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Episode 36.14-15
Episode 36.14-15
Episode 36.14-15
Initially, Prado was planning to bring the verdict certificate gotten from the temple's <Bell of Truth> to the Prime Minister Office at the capital and expose Cassandra's illegal activities.
Same with knight Kaldan, Prado wasn't going to hand him over to Wazrof but neither was he planning to release him back to Boldrin.
However, he changed his mind after Kanner's persuasion. Kanner believed the plan Norma thought up would be more beneficial in the long run.
First of all, they will send a transcript of the temple's certificate to Boldrin instead of the Prime Minister Office. Along with a letter written with this:
It is with great regret I must inform you that your servant, Nirfut had wrongly interpreted orders decreed by your great matron, Cassandra-dono, and assassinated our house's heir, Dopus Goncourt, as well as infiltrated my bedroom and stabbed me with a poisonous needle. As we have acquired the evidence from the culprit, Nirfut, through a session of Ceres Temple's <Bell of Truth>, a transcript of the certificate enclosed in this letter, we have put him through an execution. As for your entourage, which includes Knight Kaldan Hoist, we will have to inquire them regarding Nirfut's crime as well his usual behavior and circumstances, and depending on the results we will return them all excluding the executed Nirfut to you. Kusandria and Horkassa-dono will be under our care until then, be rest assured that they will be treated cordially. I am hoping our houses could foster a deeper relationship toward a better more prosperous future.
Most of the content in that letter was suggested by Norma, and the effect was dramatic.
First of all, knight Kaldan's attitude had a complete turn after being shown this letter. He had been keeping silent no matter what was done, and now he instead asked what they wanted to hear. Same with all other members in Boldrin entourage.
Next, Boldrin house's behavior also saw a dramatic shift. Goncourt sent a messenger with the letter to Boldrin on the 9th of month two, and Boldrin's emissary quickly arrived at Goncourt mansion on the 16th. Kusandria and her son along with other Boldrin entourage had already stayed in Vouka for 11 days by then.
Surprisingly, the emissary was Kirik Boldrin. Biological little brother of the present head, Niped Boldrin. Niped and Kirik rule over House of Boldrin together, both are sons of Cassandra, Kirik himself holds the third highest authority in the house.
Kirik apologized for her mother, Cassandra who gave orders that got misunderstood as assassination, and how the present master Niped and himself had no idea of such orders. He also delivered a letter handwritten by Niped, regarding how their mother Cassandra had become mentally unstable as of late, and they had her moved out of Boldrin mansion to a villa with a good view someplace else.
In other word, they forced Cassandra who had been holding her authority for decades into retirement. Clearly showing how much shock the incident this time gave Niped and Kirik, or perhaps they could sense crisis looming over them.
At the same time, Kirik transferred several prominent business of their house over to Goncourt. It was enormous, totaling at close to 1/3rd of Goncourt's entire assets. Boldrin's financial prowess is far beyond Goncourt, but that kind of amount must still really hurt to them.
It's an apology for assassinating Goncourt's next in line and the attempt at the present master head's life, but that's not all.
After all, the intel Goncourt acquired from Nirfut was both plentiful and of highly confidential matters. From the connections Boldrin has with Goncourt members and other associates in Vouka, to virtually everything about Boldrin's situations and weak points. A single letter addressed to Vantaroy's town lord could potentially be fatal to House of Boldrin.
This is the biggest merit of deploying <Bell of Truth>. Once the bell has judged someone guilty, you are allowed to employ any kind of torture, mind magic, or drugs, the temple would even offer their cooperation. And Nirfut was a treasure trove of intel. From the beginning of the torture, it was clear that Nirfut was very trusted by Cassandra.
Boldrin must believe that Goncourt had taken hold of all the intel Nirfut possessed once they found out he was put through a <Bell of Truth> session. Hence why they're trying their damnedest to mend their relationship with Goncourt regardless of the cost.
Boldrin won't be able to go against Goncourt for the next few decades. The intel acquired would become less risky to them as time passes, but House of Boldrin is unlikely to ever stands above House of Goncourt in the future.
Boldrin also offered to pull their whole business out of Vouka, but Goncourt stopped them short. By Norma's suggestion. Continuing to do business with them while enjoying preferential treatments would obviously be more beneficial than just completely cutting them off, thus Prado did not object either. However, Goncourt have to take caution so they won't attempt some funny business behind the scenes.
Kirik even went as far as suggesting they have a contact person from Goncourt staying permanently at Boldrin. In a word, a watchdog. This was declined after consulting with Norma.
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"So she is not here yet again. And she could have established a power relationship had she shown up this time."
"Norma-sama still persists on that, 'I don't plan to show myself in public.'"
"She can say that all she wants, she will have to come out once I die and she gets to be the present head."
"I brought that up as well. Then she said, 'What are you talking about? Don't we agree that you or your successor will take care of those jobs. I'm only a master in name only, I'm not going to do anything.'"
"I should have never made that promise."
"It is far too late now, master."
Boldrin seemed to have grown curious about Norma after receiving reports from knight Kaldan as well, they sent two messengers asking to have an audience with her in month three alone. But Norma would insist that, 'I am but a family head in name for when Prado-sama has passed and until Gaipus-sama has come to age, I do not possess the qualification to mingle with esteemed members of another noble family.'
It's not just Boldrin, Goncourt branch family, Vouka's nobles, major company merchants all have been asking to meet her, but Norma won't budge at all. The sole exceptions being the town lord and Chaney.
It seems she's built a favorable relationship with the town lord family. Just the other day, she had an urgent summon from them and stayed in town lord mansion for close to twenty days while leaving Jinga in Goncourt mansion. Later on, she told Prado and Kanner how it was for the sake of Zack Zaikaz's treatment, shocking them both.
Kanner would occasionally go to her to report on business dealings and ask for her opinions, and she never give an answer, not even once.
"Looking back, the last time was for the matter with leaving a contact person at Boldrin. The last time Norma gave an advice."
"Both master and I were truly stumped as to what we should do then."
"Indeed. After all that was our best chance. Norma could easily give that advice because she has no idea about all the details."
"That might be so, but Norma-sama's advice was truly clear cut. First she asked if we had someone fit as an external contact person. Then the ratio of people who deal with business in our house and those who would have to deal with Boldrin. She came up with an answer after these two inquiries. 'This is not a matter important enough to send out valuable human resource for. You probably should just say no.'"
"I still think that was such a wasted opportunity."
"She also said this afterward. 'Sometimes leaving people to their imagination of being watched by something intangible would net better results than granting them the comfort of knowing someone is watching them.'"
"Hmph. I know that much."
"If I may."
"Findin. You don't need to ask permission every single time. Just speak if you have something to say. So, what is it?"
"Norma-sama then spoke thus. 'Boldrin is getting impatient I see.'"
"What? I don't think Kanner ever mentioned that."
"She was speaking to herself, thus I thought it carried no special meaning. Findin, what did you get from her words?"
"It is only a guess of mine but I believe it has two meanings. The first one is how Cassandra-sama resorted to assassination attempts on Dopus-sama and master. Assassinating the present master of another noble house would leave a huge lingering issues later on. Perhaps House of Boldrin has been cornered so much to the point they resorted to such a method."
"By cornered, what exactly is cornering them?"
"That I am unsure of. I don't believe Norma-sama knows either. But doing something like that everywhere would eventually get them cornered in all directions that is for sure."
"Fumu. And the other one?"
"How Niped-sama and Kirik-sama immediately made Cassandra-sama retire. Cassandra-sama's authority has been reduced so much to the point they were able to take that measure, it is very clear that they want to get things back to normalcy by making their own mother, someone with many great achievements at that, retire."
"...Fumuu. I see."
"To me, that 'Boldrin is getting impatient I see' sounds like, 'Boldrin is entering their twilight I see.'"