Caron’s eyes looked as if he was seriously considering whether to fire him from the Rats.
In response, Ron immediately began talking about what had happened in the mine.
From the part where Zero had already guessed his identity to the second-generation Rats development plan.
Of course, he did not mention that the two of them had started making deals.
“…That’s how it went.”
Cold sweat ran down Ron’s back. Watching him, Caron fell into thought.
‘So he must’ve realized that some of the low-ranked Rats are actually 5-star knights.’
Caron unconsciously smiled.
To figure out the second-generation Rats development plan from something that small.
He really was a rare talent. Which only made it feel even more unfortunate.
“Such a waste…”
“S-sorry.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t dwell on it. Anyway, keep observing and tracking him. There’s still plenty you can do even after your cover is blown.”
However.
“Reflect on what happened this time.”
“Huh?”
“With that smooth tongue of yours, you could’ve talked your way out of it. But you didn’t. Why do you think that is?”
“…Because I let my guard down, thinking my opponent was just a kid.”
“Exactly. You think I stuck you to a student for no reason?”
He should have expected it.
That Zero wasn’t just some ordinary kid.
“You rate Zero pretty highly, don’t you?”
“…I did. Not that it matters anymore.”
“Huh?”
“Stuff like that happens. Anyway, keep approaching him from time to time and try to pull information out of him. Getting close to him would be even better.”
Caron turned his attention back to his paperwork.
With the report finished, Ron had no reason to stay here any longer.
But Ron didn’t leave the office. Uncharacteristically, he fidgeted.
Which meant he had something more to say.
“What is it?”
“Uh… I think I’ve found something.”
Information was always valuable.
Caron tilted his head slightly, and Ron immediately continued his report.
“There’s a fairly strong mercenary in the Obern region. Name’s Calton. He used to be just an average mercenary, but… one day he became famous for cutting through his opponent’s aura without using any aura of his own.”
“He cut aura without using aura…?”
Impossible.
Aura was condensed mana. Even if it wasn’t aura, you at least needed some mana.
At best, you could clash with it or endure it; cutting through someone’s aura without manifesting your own was nonsense.
“That’s impossible with an artifact… so it has to be the power of a Mystery or demonic energy.”
“I thought the same.”
“So there’s something else strange about him, isn’t there?”
It was unusual, but normally not the sort of thing he would personally report to Caron.
Reports had to be quick and concise.
Ron continued speaking swiftly.
“While tracking him, thinking he might have made a contract with a Demon, I heard something strange from a comrade who used to work with him. Apparently he lost his right arm in a fight with a demonic beast.”
“His right arm?”
“Yes, but right now, Calton has his right arm.”
That was also impossible.
With current technology, there was no way to reattach a severed limb.
“They say his entire right arm is tightly wrapped in bandages. And on top of that, they heard strange voices coming from it.”
Bandages covering his limb, a reattached arm, and voices coming from that place.
Caron could think of one thing.
“It’s highly likely one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Creator of Madness, is involved.”
Caron remembered the first moment he met that bastard.
And he regretted it.
‘I should have staked my life and killed him back then.’
At first, he’d thought the man was just another lunatic Black Mage who had grafted a Demon onto his own body.
But he wasn’t. He was the continent’s worst madman.
Because he calmly grafted Demons onto other people’s bodies as well.
-Please… kill me…
He could still clearly remember the pitiful cry of a child begging to be killed, rising from a mountain of corpses where Demons and humans had been fused together.
Caron clenched his fist tight.
“Who’s the source of this information?”
“A vagrant living in Obern. He’s loose-lipped, but not the type to lie.”
That was a lie. All of this information had come from Zero.
But Caron would not check it personally.
He was allowed to maintain his own private intelligence network, and this was the level of trust that existed between Caron and Ron.
“Obern isn’t that far. All right. I’ll look into it.”
Ron finished his report and left the office, and Caron organized the information on a memo.
Creator of Madness, Lucius Black.
He had a personal grudge, but more than that, Lucius was someone who had to be caught for the sake of peace on the continent.
A plan to fuse humans and Demons into “something” that holy power would not work on.
That plan had to be stopped. He’d halted the pursuit due to lack of information, and now a chance like this had appeared.
“…Next time, I won’t let you get away.”
He put the slightly crumpled memo somewhere he could easily see it. First he would send the Rats, and once matters here were settled, he planned to go himself.
Caron’s gaze drifted toward the door. Ron was already gone.
‘So he’s growing as an informant too? Interesting.’
Caron hadn’t accepted Ron as one of the Rats purely for his combat ability.
His slick tongue and shamelessness.
Those two traits were the finest gifts a Rat tasked with gathering information could have.
However, even Ron had one fatal flaw.
‘He lacks insight.’
Information only became powerful when you could piece it together into a bigger picture.
But Ron had almost none of that ability—absurdly little, in fact.
And yet, that very Ron.
‘Managed to pull off deductions like this.’
A subordinate’s growth was always pleasant.
Caron was happily revising his evaluation of Ron when he suddenly paused. He’d remembered something he’d forgotten.
“If only I could have raised that brat as a Rat too…”
The squinty-eyed boy, Zero.
His talent for gathering information, his guts and composure even in front of Caron, the skill that far exceeded his age, and insight on par with Caron’s own.
Caron had wanted to train him as a Rat, but that was no longer possible.
The intelligence organization Caron ran, the Rats, was one of the Emperor’s arms.
However, by its nature it lurked in the shadows and often drew unfavorable looks.
And unlike the Rats, there was another of the Emperor’s arms that shone brilliantly, a place that was sunshine itself.
“Damn Imperial Knight Order…”
That was the Imperial Knight Order.
Exceptional talent stood out anywhere, but Caron hadn’t expected Adonis to take an interest.
Of course, Zero entering the Imperial Knight Order would also be good for Caron.
Caron was a tool of the Emperor.
There was nothing better than a brilliant talent serving the Emperor at his side.
‘Besides, it’s good for Zero too.’
A boy who had lived a harsher life than anyone.
A boy who had fought endlessly just to survive.
A boy who always smiled, no matter how hard things got.
Now that such a boy could live comfortably and eat his fill, it was undeniably a good thing.
However.
“I might feel a little disappointed, though…”
Caron muttered aloud, then shook his head to clear it.
Zero was set to become the youngest recruit in the Imperial Knight Order.
Countless trials, discrimination, and chances to prove himself would be waiting for him.
“I’d better raise him well for the next three years before I send him off.”
His training would be a little… intense, but that was the best encouragement and support Caron could give Zero.
Bang-!
Just as he settled his thoughts, someone burst the office door open and stormed in.
A young boy with golden hair.
It was an incredibly rude entrance, but Caron didn’t try to stop him.
Instead, he offered him the seat of honor and his finest candies, treating him like a lord.
It was only natural. He was a 9-star knight and a hero of the Empire.
This boy was Adonis.
He started popping candies into his mouth irritably.
“Did something happen?”
Adonis had stuffed so many candies in his mouth that both cheeks bulged out.
Crunching them to bits, he spoke.
“I got rejected.”
“Excuse me?”
“He turned down my recommendation to enter the Imperial Knight Order!”
Caron stared blankly for a moment, then came to his senses.
He refused? He kicked away a chance to start a new life with his own two feet? Seriously…
“What a foolish kid.”
“Exactly. Idiot. Who throws away a chance to change their whole life? Unbelievable. And yet…”
Adonis glanced sideways at Caron.
“You look oddly pleased, you know?”
Only then did Caron realize he hadn’t been managing his expression.
He quickly schooled his features into the sternest expression he could manage.
“Of course not. I’m just pleased I won our bet.”
“Grr… Right. We did make a bet, didn’t we.”
A bet about Zero entering the Imperial Knight Order.
It had started as a joke, but it no longer felt like one.
That was how badly Adonis wanted Zero.
“Why did he refuse?”
“He said he wants to live freely.”
“Freely?”
“Yeah. Says he hates being tied down by this and that. Isn’t that funny? You need power if you want freedom in the first place.”
He grumbled that Zero was overestimating his own worth, that he was arrogant, that he had no respect for his elders.
Adonis grumbled without a break.
“Well… I backed off for now. Freedom. There’s a bit of romance in that too, after all.”
But his expression didn’t match his words.
He clearly had never imagined he’d be refused. Well, the same went for Caron.
“Just leave him be. He’ll come crawling back later, asking for another chance.”
“You think so too?”
“Of course.”
Caron set a cup of hot tea in front of Adonis. In that moment, Adonis saw it.
The victorious smile on Caron’s face.
“Ughhh! I refuse to give up!”
“Huh?”
“I’m saying I’ll compete with you! Competition is romantic!”
“Sure, well… do as you like.”
Caron replied indifferently, then looked at Adonis and added,
“It won’t be easy, though.”
He smiled in triumph.
“Gh— Ghhhhh…!”
Adonis began to tremble all over.
He had reached the realm of a 9-star and attained a sort of enlightenment.
He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d lost his composure like this in decades.
In the end, he only managed to regain his calm after demolishing several dozen candies.
As he flipped through non-classified reports, Adonis suddenly spoke.
“Have no new orders come down?”
“Pardon?”
“From His Majesty. Now that we’ve come to the Empire, there’s no longer any need for me to guard the Imperial Princess, is there? If I recall, I already made a request about that to His Majesty last time.”
Since the Emperor hadn’t summoned him even after returning to the Empire, Adonis had contacted him through Caron.
Caron’s hand, which had been scribbling with a pen, stopped. A reply had arrived.
“…The order is to stand by for a while.”
“Standby again… Perhaps he has no more need of me.”
“Surely not.”
But despite his words, Caron was thinking the same thing.
It was true Adonis was one of the Empire’s key forces, but taking his age and stamina into account, he could no longer be called the Empire’s “strongest”.
The last incident alone proved that. The Four Heavenly Kings’ Maestro of the Battlefield, Volkan, whom they had faced in Kalos.
Adonis had only joined the battle in its latter half because he lacked stamina.
‘Even then, he collapsed at the very end, completely spent.’
If Lucia hadn’t awakened, who knows what would have happened. The thought still chilled him.
“It’s all right. It must be a burden to assign important missions to this old man, especially one who’s rotting away bit by bit. I am, for what it’s worth, still called a hero.”
“Doesn’t that just mean His Majesty cherishes you that much?”
“I am His Majesty’s spear. And a spear exists to pierce the enemy.”
Adonis feared death as well.
But what he feared more was dying without fulfilling his purpose.
“I felt it clearly last time. There are at most two battles… no, perhaps only one left in me where I can go all out.”
“Lord Adonis…”
“His Majesty surely has his reasons. Just… could you pass on one message for me?”
“Please, go ahead.”
Tell him this: My body has grown so old I can barely lift a spoon, but my mountain-like loyalty has not decayed. Even if this body crumbles to dust, I will carry out his orders.
So please, make good use of Your Majesty’s spear.
“…That is the message I want you to deliver.”
Adonis smiled faintly, a sorrowful smile heavy with meaning.
There was nothing Caron could do. He could only say one thing.
“I will make sure that sentiment is delivered.”
All he could do was hope Adonis’s feelings reached their destination.
“Thank you. The first semester will be over soon, won’t it. When time flows fast, it really races by…”
And so, time flowed on and on.
The day to leave Trash Village drew near.
–TL Notes–
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Adonis got rejected off screen!
And how would that onr final battle of him last all tge way to end game when this is just chapter2! I think the best use would be Third Legion commander mid game descent in Carpathia!
Perhaps the Emperor forsee the need to keep him in reserve too?