---

“Are you saying the Magic Tower is going to declare independence?”

“Yes.”

“What the hell?! Does that even make sense?!”

I was completely aghast. It felt as if my blood had drained away from my body.

Memories from long ago rushed past me like a montage just before death.

I wanted to deny the reality before me.

I wanted to run away.

But as always,

the world would kindly trample all over my wishes.

The Saint of the Cult spoke.

“It seems an internal agreement has already been reached.”

“……”

“There will be an official announcement soon, so prepare your heart for it.”

I thought to myself:

Should I just quit right now?

—

Episode 4 – Why is it only me?

—

It took me about three minutes to calm down.

I dashed to the bathroom, turned on the faucet at full blast, splashed water on my face, and finally managed to compose myself after wiping it with a tissue.

“Haah….”

“Are you okay? How about going home for the day?”

“No, I’m fine.”

I dried the remaining water with the towel Veronica had handed me and pondered deeply.

First of all, the Magic Tower claims to be independent.

“Uh, Saint, about the Magic Tower’s independence, wasn’t it all resolved already?”

“Resolved? What do you mean ‘resolved’?”

Veronica pouted her lips and said, then acted out a ridiculous skit.

“Look, I got all riled up because I couldn’t stand the damned Inquisition, but then—oh crap? When I extended my hand to reconcile, it turns out it was coated in poison? And those bastards around me are clapping while I’m fighting for my life? The very ones who helped me?”

“……”

“If it were you, Colonel, would you be furious and grind your teeth? Or would you just give up and say, ‘Ah, it’s all over now’?”

Though her tone and mannerisms were absurd, the meaning behind her words was anything but.

So her performance was a tragedy, not a comedy.

“The Magic Tower has never given up on independence. It just hasn’t had a voice.”

“……”

When the Magic Tower rose against the Cult, the continent unofficially aided the conflict using the information agencies. The national intelligence agency provided lethal intelligence documents to the Cult, while the military intelligence agency funneled countless military supplies to the Magic Tower.

When the Magic Tower achieved victory over the Cult and established a small state, all the intelligence agencies trembled in fear instead of applauding.

It was only natural.

At that time, most countries were dictatorial states with an absolute monarchy.

They thought the Magic Tower would exhaust the Cult and both would perish together, but in reality, the Cult remained intact while the Magic Tower established a quasi-state.

Even worse, a democracy.

How do you think the dictators perceived the fact that the ‘people’ ‘united’ to ‘rise up’ against religion? It was called self-independent, but from the viewpoint of the entrenched powers, it was a rebellion. Naturally, they had to fear the spark of revolution spreading across the continent. Indeed, seeing the Magic Tower’s victory over the Cult led to a democratization movement in Patalia, resulting in a change of regime, so it was obvious the neighboring countries would be in a panic.

Ultimately, the states decided to treat the hunting dogs as prey, and the intelligence agencies that had once supported the Magic Tower became determined to take it down.

If the Cult hadn’t acted as a mediator to present the Nastasia Agreement, countless assassination and subversion attempts targeting the Magic Tower would have been carried out.

Of course, all of this was a matter of the distant past.

Most autocratic states had established constitutional monarchies, and the intelligence agents active during that time had long retired and been buried in the ground.

So only scholars who studied history, history students, and new recruits educated in intelligence schools remembered those events. Therefore, it was merely a distant tale that didn’t resonate much.

Except for the Magic Tower.

“……”

Now, as the desires of the wizards that had been passed down for a hundred years began to rise again.

No one knew how the political landscape of the continent would change.

The Imperial Army could designate the Magic Tower as an anti-imperial faction and launch military operations, or the Imperial Guard HQ, backed by the imperial intelligence agencies, could assassinate all of the Magic Tower’s political leaders.

Perhaps the Magic Tower wouldn’t declare independence at all; maybe the Empire might allow the Magic Tower to be independent after all.

After all, we can never know what happens in this world.

“……”

I continued to try to predict the future that lay ahead.

But I wasn’t a fortune teller; I couldn’t see what was going to happen next.

So I thought.

That I had to do what I must.

I had to do what I must. I had to do what I could.

What was that?

“……”

I am an Information Agent.

I am a person searching for a path in the shadows where not a single ray of sunlight shines.

I must find the path.

“…Saint.”

I asked Veronica.

“What’s going on again? There’s no reason for the Magic Tower to suddenly cause such an uproar declaring independence. There must be some internal circumstances.”

And she answered.

“There’s a lot. A ton. If I were to go into detail, it would take a few hours, you know?”

“……”

“So I told you to book a room, damn it….”

The Saint ruffled her hair and got flustered. After a moment of contemplation, she began to speak slowly.

“I’ll start by telling you where all of this began.”

“Please, go ahead.”

“The first to approach was the Imperial Guard HQ.”

—

Veronica is the 58th Saint of the Cult.

Once a baron’s daughter, she became an orphan due to an accident and entered an orphanage run by the Cult. During a process to measure divine power, it was revealed that she possessed an astonishingly large amount of it for her age.

This news caught the eye of the domestic intelligence officer at the Imperial Guard HQ. The officer reported to his superior, and the information climbed up the chain of command to the director and then to the head of the Imperial Guard HQ.

The head of the Imperial Guard HQ ordered that verification procedures be carried out, and after several years of intelligence gathering and analysis, it was confirmed that this information was true.

The Imperial Guard HQ reported to the Emperor, and from that day forth, Veronica’s fate was sealed to become a Saint.

The Empire’s information agencies carried out secret operations in various fields including assassination, sabotage, politics, propaganda, and economy, ultimately succeeding in making Veronica a Saint. Thus, she became both the Saint of the Cult and a lobbyist for the Empire.

Though they called her a lobbyist, in reality, she was a high-ranking information agent under the control of the Imperial Guard HQ.

For reasons unknown, she grew tired of that life and eventually managed to escape after throwing a big wrench into the Imperial Guard HQ and the royal family.

Before long, she also had her feet dipped in both the Military Intelligence Agency and the Inquisition, proving that she was certainly someone who would survive no matter what.

In my report, I described her as a “bat-like figure,” likely to betray if it wasn’t beneficial to her under certain circumstances.

In the end, she betrayed them.

“Did she really bear that and then stab us in the back? She’s not a bat, but a goldfish, damn it.”

“Ugh, seriously! I didn’t betray anyone, so just shut up!”

Veronica shouted loudly, flailing about.

And she pounded her chest while passionately delivering a speech.

“But I came looking for you first! On my own! With money in hand!”

“Does that make any sense? Why would someone who betrayed come looking for me? Speak logically.”

“If I had betrayed you, would I be making all this noise? Logically speaking!”

It’s already beyond common sense for me to have fallen into this world.

“Hmm…”

Still, there was some merit to her words. Usually, those who betray don’t exhibit this kind of reaction.

So, I decided to trust her.

“Alright. Go ahead and tell me.”

I coaxed and calmed Veronica down, allowing me to listen to the detailed situation.

She downed a cup of cold water and wiped her mouth.

“It was about five days ago. I was smoking water pipe at my regular spot when this tall guy came up and introduced himself as a diplomat.”

“…A water pipe?”

“Ugh. That’s not the point! Anyway, this diplomat said he was from the Empire’s embassy and asked me for a favor.”

“What favor was it?”

“He wanted me to find out what was happening at the Magic Tower. When I asked him what exactly he wanted, he vaguely said to bring him anything that seems useful.”

Useful information, huh.

I’m thinking of politics, diplomacy, national defense, economy, society, culture, science, magic, and technology. That’s about it. The Magic Tower has no military, so the information collection regarding national defense could only come from military equipment that foreign troops were requesting from the Tower. And that kind of info isn’t under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Guard HQ but rather the Imperial Army’s Reconnaissance Command.

In short, it was as if he was asking for information in almost every field except national defense.

“…How many information officers has the Imperial Guard HQ deployed to the Tower? Why would they ask you for help?”

“How would I know? I didn’t want to ask, and even if I did, they wouldn’t tell me. I initially rejected them, but a few days later, they came back with a bag of money.”

She recalled the events in a calm voice.

The first person who came looked like a low-level information agent from the Imperial Guard HQ. Judging by his late twenties appearance, he was certainly not at the Team Leader level. But the next person who showed up was well into his forties.

An information officer. At least a manager’s rank.

“He looked really urgent. His vague demands became quite specific.”

“What kind of information was it?”

“Information on the Oracle of the Magic Tower.”

The Oracle.

It’s the governing body managing everything at the Magic Tower. You can liken it to the Blue House in South Korea.

“Once the current master of the Tower steps down, they want to know who the leading candidates for the seat on the Oracle will be?”

“……”

The Oracle is a body composed of several commissioners, similar to the Roman oligarchy.

If there’s only one leader like in a cult, there’s a high possibility of dictatorship, so one commissioner takes turns being the master of the Tower. When they become the master, they quietly retire and live as an elder.

And since the tenure of the current master of the Tower will soon end, a seat on the Oracle will become vacant.

In other words, it’s a pivotal moment when the political scene at the Magic Tower is shaking dramatically.

I directed a question at Veronica.

“…If a new Oracle commissioner is elected, they’ll be busy in the adjustment process for a while. Is there any reason for the Magic Tower to declare independence at this point? They simply won’t have the luxury, and more importantly, isn’t the most prominent candidate from the Empire?”

The Magic Tower’s greatest pride was that people from the entire continent flocked there, and its greatest problem was that people from the entire continent flocked there.

Since anyone can be elected as an Oracle commissioner, it’s hard to prevent a lunatic from entering and causing chaos. The current commissioner, who is the master of the Tower, is not exactly on friendly terms with the Emperor.

A pro-Empire commissioner will fill the vacancy left by the pro-Empire master of the Tower. It clearly stinks of foul play. This means political manipulation by the information agency.

“It’s highly likely that the candidate backed by the Imperial Guard HQ, or rather the Empire’s Information Agency, will be elected. How can they declare independence now? Especially with two candidates in play?”

It’s nonsensical. A pro-Empire commissioner will just sit back and watch the Tower declare independence? That’s the same as saying the Chinese president supports Hong Kong’s independence.

But Veronica’s reaction was strange.

She looked at me as if I were speaking nonsense.

“Didn’t you hear the news yet?”

“What news? I heard about the Tower’s independence here.”

“That candidate? He’s done for.”

“Eh?”

What the hell does that mean?

“The candidate from the Empire? You know he’s from a noble family, right?”

“Oh, yes. I know that.”

As I rummaged through my memories, something clicked. That’s right, he was from a distinguished family running a trading company with extensive overseas business operations. I distinctly remember the information document that arrived in the morning claiming that.

Wait a minute.

His family runs a trading company?

“……”

“Their company went bankrupt and was torn apart. Their family’s finances have been wrecked, too. Naturally, they’ve long since packed up and left the Tower. The other candidate is from a family that has been doing business domestically, so they have managed to survive.”

Ah, life.

I felt my legs go weak. I stumbled, barely managing to stay balanced with Veronica’s support.

“Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”

“…So who among the remaining candidates is the strong contender? The next Oracle commissioner.”

I looked toward my information source and asked.

And she answered.

“An Oracle is one shaman from Lushan and an alchemist. The Colonel probably knows as well.”

Her words suddenly reminded me of the conversation we had on the train. The name she had mentioned slipped from my lips.

“…Francesca Ranieri.”

An alchemist.

“Those two are the most likely candidates right now.”

So, to summarize…

The idiots from the Imperial Guard HQ teamed up with Clevenz and we gave those fools a beating, and in the process, all kinds of information agencies rushed in and thrashed the Imperial Guard HQ. Now, because of that aftermath, one of the candidates for the Oracle from the Empire has been taken out. Ultimately, the alchemist, who would have been pushed out of the succession picture, is now on track to become an Oracle commissioner and eventually a master of the Tower. And since the pro-Empire lackey has been taken out just as his term ends, they will declare independence.

That’s what it means?

“…Ah, life.”

I lay quietly on the hotel corridor floor and closed my eyes. Whether it was tears flowing or my eyes just being moist, I couldn’t tell.

Why does this happen only to me?

Seriously, damn…

 

---