…………What?
............What?
Ever since the day Leon claimed to have amnesia, Cecil had been deep in thought.
"What is he planning this time?"
She did not believe in the amnesia.
The reason was simple.
It was not the first time Leon had acted like this.
In the past, too.
Saying he had no memory.
Saying he forgot.
Saying he was sick.
He had often demanded things in similar ways.
So, she thought this current behavior of Leon's was also a kind of fake illness.
"Is it... really not a fake illness?"
The acting was so natural that she had almost believed it, but since his physical examination showed no abnormalities and his magic circuits were normal, there was nothing wrong with his body.
If so, the only other basis for judging amnesia would be a mental issue.
"That can't be it."
Considering he had recently ordered an investigation of the North and had completely seized control of the South while she was away, that was clearly not the case.
A person with amnesia picking and choosing exactly what they want to achieve?
It made no sense.
"What do you think?"
Cecil asked for Sicarian's opinion while sitting in the Intelligence Bureau office.
"Do we need to think about it? It's the usual House Head-nim."
Cecil nodded when she heard the answer she had expected.
She thought the same thing.
"Do you think there is an intention behind it?"
Usually, this would be a place where the two of them would have a conversation, but today there was one more person.
It was Sonia, who had gained trust through the recent Zahel Earldom incident.
"Of course. There is no 'just because' with Silberg. Especially someone as smart as the House Head-nim, he tends to convey his intentions according to the situation."
"True, he did that when he came to Lugner as well. Actually, if it were Silberg, he could have just said 'obey me' in one word."
"Thanks to that, it was resolved without shedding a drop of blood. And you came here, too."
"It doesn't feel real. That Silberg accepted someone like me who lacks ability..."
"He had his own reasons. Accept it proudly."
"Yes."
The three of them put their heads together.
Cecil would offer an opinion, and Sicarian would counter it.
And in between them, Sonia would occasionally add ideas with a flash of insight.
A few days passed like that.
"This seems right, doesn't it?"
"The probability seems high."
"It's a deduction based on interpretation, though."
The three were able to reach one conclusion.
The combination of clues Leon had dropped.
[Magic], [Secret Room], [Amnesia]
Plus his behavior.
[Asking internal staff] or
[Getting taught by old people] or
[Staying in one place for a long time.]
There was one place that everything pointed to.
"There was a rumor that the Magic Tower Master had dementia starting a while ago, but..."
The three, believing that Leon had spoken keywords related to the Magic Tower and had shown behavior patterns identical to the mages residing in the Magic Tower, confirmed their target.
Then, what should they aim for there?
The answer to that had already been spoken by Leon as well.
The one, unresolved keyword.
"Is there really a secret room?"
However, there was no certainty.
The Magic Tower was a kind of state institution, and its external structure was well-known.
Sonia had toured the Magic Tower during her academy days, and Cecil had been invited by the Magic Tower Master during her time as the Northern Grand Duke's daughter, having explored everything from the bottom floor to the Magic Tower Master's private laboratory at the top.
In their minds, there was no place in the Magic Tower to secretly build something.
But among the many candidates, the Magic Tower was the only place where all the hints matched so far.
Whenever that happened, Silberg made the same choice.
"That's something we can just check."
And that was.
What the Silberg Intelligence Bureau had to do.
Shadows seeped into the Magic Tower.
Secret movements.
Small wriggles outside of daily routine scattered everywhere.
It was a Magic Tower protected by strict security magic and knights placed everywhere, but it was useless.
The shadows were everywhere, and some were even members of the Magic Tower from the start.
The shadows searched the Magic Tower for several days like that.
From beginning to end.
From the foundation stones to the corners of the spire.
And on the last day of the search,
In that place where thousands stayed, the shadows were able to find the hidden room.
Magic Tower lower levels.
It was inside the closet of a wizard who had entered the Magic Tower a few years ago.
And the day after the shadows found the secret room, that wizard disappeared from the Magic Tower.
As if they had never existed in the first place.
A document received from Cecil.
Did she say it was a classified document brought from the Magic Tower's secret room?
I don't know why she's giving this to me, but it was fascinating.
Because this.
It was an item that appeared in the original work.
But why do you guys have this?
Why are you giving it to me?
"...Did you really bring this from a closet in the lower levels of the Magic Tower?"
"No! Did you even know the detailed location? Then why didn't you just tell us to bring it instead of talking in circles like that? Haa~ No, never mind. Forget it. It's already been 10 years, I should be used to it by now. What can I do?"
Cecil is venting her frustration.
But in this situation, I was the one who wanted to cry.
Not only did I never order her to bring this,
'This is the recipe the Demon God Followers use to make sacrifices...'
The paper in my hand right now was a very dangerous item.
In the original work, this was an item the Hero had infiltrated the Magic Tower for months to barely obtain.
Because that episode alone was serialized for nearly 40 chapters, I remembered that part clearly.
Around the middle of the novel,
The Northern Grand Duke, who was struggling with abnormal phenomena and drying resources even after defeating the barbarians, heads to the capital with the Hero.
In the process, it was an item discovered during the conflict with the Demon God Followers' sacrifices—referred to as 'Dolls'—and the guys who created them.
'The war with the Demon God Followers began in earnest because the Hero obtained this.'
Anyway, that's how dangerous an item it is.
An existence that I, a mere Viscount, cannot handle, and an item the future protagonist party must obtain.
But why are you giving it to me?
How did you even bring this here in the first place?
"...This is a big problem."
I became genuinely serious.
Regardless of how Cecil managed to obtain this, just holding it was dangerous, according to the original work.
From the moment the Hero held this.
Because they were attacked by the Demon God Followers every single moment.
"That's true. But is this content real? That they fill the inside with the Demon God's seed after removing only the soul from a human body... I can't believe it."
But Cecil took my thoughts in a different direction.
Well, I understand.
It's a fact I just learned by reading it now, but the way it describes the creation process is quite grotesque.
And the existence created that way is a 'Doll'.
They are the numerous enemies that plague the protagonist's party throughout the novel.
"So that's how a Doll is made..."
"Wait a minute. A Doll...? House Head-nim, by any chance, is this the true identity of the 'Dolls' we've been hunting down?"
Huh?
Cecil. How do you know about Dolls, anyway?
But I didn't ask separately.
The concept of a Doll only appears after the middle of the original work, and the existence of a Doll itself doesn't look much different from a human on the outside.
After killing a person, they absorb the brain remaining in the body to reproduce even the memories,
And eventually, it was the Doll's method to melt into human society to kidnap and murder more targets.
Since the original work's expression was that an ordinary person cannot distinguish between a Doll and a human... the Doll Cecil mentioned must mean something else.
Since the word 'Doll' itself was a common term that could be attached to anything anyway.
Still, shall I check just once?
"You know about Dolls?"
"Of course I do. We used to catch them a lot with House Head-nim before. Those machine-like guys with vacant eyes who move without emotion, unlike humans."
"Hmm."
Confirmed.
The Doll Cecil knows is different from the one I'm talking about.
I don't know what it is, but it seems there's something else similar called a Doll.
Anyway, that's that.
What's important now is what to do with this document.
The Demon God Followers must know that this document has disappeared.
In the original work, they noticed the theft within a day and chased after the Hero, so they are probably looking for it right now.
Because the process of making a Doll is complicated, did they say they couldn't make them without this document?
On top of that, since they didn't even make copies for security reasons, it was an item important enough to them that no amount of emphasis would be enough.
But the fortunate thing is that they don't know that the document is here.
In the original work, they started searching as soon as they noticed the loss, and it became a huge mess when the Hero, who hadn't left the Magic Tower yet, was discovered.
The excellent mages among the Demon God Followers sent message magic,
And considering they even declared war on the North, which was protecting the Hero.
The fact that it is this quiet right now was proof that they haven't been able to pinpoint the location of the document yet.
Then the problem is where to put this....
"It's a waste to destroy it...."
One method that came to mind first was to just burn it.
An idea created by the simple thought that if the troublesome document itself disappeared, everything would be solved.
But I immediately rejected it.
The reason the Hero risked danger to obtain the document in the original work.
It was to get the Saintess's help.
At that time, the Holy Kingdom was judging the danger of the Demon God Followers only as a religious reason for being heretics.
This document was used to inform them that the perpetrators of the kidnappings and murders floating around in the world were the Demon God Followers, and to bring them in as allies.
In other words, it's an item for recruiting allies.
For that reason, it shouldn't be destroyed.
"Hmm... what to do."
"?"
The next thing that came to mind was to hide it.
Now that the first method was effectively impossible, it was the only alternative.
The problem is where to hide it.
It would be difficult here.
Silberg is, at best, a mere Viscount family.
The place where I live didn't have strong defenses like the Earldoms I visited before.
The number of soldiers was absolutely small, and watching them train earlier, it felt closer to mercenaries than soldiers.
Rather than doing it half-heartedly,
It felt like they were only focused on individual training without any system?
Well, they must be decent guys to be called knights, but it would be impossible to compare them to an Earldom.
If the Knights are like that, the Intelligence Bureau must be similar.
So, I could easily predict that if I left it here, the information would leak out someday.
How can I be so sure?
Because several Earldoms were raided by the Demon God Followers in the original work.
Anyway, since the Earldoms were raided like punching bags, there was no way I, a Viscount, could hold out.
If so, since I'm going to give it away anyway.
Entrust it to the Northern Grand Duke?
It wasn't a bad idea.
In the first place, it was a document that had to go to them anyway.
The North is a remote area and has some power, so it would be relatively safer than here.
Plus, since Cecil said she had met them, persuasion would be easy.
But the danger was just as great.
Combining my memories and Cecil's explanation, it was still the early part of the original work.
That means time is needed until their love ripens and their skills improve....
What if I entrust this to them, and the Demon God Followers find out?
A catastrophe could occur where they have to deal with the Demon God Followers while still not having solved the barbarian issue.
If that happens, the North itself will collapse, let alone the story of the original work.
At that time, there is truly no answer.
"Is there no place that is strong and has good security?"
Therefore, the choice had to be careful.
But given my connections and current situation, there's no way such a place exists....
"Is it a situation where you have to entrust it somewhere?"
"Why? Is there a decent place?"
"There is."
"It has to have a higher security level than a Marquisate, is it at least that level?"
"Yes."
Cecil said there was a decent place, cutting it short.
At her firm answer, I asked her where it was.
"Shall we entrust it to the Imperial Palace?"
Then an absurd answer came out.
No, I know the Imperial Palace is good.
But that's not a storage locker, is it?
Would they do it for us just because we ask them to keep it?
"They would, right? And if they refuse, you can just use a Silberg Coin. You have piles of those that you don't even use, so why don't you use them this time?"
"?"
"Ah, but to use them, the House Head-nim would have to go to the capital yourself. Because the moment an agent holds that, treason applies."
"...?"
"How about seeing the Emperor's face for the first time in a while?"
My brain hurt so much from the absurd content and the influx of information.
Still, I understood one thing.
So, you mean we can entrust it to the Imperial family?
Yeah, good.
Then let's go.
The next day.
News was delivered to the Imperial Palace.
"Your Majesty. It is said that Leon Silberg has moved."
"Did you figure out where he is going?"
"He says he is coming here."
"...Excuse me?"
The Emperor, who was receiving the report, blinked his eyes and asked again.
"............Excuse me?"