Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 138

Arcus and Henry couldn’t respond immediately to the sudden suggestion and just blinked.After a while, Henry came to his senses and opened his mouth again.

“If His Highness the Crown Prince commands it, I will do it.”

“No, it’s not an order, it’s a request. If you don’t like it, let’s call it a deal.”

“…If it’s not too much trouble, would it be okay if I asked why?”

This time, when Arcus asked, Cantares answered calmly.

“I hope you will volunteer to do this, as it is a dangerous task.”

“Is the purpose of this the eradication of the evil religion?”

“What else could there be?”

The Crown Prince burst into laughter.

“If you agree, I will tell you the details. But not before. And once you step in, you can never leave, so please answer carefully.”

“…”

Arcus and Henry looked at each other.

The worry didn’t last long.

“I will do it.”

“Me too.”

As the two young men answered without hesitation, Cantares raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

“Didn’t you guys answer too easily?”

“No. I have a clear desire. Prince Arcus must feel the same way.”

“Yes.”

When Henry, who was quick to catch on to what the Crown Prince wanted, said so, Arcus also nodded.

“What do you want?”

“I am a very ambitious person.”

Henry answered confidently to Cantares’s question with a puzzled look.

“I don’t want to remain just another person under the shadow of my older brother and father. If I do His Highness the Crown Prince’s work well and achieve great achievements, my name will be remembered proudly by future generations.”

“Hoo.”

As if he liked that answer very much, Cantares smiled faintly and turned his gaze to look at the other person.

“And you?”

“I believe His Highness the Crown Prince is well aware of my purpose…”

Arcus, who had been keeping his mouth shut for a moment, said so.

“I’m telling you this just in case, but you don’t have to worry about my Father.”

“That’s right. Count Eckhart has lost a great deal of his standing in the palace.”

Because of the incident that led to the severance of ties with the second son, Marquis Lanford, who had been severely beaten by Arendt at the time, and the nobles who followed him lost much of their power.

Count Eckhart was no exception.

“But I don’t want to incur the Count’s resentment. From Count Eckhart’s perspective, it’s like I’ve taken away two of his sons.”

Cantares tilted his head as if he was thinking about something.

It was clearly an act of trying to test Arcus. Before he suddenly came up to the imperial palace, Arcus had been acting as Count Eckhart’s right-hand man.

Arcus’ eyes, knowing that fact well, sank seriously.

“I will not make any mistakes because of my father. If unavoidable circumstances arise, I will also be prepared to give up the name of the Count’s family.”

“Okay, I like that.”

Only then did Cantares chuckle.

Just then, there was a knock on the door and Jereon came in.

“Sorry, I was a little late because I had to prepare the necessary documents.”

“It’s okay. Oh, Enoch and Seton. You can leave now.”

Seton and Enoch, who were still standing blankly in the corner, suddenly came to their senses, said their goodbyes, and quickly left the reception room.

Jereon, who had been walking inward as if taking turns with them, placed the documents down in front of Arcus and Henry.

“I would like you two to check this together.”

“…”

Henry picked up the document first, and Arcus tilted his head to check the contents together.

After a while, Henry looked between Jereon and Cantares in confusion.

“What is this…?”

“The transfer of rights. It took quite a while to prepare it in a hurry.”

“I know it was hard for you, but I wish you could give us at least a few days to think about this.”

Jereon, who was standing behind the Crown Prince like a shadow, added a word in his usual gentle manner.

As the two peoples’ expressions became awkward, Cantares cleared the mood by coughing in vain.

“…Anyway, I bought the union that was almost ruined and only existed in name with my own money. One of you two will be the leader of the union. Since it’s only in name anyway, there’s no need to feel burdened.”

“Is this the job you asked us to do?”

“Yes, I guess a solid foundation is needed to properly fight against the evil cult.”

The Crown Prince nodded to Henry’s question.

After making sure that the two were listening, Cantares continued speaking slowly.

“Honestly, it’s just that we’ve been quite lucky in being able to fight back without getting hurt so far. It’s no different from how we’ve always avoided major accidents by luck.. It’ll be difficult to continue this with just luck.”

Luck was all the extraordinary things Arendt did on his own.

“From gathering information to collating and analyzing it, to going out into the field… Since there are many things that cannot be officially disclosed, the work is inevitably concentrated among just a few people. It is unorganized and inefficient.”

Those few people were the Crown Prince himself, the Knights Templar, and Arendt von Eckhart, who was now in the middle of this situation.

“I am receiving considerable help from Count Stadler and Lord Neumann, but the current method will soon reach its limit.”

Even if Count Stadler was employed by the Crown Prince, Lord Neumann was helping the Imperial Family solely out of personal will and the favor he held for Arendt.

That alone was unsettling.

“There will be an endless stream of new information in the future, and there will certainly be more things that need to be handled privately. So we need someone to share the work.”

Since this was a serious issue, trustworthy and competent people must come together to deal with it systematically.

Because they couldn’t always rely on luck like Arendt did.

This time, it was almost a miracle that he was able to save the city.

“So… are you saying that we need an organization dedicated to that task?”

“It’s good that you understand quickly.”

When Henry asked with his brows furrowed, the Crown Prince nodded.

“You are to take on support missions behind the scenes under the banner of the Union. If something needs to be done to avoid the public eye, you will carry out cover-up operations, and gather and collate scattered information. You will be the leaders.”

“…”

“I’ll establish separate connections with the Neumann Group and Count Stadler’s laboratory. If we sign an information supply agreement with both sides, there won’t be any problems.”

Up until this point, it was a huge amount of work.

“Of course, we will also send you the information we find out from the Imperial Family. You gather it all together and manage it.”

“The important thing is to do all that without anyone finding out.”

Arcus, who had been listening silently, began to speak.

On the surface, it would appear that the two young noblemen had jumped into a new business venture, but behind the scenes, they were tasked with assisting those on the front lines fighting the evil cult and gathering information.

“That’s right. Any kind of business is fine. You can do business, and you can sell the information you get on the side. But if it gets exposed, you and I will be in a lot of trouble, right?”

If either the Chernion Church or the nobles of the palace found out, they would suffer the same humiliation.

Because Cantares’s explicit explanation clearly included a considerable amount of illegal activities. Not only was it a matter of life and death, but it was also a matter directly related to the life and honor of a nobleman.

“Of course, I have no intention of leaving everything up to you. I will take care of the actual instructions and command, so you just need to take care of miscellaneous tasks and faithfully serve as a bridge.”

In a situation where it was difficult to nod easily, a deep silence flowed in the reception room, and Arcus spoke up.

“Is this something that can help Arendt?”

“Of course. About the cover-ups I was talking about earlier… At least 60% of it was done for that bastard.”

Of the remaining 40%, 20% were accidents caused by the Knights Templar who were influenced by Arendt, and the rest were the Crown Prince’s own, but he did not bother to add to that.

Fortunately, that was enough, as Arcus readily nodded.

“I will do it.”

“I will join you too.”

Henry also expressed his intention once again.

“Could you please allow me to ask one more question?”

“Speak.”

“There are many other talented people within the palace, so I wonder why you chose us.”

“That’s a good question.”

Cantares, with his arms crossed, leaned back on the sofa.

“As I said in the beginning, there aren’t many people around me that I can trust and entrust with work. The people I’ve chosen and selected are already doing more than enough work.”

“…”

“If the workload here increases any further, even AideJereon would resign immediately and go back to his hometown.”

“I’m glad you know.”

When the silent aide revealed his presence again, Cantares burst into laughter.

“Even if we were to select someone from the knights to do it, those old-fashioned guys wouldn’t be happy with the aftermath… and they wouldn’t be good at it. However, Sir Henry, it seems like it would suit your aptitude quite well.”

He was flexible, quick-witted, and sometimes even cunning. Plus, he was the biological son of Duke Lancelot, so he could be trusted to some extent.

“And Sir Arcus, it’s simple. First, there’s enough motivation to accept this. If it were me, I wouldn’t even associate with such a bad, savage younger brother again, but since you insist on restoring your relationship, I’ll definitely take that intention into consideration.”

“…”

“And the second one. This is the most important.”

Henry and Arcus unconsciously tensed up at the word “important.”

The Crown Prince, with a serious expression on his face, added again and again.

“Arendt, that bastard should die of anger.”

“…”

“…”

For a moment, there was silence.

“It may seem like he always acts shameless, but I think his dislike of Sir Arcus is genuine.”

On the contrary, Cantares’ expression relaxed and he smiled mischievously.

“If he keeps bumping into someone he doesn’t like, he’ll probably get really upset. I want to see that.”

“…”

“…”

Henry and Arcus, who couldn’t find the words to respond, decided to just stay silent.

Jereon, who knew better than anyone that those words were not a joke but the truth, put his hand on his forehead and sighed deeply.

The Union, abandoned and only maintaining its name, was reborn under Henry and Arcus under the name of the ‘Khan Union’.

Indeed, the two of them got things done quickly.

Henry, who had submitted his resignation to the palace, immediately settled down in a city close to the palace and began his work in earnest.

Since they couldn’t do nothing under the name of a union, they decided to externally present themselves as an association of merchants dealing in tea and tea utensils.

It was place where customers could come and go, drink tea and snacks, read books, and merchants could exchange information and make transactions.

Even though it was just an illusion, the plan was to carry out a proper business.

It was a choice that reflected Henry’s tastes as he enjoyed tea time.

Arcus also left his life in the imperial palace and moved his base under the pretext of running a business.

Arendt, who had not paid much attention to his brother’s whereabouts until then, soon learned the full story.

“…Huh.”

Crumple.

The letter sent by the Crown Prince himself was crumpled up in Arendt’s hands, but no one could say anything against such blasphemous conduct.

“There are so many different ways to start a fight.”

The reason why he was caught right away was because he was full of the will to live, ready to do anything.