How to Use the Lord's Future Diary

Chapter 174

A female Knight riding a mountain goat came racing toward the territory.She was in a miserable state, her entire body covered in wounds.

It was Sir Celine, the Vice Commander of the Crimson Comet.

-"Be... betrayed..."

Having barely reached the territory, Sir Celine uttered only the single word, "betrayed," before collapsing unconscious.

-Lord Iron. Are you listening?

"Ah, yes... Well..."

-About the reinforcements. Would it be possible?

"I... understand. I'll think it over first."

-I see. Well, sending reinforcements during this season certainly isn't easy. Still, I'd appreciate it if you could make a decision as quickly as possible. It would be best if you came yourself, but if that's impossible, then at least send Irene.

After ending my communication with the Lord of Haken, I let out a long sigh.

I couldn't believe what I'd just seen.

'So right now...'

-The tall female returned covered in injuries. It looks like something happened.

'Hah... Those lunatics actually went through with it?'

The vision shown by the Diary had been extremely brief.

Yet it implied many things.

First of all, Celine's condition.

She had suffered countless wounds, most of them caused by bladed weapons.

Which meant...

The one who attacked Celine had been human.

If she had been injured by the monster, "Jupitelio of Thunder," she wouldn't have ended up with wounds like those.

And if humans were responsible, New Level naturally became the prime suspect.

"These bastards really have no sense of limits. Pulling something like this while hunting a Calamity-Class Monster..."

I had considered that something might happen.

But I never imagined it would go this far.

Eliminating an Out-of-Class Monster was that important.

If things went wrong, it could turn into a complete catastrophe.

So I had believed they would at least show some restraint.

'Are they seriously insane?'

These people truly weren't in their right minds.

-That may not necessarily be the case.

'What do you mean?'

-The tall female. Didn't she say, "betrayed?"

'Right. Betrayed. Naturally, I assumed the people from New Level...'

-How is that betrayal? Doesn't betrayal require trust to exist first?

'...Wait. Now that you mention it.'

I had thought things would probably be fine.

Even so, I had intended to warn Irene and Celine to remain on full alert, just in case.

If there was no trust, the word "betrayal" wouldn't make sense.

Nobody described being stabbed in the back by someone they already distrusted as betrayal.

'She was seriously wounded, yet instead of returning to Haken, she came straight here.'

I recalled the vision from the Diary.

Despite suffering severe injuries, she had chosen our territory instead of Haken.

To Celine, Haken was practically her hometown.

The fact that she had bypassed it entirely meant there had been a reason she couldn't go there.

'"Betrayed"... Could it be... Haken?'

No matter how much I thought about it, that was the only explanation.

She had specifically used the word "betrayal."

And she had avoided Haken entirely.

Those two facts alone made Haken incredibly suspicious.

The Lord of Haken would never harm Irene.

So it had to be someone else.

Perhaps something had happened within Haken itself.

'I think "betrayal" really does refer to Haken.'

-Is that so?

'Doesn't it seem strange? Betrayal all of a sudden?'

Someone might certainly harbor resentment toward the Lord of Haken.

But actually drawing a sword against him was a completely different matter.

If the attempt failed, it would cost them their own head.

Nobody would attempt something that dangerous without absolute confidence.

'If the Lord of Haken were a tyrant hated by everyone, that'd be one thing.'

'But that's not the case.'

Internally, there were the other territories within Haken's domain.

Externally, there was New Level.

Those were exactly the sort of forces that could support a rebellion.

Of course, even another territory within Haken would need to cooperate with either New Level or Vines before any rebellion became possible.

Since Vines would probably prefer things to remain quiet for the time being...

That left only New Level.

Which meant this entire incident was connected to New Level one way or another.

'These bastards really are unbelievable.'

I already knew New Level was full of scumbags.

My former wife who had pulled the marriage scam on me came from New Level.

The ones who had tried to plant Imperial forces in Levelium were also from New Level.

There was someone resembling a Hidden Mastermind orchestrating one incident after another behind the scenes.

Whenever something suspicious happened, New Level was naturally the first place to suspect.

Most importantly...

If something happened to Haken, the only side that benefited was New Level.

Vines, on the other hand, would probably prefer the current stalemate to continue.

Whenever something utterly unreasonable happened out of nowhere, the side that profited from it was usually the culprit.

Someone from New Level had undoubtedly orchestrated this.

"Ah... This is seriously pissing me off."

"So in the end, we're the ones who have to move?"

-Isn't that obvious? It's your father-in-law's affair.

"Yeah, my father-in... No, it isn't."

"Why are you forcing that in here?"

-You should acknowledge what deserves acknowledging, Master. You may not think so, but everyone in Haken certainly does.

I still didn't know exactly what had happened.

But Haken's expedition had been attacked.

Their primary target had naturally been the Lord of Haken.

If something happened to him, the political situation in the south would change dramatically.

That wasn't good news for us either, since we wanted the current deadlock to continue.

And above all...

The Lord of Haken was Irene's father.

If I hadn't known that, it'd be one thing.

But now that I did, ignoring it didn't sit right with me.

'This really isn't acceptable.'

Just why were the people of New Level so obsessed with stirring up trouble?

At first, I ignored them because I had enough problems of my own, and because I didn't want to get dragged into more trouble.

But the more I looked at them, the more irritating they became.

The marriage scam went without saying.

Trying to send Imperial forces into Levelium had also been infuriating.

We'd barely managed to resolve that situation with the Beastmen's help.

Otherwise, we might have ended up in a desperate battle against the Empire.

'Enough.'

If they insisted on making my life this troublesome...

Shouldn't they have to pay the price?

I had no idea what they were trying to accomplish.

But unless I thoroughly wrecked their plans, I wasn't going to feel any better.

Although I had discovered that something would go wrong during the Great Lords' joint operation, there was nothing I could do about it immediately.

We had to solve our own problems first.

With the Gnoll invasion right around the corner, neither Leisha nor I could leave.

"Me?"

"Yes. At least on the surface."

"But Leisha and I plan to follow afterward."

"What? Is there really any need to go that far?"

"Well... maybe not."

I first explained the situation to Irene.

The Great Lords were joining forces to hunt a Calamity-Class Monster, and we planned to dispatch her as reinforcements from our territory.

Since Irene was in direct contact with the Lord of Haken, there was no need to explain what was happening in the south.

Her reaction was closer to shock.

It seemed she'd never even considered supporting Haken under these circumstances.

-Come to think of it, that female is remarkable too. Such a major incident happened in the south, yet she never even mentioned it.

'Well, under these circumstances, it really would be absurd for us to send reinforcements.'

'Three Great Lords have already joined forces. Normally, that should be enough to deal with a Calamity-Class Monster.'

With her straightforward personality, Irene probably couldn't even imagine that someone would stab them in the back during such an important operation.

Which was exactly why we had to support them.

-As Haken's son-in-law, it is your duty to assist your father-in-law.

'Ugh... Seriously. Give it a rest already.'

Ignoring the rabbit's ridiculous remarks, I got to the important point.

Since we couldn't move immediately, Irene would need to buy us time so we could join the operation ourselves.

"I don't think that'll be easy."

"I'm basically just an extra, aren't I?"

"As far as I know, there are already six Masters participating in this operation."

"I don't think so."

"You don't?"

"No."

"If you say you're coming, someone will definitely agree to wait."

"Really? I don't understand."

"But if Lord Iron says so, I'll give it a try."

Their objective was perfectly clear.

The Lord of Haken.

And the reason they were targeting him was obvious.

They wanted Haken Territory.

From that perspective, Irene was a hostage they absolutely had to secure.

She was the bridge connecting Johnson Territory and Haken Territory.

'Whether the traitors seize Haken or New Level takes it...'

'If anyone gains control of Haken, we'll have justification to intervene.'

'As long as Irene is there.'

-I see...

'Then that means...'

'Exactly.'

'Even if only Irene and Celine had been dispatched, Irene wouldn't die.'

'At worst, she'd simply become a hostage.'

To begin with, would it make any sense for Irene to die while Celine alone survived?

If Irene were about to die, Celine would have died protecting her first.

The reason Celine returned to the territory must have been to inform us and use our strength to rescue Irene.

-Then if the human female proposes delaying the schedule, all we'd have to do is observe who reacts and how they react to get a rough idea of the culprit?

'Exactly.'

'Though if the opponent is truly skilled, they might not reveal anything at all.'

-I doubt it.

-Right now, they have absolutely no reason to think anyone suspects them.

-I don't think they'd be that cautious.

'I think so too.'

'If it weren't for the Diary, we'd never have known either.'

And that very evening...

After checking the atmosphere in the south through Irene, we identified one suspect almost immediately.

"It felt rather strange."

"They insisted on starting as soon as possible."

"But later, they acted as though they had no choice and accepted the delay."

"Jupitelio is currently active inside New Level's territory, isn't it?"

"Normally, New Level should be the one shouting the loudest to start immediately."

"Exactly."

The timing made things easy to judge.

Since the monster was currently active within New Level's territory, they should have been demanding an immediate operation.

Instead, New Level's representative only offered half-hearted objections.

The representative who had initially protested eventually changed his stance.

He agreed to postpone the operation so that one more expert—Irene—could participate.

Naturally, the stated reason was to eliminate the monster while minimizing casualties.

It was obvious what they were thinking.

They intended to seize Irene and sever the connection between Johnson Territory and Haken Territory.

Perhaps they even believed that controlling Irene would control our movements as well.

"And Haken?"

"Hmm... They didn't really react."

"After all, Father himself will be participating in the subjugation."

Ironically, Haken—the most important party involved—remained completely quiet.

They seemed to be treading very carefully.

Well...

New Level was an outsider.

Haken's position was entirely different.

One wrong move could send them straight into the abyss.

Naturally, they had to be far more cautious.

"So... when am I leaving for Haken?"

"Why? Do you want to go that badly?"

"No."

"I think it's better to remain here until the territory is safe."

"Exactly."

"That's what I was thinking too."

"As expected of Lord Iron."

"You understood exactly how I felt."

I had never intended to send Irene away before things settled down here.

It was obvious something was about to happen.

There was no way I'd send her alone.

Now that Irene's participation had delayed the operation slightly, we'd simply clean up matters here before heading south together.

'I've already instructed Yuria to keep monitoring the situation in the south.'

'Now all that's left is dealing with the Gnolls.'

The problem...

Was that defeating the Gnoll horde wouldn't be easy.

The situation had already deteriorated to the point where we'd need Irene's help.

During this battle...

We might truly have to give up many things.