WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 29: A Night of Counting Stars (3)
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* * *
“When are they going to leave already?”
“How would I know what the Privy Council is thinking?”
“What does the Privy Council have to do with it? That ship belongs to the Naval Command!”
The elves who had begun their ordinary school lives were in turmoil at this point.
Even elves, with all their high self-esteem and nationalist pride, had their limits. They were gritting their teeth through the secondhand embarrassment and the humans' subtle disdain.
On the first day that the warship floated above their heads, the elven students had proudly puffed out their chests and said:
“Look at that. We must be amazing if we can park a warship in the middle of a human capital and all they can do is watch.”
The astonishing people who had brought a warship to an entrance ceremony began to feel that something was off after a week had passed.
“Still, even if it is an era when warships aren't necessary, is it really okay for it to stay up there...?”
It was a fear close to survival instinct.
Stationing a weapon of war in another country's capital was an enormous military provocation.
There was no way it would happen, but if that provocation somehow led to war, they would be turned from students into prisoners of war in an instant.
This uncivilized premodern fantasy world had no Geneva Convention.
Of course, the Allied Kingdoms did not openly execute prisoners in border disputes, and it would not behead the sons and daughters of noble houses who had come abroad to study.
That was only something one could say in a world where common sense prevailed.
In other words, merely imagining what kind of rampage the human kingdom, which elves believed lacked common sense, might commit made their survival instincts twitch.
Then another week passed, making it a full fortnight.
As they looked up at their proud air warship, still floating in the sky, the elves finally displayed one of their racial traits.
They were at the forefront of civilization, parliamentary politics, and constitutional-monarchy democracy.
Following their racial nature, they finally formed political parties. In other words, factional infighting had begun.
The elven students were now divided into the Privy Council faction and the Naval Command faction, and had begun a civil war. Civil war was another one of their racial traits.
Of course, deciding who would hold royal power could not resolve the situation. Electing a first-year student council president would not make a perfectly functional warship return home while saying, “Oh, congratulations.”
In any case.
Outside, they faced the humans' contempt and threats.
Inside, there was the elves' warmhearted political activity.
Above them floated the warship, peacefully bobbing through the sky without a single communication.
In that chaotic age, when peace had become a vulgar joke.
A gardener and a young human noble visited the elven students' dormitory.
It happened the day after Dmitry cautiously handed Ivan an “order.”
* * *
Let us turn back time for a moment, to the previous day. That evening, after Elizaveta decided she ought to put an axe to the elven captain's neck.
Dmitry headed for the orphanage he had supported every year since personally cracking open the royal treasury and thoroughly laundering its contents.
Elizaveta was fundamentally a shy young woman, in his personal opinion, so this had been carried out without Ivan's knowledge.
That meant Dmitry had been the orphanage's greatest patron until now. Officially, he had vaguely explained it as preferential treatment for a former official, support for a lieutenant colonel who had retired without receiving a military pension, and similar excuses. Still, the hand stuffing money into the place had been his.
“Oh, right. Hello, kids.”
“...”
Dmitry walked through the grounds with a friendly smile for the creepy students, who moved around with suspiciously little noise.
It felt like walking through the corridors of the Counterintelligence Command's political prisoner correctional facility. Mostly because watchers stood silently in the corners of his vision, staring without making their presence known.
He had no intention of meddling in his respected senior's private hobbies, but wasn't this enough to charge him with sedition against the state?
How had Ivan even come up with the idea of collecting orphans and using them as field agents?
Rubbing the back of his chilled neck, Dmitry headed for the director's office.
He passed a Droan soldier scrubbing a pile of laundry hard enough to make strange ripping noises.
Then he passed an unfamiliar teacher in a strange hat, who was being collectively beaten by the children.
“Senior, are you in there?”
“You came through the door today.”
When he opened the director's office, Dmitry saw Ivan beyond the still astonishingly desolate interior.
Ivan was flipping through a stack of documents with cold eyes.
“What is it?”
“Um. You have a guest?”
“Ah, you're my brother's friend! Don't mind me, go ahead and take care of your business!”
“...Your brother...?”
It appeared that, surprisingly, his senior had acquired a much younger brother.
Dmitry stared at the cheerful young man for a long moment, then snapped his fingers. The face had seemed familiar for a reason. He knew him.
“Lord Karamzin! Well, fancy seeing you here!”
“Lord? I'm only a student! Please speak comfortably!”
The incident in which society's most notorious troublemaker had suddenly enrolled in a theology school had stirred up Pritchenkaya and its surrounding areas for quite some time.
Wasn't he the youngest son of Duke Karamzin, whose family had produced several generals?
And that boy, who had never taken the slightest interest in politics, was calling his senior "brother"...?
Dmitry's eyes sharpened, and Ivan tapped the desk.
“Yevgeny. Wait outside.”
“Yes, brother! Please take your time! I'll go do volunteer work!”
“Keep an eye on how many outfits Mord ruins doing laundry.”
“Yes, brother!”
Eugene backed out of the director's office with a smile like a scheming courtier. Dmitry watched him blankly, then tilted his head.
“Your tastes have changed quite a bit, Senior. Didn't you dislike boys like that...?”
“The kid is kind.”
“Now that you mention it, you do seem to look a little better too. It really must be Lady Enrika[1].”
Ivan heavily tapped the desk again. He was impatient as ever. Dmitry grinned and pulled a letter from inside his coat.
“Colonel Kirillovna...?”
“Kirillovna is Chamberlain. Anyway, um. The situation is a little complicated. And you're the only person who can do this.”
Dmitry handed him the letter and sprawled across the sofa.
“I give this place plenty of money every year. You could at least buy an expensive sofa.”
Ivan ignored him as he read the letter, then deeply frowned.
This was a big job.
“Is she serious?”
“When has Her Highness ever joked about something like this?”
Infiltrate the Kallion warship floating over Saint Yansk University and threaten its captain.
At the same time, avoid casualties among the crew as much as possible.
“Why?”
“Well, it's complicated.”
Dmitry frowned. Where was he supposed to begin?
“It looks like that warship has suffered some kind of malfunction. No matter how insane those pointy-eared bastards are, they wouldn't keep up a military provocation in the capital for over two weeks without a reason.”
“And?”
“So we're going to use this chance to set a trap for our foreign minister... His Highness Alexander.”
Dmitry slowly straightened up. The smile disappeared from his face, revealing Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry, internal inspector of the Counterintelligence Command's Investigation Headquarters.
“The Kallion bastards know our country's a complete mess. In the middle of all that, Her Highness the Princess personally went over there and threatened them.”
If the warship came under a real threat, the captain would certainly try to join hands with the Crown Prince.
That was why they had provoked the captain from the start.
“We need a scene where His Highness the Crown Prince meets with the elves. A scene we can use to claim that he plotted a military coup through an elven warship.”
“Extreme.”
“Everything Her Highness does is.”
“Is that your only objective?”
“Of course not. When have we ever worked that way?”
Dmitry rose to his feet with a grim smile.
“We will seize the Kallion warship. We will condemn those pointy-eared bastards for daring to aim their naval guns at the Great Krasilov Royal Palace, declare that they conspired with the Crown Prince to attempt a coup, and the preparations to send an official letter of protest to the Kallion Privy Council are already complete.”
“Kallion will dismiss it as the misconduct of a single captain, and in return...”
“They will have to approve us ‘docking’ their ‘destroyed’ warship outside Pritchenkaya for ‘repairs.’”
Air warships were Kallion's weapons of war alone.
Technology, however, always carried the risk of being leaked.
So they would seize the warship. Then, under the pretext of repairing a ship that had been “destroyed,” they would attempt to reverse-engineer it.
From Kallion's perspective, it would not be an absolute loss. Considering the cost and labor needed to build a warship that large, the number of vessels Krasilov could maintain would never exceed Kallion's navy.
Still, Krasilov desperately needed even a few air warships. Krasilov had no ice-free ports, so maritime trade came to a complete halt in winter.
If the operation succeeded, the Princess would gain enormous justification.
One conspiracy would not make Alexander lose his position, but it would at least leave him under enough political pressure that he could not move freely for some time.
If they also acquired the designs for air warships, they could move the military, which had remained neutral in the conflict between the Crown Prince and Princess. Powerful weapons of war naturally ended up in the military's hands.
Practical benefit, justification, and support.
She was pursuing three goals in a single operation. Even if they did not achieve the best outcome, the Princess would suffer no blow at all.
After all, the elves had been the ones to park a warship in front of the royal palace.
“It is impossible without you, Senior. Every agent we can mobilize has already been exposed, and the undercover operatives can't carry out this operation.”
At present, the only force the Princess could move in Pritchenkaya was the Counterintelligence Command.
Enrika did not obey the court's orders, so Ivan was the strongest card in the Princess's hand.
The Logging Machine, Butcher of the Seven Dragon Generals, Executioner of the Great King.
“Little” Ivan.
“If this ends well, you won't need to continue the existing operation. If His Highness the Crown Prince becomes a vegetable, there will be no need to protect the distinguished guests at Saint Yansk University. If you need any other compensation... Um. Her Highness the Princess asked me to pass this along.”
Dmitry hesitated for a moment before speaking carefully.
“She said she would offer you the position of prince consort...”
“Pretend I didn't hear that.”
“Ah... Um. Her Highness will be hurt.”
“Tell Her Highness to keep her eyes on the sky.”
Ivan rose from his seat as he spoke.
* * *
“Has anything changed?”
“Yes, brother! The wording in the [Quest Window] changed!”
Ivan nodded at Eugene's words.
After Dmitry left, Eugene returned to the director's office and quickly wrote down the altered quest text before handing it over.
[“B-Rank Linked Quest” Krasilov Palace Intrigue]
[The Princess seeks to seize control of the palace by obtaining the Crown Prince's weakness. Now, the fate of the Krasilov Royal Family rests on your choice!]
[Objective: Follow the Princess's orders and prove the collusive relationship between the captain of the Kallion air warship and the Crown Prince.]
[Optional Objective: Ensure the survival of every air warship crew member]
[Optional Objective: Seize the air warship]
[Optional Objective: Inform Crown Prince Alexander of the full conspiracy, then proceed to the next linked quest]
[Objective Reward: ????]
[Failure Penalty: ????]
Ivan read the memo once, then nodded.
“You'll be coming with me on this operation.”
“...Me?”
“I need to confirm how success rewards are given, and how the quest progresses.”
These “quests” generally appeared before an “event” occurred.
It made sense. There was no reason for it to hand out an event that had already ended as a quest.
Therefore, quests acted as an early warning system for future events.
The quest that had appeared before Dmitry's visit had been [Palace Intrigue]. It had been the type of quest that required him to uncover the conspiracy surrounding the air warship, choose either the Princess or the Crown Prince, and carry out a mission.
In other words, it was a faction selection quest.
The faction selection had not yet been completed, but the quest's content changed the moment he heard the Princess's plan. It now took the form of advancing the conspiracy or informing on it.
An early warning system that updated in real time. It was an extremely useful resource.
Ivan looked at Eugene, whose value was steadily increasing, and thought.
‘The transmigrators I know are the Demon King, the Hero, and me.’
What the three had in common was that each had reached the top in their own field.
Considering that this boy was still inexperienced yet clearly had that kind of potential, there was a possibility that the other transmigrators were the same.
What abilities did they possess?
What stories did they carry?
And what endings would they meet?
At the end of those endings, what form would their ending credits take?
The Demon King was dead, the Hero had vanished, and he remained.
Then what about the other transmigrators? If they brought their stories to an end, would they die? Would they vanish? Or would they remain?
There was much to discover, a certain way to investigate it, and a reason he had to know.
“By tomorrow morning, persuade an elf named Oswald and Yuri. We begin the operation tomorrow night.”
“Then what will I do, brother?”
“Help.”
Ivan decided to raise this one as an agent.
Ivan nodded to himself.
* * *
Footnotes:
[1] The character name previously rendered as Enrique has been changed to Enrika throughout the translation.
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