Chapter: 127
“Let the second roundtable conference of the evil organization Legend of Devils commence.”
Bang, bang, bang.
Pink Balrez, dressed in a suit, pushed up her glasses as she opened the session. The participants were as follows: me, the wizard who forgot to gather intel and just enjoyed the session, and… the crazy magician (who has reached Phase 3).
Then, the purple tower master, Yuna Yurensto Violet Iris, who also forgot to gather intel and just enjoyed the session.
Followed by Yuli Lanster, an agent of the Imperial Defense Bureau, who also forgot to gather intel and just enjoyed the session.
Lastly, we had this year’s outstanding employee from Espoir de Eternal Dark.
“You bastards──!!”
“Tone.”
“You bastards──!!”
“C’mon, get your tone right!!”
Despite my mild advice, the foreigner spun around furiously like a windmill, seemingly unjustly aggrieved.
I mean, is it really such a sorrowful thing to fix one person and rehabilitate them? Is it that pitiful and regretful that I didn’t behead a fellow magical girl and throw them into despair?
How can they not know about the warm powers of love and friendship? This is why those ‘no emotion’ weirdos…
“I’m not angry because of the childish ending; you kept interfering with everything I was trying to do! I said I’d clear away as much setting as information I gathered, and I worked really hard on it…!!”
Seeing them throw such a tantrum, Pink Balrez tilted her head and asked,
“What did Eternal Dark do?”
“Oh, they tried to implant a backdoor into Roderus’ heart when Ruru died. They had some hypnotic code that turned people into puppets if you recited ten codes, so I stopped it.”
“Oh, remember when Oh Dae-su self-destructed at the end? At that moment, they tried to increase the pain by ten times the perception scale, implanting that moment’s memory to trigger later for incapacitation… a sort of mental bomb, and I wiped it.”
“UAAAAAA──!!”
The foreigner rolled around lamenting. It was a sort of complaint suggesting it was only fair to make them work after chopping off all their limbs. Seeing their pitiful state didn’t stir any pity in me…
Beep beep.
[Emotion Analysis Chart]
Betrayal Beasts: 92%
Injustice: 7%
Happiness: 1%
Masculinity: 0%
I could clearly see the turmoil in that poor thing’s mind. They might recognize the hierarchical relationship and act cute, but that’s just a weak little ‘I’ll stab you the moment I get the chance’ state. They still haven’t learned their place.
Hence, everything they did to gather information only fueled with malicious intent. If their emotions were in an unstable state, they should gather the intel then, why try to implant a backdoor for later?
It’s like a robber who, while the door is wide open, chooses to set up a trap on the window instead of grabbing cash. They were probably plotting to escape and switch bodies at the right moment or to trigger a craze when Roderus got close to take my life. Such cute little tricks!
So, it was sound judgment to preemptively block the spell sharply.
Even the tower master, who could rival in emotions, was glaring at them with steely eyes. If they were truly aggrieved and regretful, our sweet Yuna would have released them first.
“Goodness… you must have had a hard time, Eternal Dark. It gets troublesome when your superior likes to play. I can understand.”
“Ughhhh…!!”
“Come on, come here. I’ll hug you warmly.”
As Pink Balrez warmly embraced the foreigner, she subtly gestured at me.
With some signals exchanged.
– I’ll play the feeder role. Mad Magician, you keep the whip out.
– This straightforward cop-bad cop routine might be too obvious to work.
– Just go for it.
The foreigner, along with us, was a conniving little organization out to trick each other. And time was on our side.
Figuring the foreigner would work hard to snag the sharp betrayal card around the time… just like all those people who had passed through my hands, they’d end up corrupted by justice.
I took great pleasure in seeing wicked villains succumb to despair and ruin.
As I watched Pink Balrez casually stroke the foreigner’s lower back, the tower master leaned toward me and whispered.
“So, what are you really going to do…?”
“What?”
“About Redburn… Shall we just close our eyes and wipe them all out? Be warned, a dog that bites once will bite again. Redburn will do the same.”
“It’s fine. There’s no need to act recklessly.”
Yeah, it’s fine.
Again, time was on my side.
To reiterate, saying I can summon units for phases three and higher isn’t a joke.
With ideas gained from fighting Roderus and the practical data collected from the Tower of Trials, I was just about to secure a front and rear that I could summon anytime…
…as soon as I could obtain something like the Capital Knights’ powered armor.
After that, barring some ones not aligned, I was confident I could win against most. Who’s afraid when they’ve already dealt with mana dodgers?
The issue of power sources, or rather the quantity of magic, still lingered, but having the tower master nearby would help resolve that problem slowly. Even the fortress was regularly gulping down mana.
While I was beaming with confidence, the tower master gently placed her hand on my knuckle, looking concerned.
“Just so you know, the terrifying aspect of legends lies in their unpredictability.”
“Unpredictability?”
“Yeah… There’s definitely a limit to the total amount of power. But there also exist matchups that surpass that limit. It’s an extreme metaphor, but let’s say a twenty-something dude with black hair might possess unfathomable strength.”
So basically, she hinting I should be cautious of custom-made myths targeting me.
In reality, I’d been prepared for that aspect. Playing TRPGs, making friends, and expanding my connections served to thicken my defenses.
Of course, the knife tailored just for mages would easily break against a warrior, right? In such a situation, Pink Balrez would stand guard for me.
If facing individuals gets difficult, maybe worry about when the black mages will ambush me, the solution is simply to gather people and strategize.
After all, wasn’t I loosely connected to all the players?
Even though not all could be friends, with a bit of negotiation and weaving stories, we could become comrades in arms.
“By the way, I had something in mind──”
Beep beep.
The magic fax lit up. Its official name might be something like Magical Copy, but it essentially functioned as a fax.
If a forged royal decree were in circulation, it could be a disaster, but for unclassified exchanges of information, this was the way to go.
I halted my words and checked the printed text.
To summarize, it said that a girl with blue hair, appearing all flamboyant in Crownhall, has been busting criminals, and they were asking if this might be the mad magician’s doing.
“…Pink Balrez, you saw this and didn’t do anything, right?”
“Yeah, I haven’t, but…”
“So, the second prince is now shooting first and asking questions later at me whenever something strange occurs?”
“Well, truth be told, it would be justified.”
There was no denying it on my conscience.
Given how Roderus would act after the ending was a mystery, I was secretly anxious, but thankfully it seemed to be taking a favorable turn.
But about the girl’s appearance…?
I steeled myself against the rising ominous possibility and nervously broke the silence. The tower master trembled in sync.
“We didn’t send anything over to Roderus, right? Like a hologram projector or something?”
“Um, no. There was no way to since it’s all connected through dreams…”
“Is this perhaps… Roderus can’t shake the memories of the dream world?”
“…Dressing up?!”
I’ve ruined yet another life!
While it’s certainly a healthier pastime than hunting magicians, I can only hope no one finds out. Especially Ruru. Good luck, Roderus.
While I mourned the loss of another gentleman’s dignity, a lightning bolt of an idea struck my mind.
“…Wait a second.”
Ruru appears to have quite thoroughly fallen into moral corruption and likes Oh Dae-su.
In the last scene, Ruru observed Oh Dae-su’s true form.
Roderus finds Redburn detestable.
So if I pair those two up, then Capital Knights Commander Kim Ruru might just thoroughly beat up Redburn!
“This is it.”
Does gathering information even matter now? I’ve got a chance to elevate sublimation-level personnel!
Espionage is usually for the weak. If I can drop a sublimation bomb to the ground, there’ll be nothing left; though it seems like a size where one bomb won’t break it all, at least they shouldn’t be able to trick me anymore.
They’ll have to handle those waves first.
As I laid out the rough outline, Yuna, the enthusiastic supporter of the Oh Dae-su x Ruru pairing, sparkled with 120% motivation.
“We can just hook them up, right?! Just leave it to me…! I’ll make sure they meet beautifully!”
Agent Yuli Lanster of the Imperial Defense Bureau adjusted his glasses, which glimmered in response.
“Um, I also have an idea. The exact estimate will only be clear after we’ve made contact, but it seems we can work in conjunction with the Defense Bureau.”
The tower master and Pink Balrez engaged in chatter as they started constructing the details of the operation. They would ensnare Redburn with the strength of pure love.
Iliad (second prince/Imperial Defense Bureau) – Kim Ruru (Capital Knights Order) – Roderus (the informant on the inside).
The three shall counter one!
I waved the printed message in front of the foreigner who flailed around. Who was the one hounding me for information gathering? Look at this, isn’t it a beautiful overarching plot!
“Hey foreigner, look at this! We did it!!”
“You’re just showing off after catching a rat with a cow’s backward stumble!!”
“You’re supposed to react extravagantly when I write over ten characters in your backstory.”
“UAAAH, KKYYYYY!!”
In my merciless assault on the foreigner’s morale, the tower master and Pink Balrez had finished preparing for their trip to Crownhall.
“We’ll be back shortly.”
“Contact us if anything happens…!”
The two hopped into a carriage and momentarily left the Academy. All for the sake of devotion and monumental achievement.
===============================================================
For the first time in a while, I was left alone.
With Pink Balrez and the tower master gone, I almost lost track of how peaceful my office had turned. Thinking about falling asleep alone in my bed tonight already felt a bit lonely.
No, let’s think positively. There are things I can only do when I’m alone. After spending so much time stuck to Pink Balrez and the tower master.
I can say I finally got myself some freedom time alone. So then, that means…
It’s time for some secretive and personal things I can only do when no one is watching.
I stared diligently at the foreigner.
“… … …”
“W-Why are you looking at me like that?!”
“You’re going to enjoy this with me, foreigner.”
You’re about to become a transforming robot.
