Chapter Chapter 19: 3. And so the story begins. (3) (1/2)

3. And so the story begins. (3)

It’s weird. It’s weird. It’s weird.

What is this? It’s easy. Way too easy.

An easy job like this might as well be given to new agents that just graduated from the training centers. No, even easier. It’s about as easy as the trainees’ graduation exam.

But… they’re paying me this much? Does the organization have that much money lying around?

No, even if it was, they shouldn’t be giving me a job this easy when I’m busy with instructor work. It reeks of something awful.

“The problem is which side…”

Is it the organization? What’s the problem? Did they find out about my embezzlement of some of the Utopia Project funds?

Or when I made deals with the non-humans, did they find out I did a deal with them to sneak some of the cash into my own back pocket?

Or did one of my bloody disciples finally decide he or she wanted payback for all that time?

No, I can’t rule out the possibility of the Empire. It’s normally an irrelevant place, but that insane imperial princess could have dug a trap by removing all the key information.

Like a master fisherman throwing out a baited line waiting in anticipation for the big catch to bite.

But knowing my life so far, if I ran away thinking with that logic, it could just as easily turn out it actually was just a plain easy job, and I got scared for nothing and ended up getting chased by the organization! Is the sort of story that could happen.

So do the job and infiltrate for the time being. If I get caught by the organization then I can use my connections I’ve made till now to do something, if I get caught by the princess, then I need to bide my time and run away.

Unless I end up waking up without arms or legs and a “I still love you even this way!” type yandere is around, hm…. Uhh… now that I think about it that could be more than possible. Normally reality is a lot worse than fiction. But I just imagined it. Damn it.

“I’ll give it a shot.”

Just a barony. And one far out in the countryside to boot. So I infiltrated in to collect information.

I’d hoped the information I’d find was something along the lines of an evil god cult’s hidden hideout, or some anti-empire resistance organization, those kinds of uneasy expectations!

Wow, isn’t this way overdoing it?

No matter that this is the literal middle of nowhere of the empire, they’re all but openly stating that they’re an anti-empire rebel(AER) army.

A month since I was hired as a gardener, today as well I received orders that I couldn’t tell whether they were gutsy or just plain stupid.

“Now, do it like this.”

“Yes, boss.”

I took a pair of gardening shears and trimmed a bush in the garden to form a shape, this is a perfect AER symbol.

The emblem engraved on the statue far away over there was the AER symbol along with the house’s symbol.

There were already so many AER symbols everywhere that if this was the capital, the entire family would already have been arrested to be served the full torture course.

No, right now I’m so damn anxious at this point I’d actually prefer it if some AER members showed up, isn’t this apprehensive feeling because of some different reason entirely?

If they’re outright plastering the symbol everywhere the empire’s army could just charge in at any moment and take us all in!

Is this a trap, or is this the Empire’s trap! At this rate surely it won’t end up with me in the imperial prisons shouting “I’m innocent!” and either my former subordinates or the princess herself showing up and making me choose between marriage or death, right?

“Ohh, you’ve got good skills.”

“I’ve done this since I was young. If I couldn’t I’d have starved to death.”

I push away my unease for now and show off my shearing skills.

Hmm. Although I’d learned this on the fly but this is still an imperial gardener-level skill!

It would be hard to see this level of skill in a rural barony.

The princess as a kid was filthily hard to please so since most people assigned close to Her Highness lasted three months tops, 1 month at the shortest and so I had to pick up the slack and learn the other employees’ skills.

Well because of this her half-imprisoned knight order all became multitalented. Because they couldn’t even run away.

“It’s done.”

“Ohh, perfect. Good work, Kisen. I’ll put in a good word for you to my lord and have you as a permanent gardener for the family.”

“Thank you, boss.”

Although I say that with my mouth please don’t. I don’t want to go into the AER.

To be honest they’re all just playing on the Emperor’s hands, every time something big happens in the Empire he just grabs a few of them and executes them as a distraction, I have no wish to get tangled up with them any time soon.

As for the personality of our emperor, you could say it’s trash among trash. Even our boss who’s the head of an evil among evil organizations would be a saint compared to him.

Considering the purges in the imperial court were worse than the purges at the organization, I think that explains it all.

What kind of imperial court has more purges than an evil organization. Because it’s the strongest? Is there that many talented people!

“But I still have a really bad feeling about this.”

As it stands I’ve already gone and made three more AER symbols where they’re already overflowing.

Although to them it’s a symbol of secrecy, to think they’d go and stamp this pushover-confirming symbol which is known to just about everyone among the empire’s agents and personnel alike.

And the organization ordered me to collect information. If I had around another month then I could grab everything I need to, but there’s no guarantee that the imperial army won’t charge in first.

So…

“You are already surrounded!”

“D, damn it! Shit! Destroy all the important information, meet up at the promised place!”

Let’s go and take some relevant-looking documents and report it to the imperial troops. At the organization I can just say that the AER got caught by the empire’s troops and I snuck out in the confusion.

Hmm. Although it’s a bit of a pity that my creations are going up in flames, compared to my life they’re not worth anything at all.

Just in case, I’m observing them with a dwarven telescope after hiding myself. At my rough estimates it seems that they’re freshly trained new recruits. Thankfully it doesn’t seem like the imperial family’s involved in this case.

If there were, then someone would be tapping me on my shoulder, and when I turn around I’d see either the princess or her direct subordinates, with one of the princess’s personal battlemage corps priming a magic artillery circle above my head, telling me to surrender or die.

But I can’t relax with just this. Let say for example, an arrow comes flying out from that brush.

Fhit! Fhit! Fhit!

Hmm, or a bunch of people wearing black clothes show up.

Shuk! Shuk! Shuk!

And spout lines saying come peacefully or get hurt.

“Instructor Naruan! This is the organization’s orders. I strongly urge you to come peacefully.”

Wow, what are these kids that’re all third-rate villains from their appearance and their lines. It’s exactly our organization’s style.

And it actually is our organization. This is why I like our organization. It doesn’t stand out too much and get sacked by the empire.

“What’s the problem?”

Depending on the situation it might be better to just go along with them.

Seriously, just how much have I done for them till now! And how much in the way of bribes have I fed them! It was all in preparation for this moment!

I even had dinner with your department’s manager, and you! It’s not bad trying those kinds of lines.

“Instructor.”

Uh, hang on, this isn’t good.

“Rood, what brings you all the way here.”

Aruen Rood.

A beastkin half-blood, a disciple of my third cohorts along with Sia and Rein. And the one standing as captain of the most unique paramilitary group among all our paramilitary groups.

When the other kids were vice-director or vice-captain at best, there was only one reason why this kid was the captain.

Because only his unit, the Darksword, could change their captain with brute force.

With the aim of eliminating internal enemies, the Darksword is a group that only acts on the boss’s direct orders.

And that means…