Chapter 12
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: 4. Motivation
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I handed Ceres over to the nearby knight order's temporary relief station.
Ceres was still in a daze, but she would be fine.
For now, just knowing she was in a safe place was enough.
Still in the knight's body, I headed straight to where Arbelia was.
She was inside a makeshift medical tent.
Two other knights were supporting her while a doctor disinfected her wounds.
"Sword Saint, please bear with it just a little longer. The poison hasn't been fully purged yet."
"I'm fine. What about the demons?"
"The knight order and mage unit are handling them. Fortunately, the demons' power has been weakening ever since the summoning ritual ended."
Arbelia's face was pale.
Bloodstains were slowly seeping through the bandage wrapped around her forearm, and her right ankle was fixed in a splint.
But Arbelia's gaze remained sharp as ever.
It looked crushed by exhaustion, yet an unyielding will burned deep within.
I walked over to where the knight order captain was. He was holding a strategy meeting in front of a map with the other officers.
"Captain, the Sword Saint's condition is stable. But she'll need time to make a full recovery."
"Thanks. And your side?"
"Survivor rescue operations are ongoing. But the damage is too extensive. Thousands of demons remain scattered across Firendel, and high-grade demons are clashing with the knight order in the central district."
The captain let out a heavy sigh.
"A demon summoning ritual, of all things. Those crazy bastards. Who would've thought they'd have the balls to pull something this audacious right in the heart of the Empire."
At that moment, the tent flap opened.
Three figures stepped inside. Perfectly tailored black suits without a single wrinkle, and expressions utterly devoid of flaws.
Agents from the Empire's Intelligence Security Bureau.
I checked the face of the man in the lead. A familiar one.
'The guy who sniffed out my presence even though he wasn't one of the toys.'
The air grew heavy in an instant.
The knights and officers around us eyed the newcomers with wary glares.
The Intelligence Security Bureau was an agency with extraordinary authority even within the Empire.
Their operations covered everything from espionage and assassination to internal surveillance and burying inconvenient truths.
"Lady Carmilla."
The lead man spoke.
"We are from the Imperial Intelligence Security Bureau. We've come here with a few questions."
Arbelia slowly raised her head.
"...What is it?"
"We'd like to discuss the demon summoning incident in Firendel. But there are too many ears here. May we relocate?"
Intelligence Security Bureau Section 3 Chief, Kyle Redford.
After his meeting with Arbelia, Kyle sat at his desk, nursing a pounding headache.
Blue Moon. Kyle knew them well.
Four young punks who had crawled out of the Empire's border trash heaps.
Ludwig Kreuz, Marcelo, Benches, Azrael.
But the Empire had never truly moved against Blue Moon. The reason was simple.
They could control them.
Attacking them outright would only scatter them into hiding, making things far more troublesome.
'As long as we knew their targets and plans, dealing with them was easy. Far more effective than mounting a full extermination force.'
But had that been a miscalculation?
Kyle clenched his fist. His predictions had gone completely off the rails.
Ludwig Kreuz.
He was the type who stuck to his lines. Even when committing crimes, he rationalized them as 'necessary evils.'
He killed, but only the bare minimum.
He wasn't the sort to leave a trail of carnage everywhere he went.
'And he knew his own position well.'
Demon summoning? Threatening the entire continent?
The old Ludwig wouldn't have dreamed of it.
It would draw attention not just from the Empire, but from other kingdoms as well.
Something had gone wrong.
He couldn't be certain, but something had fundamentally shifted after the auction house incident.
The door opened. It was his subordinate, Evan.
"Chief. Final report from the Firendel scene."
"Leave it there."
Evan placed the report on the desk. It joined a stack of others already there.
"Chief. Those are..."
Evan's gaze landed on one file in particular.
The cover read: 'Silverlane von Stella - Deceased (Palace Raid Incident)'
Evan glanced at the other documents on the desk.
'Mariam von Lorenz - Deceased (Bandit Raid Incident)'
'Edwin Blackwell - Deceased (Ship Sinking Accident)'
'Sylvia Redgrave - Deceased (Laboratory Explosion Accident)'
All figures connected to the imperial family. Or rather, formerly connected.
They had all been officially declared dead decades ago.
Evan asked cautiously.
"What... what kind of investigation is this? These people are already declared deceased."
"Nothing major. Just looking into something. Go do your job."
"Understood."
Once the door closed, Kyle opened the file again.
It contained a photo of Silverlane von Stella.
Palace raid incident. Killed in action against an archdemon.
The body had been confirmed. A state funeral held.
Kyle opened the other files.
Mariam von Lorenz. Court mage. Killed in a bandit raid.
Edwin Blackwell. Imperial advisor. Drowned in a shipwreck.
Sylvia Redgrave. Magical researcher. Died in a lab explosion.
All died in different eras, under different circumstances.
But they shared one connection.
They were all exceptionally talented, their deaths sudden, and their bodies so mangled that identification was difficult.
And—
'Their corpses all vanished.'
Accidents too clean. Deaths too convenient.
After each one, massive changes swept the Empire. Sometimes for the better, sometimes into chaos.
"Silverlane von Stella. Edwin Blackwell. Sylvia Redgrave."
Kyle leaned back in his chair, eyes closed, organizing his thoughts.
There had once been a peculiar rumor in the imperial court.
'That all of the Empire's history was shaped by the hand of a single person.'
He'd dismissed it as nonsense at first.
The Empire's history wasn't so shallow that one man could forge it alone.
'But it wasn't entirely baseless.'
There was the time the Third Prince in the line of succession vanished in a horse-riding accident.
Everyone assumed him dead, but two weeks later, he strolled back into the palace on his own two feet.
His speech had changed, his demeanor different, and he possessed knowledge the former prince never could have.
The prince had memorized 300 years of imperial law and treaties since the founding. And that wasn't all.
He'd implemented tax reforms that the previous emperor had pondered for a decade and abandoned—in just six months.
No way around it: the contents had changed.
'And the body vanished too. Coincidence?'
No. Coincidences don't repeat. That was Kyle Redford's creed.
He pulled another file from his desk. This one was a case record, not a person.
'Firendel Duchy Sword Master Mass Awakening Incident'
Kyle still remembered it well, as the ringleader had been hailed as a genius mage of his era.
The investment presentation. The man's speech from the stage was still etched in his mind.
[What is the self, exactly? Does it stem from the soul, or from memory?]
[If it's the latter, couldn't one achieve immortality by swapping bodies, as long as memories can be copied?]
The man, ultimately branded a madman and executed, had declared:
[I've decided to call this the Reincarnated Sword Master Experiment.]
A capable man.
Not many could trust their intuition and gut alone, daring to question common sense.
Most dismiss it as overthinking.
'No intention of killing him. Even if he catches on, I can just switch bodies. He's only groping at the outlines for now.'
Right now, he had other entertainment lined up.
I was doing all this just to witness scenes like this, after all.
Arbelia and Ceres were right in front of me, facing each other, about to start talking.
Ceres entered the tent. She still hadn't fully shaken off the shock.
I stood in one corner of the tent in the knight's body, watching.
Pretending to read the report in my hand, I eavesdropped on their conversation.
"Ceres. There you are. No injuries?"
Ceres opened her mouth to speak, but her throat tightened, words failing her.
After several seconds of silence, she finally managed a small voice.
"Y-yes, I'm okay. Are you alright, Lady Arbelia?"
"I'm fine too. Still alive, after all."
Arbelia tried for a faint smile, but pain twisted her face. Her broken ankle must still be throbbing.
"Lady Arbelia..."
Ceres spoke first.
"Uncle... Uncle is dead."
With those words, Ceres's shoulders shook. The tears she'd been holding back burst forth.
"He tried to save me... The mansion collapsed... And then..."
Arbelia's expression hardened.
It was the face of someone thinking, "So that mad bastard went and did it after all."