Chapter 46
Chapter 46
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Lord First
>Chapter: 46
>Chapter Title: Stalker vs. Stalker (1)
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
*
As I once recalled, the allied kingdoms each diligently foster their own intelligence organizations.
Among the twelve nations that form the allied kingdoms, the four major powers—Droan, Calion, Thiles, and Krasilov—are a bit more professional than the others.
For instance, Droan's intelligence organization is composed of worshippers of the four elements.
Water, which always knows the answer.
>Magical fire, which makes one spew the truth when burned.
>Mysterious wind, which confesses the past when hung on a pole.
>The quiet earth, which conceals all truths when buried.
Gather the love of these four elements, and you have the Droan style of intelligence organization. In truth, it just meant they dragged you in and beat the crap out of you.
The elves of the Calion Archipelago, on the other hand, preferred a much more refined approach.
As the leaders in Mind Sorcery, their espionage was remarkably sophisticated and gentle.
Their specialty was friendly information gathering, actively utilizing techniques like ‘making friends’ (brainwashing) and ‘playing pranks’ (memory manipulation).
Thiles, the kingdom of knights. If they had a question, they would ask it forthrightly. A most righteous act. Except for the fact that if you didn't answer, they would consider it an insult and initiate a trial by combat.
Meanwhile, the Annihilation Squad to which Ivan had belonged, its predecessor, ‘Enrique’s Children,’ and its successor, the Krasilov Counter-Intelligence Command, preferred surprisingly modern espionage activities.
‘Observation,’ ‘evidence collection,’ ‘signals intelligence gathering,’ ‘technical intelligence acquisition,’ ‘topographical analysis,’ ‘human intelligence network establishment’…
In other words, they engaged in orthodox espionage activities that other major powers would describe as ‘dull.’
-Ate a sandwich for lunch again today. Ingredient: chicken breast. Sauce is presumed to be mustard. Nutritional imbalance is a concern. Absence of vegetables aside from tomatoes. A more plant-based diet is recommended.
Ivan, responsible for the safety and health of the Hero’s Party’s children, took his hand off the telescope after jotting down this crucial piece of intelligence in his notebook.
ep10. Stalker vs. Stalker
The unprecedented incident of the entire Knight Faculty freshman class being confined to hospital beds brought an unexpected aftereffect.
“This can’t be real, ahhhhh!!”
The exam period was extended by a week.
If only one or two of the students supposed to take the exams had been absent, they would have been failed or given a makeup test.
But with nearly the entire faculty becoming patients with serious injuries, the department declared a one-week school closure.
It wouldn't have mattered for practical exams, but written exams were a different story. The jocks, who had never studied for an exam in their lives, gnashed their teeth in frustration.
Their targets were mainly students from Theology, Magic, Fine Arts, and Music…
Among them, it was the music students.
“Why only you guys, ahhhh!!”
>“We’re in the same College of Arts!! How can you guys be so happy, ahhh!!”
>“Ican’tbelieveitthisisn’trealitshouldn’tberealwhydoknightshavetostudyforwrittenexams?”
For the record, the Music Department also studies for written exams. Music history, form analysis, counterpoint, harmony. In fact, they have more subjects composed solely of written exams than the Knight Faculty.
Of course, such facts don't matter to a sword-wielding brute.
Those damn music students.
They suddenly start belting out a cappella among themselves in the east building (that’s vocal practice).
They casually strum their instruments while walking across campus (that’s orchestra practice).
While sound members of society toil and sweat to make a living day by day, those people can just sit on a market floor and sing to earn money! (Busking is incredibly difficult.)
“Ugh, look at you, all sweaty. Sir, you should know what a shower is before entering a diner. It’s a process where you douse your body with water, lather up thoroughly with soap, scrub every nook and cranny, and then rinse off with water again.”
>“You crazy women…!!”
During this period, such scenes could be easily found all over the university campus.
The sight of enraged Knight Faculty students and the music students who mocked them.
Who on earth thought to group the Knight Faculty and the Music Department into the same College of Arts? May they be cursed by the heavens.
Esidis was singing a song of sorrow in this chaotic era.
“Next.”
>“Crazy woman… crazy woman…”
At the outdoor gymnasium of the College of Arts.
Esidis held her Squeaky upside down, glaring menacingly at its warped fingerboard.
Behind her were her department classmates.
In front of her were the demoralized students of the Knight Faculty.
At her feet lay five corpses (not really) with parts of their heads bashed in.
This was all the result of the strongest music student in history rising valiantly for the cause of justice.
Squeaky I had sacrificed its body for a friend,
>Squeaky II had met a tragic and untimely end,
And now, here, Squeaky III was fighting to the death for her honor.
As once recalled, an instrument is a musician's life.
With the feeling of swinging her own life, Esidis was punishing the lawless ones who had dared to step foot at the main gate of the Music Department.
“That’s five from the Knight Faculty beaten down by a first-year music student!”
>“Ahahaha!”
>“Behold, you ignorant fools. For ‘music,’ when sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from ‘might’…”
>“Go back. And tell everyone… that the Music Department will now ‘reign’ over all other faculties in the College of Arts…”
There was no way upperclassmen would participate in a squabble among first-years.
The Knight Faculty upperclassmen were watching the first-years get beaten and whimper while eating popcorn, and the Music Department upperclassmen didn't have the confidence to beat the Knight Faculty first-years in the first place.
Thus, this naturally formed ‘sparring session’ was turning into a festival for the first-year students of the College of Arts. (Note: The Knight Faculty was still in its exam period.)
Since the traitors from the top of the class, like Yuri, Isabelle, and Oskar, were shamelessly ignoring this secret history to focus on their own studies, the students had only one option left.
The one who had brought the entire department to its knees with practical skills alone, without ever studying… the Heavenly Demon…!
“Go get him… get the Big Bro!!”
>“The Big Bro. Yeah… once the Big Bro shows up, you guys are finished!”
A freshman ran off somewhere, spouting lines like a third-rate street thug.
Soon, a burly, middle-aged man appeared from somewhere. It was Mord, the strongest first-year in the Knight Faculty.
“Hey, I was preparing for my next exam…”
>“Don’t lie, Big Bro!! The faculty’s honor has been dragged through the mud, so who cares about some stupid exam!”
>“What are these bastards even saying now?”
Weren't they angry because they were the only ones with exams? If exams weren't important now, then what was the reason for their anger in the first place?
The wise Droanian Huscarl instantly grasped the truth. *Ah, they just want to escape from studying and have some fun.*
When he came to his senses and looked ahead, he saw Esidis clutching a half-broken violin.
“How many months did this one last, Essie?”
>“A month, Uncle…”
>“Well done. You made it past three weeks, at least.”
Mord nodded readily and turned around.
“I forfeit. I lose. Ah, the Music Department is too strong. Just as expected of Sir Einar’s daughter.”
>“My god… are blood ties more important than school ties, Big Bro…? What about the Knight Faculty’s honor!?”
>“For the record, Essie and I don’t have blood ties. We have regional ties.”
>“Droan… I won’t forget this…!!”
>“Stop talking nonsense and go study for your exams, you idiots.”
>“From this day forward, you are no longer my Big Bro, ahhhhh!!”
The day’s commotion finally ended after a noble’s son from Thiles ran off toward the main faculty building in tears.
Ivan, who had been quietly watching the scene from behind a tree, picked up his pen and amended his notes.
-Esidis. Percussion instruments suit her better than string instruments.
*
*Oh, shoot. I shouldn’t be doing this!!*
Esidis was startled. She had become so engrossed in the commotion that she had forgotten her duty.
Of course, her duty was to be a student. But Esidis Einarsdottir, a first-year in the orchestra department, and Esidis, ‘Isabelle’s friend,’ had to be two completely different people.
This was a time that called not for an ordinary music student, but for a warrior armed with righteousness and camaraderie.
Squeaky had also had its fill of blood.
Esidis steeled her resolve and started walking. To find the cunning villain lurking somewhere on this campus.
To uncover his intentions and punish his sins.
Her father, too, would surely support her righteous might.
*
To emphasize once more, Ivan was a thoroughly harmless and ordinary-looking staff member.
He was, after all, a master of concealment, infiltration, and special operations. This meant that if he wanted to feign normalcy, he could become more normal than anyone else.
But such advanced infiltration techniques weren't necessary. He fundamentally had an unremarkable appearance, the kind that was easily forgotten after a passing glance.
“Hic…!”
A student from the Magic Faculty let out a yelp and fled from Ivan’s sight.
Ivan was currently hanging from the top of a tree with one hand, concealed behind a shadow, so the student who spotted him deserved praise for his sharp eyes.
Of course, Ivan had memorized the personal details of everyone on campus, so he recognized the fleeing young man as the student who had once littered a cigarette butt, and to whom he had bestowed the gift of a ‘no-smoking clinic.’
*A shy student,* he thought.
Such is the fresh-faced nature of a university student. Ivan nodded expressionlessly and shifted his gaze.
Elfihera.
Veolgrin’s daughter.
The top student of the Magic Faculty’s first-years, a genius who had set a new record for the highest score in the entire faculty during the entrance practical exams.
He narrowed his eyes, looked at Elfihera, and picked up his notebook.
-Social relationships are not smooth, aside from a few followers. Takes after her father.
He had been writing the profile with nothing but sincerity and no ill will for some time.
“Hm.”
Ivan felt a gaze and turned his head.
*
“…It wasn’t just Bella…”
The thought struck her that Isabelle, and perhaps even Enrique, might not have been this man’s only ‘prey.’
The terror of this predator, ‘observing’ someone from a distance and searching for ‘weaknesses,’ weighed down on her.
The protagonist of the rumor who had sent all fifty Knight Faculty freshmen to the theology department’s intensive care unit, the mad cigarette butt collector, the nightmare behind the tree, the bearded fiend… the man with handsome eyes (this was Isabelle’s opinion)…
Esidis, who was getting closer to the terrible truth with every piece of gossip she collected about the ‘gardener,’ was observing Ivan from within the bushes.
The sight of the fiend hanging from a tree, writing notes while watching someone from the Magic Faculty.
“A stalker…”
She became a stalker stalking the academy stalker.
*