"How did you end up with a gun here?"
After Dyavid called a few soldiers to take First Lieutenant Jeprick away and wrapped Bekimillo's corpse in a blanket, Claude turned to the still-shocked Captain Durioro and asked, "What's going on?"
"Oh, this gun …" It was only then that Durioro realized he was still holding onto the gun that had already been fired. He hurriedly put it back into the drawer. "It's a gift from my father before I left for war.
Even though I came to the frontlines as the commander of a local garrison, I'm only in charge of keeping the peace and order, just like I'm doing here in Squirrel Village.
Even though I don't have to risk my life on the frontlines, my father still gave me this gun to protect myself.
I usually put it in the drawer. Just now, when Second Lieutenant Becky Milo pointed his short gun at you, I lit the match... "
Durioro's eyes were still filled with confusion. "I swear I only aimed at his hand and wanted to knock the gun out of his hand. But … I didn't think I'd shoot him in the face."
Claude could only be thankful that he wasn't standing in front of Durioro when he opened fire.
The distance between them was less than five meters. You aimed at the hand, but hit the face. That accuracy was too touching. Fortunately, Moriad and I were standing opposite Second Lieutenant Becky Milo. If we were standing next to each other, who knows who would be the unlucky one …
"Alright, let's put aside the problem of your gun's accuracy for now. The man is dead anyway. What we need to think about now is how to put an end to this matter.
Are you sure you can fool us with what you just said? "
Claude asked and gestured for Moriad to pour Durioro a glass of wine to calm himself down.
"What did I say?" Durioro asked.
He knew that Durioro was still in a daze from killing someone and had forgotten most of what he said. Claude had to remind him. "Tell me to send a messenger hawk to the ministry of the army. Tell them that First Lieutenant Giprick and Second Lieutenant Bekimillo came to us under the guise of patrolling to extract the four impersonating officers of the kingdom. After we refused, they tried to hold us hostage and force us to release them."
Moriad placed a large goblet of fruit wine on the table. Captain Durioro took the goblet and gulped it down in a few gulps. When he had finished, he put the goblet back on the table and said to Moriad, "Thank you. Pour me another goblet, please."
Duriolo's eyes finally lit up after he gulped down a large cup of wine. He pondered for a moment and said, "We have to investigate this matter from start to finish. Don't let anyone find any loopholes.
It was mainly emphasized that the four criminals who pretended to be official officers of the kingdom were originally on duty at the frontline command, and Lieutenant Giprick and Second Lieutenant Becky Milo wanted to forcibly take the criminals away from us without any orders or formal procedures, so we refused because we suspected that they were related to the four criminals.
"What we need to take note of here is that we asked them to provide authorization documents from the ministry of the army and the order to hand over the prisoners. As long as the documents are complete, we will hand the prisoners over to them.
"However, they couldn't produce any documents and insisted that they were just staff officers of the frontline command and didn't need such documents.
"We, on the other hand, believe that since the peace treaty has been signed and the war is over, frontline command doesn't have the authority to prepare for war and should obey the orders of the ministry of the army. That's why we rejected their request."
Claude slapped his thigh. Durioro was trying to shift the blame away from the shocking news of the death of the military law officer to the power struggle between frontline command and the ministry of the army. He wanted to make the ministry of the army feel that they were doing the right thing. The war has already ended, so why is frontline command still in control of nearly a million troops?
Do you want to start another war?
Are you targeting the outside world or the inside?
That would definitely provoke the sensitivities of the kingdom's upper echelons, especially when the eldest prince refused to leave the frontline command without a leader.
Sometimes, Claude couldn't help but admire the scheming of the nobles. Be it the old nobles or the merchant nobles, scheming and plotting against each other had become part of their lives.
Truth be told, Claude's heart was beating like a drum after Captain Durioro shot Bekimillo to death. After all, he was an executive officer of the frontline military law department. How big of a commotion would it cause if he was killed with a single shot?
After drinking a glass of wine, Durioro calmed himself down and started to think of a way to clean up the mess. According to him, not only was he not at fault, he was even meritorious.
That was because he disregarded his own safety to stop the plot of some people at frontline command who wanted to take the four prisoners away and protected the highest authority and authority the ministry of the army had over the kingdom's land forces.
"Yes." Captain Durioro picked up the second glass of wine that Moriad had poured for him. "Because we refused their request, they became angry out of humiliation. They pulled out their guns and attempted to take us hostage to force us to release the four criminals.
We weren't willing to be threatened by them and fought back. During the fight, Lieutenant Bekimillo accidentally fired. As we were fighting at the time, I grabbed his hand that was holding the gun and lifted it up. In the end, he shot himself in the face and died on the spot. "
Well, this time he even shirked the responsibility of shooting Second Lieutenant Becky Milo. Poor Second Lieutenant Becky Milo committed suicide just like that.
It wasn't rare for a gun to accidentally fire during a fight, but who asked him to use it to threaten others?
So, he deserved his own death and had no one to blame but himself.
Durioro's adjutant, Siegfried, came in with a bucket of water and a mop to clean the blood left by Lieutenant Bekimillo's death.
Claude watched as the blood was wiped away and reached for the half-empty bottle of wine. He poured it all into his mouth and put it down. Breathing heavily, he said, "That's a good way of putting it. But don't forget that there's still First Lieutenant Jeprick. He has a mouth and hands too. How should we deal with him alive?"
Moriad volunteered, "Sir, it's fine. Leave this to me and Dyde. I promise he'll leave a suitable statement for us."
Claude was a little hesitant, but Durioro nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, I'll leave this to you.
You're also involved. If Claude and I are unlucky, you won't be able to escape either.
Besides, you've already punched that First Lieutenant Jeprick. If he gets free, he'll definitely take revenge on you. I'm sure of that.
Staff Sergeant Siegfried, please notify the signalman. I need to send a secret letter to the ministry of the army. "
Moriad and Dyde had always been interested in dealing with nobles like First Lieutenant Jeprick. That was thanks to their experiences as gangsters in the royal capital before they joined the army.
Even though they were nobles, they weren't valued by their families and were basically no different from commoners. Sometimes, they would be pushed to the ground by the nobles and could only endure the humiliation. They didn't even dare to tell their families about it.
Claude had no choice but to gather the two of them together and teach them how to cover their faces with wet towels, hit them with books and put honey on the soles of their feet for a goat to lick. He was worried that their clumsiness would leave obvious wounds on the First Lieutenant's body and draw suspicion.
Moriad and Dyavid were shocked by Claude's abilities and excitedly went to Giprick to test out the tricks he taught them.
The messenger eagles that Captain Durioro sent to the Imperial City's Ministry of Army weren't sent by the Ministry of Army. They were private messenger eagles bred by his family. Even his signalman was sent over from his family to serve the messenger eagles. This was also to strengthen the communication and communication between the merchant nobles.
Otherwise, 1st Ranger Tribe's falcons would all be sent to the frontline command.
According to Durioro, the journey from Squirrel Village to the royal capital would take around a day and a night.
If the falcons were sent by his superiors, it would only take three hours to reach the frontline command.
So, Durioro decided to wait a day before informing the frontline command about what happened. It would be best if he could get First Lieutenant Jeprick's statement.
That way, he would appear to be selfless and buy more time to get an official reply from the ministry of the army.
Claude did some calculations and estimated that Myjack and Gum would need two to three days to reach the royal capital. He handed the letter to Maria for her to pass to the prince.
He didn't know if there would be any accidents that would delay the journey.
That was why Durioro and Claude didn't pin their hopes on the prince. They didn't even know if Claude's letter would make the prince see the truth and come out to clean up the mess at the frontline.
It only took Moriad and Dyavid a single night to get the Gypsy lieutenant to confess and write a satisfactory statement.
It was just as Claude had predicted. He and Bekimillo brought a small squad of military police over to take away the four unlucky fellows and release them secretly so that the noble officers wouldn't be able to use them against them.
What they didn't expect was that what they thought would be a simple matter would turn out to be such a big deal. Bekimillo was killed with a single shot and he became a prisoner.
However, Durioro had Moriad and Dyavid go through the confession and write another one for First Lieutenant Giprick to sign and stamp his seal.
He needed to confess in this confession that he and Lieutenant Becky Milo were in cahoots with the four criminals who pretended to be officers of the kingdom, and that they had come to rescue the four of them.
He didn't have to name the noble officers at the frontline command as well.
Soon the new confession was completed, and Lieutenant Giprick confessed to the fact that he and Lieutenant Becky Milo had come to rescue the four unlucky fellows.
However, when they were being interrogated about whether they had any accomplices at the frontline command, Jeprick suddenly bit his tongue and committed suicide, making it impossible to find out if they had any accomplices at the frontline command. It was quite regrettable.
Captain Duriolo said that he would send this confession to the Ministry of Army in King's City by messenger hawk. He only hoped that he could receive a secret order from the Ministry of Army as soon as possible so that they could refuse to obey the unreasonable orders of the frontline command center …
It had been a day and a night since the death of Second Lieutenant Becky Milo, and First Lieutenant Giprick, who had committed suicide by biting his tongue, had just breathed his last.
Staff Sergeant Siegfried washed the two bare feet of First Lieutenant Giprick, who had been laughing all night, and put on his socks and military boots. Then, he led the goat that had been licking honey all night out of the basement where the body was placed.
Only then did Durioro use his and Claude's names to inform the frontline command of Jeprick and Bekimillo's deaths. At the same time, he had the signaller write a few copies of the announcement and sent them to the nearby corps and troops by carrier pigeon. He also told his noble associates to spread the news among the commoners. The more people who knew about it, the better.
As expected, the deaths of Jeprick and Bekimillo caused a huge uproar in the frontline command and the local troops.
The noble officers at the frontline command thought that it was a drunken prank the moment they received the news. When they confirmed that it was true, they were enraged.
After a chaotic discussion, they announced that Captain Durioro's garrison and Claude's 1st Band of 1st Ranger Tribe were rebels and were to be sent out to suppress them.
It was only then that the noble officers at the frontline command realized that they didn't have the authority to mobilize their troops.
Regardless of whether it was the garrisoned corps, the local garrison, or the garrison troops, they were not under their control unless they had a personal order from the supreme commander or an authorization document from the Ministry of the Army to instruct a combat unit to carry out a mission.
They had neither of those. Even the nobles at the frontline command wouldn't dare to order a unit to attack Squirrel Village.
This was not an issue that the noble officers in the frontline command had the final say. Instead, it involved who was the true rebel. This was a matter of life and death. Using weapons to attack one's own troops could easily be considered an act of rebellion.
Furthermore, without the eldest prince's warrant and the authorization document from the War Department, the civilian officers in the army could completely refuse to carry out the order to attack Squirrel Village given by the army's higher-ups. They could even accuse the higher-ups of having ulterior motives …
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m.