Ch.595Side Episode – Camilla’s Bizarre Adventure

It didn’t take long to hear the whole story.

A new threat had appeared in the northern part of the Empire. Similar to the previous corpse spider incident, but potentially several times more dangerous.

As it happened, a suspicious figure had been identified as being behind the incident and was demanding information.

Additionally, there was the tattling that it wasn’t her who broke the window, but rather the Archmage’s doing.

That was the inside story of the incident as revealed by Camilla.

“…Sigh. It’s you again? I’m going to have to write an incident report for this.”

“Ahem!”

At the young civil servant’s rebuke, the Grand Duke openly displayed her displeasure.

Her narrowed eyes held the look of a master reproaching a disciple who had betrayed her, but Camilla responded by holding her head high and feigning innocence.

It was a magnificent scene of responsibility-shifting to avoid blame.

Regardless,

Frederick grumbled while pushing aside the glass fragments covering the floor with his foot.

“Anyway, let’s have the Kiyen Embassy deal with this matter later. You said you need information, right?”

“Can you get it for me?”

Sitting in a chair pulled close to the desk, he began tapping it with a contemplative expression.

“I could get just about anything… but this is no ordinary matter.”

Though not a diplomat, he was still a civil servant through and through.

He was saying that interfering in another country’s internal affairs was very burdensome for him as well.

“The fate of the North hangs in the balance.”

Alexandra Petrovna, the Grand Duke of the North, repeated her request in a rather solemn voice.

“If by chance the demons were to advance southward, this would not remain just an Imperial problem but would spread to become an issue for all of humanity. If you help me, I will reward you with whatever you wish.”

“To be honest, right now you should be apologizing rather than offering rewards…”

He meant that breaking another country’s embassy window was not something to be taken lightly.

Of course, that didn’t mean the Grand Duke would adopt a humble attitude.

“…Hmm.”

Looking deep in thought, Frederick modestly clasped his hands together.

His gaze remained fixed on the terminal on the desk.

“……”

After a moment of silence, he opened a notebook and took out a fountain pen, writing something down. Camilla watched him silently.

“Why don’t you two step outside for a moment? I’ll make some calls to people I know.”

“How long do you think it will take? By my estimation, we’ll likely have to wait at least three days.”

The hand writing in the notebook stopped abruptly.

Without taking his eyes off the paper, Frederick slowly put down his fountain pen.

Then, picking up the telephone, he held up three fingers.

“Give me 30 minutes.”

## Side Episode – Camilla’s Bizarre Adventure

After exactly 23 minutes and 50 seconds had passed, the firmly closed office door opened.

Camilla, who had been drinking water from the water dispenser in the corridor, led Alexandra Petrovna across the threshold.

“Did you find anything?”

“Nothing major, just a few small details.”

It was faster progress than expected.

“Several smuggling organizations operating in northern Kiyen have come under suspicion. Not the small-timers who transport pocket change through western ports, but the big players who handle serious money. The ones who employ really big muscle.”

After letting the two into his office, Frederick pushed the door closed and walked back to his desk, casually tossing his mobile phone down.

“However, the prevailing opinion is that these large organizations aren’t the actual forces behind this.”

“Why has that conclusion been reached?”

His explanation was concise.

“Usually, the bigger smugglers know their limits. Paintings, jewels, gold bars with serial numbers removed… they’ll let these things pass, but they absolutely won’t touch illegal firearms, explosive materials, or high-grade military magical artifacts.”

“Why?”

“Because if they eagerly accept everything, they might get indigestion and die.”

Frederick said, bending over to turn on his terminal.

“The guy who made flower arrangements with people is the money man. The one who paid smugglers to transfer goods. Meanwhile, the smuggling organizations are just delivery boys who handle the paperwork and spread some cash around to deliver the goods.”

In other words, they weren’t the actual forces behind it.

They were indeed involved in the terrorism, but they only provided the distribution network without being involved in anything else.

The reason was simple.

“Everyone knows the North has been blockaded for five years due to the conflict with the demon realm. With fences, barbed wire, and checkpoints set up at every route leading to the central region to prevent people from escaping, how could small-time smugglers possibly break through? The small fry couldn’t break through even if you beat them to death.”

“……”

“To transport cargo, you ultimately have to use the transportation networks of somewhat organized smuggling groups. The problem is that they’re merchants.”

If something goes wrong while moving someone else’s goods, they’re in trouble, but business comes before everything else.

Especially when big money is involved.

This is the immutable free-market economic logic that rules the underworld.

“Whether they’re revolution-loving terrorists, drug dealers looking to make big money, or just immigrants looking for work, they’re all cash cows in the eyes of large organizations.”

“The cost of using northern distribution networks isn’t cheap, but they’re paying generously? When your pockets are tight, what can you do… no matter how suspicious, you have to pass it along and at least get your cut…”

“The ones caught this time are all like that. Criminal organizations on the verge of collapse without even enough funds to keep operating.”

According to his additional explanation, the smuggling organizations likely involved in the terrorism had one thing in common.

“What’s that common factor?”

“Their turf.”

He answered, rising from under the desk.

“They were originally smuggling organizations operating in the North. When the blockade was imposed across the North after the conflict broke out, their money lines were all cut off. And what little remained was taken over by foreign competing organizations while they were fleeing the conflict.”

That, he said, was why the smuggling organizations were struggling to survive.

As the explanation continued, Camilla easily pieced together the puzzle.

The route through which he had obtained the intelligence was likely a new smuggling organization that had successfully expanded into the North recently—the “Palm Tree Company” operated by the dark elf Hormoz, whom she had met before.

Camilla knew that the dark elf was working as his informant.

It had been that way from the beginning.

The Palm Tree Company, which she first encountered in the North, was just beginning to establish a new distribution network, but taking advantage of the chaotic situation caused by the conflict, they had cleared out the native smuggling organizations and now completely divided the northern black market with another organization.

That connection had continued for months, extending to the Mauritani continent, so Camilla couldn’t help but know about it.

Of course, Frederick did not reveal that the Palm Tree Company was the source of the intelligence.

Nor did he mention the background that the native smuggling organizations, pushed out by competition with the Palm Tree Company, were deeply involved in this incident.

Likewise, the fact that the informant against the native smuggling organizations was the dark elf Hormoz, owner of the Palm Tree Company, was also strictly kept secret.

Therefore, Camilla decided to quietly keep her lips sealed.

“…I too am aware that new criminal organizations are disrupting the North.”

Alexandra Petrovna carefully nodded and began to speak.

“But what I asked of you was not such trivial news.”

“My, you’re quite impatient.”

“Weren’t you the one who said you found something?”

“Well, yes, but…”

The Grand Duke’s interest was focused solely on one individual.

The villain who had extended their evil hand to the North while she was away.

Her only purpose was to discover that person’s identity, and compared to that, the circumstances of smuggling organizations were of no concern whatsoever.

At her gentle urging to get to the point, the civil servant held his words for a moment.

As he tapped his phone against his palm, Camilla instinctively realized he was deliberating.

Perhaps he was worried that his information network might be exposed because of this. Maybe even his own identity could be revealed.

Though she couldn’t know the exact circumstances, Camilla knew Frederick better than anyone.

So she trusted and waited.

“…This information requires additional investigation.”

After a while, the information officer began to speak again.

“Word from the Mauritani continent is that the elves’ movements are suspicious.”

The Archmage, who had been listening quietly, tilted her head.

“The desert elves? Do you mean dark elves?”

And then,

“No. Not the black ones, the white ones.”

The information officer firmly shook his head.

“The pointy-eared ones from the Eastern Great Forest are acting suspicious.”

*

It was quite some time later when the Grand Duke, lost in thought, finally spoke.

“…The Great Forest. Not exactly welcome news.”

A heavy voice settled over the gathering. It was a profound tone she had never heard before.

“The Great Forest elves? What exactly is that, Professor?”

“They are external enemies. Unlike the desert dark elves, they have a long history of fighting against the Empire. An old grudge dating back to the Eastern Great Expedition.”

The Grand Duke’s expression had never been so dark. At least not that Camilla knew of.

She seemed entangled in a troublesome matter.

A very troublesome one at that.

Unable to contain her curiosity, Camilla’s gaze turned to the other person. And Frederick, as if he had been waiting for this, naturally took the baton.

“They’re an elven species that inhabits the Eastern continent. They live in an enormously large forest called the Great Forest and are famous for having absolutely no interaction with the outside world.”

Like natural beings disconnected from the secular world?

Muttering to himself, he continued his explanation.

“Originally, when people here say ‘elves,’ they usually mean the desert dark elves. Historically and practically, they’ve been active externally, managing the East-West trade routes. In contrast, the Great Forest elves have kept their doors locked and kept to themselves for a long time.”

“Why?”

“That’s complicated to explain…”

Tap, tap. His typing fingers were indifferent.

“Unlike the elves you know, Camilla, the elves in this region have a very aggressive aspect. From the Great Forest’s perspective, that is. They’ve been severely persecuted for hundreds of years.”

“Like the Jews?”

Frederick nodded slightly, his gaze fixed on the terminal.

Unlike the dark elves who enjoyed money games and got along well with humans, the Great Forest elves hated humans, he said. They always had.

“In a very distant past, when slave markets were legally operated, elves were traded as high-value commodities. This was naturally the case in the East adjacent to the Great Forest, and I learned it was similar in the West as well.”

From that brief explanation, Camilla couldn’t help but think of the word “slave trade.”

She didn’t need to hear more to understand the situation.

As all history proves, the cries of those yearning for freedom have always resonated powerfully.

Frederick addressed Alexandra Petrovna in a calm voice.

“As far as I know, there’s a relic from that time preserved in the Imperial Museum, right? A taxidermied elf. The one made by the Iron Duke during the First Eastern Great Expedition.”

“To be precise, it’s kept in storage. What museum director would proudly display the skull of another species?”

“Yet they have no problem displaying the flintlock muskets used to burn down the Great Forest, how hypocritical…”

Anyway.

After briefly pausing, Frederick began his explanation again.

“After the Great Forest was largely burned during the Third Great Expedition, they remained quiet for hundreds of years, occasionally hunting humans who entered their territory or carrying out minor terrorist acts. But recently, several elves have reportedly reappeared on the Mauritani continent.”

Alexandra Petrovna’s lips parted.

“Where were they sighted?”

“Near the Sheba Archipelago in the southwest, they say.”

Frederick brought a map and showed the two the archipelago. Red lines drawn with a fountain pen connected from the northern part of the Mauritani continent to the southwest.

The Archmage, who was carefully examining the lines, began to emit curious sounds.

“Hmm… The Sheba Archipelago, I’ve heard of that place. They call it the Green Desert, don’t they?”

“Have you been there?”

“I’ve only heard of it. But why have the elves appeared there?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet.”

However.

“I hear the Sheba Archipelago is home to peculiar native monsters. The ones we’ve all seen before.”

“…Corpse spiders?”

He nodded affirmatively at Camilla’s murmur.

The Great Forest elves who were at odds with the Empire. The Sheba Archipelago where corpse spiders lived.

And the suspicious movements of several elves detected by the information network.

All circumstances pointed to one place.

“I just received a dispatch from the Eastern Foreign Ministry.”

Frederick unbuttoned the top button of his jacket and sat back down.

And in a rather serious voice, he said:

“I asked if there were any cases among victims attacked by Great Forest elves that showed symptoms similar to this situation. If so, I requested they send me the data.”

“The result?”

His busy typing on the terminal stopped, as if looking for something.

“There was exactly one case, they said. The record is over ten years old, so it’s in terrible condition, but…”

He turned the screen toward the two.

In the screen illuminated by blue light was a very old document.

It was a photograph of a person.

More precisely, something that ‘had been’ a person.

Red flesh protrusions from the back. Using these grotesque flesh protrusions firmly fixed to the grass as pillars, a human lying facing the sky.

The body, standing in reverse, spread its arms wide and quietly shed tears.

“……”

“……”

“Well, does it look similar to what you saw directly?”

There was no need to see more.

*

The outline had emerged.

“Well, I’ll need to verify through additional investigations… but for now, it seems an elf is behind this. You’d be wise to follow this lead.”

Frederick said he would make time to investigate personally. He meant that he would formally request an investigation from the Abbas government, but if approval wasn’t granted, he would investigate alone.

The Grand Duke expressed mild gratitude.

“I’m pleased that you at least say so. It won’t be easy to gather information, so how should I reward you?”

“Haha, it’s nothing.”

He smiled broadly, burying himself in his chair.

“In this field, a few phone calls can uncover drug dealers hiding like rats, or even conversations between ambassadors gathered at some fairy house. That’s just what diplomats do.”

You mean intelligence officers, not diplomats.

Camilla grumbled inwardly with a sulky expression, but she didn’t make the mistake of carelessly voicing it.

Though he pretended it was nothing, the words “I won’t accept any reward” would never come from Frederick’s mouth. It was an implicit signal that he expected to be compensated.

Despite saying it was just a few phone calls, his attitude clearly suggested that since he had put in the effort, he expected payment—an attitude that could almost be called highway robbery.

Though he dismissed it as ‘just’ a few phone calls, he must have invested considerable time building his information network.

Anyway.

“Yes. Then what would be good…”

Regardless of the outcome, the Grand Duke was a person who always kept her word.

Help is help, regardless of size.

Then it is only right to willingly pay the price.

Alexandra Petrovna began stroking Camilla’s hair as she sipped tea beside her. It was a habit of hers that occasionally emerged when she was lost in thought.

“Is there anything in particular you desire?”

“Nothing specific. I’ll gratefully accept whatever you give me.”

“Well, anything at all…”

There could hardly be a more perplexing request in the world.

Her hand, stroking the fluffy hair, seemed deeply contemplative.

As if facing a difficult problem after a long time, the Archmage sank into thought with a careful gaze.

Meanwhile.

Frederick, who had been staring at the grotesque photo on the terminal screen, muttered to himself in a small voice.

“…Hmm. This scene looks familiar somehow…”

It was a puzzling voice.

Just as he was tapping his cheek with his chin resting on his hand, making troubled sounds as if trying to recall someone seen in a dream, the master who had been stroking her disciple’s hair suddenly spoke.

“…Wait. Let me make this clear in advance, just in case.”

“Ah, yes? Yes, what is it?”

“I won’t give you my niece’s daughters.”

“?”

“Of course, I won’t give you my precious disciple either. So wake up from that dream.”

“?”

Frederick turned his head sharply to look at the Grand Duke.

His eyes said, “What nonsense is this?”

And,

“…? What did you say, Professor?”

Camilla, whose hair was being stroked, suddenly raised her gaze to glare at Alexandra Petrovna.

Why is the professor saying such things? What’s with suddenly talking about marrying me off?

It was an incredibly bewildered look, as if asking that.

“……”

Alexandra Petrovna’s expression was infinitely serious. Even as everyone else had question marks floating above their heads, she remained very, very serious.

Like someone who had just remembered something they had forgotten for a moment.

Ahem!

Clearing her throat, she very seriously,

Uttered strange words that made no sense whatsoever.

“Why, it happens. Men who are so captivated by legends or tales that… they make unreasonable requests.”

Such as marriage proposals.

As if his thinking had momentarily stopped.

After repeatedly blinking for a while, the civil servant finally found his voice.

“What on earth…?”

“Ah! I’m just saying this just in case. Just in case! Consider it me setting boundaries in advance.”

Before he could finish speaking, the Archmage raised her voice without warning. Looking at him with somewhat suspicious eyes.

In fact, rather than looking, “glaring” would be a more appropriate expression.

Speechless at the absurd warning, Frederick stumbled over his words for a while before eventually muttering in a dumbfounded voice.

“Um, uh, Grand Duke? For someone who has spent her life rejecting every man who approached her, to suddenly say such…”

Just as criticism about what senile nonsense this was about to pour out.

The Grand Duke’s hand, which had been sitting quietly, paused.

Her back twitched.

“…Let me emphasize again, it’s not allowed.”

Alexandra Petrovna held Camilla in her arms as if to hide her.

And,

With twitching shoulders, she added:

“…Naturally, that includes me as well.”

“Seriously, Your Highness, you should see a doctor.”

=

At this point, let’s take another look at Alexandra Petrovna.

Ah,

Simply…

Absolutely Able.