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Astrid's POV
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Ryu jolts upwards suddenly, with no previous intent on moving, his mouth wide open before a shout comes out.

"NO!" (Ryu)

It echoes throughout the small room we were in, and makes me cover my ears.

I take a second to make sure that he wasn't going to scream again, then take my hands off my ears and look at him.

He sat upright in the bed he was on, bandages wrapped around his stomach, covering where he was stabbed.

His face was pale, a completely different colour to what it was when he lost consciousness.

I thought I could see a tear running down his face, but also noticed him drenched in a cold sweat.

"Whoa, Ryu, calm down." (Astrid)

Standing up from the chair I was sitting in, I walk over to comfort him while also making sure his wound doesn't reopen.

His breathing seemed ragged and frantic, as if he'd been running as fast as he could, and his eyes had a look of horror in them.

"Calm down. It's alright." (Astrid)

I attempt to comfort him as I push him back down, checking the bandages for any signs of blood.

He stays still for a few minutes, the look in his eyes not changing.

After a while, his breathing goes back to normal, and he seems to gain awareness of his surroundings.

"... Healer?" (Ryu)

"It's Astrid, but yes, I'm here." (Astrid)

"... I see." (Ryu)

He doesn't continue speaking, and I don't pry for information from him, we just let silence take the room.

A few minutes pass like that, neither of us speaking, before Captain enters the room.

"Is he awake?" (Captain)

"He is, but..." (Astrid)

"But?" (Captain)

I galnce at Ryu before continuing.

"... Not here." (Astrid)

"Alright... Ryu, how is it?" (Captain)

"Fine." (Ryu)

"Good. Heal up quickly, the King's going to want to see us soon." (Captain)

"... What happened?" (Ryu)

"At the banquet?" (Captain)

"Mm." (Ryu)

"Hmm. It was an assassination plot aiming for Crown Prince Subaru, but it was originally supposed to be an act that he put on that he'd use as his recommendation." (Captain)

"That was the recommendation?" (Ryu)

"Seems so. Ah, but they were bought out by someone else to actually carry out the assassination, rather than faking it." (Captain)

"... Who?" (Ryu)

"We aren't sure, of the 7 assassins, 3 died, and the other 4 were wounded." (Captain)

"Ah." (Ryu)

As if remembering something, Ryu acts surprised, then holds his hand to his mouth.

"Ryu?" (Astrid)

"Bu... cket." (Ryu)

Realising what was about to happen, I fetch a small bucket that was on one side of the room and quickly hand it to him.

He takes it and promptly starts throwing up into it.

"Haah, haah..." (Ryu)

At a quick glance, he seemed to be fine, but his eyes held the horror in them from before.

"Ryu?" (Astrid)

"I-I killed-- I killed someone--" (Ryu)

"You... You haven't before...?" (Astrid)

"Why would I have?" (Ryu)

"Well, I mean--" (Astrid)

"... Don't put me on the same level as those people..." (Ryu)

He didn't need to specify who he was talking about for me to know.

The No-Name Bandits.

Of all the bandit groups in the Kingdom, they are by far the worst.

While they aren't the largest, with only around 15 members, they are the most intricate, most deadly, and most disruptive group of them all.

They once halted an entire supply of medicine needed for the city during an epidemic because they needed some for their travels.

From that one incident alone, they managed to rack up a kill count higher than many soldiers in a single day.

While they didn't directly cause those deaths, they held the medicine for several days, increasing the death rate of the disease by much more than it should have been.

They are quite literally the epitome of evil in humans.

To me, it's surprising that they could even fathom those ideas in their heads, let alone act them out.

There are also rumours of them slaughtering half a town's population because they wouldn't pay them, but I'm not sure how true that one is, since it's just a rumour.

Of course, they also caused our latest mission and cut off an entire supply of food across the kingdom by taking Alzibria.

As far as I know, they'll do quite literally any job, provided they are paid and their abilities allow them.

And if their abilities don't allow them? They'll acquire help elsewhere, like with Alzibria, how they got Albrio and his group to help with crowd control of the town, mad supplying them with the mana crystals.

The only thing they don't do is assassination, which is why they aren't a suspect in this case currently.

Right now, we suspect a few of the nobles because of their faction.

In Reichtum, there's currently a political power struggle happening with the 3 factions.

The first faction, the Royal Faction, is lead by the Royal Family, alongside any other nobles that agree with the monarchy. Currently, I think they are winning in the power feud, but anything can happen.

The second faction, the Aristocratic Faction, is lead by Marquis Lovenhood, and other nobles who don't agree with the monarchy are included.

Then, the third faction is the Neutral Faction. This group don't really care what happens, or they are in a struggle to choose a side.

As far as I know, most nobles are in the Neutral Faction, while the few dukes are with the Royal Faction, which is why they are winning the feud currently.

But, the Aristocratic Faction currently have Marquis Lovenhood leading them, and he has a considerable grasp over the economy of the Kingdom, which is why this struggle currently exists.

So right now, the only suspects we have are from the Aristocratic Faction, and the Neutral Faction.

It's highly unlikely for a noble from the Royal Faction to have a hand in the plot, unless they are secretly with the Aristocrats.

But that's all I know, I haven't been involved with politics much, since I'm not a noble. I just hear things that Etsusu says.

"So? Who did it?" (Ryu)

"We've no idea. But it's probably someone affiliated with Marquis Lovenhood." (Astrid)

"Who?" (Ryu)

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Author Notes
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And here we are, another chapter, and another arc.

This chapter was surprisingly hard to write, and at around 200ish words, I was completely stumped. But I continued writing and got this.

An info dump.

At least, that's what I see this as, but after I reread it, it's not as bad as one of the ones in the earlier chapters, aka, Airi explaining the monarchy system that I'm using in the story. That chapter was really bad for an info dump.

But anyway, I hope this chapter wasn't too bad, so please continue reading!