Although the turmoil in the royal capital had come to an end, it left behind no small number of problems. The most serious among them was undoubtedly the grievous injury to Fuegoleon, captain of the Crimson Lion Kings. To this day, he had yet to regain consciousness.
Fortunately, the chaos had been instigated by only one attacker—Rades—and he had been swiftly defeated by Charles and Asta of the Black Bull squad.
From the mouths of the reinforcements that appeared later, everyone also learned that the mastermind behind the attack was a group called the Eye of the Midnight Sun.
By sheer luck, the assault had coincided with the annual knighting ceremony, meaning elite members of all squads were present and could mobilize quickly. As a result, the damages were minimized.
Though those elite members were temporarily transported outside the capital by spatial magic, they returned in time to prevent the Eye of the Midnight Sun's reinforcements from silencing Fuegoleon and Charles.
Of course, it was thanks to the desperate resistance of Asta, Noelle, and Leopold that the two were protected before reinforcements arrived.
While Rades—who had used his corpse magic to wreak havoc on the capital—escaped capture, Yuno of the Golden Dawn and Charmy of the Black Bulls managed to seize one member of the enemy forces.
As for why Charmy was in the capital... that glutton had secretly tagged along with Charles and the others just to mooch off some food.
When the unrest broke out, she had somehow ended up in the palace kitchens... and through a string of coincidences, managed to knock out a member of the Eye of the Midnight Sun who was attacking civilians.
Based on the report Charles gave upon regaining consciousness, it was confirmed that the true target of the attack had been the pendant Fuegoleon always wore—specifically, the magic stone embedded in it.
This was personally corroborated by the Wizard King, Julius Novachrono.
As for how he confirmed it—Julius had not appeared during the chaos because, at that very moment, he had already located and stormed the Eye of the Midnight Sun's base on his own.
Whether it was after the incident in Saussy Village or even earlier, Julius had already sensed something was amiss.
Julius, after all, was known as one of the most brilliant Wizard Kings in Clover Kingdom's history. No one knew how he did it—but he found their hideout and launched a solo raid.
God knows what kind of expression those Eye of the Midnight Sun members wore when they returned from their retreat to find the Wizard King waiting for them.
According to Asta, who was present, Julius wiped out all the mages there in just a few breaths.
Only the leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun arrived in time to rescue a few of his subordinates and take with him a stone tablet that Julius had found at the site.
In the end, Julius managed to recover Asta, who had been abducted, and captured one enemy alive.
But what truly shook the kingdom was the report Charles submitted after regaining consciousness. In it, he described how the individual who had gravely wounded Fuegoleon had revealed a face identical to that of Golden Dawn captain William Vangeance.
That distinctive facial structure could only belong to one person.
Although Charles didn't outright accuse Vangeance, the implication was clear—he was identifying him as the very attacker and leader of the Eye of the Midnight Sun.
To be honest, Charles hadn't seen the exact moment when Patri used Vangeance's face to unsettle Fuegoleon—but he didn't want to allow Patri's plan to succeed unchallenged.
Still… who would believe him?
A fresh recruit from the notorious Black Bulls accusing the beloved captain of Golden Dawn—arguably the most prestigious squad—of treason?
Between the status and reputation of the two, it was obvious who would seem more credible.
The more optimistic thinkers assumed the enemy had disguised themselves as Vangeance to rattle Fuegoleon and create an opening for a sneak attack—a move that would simultaneously tarnish the image of the kingdom's most brilliant captain. A clever two-for-one tactic.
In their view, the "Vangeance" Charles saw was merely an impostor—an illusion crafted by the enemy.
But more cynical and hostile minds went further. Some speculated that Charles, jealous of the Golden Dawn, had fabricated the accusation out of spite—that he was maliciously slandering Vangeance.
Some even claimed Fuegoleon's injury had come from Charles himself, and that he was a collaborator with the Eye of the Midnight Sun.
Ridiculous as it was, the theory gained traction—especially within the Golden Dawn.
They willfully ignored the absurdity of their own logic: how would Charles know what was under Vangeance's mask? Why would he defeat Rades if he was a traitor? Why did the Eye of the Midnight Sun try to silence him?
But between their noble and respected captain and a delinquent from a lowly squad, they chose to distrust the latter.
Had the Wizard King not intervened, some might have dragged the wounded Charles out and executed him.
In any case, no one truly believed Vangeance and Patri could be the same person. After all, their magic and grimoires were completely different.
Charles had anticipated this reaction. It was why, despite knowing the full truth, he could only submit "what he saw with his own eyes" and nothing more.
Especially after Asta used his anti-magic sword to break the memory seals on the two captured enemies and the information extracted further "proved" Vangeance's innocence.
It turned out that the real traitor had been the captain of the Purple Orcas. He had sold out the mages guarding the capital's barrier in exchange for a rare magical artifact, allowing the Eye of the Midnight Sun to infiltrate and launch their assault.
In the original story, it wasn't until the Magic Knight captains' meeting after the second encounter with the Eye that Julius had Asta lift the prisoners' memory seals.
But because of the ripple effect from Charles's report, the Wizard King had no choice but to summon Asta early.
Charles, however, knew a chilling truth: the mage tasked with reading the prisoners' memories had already been replaced by Rhydra the Fake, one of the Midnight Sun's Third Eye.
Rhydra's magic allowed him to perfectly mimic any spell he had seen.
Using transformation and illusion magic, Rhydra carefully doctored the recovered memories. Everything he showed was true—the magic stones, the Eye's goals, and the Purple Orcas captain's betrayal—but he intentionally left out Patri's identity.
It helped that neither prisoner knew much about Patri to begin with, saving Rhydra the trouble.
He didn't even falsely incriminate Charles, despite the opportunity. Likely because Patri—who had spent years inside Vangeance—understood both Julius and Yami too well.
If they'd tried to frame Charles, Yami would've believed his subordinate without hesitation, and Julius wasn't easily fooled. Worse, such a false accusation might cause Julius and Yami to question all of the presented intel.
Still, Charles had achieved his objective: he had planted the seed of doubt in the minds of both Julius and Yami.
After all, Vangeance's absence from the knighting ceremony was itself a glaring red flag.
Strangely, Vangeance never once attempted to deny the accusations. Perhaps, deep down, he wanted to be exposed—so he wouldn't have to keep suffering between loyalty and friendship.
To others, though, this only elevated his image: he was either too noble to respond to such baseless claims, or too magnanimous to punish a commoner for slander.
Either way, the royal capital's crisis had finally started to subside—but the undercurrents of darkness were growing more intense by the day.
And just as tensions mounted, Charles—now fully recovered—vanished without a trace.
No one knew where he had gone... except Yami.
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