Ch.131[Chapter 131] Entering the Administration

Leonardo felt like he was going to die of embarrassment right now.

The reason this vampire was embarrassed was as follows:

The Night Magician’s explosion spell didn’t discriminate between friend and foe, and everyone caught in the blast immediately lost consciousness in the flash and flames.

Sir Dominic and Unryu Hime merely fainted thanks to Sir Dominic’s quick response, but Plagius and Yekaterina went from critical condition to instant death.

Even the Night Magician who cast the spell disappeared without a trace, not even leaving ashes behind.

Leonardo’s already pale complexion grew even paler.

With the maze breached and all deployed personnel gone, confusion would reign in the Executive branch the moment Sir Dominic regained consciousness.

“…This is actually an opportunity.”

Yet Leonardo somehow steeled his resolve.

He clearly must have formulated some kind of plan.

“In movies, nerds like me always get to shine.”

Cancel that. He was just a young, vigorous youth who didn’t understand the ways of the world.

Leonardo slipped out of the Executive branch and headed to where Sir Dominic had collapsed.

Then he secretly attempted to hack into Sir Dominic’s data.

“Mountain Bridge Marsh’s coding skills are terrible, so there must be traces left somewhere.”

The reason he came outside was because hacking without permission—no, hacking users in general was a crime, so he intended to leave as few logs as possible.

Remote hacking would inevitably leave logs between systems.

Leonardo rummaged through BIN files, CUE files, and ISO files among Sir Dominic’s card information.

Surprisingly, however, there was absolutely nothing related to Mountain Bridge Marsh.

“…How can this be?”

Leonardo delved deeper.

After thoroughly searching through C:/Program_files(X86)/Gachalands/User/Sir_Dominic/Data/Log/00010807/A$�%^543.txt, Leonardo’s complexion grew even paler.

Sir Dominic had not joined hands with Mountain Bridge Marsh.

It had all been a misunderstanding.

…

“My goodness. How am I going to fix this?”

Leonardo nervously bit his nails and darted his eyes around.

Coders should not get involved with users.

While not strictly enforced, it was an unwritten rule approaching a maxim.

Coders should not provide information or items to users.

And coders should not violate users’ information or provide users’ information to others.

Leonardo had violated the second law regarding personal information protection and security.

If that were all, he might have been able to get by with just an apology, but the moment it was revealed that the information about Sir Dominic was a misunderstanding, Leonardo had essentially committed crimes including incitement to murder and spreading false information.

An experienced coder would have calmly negotiated compensation and paid for their crimes, but for Leonardo, still a novice, this was something he had never experienced and never even thought he would experience, so he was simply at a loss.

What should I do, what should I do?

Leonardo clutched his head, overwhelmed by embarrassment and confusion.

Should I just leave? Could I get away with pretending not to know?

Leonardo thought this as he looked around.

And then his eyes met Alice’s, who was staring at him with bright, attentive eyes.

“…!”

Leonardo couldn’t breathe for a moment.

He stumbled backward and landed ungracefully on his behind.

He looked just like someone caught at a crime scene.

“W-w-w-why—”

How could she be standing there perfectly fine after that explosion?

Leonardo was so flustered he couldn’t even speak properly.

But he regained his composure slowly as he realized Alice was young and was Sir Dominic’s equipment.

Vampires, who could live eternally with enough effort, could roughly estimate someone’s age just by looking at their bloodline.

Of course, Leonardo’s blood vessel fetish played a part too, but that’s not particularly important information right now.

Also, he was a coder.

He noticed that some of the data values he had just seen while searching through Sir Dominic’s data were connected to information visible from Alice.

Combining all this, Leonardo realized that Alice was a child and Sir Dominic’s equipment.

“What are you doing to my master?”

Alice asked with pure hostility.

Of course, being a child, she wasn’t fully murderous, but it was enough to send chills down Leonardo’s spine.

“Well… the truth is, I made a mistake.”

Leonardo readily admitted his wrongdoing.

It was the unconscious result of his father’s teaching that denying what had already happened would only lead to greater punishment.

“A mistake?”

Alice tilted her head.

“What mistake about my master?”

“Well—”

Leonardo considered whether he should give Alice a brief explanation, but then closed his mouth.

He thought it would be better to explain after Sir Dominic woke up rather than telling Alice.

“I’ll tell you when Sir Dominic wakes up. …Do you like ice cream, by any chance?”

Leonardo casually asked Alice.

After all, Alice was a human who had become Sir Dominic’s equipment.

That meant their trust was very strong.

If so, it wouldn’t hurt to get on Alice’s good side.

Who knows? Alice might advise Sir Dominic favorably.

That was Leonardo’s strategy.

“But… my mom told me not to go with strangers…”

“We can bring Sir Dominic along too. Then you’ll have a guardian with you, so it should be fine, right?”

Leonardo was desperate.

What he had done believing it was right was now at risk of making him a criminal due to a single misunderstanding.

To make things right, he needed Sir Dominic’s forgiveness.

“…Okay!”

Alice nodded.

She wanted ice cream, but didn’t want to be separated from Sir Dominic, so Leonardo’s proposal sounded reasonable to her.

Perhaps because she was still a child, Alice smiled brightly at the thought of eating ice cream.

“Let’s go! I’ve been wanting to try a triple-decker ice cream!”

Alice shouted to Leonardo, carrying the collapsed Sir Dominic and Unryu Hime on each shoulder.

“Huh? Y-yeah.”

And Leonardo’s shoulders narrowed at that tremendous strength.

It definitely wasn’t because he felt intimidated.

Leonardo comforted himself with that thought.

…

And so Leonardo and Alice entered the Executive branch.

Now that he knew Sir Dominic had no connection to Mountain Bridge Marsh, Sir Dominic was no longer an enemy but an ally to protect.

Above all, in the current Executive branch defense situation, if Sir Dominic were to help, it would be a tremendous asset.

Leonardo bought a triple-decker ice cream from a vending machine and handed it to Alice.

“Here’s the ice cream I promised. Now, I need to think about something for a moment, so could you give me some time alone?”

“Sure!”

Alice strode down the corridor of the Executive branch and sat down next to the bench where Sir Dominic was lying.

Leonardo, watching her, clutched his head.

He wasn’t suffering because he had committed a crime.

The people of Gachalands were clear about making and breaking relationships.

He had already formulated compensation plans and negotiation terms for his own punishment.

What plunged Leonardo into such self-loathing was… embarrassment.

The kind of embarrassment that makes you kick your blankets in frustration.

It takes great courage to step forward in the name of justice.

But what if that act of justice was actually based on a misunderstanding and was just your own blunder?

That self-loathing is indescribable.

That was Leonardo’s current state.

Leonardo’s pale face turned red as he covered it, struggling in self-loathing.

“Master! You’re awake?”

That’s when it happened.

Sir Dominic sat up abruptly and began looking around.

Sir Dominic’s eyes met with the embarrassed vampire Leonardo.

“…Sir Leonardo?”

Oh, for heaven’s sake.

Leonardo felt even more self-loathing at the fact that Sir Dominic recognized him.

…

“So… you thought I had joined hands with Mountain Bridge Marsh?”

Sir Dominic heard about the misunderstanding from Leonardo.

And nodding, he said:

“Certainly. Since you said the Executive branch is under attack, it’s understandable that you would misinterpret.”

Sir Dominic thought Leonardo’s misunderstanding was justified.

“But I will compensate you. By the way… why did you come to the Executive branch?”

Leonardo promised compensation to Sir Dominic and then asked why he had come here.

“My equipment disappeared due to server issues during enhancement.”

“Ah.”

This time Leonardo nodded.

Before the current Executive branch defense began, part of the Executive branch building had been blown away due to Mountain Bridge Marsh’s surprise terror attack, causing the server to be rolled back.

He must have been caught in the aftermath.

“I can help you with that.”

Leonardo said with a confident posture.

“It would be better if I fixed it than if you petitioned the Executive branch.”

Indeed, it might be better to entrust it to a reliable coder than to worry about the Executive branch’s slow response.

From Leonardo’s position, this was not a bad proposal either.

Hacking was a crime, but fixing code with consent was legal.

However, for Sir Dominic, who didn’t know the full details of the incident, Leonardo’s behavior came across as an uncomfortable favor.

Should I accept this? he was thinking.

“Won’t you please leave it to me?”

Seeing Sir Dominic’s hesitation, Leonardo began to beg pathetically.

“Please.”

Leonardo was desperate.