Chapter 5: Audience

                                    

                                          
A few hours after Rio's mock battle.
The Imperial Guard Commander Helmut Albo was receiving a severe reprimand from the current King of the Bertram Kingdom, King Philip III.
                          
"Your Majesty! I believe it is necessary to perform further investigations on that boy! Please grant me your approval!"
"Rejected. To begin with, the mock battle from before was performed to prove he truly was the one who defeated the kidnappers. Did we not already agree on the fact that orphan was indeed my daughters' saviour?"
                          
Philip III spoke to Helmut in a forceful tone but Helmut could not accept the King's response.
                          
"Of course. But it's strange a mere orphan can not only defeat four bandits but also win against an Imperial Guard! He most likely received combat training from somewhere!"
                          
Helmut felt anger mounting against Philip III.
To the desperate Helmut, the King could only show a bitter smile while hiding his true intentions.
He was fully aware of Rio's unnatural strength.
However he did not want to dig deeper into the subject due to having other goals.
                          
"Isn't that strange, Helmut. Then what do you make of that mock battle with the Imperial Guard? If my memory serves me right, you were the one who arranged the fight between him and the Imperial Guard to gauge his abilities and determine if he really was the one who defeated the four ruffians."
                          
Philip III pointed out a contradiction in Helmut's words. But Helmut immediately stated another assumption.
                          
"Indeed he won against the Imperial Guard; I agree that serves as proof that he really was the one who rescued both Hime-sama. But the one he won against was an IMPERIAL GUARD! An orphan whose age hasn't even reached 10 yet! It's too strange!"
                          
Deliberately agreeing with the King that Rio was strong, Helmut admitted that fact.
Rio possessed abilities no mere orphan could obtain.
Even though the Imperial Guard did show an opening for an instant, there was no way a kid younger than 10 could have snatched victory from such a small window of opportunity.
Normally that kind of thing would be impossible was what Helmut was trying to say to the King.
                          
But in this case, the situation was convenient for Philip III.
It was because Helmut's influence in the Royal Palace had grown too large.
                          
He had become a nuisance to the King.
When Christina and Flora were kidnapped, the ones in charge of their protection in the Royal Palace were the Imperial Guards.
It was a huge blow to the Imperial Guard's reputation.
Naturally the fault fell onto Helmut as the Commander of the Imperial Guards.
                          
And now Helmut was in a predicament.
He was desperately trying to prevent his downfall using all means available to him.
The he could succeed was if he found out who the mastermind was.
                          
He knew very well the mastermind behind the incident was targeting him.
But this scheme was too vile. The mastermind left absolutely no trail.
Their only lead was the four kidnappers but before any useful information could be extracted from them, they were poisoned to death.
The jailers guarding the kidnappers were all sentenced to death but nothing really came out of it.
                          
The only connection left was the orphan who rescued Christina and Flora.
At the time, the mastermind left Rio alone because he did not know anything.
                          
When Helmut noticed the situation he could not keep himself calm and forced an investigation on Rio using all authority he had.
By using all means necessary.
Even a spec of information would be fine if it could lead to the mastermind.
                          
The time limit was three days because Helmut would be court-martialed after that.
So he carried out interrogations over the three days but Rio did not know anything.
For his achievement of rescuing royalty, they were not permitted to use any violent methods during interrogation.
However the clock was ticking and Helmut defied orders and applied more forceful methods.
Unfortunately for Helmut, they still could not elicit any information from Rio.