Page 26

The more he walked, the clearer the voices he heard became. The pastry clubroom was located in a place that was far away to prevent the poor students from meeting members of the royalty while casually walking through the hallway. Something happened in the clubroom if he could hear their voices from right here.

He’d left only for a brief moment. What happened in such a short amount of time? Did an oven catch on fire?

I, thankfully, wasn’t greeted by fire as I opened the door to the clubroom. I just saw two Princes discussing while fire came out of their eyes.

“Most of the Heroes that have marked an era were Knights. I’m sure you’ve heard many tales of Heroes that have shaken up the continent with only a sword.”

“The body is limited. But the power of the mind is endless. Magic helps you develop your mind, and that’s why it’s the truth.”

After seeing Rutis and Lather’s discussion, I quickly glanced at the other members. Louise was just blinking, Erich was looking at them in silence, Ainter was smiling, and Tannian was looking at the oven while baking some cookies.

“Erich.”

I walked toward Erich and placed my hands on his shoulders. He figured out I’d approached him only after I put my hands on his shoulders and turned around and shrugged. He was someone who was trained in martial arts. How come he was so dull regarding people approaching him?

“Ah, Brother.”

“What’s going on?”

“That?”

Erich was looking at them pathetically. Ah, so they really were talking about something meaningless.

According to Erich’s explanation, Tannian had said, ‘Magic equipment is quite comfortable,’ which started this discussion.

At the Saint candidate’s pro-Magic declaration, Lather from the United Kingdom of Yuben, a country specialized in Magic, became satisfied. On the other hand, Armein was a Knight’s Kingdom, so Rutis was annoyed. That’s why there was a discussion being held between Magic vs. Sword.

‘These morons.’

Regardless of Sword or Magic, both could kill you. Considering that I struggled so much while thinking about how to protect them made me feel dumb. They were so relaxed and carefree that they fought because of things like that.

I was also feeling resentment towards Tannian. Since he was a noble priest, he wasn’t interested in discussing those damage-dealing commoners. No, was a Knight a Tanker? Anyways, he was evil. To think that he would ignite the fire and move out alone.

Now that I discovered the reason, it was time to stop the discussion. The relationship between Armein and Yuben wasn’t that good in the first place. One of the reasons being that each country specialized in a specific aspect, either Knight or Magician. Although it was a pointless discussion as of now, it could become a huge deal later on. Of course, I didn’t think that members of the royalty would be dumb enough to do that.

When I was about to tap on the table next to me and focus their attention, Louise, who’d been hearing the discussion of the two, said while tilting her head.

“Isn’t Magic better than the Sword?”

At those words, the expression of Rutis hardened, while Lather made a victorious smile. The fight that had started out of nowhere ended abruptly.

So Louise belonged to the Magic side. I never knew.

It was as if, in a short span of time, Rutis had said, ‘I don’t like Louise’s cookies,’ and ‘Unlike Louise, I prefer Knights.’ Honestly, everything happened because of his doing, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Leaving the cookie aside, not even I knew that Louise preferred Magic.

I wondered if I should console him, but he was the sort of guy who would put another flag tomorrow while smiling. So I decided to ignore him. My problem was that I get too attached to people. I’d forgotten how much trouble he’d caused me for a short while just because I’d seen a pitiful sight,

“It seems like people struggle when their personality is weak.”

The person on the other side of the communication device replied to my complaint indifferently. How rude, and at least a part of that was true.

As soon as the club’s time was over, I returned to my room and called the Information Executive Manager. I was thankful to him for sending me the information faster than I expected. Not only that, but I wanted to hear his sharp remarks, and I had more information to ask him.

Among the ones that have an Executive Manager rank, he was one of the busiest ones. So I didn’t call him while expecting to get something. I planned to send him a message after he couldn’t get the call, but surprisingly, he picked up. Was he on a break?

“Anyway, I’ve sent the Prosecutor’s Office Executive Manager the information I have until now. I will send you any extra information I get, so don’t worry.”

“Thank you. I feel like I’ve been bothering you too much.”

“Don’t worry. I’m just giving back as much as I’ve received.”

It’s true that to get a better stream of information, I ignored many things regarding him. I’d seen a few fishy things regarding the family of the Information Executive Manager but decided to ignore it. The Emperor also didn’t seem to care, as it seemed like he valued his capabilities more than his corrupt actions.

Not only that, but the problem wasn’t the Information’s Executive Manager himself, but his family members. The Information’s Executive Manager was so busy that he didn’t even have time to take a piece of the cake.

I could hear the sounds of him cracking his neck, which showed how tired he was.

“Are you doing the night shift again?”

“Just like always. I don’t care anymore.”

“That’s too bad.”

“At least I’m not in the Academy like you.”

I was feeling annoyed, but relaxed after seeing him laugh. I could see his pale face and red eyes. It’s better for the Empire if the Information’s Executive Manager can relax by making fun of me.

This was a secret I couldn’t tell anyone: But every time I felt overwhelmed by the amount of work I had as the Prosecutor’s Executive Manager, I felt relaxed while looking at the Information’s Executive Manager. Yes. At least I was in a better situation than that person.

He would probably get angry if he heard this. So this was my treasured secret.

“Ah, about those five organizations.”

“Ah, yes.”

The Information’s Executive Manager corrected his posture and looked at the communication crystal.

“Among them, be careful of the rotten corpses. Traces of them have appeared around the Academy.”

“As we’ve expected, they’re starting to act.”

“After all, aren’t they stupid enough to try to revive Apels?”

The ‘Rotten Corpses’ the Information’s Executive Manager was talking about was the ‘Third Honor.’ The place where the Academy was located used to be the capital of the Apels Empire. So they were expected to be around this place, and it was surprising how obvious their movements were.

‘So, are they the ones that are going to start it?’

It was as if the organization that would be honored to take the vanguard position was decided. I was wondering when they would appear. But knowing who they were was already a huge step ahead.

“If they get close to the Academy, we will send soldiers.”

“That’s good to hear.”

As expected. The Empire wasn’t crazy enough to ask me to stop an entire organization alone.

Right now, I was only searching for information about them, but since I had confirmed their goal was the Academy, I just had to place some traps and wait. This was something that also applied to other organizations besides Third Honor.

If they moved towards the Academy, that was a good enough excuse for the Empire’s soldiers to get involved. Although the number of soldiers in the Academy had decreased, that didn’t mean that the number of soldiers around the areas where the Academy had also decreased. They’d just move them back for a brief amount of time to be considerate to the other three countries.

I was preparing for things that might happen before the soldiers arrived, and in case they arrived, I just had to participate in investigating the scene. After all, that was the reason why I came here.

“He said that he’d send specially selected soldiers in consideration of the Prosecutor’s Executive Manager.”

“Did the Special Service Agency’s Minister say that…?”

The Information’s Executive Manager laughed. We hung up after that exchange.

Soldiers selected by the Special Service Agency’s Minister… I could more or less guess who they were talking about. I don’t know when they’d come; it’s also been a while since I last saw them.

Thankfully, the ‘Third Honor’ didn’t come right after I finished talking with the Information’s Executive Manager. I felt a bit of resentment toward myself, who was being relieved because of something so obvious.

The Third Honor would probably move all around the place to make it harder for us to track them. One might ask what the point of something like that was when their goal was obvious, but the more they moved around, the more time they would take to reach the Academy, so it wasn’t bad news.

I just had to stay in the Academy and wait for the Information’s Executive Manager to send me more information. Then I just had to welcome the people sent by the Minister of the Special Service Agency. Just with that happening, the difficulty of defending the Academy would go down from Hell to Hard or Normal.

That’s why I went to work in a more sluggish manner than usual.

“Lady Louise, did you understand what I’ve said?”

I saw Louise talking with someone in a place that few frequented. No, rather than a conversation, it looked like she was one-sidedly being hit by words.

The only problem was that Louise was talking with a female student I knew. She had long red hair and was holding a fan in her hands. Although her face couldn’t be seen, I could tell who she was based on her voice.

As I walked towards them, Louise smiled after seeing me. The red-haired student followed Louise’s eyes and also looked behind.

“Oh, Sir Carl. Long time no see.”