Hendrick suppressed his anger and then asked the most crucial question.
"And then? Who's really behind this?"
"Cordelion family?"
"Or... Riezel Brynhart?"
Riezel actually had reasons to be suspected.
Firstly, Riezel had a public dispute with Sorren, which everyone witnessed.
Secondly, Sorren had secretly targeted Riezel's family, giving Riezel enough motive to retaliate.
Thirdly, Riezel had repeatedly taken a tough stance against the royal family, proving that he wasn't someone who would swallow his pride.
All these signs made Hendrick suspect that the one who attacked Sorren might be this newly appointed Sword Saint.
To Hendrick's question, Rohm did not deny the possibility.
"According to the Shadow's investigation, Riezel Brynhart has rarely left the Frenzel residence since the award ceremony and has been occupied with challenges from other swordsmen. However, among the few recorded outings, one was confirmed to be a visit to the Hydromel Restaurant."
Rohm had even looked into this matter personally.
"I sent a Shadow Knight to the restaurant and questioned the person in charge there. It appeared that, on that day, Riezel Brynhart had dinner with Count Elliott's daughter."
Upon hearing this, a glint of light flashed in Hendrick's eyes.
"You mean he had contact with people from the Cordelion family?"
Anyone in the noble circle knew that the Elliott family was a vassal of the Cordelion family, and Hendrick was no exception.
"Most likely..." Rohm confirmed. "According to the restaurant manager, Count Elliott's daughter was accompanied that day by two girls around the same age, one of whom was probably Duke Cordelion's daughter."
"It seems my niece is quite restless, huh..." Hendrick muttered coldly. "I knew they wouldn't pass up the chance to win over a new Sword Saint."
"Not long after that, the incident with His Highness occurred..." Rohm continued his report. "In conclusion, we have reason to believe that Riezel Brynhart learned from the Cordelion family about His Highness's plan to target his family and then developed a desire to retaliate."
In such a case, the motive for attacking Sorren was sufficient.
"Riezel Brynhart was used and instigated by the Cordelion family, wasn't he?"
Saying this, Hendrick believed it to be the case.
In his view, the Cordelion family revealing this information to Riezel was undoubtedly an act of ill intent. Since they themselves didn't dare attack Sorren, they might have tried to provoke Riezel, hoping he would take action against Sorren, which was entirely possible.
Last night, when Sorren was attacked, he hadn't suspected Riezel or the Frenzel family at all, but Hendrick and Rohm thought differently since they didn't view the situation as narrowly or self-righteously as Sorren did.
Sorren believed that if Riezel and Yuri had summoned that many dolls, it would have caused quite a commotion and wouldn't have escaped people's notice. However, they didn't necessarily have to summon them all at once—if they had planned ahead, summoning them one by one into the royal capital would have been just as feasible.
Moreover, there were ways to conceal the noticeable phenomena and magical energy fluctuations caused by large-scale magic. Any knowledgeable person knew that Tactical-Class Magicians or Strategic-Class Magicians could do it easily.
Given this reason, suspicion of Riezel and the Frenzel family was understandable.
As for Sorren's belief that the Frenzel family didn't have a powerful swordsman as strong as 'Mist' under their command, that also didn't hold up to scrutiny.
If Sorren could secretly cultivate his own private troops, why couldn't the Frenzel family secretly cultivate their own?
Even if they couldn't cultivate them, there was no problem with secretly recruiting or hiring them.
Hendrick and Rohm even considered the possibility that 'Mist' might actually be Riezel himself.
Even though the swordsmanship used by 'Mist' was completely different from the one Riezel openly used, how could they be sure that he wasn't secretly practicing two different styles of swordsmanship?
Sorren hadn't thought of these things in his moment of crisis, but Hendrick and Rohm had considered them all.
Currently, the only question the two had was whether or not 'Mist' was actually Riezel.
Swordsmen who practiced two different styles of swordsmanship simultaneously were, after all, very rare—or, to be more precise, it was rare to find someone who practiced two styles of Special Swordsmanship at the same time.
Unlike Elementary Swordsmanship and Advanced Swordsmanship, Special Swordsmanship usually had varying degrees of requirements.
For example, the Holy Dragon Sword Style, famous across the entire continent, required practitioners to possess a vast amount of magical energy. If their magical energy wasn't abundant enough, they simply couldn't master it, no matter how hard they tried.
Meanwhile, the War King Sword Style passed down in the royal family of Jinas, was similar in this regard, requiring specific demands on the practitioner's mental willpower. Out of Hendrick's eleven children, only three or four barely met the requirements, while the others couldn't even begin to learn it.
Likewise, the swordsmanship used by the Letto brothers demanded absolute unity, compatibility, and connection among its practitioners, making the requirements even stricter.
Even the Shadow Strike Sword Style practiced by Rohm had incredibly stringent requirements. Otherwise, the members of the Shadow wouldn't have settled for only learning the Hazy Strike Sword Style, the simplified version of the Shadow Strike Sword Style.
In other words, for swordsmen to meet the requirements of just one Special Swordsmanship already meant they were exceptionally talented, but meeting the requirements for two Special Swordsmanships simultaneously was undoubtedly an incredibly difficult and rare achievement.
According to the witnesses, Riezel's swordsmanship and the swordsmanship used by 'Mist' were entirely different styles, and from Hendrick and Rohm's perspectives, both of these swordsmanship were undoubtedly Special Swordsmanship.
Considering this, the fact that Riezel could satisfy the requirements to practice two completely different styles of Special Swordsmanship was an extremely unlikely occurrence.
Of course, it was just unlikely, not impossible.
Riezel had already become a Sword Saint at the age of seventeen, not to mention he was also a Tactical-Class Magician, with terrifying talent and potential—for such a prodigy, perhaps it wasn't entirely unthinkable that he could meet the requirements for mastering two different styles of Special Swordsmanship.
One could only say that Riezel's achievements were already astonishing, and for someone like him, Hendrick and Rohm wouldn't be surprised even if he could master two different styles of Special Swordsmanship.
In any case, Riezel was certainly a suspect, and the Frenzel family might be supporting him from behind.
As a king, Hendrick would never dismiss his suspicion of someone so easily, as maintaining a sense of doubt at all times, no matter how absurd it was, was a common trait among rulers.
However, there were still doubts regarding whether Riezel was indeed the culprit.
For example—
"If Riezel Brynhart attacked His Highness because His Highness targeted and kidnapped his family, then why didn't he take them with him after the incident?"
It was a question that Rohm couldn't help but ask.
"When the Shadow Knights arrived at the scene of the incident, the place had already been burned down by a fire. Although the Brynhart family barely escaped in the end, they had almost burned to death inside. It seemed like Mist completely ignored them, which is really strange."
Rohm's words made Hendrick furrow his brow slightly.
"Could it be that it was intentional?" Hendrick mused, stroking his chin. "If he took his family with him, wouldn't that be tantamount to admitting that he was the one who did it?"
"However, according to the surviving knight's testimony, Mist never made contact with the Brynhart family from start to finish."
Rohm shook his head, denying Hendrick's assumption.
"When the fire started, he didn't care at all about their lives, and it was mostly luck that they managed to escape being burned to death. I also considered whether Riezel Brynhart held a grudge against his family and deliberately didn't save them since he had run away from home once, but if that were the case, wouldn't that mean he had no reason to attack His Highness for them in the first place?"
It was truly a contradiction.
Unfortunately for Rohm, he never thought or realized that Riezel had decided to make a move simply because he and Sorren had a score to settle.
Previously, when Riezel had been severely injured by the Shadow, who was under Sorren's order, everyone assumed it was merely a ploy by Riezel, whether to divert attention from himself or to get close to the Frenzel family and Yuri.
However, little did they know that Riezel had indeed been heavily injured, nearly dying in the truest sense—an experience he would never forget and that had him planning his revenge on the mastermind, Sorren, ever since.
Sorren's actions this time were just the spark that made Riezel decide to finally take action.
Just as Riezel had said before in the award ceremony to Yuri, when he went crazy, things could get pretty serious too.
Riezel proved this point to Sorren with his actions.
Clueless about this, Rohm's thinking went off track, leading him astray.
"Also, it's not impossible that someone with ulterior motives is trying to frame Riezel Brynhart."
Rohm shared his speculation with Hendrick.
"Putting aside the Cordelion family for now, many neighboring countries have been secretly sending their people here recently because of his status as the youngest Sword Saint in history."
"If they find out that we haven't recruited him, it's possible they might try to sabotage us, driving a wedge between us to push him toward their side."
"If we act recklessly and make him upset because of this incident, only to find out later that he wasn't actually the culprit, then, with his previous tough stance, we'd be making an enemy out of him for good."
Rohm's cautious speculation reminded Hendrick that, while suspicions were fine unless there was solid evidence proving Riezel was truly involved, it was best not to act rashly. Otherwise, if it turned out that the culprit was not Riezel, the royal family would find itself in a very awkward position.
"Moreover, the Duke Faction could also be involved..." Rohm continued to caution. "We have to investigate this thoroughly and can't just randomly accuse him, Your Majesty."
"You're right..."
Hendrick calmed down and nodded.
"Alright, I'll leave this matter to you."
"You must find out who's really behind this."
"Until then, no one from the Shadow or the Royal Faction, including that little bastard, is allowed to make any contact with Riezel Brynhart."
Hearing this, Rohm nodded and then disappeared on the spot.
Hendrick was left alone, sitting there, murmuring to himself.
"I hope it's not you, Riezel Brynhart..."
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Frenzel Residence, Yuri's Office.
At this moment, Riezel and Yuri were sitting across from each other.
Riezel stared at the ceiling, then at the window, as if he were looking at something interesting.
Yuri, on the other hand, was glaring at him, as though she were staring down a troublesome rascal.
Lizbeth and Marilyn were also present nearby.
Lizbeth stood behind Riezel, clutching her sword with a tense expression, while Marilyn stood behind Yuri, watching Riezel with the same condemning look as Yuri.
In this situation, the entire office was engulfed in a strange, eerie silence.
"It was you, wasn't it?"
After a long while, Yuri finally broke the silence.
What she said sounded like a question, but her tone was full of certainty.
"What?"
Riezel tried to play dumb, showing an innocent expression, but all he got in return was a pair of rolling eyes.
"You're still trying to hide it from me?"
Yuri scolded sternly, a frown adorning her beautiful face.
"You were invited out for dinner by Carrera Elliott to discuss matters about that mad dog, and then, the next day, this incident happened. Do you think I wouldn't figure out that it was you?"
"Attacking a prince, seriously injuring him, nearly killing him even—this kind of incident that will shake the entire kingdom to its core, who else would dare to do it if not you?"
"You really have some guts... I knew you were meeting Serena Cordelion, but just when I was thinking about not prying into what you and that girl talked about, you went and caused such a big mess. Knowing this, what do you want me to say?"
"Were you incited by the Cordelion family or something? What exactly did Serena say to you?"
Yuri got more and more agitated as she spoke, and if not for the table between them, she might have already grabbed Riezel by the shoulders.
Riezel couldn't help but smile at Yuri's reaction.
"Look, it's not like I was intentionally hiding it from you; it's just that the fewer people who know about this, the better, since it will make it less likely for any flaws to be exposed." Riezel explained, shrugging his shoulders casually. "It's just a mad dog, anyway. I failed to kill him, so what's the big deal?"
"Hahh... Only you would dare say something like that, you know... Even in private, others wouldn't be so brazen..."
Yuri sighed, her expression turning complicated.
"Regardless, you really caused a big mess this time. I've already received word—before dawn, all nobles in the royal capital, whether aligned with the Duke Faction or not, have been summoned to the palace and interrogated by the royal family."
"No matter if they're major nobles like dukes or marquises, none of them can escape. Even some who are loyal to the Royal Faction have been questioned."
"Of course, minor nobles have it worse. They've all had their minds read or interfered with by the court magicians using magic like memory reading or mind control."
"Commoners can't escape either. Even now, the royal knights are still going door-to-door, taking away anyone suspicious without exception."
"In short, the royal capital is in chaos right now. Since the Cordelion siblings have already gone to the palace, I'm probably going to be summoned soon."
Yuri informed Riezel just how significant the incident he had caused had become.
Lizbeth was immediately frightened and couldn't help but cast a worried look at Riezel.
Riezel, however, seemed to have expected all of this, as his expression didn't change in the slightest.
"Hmm, they wouldn't use magic like memory reading or mind control on you, would they?"
Riezel seemed concerned only about this matter.
"Seriously, who do you think I am?" Yuri replied, rolling her eyes. "I'm still a Strategic-Class Magician, you know? They wouldn't dare use that kind of magic on me unless they have a death wish."
As a Strategic-Class Magician, her magic attainments were far beyond that of an average magician.
For a magician in her class, she could unconsciously use magical energy to repel Combat-Class Magic from the Interference System. If she were prepared, she could even counter Tactical-Class Magic from the Interference System.
In order to read the memory of a magician of Yuri's class or to interfere with her mind, it would take, at the very least, magic cast by a magician of the same class or the use of a powerful magic item to have any effect.
Moreover, with Yuri's status on the line, anyone using such harmful magic on her would probably be something even the king wouldn't dare order.
In other words, Yuri was in no danger of having her memory read or her mind interfered with.
"I see, that's good..." Riezel nodded calmly. "In that case, you don't have to worry about anything. No matter what the royal family asks you, just say you don't know."
Yuri clearly didn't need him to tell her what to do.
What else could she do at this point?
Report Riezel?
She herself wished Sorren would drop dead, so how could she possibly help the royal family catch the culprit?
However, the real problem was—
"What about you?"
Yuri asked while looking straight into Riezel's eyes.
"What's your plan?"
Indeed, this was the real problem.
It wasn't about Yuri, but Riezel, the direct orchestrator of this attack and the royal family's target—the one the kingdom was actively hunting.
"If I can guess it was you, the royal family will definitely suspect you too..." Yuri continued, worry creeping into her voice. "If they use force, try to read your memory, or mess with your mind, what are you going to do?"
At this, Riezel simply gave her a reassuring look in response to her concern.
"Let them try if they can."
Riezel sounded so calm when he said this.
Why?
Obviously, with Self Redemption, he was immune to physical and mental interference, so who could possibly read his memories or manipulate his mind and spirit?
Moreover, with the effect from Endless, Riezel possessed the highest rank of 'Abnormal Resistance' development ability. Not only would direct interference not work, but even indirect one wouldn't be effective.
Because of this, he wasn't worried about being compromised by such means.
Naturally, he also believed that the Cordelion family wouldn't be subjected to these methods either.
Since the Duke Faction was already an enemy of the royal family, how could they not be prepared against such tactics?
Needless to say, as long as Yuri and the Cordelion family didn't expose him, he would be fine.
As for Lizbeth and Marilyn, they were safe because they were attendants.
With the attendant contract in place, all information related to their masters' interests would be restricted. Even if someone tried to use magic to extract them, they wouldn't succeed.
At least, if someone wanted to bypass the restrictions of the attendant contract and forcibly extract the information the attendants knew, their magical prowess would have to surpass that of Riezel and Yuri, the two masters who had placed the contracts.
What did this mean?
It meant that unless they were a Strategic-Class Magician, it would be impossible to break the attendant contracts set by Riezel and Yuri.
For Riezel, since he was already Level 6 and possessed not only Mage as his development ability but also extremely high proficiency in MAG, the strength of the attendant contract he cast wasn't something a magician below the strategic class could break.
As for Yuri, she was already a recognized Strategic-Class Magician, with no exaggeration involved, so no one below her magician class could tamper with her attendant contract.
Moreover, since magic that could affect oneself or others belonged to the Interference System, the magician who tried to bypass the restrictions would have to be a Strategic-Class Magician specializing in the Interference System.
However, of the eight Strategic-Class Magicians on the Akasha Continent, four specialized in the Transformation System, two in the Control System, and two in the Structure System, while not a single one specialized in the Interference System.
Given this, no one in this world could tamper with the attendant contracts of Riezel and Yuri.
Needless to say, not only did Riezel not have to worry about anyone here slipping up, but he was also confident that he hadn't exposed his identity when he attacked Sorren.
After all, he had used the Selfless State to its fullest, completely sealing off his aura and fighting spirit. He hadn't even used any magic from start to finish, leaving no trace of magical energy behind.
Coupled with the essence of the Shadow Strike Sword Style that he had merged into his Mist Breathing, he could avoid almost any kind of detection.
In other words, the chances of him being exposed were nearly zero.
While the royal family might have serious suspicions about him, they definitely wouldn't be able to confirm it was him or find any evidence proving he was the culprit.
In this situation, Riezel really didn't believe he would be caught.
Of course, even if he were caught, so what?
Worst case, he would just run away.
With his current strength, he might not be the most powerful or invincible existence in this world, but if he really wanted to escape, even Jinas would have to mobilize all their forces and lay out an inescapable net to have any chance of stopping him.
If it weren't for worrying about implicating Yuri or dragging her family down, he would have left Jinas right after attacking Sorren, not caring at all whether his identity got exposed or not.
"No matter what, you need to be careful."
Saying this, Yuri seemed to feel a bit more at ease as she saw Riezel looking completely calm and unworried.
She trusted his abilities quite a lot and knew that if he was this confident, the chances of him being exposed must really be low.
As long as he didn't get exposed, everything would be fine.
Yuri was definitely on Riezel's side, and she even felt a bit 'schadenfreude' over the royal family getting hit like this. {T/N: Schadenfreude is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, pain, suffering, or humiliation of another.}
It was understandable.
When the Frenzel residence was attacked, the royal family chose to turn a blind eye. Now that their prince had been attacked, Yuri naturally wanted to give them a taste of their own medicine.
She decided that she wouldn't just refuse to cooperate; she would also stir things up even more.
"Well, want to join me in filing a protest against the royal family?"
Yuri suddenly asked, flashing a sly smile at Riezel.
"Just think, the Third Prince snuck out of the palace in the middle of the night to deal with the people he had kidnapped. Now that the incident has been exposed, everyone knows about it. As someone directly involved, you have every right to protest against the royal family as a victim, don't you?"
Upon hearing this, Riezel was stunned at first, before chuckling and giving Yuri a thumbs-up.
"Heh, what a brilliant idea!"
With that, Riezel and Yuri jointly wrote a protest letter and sent it to the royal palace, launching a strong protest that would stir up yet another wave of chaos in the royal capital.
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