I breached Zack's room with him completely unawares . .
"—!? Oh, it's you . How'd you even do that…".
Once he noticed I was there, Zack's eyes bulged in shock . .
Hehehe, nice reaction . I really liked this guy and his totally cliche reactions . .
"Here's that meal . Have at it . " He said, handing me a plate full of food . .
"Thanks . I'll borrow the table . ".
"Be my guest . ".
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Time for the moment of truth . .
On the menu this time, we have bread and cream stew, along with steak and vegetables . .
Simple and plentiful . .
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The bread was actually white on the inside and smelled pretty good . .
The cream stew had a variety of veggies and lots of chicken in each spoonful . Not bad at all . .
The steak was big . An 18 ouncer I reckon . The meat was lean with little fat, cooked soft and juicy . Just how I like it . .
It was a far cry from real gourmet food, but it was delicious in a normal way . Best of all was the fact that there was so much of it . .
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"I didn't imagine there'd be food this good served at a concentration camp . ".
"The country may be f.u.c.ked, but it's still the Country of Art . Our average quality of food is on the upside . ".
"Makes sense . ".
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In the future, when it's all over, it might not be so back to move here . .
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I have a dream . A dream, to be a power in the shadows . .
But once I do that, once I'm satisfied with it to the fullest extent, I wonder what I'll do with the rest of my life? I'd sometimes ponder such things during my days of constant training . .
.
I could become a power outside of the shadows, I could become a demon lord set on destroying the world, or I could become something like a master who trains future heroes . I thought on a lot of possibilities and ended up on something very simple . .
I'd want a life where I could eat good food every day and sleep to my heart's desire . I'd be happy with just that much . .
I'd spend my whole life at full throttle only to end up at a slow cruise . .
Yes, that, just makes sense to me . .
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"What if I poisoned you?".
"Who do think you're dealing with? I can tell poison by smell . ".
I really can't . .
Doesn't really matter when I can break down any poison with mana . .
.
"Good nose on ya . Wish I had one . Especially that one time, back when I was still in the business yeah, one of my boys tried to poison me . Not a fun time, let me tell ya . Made it out of that alive, but as you can see, it all went to s.h.i.t and here I am . ".
Zack began talking despondently . .
"Gimme a sword and I can fight . This d.a.m.ned country, I tell ya, magiswords aren't worth a d.a.m.n . Stealing pays more than working for some r.e.t.a.r.d n.o.ble . I honestly thought I'd make it like that… yeah, all in the past . Royalists didn't give a d.a.m.n about magiswords and it bit 'em back in the b.a.l.l.sack when Doem used 'em to take over . Some irony . ".
Okay . .
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"Talk to me about that Clara girl . ".
I was done eating now, so I went on to the main topic . .
"Why do ya gotta ask me . You should know all there is to her a lot better . ".
"Sure I do, but maybe I don't know everything about the here and now . No loss in making sure my own intel matches up with everything else . Apt diligence, leads to a longer life…" I narrow my eyes and smile meaningfully . .
"Tsk, you know your stuff . I really can't tell you a lot . ".
"Not a problem . ".
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"…Hmph . " Zack let out a snort and started talking . "Should be obvious from the name, but Clara Oriana is that infamous Rose Oriana's little sister . She tried to go against the Doem Faction early on, got caught, ended up here . Still, she's royalty, and they can't execute her right away . Even Lord Doem is having trouble on how to deal with her, but that ain't the real story at all apparently . ".
"Go on…".
"Clara Oriana is a big face of the anti-Doem flag . She's got a lot of people listening to her . Even here in the camp…".
Zack raised a corner of his mouth in a smirk . .
"Apparently, Lord Doem's tryna use Clara Oriana to gather in the people opposed to him so he can get rid of 'em all at once . That's it . What did I tell ya, it's not a lot . Don't you know a lot more?".
.
"Perhaps…" I hid my mouth behind my fingers and, with serious eyes, stared directly at Zack . "Care to know…?".
Naturally, I didn't know a thing, so I used some instmana release to add on the 'pressure' . .
"—!! C-cut it out, I said I didn't give a d.a.m.n about the politics!".
"—Wise decision . ".
.
My smile was a smile that implied dark, terrible secrets….
With an att.i.tude as if I see all and know all, I acted the part of a power in the shadows . It's not a matter of my speech but also my mannerisms from my eyes to my fingertips . .
This is it, this is perfection!.
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"Come on, man, this ain't good for my heart…".
Zack wiped off the sweat he'd been building up and got up . .
"I got business to take care of . Boss called . ".
"Your boss…?".
"Yeah… Doem Camp boss . ".
Zack said with irritably before finally leaving the room . .
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"Good…".
Nothing to do other than tail him . .
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