novel(3)
| ← Ch.032 | Ch.034 → |
Milpia nodded at Big Mama's words.
"This is a serious situation. Demons are running wild in Demon's Territory these days and now we have these mysterious forces moving in the dark."
To be honest, the destruction of the empire did not matter to Big Mama's Information Agency. They only operated inside the empire and were not affiliated with it. Nevertheless, Big Mama considered it a serious situation because the empire was a guard and a shield that prevented Demon's Territory from becoming larger.
Helping the empire was to prevent the loss of human territory that would diminish their sphere of operation. In the agency's perspective, it was better to help the empire that would have people buying information rather than demons and monsters that they were not able to communicate with.
Normally, anti-imperial forces were always in action but the power of the empire was so strong that it was not a big problem.
Most of the imperial army, however, was currently at Demon's Territory. The emergence of new forces was dangerous at a period when demon activities were frequent.
"Thank you for bringing this information."
"No problem."
When Milpia acted humble, Big Mama stroked her head.
"For now, you can remain in the capital. I'll send someone else to Granwell."
"What? But—"
When Milpia opened her eyes wide with surprise, Big Mama smiled.
"Milpia, Granwell's going to have to close. We can't leave the secret branch open when it's already been discovered. Please stay in the capital and help me with my work until another branch is established."
Milpia nodded in agreement.
"Yes Mother, I understand. Then what should I do?"
Big Mama thought for a moment then smiled and said, "The agent we planted at the magic academy is going to graduate next year."
Milpia had an ominous premonition when Big Mama mentioned this as if she was planning on putting herself into the position.
"But... that's a job for an ordinary member."
Big Mama laughed merrily seeing Milpia panic.
"But none of my children are old enough to enter the magic academy. Milpia, you turned sixteen a few days ago, didn't you?"
Milpia rolled her eyes desperately. She had to find some excuse.
"Well, it might actually be seventeen or eighteen."
Milpia cursed herself inwardly for coming up with such a dumb excuse. Her face burned as she thought about it. Even if her age was higher than the standard for admission to the academy, she could easily falsify her record. This excuse was not viable.
"Milpia, that would be possible if I met you when you were two or three years old. I, however, found you wrapped inside a bag at the entrance of the temple, so I know for sure how old you are." Big Mama grinned at Milpia.
Milpia racked her brain trying to find some excuses to not enter the academy but failed to find any.
She looked straight into Big Mama's eyes. A technique could be used to determine whether the opponent was telling the truth by observing the extent of the pupil's dilation. For someone like Big Mama, they could control their heart rate as well as their pupil.
The reason why Milpia stared directly into Big Mama's eyes even though she knew this fact was to silently ask her whether she was being serious.
Big Mama did not control her pupils knowing her intentions. Milpia learned that the other was firmly set on her decision.
"Is there a reason why I have to go to the magic academy?"
Big Mama's pupils made a minute movement. Milpia became discouraged after seeing the change. The change in the pupil did not mean that her question was correct. It meant that Big Mama had begun to control her pupil to tell her to stop asking more questions.
Milpia had learned counterintelligence skills under Big Mama for a long time, and she had no choice but to close her mouth after realizing the other's silent message.
"This is an order. Go to the academy and learn as much as possible. I'll arrange to have your name set up as a noble."
Milpia had no choice but to accept her fate.
Big Mama prepared statuses by stealing the identities of fallen nobles rather than forging fake IDs like Denburg. They had no need to have fear over their real identities being revealed since the fallen noble's information was already owned by Big Mama.
Milpia let out a deep breath like someone who had given up everything.
"Phew~"
Milpia sighed because she was about to have a school life she had never experienced before.
"It's said what's meant to happen will happen."
Big Mama gave her condolence that wasn't really a condolence. Milipia wanted to say f*ck to the condolence.
-o-
"Ha-ah-." Arelia sighed.
Upon her sigh, her maids asked with a worried look, "Imperial Princess, are you worried about something?"
Arelia shook her head and stared blankly at the clouds outside the window. For some reason, her heart kept pounding and she couldn't sleep well for three nights now. She would feel strange all of the sudden, and also abruptly sad and lonely.
Ah, that cloud looks like a mask of the man who introduced himself as Lupin.
Arelia suddenly felt excited as she looked at the clouds, then felt melancholy again as the clouds were dispersed by the wind.
"Ha-ah-."
The maids became bewildered as they had never seen Arelia act this way before.
"Would you like a refreshment?"
Normally, especially since Arelia's birthday party to celebrate her adulthood was approaching, sweet foods outside of her snack time were strictly restricted. But the maids offered nonetheless due to her strange condition.
Perhaps the pressure to look nice in front of the emperor at the coming of age ceremony had made her depressed. Or perhaps their efforts to make everything as perfect as possible had stressed her out. With this in mind, the maids asked Arelia. She nodded as she stared blankly into the sky.
Being restless is being restless and sweet food is sweet food. No matter how depressed Arelia was, she wasn't about to give up her snacks.
The maids usually included very little of it during snack time to manage Arelia's weight, so she wouldn't refuse their offer when it came without her even asking for it. Of course, she answered very slowly and powerlessly.
Then, she spoke in a languid tone so that the maids wouldn't think they were deceived, "Brioche."
"Yes, I understand."
One of the maids left the room and quickly brought brioche. Arelia's mood brightened at the sight of it, but she kept her expression as dazed as possible while lifting the snack.
-o-
It had already been three days since I began scouring through the inner palace treasury office. I noticed as I searched through their vaults that the information contained inside was much more classified than the ones in the outer palace.
However, the problem was that I had not found the civil service exam papers yet. Of course, there were more than half of the vaults to be checked. Even so, I should have been looking through the exam questions and memorizing them by now. I became a bit desperate as all I could land my eyes on were the scores of the civil servant students.
Right now, I had to slowly look at the civil service exam questions, prepare answers to the questions in advance, and double-check the answers so that I could get my desired grade. There was only half a month for the exam. I put in some effort to unlock the safe that was protected by three layers of magic.
Let's see, this was a report on the black market, and... oh, this was a comprehensive report on the impact of Lupin on the economy. Maybe I should spend some time reading it.
It's an obvious fact that theft was detrimental to society. However, its negative impact on the market economy was actually very minimal. This was because thieves were only individuals and there was a limit to the amount of impact they could have on such a large economy. It was equivalent to how adding a handful of salt in the ocean wouldn't affect its salinity.
This seemed more like a hurriedly made column rather than a report. I looked around and discovered no seals on the report. Instead of a seal, there were words written on the report that said it was for the in-house newspaper.
The Department of Treasury seemed to have its own internal gazette. It made sense as the organization was quite vast considering it was just a single department. It was also quite unusual for the appearance of thieves that could overturn the market. The biggest problem caused by Lupin was that he had turned the nobles' predictable transparent funds into an unpredictable one.
There were two main reasons why this was problematic: one was that as described earlier, it was impossible to predict where the funds would be used. The second reason was that they had no idea how much money Lupin had stolen.
Opinions on the first reason were divided, but there were three ideas that were most likely predominant.
To summarize the three ideas, the first one was that this was a righteous thief from old bedtime stories. The second was that this was a strategy to disrupt the economy of the empire, the third was that this was the work of anti-government groups.
The second problem arose from the fact that the nobles who got their vaults raided would not reveal how much money I had stolen. Since it was impossible for them to decipher that, they could not predict the impact I could have on the market. From the graphs and tables written on the report, I could tell that they still could not estimate the amount of jewelry and money I had stolen.
But the flaw of this graph...
I skimmed through the report and put it back into the safe.
The report clearly stated how the treasury office viewed Lupin and the contingency measures that had been put into place. This could be useful in the future when I had to further mess with the prime minister. There was also a list of black marketeers that were being watched -- those that I should avoid in the future.
While skimming through the pile of documents, I found a large envelope sealed with sealing wax. At the corner of the envelope was written- "Questions for the XX Civil Exam".
Did, did I finally find it?
I almost screamed with joy that I had finally found the question paper.
Oh, this was dangerous.
I was inside the heart of the empire where people would be sent to the guillotine for whatever reason they came in without permission. Of course, I had to get caught first for that to happen, but if Uncle found out that I was Denburg Blade, I would be taken back home in the worst-case scenario.
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