novelraw Chapter 77 : Four Years Later (3)
Chapter 77 : Four Years Later (3)
Four Years Later (3)
The incident that exposed Crown Prince Orbel's true face four years ago.
His real nature as someone who brainwashed His Majesty and made a pact with a demon shocked everyone in the Empire.
As a result, diplomatic ties with the Holy Nation nearly broke down, and the internal structure of the Empire underwent massive changes.
Distrust against the demonkin soared even in the Empire. Not only the Holy Nation but also the Imperial citizens couldn't help but express their anger toward the Imperial Court.
The Emperor had to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.
First, the Imperial Court tried to erase every trace of the demonkin from within its ranks.
Fortunately, his Majesty still retained his memories from the time he was brainwashed, so he could identify and hunt down all such traces.
Particularly, all the soldiers or courtiers who had become demonkin followers under the influence of the Crown Prince had to be purged.
Of course, some managed to escape before they could be caught, but the cleanup within the Imperial Court concluded quickly.
However, this led to a significant decrease in Imperial manpower.
Even if they were demonkin followers, they still made up part of the Court's numbers.
Unfortunately, since they included key personnel, the Emperor practically abandoned all of them.
Otherwise, both foreign relations and public sentiment would have deteriorated even further.
Among them, the most outstanding were the members of Saber, known as the "shield of the royal family".
Saber was, in truth, a unit serving only the Crown Prince, but their status as the strongest force remained unchanged.
That's why the Emperor established a new force to replace them.
Whereas Saber existed solely to protect the royal family, the Emperor's new unit was meant to monitor the entire Empire.
The Imperial Secret Special Task Force.
They weren't just soldiers working under the Emperor; they were enforcers with authority equal to that of the royal family.
It's said that officers in this task force have a dragon-head tattoo inked on one arm.
That's the evidence of the Special Task Force; the officers' faces are never made public.
Since its creation, over the past four years, corruption among the nobles had dwindled significantly.
No one ever knew when or where an anonymous Special Task Force officer might be watching.
If you got caught by them, you simply had to accept your bad luck.
"Do you have anything more to say?"
For that reason, Mond, the manager of the casino, found himself unlucky.
"Don't act as if you've been wronged just because I killed your guards. You were the one who insisted on making such a big deal out of something that could've quietly blown over."
Seated on the slot machine chair, Mond listened closely to Louis's words.
Just taking responsibility for the damaged property would have been the end of it, as Louis said.
But his pride got the better of him in front of the customers, and that escalated everything.
Of course, Mond acted without knowing.
How could he have guessed Louis was one of those infamous Special Task Force officers?
"Excuse me... May I ask something...?"
"What?"
He looked barely old enough to be Mond's own child, but he couldn't underestimate him.
Knowing who he was facing, Mond spoke hesitantly.
"Why did you investigate our casino...?"
It was, in fact, the intelligence squad behind Louis who first dug around the casino's ledgers.
On that point, Mond had a right to speak.
"Haaa... I told you guys not to get caught."
Louis turned around irritably.
The three intelligence squad members behind him shrank as they realized their blunder.
But since they were already discovered, Louis got straight to the point.
"Our Special Task Force heard strange rumors about this casino. So I sent them to investigate quietly."
"What kind of rumors?"
"The rumor that demonkin, or Crown Prince Orbel, had been spotted here."
"......"
For a brief moment, Mond's face threatened to freeze, but he managed to stay calm.
His heart pounded as if struck to the core, but he spoke as if nothing was amiss.
"Our casino is, by nature, rife with scandals and slander. We're used to all sorts of weird rumors drifting around."
"So you're saying it's nonsense?"
"Yes."
The moment he heard that answer, Louis sprang to his feet.
He seemed ready to make a move, causing Mond's heart to thud even harder.
"Innocent, are you?"
"Of course."
He wanted to be afraid, but as a casino manager he had met all sorts of people.
Hiding one's true feelings before them was an essential skill, so Mond acted as if nothing was wrong.
"I see."
Louis seemed to accept his answer, and just as Mond was about to sigh in relief—
"But even if your face looks calm, it seems your heart isn't."
"... Sorry?"
With that, Louis grabbed Mond by the head and slammed it into the floor.
"Gehk!"
"Just be honest. It's not a baseless rumor, is it?"
"That's not—I mean—gah!"
Mond tried to explain, but Louis slammed his face into the ground again.
Since a beating heart reveals the change in one's mood, Louis couldn't be lied to.
With superhuman hearing, he could catch every fluctuation.
"If you keep this up, I'll be disappointed. Should I just tear apart this whole casino myself?"
At those words, cold sweat streamed down Mond's back.
On the surface, the place was a reputable casino, but the business was anything but clean.
Most relics in storage had been acquired through looting and robbery, and the money in the safe had been wrung from the local villagers through forced protection fees.
"I only want to know the truth about the rumor. That's all it takes to resolve everything."
If something like that gets exposed, the casino would be shut down on the spot by the Special Task Force.
That's why he hadn't planned to let the intelligence squad poking around leave alive.
"If I have to move in myself—"
"I'll talk!!"
In the end, not just his heart but his mouth had to tell the truth, too.
He had to beg Louis to stop.
"You should have been honest from the start."
Louis let go of Mond's head.
Finally, just as Mond was about to spill real information—
"Wait a moment before that."
"... What now?"
What kind of excuse is he going to find next?
Mond, still shaken by what just happened, nervously awaited.
"How do I—and these guys—look to you?"
It was a simple question, easy to answer.
"Well, you have blue hair and black eyes, and as for the others..."
At the same time, he wondered why Louis would ask such a thing.
****
After obtaining information from Mond, Louis withdrew from the casino with the intelligence squad.
Riding the carriage with Louis toward some destination, Alpher suddenly let out a relieved sigh.
"Thank goodness... It seems our real faces weren't exposed."
He said this while fiddling with the ring hanging from his neck.
As the Special Task Force was a secret force whose identities were unknown, they needed to conceal their appearances.
Therefore, whenever they went outside the fortress, they used a specific magitech device to change their faces.
More precisely, this device made them look like different people in the eyes of others.
That was the ring they wore around their necks.
"With this, we completed the mission undetected. You're amazing, young master!"
As Alpher praised Louis, Tyr and Haif let out similar cheers.
Louis himself didn't care for their reaction and knocked each of them on the head.
"If it weren't for me, you idiots would've failed spectacularly. You do realize this technically counts as desertion, right? When you get back, none of you will be let out for a while."
The three cheering faces quickly fell.
They had disobeyed orders to return by a certain deadline.
They were useful as intelligence operatives, but Louis had no idea what sort of punishment awaited them.
"And do you bastards deserve to call me 'young master'? If I'm the young master, that makes my father the lord, right? So which one of you was it that got Lord Seifert killed by bandits?"
"......"
None of the three had any grounds to argue.
They were accomplices in Lord Seifert's death.
"So don't disgust me by trying to latch on."
"But, young—no, squad leader. I have a question."
"What?"
Alpher gazed out the carriage window as he spoke.
"We're not headed toward the fortress, are we?"
In truth, the carriage wasn't going straight back to the fortress.
Louis had a personal stop to make first.
Ultimately, the carriage arrived at Zodiac, the city of magitech.
The moment he arrived, Louis wanted to meet the city's most important figure.
When he tried to enter the Zodiac manor, guards blocked the way, but the moment he showed the tattoo on his arm, they stepped aside.
Thanks to that, Louis easily met with the headmaster of Zodiac.
"Hello."
"Wait, are you...?"
"It's me."
Due to the magitech device that concealed his face, Ferus didn't immediately recognize Louis.
Only when Louis removed the device did Ferus greet him with delight.
"Ah, it was you."
"Are you busy?"
"No, nothing major on my schedule. What brings you here this time?"
Louis took off the ring he'd just worn and held it out.
"Can you enhance its capabilities? I'll soon have to infiltrate somewhere for a long time."
"That's not impossible."
Ferus took the disguise device and listened to Louis's explanation.
When he heard where Louis intended to infiltrate, Ferus looked quite intrigued.
"So soon I'll get to see your exemplary manners? Over there, proper deportment is a daily requirement."
"I'll try my best."
"And it happens to be a place where I have plenty of free rein. Maybe I'll be able to help."
As Louis listened, his eyes were drawn to something on the desk.
"What's this?"
It was a lens-type magitech device worn on the eye.
Louis wondered about its function, and Ferus explained.
"Come to think of it, you came at a perfect time. This is a new magitech device I wanted you to see first—none of my assistants have seen it yet."
"Is it not finished?"
"No, it's fully functional. But there's a big problem with it."
If it could be used right away, it could be announced to the Empire immediately.
Just the fact that Ferus had invented new magitech attracted much attention.
His achievements were highly regarded even in the Holy Nation.
That's why this device couldn't be revealed irresponsibly.
"Only you can use it."
Because it would be fatal—for anyone else.
****
After leaving Zodiac, Louis returned directly to the fortress.
Unlike the old Paruzan Fortress, Louis now resided at the 7th Legion Command.
Technically he was still a soldier.
But no soldier dared look down on him.
Even officers behaved like soldiers in his presence.
That was the treatment most members of the Special Task Force received.
The same was true for the squad members before him.
"Young master! Welcome back."
"You got back earlier than usual, didn't you?"
Victor and Rozen greeted him with enthusiasm.
Unlike when Louis first got dragged to the 7th Legion, this felt like home to them.
"Why'd you take so long, young master!"
"Lately all sorts of weird new recruits have been causing me hell! No matter how much we try to keep order, it's pointless!"
Of course, for Simon, who always worried, and Pram, who always complained, this still wasn't a particularly pleasant place.
But compared to living in Paruzan, it was much better.
"By the way, where's that intelligence squad you brought along?"
"I handed them off to Silia the moment we arrived. She'll sort things out."
Silia's status was higher than Louis's, so he left the aftermath to her.
With that settled, Louis asked his squad members,
"So, what's that head hanging outside the barracks door? And what's the long thing next to it?"
He had actually seen them right before entering the building.
Victor, Simon, and Rozen, remembering that, went pale and instinctively covered their lower bodies.
"Yo-young master... don't be shocked. Listen."
Victor spoke, trembling in fear.
"It's Rio... she's gone completely nuts."
"It's not the first time she's gone crazy."
Louis responded flatly, but Simon shook his head and was about to explain.
"Young master."
Just then, Rio appeared from behind, startling the three.
"You're back?"
"Yeah, I am."
Rio greeted Louis sweetly.
With just that smile, she'd seem like an ordinary girl, but as Victor said, her true nature was insane.
"Did you hang those things at the entrance?"
When had she ever acted normal?
Louis asked, and Rio nodded.
"Yeah. I cut off the heads and testicles of the maniacs who tried to assault Pram and me and hung them up."
What?
Heads and... what?
"Even after I revealed I was with the Special Task Force, they wouldn't listen. Guess they really were crazy. So I took appropriate action. Didn't I do well?"
"......"
Louis momentarily ran out of words.
She'd done this before, and she was at it again.
The last victim who lost his groin to Rio had ended up working as a maid for some noble family.
"Let's put off talking about this for now."
It was a problem too deep to tackle right then, so Louis quickly changed the subject.
Using the intel from the casino manager, he had already decided on his next destination.
Louis spoke to his squad members about that place.
"Any of you want to go to school?"
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
School arc!
But not just 1, not just 2, but 5 monsters are enrolling!
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】