Ch.173173. War Preparations

When Leila returned to Bismark for Johnson and Roel’s funeral, Gilbert secluded himself in his room to organize the current situation. He needed to contact the Lithuanian Count about deploying the Golden Mane, but first he needed to sort through his complicated thoughts.

He calmly sat at his desk and spread out the materials he had received from Leila. Though the bloodstains on them invited distracting thoughts, he deliberately cut them off.

Looking at these bloodstains would only bring self-destructive guilt and remorse anyway. He had already done enough of that, and even when he wasn’t consciously dwelling on it, it often appeared in the form of nightmares.

Now was the time to invest in productive work rather than self-deprecating thoughts.

Gilbert pushed aside materials he deemed relatively less important. While having abundant information was good, indiscriminate data would only hinder his judgment.

He began selecting materials that seemed related to Horizon to determine his goals and intentions. Since he had already completed the initial sorting when he first received the materials, this secondary classification was completed relatively quickly.

Gilbert began analyzing about ten pages of what he considered the most crucial information.

Though grandly referred to as “materials,” they were more accurately a collection of writings somewhere between essays and diary entries. They lacked formal structure and organization. They appeared to be written chronologically but haphazardly, likely in an attempt to organize complex thoughts.

Fortunately, befitting someone called the Great Sage, the writings were quite readable despite their disorderly sequence. Gilbert thought this was partly due to Horizon’s nearly calligraphic handwriting.

He sat there for hours without moving, reading the materials. Except for occasionally picking up a quill pen to note down realizations, he focused solely on reading.

By the time his parchment was filled with notes, he had read through all the materials, including those of lesser importance. While the truly critical information wasn’t explicitly written down, it still greatly helped in understanding Horizon’s objectives and behavioral patterns.

Gilbert stretched to loosen his stiff body and leaned back in his chair. Discovering a MacGuffin that was unknown in the world before his possession was a significant achievement.

It would greatly help in determining future direction, and now that he understood Horizon’s objectives, he could formulate appropriate countermeasures.

With deepened eyes, he read the large phrase he had written at the top of his notes.

Horizon is a descendant of the Lion King.

The MacGuffin explaining why he gave the sub-quest related to the Lion King’s mana cultivation in the game.

This was the reason.

***

The Lion King was widely known as the monarch of a kingdom that had nearly unified the continent. This wasn’t just a legendary tale passed down orally.

As a man who had attempted to seize this vast continent, he left a significant mark on the continent’s history, traces of which could be found in the literature of various countries.

The place where he spent his childhood and his growth process.

His level of martial prowess, his decisiveness on the battlefield—though perspectives varied slightly, there was a common phrase written about him:

Born as an emperor by birth.

Perhaps his ambition for the continent was beyond coincidence and necessity—it was destiny.

<The Life of the Lion King – by Horizon>

Gilbert skimmed through the historical book about the Lion King authored by Horizon, which had been placed on Seraphina’s desk, then put it down. This was the book he had written to receive a sub-scenario shortly after entering the Academy.

At that time, his sense of this world being reality was somewhat lacking, so he had approached Horizon with a relatively light heart, under the pretext of confirming knowledge he already possessed.

Fortunately, as he had expected, Horizon gave him the sub-scenario, and he was able to smoothly acquire the Lion King’s mana cultivation technique, Lion Heart, and CT-777 as planned.

But even then, he had found Horizon’s hypersensitive reactions strange. If the blood of the Lion King flowed in his veins, such excitement wasn’t unusual.

If Horizon was indeed his descendant, then he had every right to be angry when Gilbert had excessively disparaged the Lion King to receive the sub-scenario.

After all, even if unintentional, what Gilbert had done was essentially insulting someone’s father.

“Are you saying Horizon is a descendant of the Lion King?”

“Whether he’s a son, grandson, or a distant descendant, I can’t know for certain, but that’s my estimation.”

“Ha. I thought he was just a long-lived old monster. He turns out to be an even bigger figure than I imagined.”

Seraphina snorted and absorbed every word of Gilbert’s report without missing a single letter. Horizon had been a professor at the Academy with the title of Great Sage since before the previous emperor’s time.

She had always known that behind his whimsical appearance, he was hiding something, but she never imagined it would be a determination to become like his ancestor, the Lion King.

Even in the parchments presumed to be written by him, he wasn’t foolish enough to leave specific plans.

He was that meticulous.

“Then, what do you think this old monster Horizon would do first to become like the Lion King?”

“He would need to obtain what symbolizes the Lion King.”

“The symbol of the Lion King. Are you referring to the Lion King’s sword?”

“More precisely, the sword and the Lion King’s giant soldier.”

“Giant soldier… You surely mean the Colossus?”

“That’s right.”

Gilbert nodded readily while carefully observing Seraphina. In the game, obtaining information about the Colossus required completing numerous quests, but Seraphina seemed to know more about it than expected.

Then again, since the information obtained through linked quests came from the empire’s upper nobility, it would be strange if Seraphina, first in line for succession, didn’t know about the Colossus’s existence.

Seraphina appeared to think for a moment before sighing deeply. This was unusual for someone who rarely showed weakness.

“Is something troubling you?”

“I feel somewhat tired. I thought my task was simply to eradicate the New Resistance, but now it has become a matter of stopping an old man’s continental conquest ambitions.”

Gilbert realized that Seraphina’s fatigue level had increased. In Tactical Combat, there was a fatigue system where parties that were overused sometimes couldn’t perform to their full potential.

Now that it had become reality, there was no way to see the fatigue system, and Seraphina was never available as a companion character anyway, but he could tell at a glance that she was showing extreme fatigue.

She was probably overexerting herself due to the recent storm of the current emperor’s declaration of the successor competition.

Gilbert watched Seraphina pressing between her eyebrows for a moment before approaching her. Normally, approaching royalty was only possible with their permission, but given his past merits, Gilbert was an exception, at least with Seraphina.

“Hmm? Disciple. Do you need something?”

“Excuse me for a moment.”

Gilbert, now standing behind Seraphina who had closed her eyes, lightly loosened his hands. He intended to use the massage technique he had shown to fatigued colleagues during his active duty days.

“What are you suddenly doing behind me…eek?!”

The moment he placed his hands on her shoulders, a shrill sound escaped Seraphina’s lips. It was hard to believe such a sound came from someone who always maintained elegance and dignity, but currently, only Seraphina and Gilbert were in the office.

Gilbert was also startled by this unfamiliar side of Seraphina and stepped back, but tried not to show his surprise.

“How dare you suddenly place your hands on my shoulders without thinking!”

“You seemed tired, so I thought I’d give you a massage…”

“Even if you are my disciple, touching my body without permission is unacceptable. Withdraw at once!”

Gilbert realized his mistake seeing Seraphina’s unexpectedly sensitive reaction. Due to the sub-scenarios and her usual attitude, he had forgotten that she was originally a woman befitting a monarch, armed with cold reasoning and a sharp presence.

Though she appeared as a helper to the protagonist character Ian, she drew an invisible line and didn’t allow anyone to cross it. This remained true even after becoming Professor Briana’s exclusive disciple through a sub-scenario.

How surprised had he been when, after possessing this body and becoming Professor Briana’s exclusive disciple, she told him to call her “Master”?

Besides that, whenever she reduced the distance and approached him aggressively, unlike the distance shown in the game, he had been perplexed more than once.

Because of this, Gilbert had thought to give a massage to the tired-looking Seraphina, but apparently he had been too casual with royalty.

He reminded himself deeply once more that the world he had possessed was a medieval era with a living class system. His comfortable lifestyle was only possible because he was the eldest son of a prestigious count family.

If he acted too casually in their master-disciple relationship and was charged with insulting royalty, he wouldn’t receive the same treatment as now.

Of course, they wouldn’t discard Gilbert in such a way given his excellent usefulness.

“I will be more mindful. Then, I shall take my leave now, Princess.”

Gilbert deliberately used the official title “Princess” instead of “Master” which he had been using, to create distance. Using titles and honorifics was the best way to maintain formality.

Gilbert bowed to Seraphina and left her office.

“Haah…” Seraphina, who had maintained a stern face until Gilbert left, exhaled her held breath as the office door closed. She instinctively reached for her shoulder but flinched and placed her hands neatly on the desk.

“So the rumors about my disciple being a playboy were true.”

Seraphina realized anew that the rumors surrounding Gilbert in the past were not exaggerated. Judging by how naturally he placed his hands on a woman’s shoulders, it wasn’t a skill acquired from just one or two experiences.

For Seraphina, born of noble blood with extremely limited contact with the opposite sex, it was inevitably shocking. Even those rare experiences were merely allowing her hand to be kissed, so practically there were none.

Normally, a man who touched her royal body without permission would deserve more than a charge of disrespect, but she became infinitely lenient because the subject was Gilbert.

This was unfamiliar to Seraphina, who concealed cold reason behind her smile.

Seraphina, with her strong desire for talent, felt compelled to have outstanding individuals under her command. Therefore, she had ample generosity to overlook some rudeness from exceptional talents.

However, thinking about it, the depth of that generosity was different with Gilbert compared to others. Objectively speaking, Seraphina was soft on Gilbert in many ways.

Evidence of this was how she smiled and overlooked it when he impulsively or deliberately caused trouble and left the aftermath to her. No matter how much Seraphina loved talent, she didn’t normally tolerate such procedural disregard.

Then why was she soft only with him?

Seraphina tapped her desk with her index finger as her contemplation deepened. Of course, the answer didn’t come immediately.

How do I view my disciple?

Seraphina shifted her thinking direction.

If she couldn’t understand why she was soft on Gilbert, she needed to think about the fundamental reason. Depending on how she viewed Gilbert, she could figure out why she was lenient with him.

To Seraphina, Gilbert was an interesting existence.

More precisely, did she feel joy when looking at him?

There was no particular reason. At first, she was intrigued that someone called a good-for-nothing was different from the rumors. Afterward, his unconventional actions caught her eye, and gradually she found pleasure in seeing his heroic aspects.

Seraphina stopped tapping the desk. Simultaneously, her thoughts became clear. She had just found the answer to how she thought of Gilbert and why she was soft on him.

I see, I… Her lips curved into a smile. Not the masked smile she always wore, but a genuine smile from the heart.

The reason Seraphina was always soft on Gilbert.

It was because Gilbert was special to her.

And in the world, this emotion was called:

Affection.

***

[The progress of the sub-scenario “Twisted Seekers of Possession” has significantly increased.]

[The information for the sub-scenario “Twisted Seekers of Possession” has been updated.]

[You have reached the third branch point of the first seeker in the sub-scenario “Twisted Seekers of Possession.”]

[The distortion index of the first seeker in the sub-scenario “Twisted Seekers of Possession” has significantly increased.]

Right, I was wondering when this would happen.

Gilbert sighed and lowered his head at the now-familiar unexpected situation.