---

Every action has a cause.

There are promised laws in the world.

Problems have formulas, and there is a road to every destination.

The same goes for people.

What moves a person. The principle that forms the basis of action.

Usually, we call that psychology.

“I’m sorry, Merlo. You know our rules.”

“I know. I understand.”

That psychology.

“Sophia.”

“Yeah?”

If you only know that,

“Then, can I ask something else?”

“Sure.”

“… Thank you.”

Manipulating people is a very easy thing to do.

—

Episode 5 – Journalist, Diplomat, Soldier, Spy

“Ugh….”

Sophia wiggled her legs while sniffling.

“So what are you curious about? As long as it’s not about the Ranieri family, I’ll answer sincerely.”

“For example?”

“For example….”

Sophia unfolded her fingers one by one, holding her glass, humming.

“An analysis of the Oracle council elections at the Magic Tower… data on rumors about the health of the Emperor of the Kien Empire… the drug smuggling routes coming in from Mauritania that we’re tracking….”

I stared slowly at the fingers as she spread them out.

Then suddenly, I asked,

“Isn’t the payoff too big for just a favor?”

Was it really okay to hand over that information to me? At the same time, I wondered if there was a reason to hide information about alchemists to the extent of giving such data.

Of course, I didn’t voice it out loud.

In response, Sophia smiled with her chin propped up.

“We’re not just casual acquaintances, right? We have some bond between us.”

“A friend?”

There were far too many secrets between her and me to call it friendship, and our interests did not align as allies, nor were we close enough to be enemies.

We were in that gray area that couldn’t easily be defined. But that’s how things are in the world.

“I thought we were friends.”

“If you say so, then I guess we are, Sophia.”

Anyway.

What’s important now isn’t this silly joke.

“So, tell me what you want to ask.”

“Tell me about the Patalia government’s policies regarding Francesca Ranieri.”

“Foreign policy? Sorry, that’s under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The president’s foreign policy stance is decided by the Foreign Minister, not our director.”

Sophia smirked, lifting the corners of her lips.

“You know I don’t mean that. Why act so amateurish?”

“Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood.”

With a light tap on the table, she let out a soft sigh.

“Ugh… right. You want to hear the NSA’s stance, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Were you aiming for this from the beginning?”

You really pick up on things quickly.

“I don’t know.”

I let my ambiguity cloud the expression on my face, staring at her expressionless. Sophia looked into my eyes for a moment, then shifted her body slightly and rested her arm on the back of the chair.

“Okay, then where should we start….”

It was going as planned.

—

Actually, I didn’t need information on Francesca Ranieri. With the extent of the information network established by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Magic Tower and Patalia, there was no way I couldn’t track a single civilian. I was already well-versed in the information about alchemists.

So, what I needed wasn’t information about Francesca Ranieri but rather the attitude of the Patalia government toward her.

To be precise, it was the unofficial attitude. In other words, I wanted unfiltered thoughts that weren’t dressed up in diplomatic phrasing.

That’s why I had Sophia summoned to ask for information on alchemists. I already knew the National Security Agency wouldn’t hand over information on Francesca Ranieri.

I had basically expected that.

There are a few rational reasons for this.

First, Francesca Ranieri’s background.

Second, the modern history of Patalia.

Third, the relationship between the Magic Tower and Patalia and the tasks of the National Security Agency, etc.

To enumerate these details would be quite complex.

Nevertheless, to summarize simply,

“Francesca Ranieri is an observed target. More precisely, her entire family is under surveillance.”

Family issues might be adequate enough.

“You know the reason, right?”

“Restoration of the monarchy?”

“Exactly, plotting to overthrow the state.”

Sophia added coolly.

“If we’re being picky, propaganda would fit better than plotting to overthrow the state….”

Francesca Ranieri is part of a family of public security offenders. To say it in our terms, she’s a ‘relative.’

To summarize why she became related to a public security offender, one must first delve into the modern history of Patalia, the diplomatic relations between the Magic Tower and Patalia, and the specificity of the Ranieri family.

First, the history.

Patalia was originally an absolute monarchy. The royal family ruled the entire country, and unable to endure the king’s poor governance and tyranny, the military staged a coup to transform the absolute monarchy into a republic. After the monarchy fell, the military filled the power vacuum and maintained a military regime for about twenty years until a civic revolution ushered in a democratic government.

As a result, the monarchy and dictatorship remained a shared grievance among the majority of the Patalian people.

In the process of washing away the tarnish of dictatorship, measures such as the abolition of the collective punishment system, guaranteeing social rights, constitutional amendments, and strengthening the powers of the legislative body were implemented.

Moreover, all laws and systems that distinguished “noble blood” were abolished, with the parliament going so far as to engrave a clause prohibiting the establishment of “social special classes” in the constitution to prevent the aristocracy and royalty from even voicing their opinions.

Thus, the term “nobility” vanished into history in Patalia, with one exception.

“No matter how much the Ranieri family is a house established by an archmage, isn’t it unconstitutional that they are allowed to retain noble titles? Especially in a democratic republic?”

“The Constitutional Court concluded that it was constitutional. So that’s that.”

“Isn’t the government declaring that through the judiciary?”

The Ranieri family is the only existing noble family within Patalia.

When considering that the Patalian constitution does not recognize social special classes, it is clearly a violation of the constitution, but it was the diplomatic relations with the Magic Tower that made this possible.

The Ranieri family had its roots in the archmage referred to as the founding fathers of the nation by the Magic Tower. And Patalia and the Magic Tower were comrades in the same revolution.

The military government didn’t inherit the monarchy but wanted to maintain the friendship with the Magic Tower. This was a sentiment that the democratic government shared as well. A new government always needs legitimacy, and drawing that legitimacy from abroad is a politically advantageous phenomenon.

Thus, politically and historically, the position of the Ranieri family, which wields significant influence with the Magic Tower, was recognized in exchange for establishing a friendly relationship with the Magic Tower. The Patalian government moved the Constitutional Court to amend the unconstitutional status to constitutional despite the opposition from the parliament due to this background.

At this point, Sophia trailed off, her expression ambiguous.

“Well…? I don’t really know about domestic politics….”

“Well, let’s leave it at that.”

Anyway.

The Ranieri family was the only family granted the privilege of existence by the Patalian government.

The military regime, which valued its relationship with the Magic Tower, bestowed all sorts of privileges (tax exemptions, priority selection, parachute appointments, etc.) upon the Ranieri family, and they enjoyed these benefits for about twenty years. Of course, after the democratic government came to power, all the benefits were confiscated, leaving only the symbolic status of nobility.

The problem is that the Ranieri family harbored grievances against the decisions of the Patalian government.

This was only natural. It’s a normal reaction for people to be angry when something they once had is taken away. They were even angrier since the government confiscated benefits that had been granted by the government itself, making it a completely natural outcome.

For these reasons, in the 70 years since the establishment of the democratic government, the Ranieri family has…

I’ve lived with a bit of subtle animosity. It’s not outright hostility, but I’ve occasionally seen critiques and cartoons in the media aimed at government policies.

In fact, it’s predominantly assessments that lean more towards objection for the sake of objection rather than constructive criticism. No matter which political party held power, if a policy failed, the government was criticized. Like a bat swooping down.

Since even a broken clock gets the time right once or twice, there were certainly many who looked at the Ranieri family’s commentaries and cartoons with a positive eye.

However.

The Ranieri family, which has maintained an anti-government stance for generations, has finally crossed the line.

In a published cartoon amid widespread criticism of the government for a colossal failure in economic policy, they illustrated the notion that ‘the monarchy era was better than now.’

While it was familiar territory for the Ranieri family to criticize the government through newspapers, the idea of restoring the monarchy was Patalia’s Achilles’ heel right next to a coup d’état, causing this cartoon to trigger a huge wave rather than just be seen as a minor blunder.

In short, they hit the panic button. And they did so really well.

“Well, it’s true the Ranieri family brought up monarchical restoration, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“What’s that about?”

The Patalia government took this as a challenge to the regime.

“It’s inciting civil war.”

Thus, the Ranieri family, once a symbol of the friendship between Patalia and the Magic Tower, was instantly branded as a den of public security criminals and placed under intensive surveillance by the National Security Agency.

Monitoring anti-regime figures is part of the Information Agency’s duties, so it wasn’t particularly strange.

Given that the Ranieri family had ties to the political faction of the Magic Tower, there were certainly some concerns regarding a deterioration in relations with them. However, the Magic Tower opted to express regret instead of assisting the Ranieri family.

The Ranieri family’s cartoons could be interpreted as supporting dictatorship, and for magicians, dictatorship evokes painful memories of the Inquisition. Moreover, at that time, maintaining relations with revolutionaries resisting dictatorship was far more important for the Magic Tower, which was being ostracized by the international community.

With the interests of the two governments aligning, a prestigious family fell from grace.

The once distinguished house established by the Father of the nation during the revolution was sullied with the disgrace of inciting civil war, and a joint investigation team formed around the National Security Agency began its investigation and surveillance of the Ranieri family.

And that surveillance has continued until this very day, twenty years later.

“You asked for our company’s stance on Francesca Ranieri, right?”

“Yep.”

So I needed to know the unofficial stance of the Patalia government, rather than the official one.

No matter how much I was tied by the Oracle, forming relations with public security criminals from a friendly nation could easily escalate into a diplomatic issue.

And this was information that could only be shared in the shadows, not the light.

It just had to be this way.

That’s what the Information Agency is for, and the government pays me to do just that.

In this regard, Sophia, an investigator from the National Security Agency and an old acquaintance of mine, conveyed the stance of the Patalia government.

“I understand if it’s a public meeting, but if it’s a private one, I can’t help you. It’s better to keep your distance, for both your sake and hers.”

Don’t get too close to Francesca Ranieri.

Even with allies, there are boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed.

“It doesn’t look good for the child of someone inciting civil war to be close to foreign soldiers, does it? Especially if they’re soldiers from a friendly nation.”

“Keep it as business-like as possible?”

“Officially intervening in your government’s policies would be considered meddling in internal affairs. I’m sorry, but I hope you understand.”

If this escalated into a diplomatic issue, it would be a headache for both sides, so they asked for a little understanding from their perspective.

The way they didn’t communicate their stance through the embassy and insisted on telling me directly showed that Patalia might be in a predicament just as awkward as the Magic Tower.

“Ugh….”

What can I do? This is what the Information Agency was created to solve.

For now, it seems I should inform the higher-ups of the Patalia government’s stance.

“Are you satisfied?”

“Yeah, thanks for telling me.”

I emptied my wine glass and nodded.

I got the information I wanted.

I had a rough idea of how to handle Francesca Ranieri.

*

“That I’ll see you again soon.”

“Sure.”

As I wrapped up a lengthy conversation and was about to part ways, I caught Sophia, who was heading out of the wine bar while my subordinates waited with the car.

“Sophia.”

“Did you call?”

Sophia stopped in her tracks and turned to look at me, sporting an expression as if she found something amusing.

I questioned her.

“Last time, you said you came to handle some retired personnel, but why do you seem to know so much?”

Given the nature of the Information Agency, employees who are not in high positions typically only handle the work assigned to them.

What does that mean? It means the information is limited.

To prevent security breaches, the Information Agency generally controls the information that employees can access. It’s somewhat akin to a kind of selective sharing.

In other words, even if one is an Information Agency Agent, they cannot know information unrelated to their jobs. Especially any critical information like agency policies or stances.

So,

“…Did you figure it out?”

My assumption that Sophia, the investigator, wasn’t just in the Magic Tower to monitor Fabio Verati was a reasonable conclusion.

My guess was right.

“I got caught.”

Sophia, the investigator from the National Security Agency, flashed a notably clear smile.

“Don’t try to uncover too much, Merlo. Sometimes it’s polite to pretend you don’t know.”

“I’ll keep it secure?”

“Isn’t that etiquette?”

Anyway, thanks for the favor, Merlo.

Sophia waved goodbye with her smile still intact as she left the wine bar.

I couldn’t help but smile as I waited a moment before exiting the wine bar myself.

It’s ironic.

People using aliases share confidential information, clearly understanding each other’s stances despite belonging to different interests.

Not knowing who’s an ally or foe. Yesterday’s comrade becomes tomorrow’s betrayer. And just like that, while viciously biting at each other, before you know it, they’re chuckling and chatting.

In a world where the privileged wear masks and act friendly while their insides churn like festival cakes, even those on top can fall with a single misstep.

This is reality.

“…I dare say, I’m more thankful.”

There’s no one to trust in this world.

There are no gentlemanly suit men, only monsters who deceive and dispose of people.

Even the pure-hearted can fall into this trap once they step in.

Those who cannot adapt fall out early, and those who force themselves into molds last a little longer.

In the end, only those who completely transform themselves survive and rise to higher places.

It’s truly a romantically bleak world, I think.

Still.

“…Things seem to be going well.”

I do enjoy how everything is tying together as I hoped.

Perhaps this is my calling.

*

I received news that Francesca Ranieri’s visiting schedule was set, around the time I was having dinner that evening.

 

---