Wahyhiemhai Foundation’s exclusive Non-fair Flight.
The director looked down from the VVIP room with a refreshing smile that could cool you off.
“Hahaha. My child is just so unpredictable. The Empire’s Fourth Princess. Is she planning to step away from the Foundation and seek the Empire’s power?”
“If you send instructions to the scholarship student in the palace right now, we could rescue her without the Emperor’s notice.”
The head of the secretary’s office felt fear from that laughter.
There’s always a hidden side to laughter.
Some weep behind a smiling face.
Some rage behind a smiling face.
The director’s smile was laced with madness.
Inhuman.
Something a human shouldn’t do.
Every time that man committed such dreadful acts, he wore that refreshing smile.
“Let’s keep an eye on it.”
“Are you serious? You’re trusting Oknodie to the Emperor’s hands.”
“That child knows an astonishing amount. Does she not understand the Emperor’s danger level? If she attended Professor Destroyer’s lecture, she should know even better.”
Destroyer is aware that the origins of the Three Great Evils stemmed from the Emperor.
An Oknodie educated by him would surely recognize the Emperor as a foe, both to Destroyer and to his own apprentice.
Knowing that, she steps into enemy territory because the benefit of doing so outweighs the risk.
“In the first place, my strategy of mobilizing the Red Magic Tower and demons was not something easily toppled.”
“Director, I can’t quite fathom your grand design with my inadequate insight. Would you share your wisdom?”
“Don’t you realize what that adorable child has accomplished? I could never have predicted that the Demon Minion Orde Taco I sent would be accompanied by a Box Cat, a minion of the Demon King. It was a ‘show of affection’ from the Demon King’s Fourth King El Niño towards the Foundation.”
“You believe Oknodie has caught onto that?”
“Would she have pulled off a fire show that completely enthralled the Cat Beastfolk otherwise? Thanks to that, the volcanic eruption was postponed, and Destroyer could arrive on time with reinforcements.”
Planning the future is one of the qualifications required of a politician or leader shaping the bigger picture.
Moreover, to avoid repeating mistakes, it is crucial to thoroughly retrace past incidents and analyze the causes.
First Wahyhiemhai.
He, the owner and head of the Wahyhiemhai Foundation, pondered the causes and soon realized.
It was Oknodie.
All variables originated from her, and all anomalies stemmed from her actions.
“Nevertheless, the Dark Mana accumulated from the conflict necessitated that Destroyer required recuperation. Our loyal double spy Miss Akemi Wessker provided intelligence that the revolutionary attempted to eliminate Destroyer, his long-time obstacle, and then lost his life.”
“Wasn’t it the director’s intent to provoke by bringing Akemi Wessker in as a warning?”
Loosening his tie that constricted his neck, the director wore a smile as relaxed as his unbuttoned collar.
“The picture I painted didn’t look like this. Professor Destroyer would perish, the revolutionary would eliminate his sworn enemy, the Masugaki Princess would be captured alive, and Oknodie would realize she needed strength to reclaim her ‘friend.’”
“…It’s certainly different from what truly transpired. The revolutionary’s death, the collapse of the Revolutionary Army, and Destroyer’s disappearance. Masugaki and Oknodie have left for the palace, being appointed as the Emperor’s adoptive daughters and the Empire’s Fourth Princess.”
“All of that is mere secondary results. Isn’t there something you’re genuinely curious about?”
“…How Oknodie and Destroyer managed to overcome one of the three human beings who could genuinely aim to topple the Emperor.”
“It was quite an interesting story.”
The ring on the director’s finger, once summoned by Myung So and passed the curse to Wessker, spun around her head.
The secretary dared not ask what became of the one who instigated the Hasty Rebellion.
He didn’t want to give the director even a snippet of information about how the ring ended up on Wessker’s head or who conveyed that information.
Such tension was the burden of just the head of the secretary’s office.
The director casually flung the spinning ring onto a tree root that suddenly flew in.
BANG!
The wrath of a massive creature, born of the vast domain, swept through the inside of the Non-fair Flight.
Of course, before falling victim to the curse of the ring that forbade mana use, the root’s owner had no chance to do anything to the director.
To elves, it’s called the World Tree, but to the director, it’s known as Tree Yang. The pitiful resistance of the colossal species only made the secretary bow his head further.
“Oknodie’s mentor. I always thought it was Destroyer, but it turns out the actual entity was an unexpected third party.”
“…”
“Someone claimed it was a figure presumed to be the Butler of the Foundation. Isn’t that fascinating? Unless the head secretary has two bodies, how can he appear in different places simultaneously?”
That made it all the more interesting.
What is the identity of that mysterious butler known as Oknodie’s mentor?
Is he someone from the Academy?
A secret weapon of the Empire?
Or perhaps, the last gasp of demigods?
Quizzes are tough.
When you don’t know the answer and lack hints, it’s even tougher.
Especially if it’s open-ended.
You hardly have any chance of randomly guessing correctly.
So, the director thought of a fun idea that would make Oknodie squeal with joy.
“Why not call him once?”
“…That mysterious butler?”
“Just at the right time, I possess a Soul-calling Ocarina. A divine artifact that can summon any being, from any dimension, disregarding life and death, and all conditions.”
Bad deeds bring harm to someone.
Yet, knowing it would bring harm, evildoers carry on.
The enjoyment gained from committing bad deeds outweighs the punishment.
The director felt it.
This was going to be a whole lot of fun.
“Of course, I’d really need to check whether this wonderful gift is genuinely produced in the Empire, but… Hahaha.”
The Wahyhiemhai Foundation’s Non-fair Flight.
Its destination was the Holy Central Empire’s heart, Jeido.
“Our rebellious daughter ran off to become the Emperor’s adopted daughter, so as a father, isn’t it reasonable for me to create a little chaos? The Empire’s judges would unanimously claim self-defense and absolve me. Any judge who doesn’t will meet their end by my hands. Hahaha.”
“Haha…”
With a strained chuckle, the head secretary thought.
Please let this commotion pass without incident.
With Oknodie already being the Empire’s princess, the director is racing towards the Empire with the time bomb of “Oknodie’s mentor” alongside the Non-fair Flight.
If anything were to provoke the director further, who knows what might happen?
The Empire and the Foundation.
In the worst-case scenario, they might have to brace for an all-out war between the forces reigning in the light and those lurking in the shadows.
“The failed terrorist attempt on Mount Vesuvius would be nothing if a full-scale war were to unfold.”
This incident trying to draw out Oknodie would likely pale in comparison to the cataclysmic events unfolding simultaneously around the world.
The director commanded enough scholarship students and lower organizations to make that possible.
“Please, sincerely let nothing happen.”
The head secretary’s fervent prayer was betrayed exactly 15 minutes later by the urgent report from Jeido.
“It’s breaking news from the palace scholarship student. The Empire’s External Enhancement Facility and Forbidden Research Institute have been destroyed.”
“Hahaha! Our daughter has such a terrible habit; it’s quite troublesome. Papa came to send a gift, and my daughter also presented a grand gift of ‘terror’ to the Emperor. I wonder if our father and daughter gifts please His Majesty?”
“…Additionally, there has been information that Oknodie temporarily entered a cardiac arrest but has since revived. Her pulse has returned, but she is still yet to regain consciousness.”
The man who never ceased to smile.
The smile on the director’s face froze as if time had stopped.
His muscles rigid and awkward.
Feelings of turmoil bubbling up slowly.
Though he held onto his smile with a stubbornness that refused to let it falter, that bright and cheerful voice was not quite the same.
“Temporary cardiac arrest. Revival after death. You’re telling me the child who claims to be my daughter has gone through that at the Empire’s palace?”
“…!”
It’s over.
The world is about to be engulfed in unending calamity.
The chaos instigated by the revolutionary would seem trivial compared to the catastrophe pulling the continent into war 365 days a year.
It was just as the head secretary was subconsciously closing his eyes, sensing a grim future, that both he and the director were spared from hasty conclusions by the rest of the report.
“And… a revolution has occurred in Jeido.”
“A revolution in a world without a revolutionary? Has the fallen revolutionary returned from hell?”
“Well… it’s somewhat similar. There’s an astounding individual with the power of incitement leading at least over a million citizens toward havoc in Jeido.”
“Who is it?”
“According to the citizens, it’s a man referred to as the second revolutionary, known as Zelji. From what I’ve gathered, his real name is Jezel. He is the major shareholder of the Dark Trading Company, a first-year student of the Gift Academy, and a good friend who established a strong bond with Lady Oknodie.”
The director, who was about to give orders to turn the world into flames, was momentarily halted by this report.
Under the weight of his fury, First Wahyhiemhai thrashed the trunk of the Tree Yang, which had lost its will to resist.
With each small contact, the World Tree Tree Yang let out screams of unbearable pain and thrashed around, causing the head secretary to feel a strange sense of relief.
The entire world wouldn’t feel that pain simultaneously.
If the sacrifice of a single tree that now had roots forced into the director’s domain preserved world peace, it would be a clear gain.
“Rather than gifts intended to tease my daughter, it seems better to pull out gifts to teach the Emperor a lesson.”
“Please give your orders.”
“Let’s make Jezel, this Zelji, into a real revolutionary. The aim of the revolution should be to uncover what transpired to the unconscious princess and what the Imperial Family is hiding… that would suffice.”
The head of the Foundation issued the command personally.
“Notify all scholarship students remaining in Jeido. Effective immediately, all scholarship students in Jeido are to expend all resources to assist Jezel’s revolution.”
The Foundation’s plan to bring about the suffering of the Empire with the birth of a new revolutionary commenced.
Nobody, including the director himself, could have predicted the perilous situation that might arise as a fully loaded character suddenly appeared above Jeido, potentially leading to worldwide devastation due to the special gift they had prepared.
