episode_0096

One of the Emperor’s temporary residences in Delphy. As befitting an Emperor, he owned several villas in major cities. Oh, the Emperor’s majesty, the highest-ranking landlord among landlords, who are said to be greater than the Creator…!

Those impudent individuals who dared to stick close to Princess Valencia and spy on her were thus dragged into one of the Emperor’s many residences. Lea, who had quite splendidly captured all the despicable spies, showed off her excellent beating skills during the subsequent interrogation, shaking them down thoroughly. Even the spies who initially resisted a bit quickly spilled everything about their surveillance after experiencing Lea’s excellent ‘fist therapy’ and, most importantly, realizing that the person sitting before them was the Emperor.

After the interrogation, Lea approached the Emperor, who was sitting in his room, chewing on his solitude with a tired, bitter expression, like a smoker in desperate need of a cigarette. She said, beaming:

“Old man, please grant your capable disciple one request.” “Yes…. What is your request?”

Her bright, beaming smile completely ignored the Emperor’s complicated mood… Seeing that, the Emperor sighed deeply. However, he thought that Lea, who, despite her lack of manners, was completely transparent, was much better than Leon, who still seemed to be hiding a lot. Looking back, it would be a problem to go to a funeral home and laugh heartily, but Lea knew nothing about Leon, so there was no need for her to empathize with the Emperor’s current mood or be considerate.

“You said you’d let me go soon, right? So, am I going back to the Order? And then attending the Academy as a member of the Order?” “Well… probably. As I said before, you’re only good with your body; your basic education and common sense are ‘at the bottom.’ You need to pass the written exam’s minimum score to attend the Academy…”

For reference, failing to pass the minimum score on the written exam is harder than getting a perfect score, unless one deliberately aims to fail. Even Irha, who is just a pretty stone-head when it comes to written work, managed to pass the minimum score on the written exam. (Of course, it was a bit close.)

“I’ve thought about it, and I’m sure if I go back to the Order and force myself to study for the written exam, I won’t even be able to scrape by. My gut feeling is telling me right now! I’m a person who goes by my mood, so I can’t do horrible things like studying in places I dislike.”

‘Is that something to boast about so brazenly…? The written exam isn’t even difficult to begin with. It’s purely basic.’ The Emperor watched her brazen display, suppressing his urge to scold her, and replied.

“So… what do you want? Do you want me to find you a super-tutor?” Lea promptly replied.

“I found one. So, Your Majesty, just say one cool line to the Order: ‘I’ll keep Lea a bit longer.’ The high-ranking gentlemen of the Order practically faint at your words, don’t they?” “You found one…? What I have to say isn’t that difficult, but when and where did you find a tutor, given that you shudder at the very mention of studying?”

“Ras. I’m going to live as a guest at his house and cling to his side, sticking to him like a cicada on an old tree, sucking everything dry! Heheheh…!!!” The Emperor felt a throbbing headache as he listened to Lea’s strangely explicit and peculiar words. Even though Lea was a temporary disciple with no connection to the Emperor himself, and a rude girl who didn’t respect her master, it was still a bit much for a grown-up young woman to say.

“Oh, why!! You’re thinking strange things! It’s not like that, so don’t jump to conclusions. And honestly, old man, you even lost to Ras in teaching! After one practical session with him, my eyes really opened up. Ugh, tsk!” “……” The Emperor thought that if he continued to be with Lea, his body, which had barely recovered, would completely deteriorate into one that coughed up a bowl of blood every day.

“Got it? Anyway, old man, no, ‘Your Imperial Majesty,’ I’m counting on you. Isn’t it good for both the Empire and the Imperial family if I get stronger quickly! This unparalleled genius, Lea Iorca, I mean.” “Alright, now quickly go back to your room. Your voice is too loud, it’s making my head hurt….” “Oh yeah!!!!!! I’m planning to move in as a guest at Ras’s place within three days at the latest, so you’ll handle it well, got it?! You know what I mean, right??”

Watching Lea disappear excitedly like a tomboy, the Emperor felt his lifespan shorten by about a year. Whatever the case, he missed his Empress, who was always kind and gentle to him… but the thought that she might have subtly betrayed him made his head throb again.

“It’s all my karma. If you’re old, you should die… Ugh…. I need to return to the Imperial Palace quickly. There’s work to be done… I’m sorry to Skada, but I can only see him after he’s on vacation.”

With the Emperor’s sigh, the night deepened in Delphy. And the next day, as soon as dawn broke, the Emperor immediately took the trail and headed for the Imperial Palace. In Delphy, due to distance and other technical issues, easy communication via communication devices with Eisenwald is not possible. He had to go all the way to Sephir to quickly exchange messages regarding the annulment, so the Emperor canceled his planned schedule and headed for the Imperial Palace. The Emperor thought it was important to bring the matter up for discussion as quickly as possible, as Rodrigo would undoubtedly drag things out and try to make the annulment disappear. Additionally, he planned to use the children’s annulment as bait to divert attention for a while, then quietly proceed with various matters. The Emperor, despite having a rather soft-hearted nature, still had a sharp side, as befitted a seasoned warrior who had survived countless battlefields, starting from the succession war.

And then…. “Annulment…? Marisa… what on earth has this damned girl been telling the Emperor? Orlando, that fellow, was supposedly headed towards the Order, so when did he get back to Delphy…?” Rodrigo, upon hearing the news, was naturally in a towering rage. Rodrigo, of course, had absolutely no intention of permitting the annulment. He didn’t know what whim possessed the Emperor to deliver such an absurd notification, but Rodrigo’s thought was that this must be stopped by any means necessary. Rodrigo was the Emperor’s father-in-law, and thus already knew the Emperor’s weaknesses: his occasional emotional bias and indecisiveness. He had concluded that the reason the Emperor, a powerful and valiant warrior, had stopped growing at some point was due to that particular weakness.

“He used to cherish Marisa… so if she pleaded with him as if her life depended on it, out of sympathy or love… he might have suddenly brought up the annulment for such reasons.” Since it was a matter of betrothal between the Imperial Prince and Princess Valencia, Rodrigo already knew that an annulment couldn’t be settled in a flash [like roasting beans in a lightning strike, meaning something done very quickly and carelessly]. The best approach was to prolong the situation, hush it up, and make the annulment discussion quietly disappear, as if everything was fine as it was. If the Emperor took a firm stance, he would just drag out the time, and if push came to shove, he would arrange for Marisa to have Leon’s child.

“First, I must force Marisa to withdraw her intention for annulment, even if I have to threaten her. Impudent girl… she’s grown up a bit and is now quite daring, even hitting her grandfather in the back of the head. I’ll send that rogue for some education after a long time.” Currently, he himself was in Eisenwald and couldn’t move for the time being due to the impending meeting with Kardmos. But there was no need for the Grand Duke himself to move just to scold and threaten a small girl anyway, so it didn’t matter. When it comes to intimidation, it is a universal truth, from ancient times to the present, to send a cruel rogue with a trashy and violent disposition. And among those Rodrigo knew, the one who best fit this description was his eldest grandson, the eldest son of his eldest son.

“Selma, contact Raymond immediately.” “Yes, Your Majesty.” Selma, Rodrigo’s personal secretary, who unhesitatingly called the Grand Duke ‘Your Majesty,’ contacted Raymond von Valencia, the Grand Duke’s eldest grandson, according to his command. Raymond, who was staying in Sephir, received his grandfather’s message and headed for Leone with a very joyful expression. With a face befitting a ruthless scumbag who enjoyed beating people.

*

Towards the end of morning class, lunch break was only about five minutes away. The basic potions class involved making potions in groups of three, and naturally, my group members were Irha and Marisa. Since the evaluations for the subject were practically finished and the professor in charge wasn’t particularly strict with first-year students, potion class nowadays was just a casual break. However, today’s class felt a bit stifling, perhaps? Anyway, I felt a bit uncomfortable.

“Ugh…” “…..”

It was because Marisa had been avoiding my gaze ever since Monday. On Monday night, Marisa had urgently sent me a message, brimming with a sense of sorrow and loneliness. I didn’t know what she had talked about with the Emperor, but at the same time, I understood. Naturally, it wouldn’t have been about Lea’s reckless assertion, ‘Marisa, Ras’s lover,’ but rather, there was a high probability they discussed her relationship with Leon. I had also told the Emperor about Leon and Lizley’s affair, and Leon and Marisa were individuals whose relationship was openly bad, to the point where they were forcibly assigned meeting times. The foolish Emperor, citing state affairs, had completely left their matter to the Empress… but there was no way the Empress would properly handle their relationship. From the beginning, the Empress was in league with Rodrigo, an accomplice who knew the truth about Marisa yet concealed it and pushed for her marriage to Leon. Anyway, it’s complicated, very complicated. Between the story of the dysfunctional family [literally, “bean flour family,” a proverb about a dysfunctional family where members are scattered and not cohesive] and extracting Marisa from that predicament, nothing was easy. But I can be sure that if my thoughts aren’t completely off, a situation where I can strike a deal with the Emperor will definitely arise within one to two years at the latest. That’s because of Rodrigo, the Grand Duke of the North, and his rebellious nature.

Both before and after my regression, I had always considered Rodrigo a cancerous presence in the Empire. Before my regression, Leon, who was quite incompetent, had gotten rid of Rodrigo using some unknown trick, but I knew I couldn’t assume the same situation would occur this time. In my previous life, Leon had genuinely shown an overwhelmingly dominant presence in the imperial succession struggle against Skada without any obstacles, so his position and the size of his forces were very different from now. From the start, Leon was the unfilial son who had continuously shot at his father, not only severing all his limbs but eventually killing him. After the Emperor completely lost his mind, Leon began to expand his power like crazy, without any obstacles. However, now, whatever the case, the Emperor was fully regaining his strength, and because of me, whether it was Leon, Skada, or the Empress, they had all started to be wary. Therefore, there was a high probability that Leon’s frantic power-building would soon be thwarted. The ignorant Leon was still quietly devouring Delphy’s back alleys, trying to expand his influence in both the shadows and the light, but it meant that this might soon become useless. Up to this point, it was truly good news. But what if Leon’s power weakened, and as a result, the means he could use became fewer and duller? Rodrigo, a warrior of the Inner Vision Realm, would continue to waste time and build up his martial power without being manipulated by Leon, and if things went wrong, he could even reach the pinnacle of being peerless in a nation. And it was obvious that when this man started to cause serious trouble with his martial might, the Empire would have a huge headache. Currently, the only people in the Empire who could definitively face Rodrigo in a direct confrontation were the Emperor, who had reached the mature Inner Vision Realm, and the Sage. In Lea’s and Rosal’s case, it seemed their power from their hero and saint duo days hadn’t fully bloomed yet, and since the Celestial Order was a secretive bunch, I didn’t know much about the power of those at their top. And among them, the Emperor was practically half-dead and barely alive, so he wouldn’t be a match for Rodrigo, who had always consumed good things and constantly tangled with demons to increase his power. As for the Sage… for various reasons, he was specialized in ‘defense,’ not attack or invasion, so if Rodrigo suddenly established an independent state and rebelled, there wouldn’t be much he could do. Therefore, I could serve as the Emperor’s best card, something like a wildcard. My current strength was insufficient even for the aging Emperor, let alone Rodrigo, but given my rapid growth, it wouldn’t be long before I caught up to both of them. So, when Rodrigo begins to show his teeth, I’ll negotiate to free Marisa in exchange for getting rid of him. Whether Rodrigo reached the pinnacle of being peerless in a nation or not, I had no worries about the fight, as I would undoubtedly be stronger by then. As for the intermediate process… well, I have a mindset of “it’ll work out somehow,” but such matters often yield clearer solutions when one sets the desired outcome and acts accordingly. What if Rodrigo doesn’t show his teeth? That won’t happen, so no need to worry.

“……” “……”

When I glared a little, Marisa’s expression turned flustered, and she suddenly spun her head away. Oh, that’s frustrating, why is she acting like that! I endured Pisces getting sulky and sent her a quick reply when she asked, but then… ‘I hate you, Jjuing-nim! When I’m with Pisces, let the communication device rest a bit…!’ I wonder if Marisa knows how much trouble I went through enduring her headbutting my chest with those words. Anyway, Marisa suddenly started acting strangely reserved, and others besides me were suffering because of it, so I had to get her back to normal quickly.

“Ras…! Marisaa…! Did you two fight? The atmosphere is suffocating. And…! Why are you two fighting over my head when all you’re doing is glaring at each other?!!! I’m not a pearl! This is torture!!” Irha was under immense stress because of our silent, suffocating head-grabbing struggle, which we were using to regain mental stability.

Ding- dong- ding- “Alright, everyone. Class dismissed! See you next time~”

Class ended with the cheerful farewell of the Potions Professor. I was wondering if I should talk to her slowly while we ate, but what was this?

“….I, uh, have something to attend to, so I’ll be leaving first. Please have your meal just the two of you today.” “Eh…!!!”

Marisa suddenly sprang up and disappeared at a hurried pace, no, a run!!

“Irha. Isn’t Marisa acting particularly strange today…?” “Mmm… She looked at her communication device this morning, and she’s been like that ever since. Phew… Earlier, she held me tightly so I couldn’t move and stroked my head frantically… but I felt such immense worry in her touch that I just let her.”

So that’s what happened… Such a head-stroking villain.

“Seems like she got some bad news… ‘Something to attend to’… Did someone come looking for her?” “Is that so…? Is someone coming to scold and harass her? I used to be like that when gangsters came to the orphanage to collect money… Heheh… But thanks to Ras, that won’t happen now.”

Debt collection…. Marisa wasn’t Emma, who had been buried under a mountain of loan shark debt, so it couldn’t be a debt collector visiting. But judging by Irha’s words, it seemed true that some trauma-inducing presence had visited… Huh…? Suddenly, Marisa from before my regression, long forgotten, popped out of my past memories and spoke to me. Family stories, casually begun, while chatting with an old friend I met on the battlefield, about various old times. The fact that all their family members had died was a commonality between me and Marisa, and it became a kind of connecting link. Of course… since their evaluations of their respective families were so vastly different, the link didn’t quite connect properly and somehow went awry and broke. Marisa’s evaluation of her family at the time was roughly like this:

‘Heheh… My family… it might not sound elegant to say this, but, to put it crudely, they were all idiots. The one who was either my father or grandfather, my aunt, my uncle, the ones who were either my brother or my nephew, all of them….’

Rodrigo, the Empress, and that unknown bastard who was Marisa’s nominal biological father but actually her brother. Such scoundrels couldn’t come to Leone immediately. The Empress couldn’t leave the Imperial Palace recklessly, and Rodrigo and his son were in Eisenwald, so they couldn’t come here. I was diligently racking my poor brain, wondering who might have come to see Marisa. Fortunately, since I had exclusive access to ‘Irha’s Head,’ my personal item that grants me mental stability and boosts my intelligence when stroked, I quickly became clever enough to reach a conclusion.

“The one who was either her brother or nephew…. Ah! Could it be that?” “Heheheh..! It’s so nice being with just Ras, without Marisa. Ras, hurry and stroke me more. Quickly!!”

Suddenly, putting Irha’s giggling words aside, Marisa from the past elegantly tattled on her idiotic older nephew to me.

‘Ras, the worst family member for me was Duke Rodrigo… but the one who tormented me most cruelly and viciously was my older nephew. He was a notorious rogue in Imperial high society, but such an idiotic person that I’ve forgotten his name now. Heheheh… My mouth keeps getting foul, but perhaps you could overlook Marisa cursing a bit?’

The idiotic nephew whose name she didn’t know, and nominally Marisa’s brother. It seemed that the nameless trash, whose death before my regression I didn’t even know, had come to torment Marisa.

“Irha, from now on, quickly find one of the professors… Isera Professor-nim, Tiria Professor-nim, or Rosal Professor-nim. I’ll send a message, but they might not see it.” “Mmm…? The professors? Okay! I’ll contact Ras as soon as I find them. You can finish stroking me later!”

Dash!!!

Watching my subordinate run off energetically without a single complaint, I thought I was truly good at cultivating subordinates. Watching Irha run, I also activated my communication device and sent short messages to the professors who could help. Then… should I go look for Marisa myself? Since practicing finding people was also part of my training, I thought the current situation, where I had to find someone with a very faint presence like Marisa, was quite good. Our academy forbids entry to undesirables, peddlers, and demons. Though it does accept visits from polite loan sharks with puppy-dog eyes. As a proactive honor student of the Academy, I started moving to find and kick out the undesirable.