When Selling a Grave, Exclude My Own 2

Alice currently holds multiple identities.

A Second-Class Overseer infiltrating Ruincrest Academy.

The adopted daughter and heir of the prestigious Arbentaine Family.

And also, a cooperator with Coffee Tree, the anti-rebellion faction.

Not a double agent, but a triple agent!

Aside from being a Second-Class Overseer for the Grand Governor of the lower layer or the administrator Rilstia Frostia, her status is already formidable.

However, being a spy is not something one can do without considerable guts. Naturally, it involves carrying out one’s mission amidst nerve-wracking tension, going back and forth between sides, gaining trust, and then betraying that trust to screw someone over – that is the raison d’être of a spy.

But a triple agent.

An ordinary infiltrator would have their head explode and their hands and feet tremble with tension, but unfortunately, Alice was not one to be fazed by such things.

Is it because she designs and prepares for every situation through the super AI auxiliary personality, Theresa?

That’s not it either.

Alice is not someone who takes active steps unless her interest is piqued, and her initiative isn’t that great either.

For that reason, the appropriate stance Alice chose as a triple agent was simple.

Do nothing.

“Alice, we have a secret rendezvous planned with Coffee Tree today…!”

“My father’s eyes are everywhere in the Academy. How can we be so rash? It doesn’t seem like today is the day. Withdraw.”

“Yes, I understand. But…”

“Don’t worry. I think I’ll be able to access the military supply logistics statistics soon.”

“…! Yes, I understand!”

She simply sends away the messenger from Coffee Tree who stealthily approached her disguised as an Academy student.

What are you going to do with the military supplies and capital statistics that the Arbentaine Family is preparing for rebellion anyway?

Report it to the central administration?

Don’t bother.

The layer is basically an intranet structure, so all electronic documents are censored by Arbentaine. Even if you try to go directly outside the layer, you can’t escape Perdain’s eyes, and the same goes for mail.

Even if you use a person to send it directly, there was a higher chance of them dying a miserable death before even reaching the layer elevator.

Then what are you really going to do next week?

She can just make up some excuse then too. If necessary, she can just give them the contents of the useless Family Head meeting.

Frankly, there’s no way the central government will respond no matter what Coffee Tree does.

Alice has already sent any information deemed useful while living as Arbentaine’s adopted daughter. It was calculated that it would take at least eight years for Perdain to properly complete his rebellion preparations, so there was plenty of time.

“Lady Alice… It’s an order from the Family Head.”

After sending away the Coffee Tree messenger, an employee of the Arbentaine Family, disguised as an Academy student, approached Alice a little later.

Was it the Combat Secretary Unit?

The Combat Secretary Unit was mostly former A to B-rank hunters who received a reward that made them devote their lives to Perdain.

Money really does buy anything.

“Hmm? Identify Coffee Tree personnel?”

“Yes, we need to prepare to purge the cowards who oppose the cause. The Family Head has no intention of letting them live.”

Perdain was not a pushover.

He may have assigned Alice the role of a spy, but it was only natural that he was also thinking of annihilating all those who opposed the rebellion if they didn’t cooperate.

Although nothing has been decided yet, Alice thought that it was essential to put pressure on them secretly with Arbentaine’s wealth and connections, and to keep in check the businesses or merchants connected to the opposition.

“I refuse.”

“Lady, are you defying the Family Head’s will?”

Alice smirked and raised the corners of her mouth, wearing a very relaxed expression at the employee who was glaring at her with harsh eyes.

“Do you think those nobles are fools? If I, the heir and adopted daughter of the Arbentaine Family, suddenly offered to cooperate with them, wouldn’t that be incredibly stupid… no, wouldn’t that be more ridiculous than an idiot clowning around?”

“But…”

“Tell Father. Pressuring them now will only make the cowards curl their tails and hide deeper. It’s even more so if you unnecessarily pressure merchants or corporations.”

“Is, is that so…? Then, even the personal information you know now…”

“Are you trying to catch minnows and miss the big fish? Even if you catch a few low-ranking employees or tails, wouldn’t their superiors or the core of the cowards be even more careful?”

At Alice’s eloquent words (excuses), the former hunter-turned-secretary was exclaiming, ‘Oh, so the world of nobles is this disgusting and headache-inducing…!’

Alice, in fact, had no real thoughts at all.

“The pro-rebellion faction may be cowardly, but they are not stupid. I fully understand Father’s concerns, so I am trying to gain the trust of those cowards, but they are avoiding revealing their true identities to me directly. Right now, it is more important to carefully bide our time, gain trust, and examine their true purpose or any possible terrorist plans.”

“Indeed, except for Gresus, the son of the Reikingdon Family, who attacked the Lady in a solo act some time ago, everyone else is being cautious! As expected, you are excellent, Lady. The Family Head will surely praise your intelligence!”

For that reason, Alice was able to ignore Perdain’s urging orders and do nothing again.

“What’s up, sis? That guy looked like he came from the Family just now?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. I just told my esteemed father that I didn’t want to work when he told me to.”

“Ah.”

Taylor nodded with ignorant eyes.

【Human, if it were me, I would not be loafing around but confusing Perdain and the anti-rebellion faction by doing various tasks. It’s not too late now. A multiple spy is originally a job of gaining trust and smashing someone’s head with that trust. It’s not that difficult, so even now…】

‘Ah, it’s a hassle. I won’t do it.’

【Didn’t you say you would do it, Human?】

‘But… it’s a hassle…!’

【Then why did you say you would do it?】

‘Because it looked cool?’

【What is this…】

Although Alice did nothing, the situation in the layer was, funnily enough, turning out quite strangely.

In addition, the central administration analyzed the various data from Arbentaine that Alice had sent and concluded that it would take at least eight years.

Therefore, Alice can spend her time leisurely and comfortably on a super-long-term infiltration mission of eight years.

She can leisurely enjoy her Academy life, which she has never experienced in all three of her lives.

In fact, due to Alice’s tremendous triple agent (?) actions, the movements of the anti-rebellion faction and the Arbentaine Family, who were trying to raise an army for the cause, have recently decreased.

The anti-rebellion faction was anxiously waiting for Alice’s good news, fearing that Perdain and the Arbentaine Family might directly target them.

On the other hand, in Perdain’s case, even cowardly rebels were nobles, and their wealth and connections were capital that could be used for the cause, so he thought it was right to co-opt them if possible, and changed his policy slightly according to Alice’s words.

All Alice did was do nothing, but the expectations of both sides began to affect each other.

The Coffee Tree side said, ‘Arbentaine Family’s movements have changed?’, ‘Oh, let’s be careful…!’, ‘Everyone, be careful!’ and tried to avoid Arbentaine’s eyes.

Perdain, seeing Coffee Tree’s movements, thought, ‘Recently, the movements of the noble families have become passive. Could it be that there are more opposition factions than I thought?! No, maybe they noticed my intention to purge the opposition faction…! Is there a Coffee Tree mole or spy among the employees inside the Family?’ This led to an expansion of his thoughts.

Thanks to this, even though Alice did nothing, a major reorganization and review of the Arbentaine Family’s internal employees and ideological verification took place.

They were all startled by the sight of a turtle, so they were startled by the sight of a pot lid. Even though Alice did nothing, it had a similar effect to doing something great and genius as a triple agent.

【Sigh, do as you please, Human.】

‘Of course, that’s what I was going to do~’

“Now, let’s go eat.”

“Yes, sis.”

“Hehehe, this girl has found a good place.”

Of course, Theresa, who doesn’t know these behind-the-scenes stories, just sighed. Alice just grabbed Taylor and Fira’s hands with a bright smile and left the class.

Over the past few days, Fira has been transferred to Alice’s A-1 class under the name ‘Pyon Dunhill’. With more familiar faces, Alice began to hang out with Fira and Taylor.

Like best friends.

Even Taylor and Fira seemed to have become quite close in the virtual dungeon on the first day. When Alice wasn’t around, they even held hands tightly.

“By the way, you two have gotten a lot closer, haven’t you?”

Taylor and Fira have become suspiciously close over the past few days.

It’s still vivid how Taylor gave Fira an unusual sharp look as soon as she saw her for the first time, but it’s better to be on good terms like this.

“N-No, it’s not! I’m just watching her so that this commoner doesn’t act like she knows you from before!”

Of course, she denies it herself.

At Taylor’s words, Fira, no, Pyon, began to tear up with a hurt expression.

“Heok! Taylor… then, were those precious times and happy memories we spent together all a joke…? Was this girl… just a toy to be used for a moment of pleasure and then thrown away…?”

“N-No, no! Sorry! It’s not like that…!”

It might be closer to a relationship where Fira is unilaterally teasing her, rather than getting along.

In the first place, Fira is a First-Class Overseer who disguised herself as a student and infiltrated Ruincrest layer to see her, so she doesn’t have anything to do anyway, so it seems more fun to tease or play with Taylor.

And in Taylor’s case, she was not originally the heir to the Family and was far from rebellion or serious matters, so it wouldn’t be bad to be close to Fira.

If she’s lucky, she might be able to get a pardon during the Layer Cleansing by rebellion, right?

Of course, Alice herself was planning to spare Taylor and Jess even if she carried out the Layer Cleansing.

‘Ah, right. Come to think of it, what has Marlang been up to lately?’

She’s still wearing a maid outfit and wandering around the Arbentaine residence, and it seems like she’s become quite close to the other maids and servants…

★

★

★

There was a huge facility in the basement of Arbentaine.

It was too big to be a simple warehouse.

In addition, it was equipped with unidentified state-of-the-art equipment, and all sorts of magic circles and magical engineering production lines were installed, so one could vaguely tell that it was an unusual facility.

Originally, there were thousands of overlapping magic circles here that would repel intruders and immediately alert the Family Head, Perdain Arbentaine, if anyone approached, but unfortunately, the person who invaded this place was Marlang.

Who is Marlang?

She is a living immortal girl from the Immortality Factory who completely imitated and copied the body and abilities of Sohi, a former First-Class Overseer.

Coincidentally, Sohi’s ability was ‘Mana Cutter’, and she could cut and destroy all the magic circles, magical engineering magic formation, and magical engineering production line systems just by waving her nails instead of a sword.

Of all people, it was Marlang.

Even if Alice or another First-Class Overseer had invaded this place, Perdain would have noticed immediately, but of all people, Marlang discovered this underground facility.

Marlang also inherited Sohi’s abilities, so she instinctively identified and cut off any magic circles that seemed dangerous. Thanks to this, the Arbentaine’s huge underground facility was only emitting signals that it was still running smoothly without any problems.

“Marlang!”

Marlang explored the mansion, enjoying the joy of discovering a new secret base of her own in the basement, while hiding this fact from Alice.

“Uung, brainwashing? Or not?”

Marlang was able to see thousands and tens of thousands of humans trapped in capsules in the underground facility.

‘Uung, what did Sohi Guild Leader say… Ah! Homunculus!’

The humans in the capsules were artificial human homunculus whose gender had not yet been determined.

All sorts of magical engineering systems and magic circles connected to the capsules were a kind of safety device to give the homunculus knowledge, memories, and self-awareness.

“Uuuuung…Marlang fell into contemplation.

Homunculus.

In other words, artificial humans are one of the Ark’s taboos, so there are all sorts of surveillance and restrictions when manufacturing them.

But what are they trying to use these things for?

Well, Marlang didn’t care.

She felt a strange sense of familiarity with these homunculus friends.

Herself, a product of the Immortality Factory.

And artificially manufactured humans.

Don’t you feel like they have something in common?

“Lots of friends!”

That’s right.

An opportunity to make lots of new friends!

Marlang decided not to miss it.