time. Getting the details of the incident is more than enough to handle through paperwork.”
“He’ll definitely hold out until you come to him yourself. That written account is going to be a long time coming.”
“It’s not as though things get any lighter just because the report comes in sooner. Never mind that — I can see your hands, Hakin. Have you lost your mind?”
“Oh dear.”
Hakin hurriedly gathered the pile of documents from the desk and transferred them into a box. Edwin neglected neither his duties as lord nor his role in suppressing Rifts, which meant he didn’t set paperwork aside even in wartime.
Even Edwin, however, had spent the past week so focused on monitoring the Rift that he had let administrative matters fall somewhat behind. Now that the most pressing issue had been resolved, it was time to return to his old workaholic self.
They both buried themselves in their work again. There was no need for unnecessary conversation or instructions. While Edwin drafted his letter, Hakin organized the documents to suit Edwin’s convenience and handled on his own anything that fell within his purview.
They were well-practiced at this, and the haphazard pile of papers visibly began to find its place. It was around that time — with Edwin halfway through his letter and Hakin having cleared one mountain of documents — that Laurent, who had been dismissed with instructions, returned.
Has he come back to report?
Edwin glanced at him briefly and moved his pen again —
“My lord, I have brought Yuan as instructed.”
The pen, which had been gliding smoothly across the paper, lurched and scraped a jagged line before going astray. Edwin stared blankly at the stray mark slashing freely across the letter, then snapped his head up.
“What?”
Had he just said Yuan was here? Edwin’s gaze moved quickly to Laurent — or more precisely, to the other figure walking into the tent behind him.
And sure enough, Yuan walked in unhurriedly, dressed in neat, clean clothing after having recovered. He glanced around at the unfamiliar surroundings, and when his eyes met Edwin’s, he gave only the slightest dip of his head.
“I was told you called for me.”
He actually came on his own. Edwin quickly suppressed his surprise and studied Yuan carefully. The reason Yuan had come here of his own accord wasn’t simply to file a written account as instructed.
He was a sharp man. If he had weighed the pros and cons and decided to come, there was certainly another purpose behind it. Regardless, having the person to be interrogated walk in of his own volition was an advantage — there was no reason to turn him away.
Edwin set aside the now-ruined letter with a displeased look and gestured toward the empty chair with a tilt of his chin.
“Sit down. The interrogation will begin immediately.”
While Edwin prepared the paperwork for the transcript, Yuan quietly took a seat. Edwin had expected some form of protest — yet he complied without a word. At least for this moment, he seemed to have no intention of causing a scene.
Once Edwin had finished preparing, he addressed Yuan.
“Before we begin the transcript, I’ll state the customary notice.”
Yuan likely already knew, but there was a significant difference between knowing something and being formally informed of it.
“You intervened without authorization in the suppression of the western Rift under the management of the Winter family. The defense of the west is a matter of grave imperial decree, and the Rift you entered was classified at the time as a Great Rift, exceeding Depth 1. It has since come to light that the danger rating was a miscalculation — but at the time, the entire western region was at risk of being reduced to ruin.”
“……”
“Understood so far?”
“……Yes.”
“Then give a full and truthful account of everything that occurred inside the Rift. I advise you to choose your words with care so as not to worsen your own position.”
Yuan, who had been staring quietly at a spot on the floor, opened his mouth with an expression touched by resignation.
“Understood.”
He began to recount, without resistance, everything that had happened inside the Rift. He started with how he had come to enter it in the first place. Edwin’s assumption was that the motive was retaliatory.
For the past six months, Edwin had avoided any conversation with Yuan under the pretext of being busy. He exchanged greetings but refused all personal dialogue, and since he spent most of his time in his office, he didn’t participate in shared meals either.
Through Cohen, the head steward, Edwin had also received reports suggesting Yuan harbored resentment over this. The fact that Yuan had gone so far as to visit the western estate over the matter was reason enough to consider it a motive.
Edwin listened carefully as the account came out in sequence, recording it in the documents with precision. The more he heard, the more the truth was — as expected — something to behold.
“You got swept in while trying to assess the situation?”
Yuan’s claim was this: that immediately after arriving at the western estate, he witnessed the appearance of a Rift and headed toward it to assess the situation, only to be accidentally swept inside against his will.
“Yes.”
And yet the eyes that met Edwin’s held not even a trace of deception. Having observed Yuan’s conduct for so long, he could read the truth or falsehood in what a person said and did with relative ease.
“The sky in the west must have turned white that day.”
Edwin was briefly taken aback by Yuan’s words.
So he did see it.
Just as Yuan said — on the night the Rift opened, the western night sky had brightened to midday. An anomaly. A phenomenon that commonly preceded the opening of a Rift. But for it to have been observed this widely across the entire western region was a first. The phenomenon had lent weight to the possibility that the Rift’s danger level might rival that of a Great Rift.
“After that, unrest spread through the estate and the villages. At the time, Edwin and the lord’s father were away, investigating a Rift that had appeared nearby. As the appeals from the anxious residents grew, I could no longer simply remain in the estate. So I set out toward the area of concern and ended up being swept into the Rift.”
Nonsense. Edwin did not fully believe him. Aside from the anomaly occurring and Edwin’s absence, he considered Yuan’s claim that he had gone to search outside the estate on behalf of the residents to be an excuse.
He must have been acting on some other motive entirely. Cold distrust rose in Edwin’s eyes — but Yuan remained unmoved. Whatever he was thinking, it was difficult to read.
“……I’ll set this matter aside for now. Without witnesses or evidence, your word alone is difficult to treat as a complete account.”
“Understood.”
There were more things to ask beyond the reason he had entered the Rift, and he couldn’t dwell on just one matter. In any case, the transcript Edwin produced would only be the first — once Yuan arrived at the imperial capital, an additional one would be filed.
Edwin reviewed the transcript as he continued.
“You said you dispatched the creatures that appeared periodically inside the Rift. What was the specific interval? And state the number of creatures, to the best of your recollection.”
When Edwin pressed for the specific details, Yuan fell into thought as if counting off the time. He stared for a moment at the backs of his hands resting neatly in his lap — and then, at last, he opened his mouth.
The same eyes, the same voice as before — but what followed carried a quality entirely unlike anything that had come before.
