Chapter 278: 278 Reasons for Suspicion
Reiger had reasons to be suspected.
Firstly, he had an unpleasant altercation with Prince Solok in public, a situation witnessed by everyone.
Secondly, Solok had secretly targeted Reiger’s family, which gave Reiger sufficient reason to confront Solok.
Furthermore, Reiger had more than once taken a strong stance against the royal family, proving he was not someone who could swallow his pride and remain silent.
All these signs led King Hemulinp to suspect that the person who attacked Solok might be this newly risen Sword Saint.
Rom did not deny this.
"According to ’Shadow’s’ investigation, since the knighting ceremony, Reiger Brillhaut has seldom left home, always accepting arena challenges, but among the few times he did go out, one was confirmed to be a visit to the honey wine restaurant," Rom reported.
Rom had investigated this matter.
"I sent a Shadow Knight to the honey wine restaurant to inquire with the person in charge there, and on that day, Reiger Brillhaut was indeed there having a meal with the Liya Family’s young miss."
Upon hearing this, a sharp light flashed in King Hemulinp’s eyes.
"Do you mean that Reiger Brillhaut had contact with someone from the Codelion Family?"
The Liya Family was a vassal of the Codelion Family, a fact that King Hemulinp naturally knew well.
"Very likely," Rom confirmed, saying, "According to the restaurant’s person in charge, on that day, the Liya Family’s young miss had two same-aged young ladies with her, one of whom might be the daughter of Duke Codelion."
"It seems my niece is quite restless," King Hemulinp remarked coldly. "I knew they would not miss the chance to woo a newly risen Sword Saint."
"Not long after that, the incident involving Prince Solok occurred," Rom continued to report. "Therefore, we have reason to suspect that Reiger Brillhaut got wind of His Highness’s plan to target his family while at the Codelion’s, which in turn sparked the idea of retaliation."
With that, the motive for murder was quite sufficient.
"Was Reiger Brillhaut used and incited by the Codelion Family?"
That is what King Hemulinp believed.
In his view, the act of the Codelion Family informing Reiger alone bore ill intent.
They themselves did not dare to move against Solok and thus sought to use this opportunity to incite Reiger into acting against Solok, which was entirely possible.
When Solok was attacked last night, he did not suspect Reiger and the Franzel family as King Hemulinp and Rom did. They saw the issue not as naively or presumptuously as Solok did.
Solok thought that if Reiger and Yuri had summoned so many puppets to the royal city, the commotion would certainly be large and could not escape others’ notice. But couldn’t they have called them one by one to the royal city if there was a premeditated plan? Isn’t it feasible?
Moreover, the methods to hide the conspicuous phenomena and magic power fluctuations caused by large-scale magic do exist. With the abilities of a Tactical Level Magician and a strategy level magician, isn’t that something easily achievable?
Therefore, Reiger and the Franzel family still remained suspects.
As for Solok’s belief that the Franzel family did not have this powerful swordsman who called himself ’Shinobu,’ that too was questionable.
If Solok could secretly have private soldiers, why couldn’t the Franzel family secretly cultivate strong individuals?
Even if they couldn’t cultivate them, recruiting or employing them shouldn’t be an issue, right?
Even the existence of ’Shinobu’ was suspected by King Hemulinp and Rom to possibly be Reiger.
Even if the sword skills ’Shinobu’ used were completely different from the ones Reiger publicly used, how could one be sure that this wasn’t because Reiger was cultivating two types of sword skills?
At the critical moment, Solok did not think of these possibilities, yet King Hemulinp and Rom did.
The only point of doubt for both of them was whether or not ’Shinobu’ actually was Reiger.
Practicing two types of sword skills concurrently was indeed very rare.
More accurately, it should be said that it is rare for someone to cultivate two special-grade sword skills at the same time.
Unlike low-level and high-level sword skills, special-grade sword skills generally have various cultivation requirements.
For example, the continent-wide famous Holy Dragon Sword Skill dictates that cultivators must naturally possess immense magic power; if the magic power is not strong enough, no matter what, they cannot successfully cultivate it.
The War King Sword Skill, inherited by the Genas Kingdom’s royal family, also has special requirements for the cultivator’s mental fortitude. Consequently, among King Hemulinp’s eleven children, only a very few met the cultivation requirements, while the rest could not cultivate it at all.
The combined sword skills used by the three Lees brothers required the cultivators to have sufficient rapport, compatibility, and connection, demanding even more stringent conditions.
The Shadow Strike Sword Skill practiced by Rom is known for its extremely stringent conditions; otherwise, the people of the "Shadow" wouldn’t just practice the simplified version, the Shadow Assault Sword Skill.
Thus, for swordsmen to fulfill the conditions to practice a special-grade sword technique was already enough to be considered extraordinarily talented. Meeting the conditions for two such techniques was without a doubt extremely difficult and rare.
The sword techniques used by Reiger and those used by Hemulinp were of completely different types. To King Hemulinp and Rom, both techniques were undoubtedly special-grade sword techniques. The fact that Reiger met the conditions to practice these two vastly different types of special-grade sword techniques was an event of very low probability.
Of course, it was only of low probability and not completely impossible.
Not to mention that Reiger became a Sword Saint at the age of 17 and was also a Tactical Level Magician. His talent and potential were frighteningly high. Such an incredible anomaly might indeed possess the conditions to practice two different types of special-grade sword techniques?
One can only say that Reiger’s achievements were already astonishing. To individuals such as King Hemulinp and Rom, it would not be surprising if he could practice two different types of special-grade sword techniques.
In any case, Reiger definitely had suspicions against him, and it was possible that the House of Brilliant supported him from behind.
After all, as a king, King Hemulinp would never easily dismiss his suspicions of someone; maintaining doubts was a common flaw of every king.
However, if they were to confirm that the culprit was Reiger based on this, there were still some doubts left within the matter.
For example...
"If Reiger Brilliant acted against the prince because something happened to his family, then why didn’t he take his family away after the incident was over?"
This was a doubt that Rom had to raise.
"The Shadow Knight arrived at the scene of the attack only to find it had already been consumed by a huge fire. Although the Brillhaut family escaped in the end, they almost perished in the flames. The attacker seemed to completely ignore them, which is a very strange point."
King Hemulinp furrowed his brows slightly upon hearing Rom’s words.
"Isn’t this perhaps intentional?" speculated King Hemulinp thoughtfully. "If he had taken his family away, wouldn’t that be tantamount to admitting that he was the perpetrator?"
"But according to the testimony of the surviving knights, that Hemulinp never made contact with that family from the beginning to the end. When setting the fire, he didn’t care about their safety at all. The family was lucky to escape, that was mostly luck." Rom shook his head and said, "I also thought maybe Reiger Brilliant harbored resentment towards them and deliberately didn’t rescue them. After all, he was once a runaway from his home. But if that were the case, he wouldn’t need to kill the prince for their sake, right?"
This was a contradictory point.
Rom hadn’t expected Reiger to decide to act merely because he and Solok had an old score to settle.
Previously, the "Shadow" had attacked Reiger, which now everyone thought was just Reiger’s way of deceiving others. However, no one knew that Reiger always remembered that incident and had long harbored thoughts of revenge.
This time, Solok’s actions merely provided the final push that determined Reiger’s resolve to act.
Just as he had said, when he gets furious, things could turn very serious.
Reiger proved this point to Solok with facts.
Unaware of this aspect, Rom’s thinking entered a misunderstanding and led him astray.
"Also, this incident doesn’t exclude the possibility that someone with an agenda might be framing others secretly."
That’s what Rom reported to King Hemulinp.
"Never mind the Codelion Family, foreign nations have been stealthily sending people over lately because of the unprecedented event of Reiger Brilliant being a 17-year-old Sword Saint."
"If they knew that Reiger Brilliant hadn’t been recruited by us, they might secretly scheme to drive a wedge between us and this unprecedented young Sword Saint, prompting us to act against him and, indirectly, push Reiger Brilliant to their side."
"If we were to suspect Reiger Brilliant over this incident without good reason, and take actions that would displease him, and if he ultimately isn’t the culprit, then, given his previous firm stance, we might well become thoroughly hostile towards him in the future."
This cautious remark reminded King Hemulinp, doubts are all well and good, but if there wasn’t sufficient evidence proving that this affair was caused by Reiger, then he’d better not act rashly.
Otherwise, if it ultimately wasn’t Reiger, the royal family’s position would become very awkward.
"The Duke’s men might also have had the chance to act," continued Rom, reminding him: "These matters need to be thoroughly investigated. We absolutely cannot act rashly, Your Majesty."
"You’re right," King Hemulinp calmed down and nodded, saying, "In that case, I’m entrusting this matter to you."
"You must thoroughly investigate and find out who really did this."
"Before this, whether it’s the ’Shadow’ or other people dispatched by the royal family, including that mixed-up lad, no one should recklessly make contact with Reiger Brilliant."
Upon hearing this, Rom nodded and vanished on the spot.
Only King Hemulinp was left sitting there, muttering to himself.
"I hope it wasn’t you..."