81 – Things you can only say when you look back (1)
It’s simple. You just need to remember three things.
First, holding it with the correct posture is more important than holding it with force. Instead of holding it the way you want to hold it, you should hold it as if it were wrapped around you.
Second, power in moderation. If you hold it too hard, it will break and hurt you, and if you hold it too weakly, you will lose it.
The third and final one. This is the same as power. Never miss it.
– A tip that Emperor Alexios I gave to his daughter Anna, who was crying because she lost her plate.
From Noble mtl dot com
* * * * *
Allen, an art auctioneer from Grunbruck, is in his mid-40s and approaching his late forties.
Because he has clear facial features and a well-proportioned body, he is quite popular with women both in his youth and now.
Still, he envied the youth of Cain, who sat across from his office desk. ‘At that age, it was okay to play with girls for three days and three nights.’ That was why I looked at him with jealous eyes and ended up saying, “Eh, tsk.”
Cain wiggled his eyebrows, and Allen had to come up with his own explanation for this rudeness.
“Wouldn’t it be better to read more books?”
Cain was not angry. It was because she intuitively knew that this Royal Guards man disliked her.
Ever since he came to this auction house yesterday and asked Anna to send him an urgent letter, he had been grumbling all the time as if he was very displeased.
And now, he is responding to her request, ‘I need to share the story of the seven heroes, so please arrange a meeting with Professor Osland Koch of the Department of Literary Arts at the Southern Academy of the Empire.’
Cain wasn’t particularly worried. Allen says she has to help herself anyway. And both Allen and Cain know that if she’s going to help, it’s better to help her properly.
Cain decided to treat this irritation as a transaction cost. But she didn’t forget to accept it gracefully.
“The more I read, the more I fall into a labyrinth. The content of each book is cleverly different. Some authors twist the content with their own wishes, while others turn the other six into idiots to make the hero they root for stand out. So I want to hear the initial testimony.”
“Have you read Professor Osland Koch’s original text?”
“I read it. But even there, I couldn’t find the answer I was looking for. So, I would like to meet you in person and hear your story.”
“What are you trying to ask?”
Cain looked Allen up and down her.
“It’s confidential.”
Allen let out something similar to a small curse.
“Is that you? “She is the one who brought Emmaus to Armageddon.”
“Seeing that half of the information is right and half is wrong, the Guard Bureau’s ability to collect information has become a mess.”
“Have you ever seen a whale?”
Allen said she would have to travel to the Eastern Allies to see the creature.
She said it with the thought, ‘You look like a hillbilly, where have I seen something like that?’, But when Cain answered ‘yes’, she started babbling as if she wanted to hit her.
In fact, Allen herself had never seen her whale.
“Then she knows she has to step back a long way to get a full view of the whale, and that’s what headquarters has to do.
The job of a field agent like me is to properly convey to the headquarters what I have personally seen, heard, and experienced. She said that if you see a whale’s fin, you should just look at the fin and not guess the tail or head.
So, you were mistaken about the Guard Bureau’s intelligence collection.”
“Then, just carry out your mission. Seniors.”
Cain was calm, and Allen burst into nervous laughter.
“I apologize if I was rude. But I really need help. “It’s for the good of the empire, the imperial family, and everyone.”
“It doesn’t matter because carrying out the mission is my job. Instead, don’t say you’re a senior.”
She probably would have said something like, ‘Isn’t this a strange point of anger?’ If Maria were here. But she thought Cain deserved it.
The relationship between the Security Bureau and the Guard Bureau is somewhere between ‘subtle’ and ‘potential saboteur’. This is because the Security Bureau works for ‘the entire Empire’, but the Guard Bureau works only for the ‘Imperial Family’.
Originally, all work was handled by the Guard Bureau, but the current emperor greatly reduced its authority and launched the Security Bureau. As the scope of work has been drastically reduced, the work to gain prestige has also diminished.
The problem is that the working relationship between the two groups forms an ambiguous intersection.
For example, if the emperor went crazy one day and issued an order to ‘murder all the citizens of the empire,’ the Imperial Guard would have to do it.
On the other hand, the Security Bureau is in a position to protect ‘the entire empire’, so it must carry out the order to ‘catch and kill all those crazy mass murderers.’
Of course, a Guard Bureau agent will not be able to say that he is a Guard Bureau agent, and a Security Bureau agent will keep his affiliation a secret.
In this situation, Cain’s comments about ‘senior’ are, depending on how you hear them, close to an insult. It is a nuance similar to becoming a dog with the answer ‘Yes, Father’.
In the end, Allen said, wiping his forehead.
“Okay. Anyway, how should I introduce myself? “For your information, that professor is a person with a great desire for power and fame.”
Cain prepared an answer in advance.
“I would like you to introduce me as Professor Anna’s research assistant.”
There was no sound, but veins appeared on Allen’s forehead. How dare this kid use someone’s name arbitrarily.
“… “Doesn’t that require his approval?”
“That was the content of the letter I sent yesterday. I’ll introduce myself as the professor’s research assistant, so please know that as such. Time is too short to ask for permission. Take action first, report later. Wouldn’t that be better than having another Armageddon?”
Allen had to take a deep breath for quite some time. Cain even gave her a glimpse of a smile.
“In her formal report, she will write that she received a lot of help from the Grunbruck branch. Oh… “Did you get what I asked for when I sent you the letter yesterday?”
Now you are treated like an errand boy. Allen gritted his teeth. But in the end, like a loyal member of the imperial family, she opened the drawer of her desk and handed over an original.
It is made up of six concentric circles like an arrow target, and the alphabet is written on all of them. The wooden board is made so that it can rotate freely.
“I cherish it. Return it and go. “I know that every time there is a scratch, I will file a claim with the main office of the Security Bureau.”
Allen wrapped her disk in a thin cloth and handed it to her.
“Thank you.”
Cain bowed his head and gratefully accepted her. She imagined for a moment that if she cut this disk in half, she would be able to give old Bernays not only the news of her own survival, but also her gift.
At the same time, I’m thinking about getting something more out of this annoying Guards agent.
“I will take it to the Count of Edessa’s mansion, and security will be strictly maintained. “There are so many visitors.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
As expected, Allen jumped up.
“I’m going to take it to a place full of those chattering people!”
“Then what should I do? I have no place to sleep. “Isn’t it weirder to be sleeping on the street with this disc?”
Allen gritted his teeth and quickly wrote something down on a piece of paper.
“Show this on the main street, at the Arter Museum residence. Oh my goodness, the empire is ruined. It’s ruined. “How can these guys make such a fuss about protecting the empire?”
Cain nodded her head, truly satisfied. Before she stood up nicely and left,
“Thank you very much, senior. “Please let me know when you receive a reply from the capital.”
She didn’t forget to say
. She heard something breaking in her office, but she didn’t pay much attention.
* * * * *
Maria rolled her eyes in frustration.
“Dad, are we moving?”
Cain looked at Maria with a shocked expression, and Lily giggled.
“It’s nice that they provide a lot of delicious food here.”
“… “I’ll buy you something more delicious.”
“Hmph. Don’t make me suffer. Where are you going? “Do they serve good food there?”
The Arter Museum was founded with funds raised by ‘well-meaning supporters’ in Grunbruck, and the Imperial Southern Academy served as an advisor.
The facilities were fancy and the decoration was nice, but there were no low-class places like restaurants. Instead, the refreshment table was quite large, and the accommodations were also quite fancy.
Cain and his party presented documents to the museum manager. Hmm, hmm. The old man, who was groaning, nodded his head gracefully.
“Ah. This is an introduction to auctioneer Allen. You are one of the sponsors who helped establish it. Please feel at home. How many days do you think you will be staying?”
“I think it will be about three or four days.”
Maria muttered softly, ‘Hey.’ From the moment she came in, she seemed to like this place quite a bit.
“How would you like a room?”
Lily looked at Cain with eyes full of anticipation. Cain answered as if it were natural for her.
“One room for 4 people is enough.”
“Please come this way.”
The room was spacious and the furniture was beautiful. It was dynamic, as if the storm waves had been stuffed into wood. Maria stroked the delicate pieces with her fingertips.
“I expected one double room and one single room.”
Lily also looked at Cain blankly, as if she couldn’t help but regret it. As if making excuses, Cain took out a disc rolled up in a cloth.
“What is that?”
“A ride that three of us will have to hold on to all day today. Lily, do you know what this is?”
“I know. This is the original plate used to create and interpret substitution ciphers. But this is my first time seeing something so complex and precise. What I saw when I was receiving education was two concentric circles. But why is this… “
Cain put her disc down on her desk.
“I don’t know if I can do it tonight or not, but I’m going to open the letters in the back of Volume 3 of William’s diary. “The coded letter you got from Arianne’s house will be helpful.”
Maria frowned.
“That doesn’t help. You know that.”
Arianne translated only the first part of the letter sent by William, the Knight of Chastity.
The first line is ‘Arianne. I have to say this now, but I want you to know how excited my body and mind are every time I see the long curved sword. I was younger back then and was more sensitive to skin color. Now that I’m older, I’ve come to accept more things… “
The decoding ended there. And the first part of the letter William sent was not visible because Arianne had torn it. Since she could not recognize the original text of the code and the decrypted copy 1:1, her decryption work was also sluggish.
“It was like that until now. Not anymore. I think it might be a little easier since there is a converter… “Even if it is a Vizner cipher that is difficult to crack.”
“So. “Are you going to decipher all the letters in Volume 3 today?”
“I don’t think there will be time to do everything. You have to do whatever you can. First… “This letter.”
Cain took out the rest of William’s letter from his bag and shook it. The page written below – 4 – was quite intact, but half of the letter written – 3 – was missing. Of the four-page letter, only the last page and the first half of it remained.
“Let’s solve this first.”