On My First Day Undercover, the Organization Collapsed - Chapter 348

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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 — Chapter 348
A Remarkable Person
The Robson Family found themselves adrift in unexpected chaos.
Under the dominion of their leader, King Robson, all lands beyond District 40 had known peace.
At least, they had for the Robson Family.
The family’s grip on District 40 and Below had begun to slip mere days ago.
The arrival of the Berte Trading Company.
It had appeared suddenly and begun distributing massive quantities of food and supplies.
Beyond District 40 was ruled by the Robson Family’s law.
The Robson Family maintained order.
And in exchange, the residents beyond District 40 paid taxes.
A simple and efficient system.
But that system had begun to crumble.
“Hey, you bastards! Who sent you here to do this?”
“Why do you keep coming and dumping food everywhere?”
At first, they had opposed it.
The collapse of the Robson Family’s order meant the family’s downfall.
Beyond District 40 was ruled by the family’s law, not the Empire’s.
At first, they had even been willing to wage war.
But the men guarding the trading company were quite strong.
“Should we send in reinforcements?”
“No. Fighting them would require at least someone of captain rank.”
King Robson.
His skill was said to be just below Master Grade.
That alone was more than sufficient to rule beyond District 40.
But it was impossible to face all the skilled fighters the Berte Trading Company had bought with money.
And there was another frightening rumor.
That the Dark Ghost was backing them.
At first, he had thought it was a rumor the Berte Trading Company deliberately spread.
But after confirming through multiple channels, it was true.
“Boss, what do we do?”
……
King Robson had already given up visiting the Black Market after being attacked once by the Dark Ghost.
That terrible darkness where nothing could be seen still haunted his nightmares.
So Robson made a wise choice.
“Keep operating, but avoid crossing paths with those bastards.”
But soon, news forced him to revise his orders.
“Boss, the Imperial Palace is… sending people? And students from the Academy are coming for community service…”
“…Everyone keep your heads down and live quietly for now.”
Perhaps the Robson Family would have to relocate.
Meanwhile.
In District 40 and Beyond, where the Berte Trading Company and Solaris Order members disguised as trading company staff were conducting charitable work.
Finally, the Imperial Palace’s dispatched personnel and the Sword School’s second-year class arrived.
“So this is… beyond District 40.”
“Has anyone here been here before?”
“I almost came once. Looking for a boarding house back then.”
“Crazy, all the way out here?”
“My family doesn’t have money. You know that.”
……
Celia asked as if amazed by how casually Karen spoke.
“But if you say it like that… doesn’t your heart hurt?”
“I’m just stating facts. Is there a family poorer than the Aswan Family anywhere else?”
Celia winced.
She shouldn’t have asked that, whether it was a defense mechanism or not.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. That’s why we’re here doing community service, right? We’ll get scholarships too. Right, Yurio?”
“Yeah. It’s an Imperial Palace scholarship. I asked Teacher Ziel, and it’s about two thousand Sel per person.”
“That’s labor, not service at that rate.”
Two thousand Sel per week.
It was a substantial sum for those whose families didn’t receive several thousand Sel in allowance, unlike the students of Great Families.
And even Delev Kundel, who sometimes received allowances in the tens of thousands, felt it that way.
‘Two thousand Sel?!’
The other students, oblivious to the fact that Delev Kundel had become psychologically impoverished.
“But this place… it’s really like this, huh.”
“Shouldn’t we just hand out some food supplies and leave? These people must be most in need of food anyway.”
“Should we clean up?”
A considerable number of the students were frowning.
“A filthy place like this would just return to how it was no matter how much we clean it. Isn’t this a waste of time?”
“And the smell is rather… thinking about staying in a place like this for long, I can’t really adapt.”
There was no malice in it.
The environment they had lived in was simply too different from this place.
The stench.
People in tattered clothing.
An appearance that seemed shabby.
A life of deprivation.
All of this was unfamiliar to most of the students.
“How on earth do people live like this?”
“Then how should these people live, Ellie Demicus?”
At the sound of Ziel’s voice, Ellie flinched.
“I asked how these people should live, Ellie Demicus.”
“…That, well…”
Ziel’s question was pure curiosity.
But it didn’t sound that way to the other students’ ears.
A pure curiosity about why those who can only live this way live this way.
“I apologize, Teacher.”
“Why do you apologize?”
“I… looked down on them.”
“So you did. I asked out of pure curiosity.”
……
Even as he spoke thus, Ellie and the other students immediately recognized that their thoughts had been wrong.
“There are people who can only live this way, Ellie Demicus.”
“Yes…”
Of course, the question wasn’t purely innocent.
‘Please, food.’
Before becoming an assassin.
The first memory of life.
The very memory that had come to him first after the brainwashing was broken.
That memory, which for some reason had settled deep in his mind, surfaced now.
Ziel had been the same then.
He had no choice but to live that way.
Born as he was, the first thing he had held in his hands was not a rattle or a doll, but a cracked vessel.
By the time he could speak, he had taken to begging.
Did they not say children earned more sympathy?
‘I must address the hunger first.’
From District 40 to District 49.
Quite vast.
Though Berte Trading Company staff and Solaris Order members had been dispatched, many people were still starving.
“Today, Group 1 will be deployed to District 44 with me. The rest of Group 2 will assist with drainage maintenance work under the Imperial Knight Order’s direction.”
Ziel led Group 1 toward District 44. Sir Horn of the Imperial Knights, whom he had not seen in a long time, accompanied them.
“Teacher Ziel, I’m delighted to see you again. Have you been well?”
“Yes, I have been well.”
Horn secretly hoped Ziel would ask after Dietrich.
Because he was not in the Capital now.
But unfortunately, Ziel didn’t seem particularly curious.
“By the way, Your Highness is currently in the Northern Region.”
“I see.”
Since he didn’t ask why, Horn felt awkward but spoke anyway.
“It is by His Imperial Majesty’s order.”
“I understand.”
“In fact, Your Highness Franz also went with him.”
At last, there was a reaction.
Ziel had fallen silent for a moment.
‘Could he be more interested in Your Highness Franz?’
“Then the brothers will grow closer.”
“Ah.”
It seemed he was mistaken after all.
The road to District 44 was not good. The problem was with the road itself rather than the atmosphere.
“For the movement and exchange of supplies, opening a road should come first.”
“There appears to have been a road originally.”
“That’s correct, Teacher. But… as you can see, as the situation in District 40 and Beyond worsened, the roads virtually disappeared.”
The biggest problem of the slums.
When roads are blocked and transportation is paralyzed, the supply of goods worsens.
The reason roads become blocked was simple.
Because life is difficult.
The poor had already taken positions along the path through which the students and Imperial Knights passed, watching intently.
Taking a position didn’t simply mean standing.
“Are they… living here?”
“Shush, be quiet. Don’t let them hear.”
Like the students’ whispers, these people were living on the road.
Those with roofs were fortunate enough; most moved through the slum district without shelter.
Then they went into those completely collapsed ruins to live.
This was their life.
On the underside of the great Empire of Valdrain existed the lives of these paupers.
In the midst of all this, Ziel stopped walking.
Not far away.
The murmur of a child cradled in a mother’s arms reached his ears.
“I’m hungry…”
The mother too seemed to lack the strength to answer, staring blankly into empty space.
Not all people living beyond District 40 would be like this.
But in those before Ziel’s eyes and in the voices reaching his ears, there was no vitality.
So Ziel made a decision.
“Sir Horn.”
“Yes, Teacher Ziel.”
“I must stay here for a while. I must help these people.”
“Pardon?”
This place was District 42, not District 44 as initially instructed.
“But we were supposed to go to District 44 and undertake road restoration work…”
“There is a hungry child.”
Ziel encountered an emotion he had never felt before.
His chest tightened, and anxiety seized him.
And finally, he understood.
He had recalled his own image from before becoming an assassin, seeing that hungry child.
“Delev Kundel.”
“Yes, Teacher.”
“Return and request food supplies. Request as much as possible to supply this place and bring it back.”
“Understood.”
Horn also gave orders to the apprentice members.
“Be prepared to supply food to the residents here as it arrives. Remember this: an overbearing attitude will provoke their resentment.”
“Yes, understood.”
And not long after.
A great cart broke through the ruined road and finally reached District 42.
The District 42 residents who had been watching began to rise one by one, and others started gathering.
Ziel picked up one large sack filled with bread and various food supplies.
Then he approached the mother and child he had seen before and held it out.
“The child is hungry.”
She was taken aback.
It was an entire sack, not just one piece of bread.
“A child should not go hungry.”
“Do you… mean to give us all of this?”
“Yes. Because hunger is unacceptable.”
“Thank… thank you so much.”
At Ziel’s actions, Celia whispered quietly to Ann.
“Doesn’t the Teacher seem a bit different somehow?”
“Hm?”
“I mean… the way he looks at the child seems quite different from usual.”
Now that she thought about it, it was the first time she had seen Teacher Ziel in such a manner with a small child.
“Does he like children?”
“Who knows? Maybe he has a hidden child?”
“Could it be that he lost a child in an accident once…?”
The students made wild conjectures, but there was only one reason Ziel was doing this.
His former self came to mind.
That was all.
“Um, Teacher Ziel. I sympathize wholeheartedly, but if you give so much food to a helpless woman and child, they will certainly become targets once we leave.”
“I see.”
“Yes. Though it troubles me, if I have the apprentice members recover some of the supplies…”
“There is no need for that.”
Ziel’s gaze turned to Kelvin.
“Kelvin. Stay here for a while and prevent any disturbances and maintain order.”
“Yes, sir!”
Kelvin answered with vigor, pleased that he finally had work to do.
This would be sufficient.
There was no one in this place who could overcome Kelvin.
‘I will have to arrange for the Berte Trading Company to send someone for a shift change later.’
And so Ziel’s distribution of food supplies began.
“Weren’t we supposed to go to District 44?”
“I don’t know. The Teacher is here anyway.”
“But is it okay to give away so much?”
“It should be fine?”
Food could always be obtained later.
With the Imperial Palace’s support, supplies were all the more abundant.
“Please take this.”
“But you’re giving us far too much.”
“Take it anyway.”
Ziel handed out sacks of food in massive quantities!
“I see you have children. Two of them, so two sacks.”
“I, I appreciate it, but it’s so much…”
“Take more.”
It was important that they eat plenty.
It would sadden him if a child went hungry.
At least, that was true for Ziel.
“Since the Dark Ghost came… such blessings…”
“You are a fan of the Dark Ghost. Take more.”
And Dark Ghost fans received preferential treatment.
“The Dark Ghost is a remarkable person.”
Because Ziel was the Dark Ghost.

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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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