"What is it?" Brand saw the look on her face. "If you have something to say, just say it, Miss Knight. I’ve heard of your reputation, so I won’t lump you together with certain people."
"Miss Delphine volunteered to go there herself. Lord Veronica also doesn’t know about what happened between you and her—I only noticed it later by accident. I just didn’t expect her to be so resolute. In fact, this is all my fault; for something this important I shouldn’t have harbored any wishful thinking." Laurena sighed and answered, sounding a little self-reproachful.
Brand immediately became curious. "So, you’re saying you know what this is about?" He truly couldn’t help being curious; anyone who was inexplicably targeted by a woman acting like a madwoman would feel creeped out. In fact, even now, whenever he thought of Delphine’s hateful gaze he still felt deeply uncomfortable.
That feeling was as if he’d done something utterly unforgivable to her—but with Martha as his witness, things between him and her were as clean as could be. Brand remembered very clearly that back when he was on the front lines in the Black Forest fighting the Wolf Calamity, he had only crossed paths with her from afar.
"It’s actually like this." Mentioning this matter, Laurena also seemed a bit awkward. She sorted out her thoughts first, then carefully went over Delphine’s story from beginning to end.
"...Although Viscount Elman died at Andesa’s hands, Miss Delphine has always believed that you deliberately let them fall behind. On top of that, she’s always been deeply in love with Viscount Elman—everyone in the Empire knows this. The viscount’s death dealt Miss Delphine a heavy blow..."
"This really is a disaster from nowhere, Lady Laurenna." Brand gave a wry smile; after hearing this ridiculous tale he found himself at a loss for words. It was practically calamity from the heavens. Had he known earlier that he’d offend such an obsessive lady, he would’ve carefully escorted that Viscount Elman out of the country and never have given Andesa any opening.
"I’m sorry, Lord... Miss Delphine, she..." Laurena seemed to want to say a few more words on behalf of the Prime Minister’s daughter. But Brand cut her off first: "I know what you mean, Lady Laurenna. But even so, she shouldn’t have raised her hand against an innocent person. That’s not revenge, it’s just venting."
He thought for a moment, then added, "I’ll take what you said into consideration, but not right now. For the moment it’s better to let that young lady calm down a bit. You don’t want her released only to ruin Lord Veronica’s plan, do you?"
Laurena was taken aback, then realized that this was indeed a possibility. With Delphine’s current state of mind, as long as she could avenge herself, she’d probably be willing to drag the entire Empire down with her if necessary. After thinking it over, she couldn’t help but sigh. "I understand."
"Then let’s continue." Brand said, "Since not many people inside the Empire even know about your operation, the number of people the Sky Blue Army sent must be limited, right? Can I know how many of you there are?"
"This... I’m sorry, this is classified, Lord Count." Laurena sounded a little embarrassed, but still refused to answer Brand’s question.
"It’s fine, I was just asking casually." Brand narrowed his eyes. In truth, he had already determined that the Sky Blue Army’s infiltration into Erune was probably just a small elite unit. Just like the intelligence he’d received, it was likely an elite Knight Order subordinate to the Sky Blue Army. But there was no need to probe further into that. He then asked, "The letter said the Flame Temple suspects that batch of Fragments might be with Duke Anliek. Is that true?"
The Female Knight nodded. "Yes. Ever since Lord Veronica entered Erune, the information she obtained has matched that conjecture. It’s very likely that it was Duke Anliek colluding with Cultists and Demons that day to secretly smuggle away the Teleportation Gate’s Fragments."
"I heard that recently Duke Anliek formed an Alliance with Count Rangdenier. So does that mean this batch of Fragments might already have been transported to Majitan?"
"It’s possible." Laurena frowned slightly. "But the news from the Flame Temple indicates that those Fragments may not have stayed in Majitan, but were instead transferred further north."
"You have a way to track the Fragments’ location?" Brand was stunned. He turned back to stare at the Female Knight, thinking that these Cruz people weren’t just here to make fun of him, were they? If they had the ability to pinpoint the Fragments, what did they need him for?