Sword, Magic and Academic Society

Western region of the Royal Capital.

The slum area was wrapped in its usual air of gloominess and melancholy, and not a hint of festive vibe following the founding festival could be felt.

In a room in the depths of a rustic bar, Chabul Rose, the head of the Rose Family, and a short mild-tempered man — the consultant of the Rose family referred to as Tomora by his lackeys — were waiting for their guest.

Chabul was pacing around the room with an anxious expression, meanwhile Tomora was graciously enjoying his coffee in the lounge suite.

It was around then when a red-haired narrow-eyed man called Red entered the room with another man.

"Chief, Tomora-san. The guest is here."

Red said while urging the other man to step forward.

"Gracious, Chabul. What had I told you about not contacting me unless there's a matter of urgent concern? Sure, the situation might be a bit lax compared to usual due to the founding festival but do not, by any means, ever dare to look down on the knight order."

The man said in a faint yet deadpan voice, wearing a hunting cap pulled down to the base of his eyes.

The scrawny and hollow-cheeked Chabul Rose didn't bother responding to those words and just dashed in front of him.

"I can't handle the shit anymore! I'm stepping down! Whether it's Gin of the Dragon-Crane association in the eastern region, the Speed of the Continent firm in the south, or Fabio of the northern region's Dwine Family...... each and every single incident was orchestrated by you all! Anyone worth their brain could see it was our, Rose's, doing, being the sole beneficiary!

Typically, no one would bat an eye at the in-fighting among the underworld organizations, but now, not only has the police entered the scene, even the knight order have started to pay attention to us! Is it my turn next after them!?"

Tomora couldn't hold back anymore as he listened to Chabul, who narrated all of it with a menacing look, and spurted out the coffee he was drinking.

"Pfft! Cough-Cough! Ack, cough! Ahh, ahem. Would you please not make such a joke, Chief? What's the meaning of stepping down from your position after Rose has made it big? Even more so, how are you going to save your little life after leaving our patronage?"

"But we're no longer the scrawny self from our past! We’ve become a giant enough to even contest for the No.1 or No.2 of the Underworld! I don't care, I still have the time before they find any evidence! We're fine as we are for now. We just need to stop our antics and consolidate our family's power. I’m sure no one would dare challenge us then!"

Tomora shook his head in dismay at the argument.

"Hahaha. You know what, now I pity you for your measly misunderstanding. Let me explain to you in some nice, easy-to-understand words: your members don’t give a shit about you.

All they see is the freedom and power that comes with joining us, mere profiteers who’re just there to rub on your money and authority. They would ride only on the winning side. You're basically suggesting the same restrictions that the other families ask from them, so what makes you think they would wag their tails for you if you do that?

Hehe, or what, you want to stand as their backer when you can't even acquire enough rea to pay off those government agencies? Well, you can break the contract on your side, then we'll also use any method, no matter how underhanded, to get back our invested money from the family. Can you still hold them by their leash then?"

Chabul felt he was at his wits’ end.

Let alone other families or even police, the pressure from the Rose family members in itself would immediately initiate the collapse of his family should his backer really go down to retrieve the funds they had spent in all that lavishness. He wouldn't even last three days in this world once they spiraled into this route.

Though he did have the resolution to make an enemy of that level. But regardless of that, help from the police or knight order was out of the equation.

Heck, he didn't care about their background earlier, but it was crystal clear to anyone's keen eye that they were folks from a foreign nation. They might as well be the most notorious criminals in this kingdom, so it was entirely possible for him to be branded with a charge of treason against the kingdom. If that happened—

A shiver ran down Chabul's spine.

"......Listen, my one and only concern is that we need to reign down on our aggression for now. This family has taken more than an overnight to become this big. Even you wouldn't want your raised golden hen to suddenly die, right? Red, we're going back."

Chabul imparted his warning and turned to leave the room along with slit-eyed man Red. He didn't notice the same contemptuous glance that Tomora was giving him gleamed in Red's eyes.

"......Well, what else did I expect? He's truly a hopeless fool. He’s under the impression that Red was someone who he had raised by himself without a shred of doubt. His measly brain didn't even notice he had been our agent all along.

Anyway, we have other reasons for why we’ve gone out of our way to invite you, and not to simply listen to him grumble. It's about… how to deal with Chabul.

We did factor in that he's just another crass individual, but it seemed like he didn't even have the bearing to hold himself up with the rapid development. We should start taking some countermeasures now rather than letting him douse water on our plan at a critical moment… which should be the last thing we need, right?"

The man wearing a hunting cap glared at Tomora.

"And whose task was it to do that? Yours, Tomora. I know you might not be in the best of moods after being tasked to take care of the rudimentary things like the unrest within the kingdom and all that, but don't forget the human resources and money I’ve invested to come this far.

Failure isn't an option here. I don't care if you want to dispose of that fly, but then do you have anyone in mind to take over for him? A convenient puppet who should be of this kingdom, have good enough caliber, and, which is the most important, follow our orders word for word. Do you have that?"

Tomora shook his head in denial.

"Why ask the obvious? We don't have any convenient puppet lying around to take over the leadership right away. However, Red seemed to have found an interesting character.

He's a roughneck with incredible talent, apparently a rookie who is active mostly on the eastern side and has made a name for himself in a short time. The president of the explorer association, Shellbul Monstel himself, has been paying attention to him and most of all, he's a B-rank explorer despite still being a brat.

Rumors are that he's the 3rd son of a poor noble house, though there's no denying his talent. It's just that he’s leading a bunch of short pricks and even joined a poor orphanage working as a Mutual Aid society to take care of those kids. Truly a greenhorn.

According to Red, he's quite an understanding and easygoing person as long as you reason out with him, and that he even recommends raising that one as one of our swords in the future."

"Hmm… Explorer means he was at least not up to par to attend ‘that academy’, but if his skills are being eyed at by that Shellbul Monster, then......

Speaking of which, didn’t 'Feral Tyrant Shell' have the caliber to enter the knight order? He also has influence in the top brass of this kingdom. I don't think we need to bother ourselves with such a hot potato of a brat."

Tomoro twisted his lips into a grin.

"There are risks, for sure. However, this is also our chance to train him. That Shellbul Monstel is famous for his loose lips and said to be working on a single brain cell, if we can have that brat pry some insider information like the secretive tactics of the knight order or some other secret information, that alone would justify the hardship.

This is far more effective than merely interfering with things like stirring a commotion in the underworld of the royal capital. Hell, it might even be possible to return to that <Round Table>."

Hunting cap man fell into silence. This move was indeed on another scale than just causing a ripple. The merit he would earn from that alone would be a crisp slap to the faces of those who dared to look down on him.

On the other hand, the order in the kingdom's underworld was already at its last leg with their meddling, so it wasn’t far-fetched to say they were more or less done with their initial objective.

It was the high-risk, high-reward aspect of the idea that tempted him.

"......What if he is a spy?"

"The chances are low. He just happened to receive the request since he was traveling for his trip, and that's how they came into contact. Red even handed him his business card and watched him from afar to see what he would do with it. He immediately threw it into the trash bin. It didn't seem like he was going to visit anytime soon. He seems disinterested in the money of the Rose family, which is at least white on paper, and neither was he interested in the hidden power."

The Hunting Cap man fell into contemplation for at least 10 seconds before he passed his order.

"Move with caution. Get in touch with him as a Rose member, but make sure to not reveal any information. You may use the usual method."

"Hehehe. I just need to show him some sweet dreams and once he's out of his delusions, I’ll sweep him off his feet. I’ll absolutely tread carefully."

The man nodded and left.

"Hehehe! Hahahaha!"

Tomora, now left alone in the lounge suit, crackled in amusing laughter for a short while.

E/N - You know, I assumed that Ren=Allen was pretty widespread despite the efforts of the Explorer Association in hiding his identity with how late they did it. But with this chapter, it's clear that the majority of the information agencies haven't made the connection yet. Most likely the only ones who know are the people who have been keeping an eye on him all this time like the families of his high noble classmates.

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