I wondered if I misunderstood something and checked it again and again.
However, every time, the same decrypted message came out.
– “Enter the capital and save me. If you allow me to maintain the dynasty, I will be merged or become a puppet state, whatever it takes.”
It was shocking to the point where I became suspicious.
Wasn’t this all a deception?
The result confirmed through the Intelligence Agency was that it was true the capital had been under siege by allied warlords for two months.
In the meantime, a coup occurred internally, and they say even the imperial palace was seized.
Could it really be that this wasn’t all a show to lure the Imperial Army…?
“Emilia. The Intelligence Agency hasn’t told me that they’ve been compromised yet, right?”
“Yeah… Not yet from the mainland.”
“The armistice agreement still hasn’t been signed either?”
“Yeah…”
My head began to throb painfully.
So, the king of the Trud Kingdom had reached out to the enemy nation for rebellion suppression without knowing that all the intelligence resources had come over to me?
It was hard to explain all this with reason and logic, making it all very suspicious.
However, considering the situation, the conclusion only pointed to the fact that this was not a deception.
The Trud king was genuinely pleading for my help.
Willing to sell his country for it.
“Hah… To think I’ve fought for such a king until now…”
“Don’t be too hasty. It could be a trap.”
“The Trud king I know wouldn’t be clever enough to set such a trap.”
“……”
I had nothing to say.
In any case, things seemed to be looking up.
If I pushed through, rescued the king, and established a puppet government, I could bring the kingdom under imperial influence.
The problem was how to convince Aria about this operation.
Once she had fallen hard for the Trud Kingdom’s deception, she would be very cautious.
Somehow, it seemed I would have to reveal that I had taken control of the Intelligence Agency to persuade Aria.
‘I hope she doesn’t get angry…’
Having swallowed the entire enemy’s intelligence agency without even telling the Emperor, I was the second-in-command…
At this point, it could be seen that I was planning a rebellion.
But there was no other way.
I had to trust in Aria’s trust in me.
“One more thing.”
“What is it?”
At that moment, Erwin handed me another letter.
If he had two from the start, why was he attacking me in waves?
When I shot him a glare, Erwin flinched and quickly withdrew his hand.
“No, this is just… I brought it in because it was sitting in the mailbox…”
It was a letter from the prison.
The content of it was the kind of news I had long been waiting for.
*
The sandstorm lightly whipped through the slum.
Trie wandered through the streets with her nose and mouth covered in cloth.
Even with her airways completely covered, the sand quickly made her throat scratch, yet the people here didn’t seem to care, as the market remained bustling.
‘This isn’t the right place…’
She suddenly felt lost and pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket.
– “144 Ishtar Avenue”
It was a paper with an address written on it.
‘So my master is here, huh?’
Trie once had a master who taught her briefly as a child.
Back then, she thought he was just incredibly strong, but she had no idea how profound his skills were.
He never mentioned he was the head of any knight order or anything that would indicate his high status.
He always showed up in shabby clothes, drinking with her father and casually teaching Trie how to wield a sword.
As time passed, he left the empire for some reason.
Looking back now, she realized her master’s abilities were far beyond ordinary.
Even then, she felt something strange about his swordsmanship, which later became the cutting-edge style overpowering all outdated techniques.
More than ten years ago, he was ahead of the game’s swordsmanship trends.
Moreover, he seemed quite close with her father, which was suspicious.
He had hardly any friends except for his mercenary companions, yet her father would drink casually with him.
From that point alone, he was no ordinary person, but since her father was already gone, she had no one to ask about him.
Asking anyone in the household wouldn’t lead her to uncover his identity.
One day, while sorting through letters exchanged by her father, she found one that seemed to be from her old master.
The sender was left blank, but she realized it at once from the comfortable tone resembling that of a brother.
The letter said he was traveling across the continent and wrote to let her know where to send a letter if she wanted to meet him later.
That address was the very place Trie was looking for now.
“It should be around here…”
Trie turned into a narrow alley and kept looking around.
This place seemed more chaotic than even the kingdom’s old town.
After climbing some stairs, she arrived at a rundown neighborhood that smelled musty.
Several times, she doubted if she was at the right place, but remembering her master’s shabby appearance, she thought it fitting and continued searching for the address.
“Here it is.”
She finally arrived.
At the far end of the alley, an old, rotting wooden door.
There was definitely a sign bearing the number 144 slightly hanging askew.
Trie gulped nervously and knocked on the door.
*Knock! Knock! Knock!*
“……”
However, there was no sound coming from inside.
Is anyone there?
As Trie wondered, she knocked harder again—
*Knock! Crash…!*
“Eh?!”
The door broke in half.
In a moment of panic, she stomped her feet, but then thought this was basically opening the door for her, and cautiously stepped inside.
How could she return empty-handed after coming all the way to the desert?
“Hello! Is anyone there?”
Inside was a mud house, one side of which had completely collapsed.
It was a derelict place that seemed far from being someone’s home.
No, even if someone lived there, she thought it could only be a homeless person who had wandered in.
With a somehow eerie atmosphere making her shrink back, Trie kept searching inside the mud house.
“Hello…?”
As the door creaked open, the messed-up interior was revealed.
Just like before, it didn’t seem to be a place where anyone lived.
Was there really no one here?
Trie sighed deeply and decided to check behind the door in case.
“Huh?”
“……?”
There, a man was crouched down, covering his mouth with his hand.
For a moment, Trie thought she might have seen wrong and rubbed her eyes—
*SCREEEAM!*
“Eh?!”
The man screamed, and Trie was shocked and let out a scream in return.
“What on earth! Aren’t you the owner of the house? Why are you hiding here?”
“Who breaks in like that and scares me?! Are you a thief?!”
“N-No! I just accidentally—”
“There’s no one who ‘accidentally’ breaks in like that!”
“……”
Only then did Trie realize she had broken the door and intruded unlawfully.
From the homeowner’s perspective, it was quite a threatening situation.
Yet, her master, who had once taught her swordsmanship, wouldn’t have such a cowardly disposition.
“I’m so sorry. I must have come to the wrong place. I’ll cover the repair costs, so… huh?”
“What is it?”
“It seems to match, doesn’t it?”
“Match what?”
Trie, who was about to leave after a sigh, suddenly froze.
The man’s face looked familiar.
Wasn’t it strikingly similar to her memory of her master?
Yet it was hard to believe ten years had passed as his face and physique remained unchanged.
“Master! It’s me, Trie! Gawayn von Shulzenburg’s daughter!”
“Huh? Uh… I don’t really understand what you’re saying.”
“Didn’t you teach me swordsmanship a few times at my father’s request? That little kid back then is now me!”
“Oh… I must have contacted the wrong person. I have never fought or trained in swords at all.”
He was making a desperate attempt to deny it.
Trie, frustrated, immediately drew her sword and aimed it at the man’s head.
*Swish!*
“Ugh?! What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Is this the reaction of someone who’s never fought before?”
The man’s hand moved with astonishing speed, grabbing the blade.
Trie’s longsword, coming down with full force, was caught effortlessly in a casual grip as if he were holding a twig.
His reaction speed, strength, and physical ability were not that of an average person.
He had either trained his internal circuits for decades or was simply born with strength beyond that of an ordinary person, one of the two.
“Master, please teach me.”
“Please leave my house…”
“N-No, Master. I won’t leave until you agree to train me.”
“Ah! Please just leave!”
Trie then knelt right there.
The man’s desperate cries for her to leave went unheeded.
No matter what, Trie needed to grow stronger.
She had to become strong enough to protect him beyond Schlus.
“Just by looking, you seem strong enough… You know, if you talked about opponents in the Empire, aside from the monsters wandering around the imperial palace, there aren’t any, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then what’s the problem? You’re strong enough.”
“I need to be even stronger. Stronger than those monsters. But there is no one stronger than me who is willing to train me.”
She had visited every master she had previously met.
However, their skills had long been surpassed by Trie.
But those monsters like the heads of the royal guard or the best swordsman in the empire wouldn’t even bother to meet her.
In the end, she had to depend on this man.
“You want to surpass those monsters? Do you have any idea how terrifyingly ridiculous that sounds?”
“I’m well aware.”
“Then you know how rigorous their training is, right?”
“Of course.”
“If you can say you’ll endure the same process without breaking, then tell me.”
“I’m confident—”
“Think carefully. This isn’t a question to answer so easily.”
“……”
As Trie looked into the man’s gaze, she felt a surge of confidence.
This man was genuine.
She still didn’t know who he was, but he was undeniably skilled.
“I’m confident.”
“Geez… Alright, come here starting tomorrow. But don’t tell anyone you learned swords from the man living here.”
“Why not?”
“Because the Duke here really dislikes me. If found out, the police would immediately arrest me. If you want to keep training, keep your mouth shut.”
“Oh, I understand!”
Was he a wanted man?
Trie decided not to question the man’s identity anymore.
No matter who he was or what crime he committed, all that mattered was that he could make her stronger.
*
“Excellent.”
I couldn’t help but admire it.
I strained to grasp the structure of the spell laid out in front of me.
“This spell detects changes in the brain by administering substances and simultaneously observing the reactions.”
Detecting changes in the brain to read its data.
If this process is repeated infinitely, data accumulates to form information, and that information accumulates to become memory.
This extends beyond conscious memories; it also pertains to the unconscious, reading even the memories the subject has forgotten.
The empire’s interrogation techniques had reached the realm of mind reading.
“Is he dead?”
“He’s not dead, but… everyday life will now be impossible for him.”
I glanced at the now-former leader of the Asylum’s action team and turned my gaze again.
I thought I had a strong stomach, but even I couldn’t bear to watch for too long.
“Well, we managed to extract all the information from his brain, but it’s all fragmented, so gathering it will take some time. If you wait—”
“No. There’s no need. I just pieced together all the fragments.”
“Excuse me? Your Excellency?”
With everything laid out for me, all I had left to do was complete the puzzle.
Sure, there were quite a few pieces of that puzzle, but with my computational power stats exceeding 300, it wasn’t too difficult.
In an instant, all of the action team leader’s memories flowed into me.
His forgotten past memories due to brainwashing, alongside the doctrines of the Asylum that had dominated his consciousness, all came into me.
After all, being a leader meant he had astonishing amounts of valuable information.
He knew far more crucial information than the executive Relic.
“Ha…”
“Is something the matter, Your Excellency?”
“Never mind.”
As I quickly skimmed through the memories, I couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
I gained access to an astonishing amount of invaluable information.
Information that could deliver a devastating blow to the Asylum.
‘Now it’s time for retaliation.’
The days of being attacked without understanding anything were over.
It was finally time to strike back.
