Chapter 15

Chapter 15 - To Change the Future (5)

 

As soon as I returned to the royal palace, the one I called for was George, who had remained behind to gather information.

I was curious what kind of information he had uncovered after I treated his mother, and I also had a personal matter to attend to.

KNOCK KNOCK—

“Enter.”

No sooner had I spoken than George entered, exuding an atmosphere full of annoyance.

As expected, only that attitude of his had not changed.

As soon as he stepped into the office, he pushed up his glasses and said,

“You have changed from before.”

The first thing he said after seeing me for the first time in a while was some vague remark about how I had changed.

When I stared at him as if I could not understand what he meant at all, he shrugged and added an explanation.

“I mean the aura I sense from Your Highness has changed.”

“You can tell such things?”

“It was half a joke. But if before you felt like a savage beast, now you feel like a predator waiting for its prey.”

“Oh?”

Should I call it unconscious?

In truth, ever since I absorbed the mana in the hideout, my actions had gained another layer of composure.

The fact that I had tried to extract information from the assassins, instead of killing them all without question as I normally would have done, was part of that.

‘Of course, I had no intention of showing mercy.’

I was not so soft that I would forgive those who had aimed for my life.

Still, it was true that I had shown some leisure in the process of dealing with them.

“It seems you have an eye for things.”

Should I say he was indeed the strategist of the future……?

I was already beginning to look forward to seeing how useful the information he had gathered would be.

My thoughts showed themselves in the corners of my mouth, which slowly rose.

“Then begin your report.”

“Yes.”

At that, he took out a single document he had hidden in his clothes.

It was a single sheet of notes, roughly scribbled.

“I confirmed that some nobles have been manipulating public opinion against Your Highness.”

“They would.”

“Twelve have been confirmed so far. Strangely, six of those nobles had little connection to Asus, who is the cause of the worsening public opinion.”

At the present point, there were seven nobles who had joined hands with Asus.

If Viscount Honore, whom I had killed, was excluded, six remained.

That meant the six nobles George had not mentioned were necessarily Asus’s remnants.

I nodded and began reading the notes he had written.

• Around 4 p.m. on May 10. Count Valmons’s servant spread false rumors among the royal palace servants.
• Around 5 p.m. That same servant held a secret meeting outside the royal palace with one of Viscount Lukins’s subordinates.
• They exchanged a suspicious letter. Afterward, each left the place with an interval of ten minutes between them.
• Around 11 a.m. on May 11…….

Overall, the contents were arranged in chronological order.

What stood out was that he had focused his investigation on the forces worsening public opinion, as if he had tried to faithfully carry out my order.

The first thought that came to mind was this.

“Your handwriting is terrible.”

“As I recall, Your Highness’s handwriting was no better.”

“I will not deny that.”

Leaving the bad handwriting aside.

Although I did not show it, the notes he handed me were not particularly satisfactory.

Rather, they were subtle.

This level of investigation was something anyone could have done.

‘Did I expect too much?’

Thinking about it, it was only natural for the contents to feel lacking.

What kind of ability could a newly appointed aide who had only just entered the royal palace possibly use to bring me the information I wanted?

That was even more true if the investigation concerned nobles.

‘Still, this is enough for circumstantial conviction.’

I leaned back against the chair and put my feet on the desk.

It was then that he handed me a second set of notes.

“……What is this?”

“I found the relationship between the six nobles suspicious, so I conducted an additional investigation.”

“Hmm.”

Well, from the beginning, what I had wanted was merely to combine the information he found with my own knowledge and draw out the larger picture.

That much was enough.

I took the notes and began reading while suppressing my expectations as much as possible.

And then.

“Ha, hahaha!”

The moment I read the first section, I could not help laughing.

Was it because the contents were too different from what I had expected?

Because the investigation was so pathetic that I could not even be reminded of his appearance before my regression?

No.

• The six nobles usually had no personal friendship, but a common factor existed.
• All of them owned iron mines under their own names, and all of them delivered the iron ore to a specific merchant company in the Capital.
• To confirm this fact, I infiltrated the merchant company in question and stole their ledgers.

It could be expressed in a single phrase.

“A madman.”

He was not in his right mind.

Just what kind of place had he infiltrated to steal information from?

Putting aside the method itself, it would not have been something that could be overlooked lightly if he had been caught.

“I did say you could use any method, but I do not recall telling you to rob them of their ledgers.”

“It was unavoidable in order to proceed with the investigation.”

I admitted it.

My thoughts had been wrong.

No matter how young and inexperienced he was, this was still the man who had been a strategist of the Carrot Federal Empire.

There were still too many things I did not know to judge him by my standards.

‘To take such action just from the fact that they were delivering goods to the same merchant company…….’

An eye that could read the flow.

In that process, there must have been some sense and certainty unique to George, something I did not know.

Thanks to that, the corners of my mouth showed no sign of lowering as I read on.

• After compiling the contents of the ledgers, I became certain that the iron ore in question was falling into the hands of a specific noble.
• I judged that they likely did not want anyone to discover the flow of supplies.
• However, because I could not obtain the key ledgers, and because all subsequent traces had been erased, further tracking was impossible.

The page had been torn off after that sentence.

But this was enough. I knew without reading what came next.

“Impressive. Thanks to you, I have become certain.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the identity of the force trying to oppose me.”

I had already organized the power relationships among the nobles based on my memories before the regression.

A relationship map that considered every element that no one in the present could know, such as politics, business, geographical conditions, and so on.

Had I said that I would become certain if I had even a little physical evidence?

Now that the physical evidence was right before me, acting cautiously would be foolish.

Thus, before I knew it, a cold smile rested on my face.

‘Duke William. This time, you are aiming for the throne?’

Duke William was the maternal grandfather of the 2nd Prince, and until Asus rose to the position of duke, he had occupied a place above all but one man and below none but the King.

Unlike before my regression, when I had possessed the firm standing of Crown Prince thanks to the central figure that was Asus, it seemed he now intended to slip through a gap and try some useless trickery.

I leisurely moved my crossed fingers and savored the moment.

‘How interesting.’

By now, he must have heard that the assassination had failed.

It must have been news he had eagerly awaited, so I could only feel terribly sorry for him.

Given his personality, I doubted the furnishings of the ducal house had survived.

‘And of course, he would have moved to silence them.’

It was safe to say there was no longer any need to think about the Assassin Guild.

As I thought that, George, with a frown on his face, threw me a question.

“You mean to say that just by looking at this, you figured out who was backing the nobles?”

“Mm.”

“…….”

However, he still seemed unconvinced.

Or perhaps he thought I was bluffing.

In this field, at least, he must have had more confidence in himself than anyone else.

“The direction of your investigation was not wrong. The information you brought was also fairly useful.”

“I suppose so.”

“However, in the end, you failed to tie the final knot. Why do you think that was?”

There must certainly have been obstacles preventing him from gathering information.

It could have been a lack of manpower, or perhaps the wall of status had narrowed the range in which he could act.

But such things were merely excuses to justify his own shortcomings.

“How much do you know about the relationships between the nobles of Esteban?”

“…….”

“You said the six nobles were not connected to Asus? Then what do you think the reason for that is?”

“That is……”

“The reason is simple. It is not that they were unrelated to him, but that they could not grow close to Asus, the center of the King’s faction.”

The most basic foundation of information gathering was determined by how much diverse knowledge one possessed.

What was decisive evidence to one person could be trivial gossip to another.

This was, quite literally, the domain of the “basics.”

Then what about George?

Although it had been in a rural area, he had worked at a merchant company and picked up a great deal of information.

He himself knew very well that he had an ability to grasp the flow of events, and because of that, even while carrying out this task, he had confidently pierced the core.

But that was all.

“You only believe what you have seen. That is what can be said to have blocked your view.”

What if he had looked into even a little more basic information beforehand?

He would inevitably have noticed the opposing faction that could not grow close to Asus.

Naturally, at the end of that trail, he would have identified the fact that the roots of those six nobles had branched out long ago from Duke William’s house.

The fact that he had blindly trusted only his own ability and made a mistake even a beginner would not make.

That was why the weapon George possessed became a weakness.

“There is intent in every situation. And in information, there is always an axis that pierces through it. Do you now understand why I had you gather information?”

“……I understand.”

“Good.”

I placed the notes into a drawer and raised the corners of my mouth.

With this, he must have gained a positive experience as well.

He would work even harder to rebuild his collapsed pride.

Since he had gained the experience I intended for him to gain, and I had also learned of the newly emerged enemy, it could be called two gains from a single action.

“That will be all for the report. You may leave.”

“Understood.”

“Until I give you a special order, receive instruction under the baron.”

“Yes. Then I shall take my leave.”

CLICK—

“It seems he was shaken.”

George left the office with an expression as though he had realized something.

The look in his eyes when he looked at me had softened slightly, and that was probably not my imagination.

“Well, he will manage well enough on his own, so that is one less thing to worry about……”

Now it was time to handle my personal business.

I took out the ring I had carefully kept in my pocket.

It was the ring Baron Vidor had found in the hideout.

WHOOOM—

“Oh?”

No sooner had I picked it up than it released the mana it had been hiding.

Was it a kind of self-protection?

Since my body was protected by aura, it could not damage my flesh, but the reaction was more intense than I had expected, so I found it interesting.

“So it truly is an ancient artifact.”

If one had to choose the most precious among artifacts, the artifacts of ancient mages naturally ranked first.

Putting aside their performance, they were ancient objects, so even discovering one was a rare case.

It had probably been an object the black mages had set aside for research.

“I was lucky.”

Of course, if one asked whether ancient artifacts were unconditionally good, the answer would be no.

Rather, most of them performed noticeably worse than modern ones, and artifacts known to perform well were so expensive and rare that even nobles had difficulty seeing them.

And in that sense, this artifact belonged to a different category.

“Magic Engraving.”

It was called Magic Engraving because, when activated, it would be absorbed into the body and strengthen the user.

It could restore the user’s condition, and it could also improve overall physical ability.

In one sense, its performance could be called subtle.

However, the greatest advantage of Magic Engraving was its convenience, since it automatically absorbed mana from the atmosphere and did not need to be activated through any troublesome process.

And that was a great enough advantage to be worth using, even while accepting the absurdity that its effects were not particularly outstanding.

“……Of course, that only applies to the present.”

I looked at the ring and smiled faintly.

An artifact for anti-magic defense.

Magic Engraving was an object whose true value would be revealed by a certain mage about ten years from now.

To be precise, the method of activating the complete ‘Engraving’ would be revealed…….

Before that, it had been treated as nothing more or less than an easy-to-use artifact, and most of them had been consumed for the research of mages, receiving an insignificant evaluation.

‘In the end, even I could not obtain a high-quality Magic Engraving until the very end.’

I gave a faint laugh and clenched the ring.

Judging by the transparency of the black jewel, it was at least a high-grade item.

I would only know the details after appraising it later, but at this level, it would not be bad to use it immediately.

If I truly disliked it, I could simply dismantle the Engraving.

SLIDE—

I slid the ring onto the index finger of my right hand, then moved my finger.

It was a kind of signal telling it to begin now that I was prepared.

Fortunately, the artifact seemed to understand the user’s will.

WHOOOOOM—

Mana in the atmosphere began to be absorbed with the ring at the center.

Activation had begun.

“Oh, indeed.”

I had grandly called it activation, but in truth, there was not much that could be called a process.

It was merely that mana absorbed from the atmosphere seeped into my forearm, and all that could be seen was the semitransparent form of mana being absorbed into my arm.

……Unfortunately, that really was the end.

“So it is literally a dragon’s head with a snake’s tail.”

The mana that had entered my body moved organically and, before I knew it, wrapped around my entire body.

Most people would have thought the activation had ended at that point, but the true beginning was from now on.

I had not yet activated the complete Engraving.

Now then…….

I brought the highest-grade Magic Stone I had prepared in advance against my forearm.

Then, murmuring the simple command word that would activate the Engraving, I began putting strength into my grip.

“Engrave.”

SHATTER!

Mana flowing out of the Magic Stone began to overlay the forearm into which the ring’s energy had been absorbed.

If the previous absorption had been the process of creating a path, this was the stage of applying a magical coating over it, as though engraving a tattoo.

And the pain was more dreadful than burning the skin.

“It stings.”

There was no way sending mana into the skin would not cause any pain.

But to me, who had already entered the stage of a superhuman, it only felt like a sting.

Therefore, I merely sipped from the teacup placed on the desk and waited for the process to end.

A moment later.

PING!

The ring crumbled into the air, and at last, all activation was complete.

White mana faintly swirled above the geometric tattoo that had appeared on my forearm, and the method of using the artifact naturally flowed into my mind.

This black tattoo was the true form of the Magic Engraving.

……Let us see.

My right hand naturally turned toward the magic tool inside the room.

Then I felt a slight tingling sensation, and the mana flowing through the magic tool momentarily blurred.

Seeing the powerful mana I felt from my arm, I nodded calmly.

“It is satisfying, perhaps because its grade is high.”

Mana Disruption.

It was the unique ability of Magic Engraving, capable of consuming the mana accumulated in the tattoo to temporarily disturb the mana of a target.

In other words, it meant I could neutralize magic tools such as artifacts.

However, even that could not be said to explain the entirety of this artifact.

The more mana it absorbed from the atmosphere, the higher the assimilation rate with the Engraving would become, and once synchronization proceeded beyond a certain level, I would gain even stronger power.

A power incomparable to something like this temporary Mana Disruption…….

“One more thing I have to pay attention to has increased.”

SLIDE—

Before I knew it, my gaze had turned toward the calendar hanging in the office.

Four days remained until the delegation from the Federal Empire arrived.

“Wait for me.”

The Federal Empire and Asus’s faction, as well as the internal enemies who had dared to attempt my assassination.

Now it was time to reveal the tyrant’s course in earnest.