“Friend, what on earth…?”
“Did I just hear that wrong?”
“Schlus?”
Aintz and Erica were giving quite the interesting reactions, just as expected.
But seeing Iris with her eyes wide open made me think it was worth surprising them.
I pulled out a token from my inner pocket and placed it on the table.
It was a metallic token shaped like a crow’s beak.
“It’s a crow’s mark, right? A souvenir?”
“No, it’s the real deal. The Intelligence Agency of the Trud Kingdom has been cooperating with me for quite a while. There are even agents currently active as crows inside.”
“Wait, wait! So you’re telling me Schlus is a spy sent down from the kingdom?”
“You’ve got it wrong, Aintz. I’m not cooperating with the Intelligence Agency; they’re cooperating with me. The very existence of the agency is already in my hands.”
“Then what’s the exact relationship with the kingdom?”
“Strictly speaking, there is none. The king of Trud doesn’t even know the agency is under my control. The ultimate goal is for the Empire and the kingdom to fully end their conflict and develop a cooperative relationship, but… that’s proving a bit difficult.”
“……”
After hearing the explanation, the expressions of the three became even blanker.
It wasn’t completely cluelessness; they understood, but couldn’t accept it.
“So, this is something His Majesty the Emperor knows about, right?”
“He doesn’t know either.”
“Hey! Then why are you telling us this first!”
“Ugh! Schlus! Are you trying to get us killed?”
The reactions were extremely intense.
But there was no need to worry.
I planned to tell Aria soon anyway.
And the security here was perfect, so unless one of them got stabbed and spilled the beans, this information wouldn’t leak.
There was no way I’d get caught for knowing confidential information that even the Emperor of the Empire didn’t!
“I mentioned before that I’m preparing for a war against the Majin.”
“Uh… I know that, but will it really happen? The Asylum folks worship the Majin as gods among themselves, yet the Majin aren’t responding at all?”
“They’ll soon have no choice but to respond. After that, the war with the Majin will break out. It absolutely will. If humanity is divided when that time comes, there’s no chance of victory.”
Right now, thanks to balance keepers like Tiltitz and Alexia, the more aggressive Majin were being held back, but after the war breaks out, it’s questionable whether those two would just sit tight.
The war will happen.
I’ve set it up that way.
The problem is, the only one who fully knows this fact is me.
Only these guys are believing my words, while asking the centuries-old fighting factions to unite against the Majin sounds ridiculous.
With no clear explanation, I need to gather reasons on the spot and guide them to unite naturally, which isn’t an easy task.
First, I managed to smooth things over between the Great Forest and the Empire through the suppression of the Southern Rebellion.
The priestess said that if I asked for help, she’d prioritize it.
But for the kingdom and the desert, it seemed I’d have to invest a lot of time, personnel, and money.
Both had been heavily burned by the Empire before…
“More importantly… Schlus.”
“What?”
“I think you mentioned something about marriage earlier. Was that a mistake?”
“Nope, you’re hearing correctly, Erica.”
“Ugh…?”
I awkwardly wrapped my arm around Emilia’s waist and pulled her closer.
Being far apart wouldn’t be very convincing.
Emilia was blushing, looking quite tense.
“I’ve promised to marry Emilia. She’s the sister of the head of the Intelligence Agency, you know. So, me and the agency are now inseparably linked.”
“I see… So, in a way it’s a political marriage? A marriage alliance? A sham marriage? Something like that, right?”
“It’s just a normal marriage out of love.”
“Gah…!”
Erica, who had been continuously munching on cookies, suddenly started coughing.
She seemed quite flustered.
Since I had formed an alliance with Lichtenburg without any marriage at all, did she feel a need for a stronger bond?
Sorry, but I still had no plans to marry Erica.
Maybe with Julia, though…
“Is the newlywed life happy, Schlus?”
“I’m not married yet, so it’s not really a newlywed life… but I’ll say I’m happy for now.”
“What about you, Emilia? How do you feel?”
“Uh, y-yes? I… I’m also happy…”
Iris kept watching me with a gentle smile.
She must’ve been hinting at something.
To absolutely not let our secret engagement be revealed.
Of course, I had no intention of publicly disclosing my relationship with Iris in front of these guys either.
Since it wasn’t even a necessary information share for our operation.
As a way to reassure her, I slightly nodded, but Iris let out a deep sigh as if frustrated.
Did I do something wrong?
“You don’t seem very happy? Schlus, are you forcing this girl into marriage or something?”
“Of course not!”
“Are you doing strange things every night?”
“That’s… ah…”
Emilia, who was about to refute urgently, fell silent.
It was as if she couldn’t bring herself to lie.
She drooped her head, and meanwhile, Erica’s face turned as red as a tomato after asking the question.
*
“That was quite a ruckus…”
“Yeah, for sure.”
After everyone left, I helped Emilia clear the table.
There were more traces of tea or cookie spills than usual today.
Especially this spot, scattered with cookie crumbs…
Anyone could tell it was where Erica had been sitting.
She kept shoving cookies in her mouth like a squirrel discovering acorns, only to cough out crumbs in surprise.
I was really glad we met outside.
“Alright, I’ll do the dishes.”
“Going back and forth is a hassle. Let’s do it together.”
“Ugh… Since when were you so thoughtful?”
“I’ve always been thoughtful.”
“Aren’t you the type that makes me manage this huge mansion all on my own?”
“Should I hire more maids? Maybe about ten of them?”
“No way. I don’t want that.”
I didn’t know what she wanted.
Emilia, who had been joking around the whole time, suddenly pouted at the mention of hiring maids and bumped her head against my shoulder.
She always complains how hard her work is, yet she hates the idea of hiring more help.
“Why? Aren’t more maids convenient? You could just give orders as the head maid and sit back.”
“Why do you think I don’t want that? Guess.”
“Is it because you can’t do things like this at home if there are people around?”
“What do you mean ‘things like this’… Huh?!”
*Rustle,* the sound of her soft skirt swishing could be heard.
Along with that, Emilia’s eyes welled up with tears as she looked shocked.
Seeing her reaction, how could I not tease her?
“Ugh… wait a second. At least when we get inside—”
*COUGH! COUGH! AHEM!*
At the awkward cough from behind, Emilia froze in place.
She instinctively pulled her hands away and turned around, only to see Erwin feigning interest in the garden while rolling his eyes.
“When did you get here?”
“Just now.”
“Who gave you permission?”
“You gave me the house keys, remember…?”
“What’s the matter? Just get to the point.”
Erwin shuttled between the Asylum and the Intelligence Agency, so the risk of getting caught was high.
I had given him the keys just in case he needed to run to my mansion during a crisis.
But it seems I should confiscate the keys and get him a safe house instead.
“They urgently wanted me to convey something from the Intelligence Agency.”
“Thanks for your efforts.”
I accepted the letter Erwin handed over.
If it was urgent, was it an update on the previous contact attempt with the kingdom?
I immediately tore open the seal and unfolded the paper right there.
It was a coded message disguised as a propaganda poster, but applied the key, and the decoded message appeared before my eyes in an instant.
“What’s this? Where’s it from?”
Emilia tiptoed behind me, trying to peek over my shoulder.
I burned the full decoded message onto the back page with light magic and showed it to Emilia.
—The King of the Trud Kingdom…
“The king sent this?!”
“Yeah.”
The letter’s identity was none other than a personal message from the king.
It had passed through the Intelligence Agency before reaching me in coded form.
Currently, the kingdom seemed quite solid on the surface.
Despite half of their territory being devastated, they weren’t subjugated by the Empire and managed to broker a ceasefire, leading to high praise.
The Empire was even bolstering its forces, afraid to get cleanly wiped out again.
But internally, the kingdom was rotting and decaying.
About 30% of the populace was dead or injured, and amid agricultural chaos, they were conscripting soldiers like crazy in preparation for a second invasion from the Empire, making normal governance impossible.
Ultimately, rebellions and coups were erupting everywhere, threatening the existence of the dynasty.
The Empire’s spies were in the kingdom too, so Aria wasn’t unaware of the situation.
However, Aria only regarded this as the kingdom deceiving spies to induce invasion and was on guard.
It was hard to believe how things were going so haywire, so she was understandably cautious.
But since I, as the original writer, knew everything, I couldn’t hesitate.
I had likely promised enticing tales to the king right now, and I was curious how he would respond.
—We’re being attacked by warlords who have surrounded the capital.
“It seems homeland is getting quite desperate if they would send messages like this.”
—The royal army is only shiny on the border. The rest are virtually useless. Just moving one Legion from the Empire would be enough to break through to the capital. Please come to my aid and allow me to sustain the dynasty, even if it means being annexed or turned into a puppet state.
“Ugh…”
A deep sigh escaped from behind.
It seemed the kingdom was even more rotten than it appeared.
