160. Imperial University Raid (3)
“Follow me. I’m going to the Imperial Palace.”
“Why in the imperial palace?”
“I have to report to His Majesty. It’s also the safest place in the archipelago.”
“Oh.”
As soon as she returned to her mansion, she prepared Emilia.
She would need at least a day to fix the mansion’s entrance, but she couldn’t sleep comfortably in the place where the barrier was already destroyed.
No, even if I fall asleep comfortably, Emilia will stay up all night watching over me.
I felt like I had to take care of myself in the imperial palace for just one night.
As a knight under the direct command of the emperor, I also had the duty to report directly, so she had to visit as well.
‘But… Will it be okay?’
Suddenly, I remembered the faces of Sergei and Ludwig who were looking at me as if they were dumbfounded, and I became nervous.
The two most influential professors at Imperial University demanded that I withdraw from this case under threat.
I’m not going to repel an intruder, let alone one I’ve never encountered before…
Of course I couldn’t.
It was obvious what the two of them were up to.
However, it was not at all predictable what the aftermath of the aftermath of rejecting the request of Count Bermanstein and former marshal of the Imperial Army with a single knife.
‘You must catch me and kick me.’
Anyway, they are educators, but now.
I believed that he would not do anything heinous to students.
No, I wanted to believe that.
“Brother… All of the maid’s clothes were torn or scorched, so I wore them like this for now. Isn’t that okay?”
I’m going to the imperial palace as my attendant, so of course I have to wear a maid’s uniform.
I was just about to tell him to shake off the tanned clothes and put them on.
“Of course-“
“Ugh, sorry. I’ll come out wearing tanned clothes.”
“No. Perfect.”
As soon as she saw Emilia in her plain clothes, she was stunned.
A thin, flowing top and a narrow skirt…
Is this the clothes you bought the last time you went out?
I remember buying it because it looked like something a modern-day secretary would wear if the two wore it together.
At that time, Emilia wondered what kind of fashion this was.
She said, but now that she’s dressed up and down like this, she’s convinced.
Emilia is confident that she will look good in anything she wears.
“Isn’t there something strange? I’ve never seen clothes like this before, and it’s my first time trying them on.”
“No. It’s perfect. It’s so cute.”
“Huh… Is this cute? I think there was something else besides cute.”
From noble mtl dot com.
Emilia turned around in front of the mirror and glared at me.
“Tell me again. How about it?”
“Ears are cute.”
“I really don’t notice.”
“What…?”
“Okay. Let’s go now.”
“Uh uh…”
You look very uncomfortable today.
I was pushed on my back by Emilia without knowing why and had to leave her mansion.
.
.
.
“Heh heh heh. Got bitten by the teacher, both of us.”
“·······.”
While Sergei laughed beside him, Ludwig silently sucked on his pipe.
What was the problem?
I thought he warned you in a threatening tone.
I wondered if the expression on his face wasn’t that threatening.
“Where did those monsters come from all of a sudden?”
“Head Professor. Have you heard of the Ubermensch Project?”
“Ubermensch······?”
“Yes. The plan was to edit the internal circuits through surgery to create the strongest soldier. Even if you’ve never heard of the project name, you’ll be familiar with the outcome. It failed.”
Project Ubermensch.
It was a project to artificially fix the innate internal circuit and make it the most efficient and powerful circuit.
However, editing the internal circuit required an operation in which the chest was cut open and a knife was applied directly to the heart, and there were extremely few survivors.
“No matter how much trial and error we went through, it was impossible to raise the survival rate to more than 0.1 Percent. One in 1000 people… There were 7 suicide bombers who broke into the Imperial University. Today, for terrorism, That means at least 7,000 people died. So no matter how much you think about it, it’s not the Kingdom’s fault.”
Ludwig tutted and clicked his tongue as he spat out his pipe.
The history of the Kingdom’s Secret Service is less than 20 years old.
With an unstable foundation, they would have no choice but to operate on a limited basis, but there was no way they could carry out a human experiment that killed 7,000 people within the territory of the Empire.
However, this case was a golden opportunity to set up a special team to beat the intelligence service and receive budget.
If only they could report to the emperor that the intelligence service had committed a terrorist attack on the Imperial University.
But the problem was Schluss Heinkel.
With his insight, there’s an extremely high probability he’d figured out that this incident wasn’t the work of the Secret Service, so he had to keep his mouth shut to keep the operation out of the way.
However, Schluss refused to keep quiet without hesitation.
“Heh heh. I should have presented the reward first. I didn’t know that he coveted the ball so much after he became a knight.”
“I don’t think he was greedy for the ball.”
Ludwig cut it straight.
Schlus Heinkel was not like that.
Of course, they say people change, but at least in this case, he never seemed to be greedy for honor or merit.
It was only my intuition that said so, but there was no clear evidence in sight.
“In that case, you’re trying to protect the intelligence agency…?”
“That’s probably not it either.”
“hahahaha. Right? It can’t be. It can’t be…”
Even though he smiled awkwardly, Sergei couldn’t get rid of the feeling of something uneasy.
Schlus was clearly a contributor to stopping the intelligence agency’s terrorism and suppressing the rebellion.
Why would a guy like that go around the intelligence agency?
Of course it couldn’t be.
He couldn’t have.
“Perhaps Schluss has already guessed their identity.”
“Yes? Head Professor? How do you come to that conclusion?”
“······It was a mistake. Please forget it.”
Ludwig, who had let the thoughts in his head come out of his mouth, held on to his pounding head.
To tell you a speculation without any basis.
As the head of the noble Bermanstein family, it was an embarrassing mistake.
But deep down it also meant that he doubted that strongly.
“If that’s true, that would explain the Emperor’s desire to purge Schluse, hahahaha. Even if I were, I would have killed someone who knew so much and had so many secrets.”
“Professor Sergey.”
“Oops… Excuse me.”
Sergei, who was making a big fuss about him, made a funny pretend to stop him.
It was clear that it was a consideration in its own way.
Since Ludwig made a mistake, he covered it up by making a mistake that went far beyond it.
Sergei, who has no interest in holding on to his weaknesses, has managed to earn people’s trust in this way.
“By the way, what if that Schluse tells the Emperor that we tried to keep our mouths shut?”
“He doesn’t talk. No, he can’t.”
Ludwig said this time in a confident tone.
Until now, Schluss has shown the behavior of distinguishing between those who will be allies and those who are not.
To those who would become colleagues, he showed infinite favor and attracted them as allies, and thoroughly excluded those who did not.
Looking at what Schluss has done so far, Ludwig and Sergei seem to fall under the category of ‘will-be companions’.
So you won’t openly do anything that will turn us into enemies.
“Rather than that, the identity of the intruders is the problem. An organization that could easily sacrifice the lives of 7,000 people in the empire to avoid the eyes of the imperial family…”
Ludwig, at the end of his words, pondered for a while while holding his chin.
No matter how much I thought about it, an organization of such an absurd scale could not exist.
Without a group of fanatics, such madness could not be explained.
‘Huh?’
Cultist group······?
Looks like I got a clue.
***
As soon as he arrived at the imperial palace, he requested an audience with the emperor.
It took less than 10 minutes to get to the audience, as if he had been waiting for me to come.
Entering the audience room alone, I explained the details of today’s events to the emperor.
I didn’t have anything to hide, so I could say everything without worrying about making mistakes.
Unidentified assailants destroyed and invaded the barriers of the Imperial University.
They transformed the internal circuitry into a powerful explosive technique.
The danger was so high that they couldn’t even dare to capture them alive, and all of them were shot dead on the spot.
Of course, I didn’t talk about the pressure from Sergei and Ludwig.
“Dear Schluss Heinkel.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“What do you think the identity of the enemy is?”
“We don’t have any convincing evidence yet.”
“Let me ask you a different question. Tell me what you are guessing at this stage based on the identity of the enemy.”
“We are suspicious of religious groups at this time.”
“A religious group?”
“Yes. I think they are a group of people who worship other evil spirits other than Aegis-sama.”
“Hmm…”
It would look strange even if I pretended to know too much, so I quietly gave him a hint.
Then the emperor stroked his beard, looked at me, and then continued to salivate.
“I see. Good job. You can leave now.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Leaving behind the emperor who seemed to be struggling, he left the audience room.
Even after coming out, I couldn’t erase all my anxiety.
It occurred to me that the emperor’s agony might be the thought of whether or not to beat me.
What happens to a servant whose strength is being competent but whose weakness is being too competent?
For some reason, it felt like my breath was getting tighter as time passed.
I had to use a trick as soon as possible.
“It’s over soon, Mr. Heinkel.”
“It was a brief report. It didn’t take long.”
“Did I ask about where we’ll be staying tonight?”
“·······.”
At Emilia’s question, I opened my mouth wide and pretended to be surprised…
Emilia’s expression slightly distorted as if the smoke was too obvious.
But she didn’t matter much except for Emilia being fooled.
It’s enough for the people of the imperial palace to be fooled.
“Oops! I forgot. Now that His Majesty is agonizing over an important matter, it’s a bit embarrassing to ask for an audience again about our accommodation.”
“Hmm. What should I do with this? I’m in trouble…”
“It’s really difficult. I’ll have to find someone else to ask.”
“·······.”
Smoking smoke, we walked down the hallway and left the building.
Then he waited for a long time.
Surely, the sounds we made reached the ears of the courtiers.
But even after a long time, the guy who was supposed to appear didn’t come.
What’s wrong with Arya, who came to visit me pretending to be a coincidence whenever I stopped by the imperial palace.
Are you emptying the palace today?
I was a little taken aback.
‘Have you lost your hand?’
Could I have been abandoned by Arya?
Somehow, I had a strong feeling.