“Good grief.”
In the basement of a certain house in the Grand Duchy, Valère sighed.
“Mr. Abraham, real name Caspar. Member of the Imperial Army’s covert unit. Infiltrated the Grand Duchy three years ago. Operated as a merchant locally, got engaged, and married a year ago. Quite the resume.”
As Valère recited the gathered information, he looked at the man before him. The man, tied to a chair, was already on his last breath. Despite being part of the elite covert unit of the Imperial Army, his opponent was one of the Twelve Great Celestial mages. Moreover, it was a complete surprise attack. Everything had been decided with the first move.
“If you stack too many lies, eventually you lose track of the truth. This is from personal experience… Do you have nothing to say because you can’t tell what’s true anymore?”
“…Kill me…”
“Hey, think about your wife who’s left behind. Just tell me how to read the cipher, and that’ll be the end of it.”
“I can’t… tell what I don’t know…”
Caspar spoke through ragged breaths. It was a question that had been asked several times already. Caspar’s consciousness was already fading. It was no surprise. All the fingers on his left hand had been severed. Valère’s doing.
“Hmm, this tedious work is bothersome.”
With that, Valère waved his finger. A gust of wind blew, and Caspar’s screams echoed through the basement. All the fingers on Caspar’s right hand were also severed. The pain and blood loss began to push Caspar towards unconsciousness.
“You can live happily even without fingers. You must have loved your wife to make her in enemy territory. Talk.”
In his hazy consciousness, Caspar recalled his memories with his wife. A marriage for camouflage. He kept telling himself that, but the reality was different. He loved her. That’s why he had vowed. He wouldn’t betray his country for the sake of his wife.
“Go to hell…”
“Well done. Foolish, but commendable.”
With those words, Valère ended Caspar’s life.
“And…”
“It seems the Imperial covert unit members are all tight-lipped.”
As if nothing had happened, Valère turned his attention back to the cipher. The decryption was halfway done, but the crucial part remained unreadable. Since he couldn’t spend more time on this, he had been hunting down members of the Imperial covert unit, but no one would talk.
“Could it be that they truly don’t know?”
Considering they hadn’t broken yet, that possibility arose. They might all just be pretending to resist, while in reality, they didn’t know. The cipher might be that important. If so, merely searching for low-level covert operatives wouldn’t get him anywhere.
“Hmm,” Valère thought, stroking his chin.
However…
“Abraham? Abraham! Where are you?”
A voice called from above. It was Caspar’s wife. Valère, with a perfectly natural motion, prepared his magic to eliminate her. But then he reconsidered.
“Close call. Habits are scary.”
He restrained his right hand, which had moved involuntarily, with his left. Then, Valère left the place along with the wind. Caspar’s body would be discovered eventually, but it wouldn’t be a significant blow. It would be treated as a shocking incident in the area, but no one would realize it was Valère’s doing.
“I’ve softened up.”
Valère muttered to himself, having moved a bit away, about sparing Caspar’s wife. In the past, he would have killed without hesitation. There was no benefit in keeping her alive. Even if she was a regular citizen of the Grand Duchy, or even if she were from the Lutetia Empire, his actions wouldn’t change. However, a colleague would overtly become displeased if he did that. That colleague believed killing the enemy alone was enough. If it were just displeasure, it wouldn’t be an issue, but the colleague would direct their anger towards him. While keeping silent would keep it hidden, a poorly told lie would be detected. Thus, he had no choice but to act without lying.
“I don’t want to make the Great Sage my enemy.”
With those words, Valère disappeared. His destination was the Empire. This cipher couldn’t be decoded by low-level operatives. He had to ask someone within the Empire. It was dangerous, but there was no other way. When battles occurred, Valère rarely acted. That was not his domain. Hence, Valère took the risk. Gathering information was his battlefield.
Several days later.
Valère contacted a collaborator within the Empire. However, they did not meet face to face.
“The letter has been deciphered.”
“Thanks.”
In a small café in an Imperial city, at an open terrace, Valère and the collaborator spoke back to back.
“Where did you get something like this?”
“I have connections. And?”
“Connections? This is a top-level cipher. Only a select few can use this, and it’s heavily guarded during transport.”
“I see.”
Valère gave a brief response to the collaborator’s words. It didn’t mean much to Valère. Even acquiring it was limited to a few. In other words, his connections were limited. If it were exposed, it would be a significant issue, but Valère had no time to worry about such things.
“Tell me quickly.”
“…I couldn’t figure out the date. But I understood the operation’s content.”
“The date was what I wanted to know most.”
“We have our limits. Listen well, the plan is a simultaneous attack on the Kingdom and the Empire with a total force of 400,000.”
“A grand gesture.”
The Empire, indeed. However, even for the Empire, mobilizing 400,000 troops would be a considerable effort. They must be expecting a commensurate return.
“And using those as a diversion… they plan to capture the capital of the Grand Duchy. The units are already inside the Grand Duchy.”
“The target is the Grand Duchy… But they wouldn’t overlook the Imperial troops, would they?”
A few covert operatives might slip through, but to capture the capital, they would have to mobilize regular troops. The numbers would be significant. The Grand Duchy wasn’t foolish enough to overlook that.
“But a Kraken should have appeared in the Lutetia Empire. That’s part of the plan. Amidst the confusion as ships rush into the port, they infiltrate.”
“Even monsters can be utilized? The Empire is something else.”
“I don’t know. But that’s what it says.”
“Troublesome.”
Valère muttered as he stood up. He had no further need for the collaborator. All that remained was to act.
“You’re going?”
“Of course.”
“For what it’s worth, be careful. The Empire’s vigilance is tight with the plan approaching.”
“I’ll take that under advisement.”
Valère grinned fearlessly as he spoke. He knew better than anyone that this level of vigilance couldn’t stop him. And so, Valère returned from the Empire and headed towards the Great Sage.
