225. Ability enhancement ticket (1)
“Salute to His Majesty the Emperor.”
As soon as Fellain gave instructions, the knights’ arms rose like machines and saluted.
Originally, the Holy Knights do not salute like that.
However, since they had already been thoroughly trained to work together with the Imperial Guard, they shared almost the same rituals as the Imperial Army.
“Hmm. That’s why the fighting power of each of them is comparable to that of the Imperial First Sword?”
“Your Majesty. I never said anything like that.”
“Even if you exaggerate a little, you don’t seem to be saying that?”
“I think I could say it with a lot of exaggeration.”
“Ha ha ha ha!”
Arya burst out laughing in her bout and then gave me a pat on her chin.
The idea was to go to a place where there were no people.
I first gave Fellain a look and told her to stay where she was, then followed Aria.
“Yes. Even with empty words, they are not the highest level of knights in the empire, and if those 12 people are not capable of exceeding the strength of the entire guard, why do I have to hire such an order of knights to escort me? Since you did it, there must be a reason. If you can explain it, try it.”
“Did Your Majesty notice the changes in the Imperial Palace since his accession?”
“You don’t think I know that anything has changed just because I live in the office all day buried in paperwork. If so, it’s a big mistake. The handling was, to put it mildly, a method of converging the various opinions of the servants and coming to conclusions through discussion, but it is difficult to handle urgent matters in that way.”
I pointed out the core.
Aria ascended the throne, and I ascended to the post of Regent, and the swords we both wielded caused significant changes in the imperial palace.
A large number of ministers who went against the imperial order were severed, and the policy making process was simplified.
That brings up the problem that if Arya puts her mind to it, she can formulate and execute a policy right away, but at the same time, there are no brakes to stop her if she goes in the wrong direction.
Of course, it was an innovation achieved by not thinking about the case of needing brakes later.
Because I think that the country should go back to normal until I see the ending anyway.
I thought it would be entirely up to Aria to solve the structural problems that would arise after that.
“Thanks to recruiting new talent and clearing the gridlock, work progressed faster… But it definitely feels like rats have increased in the imperial palace.”
“You are right.”
It was an accurate diagnosis.
It was good that talented people in the imperial palace had increased, but it was unknown whether they all looked up to Arya from the depths of their hearts.
In the past, rather than talented people with exceptional abilities, loyal subjects who could give their liver and gall to the imperial family, even if they were slightly inferior, were more valuable.
However, since they replaced the corrupt and incompetent ministers, they were no longer in a position to cover the cold and hot water, so they had no choice but to select and use talented people with less mental education.
And this will soon increase the possibility of enemy spies infiltrating.
It was obvious that there were quite a few spies or collaborators of Asylum crawling into the imperial palace at this time.
This is a risk that Arya and I were taking.
“Now that spies are rampant in the Imperial Palace, Your Majesty wishes to provide you with the most reliable armed group. Of course, that does not mean that the Imperial Guard cannot be trusted. I know how rigorous they are selected through the personnel process. It is also true that the probability of infiltration by spies is higher than that of the Holy Knights, which is a knightly order.”
“So, in case of danger, throw away the guards and hide behind the skirt of the chieftain, the knight?”
“In the event of a crisis, it is recommended that you entrust the escort to the Templars first while being escorted by both the Guards and Templars.”
“Hmm…”
Has it been eaten?
Because I was worried, I glanced at Arya’s face.
Arya seemed to think deeply for a while, then she turned to me.
“Do you know what is being said these days?”
“What do you want to say?”
“I heard that I fell for you and set myself up as a puppet.”
“·······.”
Certainly, there was a reason for it to look that way.
From the looks of it, it must have looked like Arya only listened to me and promoted her, and cut off her ministers.
In reality, she decided that Arya had a point after going through several reviews with her aides, but she had no way to know such a thing from the outside.
“What will happen if you bring your own private knights into the imperial palace this time? Wouldn’t I look like a scarecrow sticking its neck into your blade?”
From noble mtl dot com.
“I can’t deny that. But for Your Majesty’s safety, I think it’s best.”
“Then I’ll take a rather dangerous path. I’m sorry, but your knights won’t be chasing me around and escorting me.”
“·······.”
I was prepared, but a little bit bitter.
The uneasiness of what to do if Arya was suddenly attacked continued to overwhelm her, but she managed to shake it off.
Arya has already made up her mind.
There is nothing she can do but tremble if she continues to worry about the anxiety factor here.
“It would be ridiculous to see the private knights guarding the luggage… But I think defending the imperial palace would be pretty cool.”
“Your Majesty?”
“Increase the number of people. With reliable knights that you are so proud of. It would be better to include at least 40 people in the palace’s defense organization. Instead, add that many guards to my close escort. I will borrow it.”
“You are wise.”
I bowed my head to express my gratitude.
The goal was already achieved just by putting the Holy Knights in the imperial palace.
Since the Holy Knights directly receive my orders, in case of emergency, their authority is equal to that of the Imperial Guard.
In fact, it means that they will become an armed group that can deal with any crisis that may arise inside the imperial palace.
It was not so reassuring that a reliable family member had entered the imperial palace.
At times like this, I realize how important a solid foundation is.
In the end, no matter how much an individual flies and crawls, if there is no support, there will always be a limit.
“Your Majesty. Did you receive a report about the teleportation technique?”
“Yes. I received it. The cultists used the Vatican’s strange magic.”
Aria’s expression hardened.
She was horribly serious among all her issues she had dealt with.
“I thought a lot about how to roast and boil those grandparents in the Vatican. It wasn’t easy. I just wanted to send the army right away and wipe them all out-“
“Your Majesty…”
For no reason, I checked to see if there was anyone around.
I’m sure someone is recording.
“I can’t make this public, so I’ll have to go quietly. I’ll have to depose the pope and put up with my interference in the election of the next pope.”
“·······.”
Is that tolerable?
I thought it might be a solution to destroying the Holy See.
I decided not to ask how they intervene in the election.
Even if you hear about this kind of politics, there is a high possibility that I will not understand it, and it is a field that Arya is good at on her own.
I saluted her eyes for twenty thousand arias and turned around to find Fellain.
“Knight Commander. We need to increase the number of people. Also, it’s a bit different from what was planned…”
“Yes. Please tell me. I will do whatever you ask.”
I passed on the changes and instructions to Feline.
Feline is so fast, you can expect to fill up 40 people and be immediately deployed to the palace defense.
“By the way, Mr. Schluss.”
“What happened?”
“That’s…”
Feline hesitated slightly and hesitated to speak.
I have a problem with my hearing.
I immediately spread the cognitive barrier around us.
Unlike before, no one can say anything to me even if I open a barrier in the imperial palace now.
“That’s what you said earlier in the carriage. You said there were two people you promised to marry… Is that true?”
“Why, I thought I was joking? It’s true.”
Feline let out a shallow sigh.
I said it so lightly that he was confused as to whether he was joking or being serious.
If it was a heavy-mouthed fella, she decided it was okay to talk and confided.
He’ll be my escort in case of emergency, so it’s better to have more information about me.
“Then can you tell me the names of each family?”
“Why?”
“Ah·······. This is to prevent various complicated problems that may arise if the family also owns shares in the Holy Knights.”
“Really?”
Didn’t I own 95% of it?
Could there be a problem complex enough to have a big impact?
But since Fellain said that, I decided to think that trouble might arise from somewhere I don’t know.
“One is Pleschette. And the other is a woman from the realm.”
“Kingdom side…!”
“Outside disclosure is prohibited, you know?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Good.”
Successfully completed information sharing.
I left the imperial palace behind the slightly embarrassed Fellain.
I can’t help but be surprised.
Sit in an imperial office and try to marry a woman from an enemy country.
On the day I was found out, Aria would try to cut my throat, but at that time it wouldn’t matter since I’d already seen the ending.
‘By the way, what is a skill enhancement ticket?’
A skill enhancement ticket obtained as a reward from the previous quest.
Intuitively, it sounds like the right to enhance one of my abilities.
I felt like I needed to take a closer look at what, how, and how to strengthen it.
As soon as I got on the wagon and was alone, I called the ability window.
[Ability Enhancement Ticket]
[Enhance one of your abilities. After enhancing each ability, the effect of the change is as follows.]
[Ability: Translation]
[Rating: Rare]
[Description: You will be able to understand and speak the language you have never heard before.]
-＞
[Rating: Hero]
[Description: Can understand all forms of language.]
In the case of ‘translation’, it took me a while to figure out what was changed and how.
Before the change, ‘translation’ was limited to what I heard with my ears, in my case, hearing the magic waves in the sound wave domain.
However, the latter case also applies to the text seen with the eyes.
Is that all?
For ‘all forms of language’, of course, passwords are also applicable.
Even if there is no encryption key at all, if you steal the enemy’s password, you can decrypt everything.
‘Pass once.’
It may be quite convenient, but I had doubts about its usefulness.
The Empire is already monitoring thousands of encrypted messages a day that are supposed to be sent and received by the kingdom’s spies or Asylums.
I don’t know if I could distribute this ability to all counterintelligence agents so that they could decipher it, but I couldn’t read them one by one and track down the enemy.
[Ability: Body’s Memory]
[Rating: Rare]
[Description: When you perform a specific action, there is a low chance that the related body’s memory will be awakened.]
-＞
[Rating: Legendary]
[Description: The memory of the main body can be awakened without limit.]
‘Hmm. It’s really useless.’
If it’s Schluse’s memories, he’s already looked into all of them in that cave.
There was an advantage of being able to experience 4D by fully interlocking the senses when using ‘Body’s Memory’, but it would be better to strengthen ‘translation’ instead of strengthening this.
[Ability: Lookup]
[Rating: Legendary]
[Description: You can query brief information about the target.]
-＞
[Rating: Miracle]
[Description: You can query detailed information and stats about the target.]
The explanation was ambiguous but intuitive.
Changed from brief information to detailed information······.
In addition, if you could get a glimpse of the stats, it seemed to be quite helpful in determining whether you had a chance to win or not when confronting an enemy.
This is pretty good too.
For now, I decided to look at the last thing, ‘selection and concentration’.
[Abilities: Choice and Concentration]
[Rating: Legendary]
[Description: Temporarily boosts certain stats once a day. You can hang it up and use it again. Time limit: 5 seconds. Boost amount: 99]
-＞
[Rating: Miracle]
[Description: Temporarily boosts certain stats once a day. You can hang it up and use it again. Time limit: 5 seconds. Boost amount: 299]
‘What is this?’
As soon as I saw it, the sound of billions came out.