Side Story 20. Spider Trap (9)
Caesar took a brown mask out of his pocket. This mask was given to him by his teacher, Zendia, who’d told him to try it on if he wanted revenge. When he wore the brown mask, Caesar felt strange mana surrounding him.
This was a marker indicating that he was a part of the Twelve Zodiacs and a magic tool that kept his identity from being revealed. The mask was created by the members of the Twelve Zodiacs, Aries and Scorpio, and even an average madosa wouldn’t be able to undo the recognition-interfering magic.
"I'm Taurus. From now on, I will be working as Taurus." Caesar took a deep breath as he self-reflected before heading to the Twelve Zodiacs’ secret meeting place.
The meeting site was an attic in a rather colorful mansion located on the nobles’ street. As he opened the door and passed through several layers of thick blackout curtains, he saw familiar tables and candles.
"Oh! The new recruit has arrived!” A man wearing a blue-green mask smiled pleasantly and waved at Caesar.
Then a man wearing a yellow-green mask crossed his arms and smiled leisurely. "Use the assigned name rather than saying new recruit, Cancer."
"Yeah, all right, hyung. No, Capricorn."
In response to Cancer's answer, Capricorn sighed and frowned. "Sigh, who can stop you?"
"Ahahahaha! How embarrassing!" Cancer let out a burst of amiable laughter.
The red mask-wearing Scorpio also laughed as if she found it amusing. "You must have a bit of a headache because of your idiot younger brother."
Cancer chuckled genially. "Hahaha! Indeed, I am a little bit of an idiot!"
"She’s not complimenting you! You idiot!" Capricorn grew angry and hit the back of Cancer's head.
"Ahahaha! Who cares if it’s cursing? For warriors, being insulted gives you power, and humiliation gives you courage, so you know full well that curses can't hurt your honor even one bit."
"Okay, okay, you're obviously right.” Capricorn sighed as if he’d given up, shaking his head. He then looked at the gathered Scorpio and Caesar and asked, "Hmm, is it just the four of us who are participating in this strategy?"
"No. Two more people will come.”
When he heard Scorpio’s answer, Caesar inquired, "Who else is coming?"
"Libra and Gemini. The other six said they won't attend."
In response to Scorpio, Capricorn told Caesar, "Hey Taurus, I don't know who Aquarius is, but I think you know each other since he recommended you. Why don't you try persuading him? If Aquarius participates, I think Virgo and Pisces will too."
"... Aquarius said it’s too annoying." Caesar rejected as he awkwardly spoke the nickname of ‘Aquarius.’
Cancer nodded as if he sympathized with him. "Mmhmm! I agree with you. Even though the goal is to kill the Empire’s emperor, it isn’t befitting a warrior to take advantage of a time when there are no famous champions guarding him!"
Cancer grumbled his distaste toward this plan, and Capricorn sighed at his brother's whining. "Don't be ridiculous. The Empire is an enemy country. Do you think there will be no proper warriors when we try to take out the head of an enemy country?”
"Oh? Is that so?"
"Of course! The emperor is showing off how superior his people are by letting the Crow Tribe and Butterfly Tribe go off and do their own things during a large event."
"Oh! As expected, hyung is smart!" Cancer applauded in surprise.
"And those standing by the emperor, the Dragon Tribe, are also famed for being strong warriors. Don't let your guard down."
Cancer laughed pleasantly at Capricorn's advice and said hopefully, "Hahahahaha! I won't let my guard down. Any carelessness is like rust, so as a warrior, you have to always polish and keep your blade sharp. So then, can I fight with the Dragon Tribe?”
Scorpio shrugged. "Well, let's wait for the others and then talk about it.”
"I heard that Capricorn and Cancer are here on Aries’s recommendation, but Aries won’t be participating?"
At Caesar's question, Capricorn laughed bitterly. "He's not one to come to this kind of event."
"Well, that Sir probably finds this is annoying like Aquarius does."
When Cancer added some extra nonsense, Capricorn rebuked him. "Ahem! Ssssp! So unfaithful!” [ref] Sssp is the sound of sharply inhaling air. [ref/]
"Why? I didn't say anything wrong. To be honest, he ignores us and openly admits that he finds it annoying."
When Cancer confessed his dissatisfaction, Capricorn scolded him, saying, “We’ll talk about this later.”
Then, two people emerged from the blackout curtains.
"Yodelayhee~! Nice to see you all!"
A middle-aged man who wore a suit and a purple mask bearing a stylish mustache showed up, accompanied by Libra in a half white, half black mask.
"You still have strange greetings, Gemini. Which country is that greeting from?"
At Caesar's question, the man called Gemini raised his index finger in a white glove and shook it left and right. "Oh, my. Taurus-nim. ‘Yodelayhee~!’ is not a greeting. If I have to describe it, it's like humming ‘Lalala~!’"
"Oh… Is that so?”
“Yodelayhee~! That's right!"
Caesar thought Gemini was a strange person. Cancer seemed to share the same thought as Caesar, and he crossed his arms and spoke without hiding his feelings. "Hmm, it’s weird, so why don't you stop, Gemini?"
"That's so mean! What do you mean it's weird? Don't you think so too? Teacher-nim?” Gemini asked, seeing if Libra agreed.
Libra sighed and murmured, "Sigh, if you didn't have talent..."
Gemini made an exaggerated gesture as if he couldn’t hear him. "What, what, what did you say? I can't hear you well. Can you say that again? Yodelayhee~!"
"I said it wasn't weird. And call me Libra here, not Teacher-nim."
Libra would have taken another person as his successor if Cancer had not been the grandson of the former leader of the Demon King Worshiping Church. He was also a genius who became a madosa at a young age.
"Yodelayhee~! I'm sorry, Libra-nim."
After apologizing, Gemini looked at Cancer and spoke proudly, "See? He says it’s not weird, Cancer-nim!"
Looking at the prideful Gemini, Cancer whispered to his brother, "Are all magicians like that?"
"I think so.” Just this once, Capricorn had no choice but to agree with his younger brother.
"Well then, since everyone who decided to act this time has gathered, let's start the meeting."
Libra sat down and began the meeting to assassinate the emperor. Although, it was unclear whether the people gathered here would actually follow the plan, of course.
* * *
"Your Highness Prime Minister, why don't you close your eyes for a while? Haven’t you not been sleeping well these days?" Intelligence Director Pelgrant said worriedly.
Arcanta shook his head after rubbing his face dryly from exhaustion. "No, I still have a lot of work to do, so I can't. Isn't it hard for you to work in the treasury office and the intelligence department at the same time?"
The empire's intelligence department was a secret department that did not exist publicly. Since no one should know the information in the intelligence department, it had become a department that existed but did not have any members on paper.
"It would be a lie if I said it's not difficult."
Therefore, ordinary agents of the intelligence department were also assigned to other departments across the country as civil servants. Usually, intelligence agents were in trivial positions or externally demoted. This way, they could focus on the work of the intelligence department rather than the disguised positions.
However, Pelgrant, the head of the intelligence department, had to meet with the emperor and the prime minister frequently. As such, he had to have an external position that would allow him to know the emperor without it seeming strange.
"But is there anything I can do? This is the only position where I can always visit Your Highness and see His Majesty in urgent situations. Or are you finally allowing me to retire?”
Unfortunately, for civil servants who could meet the emperor, there were no positions that did not require a great deal of work. Pelgrant was only the head of the treasury office because it was convenient for the intelligence department to engage in these activities.
Arcanta smiled at Pelgrant's answer. "No way, I was just going to say cheer up because I'll give you an 800 percent year-end bonus."
Pelgrant smiled and joked at Arcanta's encouragement. "How cheap. Shouldn't it be about 1,000 percent for the work this time?"
"Hahaha, please be understanding. As you know, the treasury is poor. In particular, we have to teach new civil servants soon, and that costs money.”
On the contrary, the treasury received new civil servants twice a year and only received a small number of them at that, so it didn't cost much money.
Pelgrant smiled and shrugged at his superior’s hard-to-understand joke. "Well, no matter how much money I get, I don't have time to spend it, so it's useless.”
"That's true too. I always get nagged by my mother to get married, but I don't have time to go on a blind date."
"Isn't that a big deal? One of the only two duchies in the Empire will disappear." Pelgrant made a fuss but had a broad smile on his face.
For these two who were close since childhood, marriage and child problems were nothing more than light jokes. Of course, direct descendants were important, but even if there were no children, it was enough to have an adopted child.
"I know. My mom is very worried as well. Even though when the time comes, I will get married in a political marriage.” Arcanta spoke casually, but a political marriage was not such an easy matter.
The prime minister being a powerful person was one matter, but the issue regarding the rights to the duchy was also involved, so it was not so easy to find a suitable person. Considering the struggle for interests between politics and one’s family, it was better to marry a woman of a fallen noble house.
"Oh, by the way, don't you have a fiance? I am too, but you're getting closer to 30, so your father must be worried that your prime marriage time has passed."
"Ah ah, sure enough, my father curses Prime Minister-nim a lot. He says that you are taking advantage of another man’s son to the point where he can’t even get married."
"Hahahaha, am I the only one who’s taking advantage of you? His Majesty cares about and uses you to your full value too."
At Arcanta’s joke that was half true, Pelgrant laughed bitterly. "Haha, no matter how much of a joke it is, you shouldn’t curse His Majesty."
"Yet, I've heard that things aren't going too bad with that friend. The one who's working under you in her trial period."
When Arcanta smiled wickedly, Pelgrant was unexpectedly embarrassed. "What, no! Where did you hear that?!"
"Why are you so surprised? Since you’re being surprised, is it true? Wow, it should have only been about three days. You have some good skills."
"No! Where did you hear such false rumors.…”
Arcanta smiled when he saw Pelgrant frowning with a red face. "Hey, you're only about six years apart. Is it that bad? Is that friend around 23 years old? Do you want me to find out if she has a fiance?"
"It’s fine! I must’ve misunderstood when I said that Your Highness looked tired. Why don’t we finish talking about work!"
"Ahahaha! All right."
After laughing for a long time, Arcanta calmed his emotions and looked at the top-secret documents. "Finally, His Majesty’s birthday celebration will begin tomorrow. Has Bloody left the capital?”
"Yes. He finished getting ready and left this morning."
"I see." Arcanta examined the schedule of the birthday celebration’s third day several times and simulated the day in his mind.
"As expected, is the Blood Emperor a variable?"
Arcanta sighed and looked out the window. It was the end of spring, and the weather was sunny.
"Spring days are ending."
At Pelgrant's words, Arcanta nodded silently.
At the end of the banquet, the warm spring of the year would end. Forever.
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