30 Years Have Passed Since the Prologue - Chapter 47

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Chapter 47: 10. Stalker vs Stalker (2)

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* * *

Ivan did not put much effort into hiding himself. He knew that this attitude often produced better results.

A university was fundamentally an open space. No one stopped people from coming and going, as long as they did not enter a classroom.

Students were also indifferent to others. Like most people, no student paid attention to every little movement made by a member of staff.

To students, faculty members were nothing more than figures that disappeared at the edge of their vision.

Ivan had already concluded that walking around normally in ordinary clothes did more to maintain his cover than forcing himself to hide.

There was one problem, though. If someone began paying attention to him, the entire strategy he had built to protect his cover would collapse.

And at that very moment, one student was watching Ivan's every move....

‘What is she doing?’

Ivan frowned at the persistent, irritating gaze following him.

What was her problem?

Pretending to tie his shoelace, he bent down and casually looked behind him.

Aesidis was glaring at him with blazing eyes.

‘Is that... camouflage?’

Holding a branch covered in leaves over her face, she crept through the bushes.

The people of Droan were large. The men were powerfully built, while the women tended to be enormous in a somewhat different sense.

Aesidis, who had inherited Droan's finest bloodline, possessed certain devastating assets despite her small-animal appearance.

That meant a branch like that was useless for hiding her considerable height and something even larger.

Ivan stared at her with a look of brief disbelief, then took out a memo pad.

-Aesidis. Possible cheating in the process of earning academic credits. Markedly deficient cognitive ability.

Ivan was an honest person, so he did not hesitate to write down the facts. He closed the memo pad and resumed walking.

He headed toward the main building of the Knight Department. A familiar spell was stimulating his senses.

The Counterintelligence Command was calling for him.

* * *

Aesidis crept along, her lips dry with tension.

Her concealment was perfect. Not one of her uncles had ever noticed her when she snuck around. (Huscarls tended to be tolerant of their niece's pranks.)

So she watched Ivan with confidence.

He was a strange man.

Whenever he abruptly disappeared from sight and startled her, she would find him up in a tree, surveying the area.

The Department of Magic, the Knight Department, and, surprisingly, even the Department of Philosophy. Ivan moved around tirelessly, glaring at someone wherever he went.

Then he would suddenly frown, race off like a ghost, and throw himself into bushes where cigarette smoke was rising.

One moment he would stride into a department building, then he would vanish like a phantom!

-Gardener?

-Never seen him tending a garden.

-Is there even a place on campus that could be called a garden?

-Don't know... His job? He keeps watching people.

-Never rests. Why? Is he acting on someone's orders? Or is this a hobby?

She filled her notebook with notes, growing increasingly confused.

That diligent stalker never rested or ate, endlessly circling the campus...!

What in the world had made that man the way he was?

At this point, her curiosity was beginning to outweigh her fear. Aesidis chewed on a sandwich as she searched for Ivan.

He had vanished from sight again. He seemed to have entered the Knight Department building, but when she rounded the corner, he had disappeared like smoke.

“Mmph, where did he go?”

After wiping mustard from the corner of her mouth, she trudged onward.

* * *

‘For some reason, Aesidis is trying to watch me.’

Not that she had a chance. It was somewhat annoying, but he had not grown so dull that an amateur like her could catch his tail.

Ivan thought this as he walked into a corridor under a Recognition Suppression spell.

“Dmitry.”

“Have you been well, senior?”

Not a single student was walking through the department building's corridor. That was because of the Counterintelligence Command's Recognition Suppression spell.

Dmitry stood halfway down the corridor, holding a yellow document envelope as he looked out the window.

“You showed up the moment we put up the spell, senior. I always think this, but you're really incredible.”

“What brings you to the university, Dmitry?”

“Well, um. There is one thing I wanted to ask and one thing I need to report... Um. Yes.”

Dmitry took out a file and handed it over.

“We caught a lead on the bombing at the entrance ceremony.”

“Then shouldn't you resolve it?”

“There is a bit of a problem.”

The Krasilov Counterintelligence Command was competent. In fact, it was the most competent organization in all of Krasilov's administration.

Krasilov, or rather, this uncivilized premodern society, was riddled with corruption. A civil servant who had never taken a bribe was like a unicorn or dragon. (That meant they did exist.)

Even so, the Counterintelligence Command was almost absurdly incorruptible. It had to be, with Princess Elizaveta as its head.

So if the Counterintelligence Command had tracked down the terrorists, it was strange for the matter to reach Ivan.

Frowning, Ivan tore open the envelope.

“Droan...?”

“Yes, Droan.”

Droan, the land of warriors. Einar's homeland.

A country like that had ordered a bombing in the heart of Krasilov?

Ivan flipped through the documents, deep in thought.

“When we dismantled the mana bombs used back then, we found that most of their components came from Droan.”

“Droan ordered a mana bombing? Do you think that makes any sense?”

“Common sense says that's impossible.”

“Hmm....”

Droan warriors were widely known as the sort who would harvest an enemy's skull with an axe instead of spending time on bombings.

Which meant that, viewed from the other direction, they were the people least likely to be suspected when a bombing occurred.

The Counterintelligence Command's common sense had to be the exact opposite of civilian common sense.

If there were people no one would suspect, then those were the people they had to suspect most.

“So we investigated further. Please read from page eleven.”

“...It seems Einar did not finish the job properly.”

“Yes. It does not sound like Great King Einar, does it? Showing mercy to an enemy.”

After the Demon King died and before Einar returned home, Droan had not been a single country.

It had been an age of warring states, with countless warlords known as Jarls vying for power. With even the Demon King's threat gone, they had run wild like colts with their reins cut loose.

During that time, Einar founded a country with two axes. That was why he was called the Great King.

Einar brought peace to his homeland and gave its people a national identity as one united race.

Or so everyone believed.

“One of the five Jarls who submitted to Einar is the culprit. Has this information reached Einar?”

“The minister is considering it now. If Einar finds out....”

“There will be bloodshed.”

“Yes, and since our borders meet, we will certainly be affected as well. And as you know... Crown Prince Alexander's whereabouts are currently unknown. The military's movements are suspicious too.”

Ivan turned to the end of the file, poured mana into the magic circle on its final page, and dusted off his hands.

The confidential documents burst into flames and scattered as ash in an instant.

“We know who ordered the bombing, but we still cannot catch the people who were preparing it. Still, their target is obvious...”

“Aesidis.”

“Yes, Great King Einar's most cherished daughter. If she dies or is injured, Great King Einar will start a war immediately, given his temperament. Responsibility will fall on Her Highness the Princess, since she is the minister of the Counterintelligence Command.”

“Then the military will support the Crown Prince.”

The military needed war to survive. On the other hand, a country without the threat of war had no choice but to reduce its forces.

Only four years had passed since the war against the demonfolk. The country was rebuilding, and the Royal Household was putting funds needed to maintain the legions into reconstruction costs.

So if there was anyone who wanted war most right now, it was the military.

And the Crown Prince, who wanted to bring down the Minister of the Royal Household, Princess Elizaveta.

“The terrorists will definitely target Aesidis again, senior.”

“Tell Her Highness the Princess.”

Ivan glanced down the empty corridor and turned away.

“Tell her I will do what needs to be done.”

“Thank you for your dedication, ‘Little’ Ivan.”

“It’s nothing.”

Ivan gave a short shake of his head and left. Dmitry watched his back, then flicked his hand.

The Recognition Suppression magic circle installed at the end of the corridor crumbled away, and students began entering the hallway again.

Once the students returned, there was no trace of Dmitry anywhere in the corridor.

* * *

Ivan was a very logical man, so he devised his operation through simple reasoning.

1. Someone was targeting Aesidis.

2. For some unknown reason, Aesidis was trying to watch him.

Combining the information that his protection target was in danger with the astonishing fact that she was following him led to a simple and clear solution.

QED) He only needed to remain steadily within Aesidis's sight so she could watch him more easily.

There was no reason to hide when the person he was supposed to watch and protect was kindly following him of her own accord. By simply staying out in the open, he could keep Aesidis within his field of vision.

At the same time, if he lingered near Aesidis, he would surely catch the tail of the “unknown terrorists.”

As he had reflected before, a well-trained agent never moved with only one objective in mind.

Laying more than one aim behind a single move.

That was the way of the Annihilation Unit.

* * *

‘What the hell is this...?!’

Aesidis spilled coffee down herself as she stared blankly behind a roadside tree.

“Esi? What's wrong?”

“Uh, um. Uh, uh... Um... Is Bella nearby?”

“No? Miss Isabelle said she was having lunch separately because of class today... Why?”

“Then... then... me...?”

Aesidis looked at the gardener glaring at her from behind the tree, her face close to tears.