“The interval would be somewhere between ten and fifteen days.”
As expected. That the interval was long was something one could work out fairly quickly by accounting for how long they had waited outside. Time inside a Rift and time outside flow at different rates.
Generally, time inside a Rift moves faster than outside — so the period Yuan described was within a reasonable range to accept. It was something Edwin had anticipated, and he moved his pen without particular reaction.
The problem was what came next.
At the words that followed, Edwin found himself stopping his pen without even realizing it.
“The total number of creatures I faced was seventy-two…… no, seventy-three.”
“……What?”
The pen resting against the document shifted visibly. Edwin pulled it away quickly before the ink could spread further and fixed his gaze on Yuan. He studied him closely, trying to determine whether the testimony he had just heard was true or not.
Seventy-three creatures dispatched, each appearing at intervals of ten to fifteen days? Even at the minimum of ten days, that would take two years.
Yuan had been known to weave falsehoods into his words with practiced ease, but he had always drawn a clear line between what was real and what wasn’t. Unless he truly had to deceive, he tended to keep to a certain measure of truthfulness while still steering people as he pleased — and so his manner of speech had always drawn both hostility and curiosity in equal measure.
But this — could this really be brushed off as mere bluster?
“What you just said…… is that accurate?”
“Yes. I confirmed it before my watch stopped, so it is.”
After staring at Yuan for a long moment, Edwin finally dropped his pen as though throwing it down.
“That’s a bold claim. Killing all seventy-three would take a minimum of two years. Are you telling me you endured that long inside a Rift and killed creatures the entire time?”
“It’s the truth.”
Even with Edwin’s open hostility laid bare, Yuan did not retract his account.
“I spent more than two years inside that place, killing them.”
“……”
“To survive.”
Beneath his disheveled bangs, Yuan’s eyes, which had been fixed on Edwin with a dark and unreadable look, flickered with a faint light in that one moment.
“To come back alive.”
Edwin finally leveled a hard stare at Yuan, who continued to insist it was true. There was no sign of fabrication in his face — but even so, there was a limit to what could be accepted as fact.
Surviving inside a Rift for two years was not something even a seasoned knight could manage with ease. Unless one belonged to the domain troops of one of the four great houses, or to a military force of comparable strength, mere survival was already an ordeal.
And Yuan — entering a Rift for the first time — had accomplished something that was nearly impossible?
After staring at Yuan for a long time, Edwin finally furrowed his brow and looked back down at the transcript. Something about it didn’t sit right. The credibility of the testimony was one issue, but there was also the sense of wrongness he felt from the Yuan sitting before him that he couldn’t simply ignore.
The ease that had once lived on his face was gone, replaced by an exhaustion and a dulled, worn-down quality. The dignity that had been so deeply ingrained in him as a noble was nowhere to be found — as though it had been chipped away.
Could everything he had cultivated over decades — everything that had shaped who he was — truly change overnight?
After deliberating, Edwin ultimately deferred verification of that particular matter. Yuan’s testimony wasn’t the only means of determining the truth about the Rift.
“This statement, too, is difficult to accept at face value. Whether it is true or not will be confirmed once the magic stones are extracted. Checking the number and purity of the magic stones should give us a rough picture of what took place inside.”
The logistics platoon was still inside the residual Rift extracting magic stones even now. The credibility of Yuan’s account would become clear once the number and purity were verified.
Yuan’s authority rank is 4. If he survived inside the Rift, the creatures’ level would likely be similar.
Taking into account that he had no prior suppression experience, the danger rating could potentially fall below Rank 3. Either way, once the magic stone extraction was complete, they would know immediately whether Yuan’s words were true or false.
After confirming a few more details about the Rift, Edwin asked:
“Is there anything else unusual to report, or anything further you wish to say?”
“……No.”
Yuan concluded his account in an unusually slow, measured tone. Edwin looked up from his pen and studied him. Over his otherwise composed expression, fatigue rose to the surface, tinged with something that looked like resignation.
Given his circumstances, that was an understandable reaction. He had threatened national security under imperial decree. Clumsy excuses and pleas for leniency would only work against him, compounding the severity of his crime.
The imperial court valued facts and outcomes above all else — no unforeseeable circumstances inside a Rift would be considered grounds for leniency.
The only thing that might qualify as a mitigating factor was the result — namely, the fact that Yuan had resolved the Rift on his own. Had he failed and the creatures overrun their boundaries, the damage would have fallen not only on Yuan but on the Winter family, who bore responsibility for the defense of the west.
Relieved that things had not come to the worst, Edwin brought the interrogation to a close.
“This is sufficient for the report. This transcript will be submitted as evidence when you stand trial at the imperial capital. Ordinarily you would accompany me to the capital to answer for your crimes, but I cannot leave this post until the magic stones have been extracted from the residual Rift. So I intend to send you ahead to the capital first.”
The eyes that had remained still throughout the transcript wavered for just a moment. Yuan looked at Edwin and asked:
“When I arrive at the capital — what will become of me?”
“That is for His Majesty to decide. I don’t know what punishment will be handed down. You’ll be detained in the imperial palace until the trial — but surely you expected as much?”
Edwin smiled, faintly and crookedly. There was no chance that that Yuan had moved without calculating some way to slip free of the consequences. It even crossed his mind that Yuan might have made his move only after working out how to escape this very outcome.
In reality, once news of Yuan’s detention spreads, the head of the Brendy family is likely to act.
The iron-willed veteran who had guarded the east for decades. He had three children, yet showed fatherly warmth only to his third son, Yuan. Given the weight of his influence, it would be impossible to rush through the trial or delay it under the pretext of gathering evidence.
At that moment, Yuan — who had barely moved at all — opened his mouth.
“Depending on the verdict, could I lose my life?”
Edwin found himself unexpectedly rattled — then quickly drew his brows together. If he was asking about execution, it was something that would never come to pass.
The defense of the west was a duty the Winter family had shouldered under imperial decree. Even if Yuan had interfered with that duty, would a verdict truly be handed down that would take the life of Yuan — the lady of the Winter household?
“Judging by the severity of the crime, that possibility is low. The fact that you resolved the Rift yourself will factor in as well.”
The head of the Brendy family would not accept such an outcome either. No matter how powerful the Emperor, he could not afford to make an enemy of the Brendy family’s patriarch — a veteran hero who had protected the east for forty years.
“……Is that so.”
“If there’s nothing more you wish to ask, the interrogation is concluded. When dawn breaks tomorrow, you are to follow the escort to the capital. Preparations will be handled on our end — until then, I ask only that you watch your conduct.”
Edwin impressed this upon Yuan with a cool, cautioning look. Whether that advice would be heeded was another matter — but if Yuan was as clever as Edwin believed him to be, he would know how to carry himself.
“Understood.”
Yuan answered just as compliantly as before, and then added:
“Then may I be excused?”
At that, silence fell over the tent. Not only Edwin — but Hakin, who had been listening while pretending to sort documents, and Laurent, who had been standing awkwardly near the entrance the entire time — all turned to look at Yuan with startled expressions. Edwin even let his pen slip from his fingers.
Finish the matter and send him on his way. That was the most efficient handling of things Edwin could have hoped for. From the moment Yuan had come here on his own, Edwin had not entertained even the smallest expectation that he would cooperate.
If anything, he had assumed Yuan would use the transcript as an opportunity to press Edwin for emotional consolation or consideration as his spouse. He was quite a sensitive man, after all — sharp, but with a fineness to him.
Before he knew it, Edwin found himself scrutinizing Yuan’s face as if trying to read what was going on inside him. When no answer came, Yuan looked at him with a faintly puzzled expression and asked:
“Do you have further questions? If not, I’d like to rest before the journey. I’ll keep to myself as well, of course.”
……Is he genuinely that exhausted? The shift in his manner from usual threw Edwin into an unexpectedly deep confusion. With the thought that perhaps the two brutal years Yuan had endured were real after all, Edwin opened his mouth.
“……If that is what you intend to do, then — by all means.”
Even he wasn’t sure what he’d just said. He was only dimly aware of the fact that he had agreed. At that, Yuan finally rose from the chair where he had been sitting without so much as a twitch.
“I’ll take my leave, then.”
He offered only a brief bow before asking Laurent, who was frozen in place at the entrance, to show him the way. Laurent snapped back to his senses and scrambled to lead him out — and Yuan drifted away at his own unhurried pace. Edwin watched the retreating figure until, at last, he spoke.
“……Did he take a blow to the head?”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
Even Hakin murmured his reply with eyes still fixed blankly on Yuan’s back as he disappeared through the tent’s entrance.
