On My First Day Undercover, the Organization Collapsed - Chapter 421

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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 421
I’d rather not explain.
The Steelheart Family had once wielded considerable influence even in the Western Region.
According to records Ziel had verified, though the territory at its height never quite matched Rihart’s current size, it had reached roughly half of it.
By the time of its destruction, the family had grown severely weakened, but every noble house has its golden age.
In that sense, where Ziel was headed now was a secret place where the Steelheart Family’s ancestors had been entombed during their era of prosperity.
‘Really? Such a place exists?’
The fact that even Head Butler Gibson didn’t know of it suggested it was a secret passed down through generations among the Family Heads.
Back when Ziel had realized the Organization’s brainwashing had worn off and was preparing a new identity.
He had settled on the Steelheart Family as his new identity among the candidate houses and learned of this place then.
The reason he needed to go there was simple.
Because it was there.
The symbol of Steelheart Territory.
And…
Something he’d paid no attention to before, but as his blank-slate ego began to fill with something, it had started to matter.
The journey was long. Even traveling with Potato, it would take considerable time.
Ziel set out alone.
He left Gilbert and Kelvin behind.
He’d considered bringing Gilbert along, but felt the time wasn’t right yet.
For some reason, telling Gilbert felt like it would disappoint him.
For Ziel, who knew neither fear nor dread, that inexplicably stirred an odd unease.
Ziel didn’t realize it, but this was what happened as he lived among people and built connections.
‘Perhaps someday the moment will come.’
Or he might hide it his whole life.
At least not now.
After four days of travel, he reached the coastal cliffs in the southwestern corner of the Western Region.
Whoooosh…
Below stretched a dizzying sight. Waves crashed relentlessly against the base of the massive cliff, carving away at the rocks with brutal grace.
This region had once been Steelheart Territory.
The family had gradually declined and eventually been destroyed, leaving only that small plot of land behind — yet once it had been a name of renown even in the Western Region.
Like most famous houses, their fortunes had risen and fallen as the kingdoms controlling the land changed hands.
While preparing his new identity in the Organization, Ziel had thoroughly investigated the Steelheart Family.
His conclusion was precisely this.
“It would’ve made fine training if I’d brought Gilbert and Kelvin.”
He had to descend directly down the cliff face.
Ziel clung to the cliff without even tying a rope around himself. Anyone watching would have gasped in shock.
One slip of the hand and he’d plummet to the coastal rocks below, smashed to pieces!
Yet Ziel descended with remarkable ease and composure, moving as naturally as if crawling across flat ground.
“So this is it.”
The Steelheart Family Heads were said to have possessed exceptionally developed arm muscles across generations. Ziel wondered if this was the reason.
At the base of the cliff, he entered a hidden cave.
This was where the remains of the Steelheart Family’s ancestors lay interred.
According to his research, the Steelheart Family had begun on the coast and gradually expanded their territory inland.
Which meant this place was very near the family’s point of origin.
It was hardly surprising that the ancestors’ remains rested here.
And the difficult access made it ideal for preventing grave robbing and other calamities!
Entering deeper, he found a fairly spacious chamber, and beyond the camouflaged entrance, a proper passage began.
The first things visible were numerous skeletal corpses.
“Intruders, then.”
The deteriorated clothing suggested they were local pirates or perhaps shipwreck survivors who’d washed ashore.
The wooden ship fragments still scattered below the cliff confirmed it.
Looking at the holes piercing the skulls, all of these people had clearly died for one reason.
Traps.
Ancient ones at that — the kind from which no survivor could escape infection.
Ziel lit a torch he’d prepared.
“Time to put this to use.”
He retrieved the Shadow Gauntlets he’d taken from the Rim Family and equipped them.
One piece of the Extreme Night Series that Aznil had crafted.
A magical tool that continuously drew mana and granted the wearer control over shadows!
It was an artifact that could only be used by those who practiced the Polar Night Breathing Technique.
The gauntlets’ ability was to manipulate shadows.
For example, like this.
Clang! Bang!
It moved shadows formed by light to mimic a person and trigger the traps.
“Excellent.”
He could disarm traps manually without difficulty, but he’d found a far more efficient method now.
Ziel slipped through the passage each time the traps triggered, then used the gauntlets’ ability again, moving swiftly from chamber to chamber.
In truth, he already knew the layout of every trap.
He had acquired the information that all Family Heads of the Steelheart Family passed down through the generations to access the burial place of their ancestors.
His investigation had been thorough enough for that.
He needed to establish himself in a new identity, after all.
The gauntlets proved invaluable in any case. The ability to manipulate shadows naturally had uses beyond this alone.
What he reached at last was the passage’s end.
A spacious burial chamber prepared for the Steelheart Family’s remains.
Here lay the very reason Ziel had come.
‘Just as the information said.’
Before the remains of previous Family Heads interred in caskets, arranged in long rows to either side.
Two skeletal corpses lay collapsed on the ground.
The last Family Head and his wife of the Steelheart Family.
Duncan Steelheart.
Rowena Steelheart.
Their remains.
On the day the Steelheart Family fell, the two had barely escaped and made their way here.
He didn’t know the reason.
They had simply come to die in this place, their final breath exhausted.
This pair was precisely why Ziel had come.
Thunk.
Ziel set down the flower bouquet he’d arranged with Mortis’s help and carefully gathered their remains.
Wordlessly, slowly.
He laid the collected remains tenderly in an empty casket, closed its lid, and placed the flowers atop it.
“Done.”
Strangely, his heart felt at ease.
The old Ziel would have paid it no mind and simply taken what he came for and left.
Ziel gazed at the Family Seal of the Steelheart Family resting in his hand.
…….
The symbol of the Family Head, passed down through generations.
This had been his original purpose.
But his intention had changed.
He wasn’t certain why it had changed, but he understood the reason for this action now.
It simply felt like the right thing to do.
“Rest in peace.”
A family already lost to time.
Had Ziel not existed, the family would have been buried in history—but he had done his best to show them what courtesy he could.
On his way back, he reinforced the broken traps.
So that no one else could enter.
He did so very thoroughly, in fact.
‘Not even other assassins or intelligence agents could get through now.’
A weight that had sat heavy on one corner of his heart finally fell away, and Ziel smiled.
“Time to go back.”
He rode the horse once more.
With a sense of relief.
Upon returning to the territory, the first thing he encountered was Gibson rushing toward him in haste, then suddenly dropping to his knees with a heavy thud.
“Master! Please forgive this disloyalty!”
“Disloyalty?”
“There is something, sir—I was too afraid to tell you before, and I never could confess. The Family Seal…”
Gibson’s voice trembled.
“After that incident, I searched everywhere for the Family Seal and the Previous Family Head and his lady, but I could learn nothing of them. It is my failure!”
Just before Gibson broke into tears, Ziel abruptly thrust out his hand.
“So that’s what this is about.”
“Yes, sir! For not finding the Family Seal… Wait? Wha—?”
Gibson examined the crest carefully, then asked in a daze.
“Where… where did you find this…?”
“Just came across it.”
“So you left our journey for a time to search for this!”
Tears were already glistening at the corners of his eyes.
“That disloyal wretch of me — not knowing my master’s consideration, and worrying all this while……”
“Consideration?”
“You were afraid I’d be disappointed if we couldn’t find it, weren’t you? I see it all now!”
It wasn’t that at all.
But before Ziel could explain, Gibson poured forth his emotions earnestly.
“This butler shall dedicate his life and loyalty to you, Master!”
“See that you do.”
As Ziel watched Gibson clutch the crest tightly to his chest for some time, he felt a peculiar emotion stir within him.
How to describe it.
As though something simply had to be done.
That something was the revival of the family.
Or, delving deeper still……
‘I want to make her happy.’
It was compassion for a single person.
“The crest… the crest has returned, so the Steelheart Family at last……”
He wished that joy would endure.
“Boss, you’re back. Did you bring down any magical beasts?”
At that moment, breaking through Gibson’s emotion, Gilbert approached, and the butler spoke firmly.
“The Master has just returned from a most important task!”
“So about the magical beast—”
“That’s not it!”
Gilbert’s face grew bewildered as he asked.
“Boss, where have you been?”
“Don’t want to talk about it.”
“Ah.”
He heard that all the time, but Gilbert’s shoulders sagged this time!
‘The Boss has grown closer to the butler than to me!’
Just as he was quietly swallowing tears to himself.
“Um, Boss, or rather, new Captain, or, Lord!”
One of the workers appeared.
It was Rob, the finest worker and former bandit captain now competing with Kelvin in butchering contests.
“You’re being inefficient too. Call me Lord.”
“Y-yes! Understood!”
“What brings you here?”
“We have a visitor! Someone looking for you, Lord—”
A rather familiar name spilled from Rob’s lips.
“A man named Locus Abu, the former Personnel Director of Edelwein Academy.”
* * *
After the Siren Family incident, Locus had gone into hiding.
He’d failed to obtain the object he’d been seeking, taking advantage of the Siren Family’s downfall.
Lena had been with him.
As a result, Berhal—who was both a department head and a father—had spent some time racking his brains.
Afterward, he’d pursued his son’s trail through every avenue, but found little of value, and so Locus was forgotten.
Or so he thought.
Yet now, here he stood before Ziel’s eyes once more.
“It’s been a long time, Ziel. I’ve heard news of your rapid reconstruction.”
“Yes. It’s progressing quickly. What brings you here?”
In truth, Locus didn’t know.
He didn’t know that Ziel had casually taken the very object he’d been searching for, and that it now lay sleeping peacefully in Ziel’s baggage.
Of course, he hadn’t come to suspect Ziel.
“First, I’m grateful for the warm welcome despite the sudden visit. This tea is quite fine.”
“It was confiscated from the Rim Family.”
“…Have you already begun pacifying the Western Region?”
“We merely recovered what was taken from us.”
Though he didn’t understand exactly what was meant, it wasn’t particularly important at the moment.
“The truth is, I’ve come here so suddenly for two reasons.”
“What might those be?”
“The Secret Arts Association requests the transfer of custody of Rob O’Connor.”
Locus was a Mystic.
And Mystics banded together fiercely, forming a collective that protected their own.
That collective was the Secret Arts Association.
Whether they liked it or not, they resisted the leakage of any Mystic’s abilities to the outside world.
That was why Locus had come.
The hand that withdrew the transfer request from his robes moved with considerable care.
“I understand this is sudden. And I’m aware that requesting custody of the criminal who wreaked havoc across the Western Region is undoubtedly a rude demand.”
“Then why ask?”
“Because we’ve prepared sufficient compensation for it.”
Beside the transfer request, another document was placed.
“An Imperial Bank Cheque. The total amount is ten million Cel. I would be grateful if you considered it a ransom.”
It was an astronomical sum.
But Ziel asked without the slightest change of expression.
“Why should I transfer custody?”
“I cannot disclose that.”
It felt strange, as if he’d received his own words turned back on him.
“Rather, I’m presenting you with reasonable compensation for it. I trust this amount suffices.”
“No.”
“……Is it insufficient? I can contact the Association and request an increase.”
Ziel broached a subject Locus had never even considered.
“Why do you buy people?”
“Pardon?”
“If I accept this money and hand him over, I’m selling a person.”
“……Teacher Ziel, or rather, Family Head Ziel Steelheart. I believe there’s been a misunderstanding. We are merely requesting the transfer of custody, and in exchange…….”
“No.”
Ziel disliked buying and selling people.
Most assassins were beings who had been sold from somewhere and then raised.
Ziel himself had fallen into a similar situation—seduced by the promise of food.
“……Then I will leave that matter for later discussion.”
“It won’t change, even if we discuss it later.”
……
A disaster.
He’d had no idea Ziel harbored such convictions.
Among any hundred nobles in the Western Region, not a single one would have felt discomfort with the act of accepting money and handing someone over during negotiations.
‘Is he protecting his reputation as a hero of the Empire?’
Locus felt a touch of regret that perhaps he should have approached this differently, but for now, he shelved any attempt at immediate persuasion.
There was, after all, another reason he’d come here.
“And the Secret Arts Association would like to formally extend an invitation to Family Head Ziel Steelheart.”
“For what reason?”
In truth, this was the real purpose of his visit.
“Well, it is precisely because Family Head Ziel Steelheart is a Mystic.”
Ziel responded.
“I am not a Mystic.”
“Denying it will serve no purpose. That absurd power and strength cannot be explained by anything but the Secret Arts.”
It was a sufficiently plausible thought.
At least from the perspective of someone who didn’t know better.
But Ziel answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“I can explain why I am not a Mystic.”
“How so?”
“But I don’t care to explain it.”
“……Why not?”
“Why should I?”
Locus began to fall into unease.
The dread that he’d come all this way only to accomplish none of his goals and return empty-handed was creeping in.

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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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