After arriving in King's Landing, Aldis took a reasonable place to stay and holed up in an open tavern.
　Naturally, he didn't do it for the sake of drinking, but to gather information.

　He gave the tavern master and several informants a fee to find out how the turmoil in Trier was being communicated to them.
　Of course we can't ask them straight away. So, based on the information from the time when Nayle was in hand-to-hand with the mercenaries on the street, I posed as a 'young mercenary trying to challenge the rumored female mercenary'.

　There are a few things we learned from that.
　First of all, it has been conveyed to us that Nere was a member of the Grinder defeat team.
　Secondly, it seems that the order to capture Nere has not been issued in the royal capital.
　Finally, we also learned that the information about Ardis and the twins has not reached the King's Capital.

　Just when I was beginning to think that there was nothing to worry about for this amount of time, I bought an unpardonable piece of information from an informant named Cesare, a man with the appearance of a yasaotoko.

　The informant was in a tavern on the first floor of the inn where Aldis had taken a room and was sipping on fruit water.
　When Aldis entered the inn, he asked the master of the tavern for an informant to introduce him to the informant, "He's not here at this hour, but he'll be here before noon," said Cesare.
　I went around the nearby bars and came back before noon as the master said, and he finally introduced me to the man who had appeared in the bar.

　Cesare is a polite man with a soft-spoken and soft-spoken manner for a man who works as an informer.
　I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that I'm not the only one. His hair is light brown with a wet sheen. Her eyes were a little dark brown.
　If you dress nicely, a girl of your age who goes around town will not leave you alone, and if you flatter yourself, you have the atmosphere that you could pass as a child of a nobleman.

　The information I got from Cesare was much more accurate and newer than what I had gleaned from my previous informants.

　Cesare was the only one who even knew that Nere was about to be captured in Tria.
　In addition, he had already heard that she had disappeared from Trier.
　It seems that they still have some information on hand, and since they want time to confirm it, they agreed to meet again before noon tomorrow.

　Of course, we can't just take Cesare's information for granted.
　After parting with Cesare, Aldis continued to meet with informants to find out how far the news about Nere reached the capital.



　The sun has set and the sky is full of "awazora", Ardis is walking alone in an alley near the back streets.

　There is a world of back streets, and different information from the world of the surface comes and goes.

　A group of humans unexpectedly surrounded Aldis, who had come to meet with the informant in the back, just to make sure he was safe.
　They seem to have come out just in a deserted alleyway.

'What do you look like?'

　Aldis asks in a sullen tone of voice to the opponent who turns on him with blatant hostility.
　The alley is surrounded by more than ten people in front and behind the alley, and there is not even a narrow loophole on either side. They must have been planning to encircle it from the start, and they were looking for this timing.

　The man who looked like the leader in front of them opened his mouth.

''Don't worry, we won't kill you. Just don't get hurt that you don't have to.

Is it for the wallet?

'An......?　Well, I'll take it while I'm at it.

　Apparently it wasn't for the purpose of robbery.
　The idea of a pursuer from the Tria Territorial Army flashed through my mind for a moment, but I quickly dismissed it.
　It is unlikely that the territorial army would entrust the capture of Ardis and Nere to just such a ragtag group of people, no matter how much.
　Even the mercenaries were objects of scorn. I'm sure they would avoid getting involved with the ruffians of the city.

''Either way, though, we'll just crush them.

'How long do you think we can afford it?　-Bastards, get it done!

　At the leader's command, the rag-taggers attacked all at once.

''Stupid guys.''

　In the narrow alleyway, when they attacked each other all at once, they couldn't move as much as they wanted because they were in each other's way.
　It was nothing short of foolish to deliberately throw away their numerical advantage in a narrow place by themselves.

　Of course, even if this was an open space with no obstacles at all, there was almost no chance of Aldis losing to such a rag-tag.
　Aldis didn't even draw his sword, and he looked at the first man who struck him with a kick, and then cut off the attack from behind with his back to the left wall.

　There are at most three people attacking me at the same time due to space issues. Moreover, their bodywork is completely amateur.
　He intercepts them with his bare hands and knocks out two of them in rapid succession. For Ardis, they were easy opponents to deal with without drawing their swords.

''Ouch!　No choice!　Give me a limb or two, or you'll have to be prepared for a limb or two!

　When the leader pulls a dagger from his waist and holds it up, the other ragpickers begin to draw their knives and daggers as a signal.

　Ardis uses wind magic without a chant.
　The blades of wind pressure created without warning break the blades held by the ragpickers one after another.

''Huh?''

Huh?

Why?

　Aldis sinks fist after fist into the rag-taggers, who don't understand what's going on when they see the weapons they've lost so quickly.
　Some fall down with a thrust to the throat, some with the bottom of the palm to the groin, some with a fist to the jaw, and some with a kick to the groin, as they squirm.

　More than half the ragpickers, more than half of whom had been hit, lost their will to fight and scattered, including their leader.

'Well, who asked you to do it?

　Aldis forced one of the fallen ragpickers to cause one of the fallen ragpickers to choke with a cool face.

'Shh, I don't know!　I swear!　We only attacked you on your brother's orders!

Were you trying to get me?

'Oh, oh!　I really didn't mean to kill him or anything!　My brother also told me to get him as uninjured as possible!

　After deciding that this was a waste of time, Aldis threw out the frightened raggedy guy. It was an opponent that didn't need to be killed.

　While walking away, Aldis thinks about it.
　Who would want to take himself alive in this royal capital now? Who would benefit from doing so, he wondered.

　After all, the most likely candidate would be the Tria's territorial army.
　They would capture Ardis to make him give up Nere's location. The territorial army had a reason to take Ardis alive.

　But if the territorial army was pulling the strings behind the scenes, they would give him a more decent messenger, not that ragtag one.
　There is no possibility that the church or nobles have had a hand in this, but in any case, it is unlikely that they are aware that Aldis is coming to the royal capital.

　The only people who know that Aldis is in the King's Capital are Aldis and Nere, and the twins, Filia and Liana.
　So far I haven't met any acquaintances in King's Landing, and Aldis isn't famous enough to be known to the public.

　With a bewildered feeling, Aldis returns to the inn with no conclusion.
　It wasn't until the next day that this was resolved.




　The next day, Aldis devoted the morning to gathering information, just like the day before.

　However, there is no new information coming in.
　I'm sure you'll be able to find out what happened to him.

　The rest depends on Cesare's report, and Ardis returned to the inn before noon.
　Cesare is drinking fruit water at the counter just like the day before, Aldis calls out to him from behind.

'Did I keep you waiting?'

　After a somewhat long pause, Cesare turned around.
　He looked intently at Aldis's face and offered her a seat, 'Well, please sit down.

'Well?　How was it?

''Regarding the 'trouble' I told you about yesterday, it seems that the lord had ordered the female mercenary to be captured. The reason for this is the charge of assaulting a soldier in the territory's army and the suspicion of kidnapping an infant. Although the guards surrounded the house of the female mercenary, the house they raided seemed to be unoccupied and their capture failed. The whereabouts of the female mercenary seems to have been lost without a trace.

　After all, compared to other informants, the information that Cesare has is of a higher quality.

It seems that this capture order was completely arbitrary on his own, and did not have the approval of the House of Justice. For this reason, there seems to be a great deal of effort to cover up the fact that the capture order itself was given in Trier to this day.

　This information should have been good news for Ardis.
　It was suspicious when there was no seal of the Court of Justice, but it still meant that they hadn't followed the regular procedure.
　If the Trier side is trying to cover it up, at least it won't be openly arranged for Ardis or Nere.

'Are you sure about that information?'

The information was confirmed yesterday in a day, so we couldn't corroborate it in time. I'd say it's about 70% reliable, but I'm sure it's a story that no informant has yet found. But I'm sure that this is a story that no one else has heard of yet. Perhaps only the national intelligence agencies know about it.

Okay.

　It is true that the information is not always correct, but it has already been six days since the capture frenzy.
　If Tria's side isn't hiding the information, then other informants have probably obtained the same information long ago.
　The fact that no one other than Cesare knows about it yet means that the Tria side is probably trying to cover it up.

　But Ardis felt something tricky.

　How could Cesare, who knew that much, not mention Ardis' information?

　Even before the defeat of the grinder, Aldis has always been paired with Nere to hunt.
　Since Nere is always with him, the two of them should have been seen together even in the city.

　Moreover, it was at Aldis' house that the capture took place, and Aldis was the one who went out in front of the guards who came to capture him, and at the same time that Nere disappeared, Aldis himself disappeared from Trier.
　It was odd that, despite being so involved, Aldis was never mentioned by Cesare's mouth.

　When the thought got there, Aldis huffed.
　He remembered the bewilderment he had felt after the raggedy attack yesterday.

　Someone other than Nere and the twins knew that Aldis was in King's Landing - a person who knew that Aldis was in King's Landing.
　A sudden thought turned into a conviction.

　I'm sure that the man in front of me, the kind man, knows that I am the man called Ardis.

　If that's the case, Ardis decided to try setting a trap -- and he did.

I can't help it. If you've had that much research done in one day, that's enough. I have friends who are waiting for me, so I have to leave the royal capital this afternoon.

　--hoping that the prey will fall into the trap.