The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 172 Suspect Isaac (16) - Everyone, I am a sinner. For Isadora, pipe tobacco was less of a luxury item and more like a kind of necessity or medicine. No, strictly speaking from the beginning, it just had the same smoking method as tobacco, but the materials were different from the tobacco others smoked. But even such Isadora, at this moment at least, purely wanted to smoke tobacco simply because of stress. "Haa." After letting out a deep sigh, Isadora used her tobacco as a finger to point at a certain spot. "So, what exactly is the identity of 'that thing'." "Oh my." Isaac waved his hand at Isadora's words. "That thing? It's unfair to use such an expression toward a person and individual." Isadora briefly wondered if the explanation for the word 'unfairness' in her mental dictionary might be written incorrectly. It wasn't a very long contemplation. No matter how much she thought about it, the one who was wrong was not her but that human before her eyes. Surely she was more in the right than that madman who had created a mess covered in chili powder, pepper, and various other spices, oils, and medicinal powders that would make any cannibal drool and think 'Ah, now I just need to grill it!' and then asked for humane treatment. The seasoned Dhampir over there would undoubtedly agree violently if he had any consciousness left. "Do you perhaps have some condition where thorns grow somewhere on your body if you handle things normally?" "How could that be. It's simply the result of taking every possible precaution because the opponent is so formidable." "If only he couldn't speak." But even Isadora couldn't deny the fact that it was effective. The proof was clear just from the fact that an opponent who wouldn't hesitate to be locked in prison for life out of fanaticism toward Augustin had obediently spilled all the information he knew. "Tracking us using drug distribution as a clue, well, that's fine. It was something we expected from the beginning, and we actually threw out the bait for that purpose. The problem is with the fake culprit. Who would have thought he'd bring out the Empire here and use it as his shield. That human's cunning mind works quite well too." When Isadora clicked her tongue, Isaac also nodded with a very serious expression. "Indeed, you're right. Truly a formidable opponent that cannot be underestimated." "...Huh?" What was that. That line just now had a strange nuance to it. It wasn't just that they had overcome a crisis well, but there seemed to be a hint of an 'Oh no, how did they know?' atmosphere mixed in... "In any case, this won't do. If this flow continues, our plan to bring down Augustin will come to nothing." Isadora almost recalled something in her mind, but that thought couldn't continue to its conclusion as she had to respond to the words she heard from beside her. "Certainly, even if we catch the Dhampirs one by one and chip away at their strength, if their external influence still remains, it's impossible to truly bring him down. But then again, what other options do we have? We can't exactly contact the Empire and tell them to check into this matter." "That might be possible if we tried, but we shouldn't do it. In that case, Augustin might end up in the position of a persecuted sage instead." "What do you mean?" Perhaps because it was a story closer to the realm of politics rather than deduction, Isadora asked back as if she couldn't understand the meaning. "Suppose the Empire were to say something like 'We never did such a thing. Deal with that fake culprit who's spouting nonsense immediately.' The Premier of the Republic would have no choice but to protect the culprit regardless of his own intentions. Because it would look like he's submitting to the Empire's words." No matter how much he's a dictatorial Premier who treats Parliament as decoration, the fact that the foundation of his power is the citizens doesn't change. He had been continuously building an image as a strong and trustworthy father figure, but the moment he unilaterally bends to the Empire, he would suffer enormous political damage. "Right now, since it's only being talked about domestically, the Premier can get by with just remaining silent, but the moment this truly escalates into an international issue, whether he likes it or not, the Premier will have no choice but to respond firmly. And that means the Premier and Augustin would be tied together as one faction. For us, it's the worst possible development." "...Conversely, it would be the best possible development for Augustin?" "That's right. It's truly worthy of being called cunning." Using citizen sentiment to set up the Premier and government as shields, while he himself gains unilateral benefit from behind without shedding a drop of blood. At this experienced yet utterly vicious move, Isadora's eyes became fierce. If it were a matter of investigating crime scenes and uncovering the truth, that would be one thing, but when the situation moved into the political realm like this, she had no proper countermeasures. Faced with such grand scheming and machinations, what could a single individual do? "So here, let's commit fraud against the Empire." "What did you say?" ...Well, it seems there are self-proclaimed ordinary people in this world who don't care about such things. *** "The world really is shit." Chaudronbourg's veteran detective. Inspector Pierre let out a lament. People assumed that the reason he had recently become irritable was because his rival Inspector Mathieu had caught Charles Darnoua and was riding high on success, but Pierre swore on his police badge that he wasn't getting annoyed over such trivial matters. "Police should act like police, investigate cases and catch criminals, but why are all these people, this one and that one, all crazy about politics and factional fighting. Ugh." Pickpocketing, theft, crimes of passion. Keeping alert to what cases might come today, Pierre opened his newspaper along with coffee hot enough to burn his mouth. No, he tried to open it. He would have, if something stuck between the newspaper pages hadn't suddenly fallen to the floor. "A note?" The newspaper Inspector Pierre was reading had been taken from the mailbox in front of his house. After the newsboys stuck it in the mailbox, it would have been left unguarded, so it wouldn't be difficult for someone to slip in a memo. But for what purpose? Pierre pondered for a moment, but soon carefully unfolded the note. The palm-sized paper was essentially like a letter without an envelope. "......" Throughout reading the text written in the letter, Pierre's eyebrows kept going up and down repeatedly. After reading all the contents, he fell into contemplation for a moment. Then, leaving even his coffee behind, he quickly grabbed his coat and left the house. *** The atmosphere at the Darnoua estate was not bad. No, more precisely, it was closer to being inwardly excited while trying not to show it outwardly. "As expected, that person's judgment is never wrong." "Those who were criticizing us are all now just sneakily watching for signs." "We should slaughter them all with this opportunity!" "Of course, of course, all those blocking Darnoua's path now are traitors, puppets of the Empire, aren't they?" Since they had to play the role of victims of the Empire's wicked schemes, they had to act somber and wounded outside, but the actual mood of the Darnoua side was light as if they could fly. Although Isadora hadn't been caught yet, reports had come in that she was being successfully tracked, so this too would only be a matter of time. Of course, this was a misconception. The Dhampir they had trusted and assigned the task to had participated in a delightful cooking session (forced), experienced seasoning and medicinal cooking techniques firsthand, and had his security code forcibly unlocked, while Isadora was using the information the Dhampir had spilled to spread disinformation through dedicated channels. They had no idea that their excellent and loyal Dhampirs were being caught in traps and captured one by one. And one more thing. An event that would shock them was approaching. "E-everyone! Look at the newspaper, please look at the newspaper!!" "Oh my, why are you running around so undignifiedly?" "Dignity, schmignity, just look at this!!" The newspaper that one of Darnoua's executives held out almost like a scream. Those who initially just received it with puzzled faces gradually turned pale. [The sordid deal between the Empire and Darnoua. Is the cornered con man's plan for revival selling out the country?] [Plot twist! Another plot twist! The shocking truth of the Charles fraud case is revealed once again!] [Anonymous Empire official: "The Darnoua side first made a proposal, saying that if appropriate external pressure was applied in this case, it would bring many benefits to the Empire side in return."] "W-what kind of bullshit is this!? When did we ever make contact with the Empire side!!" They were truly wronged. To begin with, the culprit who confessed was a fake culprit, so how could there be any connections or backroom deals with the Empire? "W-we must immediately stop these false rumors..." "E-everyone! This is not the time for this!! Right now, the person claiming to be the real culprit of this case is making a confession, no, a speech to the citizens in the plaza!!" "What!?" *** "—Citizens of Chaudronbourg, no, good and sincere citizens of the Republic. Here and now, I am going to make a great confession to you all." "Everyone, I, Isaac, am." "A sinner who has committed an enormously great sin."