On My First Day Undercover, the Organization Collapsed - Chapter 422

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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 422
A good idea had occurred to him.
Locus had taken the position of Academy Personnel Director with a purpose in mind.
But after the Siren Family incident, he hadn’t obtained what he wanted.
He hadn’t realized it was actually in Ziel’s hands, but regardless, Locus had since returned to his true work alongside Lena.
That work was the Mystic Arts.
The Abue Family had a peculiar trait: the talent for the Mystic Arts awakened in every other generation.
That was why Locus possessed such talent while his father Berhal did not.
In any case, Locus had come here to bring Lob along.
And he had decided to bring Ziel as well.
“Teacher, everyone in the world will eventually know that you are a Mystic Arts practitioner. That power cannot be explained by anything other than the Mystic Arts.”
A reasonably sound deduction.
The power Ziel had displayed was always beyond convention!
Something utterly incomprehensible by the strength of knights, and certainly not by the power of magic!
Which naturally led to the assumption that it was the Mystic Arts.
“Several people already suspect that your power is the Mystic Arts. Have you never been suspected?”
“I have not.”
“Denial will be of no use.”
He seemed to have already drawn a firm conclusion!
Ziel paused a moment before asking.
“Do you have evidence that denial would be of no use?”
“Because you are indeed a Mystic Arts practitioner.”
“You are mistaken.”
“You are not.”
Gilbert, who had quietly stepped closer to the side, flinched upon hearing this exchange.
‘Could it be that someone has figured out the Boss’s true identity!’
Gilbert too had suspected it long ago.
The Mystic Arts.
How else could one explain such power!
‘Or perhaps he is divine!’
The latter actually weighed a bit more in his mind, but Gilbert prided himself on being quite level-headed.
A single strike that severed massive trees and mansions!
The power to tear open the earth with a light sword strike, creating an enormous fissure!
And beyond that, a sense and a force that simply could not be explained by any ordinary understanding of the world!
‘Of course—the Boss must be a Mystic Arts practitioner!’
Gilbert covered his mouth.
No one should know this fact.
Well, many might suspect it, but that did not mean it should be confirmed.
‘Boss, I will protect you.’
Shlink.
Just as he drew the royal-granted dagger.
“Put it away, Gilbert.”
Ziel stopped him, though it was unclear how he knew.
Locus flinched for a moment and turned to look behind him.
‘Is someone there?’
Locus turned his head back toward Ziel.
An odd tension seemed to settle over the air, different from before.
“Gilbert? You mean the Teaching Assistant?”
“Yes. He has just drawn his dagger.”
“A dagger…?”
Though Ziel spoke calmly, Locus drew upon his Mystic Arts power with heightened tension.
But at that moment, Ziel added one more thing.
“I stopped him because the situation is not appropriate right now.”
“The situation….”
“There would be no reason to draw a dagger and face this way given the current circumstances.”
To Ziel, this was simply stating the obvious, but to Locus’s ears it came across as something else entirely.
‘Is this an unspoken threat!’
Whether unspoken or not, it amounted to nothing more than a roundabout warning!
From Ziel’s perspective, it was indeed a warning.
A warning aimed at Gilbert.
“I am not a Mystic, Personnel Director Locus.”
Because those words followed so naturally, they struck Locus’s ear as a clear warning.
“……Why do you refuse? If you were recognized as a Mystic, you would gain even greater power and influence.”
“If I’m not a Mystic, why should I be recognized as one?”
“Teacher, instead of a meaningless answer, allow me to say this: if you were to join the Secret Arts Association, no one in the entire Empire would dare lay a hand on you.”
“That’s already the case now.”
“Ah.”
At that one irrefutable remark, Locus grasped a crucial truth.
‘Did I need to consider first whether he actually needed status and power as a Mystic?’
It was blindingly obvious, but from the perspective of Mystics, there was no reason to even think of it.
Everyone wanted to become a Mystic!
Unless they were living in the past, when they were persecuted as a threat to established powers.
Now, in this age of stability, Mystics enjoyed good treatment from the Empire and had banded together to form their own considerable faction.
So naturally, he had assumed this would be accepted……
‘……It must be one of two things.’
Another misunderstanding had taken root.
‘Either he no longer has any need for it, or…… he’s in a situation where being bound by the restrictions of the Secret Arts Association would be disadvantageous!’
Following this second line of reasoning, he recalled an opinion that had surfaced when the association discussed this matter.
‘What if Teacher Ziel Steelheart is actually seeking even greater power?’
The Empire’s hero.
It was a dangerous phrase to invoke in public, yet it was no exaggeration to say he was far more popular than the current Imperial Palace and the Emperor himself.
Historically speaking, heroes in any nation rarely met a good end.
Unless the Emperor was himself a hero, anyone who stood at the summit of the realm inevitably faced interference from those in power!
That was the reasoning behind the opinion, but in the end, the view that prevailed was to bring him into the Secret Arts Association, which was why Locus had come this far.
‘I was wrong in my thinking.’
He should have taken a different approach from the start.
So, late as it was, he raised this new proposal.
“Teacher Ziel, what if we were to establish a cooperative relationship with the Secret Arts Association?”
“A cooperative relationship, you say.”
“Yes. Of course, it’s certain that you are a Mystic, and according to our association’s regulations, all Mystics should ideally be affiliated with us and operate under our umbrella…… but.”
“I am not a Mystic.”
“I understand what you mean. Naturally.”
And so Locus found himself thoroughly confused!
‘He simply doesn’t want to have his freedom of action limited by being affiliated with the Secret Arts Association.’
Which organization one belonged to carried clear implications.
If he were to join the Secret Arts Association, it could create complications down the line!
Now he finally grasped why Ziel kept denying he was a Mystic.
“I understand completely, Teacher Ziel.”
“Yes. I am not a Mystic.”
“Yes. That’s right. Exactly. In any case, I would like to propose a cooperative relationship between us.”
“You’re making this proposal because I refused to join the association?”
Ziel’s characteristically blunt question left Locus momentarily speechless before he finally nodded.
“……Yes. From our perspective, we would like to establish a good relationship with you and pursue future cooperation.”
“What sort of cooperation?”
“Cooperation in all fields.”
“Cooperation in all fields……”
Ziel nodded as if satisfied.
“Secret Arts are diverse.”
“Yes, they are.”
“Then please dispatch Mystics from the Secret Arts Association to help rebuild my territory.”
“……I beg your pardon?”
Ziel was an efficient man.
He never let an opportunity slip away.
“Then we have a deal.”
“Mys, Mystics for……that.”
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
There was no problem.
At least not for Ziel.
But for the Mystics, it was quite another matter.
‘Mystics for such work?’
Secret Arts practitioners are perhaps even more arrogant than mages!
Far fewer in number, far more diverse in power, and depending on how one wields them, far more versatile than magic itself!
“Secret Arts have high practical utility.”
“That’s… true, I suppose.”
“Yes. So I ask this of you.”
……
It looked like he’d accomplish none of his objectives and return home to face nothing but ridicule.
No matter that Ziel Steelheart—the very axis of Imperial power and more popular than the Emperor himself—was the one making the request…
‘Aid in territory reconstruction?’
Would the Secret Arts practitioners truly sit idle if handed such menial work?
Locus asked carefully, just to be sure.
“Then, perhaps… the matter of Rob O’Connor’s custody handover…?”
“That’s not possible.”
“Ah.”
It seemed he wouldn’t even break even, let alone come out ahead.
* * *
Gilbert looked deeply moved.
“Things have changed so much, Boss.”
“Yes. They have.”
Ziel answered as he always did, with quiet composure, and gazed down at the territory below.
The landscape of the territory visible from the hill where the mansion stood was undeniably different from two weeks before his arrival.
The shabby buildings were being torn down slowly but surely, and new ones were rising in their place—homes for the existing residents of the territory.
Next came the essential facilities.
A blacksmith shop, a mill, communal ovens, wells, springs… all the infrastructure vital to the territory folk’s daily lives was under construction.
The former bandits were proving themselves invaluable.
They moved materials with their abundant strength while faithfully following the instructions of technicians dispatched from various families.
“Will you be settling them here as well?”
“Yes. But I intend to keep using them as workers.”
“I see.”
Though their futures were already determined, it was far better than losing their heads outside the territory.
Some were even satisfied with their lot.
Life in the Steelheart Territory was vastly superior to their days as mercenaries or their previous existence in poorer territories.
They had a place to sleep, work that wasn’t unbearably hard.
Most importantly, the food was good.
“Chef Teo is quite popular. His skills have improved considerably. He says he’s looking forward to making even more delicious meals once we return.”
“Excellent news. In that regard, build the underground kitchens in the mansion as sturdy as possible.”
“Is there any question?”
Regardless of other matters, people must always work on full stomachs.
This was Ziel’s principle.
No logic of efficiency entered into it.
“Increase the food supplies as well. No one in this territory should go hungry.”
“I’ll remember, Boss. Though I must say, Kelvin’s appetite lately has been… remarkable.”
“Hmm. He’s growing.”
“To master-level?”
“When one’s total mana capacity increases, increased appetite is one of the common phenomena. Keep an eye on it.”
……
Gilbert tensed.
‘Do I need to eat more too?’
Thanks to the Boss, his own appetite had already increased forcibly, but lately an uneasy feeling had been creeping in—the sense that he needed to eat even more.
It was because of Kelvin, who was catching up at an alarming pace.
Just yesterday they’d sparred, and it was plainly different from before.
This nagging feeling that he might fall behind entirely and find himself reversed!
“I’ll work hard too, Boss.”
“See that you do.”
“Thank you. Oh, but truly, only the Boss could pull in the Secret Arts practitioners like this.”
“We’ve established a cooperative relationship.”
“People who live so closed off—how in the world did you…?”
“The Secret Arts Association made the proposal first.”
“A true hero of the Empire!”
“They tried to invite me to join the Association, failed, and then proposed cooperation instead.”
“…….”
The fact that you’re not denying you’re a Secret Arts practitioner—so you really are one after all?
‘Or perhaps something even more extraordinary than that……?’
This time it wasn’t a misunderstanding, but Gilbert didn’t need to know the truth just yet.
As for the dispatched Secret Arts practitioners, they seemed somewhat dissatisfied, though they were doing their work well enough.
Well, who wouldn’t be?
A hero of the Empire—a being whose strength knew no bounds.
They might grumble behind closed doors, but they had to play along in front of him.
Thanks to that, the Territory reconstruction seemed to be accelerating, and there was nothing left to worry about.
Only time remained.
“Maaaster! If you keep sleeping in places without a roof, I won’t be able to close my eyes even in death!”
“If you’re dead, you won’t be seeing anything anyway.”
“That’s not what I meant!”
While the mansion was being built, Gibson was nagging loudly from the camp ground they’d set up, but even that was tolerable enough.
Now there was only one thing left to do.
“Gilbert.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Prepare with Kelvin.”
Gilbert’s breath caught.
So after finishing the work, the Hellish Training was coming again…….
“Select and train the security guards.”
“Oh.”
It was a relief.
In the meantime, good news had arrived.
“M-Master! Master!”
Kelvin came running up breathlessly.
I wondered what had happened.
“M-Master. The kids! They’re here!”
At the word “kids,” a smile appeared on Ziel’s lips.
“H-Heard the news, Master!”
It meant the students had come all this way after hearing the news about Territory reconstruction.
The corners of Ziel’s mouth rose higher than usual.
“A good idea has occurred to me.”

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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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