Chapter 80: Prince Maker (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 80: Prince Maker (5)
No matter how often the Academy was breached, people in positions like Erild’s knew the truth.
For every one time the Academy fell, there had been dozens of attacks that were successfully repelled.
It was to the point where one might wonder if the Empire had somehow earned the personal grudge of half the world. The Academy only fell once in a blue moon after weathering a relentless onslaught!
That was why, even when the Academy was breached, the officials in charge weren't severely punished.
They were given a few chances, and even if they blew those, the most they faced was a pay cut and a transfer to another region.
In fact, those who were transferred elsewhere performed perfectly fine.
Meanwhile, the new personnel sent to the Academy—people with stellar reputations from other regions—ended up following the exact same pattern as their predecessors.
Thus, the Imperial Family realized the truth.
The people weren't the problem.
The problem was the Academy itself!
But even after reaching that conclusion, the Imperial Family was stuck.
—"So, what can we actually do about it?"
No minister could answer the Emperor's question.
Just because the Academy was the problem didn't mean they could just close its doors.
If it were an academy only for citizens of the Empire, that might be one thing. But to flaunt the Empire's prestige, they had declared from the very beginning that they would accept anyone from across the continent, provided they met the requirements.
The current Emperor had gone even further. To make it the undisputed best academy in the world, he had taken the extreme measure of recruiting both the Sword Emperor and the former Tower Lord.
Because of that, even the royalty of Leon and Dale had enrolled.
In such a situation, could they really say, "Oh, the Academy's been getting ransacked too much lately, so we're closing down"?
The only thing the Empire could do was pour in more budget to prepare for enemy incursions and bolster the manpower.
It was in the midst of this that the incident in Rias occurred.
The people of the Imperial Family first thought, Again?
But once the detailed reports arrived, they couldn't help but be struck with horror.
Dark mages appeared so frequently now that it felt strange if they didn't show up. Even those crazy cultists who worshiped the Evil God were spotted a few times a year, given how massive the Empire's territory was.
However, demons were a different story. They hadn't been seen anywhere in the vast Empire.
Not just recently, but throughout the Empire's long, storied history.
That was why Erild—the man closest to the position of Crown Prince, and in another sense, the man closest to being the next Emperor—had been dispatched to investigate.
It was a sign of how seriously the Empire was taking this incident.
"You're saying Esid was involved in every step of the process?"
As the investigation progressed, Erild's doubts only deepened.
"I knew he was involved, but to this extent?"
From minor incidents to major events, the Imperial agents had done their best to investigate everything that happened at the Academy, which was operated under the Empire's name.
In particular, the first Academy terror incident centered around Silence had caused significant damage. Furthermore, since Silence was linked to Dale, the Imperial Intelligence Bureau had put their full strength into the investigation.
As a result, everyone in the Imperial Family knew Esid was involved.
Some praised Esid's courage for standing against the enemy without hesitation. Others criticized his foolishness for forgetting his status as a Prince and nearly getting himself taken hostage or killed.
But all of them believed that Esid hadn't actually been much help in resolving the incident.
However, the reactions of the students who were victims of the incident were different.
"The only reason the terror attack on the Academy was stopped was thanks to Prince Esid."
"And why is that?"
"Because everyone knows that's the case."
For a statement made before an Imperial Prince, it was entirely lacking in evidence.
But Erild was a man at the very forefront of the succession struggle—the most brutal battlefield in an Imperial Family rife with schemes and intrigue.
In other words, discerning whether someone was telling the truth or a lie was his specialty among specialties.
While there were occasionally people who could evade his gaze... he wasn't about to be fooled by an Academy student who hadn't even properly entered high society yet.
"..."
As far as he could see, the student before him sincerely believed that the terror attack was stopped because of Esid.
Even more so...
"Prince Esid was the one who commanded everyone during the attack."
"Did you witness this personally?"
"No? I was knocked unconscious by Silence at the time."
"Then how do you know?"
"When I woke up, I think that's what I heard..."
He wasn't the only one giving such testimony.
Students from the Swordsmanship Department who had been in safe locations and didn't have a clear grasp of the situation said the same.
Students from the Magic Department who were direct victims said the same.
Even the professors and teaching assistants called in as witnesses gave similar answers.
"It was all thanks to Prince Esid."
"If it weren't for Prince Esid, there might have been many more casualties."
"In that moment of crisis, if not for Prince Esid's precise command..."
"...?"
At this point, Erild couldn't help but be suspicious.
Either the Empire's intelligence organizations were incompetent, or Esid was an unexpectedly massive figure.
Or, perhaps, this was a conspiracy by a third party!
"..."
For now, Erild chose to trust the Intelligence Bureau.
Though they had made a few mistakes regarding the Academy, they had proven their competence in all other matters. He couldn't dismiss their abilities based on just a few failures.
If so, then either Esid had fooled even the Intelligence Bureau, or he was continuously feeding the students false information.
Whatever the case, it was no ordinary matter.
Erild decided he had to meet Esid in person.
But.
"Even you, Brother?!"
"...?"
Seeing that face full of a sense of betrayal, Erild couldn't help but tilt his head.
Is it... a trick?
If it was, the emotions felt far too intense. If this was an act, then Esid was definitely the culprit. If he was capable of such acting... then fooling the Intelligence Bureau and the Academy students wouldn't be impossible.
"No, never mind."
However, Erild decided to believe Esid.
Even if they were half-brothers, Esid's expression of being wronged was so genuine that it would be polite to fall for it at least once if it were an act.
"...In that case."
If it wasn't even Esid, then the only thing left was...
"It's a plot by the dark mages!"
"...Is that so?"
Erild couldn't help but sigh at the report that came in the moment he began to suspect them.
I had caught Daisy, but I couldn't help but have doubts.
No matter how much Daisy was a RoFan heroine and a Saintess, most of the students at the Academy were nobles or individuals talented enough to break through the status barrier.
They weren't all Swordsmanship students, so they shouldn't all be saying it was thanks to Esid as if they were brainwashed.
So, I let Daisy go and followed her to see what she was up to.
"..."
And the sight I witnessed was beyond my imagination.
"What is this?"
It was the same as before.
Like a human capybara who had even charmed the RoFan male leads, most people she encountered spoke to Daisy first.
The scary part was that this was after her image had soured and students were occasionally avoiding her.
Even so, her affinity levels seemed higher than mine, and I had been grinding favor in the Swordsmanship Department like crazy.
That was probably why Daisy's Tsukishima Operation had such a high success rate.
"But it shouldn't be this much."
Even taking that into account, the students' reactions were too intense.
If it were just one or two people, I might think they were exceptionally devout or held her in awe after seeing her "huge" power.
But seeing everyone she met believe her words implicitly, I realized something was wrong.
That was why...
"Talk."
"..."
I went to the most likely culprit, the demon, and demanded he tell me what he knew.
But as expected of a demon, he just kept his mouth shut.
"Stubborn bastard. Daisy."
"Ah, um."
"Mmmph! Mmmph!"
"Now, talk."
"..."
"This won't do. Stronger divine power!"
"Mmmph! Mmmph!"
Even while being stabbed by a magic sword and receiving a generous dose of Daisy's divine power, the demon said nothing.
Seeing him suppress even his screams, I was just beginning to think he truly lived up to being a legendary race from myth.
"By the way... just in case of an emergency, I sealed the demon's mouth."
"Ah."
Perhaps having heard the report that I had come here, Uncle Aeryun arrived after a short while. At his words, I quietly looked at the demon named Bellon.
"..."
He looked a bit sorrowful, but that was probably just my imagination.
"...Those damn dark mages."
"Those bastards sure are hardworking."
Expletives full of admiration escaped the mouths of both me and Uncle Aeryun.
The story that came out of the demon's mouth once the seal was lifted was that shocking.
These diligent and sincere dark mages had prepared a plan to increase the success rate of the cultists' operation the moment they heard about it.
It was called an Emotion Amplification Magic Circle.
Literally a massive magic circle that maximized human emotions, prepared to affect the entire Rias region.
"This is actually possible?"
Even if Rias was a remote area called a demonic land, and thus the areas where people could travel were limited, it was still a large city with strong military power and vast territory.
A magic circle that could influence the entire Rias region...
Even if dark magic was in a different league from ordinary magic, even a magic layman like me could tell that this wasn't something that could be done without extraordinary effort.
"So they intended to maximize the fear of demons to cause chaos..."
If it had been carried out alongside the demon's full resurrection, it could have caused significant damage to Rias.
The problem was that Bellon the demon failed to achieve a proper resurrection. Thus, while the magic circle was activated, its direction had shifted to "This is all thanks to Prince Esid."
"The timing is just..."
No matter how hard the dark mages worked, it was difficult to influence all of Rias.
So, the dark mages took inspiration from sorcery and placed restriction upon restriction.
Those restrictions maximized the effect by amplifying the general thoughts or common sense of the people in Rias...
But unfortunately, the thing that triggered the magic circle ended up being "It's all thanks to Esid."
"What do we do now?"
"The best way is to destroy the magic circle, but..."
The problem was that even the demon didn't know the location of the magic circle.
"Those disgustingly thorough bastards."
Because all of this was the result of the dark mages' voluntary labor!
"Don't we have any of the ones we caught who might know?"
"...I killed the lower-ranked dark mages on the spot."
Well, it was generally recommended to kill things like dark mages immediately. If they stayed alive, they'd just pull all sorts of bullshit.
"We caught a few of the fanatics, but I don't know if they'll talk."
"If we torture the demon in front of them, won't they spill everything?"
"...Even the Heresy Inquisitors of the Church wouldn't say something like that."
"The Saintess was searing him just fine, though?"
"...Haa."
Sighing at my words, Uncle Aeryun disappeared to report to his superiors for more manpower.
Not long after, he returned with a host of elite agents and his boss.
"..."
Ah, shit.
Now that I think about it, the "boss" who's here right now is...
"We meet again."
Looking at Prince Erild, who was reaching out with a smile, I had no choice but to shake his hand with a stiff expression.