Chapter 105 (1/2)
Despite being completely innocent of any crime, the council members s.h.i.+vered in terror. Everyone here possessed some kind of embarra.s.sing secret hidden away. And these secrets would be revealed to the world if the Director of Surveillance willed it out of anger. n.o.body wanted to suffer the shame and embarra.s.sment. Yoo-rah smiled at the council members’ reactions and continued.
“I resolved to establish the Directorate of Security after finding out there was a spy within Central. The creation of a new organisation directly tasked with fighting our foe. This alone would have enough of an impact to inhibit our foes. This was just an idea at first, but the moment I found Isaac, I knew he was the perfect candidate. Our enemies won’t be able to predict his unconventional and illogical actions.”
“… Does it not apply to us as well?”
Everyone nodded in agreement with the Emperor’s remark. They all thought that he was indeed a strange man at first, but they didn’t realize the extent of his lunacy until Isaac actively tried to kill his men in the name of training. It was much better to kill a monster that could not be controlled. There was a debate to kill Isaac at one point, and it was the Queen who’d stopped it.
“There are still some of you who question Rivelia’s position in the Directorate of Security, correct? That’s because I have explained and convinced Duke Pendleton of the future you’re all worried about.”
Everyone finally seemed convinced and nodded together. Duke Pendleton came so close to open rebellion before suddenly quieting down. To think there was this secret behind it.
“So, she is the kill switch for that monster.”
“Well, there is that, but we also needed an actual commander. I mean, Isaac isn’t the type to lead an organisation right?”
As everyone nodded in agreement to Yoo-rah, she continued.
“The Directorate of Security will continue to combat angelic and demonic turncoats as originally planned. The Directorate of Security will be the new face and shadow of Central. So I would ask you all to support it earnestly.”
“How did it go?”
The Emperor barged into his office fuming with anger, and Ismael, who had been waiting inside, asked. The Emperor poured himself a gla.s.s of wine and gulped it all down before slamming the table, unable to hold his anger.
“s.h.i.+t! We’ve been had! Completely and utterly.”
Ismael looked at the Emperor silently, waiting for an explanation. The Emperor buried himself into his chair and told Ismael what had happened in the meeting.
Ismael’s face c.u.mbled after having heard of the entire story.
“This is her warning.”
“I know. s.h.i.+t! Just look at all these problems because of one screw-up…”
The Emperor grumbled and Ismael dropped his head apologetically. The start of this incident was quite mundane.
The royal family had always been disgruntled with the fact that the Queen’s authority was higher than theirs. So they kept a skeptical eye on her and soon began noticing some suspicious movements. With great difficulty, they managed to persuade one of the invaders that had been working in the Queen’s own laboratory to help them.
The man was capable, but his envy of the Queen and haughty personality made him easy to recruit. The royal family plotted a scheme to oust the Queen.
It was a simple plan; the recruited invader would steal one of the Queen’s Artifacts and escape the laboratory. The Empire would then arrest the man using the excuse that he had joined forces with a demonic turncoat and use that incident to occupy the Queen’s laboratory and secure both the lab’s researchers and their research data.
It was supposed to unearth the intentions behind the Queen’s suspicious activities, but even if they didn’t find anything, having gained direct access to the Queen’s research data was a ma.s.sive profit. But the Queen immediately accused the traitorous researcher of being a demonic turncoat and publicised the theft of her artifact, forcing Central to intervene.
With that plan in ruins, the Dark Royale deployed a fake and barely managed to escape by the skin of their teeth as both Central and the Queen were right at their doorstep.
However, they failed to recover the artifact in their rush, and it ended up in the hands of someone they’d never expected. This drew the Queen’s attention elsewhere, and the Dark Royale breathed a sigh of relief. But the chase for the researcher was still ongoing. It was too much of a burden to keep the researcher.
So they planned on eliminating the researcher in secret, but this researcher was incredibly sharp and cunning. He escaped their custody, so the Dark Royale decided to bring Isaac into their fold and use his acquaintance with the Queen against her. But this Isaac was no ordinary lunatic; he ended up annihilating one of the lesser organisations under the Dark Royale.
With even that plan failing, even the members of the Grand Council that had been questioning the Queen’s actions and turned a blind eye on the Dark Royale’s activity had turned their backs on them. The Dark Royale had no choice but to lay low until the situation calmed down, when one of the agents coincidentally found the escaped researcher.
They decided to only watch closely in case it was a lure to bring them out. Through their close surveillance, they found out he had been planning to contact the Expeditionary Forces. Immediately, both Ismael and the Emperor realised that this was an unprecedented opportunity.
If they could prove that the Queen had been secretly contacting the Expeditionary Forces, even the Grand Council, who tended to side with the Queen, would have no choice but to curtail her authority.
So they moved in secret to prevent the Queen from finding out. But the situation escalated more and more. As they continued to watch the researcher, they found out that the Expeditionary Forces could open the Gate without alerting their devices and even succeeded in opening a Gate beyond the Forbidden Lands. These Gates were the size of a pinhole, allowing communication between both worlds.
Although this news needed to be shared and discussed within Central, they didn’t have any definite proof. If they acted rashly, it’d only alert the Queen. Just having dubious evidence left them disadvantaged and at risk of a counterattack.
So they continued to watch quietly – until they found a crucial opportunity. The researcher found out that the Directorate of Security was visiting the Forbidden Lands, and made a deal with the Expeditionary Forces to hand over Isaac and Rivelia as the price for fleeing to their world.
This was the opportunity to completely dethrone the Queen. Whether the Queen was involved in this matter or not didn’t matter. The fact that one of her own men tried to hand Rivelia over to the Expeditionary Forces was so d.a.m.ning that she wouldn’t be able to escape Duke Pendleton’s wrath.
All the Royale Family needed to do was let slip the news that this was uncovered by the Dark Royale, and the Pendletons would do all the work in dismantling the Queen.
Of course, risking Rivelia’s capture to the Expeditionary Forces was unacceptable in any circ.u.mstances. So all Dark Royale agents were deployed into the Forbidden Lands, and they secretly plotted with Commander Noxvil, who was on the royal family’s side, to hide the agents and sabotage all forms of communications.
And the result? The Directorate of Strategy had been played the fool. The Grand Council celebrated the unprecedented victory, and when the Emperor ordered the Dark Royale to at least secure the researcher, they found out that the researcher had never boarded the airs.h.i.+p heading to the Forbidden Lands in the first place.
They’d been playing in the palm of the Queen’s hand the whole time. The Queen knew everything from the start. And she used small talk to misdirect them before revealing the information about the Gate before the Emperor could, rendering all the evidence gathered by the Dark Royale useless. This strengthened the Directorate of Security while crippling the Directorate of Strategy.
The Emperor couldn’t do anything but watch as the Queen paved the way. The evidence he held was too weak to overturn what had been revealed by the Queen – not to mention that he didn’t even have the witness with him. He was so outmatched that it felt empty.
“Can you handle it?”
The Emperor asked worryingly, and Ismael replied with a smirk.
“Why do you even need to ask? It’s something we were prepared for since the beginning. I will take over all of the charges. I’ll lay low for some time.”