Chapter 9

“You killed my subordinate without permission? Without even asking me first?”

This was a blatant overreach.

How could I possibly verify whether the First Point and Second Point had conspired to pin the blame on me if the so-called traitor had been killed without even a chance for cross-examination?

But Sakis Lubas took it a step further.

“Look here, noble one. We’re preparing for a major operation. Even a small slip-up can ruin everything. I’d prefer if you didn’t treat this as a minor issue.”

“Stop exaggerating.”

“We trusted you enough to pay part of the price in advance before the deal. I’m talking about the intel on the Candela Order of Knights.”

Ah.

So that’s how Winter Winslet discovered Josephine’s true identity. It seems like he got it from mingling with the wrong kind of friends.

“I must say I’m extremely disappointed by this incident, and it will cast a long shadow over our relationship.”

There was no reason to keep listening to his unpleasant accusations, so I roughened my voice a little.

“I’ve heard enough. If you’re unhappy with the way I do things, go find your goods elsewhere. And if all you’re going to do is whine, get out of my sight.”

[Warning]

[A death flag has been raised]

Being able to see the other party’s reaction sure was convenient.

It seems like he wanted to kill me.

But after a long silence, Sakis Lubas made the rational choice.

He backed down and said,

“…There was a misunderstanding.”

Was the item involved in this deal really that valuable?

Or maybe Winter Winslet was the only one who could procure it.

“All we want is to recover the goods that traitor bastard smuggled out, as soon as possible. If we receive the promised quantity, we’ll let this whole matter slide.”

“I’ll look into it.”

“That would be much appreciated.”

I had said I’d look into it, but the task turned out to be far more vague than I expected. A courier? A traitor? If it were Winter Winslet, maybe he’d have a clue…. but how was I supposed to know?

So I asked Sakis Lubas,

“Did the traitor leave behind any information?”

“Unfortunately, no. The bastard was so frail that even our finest experts couldn’t keep him alive for long.”

“What a foolish move, screwing everything up. If you’d kept the courier alive, it would’ve made things much easier.”

“…I’ll admit that. But he wouldn’t talk, no matter what we did. A tough bastard for a student.”

That gave me a critical clue.

The courier was likely a current student at the Academy.

Sakis Lubas offered a courteous warning.

“Recover the goods as quickly as you can, but beware of the leeches lurking around.”

“Leeches?”

“Royal spies are sneaking around the Academy. If any evidence of our deal reaches the royal family’s ears, you won’t be safe either. Best to handle this quietly.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Also, we expect the lost shipment from this mishap to be compensated in the next deal. We must secure the promised volume before summer at the latest.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“Then I shall await good news.”

With those final words, the meeting ended.

***

Sakis Lubas opened his eyes like a man waking from a dream.

The musty smell of sawdust, rat droppings, and faint light surrounded him.

He was in a cramped supply storage room.

Black magic really is unpleasant.

He waited until the slight daze from the side effects of the spirit projection spell had cleared. Once his mind felt sharp again, he retrieved the lantern and stepped out of the storage room.

Outside the storage room was the inside of a café.

The place was locked up as if business had ended, and blinds were drawn over the windows.

Only one light was on.

A man wiping glasses behind the coffee bar greeted him.

“Back already, boss?”

“Fire.”

When Sakis Lubas fished a cigarette out of his pocket and placed it between his lips, the man stepped into the kitchen and came back with a lit piece of paper.

He transferred the flame to his cigarette with great care.

Then, without being asked, the man took out a small glass and poured Sakis Lubas a strong drink.

After draining the glass in one go, Sakis removed a ring from his right hand and placed it on the table.

Peering at the ring, the man spoke.

“No matter how many times I see it, it’s still a strange thing. You’re saying that if you wear this ring and fall asleep, you can talk to people far away?”

“It’s not sleep. It’s the soul leaving the body.”

“Isn’t that more or less the same? I once heard that when a person sleeps, their soul leaves through the nose and travels the world like a butterfly.”

“Another drink.”

The short blond man refilled Sakis’s glass with another shot of the strong liquor, poured himself one too, took a sip, and turned his attention to the ring on the table.

“Mind if I try this ring on, just once?”

“Don’t play with it too long. That ring drinks blood.”

“You said it’s imbued with black magic, right? Creepy stuff.”

“Nathan.”

“Yes, boss.”

“Release the captives from the Thieves’ Guild.”

The atmosphere in the room changed at Sakis Lubas’s words.

“Is the guy we interrogated really the culprit?”

“Yes. Baron Winslet has taken full responsibility to resolve the matter.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Bring me the item we received from Baron Winslet.”

The man called Nathan went back into the kitchen and returned this time with a bag.

It was a rectangular, flat bag, about three hand spans wide and two spans long.

When he unfolded it from top to bottom, several stick-like objects resembling chalk were secured to the cloth.

Sakis Lubas picked one out and held it up to the lantern, turning it this way and that.

The stick appeared white at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it shimmered faintly with an iridescent glow. Like the inner surface of an oyster shell.

“This is definitely top-tier quality. If it weren’t for Winter Winslet, there’s no way we could’ve gotten something like this within Lambart.”

“Everything’s going smoothly.”

“But I have a bad feeling about this.”

Sakis Lubas thought about Baron Winslet.

The baron was more arrogant, self-righteous, and coldly perfectionist than anyone he had ever encountered.

It was hard to understand why such a man would keep someone with the potential to betray him as a subordinate.

Moreover, the Baron Winslet he had met today at the Disgard meeting left a slightly different impression from the one he remembered.

People naturally show slight differences in words and behavior depending on their mood each day, but Sakis Lubas decided not to ignore his instincts.

“We must not fully trust Baron Winslet.”

“You think he might be up to something else?”

“I don’t know. But that’s something we can find out from now on. Assign someone to keep an eye on him.”

“Should we place a tail or a watcher?”

Sakis Lubas shook his head.

“No. He’s quite sensitive. If we plant a spy openly, he’ll notice it right away.”

“Then to start, we should probably place a few people inside the Academy. For more direct surveillance, we’d better take a more careful approach.”

“Come to think of it, didn’t your younger brother have a talent for magic?”

“Yes, that’s right. That’s why he received special training when we were still in the homeland.”

“If we send him to the Academy, we can naturally have him approach Baron Winslet. Tell Jamie to start preparing for the Academy’s transfer exam.”

“Understood. He wouldn’t listen to a word I say, but if it’s an order from the boss, he’ll definitely pass the exam.”

Nathan let out a brief chuckle, thinking of his younger brother who couldn’t stand studying, then asked,

“But what if Baron Winslet becomes an obstacle to our plans? If he’s planning to betray us…what then?”

“Then he’ll have to pay the price. No matter the means or method.”

Poison, a sniper’s bullet, or breaking him mentally by abducting and killing those close to him one by one.

“That’s the Longsoniere way, after all.”

***

After finishing the Disgard meeting and returning to the study, the tension eased, and a deep sigh escaped from me without even realizing it.

Hoo…

The smell of alcohol lingered in my breath.

Come to think of it, I had drunk some liquor before using the spirit projection spell.

While I was at it, I poured myself another half glass.

It was to suppress my nerves with the help of the alcohol.

The Heptagram Society and Sakis Lubas.

I’d gotten entangled with the very people I should’ve avoided the most in “Candela of Judgment”.

Today, I had only encountered two of the seven members, but the rest of the Heptagram Society were just as dangerous.

Weren’t they the main culprits behind the major incidents that form the core of the main story in Candela of Judgment to begin with?

I went over each of them in my mind.

First Point, Olivier Ljungberg.

The head of the Thieves’ Guild. He wasn’t one to take initiative, but he was an opportunist who chased profit and stuck his nose into every incident just enough to get involved.

Second Point, Sakis Lubas.

The spy chief of a neighboring nation. He was the first villain to make a major move in Candela of Judgment’s main story.

The chaos in the royal capital began with the terrorist attacks led by his spy unit Longsoniere, making him essentially the root cause of everything.

Skipping the Third Point, Winter Winslet.

Fourth Point, Nerico Resolu.

The leader of a cult operating in secret in the heart of the capital Lambart. He was working to resurrect an ancient demon.

He kidnapped live victims for human sacrifice, and the people who went missing from Lambart every night were all his doing.

Fifth Point, Paul Detouche.

A disgraced former legendary inquisitor.

He was once a hardline cleric ousted from the order due to his extreme dogmatism. He was now building his own faction in distant Laurencia, far from the church’s headquarters, in a bid to reclaim his lost power.

Sixth Point, Papin de Les Tancin.

An archmage of black magic, shrouded in the most secrecy.

The only known fact was that he was preparing a cataclysmic spell capable of destroying an entire nation. No one knew his true identity or his goals.

In Candela of Judgment, any route where his plans weren’t stopped led to a dead ending, which once earned him the nickname “Newbie Crusher”.

Seventh Point, Keith d’Alembert.

A vampire lord.

His goal was to corrupt the political system of the Laurencia Kingdom through infection and seduction, turning it into a nation where vampires could thrive.

Among the members of the Seven Points, he was one of the less destructive ones. But in any scenario where he ended up as the final boss, the entire kingdom would be brainwashed and turned into a blood-extraction factory. So even his rise to power was nothing to be glad about.

Given the kind of people who made up the Seven Points, if one wanted to live a peaceful life, it was best not to get involved with them at all.

But things had already taken a wrong turn since Winter Winslet had opened a deal with the Second Point Sakis Lubas.

If I tried to back out of the deal now, Sakis Lubas would definitely retaliate. But if I kept working with him, it was only a matter of time before the crimes came to light and I received a notice from the Candela Knights.

And in a situation like this, I was supposed to survive and reach an ending as Winter Winslet?

…How amusing.

This was exactly the kind of challenge worthy of someone like me, a longtime veteran of Candela of Judgment.

Now then, what should I prepare first?

Winter Winslet was already a powerful character, but in Candela of Judgment, a boss was ultimately just someone for the player to defeat.

I couldn’t call myself invincible.

So I needed something to cover the gaps.

For example, rare equipment, a powerful summon, or perhaps… a reliable companion.

The first person who came to mind was my fiancée Josephine who possessed S-rank swordsmanship.

I had her wrapped around my finger through a web of seduction, so if I was ever in danger, she would fight for me.

However, if I ever became a target of the Candela Knights in the future, there was no telling what Josephine might do then.

It would be wise to secure multiple allies in preparation for that day.

Candela of Judgment was a strategic game where you could recruit various companions to form a party, and it had numerous named NPCs with unique talents and uses.

Come to think of it, there were a few named NPCs at the Academy where I worked as Winter Winslet.

And as luck would have it, tomorrow was the entrance ceremony for new students at the Laurencia Royal Academy.