novelraw Chapter 143 : Chapter 143
Chapter 143 : Chapter 143
143
A choir dispatched from the Holy Kingdom sang a solemn hymn.
When the low, heavy bass filled the entire hall, thin, delicate tones cut cleanly through the fullness of the sound.
It was like a small bird piercing a curtain of dense, somber noise.
That sound stirred the hearts of the listeners.
“……Teacher.”
“He lived a long life. Was he ninety this year?”
“Eighty-eight. After becoming a professor at fifteen, he lived as one for over seventy years.”
“He became a professor at fifteen?”
“At thirteen, he wrote a letter pointing out an error to someone who was considered a leading scholar at the time. At fourteen, his knowledge was acknowledged and he received a doctorate, and at fifteen he became the crown prince’s tutor.”
“Even hearing it again, it is an absurd achievement.”
Murmurs soaked in grief echoed from all sides.
The voices briefly swelled into a low clamor, then slowly sank back beneath the music.
I sat in my seat and watched the scene.
“Are you all right?”
Abrahal, who had come with me, asked quietly.
I nodded.
“Yes.”
“I see. Your expression is not as bad as I expected. You look as though you believed this day would come.”
He was not wrong.
When I met my teacher this time, I had asked whether he was still alive.
He had already far surpassed the average lifespan.
A man who should have been resting, yet continued to mount the podium until the very end in pursuit of scholarship.
It was almost remarkable that he had lived as long as he did.
“When I saw him this time, it felt as though he was preparing for death.”
More than anything, there had been many strange aspects to that meeting.
No matter how active he still was, it was odd for him to suddenly take the lead in organizing an Academic Exchange Conference, especially one centered on swordsmanship, a field entirely unrelated to his own.
The fact that he had left me with so many parting words was the same.
“I think he wanted to leave behind his last words.”
“Last words, hm. That is rather sweet.”
“Sweet?”
“Of course. It means that the man known as the Empire’s greatest scholar, even the Empire’s intellect itself, chose you as the one to receive his final testament. Is that not the true meaning of mastering both pen and sword?”
Abrahal smiled faintly.
“The man who pioneered Aura and opened the age of the sword, revealed to be the successor acknowledged by the Empire’s greatest scholar. It is the sort of conspiracy theory that would set many hearts ablaze.”
“……There is nothing of the sort.”
“You may think so.”
Abrahal’s gaze swept across the surroundings.
We were inside the Grand Auditorium of the Imperial Royal Academy.
Capable of holding tens of thousands of people, it was among the most beautiful and majestic structures in the history of human civilization.
The space was packed with people.
Their presence alone was dazzling.
This was the Imperial Royal Academy.
Admission was the most difficult in the world, and graduation even more so.
Those gathered here were graduates and affiliates from seventy years of its history, people directly or indirectly connected to the academy.
The pillars of the Empire—and of the world—were all present.
“They will think differently. Look even now. Those greedy eyes. They must have guessed from seeing you with me. Or they already know who you are on their own.”
The pillars of the world cast sidelong glances toward us.
Each gaze carried something different.
Hostility, greed, curiosity, desire, displeasure, possessiveness, interest, obsession, enmity, fear, affection, jealousy……
They were looks wholly unsuited to a place of mourning.
“It will be impossible to simply pay respects quietly and leave. You know that.”
“I did when I came.”
The original plan had been to visit the Lionheart Knights and quietly meet Commander Perdius.
However, once a state funeral was declared, the Lionheart Knights announced an emergency, taking charge of the capital’s defense and the Empire’s security.
Naturally, any chance of meeting the commander vanished.
“If we cannot go to them, then we will make them come to us.”
The reason a national emergency had been declared was simple.
Throughout this funeral, high-ranking figures from the Empire and across the world were gathering here.
If an incident were to occur in such a place—
Then the Lionheart Knights, the Empire’s core force, would inevitably appear.
“Are you planning to cause trouble?”
Abrahal asked with an amused tone.
I shook my head.
I had no intention of causing an incident myself.
But others would.
Just like this.
“Teacher Cassian.”
The man who approached me looked utterly ordinary at first glance.
A face one might pass on the street without a second thought, leaving no strong impression.
Compared to others who radiated authority simply by standing still, he seemed almost unremarkable.
Yet there was one distinctive feature.
A blue badge was pinned to one side of his jacket.
“I am from Blue Moon. May we have a moment of your time?”
Within the Empire existed three intelligence units.
The first was Dark Moon, tasked with uncovering corruption among imperial nobles and seizing their weaknesses.
The second was Red Moon, which conducted intelligence operations within the Empire’s vassal states.
The third was Blue Moon, a unit directly under the emperor, created to keep Dark Moon and Red Moon in check.
It was Blue Moon—the emperor’s own unit—that had come to see me.
“Blue Moon, now that is a distinguished guest.”
Abrahal whistled softly beside me.
As he said, it truly was a significant visit.
This was not a request from just anyone, but from the imperial household itself.
“May I know the reason?”
“I cannot tell you.”
“May I leave after this event concludes? I require sufficient time to mourn.”
“You must move immediately.”
“May I bring companions?”
“At present, we are extending this courteous request to you alone, Teacher Cassian.”
I calmly considered their proposal.
The answer came easily.
There was no reason to accept.
“I decline.”
“You will regret this.”
It felt like a line I had heard many times before.
And my response had never changed.
“I will not.”
Up until now, I had not regretted it even once.
This time was no different.
“Blue Moon exists to check Dark Moon and Red Moon, does it not? Every time I learn this, I find myself wondering. Why must Blue Moon restrain them at all?”
The very purpose of intelligence units was inherently unsavory.
Dark Moon investigated corruption among imperial nobles.
Yet it did not immediately expose such information.
They knew it was far more effective to hold it and release it only when necessary.
Their targets included even the Empire’s highest-ranking nobles—dukes among them.
If their information were ever turned against the Empire itself,
It would spark a revolution more dangerous than any attempted uprising.
Red Moon infiltrated the Empire’s vassal states to gather intelligence.
Inevitably, its members grew close to anti-imperial factions, and ideological contamination occurred frequently.
If they were to feed false information into the Empire or plot rebellion,
That was precisely why Blue Moon was created.
The Empire could not even fully trust those who served it.
“I could choose to entrust myself to Red Moon or Dark Moon instead.”
“I advise you in good faith. Your words are gravely hostile toward the Empire and pose a serious threat. That will not end well for you.”
“I am not so sure. That sounds less like something unfavorable to me, and more like something unfavorable to the Empire.”
I quietly closed my eyes.
For reasons I could not explain, a sound of profound stillness echoed from afar.
It was the sound of something cutting into the world itself.
Though no sound should have existed, it filled my ears, overwhelming even the music that filled the hall.
Along with a strange intuition, my heart thundered.
Thump—!
With a powerful heartbeat, the choir’s song cut off abruptly.
People murmured in confusion, and children with pale faces burst into tears.
It was a demon.
“Well, well.”
Abrahal crossed his arms, openly mocking Blue Moon, clearly entertained.
“It seems you will not have the luxury of worrying about Teacher Cassian right now.”
He was right.
This tremor had come from somewhere not far away.
The direction was…… likely the Great Forest.
And for a demon to appear near the Empire meant—
“You may take your leave. The next time you seek me out, I hope it is with a more productive and pleasant topic.”
“Busy? What do you mean—”
“You will be busy, by necessity.”
Red Moon, which Blue Moon monitored.
The colonies monitored by Red Moon.
And among them, the Great Forest.
It meant the Wolf King was on the move.
At my resolute stance, the man retreated without changing his expression.
He had taken only a few steps back, yet it became difficult to pick his face out from the crowd.
Watching it all, Abrahal smiled faintly.
“I suppose I have many things to rely on myself, but you truly are something else.”
“I also have something I rely on.”
“Your guards, perhaps? You said they were all regressors. Yet they are not at your side right now, are they?”
At the moment, only Abrahal and his guards were with me.
Pan, Rozalin, Hati, and the Spear God had all departed immediately upon arriving, citing other matters.
Under normal circumstances, I would have asked them to stay close, but given the nature of the issue, I had no choice but to let them go.
They had left to acquire new weapons.
After my victory over the Spear God, he had promised new arms, and it happened that an excellent master craftsman was in the Empire at this time, so they had all rushed off together.
“It is fine.”
What I trusted were the others who would find my absence inconvenient.
And indeed.
Not long after Blue Moon departed, another man approached me.
The people around him looked visibly surprised upon recognizing his face.
He seemed to be a well-known figure.
“I am from the Duchy of Crownhardt. The duke wishes to see you.”
“The duke himself?”
“He deeply mourns the passing of the Great Intellect. The meeting will be brief and will not take much of your time for mourning. May we ask for thirty minutes?”
“May I bring a companion?”
“The gentleman beside you is Vice Guild Master Abrahal, is he not? He is well acquainted with us as well. His Grace would be pleased if he joined.”
Their attitude was far more courteous than Blue Moon’s.
“Very well. Let us go now. Where should we head?”
“If you permit, we will escort you by carriage. His Grace will be traveling with you.”
“Let us go immediately.”
I rose quietly from my seat.
Abrahal moved as if to accompany me, but I shook my head.
The question of accompaniment had only been to gauge their reaction.
More importantly, there was something Abrahal needed to do.
“Tell Rozalin’s group to return as soon as possible, then arrange carriages. I suspect this place will soon become a battlefield.”
We had arrived comfortably, but leaving would be a race against time.
If we hesitated, we would be forced to stage a desperate escape—cutting through the Empire and the Wolf King’s forces from the Great Forest just to reach Akarind Academy.