Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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>Translator: Lord First
>Chapter: 49
>Chapter Title: Stalker vs. Stalker (4)
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*
The sword descended, scattering the moonlight. A powerful momentum, a flawless stance.
Excellent. Ivan nodded, deflecting the sword with his axe and catching the blade.
-Clang!
The sword, caught on the tip of the axe, lost its trajectory and fell away. Ivan picked up the blade that had been driven into the ground and inspected its condition.
“How is it?”
“This is good enough.”
“Hehe, what did I tell you? I learn fast, don't I?”
“Indeed.”
Ivan nodded and tossed the sword.
Isabelle expertly snatched the spinning blade from the air and grinned.
“How good am I, in your opinion? Compared to my father at my age.”
“Compared to Maximilian, anyone in the continent would fall short.”
Ivan let out a chuckle at Isabelle’s bold question.
He walked over to the pouting Isabelle, draped a towel over her sweat-drenched neck, and pressed down gently on her head.
“Don’t be buried in the shadows of those who walked before you.”
“Ooh, cool line! Did you come up with that, Mister?”
“No, it was something Enrique told me.”
It was what she had said to the ‘little’ Ivan who had been buried in the shadow of the former king.
It is natural to admire someone. The world is vast, and there are many remarkable people.
But trying to imitate each and every one of them would only result in a clumsy imitation.
Enrique had told Ivan, and now Ivan was telling Isabelle.
Don't be buried in the shadows of those who walked before you; take your own steps toward your own path.
“Hmm. It’s a good saying, but it doesn’t quite match my image of Professor Enrique!”
“Enrique was a serious person back then.”
“What about you, Mister? Did you only say things like ‘Hmm,’ ‘I see,’ ‘No,’ and ‘I’m busy’ back then, too?”
“Hmm…”
Back then.
Ivan stroked his chin for a moment, thinking.
“Not much has changed.”
“You’re no fun! Ugh, seriously. Did your emotions die in the war? What on earth lives inside your heart, Mister? Let me guess. An axe? A healing potion?”
“Nonsense.”
Ivan chuckled, ruffled Isabelle’s hair once, and stood up.
Ever since the incident with the practical training terror attack, Ivan had been training Isabelle every night.
Though, the cause and effect needed a bit more examination. Strictly speaking, it was Isabelle who had grabbed Ivan and asked for training.
Special training to reach the so-called ‘realm of the superhuman.’
“Alright, let’s move on to the next step. Quickly, quickly.”
“Alright.”
Isabelle sat cross-legged on the grass. She exhaled calmly and quietly closed her eyes.
“Hurry up and put your hand on me!”
“There’s no need for that anymore.”
“Come on, I’m still not used to it.”
The realm of the superhuman begins with reinforcing the nervous system by circulating mana.
To cultivate the sense of projecting mana into the neural networks of each part of the body. In the beginning, Ivan had placed his hand on her back to assist with the mana circulation.
It was an act of opening the pathways by infusing his mana, guiding hers to make it easier for her to get the feel of it.
Of course, this was the most basic of basics. Even after getting the feel of it, actually controlling it herself was a separate issue, and even if she succeeded in reinforcing her body, moving it in sync with that speed was another story entirely.
“Hnngh…”
“Close your mouth and focus on your senses.”
“But… hngh… it’s so warm…”
As Ivan infused his mana, Isabelle went limp and let out a sigh.
“Yuri’s been busy and Esidis has been busy lately, too… I wanted to relax, but I didn’t have any friends to hang out with…”
“This is not a break.”
“Yes, it is. It’s a break.”
Isabelle squinted her eyes and looked up at Ivan.
Glancing at him with mischievous eyes, she smiled slyly.
“Are you working with me right now, Mister?”
“I’m teaching.”
“I’m just going to call it relaxing. It’s time I get to hang out with you, after all.”
“I may need to reconsider the intensity of this training.”
Ivan was somewhat shocked. He was a man with a great deal of self-awareness, so he could assess that his training maintained a strict, ruthless, and demanding level.
This was considered ‘hanging out’? She truly was Maximilian’s daughter.
Ivan gave a short nod.
Watching him, Isabelle made a face as if she were looking at something incredibly pathetic, then sighed. She stretched her arms wide and stood up.
“Alright, alright. Ugh, I learned a lot today.”
“Hmm.”
“Oh, right. Mister, you’re still working as a secret agent, right? I heard something strange recently.”
“Something strange?”
“Yes! I meant to tell you. You know, Sir Dian said he saw a weird guy in front of my house a few days ago.”
“A weird guy?”
“Yes! He was just staring blankly at our house from a corner of the wall, so Dian went to see what he was up to, but he lost him.”
Ivan frowned at her words.
Dian was the guard assigned to her by the Kingdom of Tilles.
For him to lose someone right in front of him… it meant this person was no student or civilian.
“It wasn’t one of your colleagues, was it?”
“No.”
The Counter-Intelligence Command does not operate in such a manner.
“I will look into it. Don’t worry about it.”
“Well… if someone is watching the house I live in, it’s kind of hard not to worry, you know?”
“That is for me to worry about. A student should focus on her studies.”
“Uh…”
He really just hits you with lines like that sometimes.
Isabelle stared at Ivan’s back as he walked away, then let out a sigh. *Huu.*
This wasn’t easy. Really.
She chuckled and hugged the towel around her neck tightly.
*
Isabelle was being watched by someone.
It was obviously not the work of the Counter-Intelligence Command. Not only did they not operate that way, but Isabelle and the children of the Hero's Party were under Ivan’s jurisdiction.
Dmitry would never do anything to get on his bad side.
Ivan walked through the night streets, lost in thought.
-Someone, or some group, is monitoring the children of the Hero's Party.
>-One of the five Jarls of Droan attempted a bomb attack on the academy.
Was there a connection between these two incidents? The latter was clearly an attempt on Esidis’s life.
If Esidis were to be killed or injured, Great King Einar would make his move.
And Einar and his brothers were currently the most powerful military force on the Droan mainland. If they were to move, Droan would be left practically defenseless.
That was what one of the Jarls was aiming for. A scheme to overthrow the kingdom by taking advantage of Einar’s absence.
‘And Isabelle is involved in this?’
It could be an overreaction. They could be completely separate incidents.
But Ivan had a nagging feeling. And his intuition had been honed over more than twenty years of war.
‘As long as Mord is with her, Esidis is safe at night.’
Mord had finished his volunteer work at the orphanage and returned to his post as Esidis’s exclusive guard.
With him there, even if the worst were to happen, he could more than hold his own until Ivan arrived.
Therefore, he had been observing the situation with some composure after sunset.
‘I’ll have to watch Esidis during the day and Isabelle at night.’
Ivan organized his schedule and headed for the director’s office.
He hadn't expected it to be easy from the start. He had to find a culprit that the Counter-Intelligence Command hadn't been able to track for two months.
Of course, the Counter-Intelligence Command couldn’t have been fully focused on this one case, but still. It wasn’t easy for an individual to handle what a national agency's investigative power could not.
But it had always been this way.
Can it be done, or can it not? That question was not important.
For the Annihilation Squad, only one proposition was truth.
Should it be done, or not?
If it must be done, we do not hesitate. We simply accomplish it.
Ivan disarmed the booby traps set in the director's office one by one, returned to his seat, and turned on the mana lamp.
Late into the night, the sounds of organizing reports and checking ledgers continued to echo from the director's office.
*
Esidis walked across the campus grounds toward a bench.
The bench next to the Knight Division’s outdoor training field was their hideout, where she, Isabelle, and Yuri always ate lunch together.
Today was tiring, too. The classes were difficult, her peers were cold, and the world was harsh…
Esidis clutched her lunch bag tightly as she approached the bench, only to freeze in place.
“Ah, Esidis! You’re a little early today!”
“Wh-what…? What…? What is happening… right now…?”
“Oh, say hi! He’s going to eat lunch with us for a while starting today. First time meeting him, right? This is the Mister!”
Isabelle laughed brightly and slapped ‘his’ back.
“Man, it’s so hard to get a meal with you, but when I asked you to eat with me since we ran into each other today, you just agreed on the spot. Goodness. I don’t know what got into you, but thanks for gracing us with your precious presence…”
Isabelle chattered on, her spirits high. Her voice didn’t register in Esidis’s ears at all.
She stared blankly at Ivan, then turned her head to look at Yuri, who was sitting next to him.
-What is this situation?
>-I’m curious myself.
Weren’t stalkers the type of people who watched from a distance, releasing their creepy desires? Weren’t they supposed to be somewhat passive, yet full of malice?
Why was he being so bold…?
She cautiously sat down on the bench and took out her lunch box. Then she glared at Ivan, who was silently taking out his own lunch box next to Isabelle.
Bella likes him so much, and he’s trying to hit on another girl?
>And his method of seduction is… surveillance? That’s the absolute worst.
Ivan, who had been enduring Esidis’s gaze for some time, suddenly looked up.
Their eyes met for a moment, and just as Esidis was about to look down in fear.
“…?”
Something landed with a thud on top of her lunch box, where her precious chicken sandwich lay.
“What…? What is this?”
“Vegetables.”
Ivan took out more containers and distributed different meals to Isabelle and Yuri as he spoke.
“You usually only eat carbohydrates and protein… just bread and meat. It’s a diet that can easily lead to nutritional imbalance. Make sure to eat vegetables, fruits, and nuts.”
As Ivan was a delicate and considerate person, he explained it in a way that was easy for even the children of this pre-modern society to understand.
He ran an orphanage. And an orphanage was, literally, a place that took in children who had lost their parents, fed them, taught them, and raised them.
Planning meals, managing schedules for rest and study, and maximizing a child’s talents, hobbies, and potential was Ivan’s ‘main job.’
Feeling a certain kind of satisfaction, Ivan distributed lunch boxes to Yuri and Isabelle as well.
“Wow, amazing! Thanks, Mister! If I’d known, I would have prepared something, too. I’m a really good cook, you know. By any chance, what do you think of girls who are good at cooking?”
“I think that they are good at cooking.”
“I seriously want to kill you…”
Unlike the lively Isabelle, Esidis stared at Ivan with eyes full of terror.
‘He was even monitoring our daily menu…?’
*