On My First Day Undercover, the Organization Collapsed - Chapter 344

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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First Day of Infiltration, The Organization Was Destroyed — Episode 344
Can it be done in a single day?
The Valdrain Empire was in a period of stability.
The Emperor, who had reached Master Grade through his personal military prowess and political acumen, maintained a careful balance of power between the two other pillars of the Empire: the Nobles and the Mages.
Seeds of discontent certainly existed, but they had not yet grown large enough to surface openly.
The Northern Region, which had been the greatest cause for concern, had recently made contact with the Imperial Palace through a new Northern Council chairman named Renfield.
The proposal was simple: they wished to establish trade and exchange with the lands south of the Trenia Mountain Range.
The Western, Eastern, and Southern Regions naturally fell under Imperial rule, but the North was different.
The mountain range itself had long served as a physical barrier to active exchange.
But now, things had begun to shift.
“I shall need to send someone to the North.”
It was an unexpected proposal, and what schemes the North might harbor remained unclear, yet the fact that they had reached out first was decidedly encouraging.
“What if we sent both princes together?”
At the Emperor’s words, the Administrator started in surprise.
“Both… Your Highnesses, you mean?”
“If I send only one, the other will surely harbor strange ideas. Better to send them both and let them contend with each other up there.”
……
It was not unreasonable logic, yet the notion of dispatching both princes to the North of all places struck the Administrator as audacious.
“I shall see the princes tomorrow.”
With that, the Northern matter was settled. The princes would be sent to face the Renfield Family, and whichever brought back a proposal more advantageous to the Imperial Palace would claim victory.
Yet among all these affairs, there was one matter that held far greater interest.
“The Dark Ghost.”
It was a name he had not heard in some time.
Since his victory in the Swordsmanship Tournament, he had let it slip from his mind.
Or rather, he had made a deliberate effort to forget.
Standing at the apex of this vast Empire, he could not bear to acknowledge something that lay beyond his grasp.
He had thought several times of making contact as directed, but had stopped himself.
If something could not be obtained regardless, it was cleaner to forget it entirely.
Whether person or object.
That was what he had believed, but……
“Charitable activities, you say?”
“Indeed, Your Majesty. The Berte Trading Company, which has recently expanded dramatically, is conducting charitable activities primarily in the Slum District beyond District 40.”
Charitable activities, of all things.
The Berte Trading Company was a name he had heard, but never before had news of charitable works come to his attention.
“For what reason do they undertake such work?”
“It appears the Berte Trading Company has committed earnestly to expansion, Your Majesty.”
“Expansion, I see.”
“The strategy appears to be working well. Currently, major Houses in the Capital are sending sponsorship funds to the Berte Trading Company.”
The Emperor understood at once.
Rising renown among the poor meant that reputation would spread among other citizens as well.
For Nobles, nothing mattered more than reputation.
By sending sponsorship funds to the Berte Trading Company, they could appear to stand alongside those charitable works.
‘They have used their wits well.’
Rather than fixating solely on profit, they had sought to elevate their standing through charitable activities.
Yet that was not the crucial matter.
“But is the Dark Ghost behind it all?”
“So it appears……”
The Dark Ghost stood directly behind the Berte Trading Company.
The Berte Trading Company’s intentions were clear enough.
But the Dark Ghost’s true purpose remained utterly inscrutable.
What the Imperial Palace feared most was a popular uprising that began from the very bottom.
Worse still: an uprising of people who had attained a comfortable enough living, yet harbored grave grievances.
The nation that had preceded this Empire had fallen to such a force, and in that vacuum, the Valdrain Empire had been born.
Those so desperately poor they could not afford even a single bowl of rice would never dream of rebellion.
When one cannot even eat, one cannot gather the will to tear things down.
“It is presumptuous to report, but it would appear necessary to control such charitable activities to a reasonable degree, Your Majesty.”
“Do not be hasty in judgment. If the Imperial Palace moves to control charitable works, it will only provoke backlash.”
……
The Dark Ghost.
An entity that had appeared at some unknown moment.
Arrived suddenly, won the Swordsmanship Tournament, then vanished just as suddenly.
Those who had seen that face existed, but none had discerned the truth of that identity.
Indeed, when a portrait had been commissioned and inquiries made throughout the land, not even a similar face had been found.
‘What does he seek?’
The Specter, the Dark Ghost, and countless other problems scattered throughout the Empire, not least in the North.
‘Is this why Father suffered so greatly?’
The Emperor’s private burden deepened.
First, the matter of the Dark Ghost must be resolved.
Left as it was, there was no telling how it might affect the Imperial Palace.
All the more so when the Dark Ghost’s true intentions remained unknown.
“This should serve well.”
The Emperor had conceived of a clever stratagem.
There was no justification for obstructing charitable activities.
Yet it was equally awkward to have the Imperial Palace openly support a specific trading company.
And so the Emperor arrived at this decision.
“Let the Imperial Palace lead charitable activities. We shall proceed with a large-scale state project.”
……!
The Imperial Palace had decided to ride the wave.
The Dark Ghost was a person to watch carefully.
At present, the Imperial Palace had no justification to act against him.
The Black Sky had been a criminal assassination society disrupting society—there was cause to eliminate them. But the Dark Ghost was different.
The overwhelming support of the citizens!
To oppress the Dark Ghost or pressure the Berte Trading Company now?
Certainly, they would face tremendous resistance.
“Do everything within your power to ensure that all these charitable activities are conducted under Imperial direction, without any fixed budget constraints.”
I receive your command.
“And encourage the participation of Nobles. Yes, it would also be intriguing if students from each Academy took part.”
The Dark Ghost.
He was, in short, the great wave that Ziel had set in motion.
Of course, Ziel had harbored no such intention.
It was only that……
Something begun with the simple notion that doing good was worthwhile had spiraled into this.
‘The Dark Ghost. Without doubt, a strategist of the highest order.’
The Emperor suffered greatly under this magnificent misunderstanding.

* * *
As the second semester approached, students returned in steady streams. Their homecoming mingled excitement, anticipation, and uncertainty.
“Finally, the Academy!”
“I hated the break. Not having classes was fine, but Father’s nagging was absolutely……”
“I’m telling you, I didn’t get to lie in my own bed for the entire two months. Inspections, training—they just kept dragging me out of my Territory, it’s driving me mad.”
Some students returned with genuine joy, delighted to be back at the Academy.
“I still have to do this for four more years after this semester……?”
“Classes with the Professor are fine, but I want to join the Knight Order soon, get my salary, and get married……”
Others voiced their despair at the realization that four more years still lay ahead.
Of course, there was always the type of student who harbored no such concerns, thinking only of how to grow stronger.
“Hahahaha! Wait till you hear what I did during the break!”
“Did you find some Mage or something? How did you get even taller?”
“Ann! I knew you’d notice!”
Someone like Quantus, for instance.
“I couldn’t wait to get back to the Academy!”
“I’m sure.”
For example, someone like Quantus.
“And I went ruins exploring too! I found something I wanted to show Teacher Ziel!”
“You and those ruins. Please tell me you didn’t break anything.”
“Break? That’s not the word—exploration is the right term!”
“No, it’s just… knowing you, I figured you’d destroy the whole place.”
In other words, there was a friend like Quantus.
“Kus, Kus.”
Hmm?”
“Delev, what’s wrong? You’ve been flinching at everything since earlier, giving vague responses.”
“I don’t know. He was doing the same with me.”
And then there was a student like Delev, who flinched at every greeting, terrified that his friends might learn of his transgression.
‘Surely the Professor wouldn’t have said anything……?’
Delev, who had accumulated a debt of hundreds of thousands of Sel!
Money he would eventually have to repay, yet he had no idea whatsoever how to manage it.
He had been told to resolve it himself rather than burden his Family, so joining the Knight Order was his only salvation.
‘Our Family Knight Order doesn’t pay during the apprenticeship, does it? So I’d have to starve for about five years after becoming an official knight……’
While he received more allowance than students from other Families, that was nowhere near enough to repay hundreds of thousands of Sel in one fell swoop.
The savings he had accumulated before meeting Teacher Ziel had been spent entirely at the gambling tables.
“Damn it.”
“What’s this? The semester hasn’t even started and you’re already angry?”
He turned to see Celia.
Delev flinched.
“What, what is it? Leave me alone?”
“You’re causing a scene before we’ve even begun. Did you get cursed in the head or something?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Whatever. Listen up. I heard about the practical training this semester—students are each choosing their own Family to go with. Don’t pull any nonsense. Consider this fair warning.”
Delev had no idea whatsoever.
He had spent the entire break either training as a pretext for gambling or locked in his dormitory after being caught by Ziel.
“Is that so?”
“Were you just sleeping in the Capital the whole time? Anyway, now you know. And our Family is going to win this semester. Remember that.”
“Ah…… okay.”
Celia looked at him with an expression suggesting he was behaving oddly, tilted her head, and walked away.
Just then, Lydia, whom they had been waiting for, asked a question.
“Celia, what did Delev say?”
“Something’s off with him. Normally he’d have shot back, but he just… nodded and went quiet.”
“I thought so too.”
Hmm?”
“Delev has a thing for you!”
……
Celia remained silent for a while at those words, then glanced toward Delev and asked.
“Him?”
“Wasn’t it you?”
“Not at all!”
“See, you deny it too hard and it’s even more obvious.”
“I said no!”
Meanwhile.
The poor duo—Karen and Yurio—had also returned.
Both wore bright expressions.
“Really? The Professor helped your Family?”
“I’m telling you. Without the Professor… our Family would’ve been finished. I wouldn’t even be here at the Academy.”
At the detailed story that followed, Karen’s eyes widened.
“The Renfield Family—you mean the one from the North……?”
“That’s the one. The Family Head became the Northern Council Chairman, and now they’re sponsoring our Family going forward!”
“Really? So now your Family will……?”
“Have a future!”
Karen was delighted as if it were her own victory.
Yet at the same time, she felt a pang of envy.
“My Family is still… a bit uncertain.”
“Your Family will be fine too. If not, I’ll help!”
“Don’t be silly. The North can’t really help. You’ll probably stay in the Northern Region even after graduation.”
“Who knows? Maybe later the North will trade with the South beyond the Mountain Range. That’s what the Northern Council Chairman said he’d do.”
“Hardly.”
Still, the words were kind.
Besides, Karen’s Family’s situation was not quite so desperate.
While without a scholarship they could not guarantee paying next semester’s dormitory fee……
The Aswan Family had Karen.
Though she barely scraped into the upper ranks among the Second Years, from the perspective of the entire Academy, she was surely a promising knight—a talent worth appreciating!
“Let’s work hard this semester too.”
“Yeah, by the way—did the Professor build that brewery?”
“A brewery?”
“Yeah. He took our Family’s brewing method to make one, he said.”
Karen’s gaze turned toward the Faculty Dormitory.
“There—isn’t that visible over the fence?”
“Oh, it is?”
“But what’s that next to it?”
What Karen had spotted was nearly the completed Research Laboratory of Zephyros.
“Should we go have a look? And pay our respects to the Professor while we’re at it?”
“Let’s do that.”
She suggested it without much thought, and he accepted just as casually.
But it would prove to be a mistake.
“Teacher Ziel!”
Student Karen Aswan, Student Yurio Harmatan.
Ziel greeted the students as he always did, without particular warmth.
“Did you have a good break?”
“I did. I’ve established an organization that does good work.”
“Community service here at the Academy?”
“No.”
They wondered what he meant, but that wasn’t the pressing matter.
“Professor, Yurio told me—is that over there a brewery?”
“It is.”
“Oh! Do you sell alcohol?”
“No. I drink it alone.”
“Oh.”
“You are both minors, and by Imperial Law you are forbidden to drink. So you cannot have any. I say this again: I drink it alone.”
“Ah, y-yes……”
It was a perfectly reasonable statement, yet for some reason, it seemed as though the Professor’s eyes held just a touch of greed today.
“And what about that next to it?”
“A Research Laboratory.”
“A Research Laboratory?”
“Yes. A Magic Research Laboratory.”
“Do you study Magic too, Professor?”
“I have no intention of learning. Not yet, anyway.”
Not yet?
“Boss! I’ve finished a prototype!”
“Already?”
“Who do you think I am! And my name is… ah, of course. I am Zephyros.”
Zephyros, whose eyes had met those of the students!
Most of them saw Zephyros’s appearance for the first time, and their eyes went wide with surprise.
“Who are you?”
“My subordinate.”
“Ah.”
They accepted this without question.
Now the real discussion began.
“Has the stability been verified?”
“Of course. I’ve maximized the weight reduction as well. The design needs a bit of refinement, but a few adjustments to the data collection method should do it.”
“Then we’ll need data.”
Ziel turned to address the two students.
“Can the two of you spare a day starting today?”
“Pardon?”
The second semester had not yet begun.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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