Chapter 92 (2/2)
“What?”
“Is it true that you exterminated the warlocks, I mean, the demonic turncoats, alone before the agents of Central intervened?”
Both Rizzly’s and Lanburton’s ears perked up in antic.i.p.ation of Rivelia’s answer. Currently, Central was in quite a commotion, hearing that Isaac managed to not only kill tens of combat knights but even injure some of Central’s agents. This was an astonis.h.i.+ng feat. Not even agents of Central could face off against tens of armed combat knights alone, even if they were equipped with their extraordinary equipment.
“And if it is?”
Everyone let out a moan of astonishment.
“So you did possess the Queen’s Artifact. And you’ve been keeping it secret all this time!”
Rivelia couldn’t help but glare at Isaac, frustrated that she had been tricked by him all this time.
“You’re supposed to hide treasures in the first place.”
Isaac smiled, seeing Rivelia. Then he quickly remembered the Emperor and Yoo-rah, who made no mention of it at all. Considering Rivelia’s personality, she most definitely would have mentioned the Queen’s artifact in her report.
‘Aren’t they worried that someone like me is possessing such a dangerous tool?’
“I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“Huh? what doesn’t matter?”
“That there’s one thing that’s gotten better. I can do whatever I want in broad daylight.”
“What are you scheming now?”
“Do I have to report everything to you? Shall I file a report of every single breath I take as well?”
Crack!
Rivelia couldn’t help but grit her teeth and clench her fists, listening to Isaac’s sarcasm. It had been like this ever since their positions were reversed. Isaac was someone Rivelia could deal with alone in the past, but that was before he got involved with Central. Now not only did he outrank her now, but her position was quickly changed from the Overseer of New Port City to the Vice Director of Security.
She couldn’t even object, as she’d heard that her father, who loved her dearly, was on the verge of declaring war when he heard the news. The Pendleton family most definitely had the power to do so. That was barely stopped when the Grand Council and even the Queen stepped up to appease him. But if Rivelia ever uttered a single complaint about her current work and her father heard of it, the Empire would be embroiled in a civil war immediately. The fact that this couldn’t be taken as a joke was the scariest. So if she didn’t want to become the woman who threw the Empire into a civil war by complaining that her work was difficult, she had to suffer through the worker’s dilemma – unable to quit no matter how disgusting, unfair, and unjust her work was.
Unlike his claim of swearing that he’d play all day, Isaac’s life returned to the norm. He just couldn’t be bothered to move around, and despite putting his mind to it, he realised that there were no suitable locations for leisure. But that didn’t mean he wasted all the time. Now that he didn’t need to worry about Central’s watch, Isaac began making actions in broad daylight.
He ordered Soland to sc.r.a.p together all the books regarding magic circles and circuits. Rivelia a.s.sumed that it was related to the Queen’s Artifact’s power at first, but even that became doubtful when Isaac didn’t even study those books attentively, rather just flicking through them and then throwing them away.
She would have used every tool at her disposal to extract some sort of information from him if he were just a normal invader, but behind Isaac stood the Queen. The news of Isaac and the Queen being acquaintances even in their previous world had spread throughout Central already. Humans were beings that found safety in their own kin.
The Queen would protect Isaac no matter what disasters he wrought, making him free to do whatever he wanted under her authority. Isaac didn’t seem like he was causing incidents at this point, but that’s what was most worrying. It felt like the calm before the storm.
To Isaac, this was perhaps the most leisure time he’d ever had. Now that the Emperor’s decree held as much power as wet toilet paper, he no longer needed to concern himself with developing the city. What little work that required his attention was now all pushed to Rivelia instead, and Isaac was simply waiting until he was contacted. After two months, he finally received a call from Mazelan.
“Are you finally back from your house arrest? Your face is a mess.”
Isaac jabbed at Mazelan’s exhausted face that appeared on the screen, but Mazelan seemed too tired to react and sighed before speaking.
-I’ve gathered the volunteers you wanted.
“Wow! There really were idiots who volunteered?”
MAzelan frowned upon hearing Isaac’s words of surprise.
-I’ve already sent their resumes. Rivelia will hand over the doc.u.ments regarding them when you go see her.
“How many are there?”
-That doesn’t matter. Your job is to weed them out until there’s only 50 of them left.
“50?”
-That’s the maximum number we can allow.
“That’s quite small.”
-That’s the limit, considering all of the n.o.ble t.i.tles and fiefdoms we need to provide for them. That’s two months of painstaking work right there.
“You’ve worked hard.”
-Their actual training will begin after they graduate from the Campus next year.
Isaac tilted his head hearing Mazelan.
“Why’s the Campus involved in this?”
This time it was Mazelan who c.o.c.ked his head.
-Has the Queen not told you?
“Tell me about what?”
Mazelan sighed and grumbled.
-So much for leaving all the explaining to her. How did she miss out on so much?
“…”
-All of Central’s activities are utmost confidential. We can’t even recruit normal soldiers during the defence of the Gate because of it. In truth, they are of little help and only drag the morale down. Because of this, we only have a small number of elite troops to engage the enemy, but where do you think the most ideal place to recruit these talented individuals is? Who would be able to keep their mouths closed and be willing to sacrifice their lives for the Empire in the darkness, away from the public eye?
“… The College?”
The Campus was not the answer. That’s attended by actual students. But the College was completely isolated from the outside. n.o.body knew what happened inside the College other than those who attended it.
-The Campus is more than enough to nurture talented individuals. The reason the College is isolated from Campus is because it is tasked with training those who have been recruited into Central.
“I thought the College was too isolated to be called a school. But it seemed like the College teaches quite a lot for just training?”
-As the saying goes, hide the tree inside a forest. Just as everyone has their unique talents and skills, Central recruit students from the College who demonstrate talent in military or combat. The rest are true geniuses, as you know.
“Sounds plausible. Even if you see them training, no one would doubt it since they are already majoring in that field anyway. I don’t know who came up with it, but that was very smart.”
-Of course, we do not shy away from recruiting others if they have talents that would be of great benefit to Central, whether they are from Campus or College. Those who have been transferred from the Campus to the College are mostly individuals who have been recruited into Central.
“That’s efficient.”
Everyone found it an honour to even attend the Campus and the College. All Central had to do was pick and choose from all of the Empire’s greatest talents that had been gathered on their doorstep. Graduating from the College set them up for guaranteed success, and Central was perhaps the most stable and powerful inst.i.tution in the Empire. No wonder all these brats who’d spent all their time studying would rush over and take the bait.
-But the losses the Empire had suffered was painstaking.
“Losses?”
-You know how the basic t.i.tle for those who graduated from College are ‘genius among geniuses?’ That’s a fact. These talents, who would have achieved historical feats, are slaughtered in a mere single defence of the Gate. The number of casualties have dropped ever since the development of the coat, but every College graduate lost is a critical blow to the Empire.
“Is that so?”
-Just remember that fact. And I don’t know what training you’ll make them go through, so is there anything you need?
Ideas came into Isaac’s mind hearing Mazelan’s question.
“Are there any weapons you managed to steal from these Expeditionary forces?”
-We do but…
“Send as many of them over as you can. With ammo. It’s not broken by any chance?”
-No one in this world can match the Department of Supplies’ storage management.
Hearing Mazelan’s prideful boast, Isaac considered commenting that it wasn’t much to be proud of, but he kept the fact that there was no need to agitate him in mind.
“Good. Bring me as much as you can.”
-Which kind?
“Bring me one of everything.”
-… That much? What are you going to use it on? Don’t tell me you’re going to equip all of your Security agents with weapons from the Expedition?
“No. I’m using it for training.”
Mazelan c.o.c.ked his head, unable to fathom Isaac’s actions, but decided to accept his demands for now.
-Well I’ll send them over since they’ve been rotting away in storage. Anything else?
“Bring me the defensive coats agents use to equip all of them. Using manufactured mana crystals, not the pures.”
-Manufactured? That’s going to make their efficiency horrible.
“Then you can try to provide pures for all of them?”
-… I’ll send them over with manufactured crystals. Anything more?
“I’ll let you know if anything else comes to my mind.”
-And… Nevermind.
Mazelan was about to ask what were Isaac’s training goals or how long it was going to be but decided not to. There’s no way that man would even bother to plan it, and most likely, he was forcing Rivelia to sort through all those things.
“So when can I begin?”
-You can start whenever you want once you pick your candidates.
“Then let’s say I start in a month’s time. Ah! I’ll be heading to Campus in a few days because there are things I need to prepare. Provide me with the necessary transportation.”
-What? What about New Port City?
“It was doing fine without me. The fake was doing a good job.”
-…
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