Even the attendants who had done nothing wrong were required to speak with the soldiers so they could be questioned about the situation. A few had also been injured, so Sue was treating them.
“I suppose the military will take over the horses, too, huh?”
“Since everyone responsible for looking after the horses has been arrested, that’s probably what will happen.”
I’d never imagined the household was in such a terrible state. Even Sue looked a little bewildered.
Well, there wasn’t much we could do about it. The search would continue for the time being, and the military would probably seize the mansion itself.
For now, I decided to put those thoughts aside and head back to the office with Sue.
“I found something else!”
“Oh, impressive! Keep finding more!”
“Hehehe! Leave it to Shiro!”
When we entered the office, Shiro was busy discovering all sorts of things hidden behind paintings, inside jars, and in other unexpected places.
The table was piled high with what appeared to be the items Shiro had uncovered. There were documents, bags of money, magical devices, and all sorts of other things.
Gandof-sama was doing an excellent job of flattering Shiro, and Shiro was working with even greater enthusiasm as a result.
“Uncle, how are things going?”
“Oh, Sue. We’ve divided up the search teams. Ao is searching the butler’s room—the most suspicious place—with the Minister of Military Affairs and Tory.”
Judging from what had happened during the battle, Gandof-sama must have suspected the butler as well.
The Minister of Military Affairs, Tory-san, and I all shared the same opinion. In fact, the butler was probably a far more important figure than Marquis Broker himself.
“Hmm, I don’t think there’s anything else left to find in this room.”
“Is that so? Good work. We’ll leave the rest of the search to the soldiers. Let’s head to the butler’s room as well.”
“Okay!”
Shiro probably had a good nose for finding things, too, but there was no point in taking work away from the soldiers. So, we headed for the butler’s room.
Apparently, the confiscated items Shiro had discovered would be transported to a military facility as a top priority.
“Whoa, this is incredible.”
“It certainly is. There’s absolutely nothing here.”
When we entered the butler’s room, we were astonished for an entirely different reason. Aside from the built-in table and furniture, the room was practically empty.
“He even got rid of everything inside the desk and the trash bin. He must have anticipated that the military would seize the mansion.”
“So this is the only piece of paper you managed to find?”
“That’s right. No matter how thoroughly we searched, we couldn’t find anything else.”
The Minister of Military Affairs scratched his head, wearing an expression that clearly said he’d been outsmarted. Even Ao had searched the room in earnest, yet there really was nothing to be found.
The only thing left on the desk was a single note. Written on it was the name of a certain noble family.
“The House of Broker. They’re relatives of Marquis Broker and hold lands near the royal capital. They’re also part of the aristocratic faction.”
“Isn’t that noble family suspicious as all get-out? This note might be bait intended to lure us into a trap, but we still need to investigate.”
“Indeed. Since Marquis Broker has committed such a serious crime, we have grounds to investigate his relatives as well. I’ll send scouts immediately to look into their internal affairs in detail.”
The Minister of Military Affairs promptly began issuing orders to his subordinates.
There was a good chance the butler had deliberately left the note behind, but investigating it was still better than doing nothing.
“Hmm, I don’t think there’s anything else here.”
“I see. All right, then. Let’s return to the royal palace and report to His Majesty.”
Since even Shiro’s instincts told us there was nothing more to find, we decided to head back to the royal palace.For now, we’d have to put the matter of the butler aside. At least we could take comfort in the fact that we’d managed to capture Marquis Broker while keeping the damage to a minimum.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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