On My First Day Undercover, the Organization Collapsed - Chapter 426

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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 426
Ziel’s Consultation Room (1)
“Teacher, when will you establish the Steelheart Knight Order?”
The question came shortly after the Security Guards returned to the territory with the corpses of the magical beasts they’d hunted down.
“The establishment of the Steelheart Knight Order is not something I intend to implement yet, Maris Sopen.”
“But I want to join it!”
“I see. I’ve determined it would be inefficient, so I’m not planning it.”
“Why not! It’d be impressive! If you have a noble house, you should obviously have a knight order!”
Ziel pointed to one side.
“We have Security Guards.”
They were Security Guards worn to the point of near-total exhaustion.
“But… working as Security Guards, we’ll die from overwork……”
“We just caught thirty lower-tier magical beasts alone……”
Of course, it was only a brief rest.
An Instructor awaited them.
“Everyone rest for two hours, then gather at the Training Ground! Starting today, we begin the Security Guard training curriculum!”
It was none other than Training Instructor Renoa’s instruction.
The Security Guards had given up.
Though they sensed something had gone terribly wrong, there was no going back now.
“We only have ten Security Guards anyway, and a knight order would give the house more strength, wouldn’t it, Teacher?”
“There’s no immediate need. I’m here.”
“Oh.”
Despite that irrefutable statement, Maris held onto this one remaining hope.
“Still, if you do establish one someday! I’ll definitely join!”
“You’re the eldest son. Are you planning to abandon the family?”
“Huh? Why? There’s no rule saying you have to stay in the knight order forever.”
“You do have to stay.”
“What?”
“For life.”
…
A policy that reminded one of the Imperial Knight Order!
“Once you join, you cannot leave. Whether as a Security Guard or as a knight.”
“Oh……”
“That’s the efficient approach.”
He simply wouldn’t recruit anyone with the slightest intention of leaving midway.
That was Ziel’s principle.
Unless they grew old and infirm, unable to work anymore.
Of course, Ziel intended to have them healed and extract labor until the very end.
“…A knight order you can’t leave once you join?”
“Isn’t that how other knight orders work?”
“Usually… no. People often leave midway to continue their family line……”
“My territory is different.”
Maris conceded cleanly.
“Then I’ll be satisfied as a Teaching Assistant!”
“Understood.”
Maris went off without hesitation.
Ziel swallowed the words he was about to say.
‘A Teaching Assistant also can’t leave once they start.’
Gilbert didn’t know this fact yet.
“Master, you’ve returned! Goodness, what is all this?”
“Magical beast corpses, Gibson.”
“If we sell these, we’ll make a fortune!”
“That’s precisely why I brought them.”
“I’ll have the workers butcher them and keep a close watch to make sure nothing goes missing!”
“Good. That’s an excellent plan. How are the other tasks progressing?”
“Everyone’s working at excellent pace. And whenever your name comes up, they break into a cold sweat!”
“Are they ill?”
“That’s how afraid of you they are, sir!”
“I see.”
The reports from the interim period continued.
“The essential facilities are now averaging over fifty percent completion. At this rate, we should have everything finished within the month. The Secret Arts Practitioners have been remarkable!”
“I see. And the mansion?”
“Lord Mortis says the design is nearly complete. Once you give your approval, construction can begin immediately.”
“Excellent.”
Everything was proceeding flawlessly.
“It’s an unprecedented pace, my lord! Honestly, even if you’d returned, I’d have expected the territory to take at least several years to function properly…….”
“I can only come during breaks.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m a teacher. I can only visit during breaks, so waiting several years would be inefficient.”
“Then—you mean you’ll be leaving soon?”
“I’ll return next break.”
“This is…….”
“Until then, Gibson, you’ll manage the territory. Didn’t I tell you then? I’d grant you full authority in my absence.”
Gibson’s pupils wavered.
But tears soon welled up in his eyes.
“I will devote myself entirely to ensuring the Steelheart Territory flourishes, my lord!”
“See that you do.”
“Ah, my lord. There are quite a few territory residents who wish to see you.”
“Territory residents?”
“Yes! There’ve been some disputes, you see……disputes.”
A lord stands at the pinnacle of his territory.
I’d heard that he also serves in the role of judge.
“Understood. Gather these residents in front of my camp. This evening.”
“Very good, my lord!”
And they came.
The territory residents.
All of them.
“My goodness, he’s even more handsome up close.”
“Not a speck of dust on him!”
“And that silver hair…….”
They’d all swarmed to catch a glimpse of Ziel.
“Good heavens, so many…….”
“Must be hundreds of them.”
It was scarcely an overstatement to say that everyone capable of coming had shown up to see him.
“I understand there are disputes.”
The moment Ziel spoke, they all flinched.
Just speaking, and yet the authority that emanated from him!
Night was falling.
The campfire cast shadows across his face, making him look all the more fearsome.
Which somehow inspired trust all the more.
“I—I’m Luther, from the lower village.”
“Luther. Speak.”
“Well, the thing is……chickens keep disappearing from my coop. But looking into it, it’s neither beasts nor magical creatures. I haven’t the faintest idea what’s happening.”
“Can chickens escape on their own?”
“They couldn’t possibly. I’ve secured the coop well—the chickens definitely can’t escape.”
“Then someone came and either took them or ate them.”
Ziel offered a straightforward solution.
“Gilbert.”
“Yes,—well, not boss, my lord.”
“Go with Luther to his house and inspect the coop.”
“Yes, understood.”
“And set traps around the coop so no one but the owner can enter.”
“……Yes?”
“Then no one can steal the chickens. Next.”
Ziel resolved one complaint in a heartbeat!
But the complaints that followed were each impossible to solve on the spot.
“Someone keeps trespassing on my land and stealing the harvest…….”
“There’s someone who always cuts in line at the well…….”
“The tavern keeper seems to be watering down the beer!”
“My husband appears to be unfaithful…….”
Complaints poured in from every direction.
Gibson, unable to bear it any longer, stepped forward.
“These people! My master is far too busy to concern himself with such trivial matters!”
“Gibson.”
“Master! Even now, I can organize everything properly—”
“I’m idle.”
“Pardon?”
Gibson fell silent at once, suddenly understanding.
“My thinking was too narrow, sir.”
To say he was idle, all while tending to the territory’s people with such care!
How could he have missed it?
‘Indeed, my master’s heart is broad!’
But he truly was idle.
The territorial reconstruction was running smoothly on its own, and he’d simply been wondering what to do next.
Ziel recorded every complaint that came in.
“I’ve noted them all. You may go now. I’ll resolve everything starting tonight.”
And so Ziel became a problem solver.
‘She said food disappeared every night.’
His first destination was the home of a widow living alone.
There was a food storage room inside the house, and oddly, after each night passed, provisions would vanish bit by bit.
One night she’d kept vigil the entire time, and sure enough, nothing had gone missing that night.
So when darkness fell, Ziel took position near the woman’s home to watch.
The culprit was caught almost immediately.
“Meow.”
It was a cat.
Creeping softly, it slipped through a gap in the door, seized food in its jaws, and carried it away!
Ziel spotted the cat and snatched it up in one swift motion.
Then he went straight into the woman’s home.
“Eek! Oh my, you startled me!”
“I’ve caught the culprit.”
“L-Lord…?”
Ziel placed the cat into the woman’s arms.
“As the party involved, you may deal with the offender as you see fit.”
“A c-cat was the culprit…?”
“Yes. I caught it red-handed.”
“Good heavens…”
Ziel left the woman offering her thanks in a daze and moved on to the next case.
The second matter involved a peddler selling counterfeit medicine.
A traveling merchant had been going around the territory selling medicine, and several people who’d taken it had fallen ill.
Ziel found the inn where the peddler was staying.
“…My lord?”
“Is the wandering medicine peddler lodging here?”
“Y-yes, sir, though…”
Ziel made his way to the room the innkeeper had identified.
“Aaaah! You scared me half to death!”
“Eight residents fell ill after taking the medicine you sold them.”
“W-wait, what do you think you’re doing, barging in like this!”
Ziel paid no mind to the protest and rummaged through the peddler’s belongings, finding medicine bottles.
They matched exactly with what the residents had brought.
When Ziel tasted the contents, his expression twisted.
“Draniupul, yarrow flower, angelica, and water. A complete fraud.”
“H-how could you possibly…”
“I simply know.”
As a legendary assassin, there was little Ziel could not identify.
Though none would have imagined he could discern every ingredient merely by a taste and a whiff.
Ziel promptly paralyzed the peddler, slung him over his shoulder, and returned to the territory.
“Security Captain Rob O’Connor. Lock him away.”
“Th-this man…?”
“A peddler selling counterfeit medicine. I’ll decide his fate later.”
“Understood.”
Ziel descended once more to the lower territory and set his mind toward the next matter.
“So that’s why the well ran dry.”
He saw to the well’s repair.
“Yowl, yowl, yowl!”
“Quiet. If you don’t settle down, I’m feeding you to the magical beasts.”
“Whimper…….”
He silenced the wild dogs that bayed every night.
“If I channel the drainage this way, that should do it.”
Studying the muddy road, he drafted a drainage plan.
‘I feel like a detective.’
He’d heard there were several detective agencies in the Capital. He’d even read a novel featuring a detective as the protagonist at the Academy Library.
Perhaps that’s why his heart quickened!
Next came the infidelity investigation.
‘She said her husband leaves somewhere every night.’
Ziel recalled the woman who’d spoken to him in hushed tones.
Infidelity.
By definition, it means maintaining romantic relations with someone other than one’s spouse.
‘It’s a matter of betrayal.’
Ziel waited quietly near the house.
Hidden within shadow, concealed beneath darkness.
Then the man emerged.
‘He’s moving furtively.’
The way he glanced about before proceeding looked decidedly suspicious.
Ziel followed in his footsteps.
Silently.
A thought suddenly occurred to him.
‘If he truly is unfaithful, that woman deserves my pity.’
Yet since a commission had been placed, he had to continue tailing him.
But something was amiss.
The cautiously moving man was not entering any house.
Rather, he was heading beyond the territory’s bounds.
‘They’re meeting outside the territory?’
That’s what he’d thought.
“This won’t fetch a price…… Should I take this anyway? It didn’t sell last time either…….”
The man ventured into a forest not far from the magical beasts’ habitat, beyond the territory, and continued searching for something.
He’d pause several times, harvest something and tuck it into his pouch, then gaze intently at the ground before carefully extracting roots from the soil.
‘He’s foraging.’
Ziel, who’d been observing from hiding, finally revealed himself.
“What are you doing out here?”
“Aaaaaahhhhh!”
The man naturally startled.
It was fortunate he hadn’t lost consciousness.
“M-my lord? Could it be……?”
“It is.”
“H-how did you, how did you find me like…….”
“I’d rather not say.”
“You were on patrol, weren’t you…….”
Fortunately, the man made a hasty assumption and exhaled in relief.
Yet he still struggled to calm his racing heart.
“Since it’s dangerous beyond the territory, you must have followed me to keep me safe…….”
“What are you doing here?”
“…….”
The man hesitated briefly, then spoke with care.
“Please, you must keep this secret from my wife.”
Infidelity after all?
“The truth is…… I’ve been saving money for a wedding ring.”
“Isn’t a wedding ring given when you marry?”
“It should have been…….”
The man smiled sheepishly.
“The fruits that grow only in this forest and the roots of various plants here are used as medicinal materials.”
The man was right.
Ziel knew the plants and fruits well enough himself.
“So I’d gather them and sell them for a decent sum, and…… I came out here without telling my wife.”
“A misunderstanding, then.”
“Sir?”
“No matter. How much does a wedding ring cost?”
“From what I’ve heard, around five thousand Sel……”
“Five thousand Sel.”
Ziel pondered for a moment before asking.
“If you collected every fruit and root in this forest, would you get five thousand Sel?”
“Sir?”
“Wait a moment.”
Ziel activated the Shadow Gauntlet.
Beneath the moonlight, shadows sprang into being and moved with purposeful intent, unseen by the man.
One of Aznil’s masterworks—a magical tool that, if wielded properly, excelled beyond measure—
Snap. Patter-patter-patter.
The fruits were being plucked.
Hundreds of them.
Watching the fruits cascade to the ground, the man went blank.
“……What is this.”
“Digging up roots would require overturning the soil, which is inefficient. I’ll pinpoint the locations by scent instead.”
Ziel was solving the problem quite decisively.

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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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