Chapter 151 - Cracking the Egg

Arken Empire Crisis Response Headquarters.

A group convened in times of crisis to handle grave matters that could shake the Empire to its foundations.

It was composed of five senior committee members in total, and conducted post-mortems to identify the flow of events and the responsible parties afterward.

The capital of the Arken Empire passed by peacefully, without taking any damage.

That was because the advance of the demonic creatures had been swept away all at once.

Because of that, there would likely be many who regarded it as a simple disturbance.

But the truth was that an entire legion had been annihilated.

Alexander had tried to send reinforcements, but the matter had grown even larger because of those who tried to evade responsibility.

Alexander had made the people who had excused themselves by claiming illness actually ill.

On the grounds that they had created a plague within the Empire, he had beheaded not only the parties involved but their entire families as well, then cremated them on the spot.

'No, I suppose he did not make them suffer all that badly.'

In any case, Alexander had been driven into a corner.

A fierce battle had taken place, and it was clear that the mistake had come not from an overwhelming difference in strength, but from ignorance.

It was a situation where fault and responsibility for that could never be avoided.

Ferda was being called in as a witness to that incident.

"Crown Prince Alexander has been driven into a corner."

"I doubt it."

Isabella said that, and Ferda answered reflexively.

Isabella tilted her head.

They were plainly saying it would be a place to question Alexander's fault, yet he said that was not the case?

"What do you mean?"

"I mean there is a high chance this is a trap meant for me."

"A trap meant for you, Regent?"

Ferda told her about their intentions.

"At first, they will talk about Alexander. They will come out as if to say the flow will be to argue right and wrong, asking by what course this happened."

"And then?"

"And then, from there, they will suddenly claim that responsibility lies with someone else. Who would be closest to that responsibility?"

"The operations staff officer who failed to do his job properly, or..."

Isabella's eyes turned toward Ferda.

"You, Regent."

"It will likely flow that way."

The more one questioned the responsibility of high officials, the more frequently this sort of thing happened, and because he was the Crown Prince, there was no room for suspicion.

Ferda had suffered through this kind of thing many times as well.

At first, the discussion would seem to flow smoothly, but then they would speak as though the culprit lay elsewhere, subtly prod by asking whether he was not the culprit, and drive him into a corner.

At first, he had responded with reason, but the intensifying atmosphere in the hall had driven all responsibility onto Ferda.

What had the result been?

'I cut down the bastard who drove me into the corner first.'

It had become quiet in an instant.

At the time, Ferda had just subdued the imperial chief mage, so it was a period when he could act recklessly.

Aside from the man who had been screaming and shouting, no one was willing to struggle while putting their own neck on the line.

'It would be nice if I could kill them like back then.'

Even though there was a truly simple way to settle it, he could not use it.

Ferda felt regretful inside.

After hearing Ferda's words, Isabella thought it over again and again.

"Of course, the pace of development has risen to an absurd degree, enough to surprise even me, but even so, you are the Regent of the Grand Duchy's territory and the mate of a Red Dragon. Are you saying they would dare do something that reckless there?"

"Even if they do not intend it, it will probably end up flowing that way."

The Empire knew that Valdrova was easy to look down on.

They had used that to throw her a title, used her fiancé as an excuse to throw her a piece of trash, and treated her like a guard dog.

Now that Ferda was turning that barren land into prime gold, they could not help finding it displeasing.

The Arken Empire wanted strong centralized power, and it could not tolerate the development of mere provinces.

"And if you look here, the answer comes out."

"... Ah."

Ferda pointed to the list for the emergency council that had been convened.

The following was written on that list.

Chairman of the Serdes Magical Society, Erdes Roton.

The continent's greatest magical organization had intervened in the Empire's affairs.

After confirming that name, Isabella nodded as though she understood.

"For Lady Erdes to involve herself in such a troublesome gathering... She must dislike this quite a bit."

"Indeed."

He had wondered by what right she was involving herself in this matter, but the person who had swept away the demonic creatures advancing toward the Empire was none other than her.

The 7th Circle Great Mage Erdes Roton had succeeded in devastating all twenty thousand demonic creatures by dropping a meteor shower from the sky.

That was enough to gain her the right to speak.

'Even if she cannot exert absolute influence, they will not dare ignore her.'

Knowing that Erdes had joined in with the intention of screwing Ferda over, he could not just sit still.

'I need countermeasures.'

What was needed for those countermeasures?

'Information and strategy.'

Information was a weapon, and strategy was martial skill.

The relationship between the two was mutual, and if they were balanced, they could produce dramatic effects.

'Is there anyone among us who can handle this well?'

Mori was the Slave Sage who possessed the ability called the Archive of All Things.

Because she lacked the ability to think for herself, she was a weapon.

'Besides, she is far removed from the present situation.'

Mori presented objective information based on data.

The logic that Olivia accounted for 45 percent of the merits this time had not been accepted, so this was by no means a situation where that kind of logic was important.

Ferda needed people who could continue monitoring the situation through sources and flexibly draw out information.

He knew an organization that excelled in that regard.

'Black Bandana.'

Every time he had tried using them, they had proven their ability, and they had never once let their reputation go to waste.

If there was a problem with them,

'The payment will be the problem.'

Black Bandana's information varied according to scale and difficulty.

Because their ability was excellent, the larger the scale became, the more the price rose exponentially.

The scale of this matter was close to that of the entire Empire, and it was a story that required going into its depths.

They might demand such an enormous sum that even selling one country to save another would not be enough.

'If I make a half-baked offer, I might end up only giving them information that I am desperate.'

Even if he stood at the very edge of a cliff, he had to stand tall until the very end.

That was the fight Ferda had to take on.

"What about simply not attending?"

Luri, who had been listening, handed him tea and made the suggestion.

It was one of the methods Ferda had been considering as well.

Ferda could now consistently say he was busy and not attend.

Since the target they needed to question would be absent, even if he was named, he thought he might be able to drag out time.

"Since this is a postwar conference, and your importance in it is high, it will be difficult to avoid going with the excuse that you are busy with affairs of state."

"And if I lose the chance to argue my case, they will bite even harder."

When someone bit into your flesh, if you did not bark, you were no different from a slab of meat.

If you wanted to live, you had to bark, and further, you had to bite your opponent, and you had to make your case so that they could never touch you again.

At that moment, someone knocked on the open door.

"Regent, may I come in?"

It was Zed's voice.

"What is it?"

"Well... Fangtooth says she would like to see you."

"Fangtooth?"

"I mean Garnet. The leader of Black Bandana."

Come to think of it, he had called her Fangtooth at their first meeting.

It was probably a nickname made because of her snaggletooth, pointed teeth, and dark skin.

Still, the timing was truly coincidental.

To think she would appear just when he had been thinking about needing them.

In any case, the beginning was good.

There was a world of difference between their positions when he needed them and they came to him first, and when he called them and they came.

"Have her come in."

Ferda prepared to receive his guest.

With Ferda's permission, Garnet came inside.

"It is an honor to meet you, Regent, and Administrator. I sincerely congratulate you on your great victory in this subjugation campaign."

Garnet greeted them politely.

Because Zed had called her Fangtooth, her snaggletooth kept drawing his eye.

"Did you come to discuss the post-mortem?"

Ferda brought up the matter immediately.

"That is correct."

"I suppose you have also learned that I am the bait."

"Of course."

They were the greatest intelligence organization on the continent, so that much was laughably simple.

"So you came to wring more money out of me?"

"Of course, we are an organization that receives payment according to scale and depth, but the purpose of this visit is somewhat removed from business."

As Garnet said that, she took out a book and placed it on the table.

"Would you please look at this?"

Ferda picked up the document and opened it.

The moment he saw the first page, he had to focus to calm his astonishment.

There were faded, yellowed marks here and there, but the contents were clear.

Isabella, who had been examining the contents with him, asked Garnet in surprise.

"Are these not the personal details of Black Bandana's top executives?"

It did not simply record their names or faces.

It listed where they were pretending to be whom, every detail of their activities, and even clues that could be used to track them.

Garnet had exposed that.

It was an insane act that went beyond mere recklessness.

There was no need to ask whether this was true or false.

Garnet said this.

"With this, we have crossed the first stage."

"What stage?"

"Cracking the egg."

The word secret was the shell that protected a secret organization.

Garnet was forcibly breaking the shell that had protected them and exposing them outside the world.

Now that what was inside had been exposed, there was no turning back.

"To put it simply, Black Bandana is beginning dissolution."

By abandoning secrecy, neutrality collapsed.

With neutrality gone, the reason for Black Bandana's existence disappeared.

"And from today onward, after being reorganized as the intelligence department of the far east, of the Grand Duchy's territory, we will swear loyalty."

Ferda was bewildered by her action.

The expression on Isabella's face when he glanced at her suggested similar thoughts.

She looked as though she was wondering why these people were doing something like this.

"You are doing something reckless."

Ferda threw the document he had been reading back onto the table.

"What do you plan to do if I refuse? What crime have the people written here committed that they should die?"

"That is precisely cracking the egg. Once an egg is cracked, if what comes out is an immature chick, it dies as it is. Black Bandana's teams will have no choice but to disband and dissolve as they are."

Garnet spoke as though that immature chick were someone else.

They were the greatest among secret intelligence organizations, and their scale also spanned the entire continent.

It was no exaggeration to say that it was a situation where an entire nation would vanish whole.

'This order of events must have been calculated as well.'

If she had first said that she was offering their personal details as a sign of swearing loyalty, Ferda's suspicions would have been far greater than they were now.

Right now, he could only think that they had steeled themselves.

"Are you saying that if Black Bandana is dissolved, you want me to accept you as vassals?"

"No. We will be loyal, but if we wanted such cumbersome titles, this would never have happened."

"Then?"

"Do you know about shadow knights?"

"I know them well."

Knights who go beyond chivalry in order to protect chivalry.

Unlike the existing knights who became the face of honorable wars and duels, they were shadows that committed assassinations and sabotage.

And all knights denied their existence.

Most people showed deep disgust at the fact that the name knight was attached to them even while knowing that contradiction.

The remaining few understood their necessity and respected them, so they had no choice but to deny them.

And Ferda belonged to that minority.

Because the honor of knights and the crown shone thanks to those who silently guarded them from behind.

"The stronger the light becomes, the darker the shadow grows. Beneath absolute power, ugly and filthy operations constantly move. That is the existence of the shadow arm."

"Are you saying you want to become the shadow arm of the Grand Duchy's territory?"

"That is correct."

"I cannot believe it."

More precisely, he could not understand it.

These people had no such thing as honor.

They could not properly grasp visible power either, and if their tail was stepped on, they were the sort of existence that had to be cut off without hesitation.

It was work difficult to endure through pure responsibility alone.

If Garnet felt that responsibility, she needed to persuade Ferda.

"This is my family's burden."

Garnet said that.

"The first leader of this Black Bandana was Mendel Bandana, the first director of intelligence of the Arken Empire, and I have come here to carry on his will."

Just in case, Ferda sent Mori a telepathic message.

Something recorded in paper documents, even if it was top secret, could not escape her Archive of All Things.

-There is a record of the name Mendel Bandana before the founding of the Arken Empire. After that, he is not recorded in any form.

A person who truly existed.

And the fact that he had failed to adorn even a single page of history meant that he was someone who had truly accepted his own filth as honorable.

Now Ferda's question moved on to the next thing.

"What was that will?"

Mendel Bandana had done dirty work for the Arken Empire.

Ferda was currently hoping only for the Arken Empire to collapse, so would that not mean rendering his ancestor's work meaningless?

"The founding ideal of the Arken Empire was to create a land for humanity. My ancestor said that one day, that intent might become distorted, and it would need to be set right."

The slogan attached to the Empire now was the arrogant phrase, there is no land we cannot conquer.

"Just as my ancestor left in his will, the Empire began to change more and more in later generations. To set this right, we repeatedly offered counsel and showed them the will of the people, but we could not correct it."

The Empire had grown stronger and more arrogant little by little.

At the end of that, were they not now using a dragon like a dog?

"So are you trying to take revenge on this Empire that refused to listen?"

"It is not revenge, but helping it."

Garnet answered clearly.

"If rotten, stagnant water inside a jar has hardened without a hole being made to drain it out, then it is right to break the jar."

What was certain was that her goal was the same as Ferda's.

It made Ferda think again.

Even so, he could feel his heart inclining more than before.

'The other party is an information dealer.'

Information dealers who had sworn never to sell lies.

They had maintained that reputation by not allowing even an inch of excuse.

That was what Ferda feared most.

If he stood beside that towering reputation, trusting only in it, and was crushed beneath it...

Could Ferda maintain his reason in that chain?

Ferda threw out one final question.

"What reason do I have to trust you?"

"Because you will have no choice."

Garnet spoke firmly.

"The Empire will use this matter as an excuse to begin interfering with the far east in earnest, and that interference may put the brakes on you. Even if you have held out firmly until now, you will not be able to keep holding out that way forever."

Building a nation was like stacking a stone tower.

The higher it was built, the more difficult it became, and it could collapse in an instant.

Evil was easy to stain with, and good was hard to protect.

"If you cannot endure that, then we will now die with you."

A neutral secret organization had given up neutrality and even revealed its secrets, so Ferda could use that as a hostage as well.

By exposing their own weakness, they had made themselves a community of shared fate and would prove themselves through skill.

For that, Garnet had boldly cracked the egg.

"Then."

Ferda asked her.

"What kind of place must I prepare for the shadow arm?"