novelraw Chapter 188 : Aberdeen (5)
Chapter 188 : Aberdeen (5)
To tell the truth, there was one unresolved question about Ludwig concealing Emily’s identity and entrusting her to me.
While I had already accepted the reason for this as an ‘initial screening layer to detect the approach of external forces,’ there was a part of the method that I couldn’t quite grasp, separate from the specific reason for entrusting her to me.
“Emily Delta, was it?”
“……”
It was the sustainability of the act of concealing her identity itself.
Of course, from the perspective of Ludwig Allegro, the leader of UMC, deceiving me was not difficult.
He was a person capable of serving as a high-ranking Priest in The Order, let alone the head of a secret organization.
He was so skilled at politics – at creating pretexts and outward justifications to conceal his true intentions – that calling him an expert would be an understatement, both experientially and by his innate nature.
In fact, he had hidden his true intentions so thoroughly and crafted the external factors so well that I believe I would have been completely fooled if I hadn't possessed knowledge of Emily from my past life.
He probably undertook this because he knew his own abilities well and judged that deceiving me would not be difficult.
However.
For his plan to succeed, it was more important how well Emily herself blended into her disguised identity as ‘Emily Delta’ than how well he directly deceived me.
Even if he succeeded in slyly deceiving me, it would all be for naught if Emily herself revealed her true identity.
Given her personality as I knew it, learning to act in a short period was almost impossible.
After all, acting out a different identity in a sudden situation was a difficult task unless one was an agent of a special agency trained since childhood.
Knowing these circumstances, I couldn’t understand how Ludwig Allegro could trust her and hand her over to me.
…That’s what I thought.
“Don’t know.”
“……”
“Bored.”
However, during the process of taking Emily and returning by train, I came to understand the reason.
…There was a reason.
A reason why they could send Emily without worry.
“…Do you know how many times you’ve said that now?”
“Don’t know.”
“……”
“Bored.”
To the various light questions I threw out to start a conversation, she had already alternated between ‘Don’t know’ and ‘Bored’ dozens of times.
‘…So that’s why.’
UMC could confidently speak of her disguised identity not because they had confidence in her acting skills.
UMC had no intention of making Emily act in the first place.
It was a kind of ‘strategy of silence.’
Seeing her compulsively alternate between two answers, it seemed UMC had deliberately instructed or requested her to give such answers to any question.
Furthermore.
“I heard you know a bit about Magitek.”
“Hup.”
I brought up the word ‘Magitek,’ her field of interest and practically her entire life, wondering if she would react.
Her pupils wavered slightly, but before I could even finish my sentence, she just took a sharp breath and remained silent.
“…Haha.”
It was clear.
Rather than making her act clumsily, it seemed to be UMC’s strategy to overtly hide information by openly revealing, ‘There is information we haven’t told you.’
Of course, from a methodical standpoint, there were other ways besides directly asking.
Most commonly, there was a way to extract information by manipulating one’s mind, as was the case with Loxy.
Well, originally, extracting information forcibly was more common than digging it out by directly asking.
However.
It was unlikely that a secret organization, operated in utmost secrecy by The Order, wouldn’t have such preventative measures in place.
They probably had a device that could receive Emily’s current status in real-time, including her coordinates.
It was clear that UMC would receive feedback immediately if anything abnormal happened to her body, be it magic or anything else.
‘…As expected.’
It was a well-thought-out strategy.
From Emily’s perspective, she only needed to keep her mouth shut, so there was no particular burden.
And to begin with, Magic Engineering Technology was a highly advanced field that combined and applied the technologies of magic and engineering.
To understand it, a considerable amount of basic knowledge in those fields was required.
Unless one was a related expert well-versed in Magitek, it would be stranger for an outsider who knew nothing about it to distinguish between a promising rising star and the unprecedented, irreplaceable talent who established Magitek.
The very fact that Magitek had been established to this extent was the work of a single person, a fact that seemed utterly unbelievable if merely heard.
Even if we found Emily’s exercise of the right to remain silent unusual, the extent of our thought would only be that she was a slightly more important person than just a promising rising star; it would be difficult to logically consider her an even more incredible figure.
From UMC’s perspective, it was a sufficiently viable method.
Moreover, the field of Magitek itself was created under the full support of The Order. It was, so to speak, their backyard.
Unlike other fields, since The Order was openly pushing and tightly controlling this area, they would have already gone through several verifications using data before entrusting Emily to us.
They would also have understood that we had no related personnel or knowledge.
In summary, the conclusion was that while exercising the right to remain silent might make one think, ‘They haven’t revealed everything,’ it wouldn’t expose how important Emily truly was.
It was a brilliant and simple solution, enough to make one exclaim, ‘As expected of Ludwig Allegro!’
This way, even if I knew Emily was more important, there was no way to know how much or in what way she was important.
There was no means of acquiring additional information other than asking her directly, and Emily’s only reaction was a slight response to the word ‘Magitek.’
Furthermore, core technologies and information related to Magitek were policy-bound to not leave ‘Aberdeen,’ its birthplace.
Therefore, deep knowledge beyond the very basic level was not something even a Hero would naturally know.
‘…Well, that seems to be the plan.’
Pfft—
“…They underestimated people too much.”
No.
To be honest, saying they underestimated people was a bit unfair to Ludwig Allegro.
The flaws in a simple plan were probably compensated by thorough verification, and besides, this kind of scenario would have been in the realm of the unpredictable for them.
Who could have known?
That I had undergone Regression.
‘…If they won’t open their mouths, then I’ll just make them open their mouths.’
…Through countless human experiences in my past life, I realized one thing:
No matter how taciturn and introverted a person is, they cannot resist talking about their field of interest.
This tendency was even stronger in otaku who were obsessed with their field.
“…I’m quite interested in Magitek, so I’ve studied it a bit. But—”
Among the otaku I knew, Emily was undoubtedly at the top, an individual with extraordinary interest and affection for Magitek.
And while I couldn’t boast that I knew it well myself,
“The dynamic relationship between magnetic fields and Mana-fied Superfluid.”
“...!”
“That part was a bit difficult.”
…I could at least pretend to know.
“……”
Her eyes sparkled.
* * *
“So, Mana-fied Superfluid, in simple terms, is a peculiar state that deviates from the general states a substance can take, transformed by the entanglement and flow phenomena of Mana. The most important core concept is the gradient resistance between Mana, that is, the fluidity and viscosity of Magical Viscoelasticity…”
Extensive knowledge wasn’t necessary.
My knowledge was superficial, merely uttering shallow terms without proper understanding, but
“That property of Magical Viscoelasticity was definitely a problem registered in the Mado Millennium, wasn’t it?”
Just by interjecting a word or two when familiar terms came up, she would snort excitedly and explain things herself.
“That’s right! That was a recent development, so you know it well!”
“……”
“But what I’m interested in isn’t simply because it was listed in the Mado Millennium… The field of Magical Viscoelasticity created when combined with elastic properties still has many undiscovered parts, and I’ve been constantly delving into it recently…”
Even that knowledge was simply things she had chattered about next to me in my past life, forced into my ears from hearing them too often.
A kind of rote learning, you could say.
Fortunately, it seemed her past-life self also had an interest in the same field as this iteration, as her expression brightened more and more as she spoke.
Well.
I remembered her saying that she didn’t really have anyone to talk to during this period, so it might have been that she was simply excited to finally meet someone she could converse with.
Whatever it was, it was a good thing.
The more she excitedly explained, the less I had to say.
“So this time, I also applied it to Magical Viscoelasticity to create a device that uses the peculiar Magical effect in absolute zero conditions…”
Her continuous chatter continued.
“…You’ve brought someone else along again, Hero.”
“Oh…”
It lasted all the way until we arrived at the Guild House.
“Looks like it, doesn’t it?”
“……”
“We need to increase our guild members now, don’t we…?”
The girl, completely engrossed in a Magitek discussion, didn’t even glance at Eliya’s appearance and continued explaining the ‘profound properties of Magical Viscoelasticity’ to me.
Was Eliya already sensing something ominous from this unusual behavior?
Her expression seemed quite displeased.
“…For that, the guild hasn’t even been approved yet, Hero.”
“It’s just your imagination.”
“…What exactly is my imagination?”
“We have plenty of rooms, so putting up a guest in distress is fine, isn’t it?”
Was it because she was used to it?
Or was it because she absolutely couldn’t get used to it?
She clasped her head and shook it, muttering softly.
“…The predicament seems to be ‘me’ trying to adapt to ‘this’…”