Chapter 181

Countess Edelweiss was one of the true powerhouses of the Western Empire.

The ripple effect of her words was, naturally, enormous.

Those rumors spread like wildfire, of course.

And naturally, they became the talk of the town.

“I thought that strategy seemed oddly strange.”

“There’s no way Countess Edelweiss would use such a reckless approach.”

“If she’d used a method without even basic tactics, how could Edelweiss have such a stellar gate defense record?”

Edelweiss’s reputation soared, while Pourlang’s image plummeted even further.

“But Pourlang never once suspected it was the wrong method?”

“Didn’t he have the knowledge to verify it?”

“Well, looking at Pourlang’s gate defense rate…”

People began openly questioning Viscount Pourlang’s competence.

But the story that hit Pourlang the hardest was this one.

“So, you’re saying Pourlang leaked personal info that Countess Edelweiss shared just with him?”

“Wasn’t it Pourlang’s second son who did it? Whether the one who shared it or the one who used it…”

“Why was the second son even at Edelweiss territory in the first place, when the two families don’t get along?”

Anticipating such suspicions, Shin Yuri spoke up first.

“Ricas de Pourlang was freeloading at the manor after being kicked out of his own home.”

“Freeloading? Or did he infiltrate as a spy from the start?”

The sharp nobles naturally saw through the truth.

“Only a fool like Pourlang would use such a stupid strategy!”

“Hahaha! Having one priest heal three knights, two holy knights, and a mage!”

“That’s an affront to Lord Shinsian!”

Shinsian himself might not care, but the Shinsian Pontiff certainly would.

While Pourlang was suffering utter humiliation,

Ricas de Pourlang was incredibly busy.

“W-what did you say?”

He had just returned from clearing another dungeon at Senia’s request.

He’d come to gather intel, but somehow he was just handling gates instead?

A sharp thought crossed his mind briefly, but it passed quickly.

Anyway, hadn’t he passed valuable info to both Pourlang and Kinna of the Eastern Empire?

For Pourlang’s second son, he’d now proven his worth to Kinna.

A reply from Kinna would come soon.

The Eastern Empire, desperate for Western Empire gate management techniques, would surely bite!

Or so he thought…

“What do you mean by that?”

“Did Ricas really do that, sir?”

The knights with him had apparently heard something while reporting the gate clear to the scouts from Edelweiss manor.

Edelweiss knights already viewed Ricas unfavorably.

They’d expected skill from the second son of a sword family like Pourlang, but he was underwhelming.

And now, stealing info too?

Moreover…

“Such an absurd party composition… seriously?”

“Anyone who’s entered a high-difficulty gate even once would know that’s nonsense…”

The knights began murmuring. Ricas’s face turned beet red.

“Th-that… I must have accidentally let it slip in a letter. Sorry about that.”

He broke into a cold sweat.

If that idiot Viscount Pourlang hadn’t blabbed that he “heard it from Edelweiss,” he wouldn’t be in this mess!

“We had high hopes since you share blood with the family head…”

“The rumors about Pourlang must be true after all.”

Ricas pretended not to hear the Edelweiss knights’ mutterings.

His reputation in the Western Empire was already ruined. No salvaging it here.

But who cares about the Western Empire!

With Countess Edelweiss and Senia as the real powers, living large there was off the table anyway, right?

So he’d pinned his hopes on the Eastern Empire…!

His flushed face drained to pale blue.

Shin Yuri would have admired the patriotic color shift, but unfortunately, she wasn’t there to see it.

Ricas bit his lip.

He had to urgently convince Kinna that the info was fake!

Otherwise, he’d be useless in the Eastern Empire too!

“F-first, everyone, head back for dinner. I need to sort my thoughts… and figure out how to apologize to Senia…”

With those words, he slipped away from the returning procession.

—Whish!

He hastily summoned a messenger bird.

He had to stop the Eastern Empire from using that method before it was too late.

“Of all things, I wrote the letter so detailed…!”

The letter to Viscount Pourlang was vague, but not to Kinna.

No matter that Ricas was originally an Eastern Empire spy, he was Paris’s man, with differing politics from Kinna.

Naturally, Kinna might not trust the info.

So he’d racked his brain, attaching all sorts of justifications to that ridiculous “three knights, two holy knights, one mage, one priest” strategy.

Claims like how higher dungeon difficulty requires more people, or that too many priests increases difficulty.

Surprisingly, more people did raise difficulty—that part was true—but priests increasing it was utter nonsense.

It was just fabricated to make Kinna trust the strategy more.

Now he had to directly refute it all.

He hurriedly wrote the letter and sent the bird off.

Watching it soar away, he stomped his feet in frustration.

Please, let Kinna not have spread that strategy across the Eastern Empire…!

Unfortunately, plagued by countless gates due to gate holding delays, Kinna had already disseminated it nationwide.

“Prince Kinna, is this strategy really correct?”

“There seem to be too few priests.”

“You think so too?”

Unlike Ricas, Kinna had some brains, so he’d retracted the “implement nationwide” order, changing it to “discuss.”

In other words, everyone in the Eastern Empire now knew the “three knights, two holy knights, one mage, one priest” strategy.

The Shinsian Church was principally in the Western Empire, so the Eastern Empire had no priests.

There were priests of other gods, but their influence wasn’t as vast, so a few mages trained in healing magic handled treatments.

Meaning it was already a meat grinder for healers.

In short, Yian ssi was fretting over poor healers getting shredded even more.

This time, they’d snagged Kinna’s reply to Ricas.

This one used higher-level magic than Paris’s to conceal contents, proving Kinna had a bit more brains.

But a mage enjoying the “rare honor” of scouting the forest near the magic stone mine with the Tower Master caught the mana-emitting bird, rendering it all for naught.

“There’s magic on the letter!”

Research instincts fired, Mage Phil seized the chance to show off before the Tower Master.

The revealed letter was naturally Kinna’s to Ricas, and the magic world erupted.

That fact spread uncontrollably among mages via Phil.

And with exclusive mages returning to noble houses post-gate crisis, rumors quickly hit high society.

“So Pourlang’s gate management didn’t drop much despite mass knight expulsions because Ricas de Pourlang was spying from Edelweiss?”

“And who knows what support Kinna provided!”

Pourlang’s steady rates were just paperwork fudging, but truth didn’t matter.

“Colluding with the Eastern Empire!”

The news reached not just society, but the imperial family.

By then, Emperor Ivan—rumored to have mysteriously fast intel—had already dispatched agents to the Eastern Empire.

Probably right after the hunter chat mentioned her passing that outlandish strategy to Ricas.

And they returned with perfectly timed intel.

Perfect evidence. Ironclad proof that Ricas de Pourlang and House Pourlang were Eastern spies.

Returning to his manor after the dungeon clear, Ricas de Pourlang looked extremely uneasy.

Gazing wistfully at the sky, he seemed to be anxiously awaiting Kinna’s reply, but something arrived first.

“Imperial knight Lil. Cooperate in the arrest of Ricas de Pourlang.”

“!”

I feigned surprise at the knight’s visit but handed Ricas over without fuss.

Bye! Don’t come back!

“Senia! You know I haven’t done anything wrong!”

Ricas wailed my name desperately as he was dragged away, but it was none of my business.

He’d howl innocence and make noise, but what good was a tyrant for?

Plus, with post-gate bad blood toward the Eastern Empire, leaking gate response info was the scandal of the century.

“Whew.”

Clear condition was 100 points, so a bit more screwing over Pourlang would net S-rank promotion.

Seemed doable without extra effort.

They were spies anyway—execution bound. No way they skimped 9 points for beheading.

As I headed to the training grounds thinking that, an unexpected gift awaited.

“Family Head!”

“Countess, you’re here!”

One of the Pourlang-origin knights training there approached hesitantly.

“Family Head, I’m Ron from Pourlang.”

“I said origin doesn’t matter. What is it?”

Wondering why mention it, Ron suddenly pulled a money pouch and worn letter from his pocket.

“Back in House Pourlang, I was ordered to deliver this to the Eastern Empire. Of course, I didn’t!”

Emphasizing that, Ron handed me the letter.

It bore Kikal’s handwriting—I’d seen it a few times in Pourlang.

No way? Spy goods?

“It was an order from Lord Kikal… er, Kikal de Pourlang.”

Ron delivered the jackpot.

Anyway, this completed the Pourlang afterlife full package.