Ch.596Side Episode – Camilla’s Bizarre Adventure

-Bubble, bubble.

A bittersweet yet savory aroma rolls around in my mouth. Steam rises like a horn from the boiling kettle.

As I carefully tilt the kettle after turning off the heat, the light brown tea swirls into the cup, filling it.

Clatter.

Camilla set the tea set down in front of herself and sat down with a face heavy with fatigue. Alexandra Petrova pretended not to notice, secretly observing her from the corner of her eye.

“They say people grow wiser with age. I guess that was wrong too.”

“…”

A disjointed mutter escaped her lips.

Though Camilla’s words clearly lacked a subject, someone must have felt targeted, as they flinched and their shoulders trembled.

I took a sip of tea and chimed in.

“You’re just being senile. There’s no cure for that.”

“…These youngsters, really.”

The 100-year-old elder—who had actually surpassed 100 years long ago—clenched her fist and began to tremble.

Her bitten lips seemed to express her feelings.

Those feelings clearly meant indignation.

We had no way of knowing exactly why she felt so wronged, but that wasn’t important right now.

“Oh my. Why are you angry, Professor? We didn’t say anything.”

Camilla put on an exaggeratedly surprised expression and made a fuss.

“Could it be menopause?”

“Who would dare such nonsense…”

“Or perhaps—”

Her bright, large Western eyes widened, and with her hands spread wide, covering her mouth,

She confronted Alexandra Petrova head-on.

“It’s not like your student is some medieval serf attached to an estate. You’ve deluded yourself into thinking that as a teacher, you have the right to approve or disapprove of marriages—such an anachronistic mindset that even baby boomers wouldn’t have. You’ve brazenly spouted nonsense that would make people point fingers at you, or even stab you to death with those fingers. Surely you don’t think I actually said such terrible things to you, Professor?”

“N-no, of course not.”

“I knew I could count on you, Professor!”

Side Episode – Camilla’s Bizarre Adventure

In the end, the Grand Duke paid dearly for one misspoken word.

Starting with the outrageous claim “I won’t give away my student,” she faced Camilla’s thoroughly damaged pride and received a scolding too painful to watch.

As if that weren’t enough, I had to hear her worried advice as well.

“Your Highness. Illness is never a shameful secret. Please seek psychiatric counseling at the Imperial Medical Center as soon as you return to the Empire.”

The authority of the North’s great sorceress had fallen lower than a stray mutt running around the neighborhood with a food bowl in its mouth.

Alexandra Petrova left us looking utterly miserable.

“Ugh…”

Gone was her grandeur that had once broken through the embassy window. Her drooping, shuffling figure as she walked away didn’t match the title of Grand Sorceress at all.

She looked more like a former boss who had gambled away his retirement fund on cryptocurrency.

We bid her farewell by cheerfully waving as she departed miserably, holding the property damage claim form from the Abas Kingdom Embassy of the Lu Shan Federation.

“Goodbye! But where are you going, Professor?”

“None of your business, you brat.”

“Aw~ You’re sulking again.”

“Shut up!”

“Travel safely. I’ll send word as soon as new information arrives.”

*

Though the childish Grand Sorceress had disappeared, our worries hadn’t completely vanished.

In fact, we had new concerns to deal with.

At the resort we were using as our lodging.

After returning to the resort, we put our heads together in a serious atmosphere.

“Camilla. Do you remember that incident from before?”

“Which incident?”

“You know, the one at the department store.”

Rolling her eyes as she searched her memory, Camilla finally nodded slightly as if she’d just remembered.

“The Frigia Department Store? You mean those terrorists who paralyzed the communication network with that strange black barrier. The ones who supposedly came from the uninhabited zone.”

“Yes. The one that included that mutt who bit my thumb.”

My neck was yellowish, perhaps from all the recent overtime.

As I changed my shirt, I added:

“Strictly speaking, they didn’t just cut off communications. They were indeed from the uninhabited zone, but it’s a bit complicated because it’s tied to human rights suppression in the Empire and the Kiyen-Abas irregular warfare issues.”

I hung my new shirt on a chair and opened the bag I had placed on the floor.

It was my commuter bag that I carried to the embassy every day.

However, it wasn’t an ordinary document bag.

When I pushed in the small pin behind the buckle on the front with my fingernail, the false bottom moved silently.

Removing that stiff panel revealed all sorts of miscellaneous items.

“The terrorist attack happened last year, but the investigation is still ongoing. And just a few months ago, meaningful interim results came in.”

I pulled out a confidential document envelope from inside.

“This is the report that the joint investigation team forwarded to our company.”

The content was simple.

“They arrested a surviving ringleader from the department store attack, and based on their testimony, military search teams combed the uninhabited zone and found their village. The goal was to secure evidence, which they did.”

Camilla glanced at me while flipping through the pages.

“What was it? The evidence.”

“How should I put this…”

Muttering to myself, I mentioned a specific page to her. Camilla repeated the number and quickly flipped through the report.

Upon reaching exactly that page,

She couldn’t take her eyes off the document for a long while.

After staring intently at the paper, Camilla’s lips opened again to recite the prominently displayed sentence.

“…Overview of the Ageless Peddler?”

The page slipped from her fingers and fluttered.

“They were able to block all external communication and traffic because they used a special magical tool. The exact principle is still unknown, but the Magic Department says such an item could never be created using standardized modern magic.”

I stared at the wall as I buttoned up my shirt one by one.

“The joint investigation team formed two hypotheses based on expert opinions.”

One was that the cargo was developed by demon-folk—that is, the heterogeneous races living in the magical realm beyond the northern Empire.

The other was that the source was a different non-human race knowledgeable about magic, not demon-folk.

Though they seemed different at first glance, the conclusions were similar.

It wasn’t created by human hands.

Camilla looked away from the report and fell into deep thought.

“So this ‘Ageless Peddler’ is the non-human who provided magical weapons for the department store attack? That’s what it means.”

“Correct. That’s the interim conclusion of the investigation report.”

Camilla pondered for a moment.

“…”

There’s a strange sense of déjà vu. A feeling I’ve been having for some time.

Come to think of it, isn’t there something that feels off?

“A peddler who supplied necessities to people in the uninhabited zone and provided items needed for terrorism… A smuggler who smuggled goods to residents in a blockaded area and entrusted suspicious cargo…”

“It’s like a decalcomania, isn’t it? Not perfectly, but still.”

“The structure is almost identical. Like a copycat crime.”

It’s probably not actually a copycat crime.

Because the authorities announced that there was no mastermind behind the terrorist attack a year ago. In other words, it was tentatively concluded to be an act of terrorism by drifters from the uninhabited zone who were dissatisfied with society.

So there’s only one conclusion.

“It’s likely the work of the same perpetrator!”

“Yes. Probably with high probability.”

Camilla exclaimed, slapping the paper. I nodded in agreement.

“The anomaly that occurred near the Great Forest 13 years ago is very similar to the one now happening in the north. And the methods of the ‘Ageless Peddler’ who instigated terrorism using people from the uninhabited zone in last year’s department store attack are almost identical to those of the smuggler who incited the rebels captured in the north.”

“So the suspect who caused the terrorist attack last year is now attacking the north. And they’re a non-human?”

“In the early stages of the investigation, they were only suspected to be a long-lived species. They appeared human but their appearance reportedly hadn’t changed much for over 50 years.”

Of course, we don’t know who this peddler is.

At least not at the time the report was written.

With so many races living in the world, how could they identify one specifically?

Especially a non-human who traveled through the uninhabited zone where information networks barely function.

I guarantee even the CIA couldn’t find them.

“Normally, no one would know who the peddler is, what race they belong to, or what they’re doing now.”

“That sounds like now we do know.”

“The longer the tail, the more likely it gets stepped on.”

Especially in this field.

“From here on, don’t share this with the Grand Duke.”

Camilla nodded.

I pulled out a new confidential document from the bottom of my commuter bag.

“This is an intelligence report on the peddler detected on our line. It’s fresh intel just in from the Eastern branch.”

It was a single telegram from an embassy.

The telegram contained several lines of text.

The fact that the ‘cargo’ used in last year’s department store terrorist attack had been seized by local customs officers.

As a result of tracking the cargo backward, they confirmed it had passed through several smuggling criminal organizations.

Information that these organizations were wanted for illegal weapons distribution, unauthorized magical tool import/export, alchemical drug manufacturing, human trafficking, and child labor.

Also, intelligence that during the inquiry process, they contacted these smuggling criminal organizations and found that elves from the Eastern Great Forest had been trading with them for a long time over the past 15 years to import goods from outside.

In other words,

“Our company’s conclusion is that Eastern elves were behind the department store terrorist attack last time.”

I tapped the report and finished buttoning up around my neck.

It’s a conclusion drawn from repeatedly verified information.

Although the method was clearly different from what the pointy-ears usually employed, the ‘cargo’ seized in the crackdown was definitely ‘that item’ used in the previous attack.

Moreover, we had secured numerous testimonies from smugglers that the elves had tried to smuggle that cargo overseas.

“Whether the pointy-ears are the real masterminds behind the terrorism or not—that’s certainly important from the company’s perspective, but the investigation isn’t my jurisdiction, so I don’t have much to say.”

Besides, what’s really important is something else.

I told Camilla to look at the back page of the telegram.

The paper flipped over, and her curious eyes discovered the memo.

It was simple information.

“The elf who tried to smuggle cargo overseas through criminal organizations has recently left the country in disguise.”

It was information she already knew.

“To the Sheba Islands, on the Mauritani continent.”

*

Waves roll in beneath the grayish-white sky, wetting the white sands of Bahar.

Camilla, who had come to the shore, took a deep breath and exhaled. As her swollen chest deflated, she felt as if her stuffy heart had suddenly cleared.

“…Another foreign country.”

As Camilla walked along the shoreline, no one followed her. Since it was late at night, she could enjoy the beach all to herself.

Her colleagues were all resting at the resort, and she was the only one who had come out here.

Though she had said she was just going for a short walk alone.

Even out here, her thoughts turned to her colleagues.

Francesca was probably elegantly biting into a biscuit, breaking it with a snap, while Lucia sat across from her, drinking the tea she had left behind.

For some unknown reason, the two of them could hardly meet each other’s eyes.

At first, she thought they might be awkward after not seeing each other for a while, but they seemed perfectly fine when facing other colleagues.

That made it even more strange.

She had checked to see if they had fought, but there was no sign of that either.

Avoiding conversation was one thing, but why did they both startle whenever their eyes met?

She never got a proper answer.

No matter how many times she asked what was wrong, they only evaded the question.

Whatever was so surprising, it caused them to clear their throats and choke several times. Cough, hack, ahem.

It wasn’t a round song. With the two of them taking turns doing this, she felt too awkward to press further and ended up leaving the resort altogether.

Akande, lying on his side on the living room floor, was probably watching a documentary about animals frolicking.

Since his only joy was petting animals while resting at the Al-Yabd Temple, he had to make do with watching them through a screen after returning.

And Frederick…

“…”

Her brisk steps suddenly slowed.

How could he never have a day off? How nice it would be if they could all rest together someday.

Though she knew they would all return safely as always, the reality was that worry came first at the thought that they might once again be walking the line between life and death.

The Sheba Islands.

Most likely, their next destination would be there or somewhere related to it.

The professor had sternly warned that this was a northern matter and should be left to her without interference. But human affairs rarely go as planned.

Since Francesca had mentioned she was purifying contaminated land in the southern part of the Mauritani continent, Camilla instinctively felt that no matter where they went, they would inevitably end up in the south.

She hoped there would be no trouble this time.

And her colleague who always got caught up in accidents…

“When we get back, should I suggest going to a resort together… Oh, did he say it was hard to take time off?”

All these thoughts and more.

With so many thoughts flooding her mind, Camilla practically dragged her feet.

This went on for quite some time.

After a while had passed,

As she returned to the resort and lightly climbed the stairs,

A sharp noise suddenly reached her ears.

“Hey! You crazy tattooed pig! Get rid of that thing right now!”

“Too harsh! Precious life!”

Huh?

Along with the shouting, the air seemed to vibrate roughly. Camilla’s eyes widened in surprise.

Was someone fighting?

-Click…

As she opened the door and entered, a familiar voice reached her again. It was Frederick shouting.

He looked half-frantic. His voice, almost a scream, continued as he hid behind the sofa, resembling a cowering mouse.

He was hiding behind the sofa and yelling at Akande.

“I told you I’m allergic to fur, you bastard! Get that thing away now!”

“Allergic?”

“Don’t you know what allergies are? Allergies!”

“Allergies…? Your country’s language. Very difficult.”

“You son of a—”

As Akande tried to take a step, Frederick began to scamper away like someone with burning feet.

And Camilla noticed something small in Akande’s hands as he stood awkwardly.

“…Oh my.”

A cat.

A harmony of brown, black, and white. Large, beautiful almond-shaped eyes that sparkled brightly.

Its round face, so soft you’d want to gently cup it in both hands like a ball, was incredibly cute.

Its raised arms were adorable, while its flexible, stretched waist was the epitome of surreal charm.

How wonderful it would be to tap its pink nose with a finger and nuzzle those lovely, cute lips with one’s cheek.

Looking closely, its eyes were different colors—heterochromia—giving it a mystical quality rarely encountered.

“Oh my goodness…”

Camilla began approaching the cat in a half-crouched position, with her arms slightly extended and her waist and knees bent.

For the record, her smile was so wide it was nearly splitting her face.

“Where did this adorable little one come from? Did Akande bring it?”

“In front of resort. Just staring at gate. When I opened it, followed me in.”

Akande, holding the cat’s paws, answered proudly.

Meanwhile, Frederick was hurling all sorts of curses at him.

“Get rid of that damn beast right now! Please!”

“What crime has this little one committed to deserve such treatment?”

Camilla came to the cat’s defense with a deliberately hurt attitude.

Though she was seeing it for the first time in her life, her voice had already become half-unified with the cat.

Of course, for Frederick, there couldn’t have been a more horrifying situation.

“…If it weren’t for looking pretty, this creature would have gone extinct long ago. Are you cat ladies? Huh? If you like it so much, take it and live outside!”

Amid the shouting, flying profanities,

And desperate wailing,

“Child, you don’t need to raise your voice so much. It’s planning to leave soon anyway.”

A strange voice echoed in everyone’s ears.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Everyone’s gaze converged on one point.

“So, when do you plan to put me down on the ground?”

The cat, with its arms raised wide, wore a subtle smile.