The Answer Is a Shameless Head-On Breakthrough
I maintained the mindset of a perfectly cool, composed, and crystal-clear mirror-still lake as I carefully retraced my every action. Alright, what exactly had I done up until a moment ago? Sure, I hadn’t known her identity, but I had chased after the princess. First up: the crime of stalking. Still, it couldn’t exactly be called stalking with malicious intent to harm, so maybe that part could be overlooked. And then?
I had ambushed the princess from behind while she was trying to do something, hit her with a shoulder tackle, slammed her onto the ground, and pinned her down with my knee. Assault and battery against a member of the imperial family. Plus, since I had actually injured her, the stalking charge definitely wouldn’t get any leniency!
“......”
Clang! The sound of my crystal-clear mindset shattering echoed in my head as cold sweat poured down my body like rain. Every single thing I’d done was a capital offense. How the hell was I supposed to get out of this mess?
“P-Princess? What a load of crap! Where do you get off spouting such obvious lies! You people… w-what were you trying to do with that Coordinate Transmission Terminal just now? Who were you planning to call here? What exactly were you going to do to this city? Tell me the truth, now!”
I was crying on the inside but pushed forward with my ridiculous act anyway. Yes, stay calm! If you thought about it, I had spent my entire life on Mount Ksir, so of course I wouldn’t recognize the princess’s face! Besides, the vast majority of people living in this city had never seen her face either! My actions could still be spun as an unfortunate accident born from good intentions rather than a deliberate attack on royalty!
When I started spewing nonsense, Serena thrashed beneath me with a completely dumbfounded look on her face.
“What kind of ridiculous nonsense are you— You bastard, the fact that you were waiting here to ambush me proves you’re that man’s accomplice! I destroyed the terminal first because I knew you were trying to wipe out our hiding place!”
Even as she struggled, Serena refused to lose her dignity. She glared at me with a noble, almost haughty expression that practically dared me to kill her if I wanted to.
“Go on, then! If you’re going to kill me, do it! Show my head to your master! Did you think I hadn’t predicted this might happen!? The moment I die, every piece of information I’ve uncovered so far will be delivered to the entire imperial family! No matter how much your master denies it, it won’t matter! You’re all going down with me!”
Since I knew the game’s plot, I could immediately guess who Serena meant by “your master.” But if I said the wrong thing here, the current situation would look like child’s play compared to the UFC-level beating I’d receive, so I kept my mouth shut about anything like who are you calling master?
Instead…
“Perhaps… you’re not saying you’re not a spy sent from another country to commit acts of sabotage against this nation and city?”
Serena’s face twisted into an expression of utter disbelief and displeasure.
“What…? A spy? You’re treating me like some foreign agent? What kind of—! Kgh, let go of me!”
Now even angrier, Serena thrashed far more violently than before. To clear away any suspicion that I might be an enemy, I continued playing dumb.
“No, I saw you openly casting Recognition-Obstruction Magic, covering your face with cloth, and sneaking off to deserted places while glancing around nervously. Of course I assumed you were a foreign operative…”
“What…? No, that shouldn’t have been noticeable… I prepared everything so carefully…”
Serena had just admitted to walking around under Recognition-Obstruction Magic. I seized the opening, cut her off with a loud scoff, and immediately started laying into her.
“Then why were you going around doing things that would obviously make people suspicious?! To normal people the magic might have kept them from noticing, but to someone like me who can sense that kind of thing, it’s only natural to get suspicious!”
“But that’s—”
Objection overruled! I cut off Serena’s excuse and kept pressing her.
“If it had just been you, maybe I could have let it slide! But now I see those two over there are also under the same magic and seem pretty strong. Anyone would assume they were spies! What kind of nonsense is this—attacking a brave citizen who risked his life to stop a large-scale terrorist attack?! And what’s this about being a princess? Stop impersonating royalty! What kind of princess would wander around in broad daylight wearing suspicious disguises and roaming empty back alleys? You should consider yourself lucky I was the one who heard that. If the real princess had heard you, you’d lose your head, understand?”
Good. That should have been enough smoke to cover my tracks. I had successfully portrayed myself as an exemplary citizen acting out of a pure sense of justice rather than a suspicious character. Time to start extracting myself from this situation.
I grabbed Serena’s hand and helped her up, then turned my attention to the two fallen guards.
“Ahem… Anyway, it seems we’ve both had an unfortunate misunderstanding. Let’s just call it even and move on.”
“What? You think you can just dismiss all this with one word—misunderstanding—?”
“Ah, these injured people? I’ll provide emergency treatment. Just wait a moment.”
I approached the fallen guards and examined their condition. They had lost a massive amount of mana after blocking that lightning-wrapped aura, so very little remained in their bodies.
Hmm. I’ve only ever tested this on monsters. Never on people, but…
I closed my eyes for a moment and drew in the infinite mana floating in the air around me. Compared to Mount Ksir, the density and purity were pathetically low, but ordinary people lived in environments like this anyway, so there shouldn’t be any problems.
I carefully separated “my mana” from the “naturally absorbed mana” inside my body, then placed my hands on the injured guards’ chests. I could perfectly sense the shape of the mana circuits constructed within them. I could tell exactly which parts were damaged and where I needed to restore them.
Like giving a blood transfusion, I channeled the natural mana circulating through my body directly into the guards. Absorb mana from nature into myself, then transfuse that same mana into them. Since natural mana was an infinite resource, I didn’t have to worry about running out. I just needed to keep going until they showed signs of recovery.
After transfusing natural mana for a while, it melted into their bodies, repairing the damaged mana circuits and replenishing their depleted mana. The two men’s complexions visibly improved.
This was the result of countless experiments I had conducted while developing my own techniques on Mount Ksir. I had wondered if mana-based healing was possible, so I caught a monster to use as a test subject, beat it half to death, tested the technique, beat it half to death again, and repeated the process. My condolences to all the monsters that had served as my lab rats.
Seeing the two unconscious guards’ faces relax, I stood up.
“This should be enough. They’ll probably wake up on their own in a little while. There’s nothing more I need to do, but if you’re worried, you can buy them some potions or take them to a priest.”
“W-wait… what did you just…? I didn’t feel any divine power at all…? What exactly did you do?!”
Serena asked, but I didn’t have time to explain every little detail. The important thing was to clear my name and get out of here without losing control of the conversation!
I immediately cut Serena off again and pressed her.
“And from now on, stop walking around doing things that make you look suspicious, got it?! I was shocked because I thought you were foreign spies or operatives! Stop impersonating royalty too! If it hadn’t been me, you would’ve been executed! Understand? Hurry up and apologize to me.”
“Huh? Uh? S-sorry…”
Serena, who couldn’t reveal that she really was the princess, ended up apologizing without thinking.
“Also. I healed those people for you. Don’t you have something else to say?”
“No, that’s… th-thank… you…?”
“You’re very welcome. Now, be more careful with your actions in the future. I’m a busy man, so I’ll be going now.”
Leaving the stunned Serena behind, I hurriedly left the area and headed straight back to the imperial palace.
After the mysterious man disappeared…
Serena, who had been blankly blinking, finally processed the situation and stomped her foot in rage.
“What the—how can someone be that shameless?! Why am I the one apologizing and thanking him?! He’s the one who showed up and attacked first! I was this close to catching those bastards’ tails, but because of that guy I lost them all! They’ve already escaped by teleportation! Aaaaaagh!”
Serena clutched her head in frustration, but the target of her anger had already vanished.
As soon as I returned to the palace, I went looking for the crazy old man.
“Old man.”
“What?”
“I’m leaving the palace now. Immediately.”
“Already? Have you decided where you’re going?”
I shook my head at Luke’s question.
“I haven’t decided that yet, but I can’t stay here. I’m leaving right away, so I’m going to get my things. You don’t have the right to decide my future anyway, and I can choose what I want to do, right? I’m going to go find what I want to do, so don’t try to stop me.”
“Tsk… I did hint that it would be nice if you worked for our empire… Of course I don’t have the authority to decide your future, but at least have an audience with His Majesty before you go. Didn’t he tell you to come see him again after looking around the city?”
“Ugh…”
It was true that the Emperor had said that. Since I needed to get away before the princess returned and told him everything that had happened, I immediately went to find the Emperor.
“Your Majesty! I have returned after touring the city!”
“Ah, it’s Aran. You’re back sooner than I expected.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I spoke with the guests in the palace and looked around the city, but nothing immediately grabbed my interest. I wish to travel the world, gain more experience, and slowly decide my future.”
“Is that so? I had hoped you might find a place within this palace where you could fully display your remarkable abilities. What a shame.”
“I feel the same, Your Majesty. However, I cannot continue to impose on you here, so I shall now take my leave—”
At that moment, the Emperor interrupted me.
“In that case, I would like to make you one proposal as emperor.”
“Pardon?”
This feeling is… not good…
“Aran. Your master, Luke Harlan, is the Crimson Crow, the Emperor’s direct secret agent. You know this, as he has told you himself, yes?”
“Yes, but I have never considered succeeding him…”
“You need not worry about that. While I also hold your abilities in high regard, it would be impossible to entrust the highest position of Crimson Crow to someone I have only known for a few days.”
“I see. Then the proposal you mentioned…”
The Emperor smiled faintly.
“To become the Crimson Crow, one’s strength, ability to carry out missions, and loyalty to the sovereign must all be thoroughly verified over many years.”
“......?”
“I have such a Crimson Crow. But my children do not. Of course they have built their own factions, but the one born quite late had no time to properly establish her own power.”
Wait, the Emperor’s late-born child…
“And if such a late-born child possesses a kind heart and exceptional qualities, earning the love of the citizens, she will inevitably incur the jealousy and envy of her older siblings. I am deeply concerned. Things are fine for now, but when I, who does not have many years left, pass on, will that child be able to survive? That is why…”
“Y-Your Majesty, are you saying…”
The Emperor leaned slightly forward.
“I wish to propose that you take on the role of bodyguard to protect my youngest daughter.”