Chapter 29: The Night of Counting Stars (3)
“When on earth is that thing going back?”
“Who knows what the Privy Council is thinking.”
“No, why is the Privy Council coming into it? That thing belongs to Naval Command!”
The Elves who had begun ordinary school life were, at this time, engulfed in confusion.
However high their self-regard and however steeped in nationalist fervor Elves may be, there are limits. They were currently grinding their teeth amid secondhand embarrassment and the humans’ veiled contempt.
On the first day the warship floated overhead, the Elf students each squared their shoulders proudly and said things like this:
Look at that, how hard must we have crushed it that they float a warship in the middle of a human capital and everyone just stands by watching?
These astonishing folk, who floated a warship at an entrance ceremony, began to get a subtly strange feeling from about a week in.
But however much this is an era with no need for warships, is it really all right to do that……?
This was a fear closer to survival instinct.
Because deploying an instrument of war in another nation’s capital is an enormous military provocation—
—and though there’s no chance of it, in the one-in-a-million case that war broke out at the end of that provocation, they would instantly convert from students to prisoners.
The backward pre-modern fantasy world has no Geneva Convention.
Of course, there’s no practice of openly executing prisoners in the United Kingdoms’ border disputes, and they wouldn’t behead the sons and daughters of noble houses who’d come abroad to study.
But that’s a thing worth saying only in a world where “common sense” holds.
Which is to say, merely imagining what sort of rampage a human kingdom where common sense does not hold (as believed among Elves) might commit makes their survival instinct twitch.
And at last another week passed, making it a fortnight.
Looking up at their proud aerial battleship still floating in the sky, the Elves finally exercised their racial trait.
They are the vanguard of civilization, parliamentary politics, and constitutional-monarchy democracy.
Therefore, in accordance with their racial trait, they finally went and organized political parties. Meaning factional strife had begun.
The Elf students are currently divided into a Privy Council faction and a Naval Command faction and have commenced civil war. (Civil war is also among their racial traits.)
Of course, who holds their sovereignty cannot resolve the situation. Electing a 1st-year student council president isn’t going to make a perfectly sound warship go oh my, congratulations and sail home.
In any case.
Outside, the humans’ contempt and threats.
Inside, cozy political activity among Elves.
And above, that warship merely floating, bob-bob, in the sky without any communication whatsoever.
In this chaotic era, when peace has become a vulgar joke—
—a gardener and a young human noble visited the Elf students’ dormitory.
This is what happened the day after Dmitri cautiously handed Ivan an “order sheet.”
***
Turning back time briefly to the previous day. That is, the evening of the day Elizaveta resolved to take an axe to the Elf captain’s neck.
Dmitri headed for the orphanage into whose back pocket he had, every year, personally cracked open the royal treasury and, after laundering the funds clean, tucked money.
Since Elizaveta was fundamentally a bashful girl (his personal view), this business had proceeded without informing Ivan.
Which is to say, Dmitri had until now reigned as this orphanage’s largest donor. Nominally he’d fudged it as “post-service courtesy” or “supporting a lieutenant colonel who retired without a military pension.” In any case, wasn’t the hand that stuffed in the money his own?
“Oh, hello. Hello, children?”
“……”
Dmitri walked the grounds wearing a good-natured smile for these eerie students who moved about suspiciously quietly.
It felt like walking the corridor of a Counterintelligence Command political-prisoner correctional facility. Chiefly in that the watchers stared steadily from a corner of one’s vision without a sound.
“I’ve no intention of interfering with a respected senior’s private hobbies, but isn’t this within the range where a charge of national insurrection could be brought?”
However did he come up with collecting orphans and putting them to work as field agents.
Dmitri massaged the eerie prickling at his nape and walked toward the Director’s Office.
Past a Droan-born soldier wrecking a load of laundry with a suspicious rrrip, rrrip.
Past again a teacher he’d never seen before, wearing a strange hat, being subjected to a group lynching by the children.
“Senior, are you in?”
“You came by the door today.”
When he opened the Director’s Office door, Ivan was visible beyond the still astonishingly bleak interior scenery.
Ivan was rifling through document piles with chilly eyes.
“What is it?”
“Um, ah. You had a guest?”
“Ah, you must be a friend of my big brother’s! Don’t mind me, please attend to your business!”
“……Big brother……?”
His senior had, astonishingly, apparently acquired a younger brother with a considerable age gap.
After gazing a while at the face of the youth with the lively expression, Dmitri snapped his fingers with a snap. He’d thought the face was somehow familiar, and it was one he knew.
“If it isn’t Sir Karamzin! Good heavens, fancy meeting you here!”
“Sir, please. I’m a mere student! Do speak informally!”
The incident of high society’s worst problem child suddenly enrolling in a theological school had set the vicinity of Prichenkaya buzzing for a good while.
Isn’t he the youngest son of the Karamzin Duke Family, which has produced a fair few defense generals?
And a fellow like that calls our senior, who has never had the slightest interest in politics, “big brother”……?
When Dmitri’s eyes glinted sharply, Ivan tapped the desk.
“Yevgeny. Wait outside.”
“Yes, big brother! Attend to your business at ease! I’ll be doing volunteer service!”
“Keep watch on how many garments Mord has destroyed.”
“Yes, big brother!”
Yujin backed out of the Director’s Office wearing a sycophant’s smile. Dmitri, watching that spectacle with blank eyes, tilted his head slightly.
“Your taste has changed quite a lot, senior? Didn’t you dislike fellows like that……?”
“The boy turned out to be good-natured.”
“Come to think of it, your expression seems to have improved a bit too. It really is thanks to Lady Enrique.”
Ivan tapped the desk heavily, tap tap. Impatient as ever, honestly. Dmitri drew a letter from inside his coat, grinning.
“Colonel Kirillovna……?”
“She’s the Minister of the Royal Household, I keep telling you. In any case, mm. The situation is a bit complicated. And you’re the only one who can do it, senior.”
Dmitri handed over the letter and sprawled onto the sofa.
“I give you a lot of money every year, so do use a somewhat more expensive sofa.”
Ignoring Dmitri’s words, Ivan read the letter and screwed up his face.
This one’s rather a big job.
“Is she serious?”
“Is our Princess the sort to joke about something like this?”
Infiltrate the Kalion warship floating above Yansk University and threaten the captain.
But at the same time, avoid casualties among the warship’s crew as far as possible.
“The reason?”
“Ah, this is a bit complicated.”
Dmitri frowned. Where should he begin explaining.
“It seems that warship has suffered a functional fault. However out of their minds the pointy-ears may be, there’s no reason to commit a military provocation against a capital for over a fortnight. There’s no motive either.”
“And?”
“So. We mean to use this opportunity to hook our Foreign Minister…… His Highness Alexandr.”
Dmitri slowly straightened his back. The laughter gone from his face, wearing the face of a lieutenant colonel and internal inspector of the Counterintelligence Command’s Investigation Bureau.
“The Kalion fellows know perfectly well that our country is a shambles. And amid that, Her Highness the Princess personally went and ‘threatened’ them.”
If the warship comes under practical threat in the midst of that, the captain will certainly try to join hands with the Crown Prince.
Because provoking the captain was aimed at precisely that from the start.
“We need a scene of His Highness the Crown Prince making contact with the Elves. A scene we can tie up as scheming a military coup by way of an Elf warship.”
“Radical.”
“Everything our Princess does is like that.”
“Is that the only objective?”
“Hardly. When have we ever worked that way.”
Dmitri rose with a sardonic smile.
“We’re going to seize the Kalion warship. While denouncing those pointy-ears who dared aim naval guns right in front of Greater Krasilov’s royal citadel. After declaring they joined hands with His Highness the Crown Prince to plot a coup, preparations to dispatch a formal letter of protest to the Kalion Privy Council are already complete.”
“Kalion will smooth it over as one captain’s deviation, and in exchange……”
“They’ll have to approve ‘mooring’ the ‘total-loss’ warship on Prichenkaya’s outskirts in order to ‘repair’ it.”
The aerial battleship is Kalion’s exclusive instrument of war.
But as technology invariably goes, there is always risk of leakage.
Therefore, seize the warship. After seizure, attempt reverse engineering under the pretext of repairing the “total-loss” vessel.
From Kalion’s standpoint it can’t be regarded as pure loss either. Considering the cost and labor required to construct a single battleship of that scale, the number of vessels Krasilov could maintain can never exceed Kalion’s navy.
But Krasilov desperately needs even a few of those aerial battleships. Because Krasilov, having no ice-free port, sees maritime trade halt entirely in winter.
If the business succeeds, the Princess will hold an enormous justification.
A single conspiracy like this won’t unseat Alexandr, but it will at least drive him into a political offensive severe enough to make movement impossible for the time being.
And on top of that, if the “aerial battleship design” is acquired—
—the military establishment, which has professed neutrality between the Crown Prince and the Princess’s internal strife, can be moved. Because a powerful instrument of war naturally goes to the military.
Practical gain, justification, and support.
Three objectives aimed at simultaneously with a single operation. Even if the best result isn’t obtained, the Princess will suffer no damage whatsoever.
Mooring a warship before the court was the Elves’ fault to begin with, was it not.
“It’s impossible without you, senior. Every agent we can move is exposed, and the undercover fellows can’t execute the operation.”
The only force the Princess can currently move in Prichenkaya is the Counterintelligence Command.
Since Enrique does not obey the court’s orders, the Princess’s strongest card is Ivan alone.
The Logging Machine, the Butcher of the Seven Dragon Generals, the Great King’s Executioner.
“Little” Ivan.
“If only this business wraps up well, you won’t need to carry out the existing operation at all, senior. If His Highness the Crown Prince becomes a vegetable, the need to protect Yansk University’s honored guests disappears entirely. And if some other compensation is needed……. Mm. She asked me to convey it like this. Her Highness the Princess did.”
Dmitri hesitated a moment, then spoke carefully.
“That she would provide the position of prince consort…… is what she said.”
“I’ll consider that unheard.”
“Uh…… mm. Her Highness will be hurt.”
“Convey it to Her Highness. That she should be watching the sky.”
Ivan said this as he rose from his seat.
***
“Was there a change?”
“Yep, big brother! The wording on the ‘quest window’ has changed!”
Ivan nodded at Yujin’s words.
Yujin, who had returned to the Director’s Office after Dmitri left, swiftly wrote out the changed quest window wording and handed it over.
[“B-Rank Linked Quest” Krasilov Court Intrigue] [The Princess seeks to seize the court by holding the Crown Prince’s weakness. Now, the fate of the Krasilov royal house rests on your choice!] [Objective: Following the Princess’s orders, prove the collusive relationship between the Kalion aerial battleship’s captain and the Crown Prince.] [Optional Objective: Survival of the aerial battleship’s entire crew] [Optional Objective: Seize the aerial battleship] [Optional Objective: Inform Crown Prince Alexandr of the full details of the conspiracy and proceed to the next linked quest] [Objective Reward: ????] [Failure Penalty: ????]
Reading the memo once through, Ivan nodded.
“You’ll have to come along on this operation too.”
“……What? Me?”
“I need to confirm how the success reward is granted and how the quest proceeds.”
This thing called a “quest” is generally registered before an “incident” occurs.
Natural enough, if you like. Because there’s no way it would toss out an already-finished incident as a quest.
Therefore a quest serves as an early warning system for what is about to happen.
In fact, the quest that had appeared before Dmitri’s visit was “Court Intrigue.” The sort instructing him to grasp the conspiracy surrounding the aerial battleship and proceed with the mission on the side of either the Princess or the Crown Prince.
That is, a “faction selection” quest.
Faction selection hasn’t been completed yet, but the moment he heard the Princess’s plan, the quest’s content changed. Into the forms of advancing the conspiracy and informing.
An early warning system reflected in real time. An extremely useful resource.
Ivan looked at Yujin, whose value kept growing, and thought.
The possessors I know are the Demon King, the Hero, and myself.
What those 3 have in common is that they were beings who hit the highest point in their respective fields.
And considering that this fellow, though still unpolished, is showing ample potential for that—
There’s a possibility the other possessors are the same.
What abilities they hold.
What story they harbor.
And what ending they come to meet.
And at the end of that ending, in just what form he will come to see the ending credits.
The Demon King died, the Hero vanished, and he himself still remains.
Then what of the other possessors. If they bring their own stories to a conclusion, will they die. Will they vanish. Or will they remain.
There was much to find out, the method of finding out was certain, and there was reason to know as well.
“Tomorrow before noon we’ll ‘persuade’ the Elf named Oswald and Yuri, and tomorrow night we commence the operation.”
“Then what should I do, big brother?”
“Assist.”
I’ll have to raise this one as an agent. Thinking so, Ivan nodded.
Sign up to join the discussion...
Already have an account? Log in
No comments yet. Be the first to discuss this chapter.