My Name Is Albrecht Part 2

I had planned to propose to her on her birthday.

I prepared a ring and made a reservation at a restaurant for that day.

Recently, I had been assigned a major project. I was consumed by work and ended up making her feel lonely.

What if she’s started to dislike me? What if she refuses my proposal? Such thoughts swirled in my mind, and for once, I made a mistake at work.

To fix it, I had to stay late.

I gave some money to a runner from the Adventurers’ Guild, a child who handled simple errands and was assigned to several public institutions, and asked him to deliver a message saying I would be late for the restaurant.

After finishing my work, I headed to the restaurant.

She wasn’t there.

Had I kept her waiting too long and made her angry? When I asked the staff, they replied, “Your companion has not arrived at any point this evening.”

Had she fallen ill?

Worried, I headed for the house we shared. The lights were off, and there was no sign of anyone inside.

An indescribable, creeping unease crawled over my skin.

Had she gone back to her parents’ home in anger?

Ignoring the ominous feeling, I tried to think logically and hurried toward the small shop run by her parents.

What should I say to apologize to her? Lost in such thoughts, I arrived at the shop. The shutters were closed, and there was no sign of anyone inside.

The door wasn’t locked.

I opened it and stepped into the shop.

Inside, I was confused. The furniture was all in place, yet her parents were nowhere to be found. Only silence filled the darkened interior.

For reasons I couldn’t explain, the darkness of the shop frightened me, and I broke into a desperate run back toward home, trying to shake off the growing sense of dread.

When I get home, she and her parents will be waiting for me, she’ll  be welcoming me with warm food.

Clinging to that fantasy, I ran until I reached the house.

As if mocking my imagination, the house was wrapped in darkness and silence.

I went inside, activated a light magic device, and looked around.

The rooms were clean and orderly. Just as we had left them that morning.

Only her smile, and the presence of people, were gone.

I headed toward her room.

I placed my hand on the doorknob and turned it. It clicked softly. The door wasn’t locked. Swallowing hard, I opened it in one motion.

The room was simple, unadorned, plain for a woman’s room. It was the familiar sight of her bedroom. I activated the light magic device and quietly opened the closet.

Her clothes were still there.

If the clothes had been gone, I could have believed she’d grown tired of me and run away. Or perhaps she had found another man and eloped with him.

Just imagining it made my chest tighten.

But that wasn’t the worst possibility.

A far darker scenario surfaced in my mind.

I had heard stories like this before. Given the circumstances, there was no mistake.

Sadly, my intelligence that was so often superior to others’ had arrived at the worst possible answer.

Slowly, I made my way to the study.

When I reached it, I unlocked the hidden safe containing my important documents.

I had never told her about this safe.

I checked the contents of the safe.

At first glance, nothing seemed out of place. None of the traps I had set had been triggered. And yet, I noticed it.

My memory was precise enough to perfectly recall the previous positions of the documents.

They had shifted. Only slightly, but unmistakably.

I cursed my own intelligence. I wished I hadn’t noticed. If only I could believe that she and her family had been caught up in some kind of trouble and disappeared together.

How much easier that would have been.

I never once imagined that I would be the one to fall for it. A common trick.

A honey trap.

“Hrrrgh…”

I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. But my throat constricted, and all that came out was a sound like a beast’s growl.

I clawed at my chest as searing pain tore through it, writhing on the floor and howling like an animal.

How long had I thrashed about like that? When I finally became aware again, my chest was slick with blood from the scratches I had inflicted on myself.

If only I could have stayed mad. How much easier that would have been…

Strangely, the pain in my chest was gone. A loud ringing filled my ears.

After staring blankly for a while, even the ringing faded. My thoughts cleared, and the worst possible future rose vividly before my eyes. My body began to shake uncontrollably.

A leak of top-secret information.

No one would believe my claims of innocence when I had lived for years with a spy. Even if I were deemed uninvolved, the fact remained that the information had been stolen.

Every year around this time, the Megad Empire and the Leagam Kingdom went to war. For several years now, the Empire had not suffered a single defeat, steadily encroaching on Leagam’s territory.

In this campaign, I had been responsible for procuring and arranging the transport of provisions.

Normally, this was work meant for someone of higher rank than me. But my lazy superior had dumped it on a subordinate, and after that happened several times, it ultimately fell to me.

From supply figures, one could calculate the number of soldiers and horses. One could also identify the locations of supply depots. If those supplies were burned, defeat would be inevitable.

Unlike the Megad Empire, the Leagam Kingdom was not highly centralized. Its local lords tended to begrudge spending their own funds and were stingy when it came to mobilizing troops.

That was why their forces were insufficient, allowing the Empire to seize their lands.

But this time was different. With supply data, they could accurately estimate enemy troop numbers. With evidence this strong, the king would surely exercise his authority and force the lords to commit far more troops than before.

The battle was likely happening right now.

The Megad Empire, accustomed to numerical superiority, might be in chaos, facing a battle where they were outnumbered.

All because I fell for a honey trap.

My countrymen… soldiers of the Megad Empire… might be losing their lives needlessly.

The guilt threatened to crush me.

Why hadn’t I gone insane? I hated myself for being able to calmly analyze the situation even now.

The timing of their disappearance aligned perfectly with the outbreak of war. If rumors spread that the battlefield conditions were different than usual, the trail might eventually lead back to them.

And if the leak was traced to me, I would be charged with treason for divulging military secrets.

Staying with me would yield no further information, and it risked exposing them as spies.

That was why they ran now. At a moment when, even if I noticed, it would already be too late.

The Megad Empire is especially harsh when it comes to crimes committed by bureaucrats.

This is partly to prevent corruption and collusion, and partly to appease nobles whose power has been curtailed.

The Megad Empire prides itself on being a civilized nation. It subjugated barbarian tribes, integrated them as citizens, and gave them civilized lives.

Unlike the savage Leagam Kingdom, even the rights of slaves are protected.

Punishments, too, are generally civilized and avoid brutality.

There is, however, one exception.

Punishment for bureaucrats who commit crimes.

These were commoners and low-ranking nobles, especially second sons and beyond, men who aren’t even considered spares. Though capable, they occupy the lower strata of society, and nobles resent the fact that such individuals can wield power as bureaucrats.

To vent this resentment, punishments for criminal bureaucrats are extraordinarily cruel.

They are subjected to horrific public torture combined with healing magic, turned into spectacles for nobles to enjoy and to release their pent-up dissatisfaction.

And the punishment does not end with the individual. It extends to their family as well.

Perhaps my parents had hoped, selfishly, that I would become an outstanding bureaucrat. Even so, they scraped together money from the meager assets of a poor baronial house to pay for my tutor.

My elder brother bullied me now, but when we were young, we laughed together innocently, without a care in the world.

That family would be executed.

Put on display for nobles, subjected to unimaginable pain, and their names carved as traitors into the stone tablets erected in the imperial capital’s plaza.

I would not allow that. I could never allow that.

This was no time to be paralyzed by shock.

I healed the wounds on my chest with a dungeon-made potion, and began formulating a plan to save my family.