Chapter 56
The struggle of having the attention of both Charlotte and Vertus had now truly begun. Charlotte was more of a help to me than Vertus at the moment, but if Vertus found out that I had sided with Charlotte, I had no idea what he might do to me.
I did not see a good approach to this issue. It was certain that Charlotte would not bother me anymore until my powers grew strong enough that I could find Baalier.
The problem was Vertus. I didn’t know how to deal with him at all, since anything I hid from him would eventually come to light anyway. Therefore, I decided it would be better to voluntarily disclose information to him instead.
I made it clear to Charlotte that I did not want to end up on bad terms with Vertus, since I was in Class A. I also told her that Vertus had asked me to keep an eye on her.
Charlotte, too, believed that I should not be harmed by Vertus in the search for Baalier. Therefore, she gave me leave to relay moderately-unimportant information to him.
Basically, I had fully become a puppet for both sides.
In the end, I was nothing but a hyena that couldn’t do anything to the king and queen of the jungle. But perhaps one had to live like a hyena and be devious in order to survive in life.
The next day, I had a conversation with Vertus on the dormitory’s tea-time terrace.
“Charlotte... It seems like she’s looking for someone.”
This place was designed like yet another designated meeting spot in one of those romance simulation games. If Ellen’s designated spot was the training grounds and the dining hall, Vertus’s spot was the tea-time terrace.
Vertus listened to what I had to say, then nodded slowly.
Though I spoke as if I had heard it for the first time, Vertus was already aware of this information. Therefore, there was nothing particularly novel about the news, but it was information that a regular student should not have known.
“Hmm... Did Charlotte tell you that directly?”
I had no choice but to reveal some of the truth to Vertus, since anything Charlotte found out, Vertus would inevitably discover as well.
“She asked me to find him.”
“She asked you...? Hmm... yes, I see. That’s possible.”
Vertus nodded his head, perhaps after considering my background and realizing what it could mean.
“It seems you already know who I’m looking for,” I said to Vertus.
Vertus nodded in response.
“Yes, I already knew that much... Alright, so, you haven’t found him yet, I suppose.”
Just the fact that I told Vertus that Charlotte had instructed me to find Baalier meant that she herself hadn’t found him yet. That information alone was useful to Vertus.
“I suppose she didn’t ask you to find him directly, but rather act through the Rotary Club... How is it going with that? Any progress?”
Vertus’s calm question sent shivers down my spine.
I hadn’t told Vertus about this aspect yet. I had planned to tell him about it today, but he already knew about it. His attitude—as if it was natural for him to know all this—was what really creeped me out.
Vertus had performed a background check on me and, yet after finding out about me, he had yet to reveal what he knew about me. Now, by mentioning something I didn’t think he would have known directly, Vertus was signaling that I was in the palm of his hand.
It wasn’t just the Rotary Club that he knew about. If it were Vertus, he’d probably know about the connections with the Thieves’ Guild as well. I knew he would catch on, but I hadn’t anticipated that he would reveal his knowledge of it in such a manner.
He saw my momentary freeze and let out a small laugh.
“Don’t get so tense over something like this.”
“You could have at least told me you knew before I told you. It’s really unsettling.”
“You don’t seem like the typical beggar from the streets; there are some excessive elements to you. So I did a little research, that’s all. So, how’s the progress?”
Fortunately, Vertus didn’t seem to consider the possibility that I might be Baalier himself, just like Charlotte. It would be difficult indeed for him to imagine that the person he was searching for was right next to him.
Unlike Charlotte, Vertus did not express hatred simply because I was associated with a criminal organization, although his inner thoughts were inscrutable to any but himself.
Anyway, regarding the progress...
“How could there be any? The only thing I got was a portrait, and I don’t even know his name or anything.”
“Right... That makes sense.”
He seemed to consider it only natural for me not to have made progress, as if my finding Baalier would prove him and his own efforts weak.
“Have you heard anything about who this person might be? Anything?”
“No. She didn’t tell me anything about that.”
Charlotte had, but it didn’t seem necessary to share that much with Vertus.
Vertus sipped his milk tea while quietly gazing out at the slowly-darkening view of the Temple.
“Okay... fine. What’s important is that I’m also looking for that person, Reinhart.”
“... I suspected you might be.”
“If you happen to find a clue, make sure to inform me.”
“In such a situation, wouldn’t it be best if I didn’t find any clues at all?”
“Ha! You’re not wrong...”
If choosing one meant making an enemy of the other, it might be more advantageous for me not to find anything at all. Vertus nodded as if that made sense.
“It’s fine. If things go on like this, it seems she’ll self-destruct. If she’s even reaching out to you for help, it’s already a sign of that.”
Self-destruction...
Vertus seemed to think that if Charlotte couldn’t find me, she’d self-destruct, ruining her own chances to ascend the throne. Understanding what he meant by that only made me feel more depressed.
Charlotte was so focused on finding me that she seemed to be neglecting the power struggle for the throne. Therefore, it seemed Vertus was quite content to just let things be.
“I did not expect it to be this easy...”
Vertus let out a sigh of disappointment.
Vertus had never wanted to see Charlotte return alive. In the end, though, she had come back. Hence, while he was on high alert and ready to confront her, Charlotte herself was fixated on finding some boy, so much so that her veins were popping out of her forehead in frustration.
Vertus seemed disappointed, as if watching his greatest enemy self-destruct wasn’t entirely satisfying. While victory was important, the satisfaction of victory mattered too.
“So, even if we cannot find the boy at all, that will turn out to be in my favor anyway. Oh, and since we’re on the subject...”
It seemed Vertus was done talking about Charlotte. He looked at me as if he didn’t regard her as a serious threat at the moment. Perhaps her fixation on the task of finding a mere child, bordering on obsession, had caused her to lose her value as a rival in his eyes.
“By any chance, are you possibly trying to become the next master of the Thieves’ Guild?”
“... Huh? Oh... I can see how you might misunderstand the situation like that, but no, not at all. I’ve never even met anyone from the Thieves’ Guild.”
I had previously implied that I had an association with the Thieves’ Guild, but I truly had no personal connections with them. However, Vertus seemed to think that there was something unusual about a kid who was just a street rat.
It seemed he came to the conclusion that I was going to be the next guild master, being cultivated by the Thieves’ Guild, and that I had already gotten ample training from them because of it.
I sighed.
“I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but I honestly want to cut ties with them.”
The original plan was to fully sever my connection with the whole Rotary Club after awakening my talents. Somehow, my tail had been stepped on, and I had ended up in a situation where both the prince and princess knew about my background.
“Why is that?”
“Because I don’t want to spend my life doing dirty work. I don’t like constantly feeling like someone is going to stab me in the back.”
That was truly my wish. Who would want to live their whole life fighting? My values weren’t so different from an ordinary person’s.
I wanted to live comfortably, eat well, and enjoy life without any life-threatening worries. Since that seemed unlikely, however, I had no choice but to pursue the next-best option in this world.
“Hmm... Really? You’re not just saying that because you’re in front of me, are you?”
“Even if that were the case, wouldn’t it be worthless to tell such a lie, considering you already know so much about me?”
A potential future emperor who knew the identity of the next guildmaster of the Thieves’ Guild? If that were true, I would have already been disqualified as a candidate to be the next head of the Thieves’ Guild.
My words seemed plausible enough to Vertus, who burst into laughter.
“Hmm... So, you are closer to the Rotary Club than the Thieves’ Guild, is what you’re saying... That’s a slight disappointment.”
“Disappointment?”
Why would he be disappointed that I wasn’t favored as the Thieves’ Guild’s next successor? Was there some compelling reason about my background that Vertus had left me alone this whole time because of it?
“Reinhart.”
“Yes?”
“I tend to think that criminal power is inevitable.”
“Inevitable?”
‘What is he trying to say now?’
“If you root out the Thieves’ Guild, other factions will just take their place. That’s what I’m trying to say.”
Just as algae grew naturally by the water’s edge over time, even if the criminals were weeded out from the streets, more would gather and form a new power structure. Eradicating a crime organization simply made room for others to take over, and complete elimination was impossible.
Was he trying to...
“If that’s the case, wouldn’t you agree that it’d be better to own that organization? If you can’t eliminate it, then you can control it by owning its source. That way, you can monitor any new criminal powers that emerge, and it allows you to deal with matters that can only be resolved in the crime organizations,” he elaborated, laying out his argument with chilling, calculated logic.
I was beginning to see where this was going.
He looked at me with a creepy smile.
“Why don’t you become the guild master?”
I began to understand why Vertus thought Charlotte was on the path to self-destruction. Charlotte saw me as merely a means to find Baalier, and her mind was fixated on that goal alone.
But Vertus... Vertus had bigger plans. He was thinking of using me to dominate the underworld of the imperial city.
***
In the past, the United States implemented a law prohibiting alcohol. This ultimately led to the enormous growth of mafia organizations within the country that mass-produced alcohol to counter this. Prohibiting an easily-produced commodity typically results in underground production and the emergence of organizations to distribute it. Supply is inevitably prompted by demand, and when production and supply are illegal, numerous criminal organizations naturally arise to fill the void.
The empowerment of crime was inevitable. There will always be people who demand what should not be legal, and shadowy organizations emerge to supply these products and services.
To facilitate this supply, crime becomes organized, and thus, organized crime as an entity will surface. Such a thing could not be easily stopped just because one simply wanted to.
Vertus deemed such a situation inevitable. If removing one group only led to someone else taking their place, it was better to control that group instead. By doing so, one could act more swiftly against any new organization that appeared.
Following this reasoning, Vertus had hoped that I would become the next guild master. By controlling the Thieves’ Guild, he planned to eventually gain control over the entire underworld of the imperial city.
Aside from the goal of overseeing and monitoring criminal activity, Vertus could also rely on the guild to carry out his own personal agendas, which made this arrangement seem a very decent prospect to him.
Thus, he had made the offer to me, even though I was merely a Temple student from the Rotary Club. He was asking if I had any interest in becoming the emperor of the imperial city’s underworld, and was therefore disappointed when I claimed I had no ties with the Thieves’ Guild.
The scope of his thinking was on an entirely different level than mine. Whether or not it was right, the way he thought about things was on a totally different scale.
Vertus assured me there was no need to rush my decision, and stated that such a grand vision couldn’t be implemented immediately anyway.
It was too momentous a decision to make on the spot, and frankly, it didn’t really pique my interest. After all, involving oneself with a criminal organization and potentially taking over would entail various obligations. I wasn’t sure if I had the capability for that, nor if I had the right mentality to carry out such responsibilities.
Thus, Vertus simply extended the offer to me, then closed the conversation.
‘Becoming the master of the Thieves’ Guild...’
There was no denying that authority would be useful. In fact, it might offer even more benefits on top of just the authority alone. Moreover, Vertus, who was embroiled in a fight for succession to the throne, had even offered to watch my back.
I would be running what was very close to a legally-sanctioned criminal organization. Such an organization, operating on the fringes of legality, could undertake far more activities than that of an ordinary organization.
However, the truth was that I was not a person with great ambitions. I’d never managed an organization before and didn’t know if it would suit me. I only needed enough money to live on, and more than that was unnecessary. So why would I bother with earning more?
If it wasn’t for the gate, I wouldn’t have ended up at the Temple in the first place.
Regardless, the prince had given me an offer to consider, and he seemed ready to back me if I decided to become the master of the Thieves’ Guild.
Of course, there was no real necessity for him to resort to me. If Vertus truly wanted the master of the Thieves’ Guild on his side, he could take matters into his own hands and make that a reality through his own methods.
Both Charlotte and Vertus had been able to find the Thieves’ Guild with ease, but they had simply chosen not to act. Perhaps they wanted to test my usefulness or abilities regarding this matter.
If that was their reasoning, then the prince was not yet particularly interested in controlling the underworld himself. If he deemed it an urgent priority, he could easily manage it without trying to manipulate me. It was more likely that he was more interested in gauging my ambitions and determining if I was competent enough.
Anyway, it wasn’t an urgent issue, so it was a matter to be contemplated sometime in the future.
***
It was apparent that the upcoming Glory Festival had changed the atmosphere in the Temple. While the training routines and classes hadn’t changed much, a general air of excitement permeated throughout the whole school.
Some students were already packing their bags, planning to go home during the extended school break. Some students were looking forward to the festival, while others were excited about returning to their hometowns.
Everyone had different plans.
“The Order of the Holy Knights?” I asked.
“Yes, I want to see the grand return parade of the Order of the Holy Knights, and afterward, I’m planning to visit the monastery. I haven’t been there in a long time.”
Adriana seemed positively beaming at the thought of witnessing the majestic return of the Order of the Holy Knights, and seemed proud just imagining it.
For the sake of the Great War, the five major religions united to form a single military force. This was the Order of the Holy Knights. Priests and paladins from all religions had joined forces to become one pillar of the allied army, and they were now returning victorious from the Great War.
I was well aware of this part. The Order of the Holy Knights continued to exist thereafter, and became the dream destination for all paladins and priests to join. It was likely that Adriana also hoped to join the Order of the Holy Knights.
“And you said you’re returning to the monastery?”
“Yes. I was raised in the Art-Ouen Monastery of the Duchy of Saint-Ouen.”
Adriana had been raised in a monastery dedicated to Ouen, the god of purity. Even though she was an orphan, she had been allowed to enroll in the Temple’s Royal Class due to her exceptional talents. It seemed that is why she had enrolled in the Temple, starting from the higher grades.
If she had the divine power of Ouen, then that meant her Turn Undead spells would be extremely powerful. Of course, I had nothing to do with Turn Undead, but that meant that Adriana and I were fundamentally incompatible.
The doctrine of Ouen would inherently contain a disdain for demonkind.
Honestly, I couldn’t remember all the detailed settings, but I had relearned or gained new knowledge of this world while living in the Temple. Encountering these doctrines and teachings of the religions that I had once brainstormed and written out in a hurry was a rather strange ordeal.
“By the way, aren’t the paladins and priests of Ouen prohibited from marrying?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Adriana tilted her head, wondering why I was asking something so obvious.
“Wouldn’t you say that it’s too early to decide such things at such a young age?”
‘You can still consider such matters once you’ve matured further. Why not live a little first and see the world before getting involved in the priesthood?’
But Adriana simply smiled at my opposition as if it was funny that someone younger than her was giving her such advice.
“If you attend some services and experience the community, you might change your mind too, junior. There are people in the world who can live on faith alone. It’s a fulfilling life, in its own way.”
I began to feel slightly intimidated by the overwhelming aura of purity coming from her. Lately, she had been bringing up this topic with increasing frequency. It was as though she was on her deathbed, speaking her last words.
Adriana suddenly grabbed my hand.
Her sudden touch did not give me butterflies. If anything, it frightened me.
“So, after the break is over, will you promise to come to a meeting with me?”
“Please, please don’t do this...”
“You don’t have to follow Ouen’s doctrine strictly. Everyone within the religion is entitled to grace, junior, even you, with your prickly personality. I assure you that it can be mended. They’re all good people.”
All of a sudden, Adriana had begun her missionary work on me.
‘I mean, it’s incredibly kind and I do appreciate it, but it’s also overwhelming!’
“We can all be happy, partaking in fellowship with the members of the congregation.”
Adriana had somehow become the noona that goes to church, even though I never set foot in church myself.
But I was too grateful to push her away. It was true that she has been very supportive in many ways, like an actual church noona.
‘Yeah, I know exactly how this goes!
‘First, they approach you gently, act incredibly kind, then make you feel too guilty to refuse when they shepherd you to church. Then it happens once, twice, three times, and after the fourth time, you confess that you like them, but it turns out that they only wanted to share the good news with a non-believer like you and didn’t mean to give you the wrong impression. Regardless, they still ask you to come to the next meeting, and mention that they’d be sad if you didn’t go anymore...
‘This is exactly how I imagine it’s going to play out!’
Oh, no. I was getting flashbacks of my first love, who was also a noona...
Dear beloved noona,
I hope you’re doing well.
I heard you got married...
I’m doing well... except, I suddenly found myself reminiscing about you in this other world...
From... me
.
.
“I, I actually already have a religion!” I blurted out in desperation, to prevent myself from being pulled into a hellish place.
That prompted Adriana to tilt her head in confusion.
“Huh? You already follow someone?”
“Ah, well... It’s not so much ‘someone’... But yes, I do have faith.”
“Oh... In who?”
I looked at Adriana with a resolute expression.
Yes, I in fact did have a religion.
“Me.”
“...?”
“I believe in myself.”
I belonged to a religion where the only object of worship and the only worshiper was myself.
I was both the leader and the sole member of the “Church of Self-Brainwashing”!
“My ultimate source of power comes from believing in myself.”
The fact that that statement was true made it even more bizarre.
“Uh... huh?”
Adriana couldn’t comprehend what I said and stood stock-still for a while.
After processing my explanation, she told me to stop talking nonsense and smacked me on the back.
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