Chapter 129 – Partnership
To someone, the number eighteen can be a big number or a small number.
A number that is only two short of the number twenty, and three more than the number fifteen.
Of course, this number of eighteen was the sum of all the years I had lived.
And now, I was feeling fear in a new way that I had never faced before.
Someone will ask me what is there to be afraid of in a guy who has risen to the level of a sword master and uses divine magic as well as magic, but being afraid is being afraid.
In particular, in a situation where you face a problem that cannot be solved by force alone, do you recognize that the other person knows about the truth you have been hiding?
What could be more terrifying than that?
I would rather deal with an orc warchief or a two-headed ogre, which was very comfortable for me.
If you deploy the aura blades on those guys, you’ll be able to kill them enough.
However, the elf sitting in front of me and facing me was not something that could be dealt with with force alone.
This elf named Frelda is a senior professor at the Noble Academy that I entrusted myself with, and in fact, an object close to the president.
In addition, he is also someone who knows the name of my former identity, Alberto Salihar Maydern.
“How much do you know?”
It was Prelda who had priority in the negotiations at this meeting.
To put it bluntly, even if she spreads my identity, there will be great chaos in society.
All I can do here is to check how far she knows.
First of all, I summarized what I could learn from the conversation I had just a while ago in this space.
1. Prelda knows that I entered Noble Academy on a mission of some kind.
2. She also knows that I am the same person as Alberto Salihar Maydern.
3. She doesn’t know what mission I’ve been given, and I hope my mission won’t harm Noble Academy.
4. Since the conversation was over between the high-ranking officials of both empires, Prelda decided to take care of convenience so that I could work comfortably.
Once I summarized what I knew, I could say this was all.
“That’s all I just said. Well, the spirits tipped me off that student Adalbert was Prince Alberto.”
“The spirit…?”
Professor Prelda explained that it was the spirit that revealed my true identity.
I don’t know what kind of enemy I have with the spirits, but the spirits have always been involved in embarrassing me.
After chasing down the followers of evil spirits and fighting the creatures from the other world they summoned, it was the spirits who made them misunderstand that I was a follower of evil spirits, and Professor Prelda learned of my identity this time because of the tips of the spirits.
“That’s right. However, I don’t think the spirit made an arbitrary decision and informed me.”
At the time when my hatred for the spirits was creeping up, Professor Prelda started defending the spirits as if he had noticed my feelings.
“What do you mean by that?”
“A spirit is a passive being. Being able to exercise something on its own is possible only if it does not go against the laws of nature.”
Professor Frelda began her explanation by saying that spirits are passive beings.
“The influence that a spirit without an elemental spirit can exert on the natural world is not that great.”
“I think I need a little more explanation.”
“Put it simply, it means a being that cannot do anything without someone’s orders.”
So, she was explaining that the spirit did something, after all, someone gave the spirit an order.
“So, did the spirit tell the professor about my true identity?”
“That’s right. Some elemental wizard ordered me to tell you that…”
Professor Prelda paused to explain something.
She seemed to be contemplating whether she should say this or not, judging by the complicated expression on her face.
“Don’t worry and tell me. Anyway, let’s talk openly about everything that has happened.”
“Huh. Okay. I don’t think an ordinary elemental lord figured out your identity, I’m guessing there was a greater will at work.”
“A bigger will?”
A greater will. No, what kind of floating cloud catcher is this?
“What we elves call the Greater Will is this mother nature itself.”
“Is that so?”
I learned a lot from today’s conversation with Professor Prelda.
This kind of information is not found in textbooks or books.
“To be more specific, we call Mother Nature ‘Mother’. And we call the giant tree nestled in the center of the Great Forest the ‘World Tree’.”
“World Tree…”
“The World Tree is a kind of proxy that tells us what Mother Nature wants to tell us. And, it is also the first divine being to appear on this land.”
“Something seems to be getting more complicated.”
I indirectly told Professor Prelda to put away her complex explanations and simply get to the point.
“In other words, the one who knew your true identity and informed me through the spirit was the World Tree or Mother Nature itself behind it.”
“What did Mother Nature mean by revealing my true identity to you?”
“I don’t know about that. But one thing’s for sure…It’s not because Mother Nature doesn’t like you.”
The more I talked with Professor Prelda, the more I felt like I was getting deeper and deeper into a labyrinth.
Anyway, at this point I thought I should appropriately cut off the conversation.
“I understand. First of all, as you think, I received a secret order from His Majesty the Emperor of the Bregern Empire and entered the Noble Academy.”
“Does that mean you admit that you are Alberto Salijar Maydern?”
“I won’t deny it.”
If I had to deny my identity here, it would only lengthen the story and make it more difficult to enlist Prelda’s help.
“Okay, then I have a question for you.”
“What is it?”
“The purpose of your admission here is the Noble Academy. And furthermore, the Elphario Empire, the Bregern Empire, the Alberium Kingdom, and other countries. And furthermore, you know that your actions are not harmful to the world. Can you promise me?”
Frelda asked me a question.
From noble mtl dot com.
From what she said, it seemed like she wanted to get a definitive answer from me.
Hey, at a position like hers, her own safety would be important, but the safety of her organization would be just as important, she said.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t understand her feelings either.
As for me, as the eldest son of the Maydern family, there were a lot of things I had to be careful about not becoming a nuisance to the family.
“I don’t know about anything else, but I can tell you that if the orders I received are helpful to the Noble Academy, the El Pario Empire, and the Bregern Empire, they will be helpful, and there will be no harm at all.”
“Yes, that answer is sufficient.”
Professor Prelda nodded and smiled as if she was relieved after hearing my answer.
“I won’t ask about the specifics of the secret order. Obviously, you need permission to freely enter and leave the Noble Academy for that activity, right?”
“Yes.”
As Frelda said, in order to smoothly carry out the secret orders I received, I needed a way to freely come in and out of Noble Academy.
“You don’t have to worry about that. At Noble Academy, there is a system that allows students with an advisor to go outside the Noble Academy accompanied by an advisor. Let’s actively use that. However, in the first year, You will have to take the required courses, so it will be relatively less free.”
“I know that, so I’m going to start full-scale activities from the second year.”
“Okay. That should make the conversation easier. Just be careful with the Bless.”
“If it’s Bless… You mean the student council?”
Prelda told me to beware of Bless.
When it was Bless, it meant the student council that included that great-looking leader.
“They are the ones who are united by the idea of the chosen people. They are armed with the logic that a person with a noble status and the ability to match it should rule the world. In fact, all members of Bless are from a prominent noble family. This is, or people with abilities comparable to that.”
“Does that mean there’s a chance they’ll try to recruit me?”
“I can’t deny that possibility.”
Professor Prelda did not deny the possibility that Bless might try to recruit him.
“But be careful. They can spread malicious rumors and damage your reputation.”
Professor Prelda was worried about whether Bless would be behind the scenes, but since she had already been victimized once, I knew how to respond.
“It’s okay. It’s just that kind of misunderstanding, it’s enough to break through head-on.”
The answer is, there was only one frontal breakthrough.
Last time I was unknowingly hit, but this time I’m thinking of throwing the foot and foot apart.