Chapter 19: Chapter 18: Round Them All Up
Since I had absolutely nothing to do, I decided to train a little.
In a way, that was how the game was supposed to go—you had to grind to improve your Verner in between events. I just didn't think that it would apply to me too.
I started training my magic on autopilot, and at the same time, I created seven balls out of mana. I kicked and tossed them around to pass the time. Then, I transformed the balls into little fairies and had them play together. Doing this sort of stuff allowed me to improve my accuracy and control over my magic.
Fire, water, earth, wind, thunder, ice, and light... I could freely use seven out of the eight magic attributes.
At the moment, I could use around ten spells simultaneously. From what I'd read in history books, saints and witches of the past had trouble using only two at the same time...and only a few ever managed to achieve that.
I'm pretty awesome, aren't I? But for real, I have no idea what to do.
If I approached the basement, the witch would run away and I'd have no way of finding her. I had no idea who was spying on me, so even if I tried to be discreet and headed there alone, there was a chance I'd be found out.
The witch might very well have put one of her monsters on lookout duty right at the entrance of the basement. If it were to alert her of my presence before I could silence it, the witch would have all the time in the world to run away before I reached her.
All in all, I was stuck until I found a way to deal with her teleportation ability.
To teleport, the witch would have to break up her body into tiny particles and fly away faster than greased lightning. If anyone other than her were to try something like that, they'd die on the spot. Only the witch could withstand it thanks to her strong dark powers.
Maybe I should put up a barrier around the entire school?
If I made one that prevented even the smallest of particles from getting through, she'd most likely be unable to leave the school grounds. But that would mean that no air would come through either... There were tons of students in this school. I couldn't take such a risk.
Plus, I doubted that the witch would fall that easily. I'd need some time to defeat her...and what if she used fire spells while the academy was fully enclosed? That would be an absolute disaster!
So I'd thought up a way to trap the witch, but there was a chance I'd lose—oh, and kill people in the process—because of the lack of oxygen.
Maybe I should evacuate the students before putting up a barrier?
If I did something that showy, though, the headmaster himself would easily notice and warn the witch...let alone the spies I couldn't identify.
In that case, taking care of the headmaster had to come first. But I'd look like a villain if I attacked him without cause.
Aaargh... I can't think of any decent ideas!
I had a few plans in mind that were in the maybe-that-could-kinda-sorta-work-but-who-knows category, but nothing reliable.
I really had to find a way to deal with the spies first... I needed to identify them all and find solid evidence before I could take care of them...preferably, all at once.
But how? Should I just round 'em up and question them till they tell me what I want to know?
I mean, I could technically do it. Considering all the stuff Ellize got away with in the game, I definitely had the authority to...but my image was bound to suffer.
"Lady Ellize, may I talk to you for a moment?" Layla asked after knocking on my door.
What could she want? Well, I wasn't doing much at the moment, so there was no reason to refuse her.
So yeah, sure, come in!
She opened the door and entered, accompanied by Verner and his little troop—aka the same six people who'd fought against Pochi.
Is this route really gonna continue with these six as the main party? Is this a joke?
Under normal circumstances, they would've been arrested immediately for trespassing on the floor I stayed on. After what had happened last time, though, I'd told Layla to hear Verner out before getting mad if he ever came by.
"Layla?"
I figured they'd come because they had something to tell me, but they were all staring at my room in disbelief, completely silent.
What's wrong? Don't you guys have something to say? Oh, I get it now—are you bothered by the little guys flying around in my room? Are they too distracting? All right, all right, let me get rid of them. So, what's up?
"Layla, I can't read your mind," I tried again.
"Oh... I-Indeed... They have a rather strange story to share with you," she said, pointing at Verner and his friends. "I suggest hearing them out."
A strange story, huh? Honestly, I wouldn't expect these guys to have anything remotely normal to say, so I'm not too surprised. Go on then, I shall listen. Make it short, though, I don't have all day!
"What is it?" I asked.
"Well, in fact..."
Verner told me they'd overheard Aina and the headmaster have a very suspicious chat earlier. Something about Marie cheating, and Aina being a perfect student and the only one he could trust. He'd told her that there were spies in the school, and that she needed to watch me closely.
Yikes. Classic villain speech.
But hey, I finally knew who would notify the witch of my presence on Eterna's route—as well as others'. It was Aina!
In the original game, she was supposed to try to kill me. Now that that plotline had disappeared, she was being manipulated by the enemy instead. She was bound to become my enemy no matter what.
I had a feeling that if the headmaster were to tell her I was a fake, and that she had to kill me to prove her loyalty to the real saint, she'd do it without any hesitation. Well, she wouldn't be in the wrong, though—I was a fake.
"Foolish girl... How could a daughter of the honorable Fox family be deceived so easily? Marie won fair and square; anyone who saw the match would know that. Aina lost because she wasn't strong enough, that's all there is to it. Her father is an exemplary knight. He would despair if he heard that she was blaming her opponent instead of accepting her shortcomings."
Layla sounded like she was disappointed in Aina, but I couldn't help but feel bad for her. What could I say? I was just too soft on cute girls. If she'd been a dude, I would've laughed at her instead.
Time to defend her a little.
"Layla, please don't be so harsh. People get fooled because they don't expect others to have bad intentions. From what I've heard, Aina grew up sheltered, and she did not experience any hardships. She felt hurt and anxious after losing to Marie, and the person who reached out to her when she was at her lowest was the headmaster himself. How could she expect a man in such a position to betray her trust?"
On top of that, half of what he'd told her was true. There were spies in the academy—like him, for starters.
I remembered hearing somewhere that convincing liars always mixed in some truth in their fabrications. Plus, all jokes aside, I did think that—considering Aina's psyche and the situation she was in at the time—it would've been almost impossible for her to resist the headmaster's words.
At least now I had the confirmation that the headmaster was on the witch's side in this world too.
"I don't think Aina could have avoided falling for his smooth talk considering her mental state," I continued. "I believe it's now clear that the headmaster serves the witch... She would be the one who benefits most from knowing about my whereabouts, after all."
"It stands to reason, indeed... Lady Ellize, you're amazing, as always. I, Layla, can only stand in awe of your infinite wisdom."
Good, Scotterbrain, praise me more!
Verner, Eterna, Fiora, Marie, and...uh, the other two...had done a great job. Now I had a perfectly good reason to seize the headmaster. As long as I caught him, the rest of the moles would be easy enough to find.
"I still can't believe the headmaster is working with the witch... He was the head of Lady Alexia's—the previous saint's—guard..."
I mean...that's exactly why. Saints turn into witches, that's just how it is. Remember, class, the current witch's name is Alexia. This'll be on the test, all right?
The headmaster hadn't betrayed anyone. If anything, he'd stayed faithful to his master, Alexia, the entire time. She'd just changed classes, and he'd followed right along, going from the saint's knight to the witch's.
It didn't really matter to me, though. An enemy was an enemy, regardless of their reasoning. I still had every intention of destroying the witch and her clique.
Now that I had a nice justification, it was time for me to step in and deal with the headmaster!
While he was a former head of the saint's guard—which made him more or less on par with Layla—he didn't hold a candle to me.
Barrier, magic enhancement, and...there! All righty, none of your attacks work on me now. Too bad, bro!
Now all I had to do was overpower him, catch him, and force him to give me the names of the other spies, et voilà!
Right as I was about to leave, though, someone stopped me. "Please wait, O glorious saint."
Great. Four-Eyed Pervert. It's kinda impressive how this guy always looks like he's on the verge of betraying me.
"Even if you succeed in seizing the headmaster, I doubt he will give you the names of all the spies. He'll hide some."
That...makes sense! Damn, even Four-Eyed Pervert says smart stuff sometimes!
"Would you leave this to me? I'll spy on him myself and expose every single one of his allies for you."
Could he manage that? I had my doubts. Four-eyed Pervert was a minor character and definitely not one of the most capable ones.
Won't he get caught and end up giving information to the enemy instead?
Still, there were some perks. If it went well, it would help me a lot. On top of that, he didn't know much about me or my plans, and I didn't really care if he fell into their hands... Actually, that would be kinda nice.
The way he looked at me was absolutely disgusting, and once—though I was pretty sure he thought I hadn't noticed—I'd seen him steal a spoon I'd used and stuff it in a bag. It'd irked me so much that I hadn't even found it in me to confront him, but I hated his guts. Piece of trash!"I understand," I said. "I shall leave this matter in your hands, then. I'm sure you will live up to my expectations, Mr. Supple Ment."
Whatever. I don't care what happens to you, anyway. Go forth and accomplish your mission. I shall bury your bones and—actually, nah. I'll toss 'em in the sea, that's the best I can do.
"Oh... To think I'd hear your lovely mouth say that you have expectations for me! Oooooh! What an honor! These words alone can sustain me for ten— No! For a hundred years, at least! Please leave everything to me, my dear saint! I, Supple Ment, will do everything in my power to satisfy your expectations!"
Urgh... Disgusting...
After I'd waited for two weeks, Four-Eyed Pervert came to find me with a satisfied grin and a piece of parchment paper.
"I'm sorry for making you wait, O glorious saint. Here is the list of the scoundrels hidden in this academy I've been able to find after investigating for two weeks," he said, handing me the paper.
I didn't really wanna touch something that creep had touched, so I had Layla grab the list and read out the twenty-four names.
I'd never even heard of most of them. Hell, I wasn't even sure they were even mentioned in the game in the first place. Obviously, the headmaster and Aina were also listed.
I suspected that most of the people who were helping the headmaster had been duped—just like Aina—but a few of them were probably real followers of the witch.
If the contents of this list were correct...he'd done a pretty good job.
Four-Eyed Pervert, you did well for once.
Layla didn't seem convinced, though. She was reading through the list again and again, her face falling as she did.
"Is this a joke, Mr. Supple? I must say I've started to suspect you of being a traitor after seeing this. You gave us a false report to make us grow suspicious of people who did nothing wrong on purpose, didn't you?! You want to weaken humanity by having us doubt each other!"
"How vexing. Why would I ever offer my heart and my loyalty to someone other than Lady Ellize?"
Layla flew into a rage. "Then why did you write this sad excuse of a list?! Most of the people you listed are devoted to helping humanity! They're illustrious knights who fought by the previous saint's side!"
Four-Eyed Pervert shrugged as if to taunt her.
To be honest, what Layla had just pointed out made me believe the list was perfectly accurate.
I see, so that's how it is... The previous saint's knights are ganging up together to help her.
I had doubted Four-eyed Pervert for a moment, but the fact that he'd brought such a suspicious list to us without trying to justify himself in the slightest made me think the results of his investigation were valid.
"They're all respectable people! Certainly, they've retired from the saint's guard because of their age, but they've decided to continue to devote themselves to our great cause by raising new generations of knights! I won't let you mock such devoted and honorable individuals!"
"I'm not trying to mock them," Four-Eyed Pervert retorted. "I don't care if they served the previous saint faithfully. The fact that they're betraying humanity now is proof enough that they're lowlifes. Layla, you need to stop thinking that everyone values their oath and pride as much as you do."
"How dare you?!" Layla roared, grabbing her sword.
Four-Eyed Pervert gave up on arguing with her and prepared to use his magic.
Wait, guys! You're not gonna fight here, are you?!
"Layla, calm down," I stepped in. "It's regrettable, but we cannot deny the possibility that former knights may have decided to turn against us—the headmaster certainly did. Not to mention he has plenty of admirers, so some of them may have decided to follow his lead."
"That's true, but..."
Layla reluctantly let go of her sword. I hesitantly turned to look at Four-Eyed Pervert.
Urgh... I really don't wanna look at him. Why's he smiling just because I'm looking at him?
"Mr. Supple, could you tell me how you compiled this list?"
"What a remarkable question!" he exclaimed, praising me. "The traitors are all using the same means of communication. Stil's birds, in fact. The birds—named after the person who discovered them eighteen years ago—have a peculiar ability, you see. They developed the capacity to blend into their surroundings to evade predators and, thus, are almost invisible. They're also great at mimicry. They can imitate the sounds of other animals to drive away their predators. As you can guess, many people were interested in their incredibly useful abilities, so they began domesticating them around fifteen years ago. Their invisibility makes them easy to carry around without anyone noticing, and the fact that they can mimic voices means they can pass on messages. Delightful creatures, are they not?"
He seemed overjoyed to share this information with me.
I don't care when they were discovered. They're birds and good messengers, that's all I need to know.
"I caught the Stil's birds the spies were using to contact each other and discreetly replaced them with birds I trained myself. Now, every time they try to communicate secretly with each other, the birds relay their messages to me. Naturally, I did not swap all the birds at once—I was very methodical and exchanged them one after the other slowly. With this information, it was rather easy to find their meeting places and listen in on them as well. I've also taken advantage of the times when they've left their offices empty to dig around a little... Let me assure you that I have put the past two weeks to good use. I'm positive I've discovered everything they were hiding."
He was actually surprisingly capable.
Taking over their means of communication...that's clever.
It was the equivalent of wiretapping their phones.
Given that there were neither phones nor the internet in this world, people had to rely on more primitive ways of communicating. Now that I thought about it, it made me realize all over again just how great of an invention the telephone had been.
"You're really sure this list is completely accurate?" I asked.
"While I cannot tell you whether they chose to join the witch willingly, or if they were tricked by the headmaster, I can confirm that they are all involved without a shadow of a doubt. I must advise you to detain them all first before ascertaining their guilt or innocence."
"Is it possible that more spies escaped your notice?"
"It's not impossible. It's unlikely that they would have made no contact with any of the others during the two week span, but certainly not entirely impossible."
Unlikely but not impossible, huh?
That meant there was room for failure even if we caught everyone on this list at once. Still, there was no way to know for sure unless we actually tried it.
I had to accept the fact that we'd done everything we could.
Which means...it's time to go for it!
I could've gone for a safer approach and had Supple continue his investigation, but the headmaster would most likely continue to recruit more students in the meantime and make the situation even more complicated.
I was also a bit worried that the witch would panic and flee if all of her spies stopped contacting her at the same time.
I didn't have a choice. I'd have to get help from the pervert again.
"In this case, we ought to act swiftly. I only have one worry—if the witch stops receiving messages from her spies, she'll notice that something is wrong and might flee. To avoid this, I'll need your help, Mr. Supple..."
"Naturally. I shall replace the Stil's birds the headmaster uses to contact the witch herself. After you detain him, I'll pretend to be him and communicate with the witch in his stead. I believe this is the best course of action."
"I'm glad we're on the same page."
I was impressed to hear he'd thought of that already. He didn't do much in the original game, but as it turned out, he was super duper helpful.
Are you still the same Four-Eyed Pervert I know?
Thanks to him, I could move on to operation Round Them All Up!
Let's go all out, yeah!
The plan was rather straightforward—we'd use the stealthy birds controlled by Supple to invite everyone to one place for an important discussion. We'd just have to pretend to be the headmaster for them to believe it. At the same time, we'd send a similar message to the headmaster from one of his fellow spies, leading all of these idiots to happily gather in the training room for a (fake) clandestine meeting (lol).
The training room—a large space about the size and look of a gymnasium—was located on the campus, next to the main school building. Okay, it wasn't just "about the size and look of a gymnasium," it was literally a regular gymnasium. I'd never really understood why a school for knights had such a thing, but yeah. Honestly, I suspected the guy in charge of hiring illustrators had been a little too lazy and had simply taken a free stock picture off the internet.
Anyway, I was there, hidden behind a curtain and ready to storm into action. As I waited, I pondered over the (not so) impressive gymnasium—um, training room, sorry—of this school.
"What happened? Why are you all here?" the headmaster asked, puzzled.
"What do you mean? You told us to come!"
"Nonsense! Why would I do this?!"
Would you look at that? The idiots are at it. Keep going while I activate my...barrier! You're all sitting ducks, heh heh!
"Darn! It was a trap!" the headmaster exclaimed as he noticed my barrier.
Too late! You'll never escape me! Checkmate!
A bunch of small fries ready for the taking, heh heh! I swung the curtains open dramatically and stepped forward.
"Lady Ellize?! What is going on?!" Aina all but screamed.
She looked like she had absolutely no idea what was happening. I guess it makes sense, the poor girl was just being used.
Four-eyed Pervert snapped his fingers with a smug face. The Stil's birds that had been resting on the fools' shoulders or heads started repeating the last things they'd heard in unison.
"Be careful not to get noticed by Ellize."
"That lass is so easy to fool. What an idiot."
"Everything we do is for our dear master, the witch!"
"Shouldn't we just lure Ellize out and beat her up ourselves?"
Some of the statements were quite incriminating, indeed.
A few people glared at the headmaster, their eyes full of animosity.
"Headmaster! What is going on?!"
"Why in the world are they planning to hurt Lady Ellize?!"
"Did you not seek us out so we could protect the saint together?!"
So these guys are the ones that got played, huh?
The crowd split into two factions in the blink of an eye: the true followers of the witch on one side, and the ones who'd been fooled by the headmaster on the other.
"Calm down! There are dozens of ways to mess with Stil's birds. Just because they repeated something doesn't mean they necessarily heard it from the people here! Saint, please do not let yourself be fooled by such tricks! This man is the true traitor!" he cried, pointing at Four-Eyed Pervert. "He's trying to turn you against your faithful supporters! Please believe me! Everything I do, I do in the best interest of the saint!"
I see, I see. Everything you do is in the best interest of the saint, huh? I do believe that, actually. It just so happens that you're talking about a completely different saint, aren't you?
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