Chapter 285
Chapter 285
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 285
>Chapter Title: Please Take Care of Me Today Too
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First, I calmly reviewed the situation.
Damian, grinning brightly with his arm linked around Obern’s shoulders, and Obern, whose face had gone deathly pale.
“……Extortion?”
I couldn’t imagine Damian doing that, but the scene right now left no room for doubt.
It was right then that Obern jumped in surprise and waved his hands frantically.
“N-No, that’s not it.”
“It’s not?”
“Yes, Senior Damian just…….”
Just?
The way he trailed off made it look even more suspicious.
And the way he was glancing at Damian while talking.
……Hold on a second.
I took a moment to think about how to navigate this situation.
So, if Damian really was shaking down Obern, whose side should I take?
‘The Young Patriarch of the Blandoga Family getting shaken down by the Archduke’s disciple…….’
Background-wise, both were heavy hitters.
It was a seriously headache-inducing dilemma, but fortunately, it didn’t seem to be the situation I feared.
“Senior Damian helped me out.”
“Damian? Helped you?”
“Well, here’s what happened…….”
According to Obern, the sequence of events was this.
He’d stepped out of the academy for some business and run into some thugs there.
And then……
“I helped him!”
“……You?”
“Yeah, they seemed like bad guys, so I glared at them. And they ran off.”
I stared at Damian for a moment.
Damian was beaming proudly, puffing out his chest like it was the greatest accomplishment.
A sudden question popped into my mind.
“Why’d you even go outside the academy?”
“……Huh?”
“Huh?”
“Well…….”
His confident air vanished as he rolled his eyes. It didn’t take long for him to open his mouth.
“It’s a secret.”
“Oh, a secret?”
“Yeah. Everyone has at least one secret they can’t tell others. Just like I respect my friend’s secrets, my friend has to respect mine.”
……This guy.
I blinked at Damian, whose tongue had suddenly turned so slick.
Looking closely, whenever it was to his disadvantage, he’d either turn inexplicably dumb or inexplicably sharp……
Fine, whatever.
That wasn’t the important thing right now.
‘Obern ran into some thugs?’
I turned my gaze to Obern. His face was ashen, like he was genuinely scared.
No matter how naive Obern was, he was a mage who’d survived the Hamern Great Forest, seeing all sorts of sights.
A mage like that shrinking from some thugs?
Something was off.
Something……
* * *
After sending Damian away, I spoke with Obern alone.
Of course, getting Damian to leave wasn’t easy.
His eyes were sparkling at the whiff of adventure, reminding me of the Baharmut incident and sending chills down my spine.
Anyway, once it was just the two of us, I finally heard the full story I’d missed earlier. To sum it up:
“You went into the city to gather artifact materials just in case, and…… ran into black mages?”
“……Yes.”
“How many?”
“Four.”
“Didn’t seem like Golden Demon Mages?”
“Well…… yes. Those four definitely didn’t seem like Golden Demon Mages. We didn’t clash directly, so…….”
Alright, let’s calmly sort out the situation.
‘Black mages near the academy means Salvatium is still targeting it…….’
For me, who’d secretly hoped they’d given up after hitting the barrier, this was terrible news.
And that wasn’t all……
‘……Come to think of it, Parun’s a problem too.’
Whether it was the First or Second Prince, in this situation where they were grasping for any pretext, Parun couldn’t be safe either.
No matter how well-prepared Parun himself was.
And now I had to worry about Salvatium on top of that?
“Tch, things have gotten all tangled up.”
“……Huh? Tangled how?”
I turned to Obern, who was looking puzzled.
“No word from Senior Muspellun yet?”
“……No. Not yet.”
“Yeah, figures.”
I clicked my tongue in disappointment and reviewed the situation again.
“Um, Senior. What should we do?”
“Wait. I’m thinking.”
Professor Pelina, Salvatium.
There were more than one or two things to resolve.
To think the imperial audit, which I’d assumed was someone else’s problem, would hit me this hard.
‘……Should I not have left the wyvern in the Black-White Slums?’
The belated regret washed over me, but this wasn’t the time to wallow.
Okay, then.
“What were the circumstances of running into the black mages?”
“Well…… it felt like they were tailing me.”
“How’d you know they were black mages?”
“They used magic when I got cornered in a dead-end alley. If Senior Damian hadn’t helped…… probably…….”
“Yeah, got it.”
From Obern’s account(?), I pieced together Salvatium’s goal.
‘……They’re trying to break the barrier.’
I didn’t know how good their intel was, but they knew who’d set up the academy’s barrier.
And that Obern was Senior Muspellun’s disciple too.
With that realization, I looked at Obern.
“For now, let’s just keep watch on Salvatium.”
“Why…….”
He was wondering why not deal with them immediately since they were targeting the academy. But my thinking was this:
“With the barrier up, they can’t move freely. That’s probably why they tried to grab you.”
In other words, the academy was safe as long as the barrier held.
So, better to hold back on wasting mental energy and see how Salvatium plays its hand.
“Oh, and the barrier core?”
“I made the barrier core…… in the basement of the Sage’s Tower.”
The Sage’s Tower basement—that was where the headmaster resided.
Yeah, that should be secure enough.
“Really…… you think it’ll be okay?”
“It will be. Relax.”
Salvatium wasn’t something you could just catch whenever you wanted anyway.
Senior Muspellun, the headmaster, and Professor Pelina.
Were they the only ones who knew about Salvatium? No, I didn’t think so.
The heads of major houses and high imperial officials probably knew about them too.
Yet they hadn’t been eradicated. For two reasons.
‘First, they’re so secretive…… and second, there’s no need to risk it.’
Something dangerous lurked beneath the surface, but its scale and goals were unknown.
As long as you didn’t poke it, it didn’t cause direct harm.
So why poke it?
Who’d benefit?
I felt the same way.
There was nothing more exhausting than grappling with an unknown enemy.
Even in a situation like this.
“Oh, what about that artifact you were making?”
“I bought the materials at least.”
“What’s it for again?”
“It’s a kind of detector. The barrier won’t break, but if it does, we need a way to find out.”
“Yeah, keep working on that.”
Our approach to Salvatium was set.
Watch and wait.
Of course, I wasn’t planning to do that forever.
First……
‘The imperial family.’
Handle what needs handling first.
But anyway.
“Come to think of it, the imperial family’s just as much a phantom…….”
“Huh?”
“Nah, nothing.”
I pushed past Obern’s confused head tilt and continued my thoughts.
For starters, I knew it was one of the First or Second Prince. Or maybe even both.
The problem was not knowing which, so we couldn’t make a move.
And……
‘……Even if we found out, directly targeting imperial blood is insane.’
Unless we had ironclad proof to crush them completely, it meant striking at their key piece.
But right now, I didn’t even know who that key piece was.
That was the first puzzle piece I felt I was missing.
“Need to find it. Hmm, what to do.”
“Um, Senior? You keep muttering to yourself…….”
“Huh? Nah, it’s fine. Let’s head in.”
With that, I wrapped up the meeting.
No point lingering when nothing would come of it.
Both the imperial side and Salvatium required waiting……
But the wait turned out shorter than expected.
The next morning.
“S-S-Senior……!”
“……?”
I tilted my head at Obern bursting in, face white as a sheet.
He’d rushed all the way to the second-year dorm lobby in such a panic that he spotted me and hurried over, blurting out:
“Th-the barrier…… the barrier’s down!”
“The barrier……?”
Salvatium’s doing?
The thought flashed through my mind, but Obern’s next words made it clear that wasn’t the case.
Because……
……It wasn’t Salvatium who’d dismantled the barrier.
‘……Imperial investigators took it down?’
Obern had rushed to the Sage’s Tower to check the anomaly and witnessed it: people from the imperial side coming and going.
Apparently, they’d touched the core while investigating the tower……
Coincidence?
That afternoon.
An old man entered the academy.
“……Who’s that?”
“I heard from talking to Dad yesterday…… you can’t tell anyone, okay? That guy’s…….”
The students whispered as the old man received deferential treatment from academy staff.
His identity was none other than……
“The next headmaster.”
The final puzzle piece I’d been searching for.
In other words, the opponent’s key piece.
* * *
Amid this all-too-convenient coincidence, I sank into thought.
‘No way the imperial side joined hands with Salvatium…….’
Nah.
The barrier goes down, and suddenly the next headmaster—their key piece—shows up?
Perfect setup for suspicion.
But even if the opponent was Decullan, this was hard to believe…… no, impossible.
Still, a thought struck me.
“Salvatium and the imperial family…….”
Maybe there was a way to deal with both at once?
There’s an old saying.
An eye for an eye, a nose for a nose.
“Time to become a righteous Troubleshooter again.”
A bright morning.
I sent the panicking Obern back and looked up at the sky. The sun shone cheerfully.
“Moon, please take care of me today too.”
No reply, of course.
But that’s fine.
The sun was smiling brightly at me.
‘Operation name…… yeah.’
Taken from the tale where if three people report ‘An ogre appeared in the market,’ even a goblin there turns into an ogre……
[When Three People Gather, Even a Goblin Becomes an Ogre.]
Evil with evil.
The evils here were obviously the imperial family and Salvatium.
So what I needed now was……
‘……One person to play the part of three.’
That’s when it hit me.
“Smells like adventure.”
“Shit, you scared me.”
I jolted back from Damian’s silent approach. He was eyeing me with narrowed gaze.
“This is definitely the scent of adventure. What do you think, friend?”
“Nothin’…….”
No, you idiot.
Adventure my ass.
This wasn’t some adventure…… right, it was the noble step of punishing evil in the name of justice.
Nothing more.
Goblin-Ogre Creation Operation.
……Begin.
‘The issue now is how to rope in one person to cover three…….’
What did the Third Imperial Princess like again?