55
Chapter 55
I finished my preparations and headed back up to the rooftop.
I wondered if he was still furious.
Just as I decided I wanted to say goodbye before leaving, the door opened and Wolf stepped out.
"What's this, Eagle? You're still here? Didn't you hear Zero tell you to leave?"
"I'm leaving anyway. But I'm going to say my goodbyes first."
"How pathetic. I think Zero is deeply disappointed in you."
"Shut it."
He had told me to leave coldly, without even glancing my way, but I knew that didn't mean Zero hated me.
"Zero mentioned he'd be away for a while too. He might have already left."
At Wolf's words, I pushed past him and opened the door, but the rooftop was already empty.
It seemed he was far angrier than I had anticipated.
I spent about five minutes wondering what to do before I decided to leave, but then a deafening blast and explosion shook the burning building.
Could he have gone to deal with the wizard who was putting out the fire?
I didn't doubt Zero's skills, but it wouldn't be easy if the opponent was a 7th Circle Wizard...
Just as I was debating whether I should go and help, Zero appeared in a flash of blue light.
"Zero!"
He was in terrible condition.
His body was riddled with holes, blood was pouring out, and he was unconscious.
His face was deathly pale.
I hurriedly cast healing magic, but it wasn't working.
That's strange.
He must have been fighting a wizard, but the symptoms looked exactly like wounds from an Aura Blade...
Could it be? Was a Sword Master lying in ambush near the wizard?
Fearing that Zero was in critical danger, I opened my subspace and pulled out a blue potion.
It was a potion Zero had given to each of the executives when I first joined.
He had told us it was incredibly difficult to make but highly effective, and that we should treat it as an extra life and use it only in dire emergencies.
Without hesitation, I opened the cap, poured it over Zero's wounds, and tilted his head back to feed him the remaining liquid.
The potion began to bubble, and the wounds that hadn't responded to magic started to close.
"Ugh..."
"Zero! Are you awake?"
"Ea... Eagle?"
"Yes, it's me."
Seeing him regain consciousness so quickly, it seemed the potion was as effective as Zero had claimed.
"You used the elixir. I told you to think of it as your extra life..."
"You're the one who gave it to me. I care about you more than my own life, so I don't regret it at all."
Zero gave a pale smile and gently stroked my hair.
"How can you smile after coming back in this state? Why did you go alone? You should have at least taken Wolf."
"At first, I only intended to see his face. Since they know what you look like, we should at least know who they are."
In the end, it was because of me...
"Eagle, it's not your fault. I simply underestimated the Beluga Intelligence Agency."
"A Sword Master was lying in ambush, wasn't he? Those wounds were from an Aura Blade."
"No. There was only one enemy."
Only one?
There was no way Zero could be defeated like this by just one person, and those were Aura Blade wounds... Wait, does that mean the 7th Class Wizard was a Sword Master?
"Wait... was the wizard who put out the fire a Sword Master?"
"Yes. It seems the Intelligence Agency has created a monster."
I had heard that such a person existed among the dukes of the Beluga Empire, but a duke wouldn't be the Director of Intelligence, nor would they act as an agent...
"Could you help Eagle walk? It'll be hard to leave the island like this, so I'll need your help."
"Yes. Leave it to me."
I helped Zero to his feet.
"Eagle, when is the next meeting?"
"It was last month, so there are two months left. Are you coming this time?"
Zero nodded weakly.
"I think we'll have to revise the original plan significantly."
* * *
A week had already passed since the fire on Creta Island.
I skipped breakfast and stopped by the school store to buy a newspaper.
773 dead, 0 injured.
Reading the paper every day since my return, I saw that the casualty count from the Creta fire had risen again.
It seemed that remains were continuing to be discovered during the recovery efforts.
Property damage wasn't exactly tallied, but it was in the tens of millions of gold.
The hardest hit was Viscount Lapierre, the viscount of Creta Island.
Despite his relatively low rank of viscount, he had been among the seven wealthiest nobles in the empire, but now he was completely ruined.
Three of the five buildings that burned down belonged to him.
Between losing the buildings and having to pay compensation to the victims, he's likely heading straight for bankruptcy.
Since the bodies were nothing but charred bones, identification was difficult and they'd likely try to keep the numbers down, but that's hard when many victims were nobles visiting Creta.
Some of them were quite high-ranking nobles.
Count Raymon Kreis.
He was the second son of Duke Marshall Kreis, and he had also died.
He had coveted my room and, when he didn't get it, he must have looked for another inn—which happened to be the one that burned.
Because he had rented out an entire floor on the top level, his identity was confirmed relatively quickly.
Even if Viscount Lapierre scrapes together every penny to avoid bankruptcy, he has no future.
Even if he was a brat, the Duke cherished him enough to inflate his military record in the Western Legion to secure his countship.
I heard he even approached the Intelligence Agency in a desperate bid to survive, but no one can stop a furious Duke except the Emperor.
The Emperor, who is more calculating than anyone, wouldn't bother helping a penniless excuse for a viscount.
To begin with, Old Man Daph isn't in a position to help anyone right now.
I managed to prevent further damage, but the White Flame appeared during the fire.
Vicious Exile was reported to the Emperor, and Daph was severely reprimanded for failing to stop such a dangerous organization from operating and committing terror on imperial soil.
In reality, it was just for show.
Aside from the reprimand, there were no other disciplinary actions or pay cuts.
After all, there's no one to replace Old Man Daph, and I had tidied things up by pretending to be an intelligence agent.
The reason Daph can't help isn't because of the reprimand.
Since so many imperial nobles were sacrificed, a special order was issued to find and eliminate all the terrorists on Creta Island, putting the Intelligence Agency on high alert.
The Vicious Exile bastards are the ones at fault, but innocent people are the ones suffering.
"Instructor? I'm finished reading."
"Alright. That's all for today. Use the rest of the time for self-study."
'Self-study again?'
'There's less than ten minutes left anyway.'
Since all the cleanup was left to the Intelligence Agency, nothing much has happened, but I haven't been able to sleep well lately.
It was the perfect chance for revenge, and it's such a shame.
I felt my final attack land, but at the same time, I saw him vanish in a flash of blue light.
Since I didn't finish him off for sure, he'll probably recover using that artifact, the Philosopher's Stone or whatever it's called.
Ark told me not to worry too much because a Philosopher's Stone isn't easy to make, and that he might actually be dead.
But I think differently.
Perhaps it's because I've always acted assuming the worst case since my active days, but my gut tells me otherwise.
I've always had a good gut feeling, and my bad premonitions have never once been wrong.
There are too many questions.
The cause of the fire... or rather, the reason they came to Creta Island.
How scum like them managed to find the ruins, and so on.
I'm driven nearly crazy because I don't know a single thing for sure.
Especially since they don't have Ark, so how on earth did they find and utilize the ruins?
According to Ark, it didn't seem like they found the ruins by mere luck.
He said creating a Philosopher's Stone would be absolutely impossible without properly interpreting and utilizing the ruins.
That means there is a descendant of the Seven Stars in Vicious Exile, just like me.
Could it be that guy Zero?
But that Eagle person used an escape stone too...
"Instructor, the bell rang."
"Right. Good job, everyone."
I was about to leave when May and Leah approached me.
"Instructor, what's happening with our cancelled practicum?"
The trainees' practicum had also been cancelled.
Even though the forest didn't burn, they couldn't conduct training on an island where a terror attack had occurred.
"It hasn't been decided yet."
There seemed to be a meeting this morning, but no conclusion had been reached.
There wasn't enough time to go back, but they couldn't just omit the practicum that replaces the midterm evaluation.
The prevailing opinion was to replace it with some form of re-testing.
Sigh, my workload just keeps growing.
After stopping by the faculty office and eating dinner, I headed to the back of the trainee dormitory as usual.
Sometimes they arrive early, but today I thought they were running late... until I felt a familiar presence behind the warehouse.
"Your Highness, you're out early."
She looked like Shine, but she was actually the Imperial Princess.
Ever since she learned disguise magic, she's been keeping Shine in the dormitory as her double and coming here looking like her.
Judging by this prank, she must have learned stealth magic yesterday.
"Ah, how did you know? I used the stealth magic I learned yesterday."
Stealth magic was the first thing I learned the moment I reached the 5th Circle.
Contrary to its name, it doesn't make you invisible; it just masks your presence to some extent.
True stealth requires not just magic but physical training... but since the princess isn't becoming a Black Agent, there's no need to explain that.
"I just have a good gut feeling."
"I guess I can't win against Instructor Bio."
She gave a bashful smile and naturally took my hand.
"Let's go."
I heard she's been receiving a lot of praise from Old Man Roy lately, and maybe that's why Princess Helena has become so much brighter.
She's learned how to play pranks and laughs much more often now.
Interlocking our fingers, I used the warp device.
With a blink, we arrived at the safehouse located near the Merdi Magic Tower.
She spent about two weeks finding it fascinating, but now she's used to it; she immediately opened her subspace and pulled out a robe.
"Instructor, I'm ready."
"Let's go."
I stepped out of the safehouse with the princess and walked toward the Merdi Magic Tower.
"Oh, right. Instructor, are the 1st Years not going back to their practicum? May was wondering a lot."
"It's not officially decided, but it'll likely be replaced by expanding the final exam range or taking the test twice."
When I stopped by the faculty office after class, Berman mentioned that the instructors would vote on two options for the 1st Year practicum tomorrow morning.
I am absolutely in favor of expanding the exam range.
Increasing the exam range would mean more work and stress for the trainees, but it's far easier for me than writing two separate exams.
"Whether it's expanding the range or having two tests, the 1st Year trainees are going to hate either option."
"It was an unavoidable cancellation, so what else can they do?"
While we chatted, we arrived at the Merdi Magic Tower.
"Your Highness, I have some business to attend to, so I'll be going now."
"Oh, alright. I'll work hard today too!"
I bowed to the brightly greeting princess and headed back the way I came.
I had turned off the lights before leaving, but the safehouse was illuminated.
He must have arrived early.
I opened the door and stepped inside to find Old Man Daph sitting there, as expected.
"You're late."
"You're just early. It's not even the appointed time yet."
He's the one who asked me to escort the princess, yet here he is, nagging me the moment I return.
"What's the status of the Creta Island investigation?"
"We're questioning everyone who was on the island at the time, but nothing is turning up."
I was slightly disappointed; that wasn't the answer I was hoping for.
Of course, I knew from my time in active service that tracking these people isn't easy, but this time the Intelligence Agency had mobilized every available resource by the Emperor's order.
"You did take the information I gave you into account, right?"
I had provided him with everything I knew, including the appearance and build of the silver-haired woman and Zero's physical description.
"Since the woman is an Avian, she might have flown to a nearby island. We're conducting searches at the port of Creta and every port in the Vermes Archipelago, but we haven't found her yet."
Hmm. Even for an Avian, flying all the way to the mainland—which takes twelve hours by boat—is impossible.
If they don't have another means of transport, there's a high probability they're still on Creta Island, or at least within the Vermes Archipelago.
"What about Viscount Lapierre?"
Three of the five buildings destroyed in the fire belonged to Viscount Lapierre.
It could have been a random stroke of bad luck, but it's also possible they targeted him due to some grudge.
"Don't even get me started on him. Viscount Lapierre is completely finished."
"Is it that serious? I saw in the newspaper that he visited the Intelligence Agency recently."
"I met him to interrogate him, but instead of giving answers, he practically clung to my legs, begging for his life."
"That bad?"
"Apparently, Duke Marshall sent him a final warning: either capture the culprit or bring his own head to the duchy. If nothing happens within a week, the Duke will come find him himself."
...As expected, Duke Marshall seems absolutely livid.
"It would be problematic if Viscount Lapierre dies before we can properly investigate."
"I agree, so I'll request the Emperor to step in and stop him. No matter how powerful Duke Marshall is, he cannot defy His Majesty's will."
"Schedule the next interrogation for a weekend or evening and let me know."
I felt it would be better to investigate the man personally.
"You're not even an active agent anymore; aren't you getting too involved? Just because he's your archnemesis?"
"Look who's talking. Shouldn't you be grateful that a retired man is helping you out for free?"
"Hmph, you always have an answer. Fine, I'll contact you separately. I'm leaving now."
"Leaving already? Let me brew you some tea before you go."
We haven't even been together for thirty minutes, yet he's in such a rush.
"Forget it. I barely managed to find time today because some people made me insanely busy, and all I get is nagging."
"You said you didn't find anything anyway."
"You little...!"
I saw the grumbling old man out and started walking toward the Merdi Magic Tower.
Huh?
As I walked slowly as usual, I sensed someone and looked back, but no one was there.
However, I could feel a presence in the alley right next to me.
I'm being followed.