Chapter 56: Don't Try to Understand (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 56: Don't Try to Understand (1)
#1 Codename Boradori
The ant. Works hard. Again today.
Violet took a bite of a familiar chicken skewer she’d bought from a festival stall as she walked across the rooftops.
Since she had cast perception-inhibiting magic on herself, she didn't have to worry about people's gazes.
"Hmm, it should be going off right about now."
As if waiting for her words, a sudden, loud boom echoed through the Academy.
Bang!
Fireworks going off during a festival was a common sight. However, the highlight of the festival—the fireworks display—wasn't supposed to happen in broad daylight.
It was a natural phenomenon for the Academy.
In other words, it was the mark of a terrorist attack.
But.
"They really do their jobs well!"
Violet, who already knew exactly where the fireworks would go off, channeled her mana while thinking of her childhood friend and her boss, who were likely in the middle of a date.
Normally, various parts of the Academy should have been engulfed in flames by now. But currently, the firepower had been reduced to the level of mere fireworks.
Even the location was limited to just one spot.
It was the storage warehouse of Ilias, one of the continent's three major merchant guilds and the centerpiece of this particular story arc.
"I can't exactly go on a hunger strike during the Founding Day Festival."
Since ancient times, it was standard practice to cut off the enemy's supplies when facing superior numbers. The Ilias warehouse at the Academy was currently packed with even more food and supplies than usual in preparation for the festival period.
If this place burned down, the Academy would be left starving for quite a while.
Of course, if a terrorist attack occurred at the Academy, the Empire would immediately send support. However, the enemies knew this as well.
The plot of this story involved the enemies continuously intercepting Imperial reinforcements to isolate the Academy, while the protagonist's party moved to resolve the situation.
"The original work is already a mess; I'm not about to suffer for it!"
With the original plot already shattered, Violet had no intention of starving herself just to stick to the script. In fact, ever since the turning point involving Silence, she had been fully intent on changing the original story.
Thus, she began her activities without hesitation.
She suppressed the fire that started in the warehouse following the explosion with magic. She calmed the panicked employees by flaunting her connection with Hedrick. She explained the situation to Hedrick when he rushed to the scene shortly after.
After using Daisy’s name to force his cooperation, she used her knowledge of the original work, magic, and a dash of sorcery to sniff out and subdue the Revolutionary Army members hiding among the suspicious employees.
Now, once Daisy arrived...
She just had to use Hedrick’s help to capture the terrorists who had infiltrated various locations where Ilias distributed goods.
"..."
Yes, as soon as Daisy got here.
But why wasn't she coming?
...No, seriously, when is she getting here?!
"..."
"..."
"..."
Feeling the eyes of everyone around her, including Hedrick, Violet broke into a cold sweat and prayed for her childhood friend to arrive as soon as possible.
I had been worried about dragging the Pope along, but that worry quickly vanished.
"Hah!"
Thud.
With a heavy sound, an adult man sent flying into the air by Daisy’s straight punch.
"Run!"
The self-proclaimed remnants of the revolution, who had approached with ill intent, began to flee.
"O wind arrow, pierce my enemies."
Unfortunately for them, our Saintess boasted a dual—no, a triple class.
Saintess, Fist King, and Mage.
In the first place, her current major was the Magic Department.
The wind energy gathered in her hand turned into arrows and flew toward the fleeing enemies. Those struck by the merciless arrows rolled on the ground, screaming in pain.
"As expected of the Saintess!"
The Pope beside her exclaimed in admiration, his eyes sparkling.
It was certainly a cool sight, but I wasn't sure which part of that was "Saintess-like."
Well, thanks to her, I had nothing to do, so I could stay right by the Pope's side.
"Clean this up, please."
"Yes, sir."
The Imperial agents sent by Uncle Aeryun moved in and began picking up the revolutionaries.
The Empire had been working hard and rolling in the dirt in its own way, but their results weren't as good as a single "click" of a date between Daisy and me.
Uncle Aeryun had made a quick judgment. Instead of wasting effort, he attached Imperial agents to us with orders to simply collect the Dark Mages we found. These guys weren't Dark Mages, but I could still hand them over.
"Seriously, these bastards just keep popping up wherever we go."
"No, you're telling me this isn't staged? Does that even make sense?"
"You saw the process. It's not like our side is moving them. These Revolutionary Army punks just keep appearing wherever the Saintess or the Pope goes."
"You're saying this isn't a Leon conspiracy?"
"How is that possible?"
These people really seemed to think I was the mastermind.
Well, I was a normal person once, too. If something like this happened right in front of me, I would have been suspicious. If a shadow from another country, who possessed a suspiciously large amount of information, was catching Dark Mages—which I struggled to catch even one of—just by breathing, I would have arrested them on the spot.
"Then, next!"
Looking at Daisy as she announced our next destination, I slipped over to her side.
"Isn't it about time for your appointment with Violet?"
"It is, but... it feels wrong to go somewhere else at a time like this!"
She had a look on her face that asked how she could leave when the Academy was in such danger. Unfortunately, her tour of the festival with Violet wouldn't be much different in content from her date with me.
Actually, since that was the main story, there would probably be even more enemies over there.
"Don't worry and just go. Oh, but take the Pope with you."
"You're really treating me like baggage," the Pope grumbled.
Daisy scowled and asked, "Is this really what our date is supposed to be like?"
"Have you ever been on a date?"
"I told you, you're my first."
"Then this is what it's like."
A youthful romance doesn't suit a fake couple. A business-like relationship, where one works exactly as much as they are paid, is much more appropriate.
...Though I was doing significantly more work than expected.
"Seriously, you have no sense of mood."
Daisy let out a deep sigh and looked up at me with a dissatisfied expression.
"Since this one was cut short, you have to make up for it later."
"There's an extra charge for that. Is that okay?"
"Argh!"
She kicked the ground in frustration. Seeing the earth cave in from her kick, it seemed she still had plenty of energy left, thankfully.
"Good luck, then."
"...You too."
As I sent off the strangely lingering Daisy and the Pope, I followed the remaining agent to answer Uncle Aeryun's call.
For both Daisy and me, the real work was about to begin.
"Fine. Tell me the plan. I'll follow everything."
As soon as we met, Uncle Aeryun pledged absolute obedience to me.
"Is it okay for an Imperial agent to say that to an agent from another country?"
I questioned if this was right, but he replied:
"Then what else can we do? Agents care about results more than the process. You know that, right?"
In short, since they couldn't achieve anything on their own no matter how hard they tried, they were willing to do anything to resolve the incident.
"That's an excellent mindset."
People like us don't last long if our egos are too strong. It's easier to let things slide if you just think of it all as work.
Think about it.
If I didn't think of this as work, I'd just be a two-timing piece of trash. But if it's work, it becomes a mission to extract something from the Saintess and the daughter of an Imperial Duke.
"This much is basic if you want to stay in the game for a long time."
As expected of a veteran agent skilled enough to be dispatched to the Academy even at his age... though claiming to be nineteen at that age was a bit of a stretch.
"I'll tell you the secret."
And so, I decided to reveal the secret of this world to Uncle Aeryun.
"Just like that?"
Uncle Aeryun looked bewildered.
"It's not that difficult, after all."
I calmly explained the truth of this world to him. It really wasn't a difficult task, literally.
"The members of the Flower Arrangement Club. Specifically, Daisy."
At the name I mentioned, Uncle Aeryun nodded with a serious expression. After all, that group included the Prince he served.
"Right."
"If you just hang around her, everything will eventually turn up."
"...What will?"
"Everything."
He looked like he didn't understand, but I had told him the absolute truth.
Daisy was like the 'One Piece' of this world. Everything in this RoFan world was right there!
"If you didn't want to tell me, you should have just said so."
Uncle Aeryun grumbled with a distorted expression, but I felt wronged.
"I really told you everything, though?"
"You expect me to believe that?"
Honestly, if you didn't know this world was a RoFan, it would be an unbelievable story. But for people like us, proof was more important than belief.
"Follow me."
Following what I had heard from Violet beforehand, I led Uncle Aeryun around the Ilias warehouses. Then, we spotted Violet scurrying about, and by following her, we naturally found Daisy.
"What is she doing?"
Uncle Aeryun asked for an explanation, and I briefly relayed what I had heard from Violet.
"I heard they caught some bastards who were hiding in Ilias—revolutionaries, or people trying to revive an old kingdom, or something like that."
Uncle Aeryun stared blankly for a moment before shouting in horror.
"Why the hell are they in Ilias?!"
The remnants of the Revolutionary Army being part of one of the continent's three major merchant guilds... the problems arising from that would be no small matter.
But.
"Does it make sense for Dark Mages to be roaming around the Academy in broad daylight?"
"...Now that I think about it, I suppose it could happen."
Seeing him accept it so quickly made me feel a bit sorry for him.
"But for civilians to do that... to find those kinds of people... wait, what?"
Uncle Aeryun tilted his head in confusion as he watched Daisy and Violet immediately discover those in hiding and beat them down.
"W-what is this?"
It was pitiful to see him unable to comprehend, but adapting to a RoFan world always takes time.
"Don't think of it as beginner's luck. Now, watch closely. See what happens over there."
"..."
At my serious expression, Uncle Aeryun nodded and followed the RoFan party.
"No, she just tripped... and there's a magic circle made by a Dark Mage right where she fell?"
"Don't try to understand."
He was horrified by the incomprehensible coincidences.
"That part is understandable. The heir to Ilias has weak combat power, and the other two are just schoolgirls, so of course they'd attack like that!"
"Didn't you turn on the eavesdropping magic?"
"Ah, I forgot."
"Turn it on. They came knowing the opponent was Daisy."
"......Where do they get that confidence?"
As if suicide were their hobby, moths were diving into the flame that was the Saintess who had normalized the Holy Kingdom single-handedly. He frowned at the sight, but only for a moment.
"Wait, why are those bastards appearing one by one instead of all at once?"
After the revolutionaries—who were numerous but lacked proper combat training—were defeated, five Dark Mages popped out less than thirty minutes later. Uncle Aeryun kept tilting his head, his expression suggesting his common sense was collapsing.
As he watched Daisy slaughter the Dark Mages with a face that said he couldn't understand any of it, I told him the truth of this world.
"I told you. Don't try to understand."
Just feel it.
This RoFan world.