Chapter 138 – Wiretapping

Eavesdropping

Knock, knock!

It was Luna who showed herself after the knock.

Rashid, who was sitting in front of the desk, gestured to her.

“Did you call for me?”

Rashid handed over a note without saying much.

[The cross insignia attached to my chest. It seems there is a magic device on it, could you check it?]

Reading the note, she silently and cutely pointed her finger at the insignia on his chest.

Rashid nodded quietly and grabbed the pen again.

[I have roughly figured out up to the location tracking function. It seems there is some kind of marker.]

When she nodded,

Rashid stood up quietly and approached her.

It was a gesture for her to examine it as she saw fit.

Luna began to write letters in the empty air.

[Then I will take a look.]

She placed her fingertip on top of the insignia.

Then, channeling mana, she examined the structure of the insignia.

Although a mana stone attached like an ornament hid the presence of a mana circuit inside, it could not escape the eyes of an expert.

The mana circuit hidden inside was detected, and although its structure was not complex, there were many details within its simplicity.

Having finished her analysis, Luna left a trace in the air with her index finger.

[There are two functions: location tracking and wiretapping. It is even capable of eavesdropping; did you know that?]

Rashid showed a slightly surprised look.

To think it would even have an eavesdropping function.

Rashid grabbed the pen and wrote something to ask.

[Was there no magical vision or anything like that? Are those two functions all?]

Luna replied.

[Yes, those two functions are all. It has a function to know the location, but it does not provide magical vision.]

Returning to his seat, Rashid spoke.

“I see. To think she would go that far.”

To her, who was watching her words carefully, Rashid wrote something down with a pen.

[Just act like you don’t know and pretend.]

“Yes.”

As expected of the magic advisor.

He felt glad that he had hired her.

“It really is good to have an expert by my side. What are you doing this evening? I will buy dinner tonight.”

Of course, to eliminate any room for misunderstanding, Rashid also added these words.

“Ah, since it might be misunderstood, bring Karl along too. It is just a return of favor in a purely innocent sense.”

“Dinner? Th-thank you. But are you going to keep that on you?”

“I will take care of this myself.”

“I think I am free this evening! So, is the Chief Inquisitor buying dinner?”

“Yes. Just clear your schedule. Let’s eat together.”

Yes! He felt like he could hear her shouting with joy in her mind.

After rejoicing for a moment, Luna suddenly remembered someone and asked.

“But are only the three of us going?”

“Is there anyone else besides us?”

“Isn’t there one more person?”

“Ah…”

There indeed was one more person.

The one who would ask to eat together whenever she was bored.

“Was she out today as well?”

“Yes, she told me she was going to look at some land.”

Rashid stroked the tip of his chin.

“Yeah, ask her. She’s someone who asks to have dinner when she’s bored, so if nothing is going on, she’ll join us.”

“Yes sir! Then I will contact her.”

“You may leave. I’ll call you again if needed.”

“Ah, Party Representative Kaiser requested to meet with you today. Would you like to meet him?”

“Kaiser?”

“Yes, he said he would deliver the Arcane Flowers.”

“Ah, I had forgotten.”

The new type of bombs he possessed had all been used during the gate destruction.

It seemed he was coming to replenish them.

There was no particular reason to refuse.

* * *

Kaiser sat comfortably in the reception seat as if it were his own home.

“I brought what you asked for. Arcane Flowers.”

He continued.

“But they said it wasn’t finished on our end, are you adjusting it separately here?”

“Right. The expert who redesigned the core process is here, after all.”

Kaiser showed a slight look of suspicion.

“I heard the gate explosion was so massive that the entire area was obliterated… Were Arcane Flowers that powerful?”

“I increased the power a bit. Aside from that, we detonated ten of them simultaneously.”

“Increased the power… In that case, shouldn’t you upgrade ours as well? Ours seem to be the same as before.”

“That level of power is enough. Are you a politician or a terrorist?”

“Ha…”

“More than that, what is the matter? If it was a simple delivery, there would be no need for you to come in person.”

“Must there be some grand reason for me to come? I could just come to hang out.”

Rashid spoke while being conscious of the insignia on his chest.

“I must not have told you this. The Empress. She helped when capturing Zodiac.”

“I heard she was building up her martial power, but did she actually help? She has grown a lot. How strong is she? It is my first time seeing an Empress with martial power as well.”

“We were on par.”

“On par?”

“She has become so ridiculously strong that I can’t understand why she only relied on her authority before.”

“How strong is she? I can’t really estimate.”

“Even Ryden wouldn’t be able to beat her.”

“Even Ryden?”

Kaiser showed a fairly surprised look.

“How fascinating. To think she would surpass Ryden. Well, I roughly knew the story that the martial power of the predecessor emperors was immense. There were various descriptions in the game, after all.”

Rashid showed him a note.

[There is a wiretap device she gave me. I am wearing it here.]

Rashid pointed to the cross-shaped ornament on his chest.

Seeing this, Kaiser grinned.

“Is there a reason?”

Rashid responded with the pen.

[Because it is helpful. The Empress finding her own way to help when capturing Zodiac was all thanks to this.]

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Kaiser, who had been smiling subtly, shook his head with a faint smile.

Then, as if remembering something, he snatched the note and pen from him and scribbled hastily.

[You could use it against her, or you could tease her.]

“Right. Ah, the Empress was flirting with me.”

“Flirting?”

Rashid began to brag, as if wanting her to hear.

“It felt like she was trying to seduce me.”

“No way. Does the Empress even do such things?”

“You know, don’t you? How mischievous the Empress is. She is a woman with a colorful track record. She used Ryden like that once before, too.”

This was meant for her to hear.

“Let me make it clear. I won’t be fooled by such fake flirting. Nor will I fall for false hope.”

“Indeed. She was a purebloodist, after all. Someone who only considers vampires as human.”

“Not just a purebloodist. An extreme purebloodist. She doesn’t tolerate humans at all. That is their pride.”

What followed was a warning.

“So I wish she would stop doing useless things. Why do such nonsense when it won’t even work?”

Kaiser, who had been smiling subtly, suddenly expressed a question.

“But it is fascinating. To think the Empress would do something like flirting with us.”

“She could. If she did it to Ryden, why wouldn’t she be able to do it to us?”

“But why isn’t she doing it to me? I wish she would flirt with me too.”

Kaiser was somewhat serious.

“I can even act well by pretending to be fooled. I have absolutely no idea why she shows no interest in me. Even though I was the one who said I would seat her on the imperial throne, I haven’t received a single contact.”

“That’s because you’re all talk. All of your strategies were exposed.”

“Ha… Something just isn’t clicking.”

Continuing with various small talk, Kaiser suddenly asked what he was curious about.

In fact, it was one of the reasons he had come here.

“More importantly, Sayaka. What are you going to do about that Heart of Infection?”

The first reaction Rashid showed was silence.

Watching this, Kaiser spoke with a voice mixed with concern.

“Surely you don’t mean you don’t know the way?”

He had even caught Zodiac.

Could he really not catch Sayaka?

“I hope that’s not the case. We even caught Zodiac, so could we really not catch that single villain?”

Zodiac was one of the villains notorious among users for having no answer.

Because most players ended up not seeing the ending simply because they missed Zodiac, even if they caught all other villains.

The problem was that Sayaka’s evaluation was also similar to Zodiac’s.

“I am thinking about it. She is in a place where I cannot immediately lay a hand on her.”

“It was the Allied Kingdom, right? The Balt Empire.”

“Correct. She nested in a very troublesome place.”

No matter how much Rashid was a member of the Order, her nesting there was practically the same as nesting in an enemy country.

“They were the Holy Blood Orthodox Church, right? Then even with the name of the Order, it would be difficult to go there.”

“This title of Inquisitor I hold cannot exert power there. Because they have other inquisitors over there.”

“If you go… won’t you be accused of heresy?”

“Probably. In the past they were family, but now they are practically worse than strangers.”

Rashid’s words continued.

“Still, since Sayaka is the leader of a cult called the Enlightenment Sect, there might be room to break through in that direction.”

Perhaps thinking it was not easy, he naturally shook his head.

“The Holy Blood Orthodox Church probably won’t cooperate.”

Rashid directed his gaze at Kaiser.

“Do you have any good ideas? This isn’t just my business, is it?”

“How did you handle it before? Since you handled it, you must have seen the ending, right?”

“To be exact, it was not me who handled it. Sayaka also becomes strong enough when her following of fanatics increases, but in the end, the one who cut her neck was not me, but another player who chased her.”

“A player?”

Rashid recalled the man who appeared alongside Sayaka.

“Do you know about modern fantasy? Stories of dungeons appearing in the real world we live in, and players raiding them. Should I call it the hunter genre?”

“I’ve read a few novels. There were related games too. Is there anyone who doesn’t know that setting?”

“If Zodiac came from a Wuxia background, Sayaka is a villain who crossed over from that modern fantasy setting. And the player I am talking about now is also a player belonging to that side. A player completely separate from us right now.”

Kaiser did not find his words difficult to understand.

After all, the one who had introduced herself as a Japanese woman to him was Sayaka.

“His name is probably Do-jin or something. He’s ranked number one over there. In the end, the one who caught Sayaka is that guy who swallowed a thousand needles.”

“Come to think of it, Sayaka told me she was a Japanese woman. The kind that Korean men like these days.”

Rashid chuckled.

“That talk about Japanese women being good is all nonsense anyway. Women are all the same, after all.”

“Indeed. They say Japanese women were like Korean women in the past too, right?”

“They just came to their senses after taking hits for a few decades.”

“But we can’t go back at all, can we?”

“We should give up. We’re already done for.”

Even as they said that, neither of them showed any signs of sadness.

“If you could go back, would you?”

At Rashid’s question, Kaiser asked back.

“What about you?”

“I like it here. Even if I go back, I’d just be a serial commuter.”

“Likewise. I like it here too.”

Returning to the main subject, Rashid asked something else to find a path.

“By any chance, do you still have a contact connected to the Allied Kingdom’s intelligence agency?”

“A contact? Are you asking me about that spy-related contact?”

“Yes. The Enlightenment Sect is in its early stages of growth right now, so they might have some resentment inside the Allied Kingdom. If we are lucky, we might align our interests with their intelligence agency rather than the Holy Blood Orthodox Church.”

“A contact…”

“It seems you have one.”

“I do have one, but I doubt if that line is still active after I sent them a picture of a middle finger.”

“Find out as quickly as possible. Since Sayaka nested there, Do-jin is highly likely to be on the Allied Kingdom’s side as well.”