Antagonist Protection Service

Chapter 239: Cleanup

When I made it clear I had no intention to attack the imperial expedition party, everyone appeared to grow visibly relieved, proceeding to take their time retreating from the snow-covered basin to a warmer location and recovering.

Thereafter, the Imperial Commander was the first to come up to me.

“Thank you.”

“…”

Surprisingly, his words were that of gratitude.

I expected everyone to still despise me or see me as a criminal whether I saved them from the Demon or not, but… maybe that wasn’t the case after all.

“Her Highness informed me of your assistance. I am also aware that you have been working alongside my son. After what happened back then, I was quite surprised.”

“…?”

Soon, I realised he was referring to the murder of the former crown prince.

This guy was still the Imperial Commander back then, so although he wasn’t necessarily in charge of the Imperial Knights who guarded the palace, I’m sure he was at least close to them.

He must have known something was off when the prince died. And he would have been correct, because it was true that I had the emperor reduce the amount of guards around the prince’s room.

Maybe it was because he knew something was suspicious about it and confronted the emperor or Lucretia, so they clued him in.

In that case, he would’ve known that I was on their side this time too, even if no one else did.

‘…Well. Nobody needs to know that I was waiting for the Black Fang to die first before jumping in.’