The Academy Slave Instructor
She is an excellent agent.
She is an excellent agent.
Last year, by the academy headmaster’s order, Rai had to take on adventurer work. While delving into the dungeon, he crossed paths with Sierra.
Except for the party leader Moura, who was still a greenhorn, the rest of the party had just shed their rookie status. Thanks to Rai’s help, they survived the ordeal.
Not only their lives, but they also descended to floors they couldn’t have reached on their own, and with their skills, they harvested a substantial amount. Sierra learned magic from Rai, and her abilities skyrocketed.
Rai humbly claimed he had only taught her one spell, but Sierra’s eyes opened to the world of magic thanks to that single technique.
The rune language was systematic and simplified to a level that could be called beautiful, and its composition and arrangement were efficient, with no waste anywhere.
Seeing Rai’s mastery of the craft, Sierra’s magical prowess naturally improved.
Of course, as someone who had learned the advanced knowledge of a Pure Mage, engaging in adventurer work meant her talent was lacking, so Sierra’s sudden rise in strength didn’t mean she was extraordinary.
However, among adventurers, especially among the lower-ranked ones in the Empire’s adventurer guilds, her abilities were sufficient to stand out. And Moura’s party was thriving.
With lives, money, and success, and even better in bed, it was no wonder Sierra couldn’t help but like Rai.
At first, it was because they had accidentally shared him with Michelle, but most encounters after that were with the three of them.
So, the time Sierra spent alone with Rai was precious to her.
Having become an academy instructor and a hero who saved the city from a Death Knight, it seemed she was drifting further away, but she had never dreamed of becoming Rai’s lover or his companion for life.
She was simply grateful for moments like these.
If Leila had known her feelings, she would have looked at her with disbelief, but Sierra was so deeply infatuated with Rai.
“Oh, Instructor Rye Redford, is this a date?”
“Hello, it’s been a while. Is Johanna growing well?”
“Oh, she’s growing like crazy. I’m enjoying it by watching my daughter grow. Come to our shop sometime. I’ll show you her tricks.”
Because he was easy to get along with and had publicly demonstrated his training and saved the city from the Death Knight, Rai had become a famous figure.
Every few steps, people greeted him, so Sierra, standing next to him, felt a pang of regret at being interrupted, but at the same time, she felt proud.
Today, since Michelle was absent, Sierra had the whole place to herself, and she was in a very good mood.
However, Rai was not in a good mood.
Who is this guy following us?
Rai was wary of the man following from behind.
During the Devil of All Nations era, hundreds of assassins had tried to kill him, and thousands had monitored him.
If someone was tailing him, Rai would notice easily.
In fact, even without experience, he would have noticed. The man’s skill was poor.
His movements seemed like he had learned something, but he was sloppy, so even ordinary citizens passing by occasionally glanced at him.
Yet he thought he was doing well and had a confident, smiling expression that was laughable.
From his skill level, he wasn’t an academy student and wasn’t affiliated with the Empire.
Rai thought that even a third-rate street thug would be better than this, so he decided not to ruin the nice atmosphere and left him alone.
“Hmm… Where is he heading?”
Thinking he had hidden well, Zeppelin, hiding behind the fruit stand, stroked his chin and pondered.
The stand owner was staring at him, but he didn’t care.
Zeppelin, demoted to a delivery boy, was tailing Rai as an Intelligence Bureau agent.
Of course, the mission assigned to him by the Intelligence Bureau wasn’t this.
Due to the Marquis’s prestige, the Intelligence Bureau couldn’t simply cut him loose, so their top priority was to remove this piece of trash from the secret headquarters.
So, they thought of a delivery job.
He didn’t need to meet with embedded agents. If it was a mission to meet someone, they wouldn’t have assigned it to him.
The agent delivered the information he acquired to a disguised store in the city.
The stores pre-made by the Intelligence Bureau would then pass the info to other disguised stores, and after several handoffs, the final store would receive the document from Zeppelin.
No risk of the embedded agent being exposed, and if contact with Zeppelin was discovered, they could just cut him off immediately.
It was a simple job: go to the clothing store, the last store where info was delivered, receive the document, and deliver it to headquarters.
But Zeppelin caused an accident.
What the Intelligence Bureau overlooked was that he was the ambitious son of a Marquis.
Zeppelin had an ideal of secret agents, so despite his poor abilities, his enthusiasm was high.
He had dozed off during work hours and forgotten instructions, but he always worked with passion, which made his former superiors suffer.
If someone lacks ability but has high enthusiasm, it bothers not only himself but everyone around him.
The upper management had only assigned him delivery work, but his enthusiasm led him to seek out information related to the mission.
Here, the Intelligence Bureau’s evaluation as trash, but others saw him as a conduit to the Marquis’s faction.
Through his connections, he obtained information about the agent embedded in the academy.
It was a miscalculation by the Intelligence Bureau that, despite being systematically complete, couldn’t control human hearts.
Through the information, they learned that the agent was focusing on marking Rye Redford, the instructor, and with the agent’s info, Zeppelin hadn’t planned to tail Rai originally.
It was all coincidence.
After picking up the document from the clothing store, Zeppelin was happy it was an easy mission.
But he heard the name “Rai.”
Naturally, his head turned, and he saw Rai talking with the citizens.
As if they were close, they exchanged well-wishes. And he heard Sierra’s name too.
Sierra!
The name of the agent embedded in the academy.
Pretending to buy something, he eavesdropped on the conversation, and adventurer talk came up.
Adventurer Sierra? The Sierra he knew was an academy instructor.
Thinking it was someone else, Zeppelin had a perfect inference flash through his mind.
Wait, is he doing adventurer work too?
He already knew that Rye Redford had briefly done adventurer work.
He didn’t know if he was still doing it, but since he was registered in the guild, the agent Sierra was also registered.
As the son of a Marquis and holding the pride of the Intelligence Bureau, Zeppelin respected Sierra for doing low-level work like being an instructor for a mission.
Adventurers weren’t a lowly profession, but to Zeppelin, who was a Marquis, adventurers were just errand boys.
In fact, he was the errand boy.
Zeppelin continued tailing the two behind him.
So this is the famous beauty trap…
It wasn’t in vain that he did adventurer work. He created a sense of kinship, got close, and eventually became lovers who shared their hearts.
Although he had only heard about it, seeing the beauty trap for the first time, Zeppelin nodded and observed them.
According to info, he had heard that with long military career, he was stiff and cold, but from behind, it was completely different.
She was full of coquetry and was a specimen of a loving woman.
At this point, he should have noticed something was off, but Zeppelin was amazed by the great acting and praised Sierra.
The climax of the misunderstanding was in front of the inn.
Seeing the two enter the inn, Zeppelin shed tears and saluted from afar to Sierra who was giving her body for the mission.
People passing by saw Zeppelin saluting towards the inn strangely, but he had forgotten he was tailing and showed respect to Sierra.
How patriotic this agent was. For such an agent, he should show respect to the Intelligence Bureau.
Until the next day, waiting in front of the inn, when Sierra parted from Rai, he immediately followed her.
Since Rai was gone, no need to tail.
Noticing the obvious following by Zeppelin, Sierra quickly ran away after turning the corner of the alley.
Following Sierra who disappeared into the alley, Zeppelin saw her cast several fireballs after completing the spell, and he panicked, raising his hands.
“Wait, Agent Sierra! I’m not your enemy!”
“Eh? How do you know my name…?”
“You are Zeppelin, affiliated with the Intelligence Bureau. It’s an honor to meet you.”
Sierra stared blankly at the polite Zeppelin who even saluted.
The Intelligence Bureau wasn’t well-known to ordinary citizens.
Most didn’t know, but Sierra, who had accumulated some knowledge, knew a bit.
But she didn’t understand why the Intelligence Bureau was looking for her or what “you are the same” meant.
What is this nonsense about agent?
Sierra’s caution deepened at the mysterious man’s babbling.
Thinking he had permission since he didn’t attack, Zeppelin cleared his throat and started speaking.
“I, on behalf of the Intelligence Bureau, express my respect for your loyalty and dedication.”
It was a tone as if praising a medal.
Zeppelin didn’t know what he was saying about representing the Intelligence Bureau, but Sierra was only more bewildered by his words.
Saying incomprehensible things like expressing respect in the Intelligence Bureau that couldn’t be entangled.
“Um… Did you mistake me for someone else?”
“Ah!”
Zeppelin hit his own mouth and showed reluctance.
“Sorry. You were on a secret mission. I will emulate your resolute spirit of hiding it from me too. This time, I just came to express my respect. See you next time.”
After showing a wonderful salute, Zeppelin coolly turned and left.
Sierra, who couldn’t answer, still had a dazed expression, unable to understand.
And Rye, leaning against the alley wall where they couldn’t be seen, had the same expression as her.
The Intelligence Bureau?
It didn’t make sense that there was such a fool in the Intelligence Bureau.
Had he thought of a trap anticipating pursuit? He only concluded there was nothing to gain from such antics.
If it was Joshua, he would pull off such strange tricks, but even squeezing his brain didn’t yield an answer.
What if it was real?
If it was real, he had mistaken the two Sieras connected to Rai and gone to find the other Sierra.
The adventurer Sierra was too pure to be a secret agent and couldn’t hide her expressions.
The instructor Sierra had already suspected.
Seeing the too-clean analysis and document style, she thought it was similar work.
It was most likely that she had mistaken and gone to the adventurer Sierra.
Conversely, what was the possibility that the adventurer Sierra was the real agent?
She had gone to the dungeon on the headmaster’s orders and made contact by pretending to be coincidence.
If the headmaster was involved with the Intelligence Bureau, this assumption had high probability.
Every time Joshua came to the academy, he met the headmaster, so this side had weight.
But the adventurer Sierra was useless as an agent.
Most of her life was inside the academy, and she couldn’t enter the academy, so she couldn’t monitor.
Or both?
It was too unbelievable, and even Rye was confused.
Rai, who had survived the rotten politics of the fallen Caelen Kingdom and defeated the schemes of excellent commanders, couldn’t find an answer no matter how hard he thought.
Although unofficial, Zeppelin became one of the few people who gave Rai trouble that day.
* * *
“What is the matter?”
Rai was leaning against the fence in front of his house, smoking a cigarette. As soon as Leila arrived, he extinguished the cigarette and cast a soundproof magic.
“The instructor Sierra is the one you brought?”
At Rai’s question, Leila frowned and looked at him before answering.
“No, although I’ve been to the same workplace, there’s no relation. Why?”
Rai silently continued staring at Leila.
Observing her eyebrows, eyes, and facial muscles, Rai read her nonverbal language and concluded she really had no relation to Sierra.
“Sierra is an Intelligence Bureau agent.”
Leila, who suddenly heard the shocking fact, closed her mouth for a moment, thought, and looked at her with suspicious eyes.
“When we were at the same workplace three years ago, she was military-affiliated. And until recently, she was with the Northern Army. Her career has already been checked. It’s clean.”
“That’s a disguise.”
Leila, who had already checked the resumes of new instructors, objected, but Rai shook his head.
“It’s a method the Empire’s Intelligence Bureau uses well. They age it like soaking a sword in a vat for a few years in other positions. Joshua stacked his career in meaningless places for 10 years to enter my unit. Of course, at first, I wasn’t the target.”
“… …”
Leila also didn’t know how the Intelligence Bureau operated.
Perhaps as an enemy of the Empire, Rai might know better after clashing with them dozens of times.
Many thoughts passed through Rai’s mind, but Leila asked the most important question.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Why did Sierra come to mark only me? Of course not. Although I know her identity, she would mark other forces that are bad with the Intelligence Bureau too.”
At Rai’s words, Leila hardened her expression.
“Whether it’s the headmaster or the person you serve, consult. Whether to kill or use her, you need to think about how to handle Sierra. Maybe the headmaster is involved too, since she was brought as an instructor.”
Rai, who had been troubled by Zeppelin, passed the stress to someone else.
He didn’t need to worry if the instructor Sierra was an agent or not.
He just needed to use this fact to his advantage.
“It’s a debt I owe.”
Rai smiled playfully.
If it was giving a debt to another target monitoring him, it was a pretty good deal.