On My First Day Undercover, the Organization Collapsed - Chapter 393

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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 393
Duo Formation (1)
The Festa was in full swing, yet some students found themselves unable to enjoy it.
There are times when you wish you could simply set everything aside and revel in the festivities without a care in the world.
But those students running the events themselves have to wait until everything concludes before they can do that.
In that sense, the Second Years preparing the masked ball were huddled in a secluded corner of the Academy today, working themselves to exhaustion.
“Should we arrange the movement path this way? Or that way?”
“If we’re going to announce the ball’s opening as we make our entrance, this spot looks better. More impressive.”
“What if we raised the stage a bit higher?”
“Should we? It’s true—speaking from up there does look more dignified.”
They divided up their roles while also preparing the prizes.
“Really? We’re giving that to the champion?”
“Shouldn’t we ask the Teacher about it?”
“But giving five Praise Cards all to the champion feels a bit…….”
“Well, it’s not like we’re pooling our own cards anyway.”
“No, it’s just… it seems like someone will stop at nothing to win if that’s the prize…….”
“Ah. Fair point.”
The masked ball was being prepared quite thoroughly in every respect.
The Labyrinth Exploration.
The Northern Space.
Ziel had visited the other two events, but hadn’t yet been to this one—and yet the students were managing it well on their own.
It was fitting, given that the concept of this Festa was for students to prepare things themselves, but since this was the first time they were organizing something without Ziel’s guidance, it was quite remarkable.
“Yon, how should we handle this?”
“What is it? Ah, the lighting? Let me see…… If we account for the moonlight that night, even something subtle should work.”
“The moon’s definitely going to be out, right?”
“I’m telling you it is!”
Yon’s contribution was particularly notable.
He’d taken on the role of Group Leader simply because he knew a bit about the cycles of the moon and stars, yet he was handling it far better than expected.
“Since we’ll be receiving the moonlight from this direction, let’s place the lighting on the opposite side. Keep it as subtle as possible. Everyone will look so beautiful under that moonlight at night.”
“Oh, that sounds nice.”
He even had a surprisingly good eye for it.
Of course, not everything was going smoothly.
Debates—or rather, heated arguments—were breaking out.
“No, look, the mask design is supposed to be this one, I’m telling you!”
“Is it, though? Really, is it? It doesn’t look good at all! Pink—what are you even thinking?”
“What? What’s wrong with pink?”
“It just isn’t stylish!”
The masked ball preparation team was, quite literally, fighting over the color of the masks.
“Come on, what’s the harm in wearing pink?”
“It damages my dignity! How can I wear a pink mask!”
It was only the mask color.
And yet the atmosphere was as if they were deciding the fate of nations.
“Hey, Celia. Think about it for a second. Everyone has to wear the same mask, right? There’s black, there’s white, so why pink specifically?”
“Because it’s pretty!”
“Ugh! Come on, just picture Quantus wearing this!”
Celia flinched at Delev’s argument.
Her whole body trembled.
Quantus in a flashy pink mask!
‘Maybe it wouldn’t suit him after all?’
But she quickly found a counterargument.
“Well, Quantus will get eliminated early anyway! With his size, he’ll be knocked out the moment he enters!”
“Right! The Quantus example doesn’t make sense!”
Other students joined in her support.
Celia puffed up with pride.
But Delev’s side wasn’t weak either.
“I’m absolutely against pink. No way. Should we vote?”
…….
It seemed the numbers were tilting against her.
Finally, Celia backed down and the conflict came to a temporary close.
“…… Next time, we’re definitely going with pink.”
“No, and it’s not happening again.”
“You’re seriously going to die!”
Of course, their quarrel wasn’t about to settle so easily.
Once the color was decided, the remaining students—seeing no further reason to fight—stepped well back.
“Do we even need to stop them?”
“Who’s going to stop those two?”
“They’re going to end up actually bonding at this rate.”
“If Delev and Celia marry, wouldn’t the Imperial Family interfere? They’re one of the Great Families, after all.”
Yon, watching the spectacle with the ease of habit, shrugged.
“Well, let’s get ready again. They’ll come back on their own eventually.”
Delev and Celia kept quarreling long after that.
By the time the shouting had gone back and forth enough that no one bothered listening anymore, at last an end seemed in sight.
“Think you’re all that? Huh? Want to try?”
“Go for it, go! What should we play? Rock, paper, scissors?”
“Let’s do it! What do you forfeit if you lose?”
“I’ll be your subordinate! For a week!”
“Deal!”
While everyone else was absorbed in their own tasks and stealing glances at the match, it ended unexpectedly in Celia’s victory.
“Alright, call me Boss from now on.”
Where she’d learned it from, Celia had brought just the right word.
“Won’t you?”
“Boss. That good enough?”
“Boss, I’m sorry for what I did. Say it.”
…….
For the first time, Delev’s words failed him.
“Delev lost.”
“So Celia won this time? What was it last time?”
“She told him to call her older sister for a week.”
“Celia was shaking the whole time.”
Delev muttered in a voice barely audible above a whisper.
“…..s. I…… did.”
“What is our subordinate, five years old? Why can’t he speak?”
“Hey, hey. Did you hear? She said ‘our’—our.”
“The progress is fast, though.”
Whatever the other friends said, Celia pressed forward.
“Do it again.”
“……I’m sorry, Boss.”
“Your word order is wrong. Again.”
“Boss, I…… am sorry…….”
“Good. From now on, that’s exactly how you do it. Got it? Oh, what a good boy.”
Celia reached out and patted Delev’s head. Delev felt an unbearable humiliation wash over him.
“I’m leaving!”
“Hey now, watch your tone with your Boss!”
…….
In the end, Delev bolted from the preparation site.
“Delev! Where are you going!”
“To get the mask! We won, didn’t we!”
“Let him go, he’s embarrassed. Let’s just focus on what we need to do. Still, I have to admit, the pink does look good.”
An unbearable sweetness of victory!
By contrast, Delev, who had bolted away, exhaled with unbearable humiliation from his defeat.
‘I should have thrown rock!’
He’d agonized right up to the end before throwing paper, and of all things, Celia threw scissors!
“Damn it.”
Grumbling, Delev entered the storage area.
A sigh escaped him of its own accord.
To lose.
To lose to Celia!
‘How am I going to win against her a week from now?’
Delev’s mind was filled entirely with thoughts of Celia.
“Rock, paper, scissors again? No, what if I lose again…… should I challenge her to a race? Arm wrestling? Ugh, but then she’d probably say that’s cowardly…….”
After a moment’s hesitation, Delev’s head snapped up.
This was no time to falter.
He’d left in embarrassment, true enough, but he still needed to retrieve the mask.
If he didn’t take at least that, it would look like he’d fled in genuine shame.
“Let me see, I left it here somewhere…… There it is.”
He’d found the box brimming with masks.
A smile crept back onto his face.
With no need to dye anything pink, his mood had lifted considerably.
That was when he emerged from the storage with the box in hand.
Rustle.
‘What was that?’
He thought he’d glimpsed something.
Something moving.
It had brushed past him, barely visible.
He wondered if it was one of the deer that occasionally wandered through the Academy, but there were no bushes in this area.
This section was filled only with buildings of stone.
The thing that had passed him gave Delev pause.
“……Damn it.”
Delev set the box down and moved forward cautiously.
‘Something definitely went past me.’
This place rarely saw foot traffic.
The masked ball was an event meant only for those who participated to enjoy themselves.
That’s why they’d deliberately chosen a secluded corner of the Academy grounds.
‘Could it be a faculty member?’
It was possible.
But something about it didn’t sit right with him.
There was such a thing as instinct, after all.
Even Ziel believed in it.
There were times when you had to trust your intuition and gut feeling.
As he drew gradually closer.
“What are you doing?”
“Se—Celia?”
“You said you were going to get the masks, but the storage door was left open. And you’re calling yourself the—”
Delev covered Celia’s mouth and brought a finger to his own lips.
“Be quiet.”
“Mnn, nngh.”
“I found something odd. Follow me.”
Only then did Delev release his hand from her mouth, then quickly added as if catching himself,
“Follow me, Boss.”
“…….”
Though she had no idea what was happening, Delev’s seriousness was unmistakable.
‘Is he messing with me?’
He was certainly capable of it, but something felt different today.
In the end, Celia followed along cautiously.
“Traces. Footprints.”
Delev had managed to spot signs of someone’s passage.
“Nobody ever comes down this way……”
“Nobody except us does. The guards don’t patrol here often.”
Even if the guards came this way, they rarely ventured into places like this.
It was nearly the edge of the Academy grounds.
The Academy was perpetually protected by a Magic Protective Barrier anyway, and if someone tried to forcibly breach it from outside, it would trigger an alarm.
“Wait, Delev. Shouldn’t we just tell a teacher about this?”
“And what if we lose them while we do?”
“Are you certain? Truly?”
“I don’t know. I’m just following my instincts.”
“What, are you Ziel now?”
“So—are we going or not?”
Celia pondered for a moment, then sighed.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
An impromptu tracking duo had been formed.
Harmony and cooperation were a mismatched duo that had no business existing in the same world.
“Let’s move.”
Teacher Ziel said that.
In tracking, maintaining distance from your target is the most important thing, he’d taught.
The most appropriate distance—close enough not to lose traces, far enough not to be detected.
That was the most important and the most difficult part.
“Can’t we pick up the pace a bit?”
“Then we’ll be spotted.”
In that respect, Delev was faithfully following Ziel’s teachings.
He even recalled things he’d learned during survival training.
‘Footprints. Shallow ones. Light weight. So is it a woman?’
Tracking was also the process of constantly receiving information, processing it, and drawing conclusions.
‘There’s a scent in the air. What is it? Something strange.’
Delev had managed to catch a scent lingering in the air!
Celia, following behind, kept tilting her head in confusion.
‘Is this right?’
No matter how she looked at it, it felt like chasing clouds.
With security reinforced for Festa, it was unlikely there’d be anyone suspicious at the academy.
But if there were…
“Delev, what if it’s a spy from Telvir?”
“Why would they spy on our Festa preparations? If anything, they’d be spying on the kids training with Teacher Ziel.”
“Oh, you’re right.”
A sudden pang of disappointment struck her.
For this exchange with Telvir Academy, different friends had been selected.
Celia had naturally expected to be chosen, but her disappointment this time wasn’t as acute as before.
The exchange was important, but ultimately, their Festa—something that only happened once a year—mattered more.
“You think they’ll win?”
“Of course they will.”
Delev answered casually and continued tracking.
Tension settled over them again.
It was about five minutes later that Delev discovered notably deeper footprints.
And it wasn’t just the footprints.
“What is this…?”
Edelwein Academy had quite a few abandoned buildings.
Some were being systematically dismantled and rebuilt, but many others were left neglected due to budget constraints.
Among them were small structures that had once housed now-defunct faculty courses.
This was behind one of those.
Everything was dilapidated.
While grass had grown wild, the stone walls, window frames, and windows were so old they looked like they’d crumble at the slightest touch.
And there—something incongruous, installed in such a place.
“Is it a magical tool?”
“Don’t touch it, Celia.”
It was an object with a clean, neat appearance.
“Someone stayed here quite a while. Look—the footprints are deep. That means weight was applied.”
“Hmm.”
Instead of reaching for the magical tool, Delev examined it carefully with his eyes.
There was no way he could know what it was.
But when he focused his senses as much as possible, he felt something—faint but unmistakable—something like magical power.
“Some kind of perimeter magical tool or something?”
“Have you ever seen anything like this wandering around our academy?”
“Never.”
“Then it probably isn’t one.”
Delev, sounding remarkably logical today!
Celia found herself nodding along almost unwillingly at his reasoning.
Then she forcefully suppressed a thought that suddenly emerged in her mind.
‘No way. None of that looks cool.’

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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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