“For the Kingdom!”

The members of the delegation shouted in high spirits. Under Hertz’s incitement, it was like they’d just been injected with some aged rooster-blood tonic. They turned around and, fierce as wolves, charged straight at that utterly unremarkable building.

In the on-and-off, century-long clashes between the Kingdom and the Empire, the Empire’s intelligence apparatus had always placed an extremely heavy burden on the Kingdom and dealt it punishing blows. That efficient, mysterious organization had once, in every possible aspect, precisely found the Kingdom’s weak points, planting the seeds for the Kingdom’s crushing defeats in several major wars.

Yet they didn’t even know who commanded that organization. All this time, it had been hidden deep in the Empire’s darkness. If not for the turmoil inside the Empire not long ago, Hertz wouldn’t even have been able to grasp where it was.

In truth, it was the same for both sides. In years when border conflicts weren’t intense but the covert struggle never ceased, the intelligence agencies of both nations became the vanguard of battle, and the dark was the true battlefield.

Assassinations, infiltration, spies... beneath the seemingly calm surface, there was always some blood being spilled in places sunlight could never reach.

“But something that hides in the shadows isn’t scary once it’s exposed under the sun, isn’t that right?”

Hertz let out a mocking chuckle and followed along the path the delegation members were carving out, pushing deeper in.

This building was extremely ordinary and plain. It was even on a fairly busy street—who knew how many carriages and pedestrians passed in front of it every day.

And perhaps precisely because they didn’t want to draw outsiders’ attention, there wasn’t a single guard inside. It was completely like any common civilian residence you could find anywhere... until, after descending several levels underground, they finally sensed the aura of magic.

“Looks like we’ve got it.”

Hertz swept a glance over it and immediately recognized an extremely precise alarm array.

The delegation fell into a bind, because something like this was clearly beyond their ability to crack.

“It’s fine.”

But Hertz was full of confidence.

He was, after all, a veteran powerhouse only a hair’s breadth away from the realm of a Crowned One. This level of thing still couldn’t stop him.

Hertz extended his palm.

A tiny spider-shaped alchemical puppet quickly crawled along his fingers and slipped into the darkness.

Ka-ka.

In the darkness came faint chewing sounds.

As Hertz manipulated the puppet, in no time, it dismantled every array blocking the path.

A concealed passageway appeared before the delegation.

“It’ll only hold for three minutes. After three minutes, the abnormality will be discovered. Move!”

“Yes!”

They exchanged glances. A kind of beyond-reason excitement flickered in their pupils. They didn’t even stop to think whether there was further danger beyond the passage. They just poured into it headfirst.

“For the Kingdom!”

The excited shouts gradually receded into the distance. Hertz listened carefully for a moment, and only then, unhurried, entered the passage alone.

Below the passage was an extremely complex underground space. Corridors interwove like a spider’s nest, making it hard to tell directions apart. The delegation’s people were yelling as they rushed recklessly who knew where, but deep within this passage, clear sounds of battle had already begun to carry over.

But since it was a spider’s lair... then the spider could naturally scout it clearly.

A tiny spider puppet that had returned from who knew where crawled up Hertz’s foot and onto his palm. He gave a slight nod, as if receiving important information, and a smile spread across his face.

“Looks like I’ve found it.”

No longer hesitating, Hertz advanced straight toward a certain direction.

There were no more obstacles.

In the end, a battered old door appeared before Hertz.

“So it’s here?”

Hertz could no longer hide his excitement. Without much hesitation, he stepped forward and shoved the door open.

The outer area had been laid with many precise arrays, yet here there wasn’t even the slightest defensive force.

So Hertz opened the door with extreme ease...

The faint light from the dome overhead barely illuminated this grand space.

Hertz lifted his head to look. Layer upon layer of metal racks, like dominoes, were neatly arranged throughout the space. It was like an enormous library, yet far more solemn than any library.

At the center, a spiral pillar extended all the way to the top. Within those branch-like dense channels, metal scrolls engraved with text slid down, neatly categorized onto the countless racks.

“Ha... found it. As expected, this is the core of the Empire’s entire intelligence system.”

Even Hertz couldn’t help being stunned by this enormous, precise system. Information gathered by the Empire’s intelligence department would all be sorted and categorized here. The controller only needed to sit here, and their tentacles could extend across the entire Empire.

But while this kind of centralized sorting did indeed improve efficiency, it also had a fatal flaw.

Once this place was breached, the entire Empire would be like a young girl stripped naked—laid bare at a single glance.

And as the one about to accomplish this feat for the first time in history, Hertz could hardly imagine how dazzling a future would await him.

His hand even trembled a little as he gently stroked those cold metal scrolls, as if caressing a lover...

Tap.

But then, suddenly, footsteps sounded.

Hertz jolted awake, spun around, and barked.

“Who’s there!”

“Tea...cher.”

That familiar voice echoed in the broad space like a mutter from hell.

A figure slowly walked out...

“Sevier?”

Hertz’s pupils shrank. Sevier had appeared here at some point, but now her movements were stiff, her eyes vacant, like a puppet on strings.

She stared at Hertz, tilted her head, and then suddenly revealed an extremely eerie smile.

Like she was mocking him.

“...”

Hertz’s mind tightened. He almost couldn’t stop himself from striking and killing the only student he had left.

Fortunately, after Sevier took just two steps, she went limp, collapsed to the ground, and passed out on the spot.

But that image alone was enough to give Hertz a sense of threat... and shock.

“My lord... you’re the legendary head of the Empire’s intelligence organization?”

Hertz tore his gaze away from Sevier, lifted his head, and looked toward a place where the darkness was even deeper.

There, not even the glow of magic stones could reach—yet you could clearly see a cold arc outlined by pure darkness itself.

It seemed to be a man. His lines were like they’d been carved by a blade. Just from that outline, one could recognize a handsomeness and authority that even darkness couldn’t conceal.

“The head? Heh. I wouldn’t go that far. I’m just a wage slave, that’s all.”

Even his voice was thick and deep, resonating with countless metal racks like a vibrating drum of tough hide, making hearts tremble involuntarily.

Yes—this was the head of that intelligence organization that made the Kingdom shudder, yet for so many years, never once let anyone catch a trace of him.

He should be this terrifying. Without even fully showing himself, he was already enough to make people feel chilled.

“I didn’t expect you to personally show yourself.” Hertz exhaled lightly, forcing himself to steady his heart.

“I didn’t expect it either.”

The head sneered.

“The mastermind behind the Kingdom’s delegation, Hertz—someone famous in the Kingdom—actually doing petty thief work here, and even... not hesitating to use your own subordinates and your student as bait.”

“I’m not doing petty thief work. I’m seeking vengeance for my student, His Highness Milne. I’m the righteous one.”

Hertz’s face was solemn.

“As for them... I was just a little short of succeeding, wasn’t I?”

“Heh. True—just a little. If I hadn’t shown up in time.”

The head applauded softly, as if mocking—or as if praising.

“But now you’ve failed. How do you plan to respond?”

“Failed?”

Hertz suddenly let out a scornful laugh.

“My lord Head, isn’t that a little early to say?”

Crack.

Fine fissures surfaced across Hertz’s body again—but this time, it wasn’t from external pressure. An indescribably terrifying radiance and heat was about to erupt from within him!

Hertz stared straight at the head of the intelligence organization, the corner of his mouth hooking into a feral grin.

That’s right. He couldn’t get his hands on this intelligence—but if he destroyed it, wouldn’t that still cause the Empire enormous trouble?

Who said there was only one way to succeed? As long as he could—

“Hm?”

But the next moment, Hertz’s smile froze.

Because the darkness was driven away.

Yet he still couldn’t see that head’s mysterious face.

Because brilliant light, bearing an incandescent crown, descended here.

A Crowned One!

This was another Crowned One!

Hertz’s expression went pale with shock. Information he currently possessed flashed through his mind as he tried to identify just who this Crowned One was.

A Crowned One couldn’t be a nobody. At the very least, he had to know the head’s true identity...

But it gave him no space to think.

Whoosh.

The instant the crown manifested, he seemed to hear the sound of blood flowing.

That sound seemed to come from inside his own body.

Then his vision went black, and this body shattered apart.

Like a vase smashed in a storybook.

Soundless.

Everything returned to stillness.

Leaving only a sigh in the dark.

“So it really was still just a puppet. Cautious enough... but where did this guy get the confidence to think we’d be stupid enough to keep our most confidential intelligence in a place like this?”

The head bent down, picked up a fragment from the floor, and examined it in his hand.

Under the faint light that finally pierced the darkness, a teasing expression like a hungry wolf hunting prey surfaced on that cold, stern face.

“Can you track him?” he said coldly.

“I can, I guess.”

At some point, another figure had appeared in this space.

Faint light vaguely passed through the gauze edge of her skirt. She looked like she’d been here even earlier than Hertz, yet Hertz hadn’t noticed a thing.

“There’s a residual aura from the puppet. Tracking isn’t hard, but...”

She cast a cold glance at the head.

“How long are you planning to stay naked?”

“....”

The atmosphere congealed for several seconds.

The head silently withdrew his posing act, reached out casually, and a heavy leather suit appeared in his hand. He started rustling as he put it on.

Not long after, a ridiculous pink bear waddled out into the light with squelchy little steps.

“Ugh. I finally get to put on a badass act with some real presence, and you can’t even give me a little face? This is my debut after becoming a real Crowned One!” Pink Bear said angrily.

“Showing off doesn’t mean stripping naked in the dark and striking poses. I think you’ve misunderstood what ‘showing off’ means.”

The former Saintess sneered and held out her hand toward Pink Bear.

“Hand it over.” 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

“What?”

“The fragment.”

“Oh. Oh.”

Pink Bear rummaged around, picked out the most intact puppet fragment, and handed it to the former Saintess.

“Watch closely.”

The former Saintess casually tossed the fragment into the air.

Then her slender hand clenched into a fist, aimed at that fragment, and slammed down.

“I’m going to show you what the hell ‘showing off’ really looks like!”

A deafening roar instantly rang through the entire underground space. From that already incomplete fragment, countless tiny lines suddenly extended outward.

A terrifying vibration surged along those hazy, intangible threads, stretching all the way into some infinitely distant place!

...

...

“Pff!”

Hertz, who was fleeing for his life, suddenly spat out a huge mouthful of blood.

“Not good.”

He stared at the blood on the ground, his face going pale.

“My position’s exposed!”

He hadn’t expected the /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ head of the Empire’s intelligence organization to be so terrifying!

Not only was his realm frightening—he even had methods that were impossible to fathom. Deep and unfathomable, it only made Hertz even more curious about his true identity.

“A suddenly appearing Crowned One is a bit troublesome, but...”

Hertz glanced at his pocket watch and suddenly smiled strangely.

“The objective’s already been achieved.”

As he spoke, his expression turned ruthless, and he tore off one of his own arms.

This time it wasn’t a puppet.

It was his true flesh and blood!

Hertz grimaced in pain, but there was still a trace of crazed fervor that didn’t fit him at all.

“I used to think there was no chance I could ever take another step forward in this life. Heh. Fifty percent... that probability is already far bigger than when I put my bet on His Highness Milne. It’s enough. More than enough.”

The ground cracked. A gigantic beast-shaped alchemical puppet suddenly burst out, swallowed that arm into its belly, then flicked its tail and drilled into the ground, fleeing at high speed.

Hertz raised a hand, wiped away the bloodstains and his aura, chose a direction completely different from the puppet’s, and vanished in a flash.

...

...

“The Central Intelligence Room was attacked?”

At the academy, Celicia also received the information transmitted from Pink Bear’s side.

“To be able to find the Central Intelligence organization’s location means Hertz has already grasped part of the Empire’s secrets. But why would he be stupid enough to personally bring delegation members to attack that place? Even if the location is exposed, that’s the heart of Belrand. It’s not something a single delegation can break through.”

“It wasn’t personal. The report says it was also a puppet,” Headmaster Hathaway said.

“Then it’s even more wrong. From the start, he didn’t seem to believe this foolish act could succeed, yet he still sacrificed the entire delegation without hesitation.”

Celicia tapped her fingers against the armrest. A contemplative look flashed between her brows.

“The poisoning of the Seventeenth Prince must be connected to him. For what—getting a pretext to declare war on the Empire? If he killed the Seventeenth Prince and framed us, then if he made no move afterward, he would inevitably be detained by the Empire... But he can’t be detained by the Empire, or he can’t be detained and investigated immediately, because what he did isn’t something he’s doing—it’s something he has already done.”

“No... what he’s doing looks more like he deliberately did this to cover something up... He’s diverting my attention!”

Celicia abruptly stood and issued an order.

“Investigate! Every official movement since the Kingdom’s delegation entered Belrand—especially officials in sensitive positions. You must dig out the person who fed Hertz information!”