“It seems you have rejected your place besides the Heavenly Lord. Truly, you are a rebel down to the very last bone.”

I stood alert, ready to take on Kurt the instant he retaliated. A smile of satisfaction appeared on his face, and he signaled to leave his presence, staring absent-mindedly at the statue.

“What will happen to the Eastern house from now on?”

“Nothing that will make you the source of wariness.”

After then, the incident was left unreported, although it was only a matter of time before someone found out about it. It was clear that the political scenario in the military was not clean. It could not be said with certainty that the Northern House was completely agnostic on this matter as well. They might be keeping me here for a more nefarious reason than I had previously expected.

I had left Heinrich’s death as a mishap during operations. The only person who knew about the truth was Commander Klaus, as I had submitted a personal report to him with the true happenings of the case, and it was only met with newfound anxiety, and fear.

“This has become quite a hassle, has it not?”

“Yes, sir.”

I could not say anything else in reply, except agree with him. After all, despite holding great power, I had little to no knowledge of its usage. I could not fathom what awaited me along the way, nor was my line of action clear. All I wanted was to be free of this curse. I could not care less about the Heavenly Lord, or the judgement, but it seemed that the world forces me into it at every step.

“Sir, I need permission to have a relook at the mansion case again.”

That was one of the unsolved threads that I felt will help in solving this mystery. It was where it all began, and it was still not investigated fully.

“I grant it, but you will not go alone. You will be assigned a special unit of sorts that will work under your command. That way, not a single word will be leaked to anyone.”

This time, there was no option to refuse. I knew I could not solve this case alone. In fact, this would be a good opportunity to keep me away from suspicion as well as granting me free reign over this mystery. Suddenly, I remembered what the Commander had told me when I left for the Eastern House:

“Dead men are the most free.”

Although I failed to discern any motive from it, I remembered that it appeared on the blank space of the page. In addition to this, the lines that appeared below seemed to imply that only those who rebel against the Heavenly Lord are granted this ‘status.’ The message seemed obvious to me at first, but now it almost reads like it was written as a special code, especially from the usage of “dead men.”

I realized now that I was a stranger in the Northern House as well. All my colleagues had moved to the Eastern House, and had stood in rebellion of who I had become. Frederich, and Kurt, were close friends to me, but they too were twisted by the unknown circumstances of this scenario. 

I tried to forget about it, and started to pick the personnel from ranking in investigatory skills, and stealth, coupled with ample combat skills. Most members were selected normally through this process. One anomaly remained for which I needed to conduct an interrogation.

I had picked three members for now, among which the first was a part of the 2nd Investigatory unit, going by the name of Stefan. Albeit not a noble, he seemed to have made his way through recommendation from the Commander himself, which was quite rare. He specialized in the “Pawn” series, as usual, along with the “Rook” series wherein psychological interference was key. However, that was not where I felt there was an exception. It was his transfer record. 

From the looks of what I could find, he had been transferred repeatedly from the Eastern House after being designated again and again.

“May I presume you are Stefan?”

I identified him, and shook hands before sitting down on the chair in front. He seemed nervous, looking besides me as he tried to avoid making eye contact.

“Do not worry. This will be over quickly.”

He did not respond, but took a deep breath and sat straight. Now, I could see confidence all over his face. He seemed humble, not scheming or calculative. It was reassuring to see that there were people who I could rely on for their trust.

“Answer to me this with honesty: Why were you repeatedly designated to the Eastern House, and brought back here after a period of a month or so?”

He seemed hesitant to answer, which meant that he had been told to remain silent about it.

“I have been granted permission from Commander Klaus to handle this matter.”

He cleared his throat, explaining the case with conviction in his work.

“Sir, I had been assigned to investigate a sudden surge in missing incidents which were left unreported. Upon investigation, I had found a number of links to previous cases. Here, I have recorded them in this file.”

The case seemed to link back and forth from many popular cases. What caught my eye was one of the cases which I had personally investigated before. There, the name popped up again: Commander Jurgen.

“May I borrow this file for a day or two?”

“Sir, I hope you get something useful from it.”

I left the room, leaving the man with eagerness. Now, it seemed the mystery was slowly coming to grasp. Suddenly, my eyes shifted as I noticed a sticky note pasted on the left page of where I had the file opened:

“The mansion of rebellion.”

The address was the exact same as that of the mansion where I was.