“What’s this?”

Words and action came simultaneously. She braced the floor with her knee and one hand. With the other hand, she grabbed one side of Ian’s collar like seizing someone by the scruff and yanked it. 

The force was strong enough to drag Ian’s upper body forward a bit. The collar gaped wide, fully exposing his nape, collarbone, and thick chest muscles. Ian glanced at Alex’s face once, then turned his head away.

“Got scratched.”

“You don’t say ‘scratched’ for a sword.”

“…Got scratched by a sword.”

Ian wrapped his hand around Alex’s and promptly removed it from his collar. Alex, who obediently let go as he directed, sat right in front of him and furrowed her brow deeply.

“While you recite ‘don’t die’ to me like a spell.”

He nearly got his head taken off. By Kosten of all people, who attack routinely. Suddenly she was irritated. Not even a difficult opponent, just Kosten? It wasn’t even like he’d been seriously on the defensive.

Frowning, Alex grabbed and lifted Ian’s opposite collar. The opposite chest muscle was fully exposed, and his rock-like shoulder muscles were visible too. 

She examined both large hands, left and right, then lifted his shirt entirely to check his abdomen with its finely segmented muscles, his sides, and his back, turning him this way and that. 

She swept her eyes over his thick thighs and calves to see if there were any torn parts in his pants. Her touch held not a shred of emotion, like handling an inanimate object.

Ian let out a long sigh. The hands touching his skin were cold, and his own body was pointlessly hot.

“That’s enough.”

Half-listening at best, Alex removed her hands without lingering the moment she confirmed there were no new wounds besides the scars she already knew. She wore a smiling face.

“If you get hurt, I’ll kill you myself. Got it?”

Cheerfully announcing m*rder, she returned to her spot and lay down. She yawned widely and soon closed her eyes. Less than 10 seconds after her head touched down, her breathing was already regular.

Ian poked the campfire with kindling.

The scars all over his body were vivid like engravings of living memories. An arrow mark from his first real battle. A sword cut from deflecting arrows flying at Alex. 

As time passed, injuries to his body became extremely rare, but whenever he happened to get hurt and show blood, Alex would react like this once in a while.

Ian’s blue eyes fixed on the sleeping Alex. After staring for a while, he turned his gaze to the campfire. Flames flickered roughly inside his deep blue eyes.

* * *

The return happened quietly in the dead of night. They entered the imperial palace without anyone knowing through a path used in emergencies. Ian called his aide knight Ed to the commander’s office. 

A face with black hair and a neat, cute appearance entered carrying a report. Alex sat at the desk that was always messy like it had been bombed, and Ian sat on the long sofa. 

Though they must have killed their fighting spirit on the battlefield, they showed no signs of fatigue and were the same as usual.

Ed wasn’t even surprised anymore.

“Was there anything unusual while we were gone?”

Though never particularly warm to begin with, today the amber eyes were even colder. Ed was originally Ian’s aide knight. 

However, since Alex didn’t keep a separate aide knight, he very frequently reported to both Ian and Alex like this. 

His superiors were amazing enough to go down in history books, so there was much to learn, but they were excessively competent, which meant he was overworked along with them, and every day was h*ll. Today too, he’d been dragged out of bed.

“There were a few incidents.”

However, in perfect attire so no one would know he’d come from bed, Ed scanned the report with an expressionless face.

The defense forces guarding the imperial capital’s perimeter and the guard forces handling incidents and accidents within the capital handled things they could deal with on their own level—ordinary drunken violence or simple imperial capital trespassing. 

Anything beyond that deemed serious came up to the Knight Order. The Imperial Knight Order, responsible for overall security, judged these and issued instructions. 

Reports that went all the way up to the commander in particular were literally only when there were unusual matters.

“First… Countess Emily died. There are traces suggesting s*icide, but m*rder is also suspected.”

“It’s m*rder. Pressure Count Ryan and he’ll confess. For someone with a foul temper, he’s quite cowardly.”

The Knight Order was already monitoring Countess Emily’s various attempts to get back at her husband Count Ryan, who played around indiscriminately. 

However, it was impossible for Count Ryan—stupid, violent, and coercive in temperament—to be bested by his wife. He probably struck first and killed her. He seemed to have tried to make it look like s*icide, but he was quite stupid.

Ed’s eyes reached the bottom of the report he hadn’t yet spoken.

Various evidence and circumstances appeared to be s*icide, but Count Ryan’s testimony changed each time, and considering that the witness he presented had disappeared, it stated they couldn’t be certain. 

As Alex said, this case would wrap up cleanly if they interrogated Count Ryan further.

Ed nodded.

“A man named Jillan Runner’s body was found in the western forest of the capital. Since he was someone who played with money in large amounts, there aren’t many suspects, but we’re stuck because they all have confirmed alibis for the estimated time of death.”

Western forest. Ian, who’d been listening motionless like a statue, unconsciously gave Alex a look and carefully observed her reaction. Though Alex knew Ian had turned his eyes to her, without any change in expression she asked Ed indifferently.

“Cause of death?”

“Asphyxiation from neck compression. There were signs of a struggle.”

“Is Alante on the debtor list?”

“…Yes.”

Ed raised his head with a surprised face.

Alante Cotimes. Once called even a grand merchant company, but now the owner of the much-shrunken Alante merchant company. 

He’d fattened himself selling luxury goods illegally imported from other countries, which Alex had deliberately crushed after becoming vice commander, so now he’d lost almost all his past glory. Why would Alante, who’d been lying low for years, suddenly…

“A week from now would be the debt repayment deadline for the money borrowed from Jillan Runner. Jillan went to collect, a fight broke out, and Alante killed him in a fit of rage.”

How did you know the debt repayment deadline is in a week?

“Alante doesn’t use weap*ns, trusting his size. Couldn’t break his habit, strangled him to death with bare hands and dumped him in the forest, I bet…”

‘How did you know about Alante’s size or that he doesn’t use weap*ns when no one knows his face?’

“The western forest is Alante’s favorite place. Looks like he hid the body there in a hurry since it’s comfortable and familiar, but he couldn’t even do that properly and got unluckily caught. Investigate Alante’s people’s movements around the estimated date of death.”

‘How do you know Alante likes the western forest… asking would just waste my breath. She’ll just say I don’t need to know.’

Ed held his breath and jotted notes in the report’s margin. Eventually, Ed raised his head.

“There was a suspicious robbery case.”

Alex slightly furrowed her brow, as though prompting him to continue. Even under the sharp gaze focusing on him, Ed calmly continued speaking.

“The victim is a male in his 50s, a homeless beggar. The incident was around 2 AM, location was the back alley of Luivino. He was struck on the head repeatedly from behind with a brick. The condition was quite severe, so it’s presumed the perpetrator was someone with a grudge.”

Ed, who’d been catching his breath briefly, spoke again.

“But when we asked other beggars about the victim, they say he wasn’t someone who’d earn anyone’s grudge. They said he was a good, kind person.”

“Victim’s statement?”

Alex asked if the victim had seen anything about the perpetrator.

“He said he didn’t see anything.”

“…What’s the suspicious part?”

“They stole all the money and ran, but it was only about 30 silver.”

Commoners’ monthly living expenses were roughly 80 gold. 10 silver to 1 gold, so 30 silver was merely about a day’s wages. Truly pocket change to steal.

Alex slowly leaned back and sank into her chair. After pausing for a moment, she spoke quietly.

“It is strange to attack and steal money from someone who’d have the least to steal. In that case, there’s usually a grudge… but they say there’s no one around the victim with a motive.”

However, working in the Knight Order, she’d experienced so many things that made her lose faith in humanity.

“Still, we’ve seen plenty of bastards who pretend to be good people while secretly doing dirty deeds behind the scenes.”

“…Yes.”

They’d witnessed countless times when people unanimously called kind and good-natured had filthy sides. Of course, they might have truly been good people, but the possibility they weren’t couldn’t be ruled out.

“2 AM would be a time with no people around, and the back alley of Luivino is a residential area far from downtown, so there would’ve been even fewer people at that hour.”

“Yes. There are no witnesses.”

“…They deliberately chose the location and time to target him.”

Ian, frowning, tilted his head and muttered. Then he soon asked Ed with eyes tinged with doubt.

“Was there no other evidence at the scene?”

There were always footprints left or dropped items. However, Ed shook his head.

“Nothing at all except the blood-stained brick.”

Alex slowly raised the corners of her mouth. Fierce fighting spirit showed in the Red Lion’s golden eyes. Ed tensed and bit his lip.

“Interesting.”

They attacked a beggar living hand to mouth, stole money, cleaned up the surroundings completely and fled?