Chapter: 165
I must find a way out.
“Brother….”
“No, it’s not that….”
I have to find a way out of here.
“Brother… why the NTR…?”
“Damn it, it’s not like that…!!”
Yet both paths led to a dead end. Completely trapped!
The Demon King Lucifer Zechneil whispered. Just admit it, admit that you’ve become a female… No one will get hurt if you admit it honestly…
“I’m, I’m the one getting hurt, so shut up!”
Then, The Existence of Infinite Emptiness, Unaris, whispered among the starlight. So, how far have you and Lulu gone…?
“Mind your own business!”
As Roderus struggled with the insidious whispers of the wicked evil organization, someone placed a hand on his shoulder. Who could it be? Turning around, he saw Oh Hye-in. Aha, has she come to save me?
As his senior magical girl and close friend, Oh Hye-in would surely provide him with answers. She spoke in a voice that seemed distant.
“It’s easier to take a hit first….”
“Oh Hye-in, you too…!!”
….
Zing!
“—Hah, wheeze.”
Roderus woke up, gasping from an uncomfortable nightmare. It was a dream full of ridiculousness.
Sitting up in bed, Roderus pressed his hand to his forehead, groaning. It was nice to see Oh Hye-in’s face even in a dream, but apart from that, it was the worst.
A week had passed since Envers returned to the House of Redburn. Through several sparring sessions, he had proven his strength, and no one looked down on him anymore.
The brothers were awkward yet trying to inspire each other, and finding irony in their attempts to persuade each other despite already being on the same team, Roderus recognized that something felt off.
It was mainly because Envers wasn’t very good with words.
“Oh, the mustache in the Duke’s portrait looks splendid today. Haha. Don’t you agree?”
….
“But suddenly, I feel the world is so vast. To think there’s a world beyond the family just outside the door is truly fascinating…”
Praising the Duke didn’t cover everything. It felt too much like he was trying to show off his loyalty rather than genuinely being loyal to Duke Redburn.
He wasn’t sure what Envers’s exact intentions were, but it seemed likely he was considering opposing the House of Redburn. In that case, he was an ally.
So Roderus subtly expressed his position, yet…
“The Venus flytrap only reveals its true nature when the odds are in its favor. Until then, it merely pretends to be an innocuous flower.”
“Do you enjoy plants or something…?”
….
Envers didn’t quite catch on, leading to some awkward moments.
It was necessary to come up with a strategy. He needed to convey his position to Envers discreetly. However, there was a significant risk in communicating inside Redburn Mansion. This was not a safe zone.
The attendants wandering around the mansion were all ears for Duke Redburn. If even a slip of the tongue reached the Duke’s ears, they would be in serious trouble…
Roderus remained vigilant about what lay beyond.
What, exactly, was Duke Maximus Redburn’s ‘Fable’?
Human hearts are strange, ever-changing, and the powers of fables know no bounds. Roderus himself had attained the extraordinary ability of ‘Magical Girl Transformation,’ after all.
If he had a fable that allowed for remote surveillance over the whole mansion, he would find himself in deep trouble. So he had to be on his toes.
Of course, once he began to be cautious about everything, it would be endless. Assuming the Duke had a fable that could, say, “kill those who lift a spoon with their left hand,” he wouldn’t be able to avoid that behavior for his whole life.
However, there was a clue that could narrow down the range of the Duke’s fable.
It lay within the bastards’ house, and within Roderus himself.
…Inefficient.
Dedicating repetitive time to instilling hatred towards wizards and teaching assassination techniques, insisting on brainwashing the family… would there be any guarantee that a high-performance fable targeting only wizards would emerge from that?
No. From the start, it was uncertain if any of the bastards would even reach the fable level.
If one could create fable soldiers just by bearing around twenty children, all nobles would have made bastards a priority!
The odds were far too slim to pin any hopes on.
Yet, the Duke of Redburn pushed ahead with his plans and ultimately succeeded. As if he had known it would happen.
From such facts, even if only vaguely, Roderus speculated: unless Duke Redburn borrowed an external force, perhaps his fable was a reconnaissance type.
A power that allows one to “know”.
Thus, he had to act as secretly as possible. Creating a false identity to operate from the outside, using clones to establish alibis and only going on dates in his female form.
He had three identities: Roderus, O Dae-su, and Magical Girl Pure Knight.
Had all that effort paid off? Roderus had regained Duke Redburn’s trust.
“…Wait, then.”
If it was fine to act as Pure Knight, then Pure Knight should meet Envers. He could relay information to his brother in female form and establish a cooperative relationship.
Thinking about it, it was a far safer method than establishing a partnership with his own body. Just in case, it could serve as an insurance policy. So…
….
I must do it.
Didn’t I vow to completely overhaul and right the direction of the House of Redburn?
No matter how daunting it felt and how my hands trembled at the thought of meeting Envers as Pure Knight, I must do it…!!
Roderus gathered his courage.
===============================================================
Recently known as ‘Blue Rose’, she traversed Crownhall, reportedly rooting out criminals beyond the boundaries of the law.
Punishing evil without distinction between commoners and nobles, those dubious nobles were fervent about eliminating Blue Rose.
However, her escape skills seemed to have reached new heights, as despite the Knights of the Capital’s captain stepping in, they frequently lost track of her. Rumor had it that Blue Rose was nearly transcendent.
And she suspiciously targeted the secret operations of the House of Redburn and struck hard.
Did she have an insider?
In the think tank of the Duke’s house, it was assessed that she must be deeply entwined with Redburn, so they meticulously searched among those who held grudges against the family, yet they had found no leads.
She seemed like a person who just dropped out of the sky.
Cluelessly suffering from their helplessness, at that very moment, the illegitimate child who had left the Duke’s house had returned. Even more so, he had attained the level of fable!
“Just in time… I’ve located a building presumed to be the Blue Rose’s hideout. Envers, go and handle this.”
“An evil that harms our family must be dealt with! I understand, brother! This Envers will cleanly resolve the Blue Rose… Why the face?”
… Don’t mind it. Just tired.
“Is it because of nighttime activities? Brother, I say again, to toy with someone already in a relationship is to invite divine wrath…”
“Get out!!”
Envers set out to deal with the Blue Rose.
===============================================================
Envers knocked on the firmly closed hideout doors and spoke politely.
“Blue Rose, I am not your enemy. I also wish to bring down Duke Redburn.”
“…How do you plan to prove that?”
“I have brought the internal structure of the Redburn mansion. One meeting won’t build trust, but, Small Slayer, I can provide internal information regularly.”
A simple exchange of words occurred through the closed door. So far, everything was going according to Roderus’s calculations.
As predicted, Envers was also aiming to topple Redburn, so if that naturally led to cooperation, all would flow smoothly.
The magical girl, Pure Knight, opened the hideout’s door.
Envers blinked in surprise as he saw the splendid girl with flowing blue hair, momentarily taken aback, before abruptly saying:
“…Are you not the Small Slayer I saw at the dessert shop?”
“…?! What? How did you know?”
Pure Knight checked her outfit, concerned that perhaps her transformation had worn off. Her hair was still bright blue, and the sparkling dress looked as if stars were dancing around her.
And it had been quite a while since the kiss mark disappeared…!!
“…How did you notice?”
“Oh, your build and movements match perfectly. From the way you move your arms, it’s clear. It seems you have a habit of twisting your elbows outward…”
With such sharp perception, why couldn’t he catch on to the Venus flytrap story!?
“Ah. So, could it be that you managed to try to target the Redburn’s secret operations by extracting information from… Roderus, brother?”
….
Wait, is that how it is?
Envers’s expression subtly shifted. He had thought Roderus was a lecher for dragging a woman with a partner into his room, but perhaps he was actually being led around by the charms of a woman while leaking family secrets!
Once, he may have been a slightly hot-tempered yet reliable brother, but how could this be…?
As Pure Knight saw her reputation and her brother’s dignity simultaneously crumbling away, she closed her eyes tightly. It felt like watching a train headed for a cliff.
Yet, there was no helping it. It was fine. Honor, honor was… worthless. For the purpose of turning the family around, she could endure this. Roderus reassured himself.
Taking a deep breath, Pure Knight continued to speak.
“Shall we formally introduce ourselves? I am Pure Knight, feel free to call me Blue Rose.”
“I am… Namgoong Cheonghui, pleased to meet you.”
“…?”
Envers introduced himself with a proud and impressive demeanor, puffing out his chest.
“I am the first disciple of the Namgoong family, Namgoong Cheonghui. I have mastered the Royal Sword Style. By the way, Namgoong is my family name, and Cheonghui is my given name.”
What in the world is he talking about?
Pure Knight’s expression turned subtly awkward. She had thought Envers was a diligent younger sibling who had finally reached the fable level through hard work, but it appeared he must have learned something strange too.
Come to think of it, his speech had changed, too. His tone was oddly grandiose for someone who had barely grown up. Was this some kind of middle school syndrome?
He used to be a nosy and sociable younger brother, but did adolescence get the better of him…?
Envers felt a strange embarrassment under Pure Knight’s scrutinizing gaze. Is this speaking mannerism peculiar to others…?
No, even if it seemed odd to others, this manner of speaking was a thread of fate connecting him to the alliances he had forged in the martial world. He shouldn’t feel shy. It’s alright to be confident. Envers reassured himself.
An unintentionally heartwarming moment passed between them.
“I believe we can cooperate.”
“I’m relieved to hear that.”
Pure Knight explained the plan to Envers. She had been making preparations for a surprise attack to locate Duke Redburn’s concealed whereabouts and read his intentions.
Thanks to Yoori Lanster, connections had been forged with the Imperial Defense Bureau.
With Kim Lulu, they could rally support from the Knights of the Capital.
And there was Roderus and Envers, who could extract internal information.
The core objective was for these three factions to strike key points, seize hidden documents, and discover what the Duke was plotting.
“The location may be elusive, but the flow of resources is clear. Following Roderus… from the extracted information, it appears there’s been bulk purchases and transportation of magic reagents.”
“Magic reagents…?”
“I hear he intends to pour all the family’s assets into this. Almost as if he thinks once this is complete, he has nothing more to worry about. A member from the Bureau was tracing the flow.”
If they could identify the endpoint—the location where the magic reagents converged…
“We will strike all at once. Until then, prepare for the operation. Gather our forces, hone our skills, and aim to diminish Redburn’s strength as much as we can.”
“I’ll agree, but… um, could you refrain from meeting Roderus for now? I’ll handle the information extraction, and I’ll take on the task of winning him over.”
…Alright.
Roderus promised to stop trying to woo Roderus to extract information.
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