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nWhen I pried my eyes open, all I could see were the cloudless sky and the tall tower of solid ice I created. When I tried to get up, pain suddenly slithered throughout my body, though it was not physical pain. I discovered that while I was dormant, my body lost its ability to hover in the air and fell from the height of a kilometer. I did not take fall damage as I had resistance and I could passively heal myself; the pain was probably from the damage I received from my fight with Melville in the mental realm. Since Melville was not taking Edith’s body anymore, her abilities were not taking effect on her anymore, and Edith was probably freezing to death. I then immediately summoned my sword and rushed toward her before I skillfully executed the Divine Sword Art technique, Level 2 Flash Strike, and freed her from the ice. I caught her unconscious body from falling and carried her in my arms before I slowly descended to the ground. I saw her condition, and I could say that her skin turned pale due to hypothermia. As I descended, I conjured some fireballs around me to at least warm her body up, which seemed to be working. Now that I realized it, we were actually in the middle of the Vagoth Forest, and there was no way I could leave her alone in such a dangerous place. For her safety, I teleported ourselves to a good spot in the forest a few kilometers from the city walls. When I got here, I could sense quite a number of imperial knights exploring the area. The empire must have taken heed of the outburst of mana and energy from my fight with Melville and deployed the knights to investigate. At the rear, I could sense Prince Edward on a horse joining the investigation. He probably discovered the disappearance of Edith and thought that it was related to the strange occurrence in the forest. It might not be wrong to say that he was the one who ordered this search. Their presence here was actually a good thing for me since I did not have to go inside the city. After finding a good spot, I then carefully laid her against a tree trunk before I blended myself with the environment and observed. A knight eventually found Edith’s unconscious body and immediately informed the prince about it. When Edward carried her in his arms on their way to the capital, I vanished from my spot, as I knew that my job was well done. ◆◇◆◇◆◇

nThe day after my fight with Melville, in a room of a certain noble’s manor in the capital, I was sitting on a couch waiting for someone to enter. I was actually here because I was going to meet up with an accomplice of mine who had given me a lot of valuable information regarding the organization. Since we wanted to keep our connection secret from the others, I secretly snuck into the property and stayed in this room. After a few minutes of waiting, the doorknob finally twitched and the door opened, revealing the figure of someone I anticipated to come. “Hello there, Raphael,” he greeted as soon as he closed the door. “I am glad you spared some of your precious time just to listen to my words, and I truly thank you for taking out that person.” “It’s alright, I have a lot of free time anyway. She was a tough one, but I managed to deal with her. Also, I genuinely love to hear about the things I wanted to know regarding the organization…Francis. You said that you would tell me anything if I did the job.” “I am glad you understand, His Highness Raphael.” He said before he took a seat in front of me across the coffee table. “And a promise is a promise.” The one I was meeting with was Francis, Aethel Archduchy’s heir. He was my accomplice in dealing with the matter with the Five Headed Hydra and its related group, providing me with valuable information and updates. Apparently, the Archduchy of Aethel had been hiding its connection with the organization where the Five Headed Hydra belonged. The group had been trying to corrupt the empire for a long time, and they used the Aethel archduchy as a tool to attain their goals. The archduchy had been stained by corruption from generation to generation. The organization promised them wealth and power as long as they protected their illegal activities in the empire. But when Francis was introduced to the organization, he believed that it was wrong, and his patriotism for the empire still prevailed. However, he could not show that he was against the family tradition, so he somewhat made them believe that he was into it by deceiving them. Eventually, he realized that he could not take the facade anymore and decided to destroy their influence in the empire from the inside. But he knew he could not do it all alone, and then he remembered that there was someone who was anonymously providing information to the empire. He investigated it and tried to figure out the identity of that mysterious tipper. And due to certain factors, such as my background and prodigious upbringing, he approached me when I got into the academy and made me admit that I was that person. He told me that he wanted me to help him fix the empire, to which I agreed since I wanted to remove as much threat to my family as possible. Since then, we have been secretly meeting up and discussing our plans against the organization. I could assure you that he was somehow trustworthy, as all the information he had been giving was factual. To show his loyalty, he allowed me to explore his memories and even agreed to put a deadly curse on him if he ever betrayed me. According to him, the Aethel were their second biggest accomplice on the continent next to the Kingdom of Astley, which was why Five Headed Hydra was still operational even though their influence on Astley had been destroyed. With that said, losing their main base would resort them to utilizing their influence in the archduchy to a greater extent. Since I had taken out Melville, one of their upper echelons, from the picture, they would be more cautious of an existence that was undoubtedly a threat to their plans. “Well then, Raphael, what do you want to learn?” “Hmm… I know that you have given me so much information, like their plan to use Edith to seduce the prince and so on, but you have yet to tell me the whole picture. I want you to tell me their whole plan for the empire.” “Very well, to be honest, the reason why I haven’t told you anything is that I cannot completely put my trust in you yet. I apologize for that.” “It’s alright; I understand you since I haven’t fully trusted you either, so I think it’s even.” “It’s completely normal to be doubtful, Raphael. But by personally defeating a high-ranking official of the organization, you have proven to me that you truly want to defend the empire from their wickedness.” “Well, yeah, but I am more focused on protecting this continent as my family basically resides on it. In addition, I have some people important to me in the empire, like my fiancee’s family; protecting their homeland is the least I could do.” “I agree with you; that is why you have gained my trust. To show my gratitude, I will tell you the full grasp of their plans for the empire.” I nodded to him once, and then he started to break down the details of their plans. “As you have known, the revolution in the Kingdom of Astley really crippled their power and influence on the continent. Their only major associate on the continent is our archduchy, and there has been a significant increase in their legal and illegal activities in our domain recently.” “So they evacuated their operations to your domain, huh? And they probably put more effort into recovering their loss in Astley.” “That’s possible. Even though the Five Headed Hydra has been the biggest underground syndicate on the continent for decades, not centuries, they wanted to extend their grasp further.”

n“You said that they were struggling on the Southern Continent, yes?” “That’s right, there are a lot of powerful nations and races to deal with after all. After losing the kingdom, they were forced to accelerate the plan on manipulating the empire’s pillar, the imperial royal family, so the method of using Edith. Also, did you know that Edith is related to my family?” “Really?” “Yes. Her father is actually the fruit of the secret affair of her grandmother and my grandfather, making her my half-cousin. To make it crazier, Baron “Felsvorder” is my grandfather’s firstborn, so she probably had more right in my title than myself if we ignore her illegitimacy.” “That’s crazy. To think that Edith has that kind of identity and background.” After hearing that information, I leaned my back against the couch to relax from this new and bizarre information. Francis let me digest the details before he continued giving me shocks. “If the imperial family were not to accept their engagement, they would expose that information, which would make them see Edith in more light. If they were still not convinced, my family would have to adopt her and make her a legitimate member of the Aethel family. That would make her stand on the same podium as Lady Christine.” “It is rather a cunning plan B. Are you fine with that?” “Personally, I am not agreeing with that. They have been abusing her too much. As a family member, I cannot let her go through that, but I am too powerless to help her. Relatedly, you know the Theocracy’s Priestess, right?”

n“You mean Miss Eisherz Gracier?” “Actually, aside from Lady Christine, Lady Eisherz is one of the most suitable fiancees for His Imperial Highness. Seeing the impending doom of the Kingdom of Astley, the organization stepped ahead and put an order to minister in the empire to orchestrate her assassination. He apparently asked the Five Headed Hydra to do the task, but some people saved her. Coincidentally, they happened to be the Queendom of Raevender’s vassals.” “I am aware of it.” “By the way, that minister, Sir Liscio, was the one who corrupted the second prince so that when the first prince failed, there would always be a spare tire.” “Damn. They really are several steps ahead.” “The minister was said to have retired, but in reality, the organization had gotten rid of him as he was holding some information regarding the group. They could not let someone roam freely while carrying their secrets.” “As they say, a dead man tells no tales.” Afterwards, I continued listening to his revelations, and then we discussed our future plans.

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