“Hmm.”
Shane had visited the academy library for the first time in a while.
Ignoring the glances from here and there, he found a book and sat down.
The book Shane chose was “The History of the Empire”.
He wanted to skim through information about the northern region he would soon be heading to.
Since the founding of the empire, there have been several events that shook it to its core.
Among them, there were events that caused an uproar across the continent, such as the Great War and the war against black magic.
There were also several incidents that shook the empire itself.
One of them was the event in the northern Arunvida region of the empire.
The Orc Legion Invasion.
Countless orc legions had invaded the place and started advancing towards the capital of the empire. At that time, the empire had surrendered 75 percent of its northern territory to the orcs.
It was truly an incident that could only be described as a disaster.
Back then, the emperor and the political nobles of the empire had underestimated the orcs, but they hastily raised an army to defeat them.
The war alone took a year.
And it took more than three years to completely eradicate the traces of orcs from the empire’s land.
Needless to say, the restoration had required an even longer time.
For this reason, the empire had built a castle named Viduron in the northern Arunvida region.
It served as a kind of outpost, both to prevent a recurrence of the previous disaster and to locate the orcs’ stronghold.
Based on the gathered information, the empire’s army had made several attempts, but all ended in failure.
Raising an army in the harsh and vast mountain ranges, where blizzards raged incessantly, was an impractical idea from the start.
Moreover, humans were helpless against the orc armies that attacked at every opportunity.
In addition, the orcs in the mountains appeared even more powerful than when they had marched south.
Supplying the army had been nearly impossible, and the repeated campaigns had ultimately been abandoned. This led to the current situation that persisted for about fifty years.
As a result, humans occasionally recalled the terror the orcs had caused fifty years ago.
Humans are forgetful creatures.
Since peace continued without a hitch for the past fifty years, humans forgot the dangers of that time.
According to what Shane remembered, a few years from now, the orc legions would march south once again.
But that wasn’t all.
At that very moment, the second princess in charge of the north, Zephyr D. Natasha Anastasia, would incite a rebellion that would cause the empire to experience another upheaval.
The Princess of Rebellion.
In fact, Shane did not know the details of the events that had occurred in the north.
Originally, the organization had not been involved in that incident and it had no interest in the northern region of the empire.
They said there was no reason to pay attention to that place.
The north was an ambiguous region for the organization.
It wasn’t just because of the harsh environment that there was nothing worth gaining.
The organization had ensured that monsters and other races remained under its control, wherever they were located. And orcs would have been no exception under normal circumstances,
Nevertheless, the organization had intentionally refrained from setting foot in the north.
The reason was simple. The orc race already had a master.
The Mountain King.
This was a being that controlled the northern mountain range and blocked the organization’s path.
However, in his past life, Shane hadn’t bothered to learn about regions the organization avoided so he only had basic information about the place.
All he knew was that, for some reason, a being called the Mountain King who had existed since the mythical era before the ancient era was leading the race of orcs.
Therefore, since there was still quite a bit of time before he was dispatched, he needed to gather more information beforehand about the place.
While Shane spent a little more time in the academy library, someone approached him.
“A-Ah, he-here you are.”
The stuttering genius, Bernshtein Osten, was suddenly standing behind Shane.
After entering the command department and recruiting team members as a commander, Osten had been reading books related to dungeons that had recently been targeted.
Although the information was already ingrained in his mind, one of Osten’s habits was to read books and organize his plans rather than daydreaming.
So as usual, that day he was holed up in the library reading a book.
Late at night, Osten was always the last student to leave the library.
Hence, he was nicknamed the library stutterer.
At this time of night, he would typically be organizing his books and heading back to the dormitory.
So why am I here?
In the academy’s guest room.
Osten who normally wouldn’t come anywhere near this area was unusually surprised.
“Mhmm, just like that person said… you are an interesting one, aren’t you?”
Platinum blonde hair reminiscent of a barley field, and emerald eyes like a secret pond hidden in the forest.
Even though she was merely sitting and holding a teacup, she still looked elegant, and despite her fragile-looking appearance, she exuded an aura of natural nobility.
…One of the empire’s two flowers. Zephyr D. Arsha Olicia.
Why did the first princess whose face was rarely seen in public come to see him?
No, he already knew the reason.
From the moment he made eye contact with the princess, Osten understood.
This woman was a person of the same kind as him.
Someone who habitually changed masks and observed people as a routine.
And surely, the princess had already figured this out about him too.
But even if he knew this part, what was the reason she came to see him?
Osten spoke with a hint of wariness.
“I-I am deeply honored, Your Highness. Bu-But, when you say th-that person, ma-may I ask who you mean?”
“Hmm… It’s the eldest son of the Clayton family. I had a private meeting with him, and your name came up.”
“Ah.”
Only then did Osten feel as if something that had been blocked was suddenly cleared.
He’s already a busy person. The reason he introduced me is… there must be something important.
Since it was an issue involving the princess, it was clearly political.
But what could Shane have to do with the princess?
Since Shane’s engagement to Anais was not yet publicly known, Osten who wasn’t aware of this information considered a different line of thought.
Come to think of it, wasn’t there news that the imperial guard knights were annihilated in the recent Great Mezaiya Forest expedition?
His thoughts raced to that conclusion in an instant.
As far as Osten knew, many knight orders of the imperial family had been secretly supporting the current crown prince lately. So the imperial guard knights were also likely to be among his supporters.
If something happened between Shane and the imperial guard knights, it wouldn’t have been a good thing.
Osten didn’t know everything about Shane, but even though the imperial guard knights were wiped out, the team members who had gone with Shane had all returned safely.
If they had been on good terms, the situation wouldn’t have escalated to the point where the imperial guard knights were wiped out.
So, this means he’s in opposition to the crown prince. Is he telling me to support the first princess through him?
Whatever it was, it wasn’t a bad thing for Osten.
Whatever Shane’s intentions were, Osten rather liked the princess standing before him.
It wasn’t a rational matter but more that he felt he had met someone of the same kind as him.
“He told me to pay close attention to the shadows beneath. He said there are precious things people miss lying on the ground. He advised me to seek your help regarding this.”
In a way, this was a laughable situation.
Both Shane and Osten.
They were both still students.
The politics of the imperial family weren’t something to be taken lightly, yet here she was, acting on the words of mere students.
In some ways, this could be seen as utterly foolish.
But it would be a different story if the person who did it was the first princess, Olicia.
She might not have been confident about other things, but when it came to judging people, she trusted her instincts. In her eyes, Osten wasn’t someone to be taken lightly.
“He said that you can just sit down in one place and see a thousand miles ahead. So I came to see if I could get some help.”
“I-I see. I’m not sure ho-how I can be of help, but…”
Meanwhile, as soon as Osten heard Olicia’s words, he grasped the meaning behind what Shane was saying.
So there is something related to the crown prince in the underground city.
And if it had anything to do with the princess, it was clear that it would be a very politically sensitive issue.
The underground city and the recent scandal of … Count Salier. Yes, there was that man too. He was said to be trading non-human slaves in Doha City. And Shane, before he left for the Great Mezaiya Forest, he took an elf with him. An elf missing a few fingers… And just before that, a noble was murdered.
Osten’s thoughts led him to wonder what exactly Shane was up to.
A noble killer?
He couldn’t definitively say Shane did it himself, but he was certain there was a connection.
This wasn’t just any ordinary dangerous situation.
Interesting.
But on the contrary, Osten felt his heart race uncontrollably.
“Th-The underground city’s slave market. I-If we dig into that, I think we’ll find something.”
“The underground city’s… slave market? Ah…”
When she heard that, Olicia’s eyes sparkled as if she had realized something.
You idiot!
Only then did Olicia remember that Count Salier dealt with slaves, and she blamed herself for not recalling it sooner.
It connected to the conclusion Osten had reached.
Moreover, she felt considerable admiration for the Osten standing before her.
He offered such advice after just a few exchanges of words?
He was truly a gem that others had yet to discover.
Olicia closed her eyes for a moment and tried to restrain her gleaming ambition.
At the same time, she felt a sense of thrill.
Shane had already become too famous, but not Osten.
She felt as though she had discovered the talent she had been searching for.
Certainly, Osten’s presence would one day become Olicia’s sharpest sword.
Osten also had an amused look in his eyes.
It seemed the princess had immediately grasped something from his advice.
Osten thought that people who were moderately stupid or smart were easy to manipulate.
However, it was the first time he encountered someone who instantly understood his advice.
Even the team members he assembled for grades required him to spend half a day explaining things to them.
So, what kind of results would the connection made by one person between two people bring?
Only one person knew that future.
“Now, I don’t think there’s a need for you to pretend to stutter anymore. We’re not strangers, are we?”
Osten raised one corner of his mouth at Shane’s words and replied.
“…Th-that said, we haven’t met that many times, h-have we?”
“The number of times we’ve met shouldn’t matter to you.”
“……”
As if he’d known all along. A small smile crept into Osten’s eyes as he saw Shane looking at him with a mischievous glint in his eye.
“Well, it’s still a bit embarrassing. This is the first time I’ve shown this side to anyone.”
“Of course. You’re a cautious person.”
“Hmm… If it’s not my imagination, you seem to know a lot about me.”
“It’s not your imagination. I pride myself on understanding you better than anyone, even more than the famous first princess.”
“Haha. This is interesting. Even though we have exchanged a few words so far, it is difficult for me to understand you as a person. It’s like… fog. Yes, like being shrouded in black fog.”
“That’s a close guess.”
“Huh?”
“Osten, do you really believe you have no magical power?”
“.……”
It was an abrupt question, but Osten nodded his head in response.
Osten who was born incapable of using magic could neither sense nor accumulate even a single bit of magical power.
“Yes. I’ve already searched through every ancient book I could find. My body cannot handle magic.”
“I see. But who knows? Sometimes people think they know everything, when in reality, they might have missed something.”
“……”
“If the opportunity arises, I’ll share some information with you on this topic. But for now, how was your meeting with the princess?”
“It was interesting. She was the most interesting person I’ve met after you.”
It wasn’t a lie. His encounter with the princess was something he looked forward to in the future.
Normally, Osten intended to approach politics slowly and carefully, but the meeting with the princess was interesting enough for him to change his own thoughts.
“But why did you introduce her to me?”
“For the second game.”
“The second game…”
He remembered the conversation they had before. It all started during the department test when the challenge was whose thesis would score higher.
In the end, Shane’s thesis received more attention so he was the winner of their first game.
“This game will be much more intense than the last. We are going to cut out the rotten parts of the empire.”
“It sounds quite dangerous for a game.”
“It will be that much more interesting for you. There are factions in this empire that you don’t know of. They are manipulating the empire from behind the scenes.”
“Is that so?”
“The crown prince is nothing more than a puppet under their control. So we need to respond to that in advance.”
Some might dismiss this as just a ridiculous conspiracy theory.
A group controlling the largest country from the shadows?
But Osten didn’t think so.
Groundless conspiracy theories are just people’s delusions, but this person is different.
Shane was already connected to the death of Count Salier, and he was even connected to the imperial guard knights in the Mezaiya Great Forest.
At least to Osten’s keen mind, this didn’t seem like mere delusion.
“I’ll be in touch with you occasionally. Each time, something interesting will happen.”
“Understood. I look forward to it.”
Because it seemed like it would be entertaining just to watch, Osten grasped Shane’s outstretched hand without hesitation.
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