30 Years Have Passed Since the Prologue Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Stalker vs Stalker (2)

Ivan didn’t pay great attention to concealment discipline. Because he knew that this attitude in fact brings a better result.

A university is fundamentally an open space. Whoever enters and whoever leaves, so long as they don’t go into a lecture hall, no one blocks them.

On top of that, students are indifferent to others. As most people are, there is no student who pays attention to each and every movement of a “staff member.”

To students, a staff member is no more than an existence that vanishes at the periphery of vision.

Accordingly, Ivan had already grasped that walking about ordinarily in ordinary dress is in fact of greater help to maintaining security than forcing an attempt at concealment.

But there is a problem here. If “someone” begins paying attention to him, the security-maintenance strategy built up until now all collapses.

And at this present point, there was one student devoting her entire attention to Ivan’s every move……

What is she doing?

Ivan frowned at this itching gaze ceaselessly chasing him.

Why on earth is she like that?

He bent at the waist as though tying a shoelace and naturally turned his gaze backward.

Esidis was glaring at him with blazing eyes.

Is that…… camouflage……?

Holding up a single branch densely hung with leaves, broken off from who knows where, covering her face, she was creeping between the brush.

Droan’s people are large-framed. In the case of men, burly; in the case of women, enormous in a somewhat different sense.

Esidis, having inherited Droan’s finest bloodline, possessed destructive bodily parts despite her small-animal-like exterior.

Accordingly, it meant a branch like that is useless for hiding her towering height and something even larger than that.

Ivan gazed at her a moment as though finding her pathetic, then took out his memo.

[Esidis. Worth suspecting cheating in her credit-acquisition process. Cognitive ability markedly poor.]

Ivan being an honest man, he had no hesitation in writing facts. He closed the memo and moved his steps again.

He walked toward the Knight Faculty main building. A familiar spell was stimulating his senses.

The Counterintelligence Command is calling him.

***

Esidis was creeping along amid a tension that dried her lips.

Her concealment was perfect. When she walked concealed, not one of her uncles had ever noticed. (Housecarls tend to be generous toward a niece’s pranks.)

Accordingly she was spying on Ivan with overflowing confidence.

He was a bizarre person.

At times he suddenly vanished from her sight, and while she was startled, before she knew it he’d climbed a tree and was scanning his surroundings.

The Magic Faculty and the Knight Faculty, and astonishingly even the philosophy department. Ivan roamed ceaselessly, glaring at someone.

And then he’d abruptly frown, run like a ghost, and hurl himself into brush from which cigarette smoke was rising.

He’d seem to walk with long strides into a department building, and then vanish like a phantom!

[Gardener? Have never seen him tending a garden. Is there anywhere in the university worth calling a garden? Don’t know…… what he does? Continuously watching someone. Doesn’t rest. Why? Instigated by someone? Or a hobby?]

She wrote memos in her notebook and was engulfed in confusion.

That diligent stalker was roaming the grounds ceaselessly without resting or eating……!

What on earth made that man like that.

At this point curiosity comes before terror. Esidis was munching a sandwich while looking for Ivan.

Vanished from sight again. He’d seemed to walk somewhere into the Knight Faculty department building, and the moment he turned a corner he vanished like smoke.

“Mm-mm, where did he go.”

She wiped the mustard sauce from her mouth and walked off pat-pat.

***

I don’t know the reason, but Esidis is attempting to surveil me.

But it’s out of the question. Though somewhat troublesome, he hasn’t dulled enough to have his tail caught by a novice like that.

Ivan thought this as he walked into a corridor with a “perception-hindering” spell laid over it.

“Dmitri.” “Have you been well, senior?”

Not a single student was moving about the department corridor. Owing to the Counterintelligence Command’s “perception-hindering” spell.

In the corridor’s middle Dmitri was gazing at the scenery beyond the window, holding a yellow document envelope.

“You show up the instant we lay the spell. Senior. I always think it, but you really are remarkable.”

“What brings you to the university, Dmitri.” “That, mm. One thing to ask, one thing to report. That’s what there is…… mm. Yep.”

Dmitri drew out a document file and handed it over.

“The entrance ceremony bomb terrorism. We’ve caught the tail.” “Then isn’t it a matter of resolving it?” “There turned out to be a bit of a problem.”

The Krasilov Counterintelligence Command is capable. In fact, it is the most capable body among all of Krasilov’s administrative departments.

Fundamentally Krasilov, no. This backward pre-modern society was rife with corruption. A civil servant who hasn’t taken kickbacks is like a unicorn or a dragon. (Meaning they do exist.)

Amid all that, the Counterintelligence Command was incorruptible to an extreme degree. With Princess Elizaveta as its head it could hardly be otherwise.

Therefore, if the Counterintelligence Command tracked terrorists, it’s strange for the matter to be handed all the way to Ivan.

Ivan frowned and tore open the document envelope.

“Droan……?”

“Yes, Droan.”

Droan, the nation of warriors. Einar’s homeland.

That this nation instigated bomb terrorism in the middle of Krasilov?

Ivan turned the documents flip flip and sank into thought.

“When we took apart the magic power bomb used at the time, most of the components turned out to come from Droan.” “Droan instigating magic power bomb terrorism? Do you think that makes sense?” “By common sense it’d naturally be impossible, wouldn’t it?” “Mm……”

Droan’s warriors are a breed widely known to harvest an enemy’s skull with an axe in the time it takes to commit bomb terrorism.

Therefore, thinking of it in reverse, they are also the ones who would be least suspected when bomb terrorism occurs.

The Counterintelligence Command’s “common sense” must generally stand opposite civilians’ common sense.

If there are those whom no one would suspect, conversely they are the ones who must be suspected most.

“So we dug a little more. Read from page 11.”

“……Einar seems to have finished up sloppily.” “Yes. Unlike Great King Einar, isn’t it? Showing mercy to an enemy.”

After the Demon King died, until Einar returned to his homeland. Droan was not a single nation.

A Warring States period in which countless warlords called “Jarls” ran rampant. With even the Demon King’s threat gone, they were now rampaging like colts with the reins slipped.

In such a period Einar founded a nation with 2 axes. That is the reason he is called “Great King.”

Einar brought peace to his homeland, and a national character as a single people.

So it was known.

“So one of the 5 Jarls who submitted to Einar is the culprit. Has this intelligence gone to Einar?” “Her Excellency the Minister is considering it now. If Einar learns of this……” “A bloody wind will blow.” “Yes, and with the border touching, we’d certainly be affected too. And as you know…… isn’t Crown Prince Alexandr’s whereabouts unclear right now. The military establishment’s movements are suspicious too.”

Ivan turned the document file to the end, then breathed magic power into the magic circle left on the last page and dusted off his hands.

The classified documents blazed up in an instant and scattered as ash.

“We know who the fellows who instigated the terrorism are, but the fellows who actually prepared the terrorism can’t be caught at all. But their target is certainly……”

“Esidis.”

“Yes, the daughter Great King Einar cherishes most. If that child dies or is injured, with Great King Einar’s temperament war will break out immediately. Responsibility will fall to Her Highness the Princess. Since she is the Counterintelligence Command’s Minister.”

“Then the military establishment will support the Crown Prince.”

For the military establishment to persist, war is necessary. Conversely, in a nation with no war threat, disarmament is unavoidable.

Only 4 years have passed since the demonfolk war. The nation is being rebuilt, and the Royal Household Ministry was projecting the financial resources for maintaining army corps into reconstruction costs.

Therefore, if there are those who most desire war right now, it’s the military establishment.

And the Crown Prince, who wishes to unseat the Minister of the Royal Household, Princess Elizaveta.

“The terrorists will certainly aim for Esidis again. Senior.” “Convey this to Her Highness the Princess.”

Ivan glanced at the empty corridor and turned his body.

“That I shall do what must be done.” “We thank you for your devotion, ‘little’ Ivan.” “It’s nothing.”

Ivan shook his head briefly and departed. After gazing at his retreating back, Dmitri dusted off his hands.

The “perception-hindering” magic circle installed at the corridor’s end crumbled and students began entering the corridor again.

In the corridor where students had returned, no trace of Dmitri could be found.

***

Ivan being a very logical man, he established an operation by a simple line of reasoning.

Combining the intelligence that the protection subject is in danger with the astonishing fact that the protection subject is tracking him, a simple and clear solution could be derived.

QED) He need only expose himself steadily within her field of view so Esidis can easily surveil him.

In this grateful situation where the surveillance and protection subject is following of her own accord, there was no reason to go to the trouble of hiding. Merely by revealing himself and standing still, he could keep Esidis within his own field of view.

At the same time, lurking in Esidis’s vicinity, he would certainly be able to tread on the “unidentified terrorists'” tail.

As also recalled at some point, a well-trained agent never moves for one objective at a time.

Laying 2 or more aims beneath a single move.

That is the Annihilation Corps’ way.

***

No, what on earth is he……?!

Esidis, drinking coffee, dribbled it and gazed blankly behind a roadside tree.

“Esi? What’s the matter?” “Uh, mm. Uh, uhh. Mm…… mm……. Bella, is Bella nearby?” “No? Miss Isabelle said she’d eat lunch separately today because of class…… why?” “Then…… then…… me……?”

Gazing at the gardener glaring at her from behind the roadside tree, Esidis wore an expression as though about to cry.

“I’m the target……?” “Yes? What do you mean……?” “No, it’s nothing. Nothing…… Miss Yuri. I’ll get up first. I’m sorry.” “Not at all, I had to go for my next class too. See you tomorrow!” “Yes, yes.”

Esidis moved unsteadily. Standing at the orchestral department main building’s entrance, she turned back with a trembling gaze.

“……!”

Precisely the same distance out as before.

He was glaring at her.

Esidis suddenly wanted to cry.