Chapter 227: The Witch’s Song (3)
“I don’t think that’s what Atillina showed us.”
Morning smiled with satisfaction and opened her mouth.
Behind her, black smoke was still billowing from the window, making her look like a villain to anyone who saw her.
As if encouraged, Lourens straightened his shoulders.
“Yes. Lord Marquis Wiseman Magic’s sleep spell was so powerful that I couldn’t hear what she was saying. It’s just…… the communication from the navy was a little strange.”
“Strange?”
Morning tilted her head.
They had received communication that His Majesty the Emperor had given orders to them and the Empire’s Loengreen through his two birds.
The current Emperor, who was called the Iron-Blooded Emperor in the past when he ruled actively, was so merciless.
He had been quietly stepping back for a while, so he was called the Reclusive Emperor.
The fact that such a man had publicly reappeared was enough to shake the Empire.
It was questionable whether the communication from the navy, which was moving at the emperor’s command, could be strange.
“They were too kind.”
Lourens smiled bitterly and scratched his cheek.
“……It’s His Majesty’s order, of course they’re kind, aren’t they?”
Morning tilted her head.
Perhaps because she wasn’t directly involved in the actual work, she couldn’t immediately understand what Lourens was saying.
On the other hand, Cain roughly guessed and smiled bitterly.
[‘Summer’ laughs at how humans are always like that no matter what the situation. Back in our day, the universe━]
[‘Winter’ hurriedly cuts off Summer’s message. She says that the automatic translation doesn’t seem to be working properly because the World Line Fixation is calculating, and tells him to watch his mouth.]
[‘Summer’ covers his mouth with both hands and nods.]
It seemed that the sacred treasures also guessed what Cain was thinking.
Cain lightly put his arm around Lourens and looked at him.
Elena, Olivia, and Morning, who seemed completely unaware, looked back at Lourens.
“Other forces are like that, but the navy is particularly exclusive. Especially when it comes to our intelligence, they get really nasty.”
“Nasty?”
“For example, if we have to deliver the operation tomorrow, they will deliver it one minute before midnight tomorrow. They deliberately don’t call us the intelligence department, and they call us ‘little rats’ under the pretext of security━.”
The conflict between the Imperial Navy and the Special Intelligence Division began to pour out of Lourens’s mouth.
To see it pouring out like this, it seemed like it wasn’t just once or twice.
“But this time, the communication was too polite. So I knew right away. The guy who’s delivering this has something up his sleeve.”
“…….”
“No matter how much it’s His Majesty’s order, there’s a tone of delivery, and it was strange that it was too kind.”
The three who were listening slowly opened their mouths, and Morning, as if she was dumbfounded, brushed her hair back and asked.
“You guys and those guys are amazing for finding it strange because of that. You’re all from the same empire, why are you like that?”
“That’s…… we’re a little…”
When Lourens averted his eyes slightly, Morning’s eyes narrowed.
“What. What did you guys do.”
The Special Intelligence Division is an independent organization of the Imperial Family, and the highest authority is the Emperor, but the actual person in charge is the Administrative Duke, Morning.
The problem is that her position is too high for her to know such details.
Therefore, most of the work of the Special Intelligence Division was decided and moved at the level of Lourens.
“No, the navy guys were being so annoying, so we gave them a little taste of their own medicine.”
He was just like a child being scolded by his parents, listing all the things he had suffered from the Imperial Navy, but hiding what they had done.
Thud.
Morning grabbed her forehead and leaned back.
“Oh my. I didn’t know that childish guys like you were the Empire’s navy and Special Intelligence Division.”
“You may not know it, Lord Duke, but men are all children, no matter how old they get.”
Lourens said, puffing out his chest confidently.
[‘Summer’ chuckles, saying that the duke is old, but she laughs like a kid.]
Squeeze.
Morning, who was gripping the chair as if she was about to throw it away, turned her head and looked out the window.
She could see that part of the window frame had been broken by the explosion earlier.
The explosion was that terrifying.
It had been a while since it exploded, but seeing the red flames, she could tell how big it was.
“If Atillina or Nicholas had been there…….”
“They would have disappeared without a trace.”
Lourens replied with a grin.
It was as if he was asking her to praise him for noticing this quickly and avoiding it.
Cain, who was listening to Lourens’s words with his lips slightly raised, opened his mouth.
“That means that the ‘Commons’ already have considerable influence within the Imperial Navy.”
“……That’s.”
Morning couldn’t help but agree.
It would be easy if only the Seven Wise Men were the enemy. No, it would be easy even if their merchant city, 〈Delft〉, and the ‘Free City Alliance’ were included.
They were still a clear enemy.
They could mobilize all of the Empire’s magic towers and sword towers and wipe out their land to before the primitive era.
But now she knew.
The ‘Commons’, united by the belief in ‘freedom’.
She didn’t know how far they had spread, feeding on the discontent of the commons, who were everywhere and nowhere.
Moreover, there was no clear head.
Who was the leader?
It was hard to say it was the Seven Wise Men, as it was too wide for them to control, and it was hard to say it was another city in the Free City Alliance, as each city was too specialized.
“Perhaps the Free City Alliance was created according to someone’s intention.”
“Perhaps.”
〈Antwerp〉, the mercenary city for physical strength.
〈Delft〉, the merchant city built with the power of money.
〈Lil〉, the magic city, because they couldn’t miss the mystery.
And the Academy City, 〈Istvan〉, which they were building.
She didn’t know when she saw them separately, but now the empire realized that they were being built for a purpose.
As factories that produce power, money, and knowledge to root the belief in ‘freedom’ on the continent.
“Since they are unidentified and operate like that, there must be many in the empire as well.”
Not only the new aristocracy who were inspired by their ideas, but also the empire’s common people were already sufficient targets.
Lourens also smiled bitterly and nodded.
“Considering that the organization ‘Commons’ itself is loosely organized, and that they are infecting the common people with their beliefs, I think there will be many in the imperial army.”
The empire’s army, divided into the army, navy, and special forces, had more ordinary people than aristocrats.
Naturally, they had a closer relationship with the common people, so they must have infiltrated a lot.
“The navy soldier who contacted me applied for discharge the next day, citing illness.”
Lourens felt something strange and investigated immediately, but there was nothing left.
“What did the navy say? We have to help each other with this.”
At Morning’s words, Lourens turned his eyes.
“I didn’t ask them directly.”
“Why! They’re spies within the empire, we have to catch them.”
“We don’t know how far their influence reaches within the navy.”
“……Geez.”
The Special Intelligence Division were all raised by the empire from a young age.
Although they were small in number, they were the most loyal to the empire, so the ‘Commons’ would not have been able to reach them.
However, the navy was different.
Commoners mainly applied for enlistment and were promoted, so Lourens couldn’t tell how far the ‘Commons’ influence reached.
“But I think it’ll be okay, since the person who came to pick us up is trustworthy.”
Morning frowned.
She tapped on the table as if she didn’t like it.
“Admiral Falkenhausen.”
“Yes. He’s the protector of the Imperial Sea, Admiral Falkenhausen, so wouldn’t it be okay?”
“If it’s that guy…… it’s okay. No, it’s more than enough. It’s not for nothing that His Majesty pulled him out of his eternal vacation.”
Just now, when Lourens was talking about the navy, his face was the same as Morning’s.
“What’s going on with you and Lord Falkenhausen?”
Lourens asked suspiciously.
It couldn’t be helped that they, as the Special Intelligence Division, whose job it was to monitor everything, had conflicts with the existing institutions of the empire.
But not Morning.
What could she, one of the three dukes of the empire and an absolute power, have to do with the admiral of the navy……?
“He told me he’d protect me for the rest of my life when he was young.”
“……!”
Lourens’s eyes widened.
Even Elena, who had read in history books what kind of person Falkenhausen was, was momentarily surprised and covered her mouth.
On the other hand, Olivia, who didn’t know Morning’s real age, tilted her head.
“If he’s the admiral of the navy, that means he’s the top dog in the navy, but is he that young?”
“He’s currently close to 70 years old.”
“Ah, is he the type who likes young girls?”
“That’s……”
Lourens looked back and forth between Olivia and Morning with an awkward expression.
Should he tarnish the honor of the protector of the Imperial Sea, or should he reveal the secret of his superior, Morning?
As he pondered, Cain got up from his seat and said,
“This old lady is a little older than she looks.”
Normally, Morning would have gotten angry at these words, but she reluctantly agreed, given the situation.
“……It was about 45 years ago when he joined the navy and was just promoted to the rank of admiral.”
“Is she an elf by any chance?”
Olivia asked, putting her hands behind her back.
It was a typical movement of the Airian, who wanted to split their head open with an axe just by looking at an elf.
Only Cain, who noticed this, chuckled, and the other Imperials couldn’t figure out why Olivia was acting like that.
“No.”
“Then a witch?”
Olivia asked, putting her hands back to their original position as if relieved.
A witch was better than an elf.
Her older sister was a demon king, so a witch was nothing.
“Not a witch, there’s just something like that! Is this really important right now!?”
Morning shouted in anger and stood up.
Lourens shrank his neck and muttered.
“The reason why the Navy Captain didn’t get married……”
“Hey!”
“No, nothing. Then I’ll go check on Nicholas’s condition on the ship and see when we can leave.”
“But what ship did you put him on? We came by airship, so it must have been difficult to find a ship.”
Morning asked irritably.
If it were Imperial territory, they could have commandeered a navy ship, but it was difficult in Lesbos, a neutral zone.
Even if they found one, it was probably a ship that had been tampered with by the Seven Wise Men.
Excluding such ships, most of the ships were from other places, and the warships they had brought in this situation were already full of navy personnel, so there was no way Lourens would have used them.
Lourens smiled and held up two fingers.
“There was one that was perfect. And didn’t his highness say we should all move together?”
“……The Second Prince?”
“Yes.”
It was certainly appropriate.
He had openly drawn a line with the Seven Wise Men, and the new aristocrats who followed him were being ostracized from the empire, so he was now alone.
And since he was a prince, he would have been on a good ship.
Morning frowned and asked,
“Did that picky bastard give his permission?”
“Well, I kind of told him, so he would have understood.”
Lourens vaguely changed the subject.
Just by looking at him, it seemed like he had boarded the ship for some other reason and left him there.
Cain and Olivia chuckled, realizing that the empire’s Special Intelligence Division, which was surrounded by such tremendous rumors, was more human and haphazard than they thought, but always managed to do well.
And Cain turned his head and looked out the window.
‘Was it really a crime targeting Nicholas?’
He recalled Purple’s purple eyes.
With his eyes becoming more and more stained with madness and murderous intent at the end, it was possible that he had done such a thing, but would he have gone this far just for Nicholas?
Was Nicholas’s value as much as an airport on his scale?
Or was he aiming for something bigger?
Cain grabbed Summer’s handle.
He vowed to get through whatever happened.
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