On My First Day Undercover, the Organization Collapsed - Chapter 427

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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 427
Ziel’s Counseling Office (2)
Within days, voices praising Ziel had grown louder throughout the territory.
“Have you heard? The lord just has to say the word and everything gets solved!”
“He’s fixed wells, cleared drainage ditches, and now he’s carving out new roads!”
“You know that widow living down the way? Her provisions kept going missing, but it turns out a cat had been stealing them — so he caught it for her! Now she’s decided to keep the cat as a pet.”
It was all thanks to Ziel resolving countless problems in just a few days.
He’d sent security guards, Gilbert, Kelvin, or the Secret Arts practitioners on various tasks, but he handled all the delicate matters personally.
“Do the lords of other territories do things like this?”
“Well, I doubt there’s another lord quite like ours. Where in this world is there a lord who personally goes out and solves the problems of common folk like us? It’s exhausting even to think about.”
“That’s true enough.”
Ziel’s unique way of thinking had won the affection of the territory’s people considerably.
“Truly, our master is…….”
Gibson welled up with tears again at the sight of everyone speaking in unison.
“Now I could die with no regrets…….”
“No. If you die, I’ll have to hire a new butler.”
“G-good heavens! Master, when did you arrive?”
“Just now. The goats were frightened by wolves howling nearby, so I’ve just finished dealing with them on my way back.”
“Why would you handle that yourself, sir? You should have sent the security guards or the trappers!”
“I already have them working on other matters.”
Ziel surveyed the territorial residents gathered before the temporary camp.
“There’s quite a crowd again today.”
“Yes, sir. It seems there are many small matters that need attending to.”
“Understood. Let’s hear what they have to say.”
Another bustling day at Ziel’s temporary camp.
And then a rather unusual case arrived.
“My lord!”
A young man stepped forward and immediately dropped to his knees.
“You’re very handsome, my lord!”
“I’m aware.”
“So please, hear out my troubles!”
The young man, Oliver, finally broached a remarkable matter.
“The truth is, I’m in love with a woman!”
“I see.”
“I want to be with her, but I don’t know how!”
Ziel understood then.
‘This must be the sort of love counseling I read about in that novel.’
In one novel, there appeared a certain character who proclaimed himself an expert in matters of romance.
A novel where this expert resolved the romantic troubles of many people!
“Ha, what do you expect? That Oliver fool was just nursing an unrequited crush.”
“The poor guy can’t even open his mouth when he sees her face…….”
“Tsk, now that he’s spoken before the lord, maybe he’ll actually manage to talk to Loretta for once.”
From the whispers around him, Ziel gathered that the woman’s name was Loretta and that Oliver had harbored this one-sided love for a full five years.
Ziel found the matter quite intriguing and asked.
“What’s your reason for wanting to be with this woman?”
“Because I like her!”
“I see.”
Oliver lacked what could be called courage.
Severely so.
An extreme introvert who couldn’t utter a single word in front of a woman!
“Then go and tell her you like her.”
“Sir? But wouldn’t it be better to take things slowly……?”
“How will you be together if you don’t tell her you like her?”
It was sound logic.
Yet the residents shook their heads at this very moment.
“If he gets rejected and insulted, he’d be lucky.”
“Tsk, the lord is so handsome that he simply doesn’t understand what goes through a fellow’s heart in situations like this.”
“I wonder if the lord has ever confessed his feelings before…….”
The public sentiment was troubling, but Ziel remained resolute.
“Nothing will come to pass if you don’t tell her how you feel.”
“W-well, you mean to say that I should… tell her I like her…?”
Scratch, scratch-scratch.
Oliver pulled out a scrap of linen cloth from somewhere and jotted down notes.
Ziel watched him with approval.
A student with the proper disposition to learn.
“So, if I just go and tell her I like her, that should work, right?”
“Yes. Tell her.”
“Then we’ll be together!”
“I don’t know about that.”
Based on Ziel’s reading of novels, he had reached a conclusion: in this world, assassination was the easiest thing, and love was the hardest.
“A person’s heart is something neither you nor I can control. All you can do is make your feelings known and increase the possibility. That’s the most efficient method.”
“The most efficient method… I understand! Thank you so much, my lord!”
Oliver leaped to his feet and rushed out.
“Tsk, tsk. That boy’s doomed. Absolutely doomed.”
“Well, my lord, if you give advice based on your own standards…”
Of course, Ziel had never met anyone romantically, never had feelings for the opposite sex, never confessed to anyone.
He had merely presented an efficient method.
“Next, send them in.”
This time it was a couple—a man and a woman.
They opened their mouths cautiously.
“My lord, please forgive us for bothering you with this, and understand that we seek no advancement or reward from you—but we have been caring for orphaned children for the past five years, those with nowhere else to go.”
“I see. You’re running an orphanage?”
“You could say that. My wife and I, regrettably, have had no children of our own…”
“Is there shame in not having children?”
“P-pardon? Well… ordinarily… that’s how people treat it…”
The man hung his head low.
The woman did the same.
Ziel tilted his head, observing the pair who looked as though they bore some terrible guilt.
“Did one of you not make the effort?”
“Effort…?”
“At night, with each other…”
“N-no, no, of course not! We tried, we tried very hard!”
Flustered and blushing, he stammered his words, and Ziel nodded in understanding.
“If no child came despite your efforts, the fault is neither of yours. There is no shame in this.”
…
From that cold, matter-of-fact tone came a warmth that seemed to seep through!
Even those watching nearby felt tears well up.
‘Our lord is a kind person, after all!’
Of course, Ziel had merely been confirming the facts.
“…And so, we have gradually taken in more and more children, one by one. Now there are twenty of them—all precious to us. But now we worry we no longer have enough food. Of course, thanks to your excellent lordship’s arrival, the territory will surely prosper, yet…”
“Are the children going hungry?”
Ziel’s voice took on an edge, sharp and sudden.
“N-no, not exactly. We reduce our own portions, but we never stint on the children’s meals. Only… we fear our stores will soon be depleted, and so we came here, sincerely, to ask for aid…”
All the other residents of the territory nodded in sympathy, clearly knowing their situation.
Before Ziel arrived, in those difficult days of Steelheart Territory, these people had never lost their humanity—many had pooled what little they had to share food with this couple.
“Understood. I’ll send provisions.”
“Th-thank you so much!”
“And you two will eat your fill as well. Without you, those children will be lost again.”
“My lord…!”
Then Ziel asked the man a question.
“What work are you doing now?”
“Yes, I’ve been working on Johnny’s farm next door, earning what little coin I can.”
“Take different work. Clear the agricultural lands at the Lord’s Castle.”
This meant working directly under Chef Teo!
Teo placed great value on food ingredients, and had already ordered the dropouts to clear the castle farmland.
“M-do you mean I could work at the Lord’s Castle…?”
“Is there any reason why you couldn’t?”
“Thank you! Thank you so much, my lord!”
The others responded with applause rather than envy. This man was worthy of such consideration.
‘I should also establish an educational facility for the children. Just as I did in the Capital Slums.’
It seemed best to summon the Berte Trading Company and have them handle the work.
After that, Ziel spent his time listening to the territory’s residents and their concerns and grievances.
Celia, watching him, tilted her head in bemusement.
“Did he open a counseling service or something?”
“There are so many trivial requests. Soon they’ll be asking him to pick a bag color for them.”
At Maris’s words, Celia shot her a sharp look.
“That’s a serious matter, Maris. You don’t understand how important it is, do you?”
“……Why on earth is a bag color so important?”
Yet they were indeed receiving counseling requests of that very nature.
Perhaps it was due to the lord’s long absence, but the territory’s residents seemed to be enjoying this time immensely.
“But it really is…… different. Different from other lords. My father doesn’t do things like that.”
While the scale of a territory and the nature of its lord varied, the atmosphere when residents filed petitions or sought an audience with their lord was never like this.
A lord typically looked down upon them or arrived with an escort of guards—never in a manner that felt comfortable or relaxed.
Even without a lord’s castle or a proper mansion, here at a hastily arranged temporary camp, with a campfire between them, a lord sat listening to the concerns of his people!
‘Amusing.’
Who knew that counseling could be such an enjoyable pursuit.
Ziel was truly savoring this time.
‘I should establish a counseling service.’
Gibson would be busy, so it seemed he could find someone suitable to appoint as director.
The residents whose problems had been solved were filled with joy!
Certainly, something unprecedented in other territories was unfolding here.
And yet, at the same moment.
A conspiracy was brewing.
* * *
The Secret Arts Users were thoroughly aggrieved.
“Damn it! Curse it! Why the hell are we out here in the Western Region doing this of all things! We’re Mystics!”
“Right! Why are we wasting ourselves on such menial work……!”
Clang, crash!
Leveling ground was trivial work—a few sweeps of Secret Arts and it was done.
Moving materials, digging wells, laying stones for roads—all of it was simple with Secret Arts!
Yet none of them had ever deployed their Secret Arts for ‘such’ work before.
“Damn it, I didn’t get this good just to do jobs like this…….”
Resentment pierced the heavens.
If not for orders from Locus, a key figure of the Secret Arts Association, they would never have come to this place.
Even then, these Mystics had been persuaded and coaxed by Locus and the other leaders, who promised compensation before sending them off.
For Mystics already burdened with pride and towering self-regard, coming here to do ‘menial work’ was utterly intolerable!
Heroes of the Empire and all that—they simply couldn’t endure such treatment.
“Why don’t we just grab that Ziel Steelheart bastard and take him?”
One Mystic broached a perilously reckless idea.
But all of them perked up, ears open.
“Even if he’s Ziel Steelheart, once we’ve taken him and deny knowing anything, what can he do about it?”
“He won’t know where our association is anyway.”
“Why not just kidnap him and bring him back?”
The sentiment began to shift.
Menial labor, taking orders—the frustration was mounting!
In truth, this situation was absurd from the Mystics’ perspective.
If word of this spread, how much ridicule would they face.
“Weren’t Ziel Steelheart and our Secret Arts Association supposed to be cooperating?”
“But what use is it to leave that ‘Advanced Secret Arts’ user Ziel Steelheart as he is? I hear he was appointed Security Captain, and that’s such a waste.”
“The association has been thinking of ways to handle this anyway. If we secretly kidnapped him and brought him back, that would work out, wouldn’t it?”
Ziel Steelheart was certainly a coveted Mystic.
Considering how obsessively the Secret Arts Association fixated on protecting Mystics and drawing talent into its ranks, their reasoning was not without merit.
At least from their own perspective.
“He’d be happier on our side anyway.”
“Mm. Kidnap him, and then what?”
“One person quietly disappears. After we bring him back, we deny everything. We just tell Ziel Steelheart he ran away—wouldn’t that work?”
Anyone who knew even a little about Ziel would have shaken their head at such a shoddy plan!
Even with careful preparation, success would be uncertain, but these Mystics saw nothing wrong with it.
Fundamentally, Mystics belonging to the association weren’t so much strictly controlled as left to operate independently—which was how this situation arose.
“How do we execute it?”
“He left his post. I heard those students making noise, saying they were taking the students to the camp.”
“This is perfect. And here we are, dying on the vine!”
So the conspiracy began to take shape, smoke curling upward.
But from the start, it was doomed to run aground.
“That one. Those ones. Suspicious.”
Relentless effort to reach Master-level!
‘I need to sharpen my senses. My senses.’
‘S-senses?’
‘That’s right—if I train my senses, I’ll be much better, won’t I?’
Kelvin was wandering through the Steelheart Territory with his eyes bound, training his senses for exactly this purpose.
And their conspiracy fell directly into his ears.
“Mm.”
Kelvin made his deduction.
“F-fun. Fun guaranteed.”

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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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