Chapter 151

I Married the Dragon I Killed
Chapter 151: Breaking the Egg

Chapter 151. Breaking the Egg
Crisis Countermeasures Headquarters of the Arken Empire.
A group convened in times of crisis to handle serious matters that shook the foundations of the empire.
Composed of a total of five High Counselors, they conduct a Post Mortem to determine the subsequent flow of events and those responsible.
The capital of the Arken Empire flowed peacefully without taking a hit.
Because the monsters’ advance had been wiped out in a single blow and had ended.
Because of that, many would consider it a mere commotion.
However, the reality was that a legion had been annihilated.
Alexander tried to send reinforcements, but the matter grew even larger due to those trying to evade that responsibility.
Using the excuse of being sick, Alexander actually sickened those who retreated.
Under the pretext of creating a plague within the empire, he beheaded not only those involved, but their entire families and cremated them without further ado.
‘No, he didn’t make them suffer that much.’
Regardless, Alexander was cornered.
A tremendous and fierce battle took place, and it was certain that an error born of ignorance, not an overwhelming disparity in strength, was the cause.
The guilt and responsibility for that was a situation that could not be avoided at all.
Ferda was being summoned as a witness to that incident.
— Crown Prince Alexander is cornered.
— That won’t be the case.
Isabella uttered those words, and Ferda reflexively replied.
Isabella tilted her head in bewilderment.
They clearly say it is a hearing to question Alexander’s guilt, but isn’t it?
— What do you mean?
— This is most likely a trap for me.
— A trap for the Regent-nim?
Ferda revealed his hidden motives to them.
— At first, they will talk about Alexander. They will follow the line of investigating what happened and who is right and who is wrong, acting as if they were going to say that.
— And then?
— Then, suddenly, they will claim that the responsibility lies with someone else. Who would be close to that responsibility?
— An operations officer who didn’t do their job well or…
Isabella’s pupils turned toward Ferda.
— It is you, Regent-nim.
— It will flow that way.
The more they question high-ranking responsibility, the more often this happens, and since he is the Crown Prince, there is no room for doubt.
Ferda had been subjected to this kind of thing several times before.
At first, the story seems to go smoothly, then they talk as if the culprit were someone else, and slyly incite and pressure him by asking if he isn’t the culprit.
At first he answered with reason, but the heated atmosphere of the hearing pushed all the responsibility onto Ferda.
‘What was the result?’
‘I cut the throat of the bastard who was pressuring me first.’
Silence fell in an instant.
At that time, Ferda had suppressed the Imperial Court Mage, so it was a period when he could go wild.
Excluding that bastard shouting at the top of his lungs, there was no one willing to fight by risking their own neck.
‘It would be good if I could kill like back then.’
There is a really simple way to solve it, but I cannot use it.
Ferda regretted it internally.
Isabella pondered Ferda’s words several times.
— Of course, the speed of development has increased to an absurd degree, so even I am surprised, but even so, you are the Regent of the Grand Duchy and the companion of the Red Dragon. Would they really make a move with such great guts?
— Even if it is unintentional, it will probably flow that way.
The Empire knows that Valdrova is easy prey.
Using that, they grant her a title, use the fiancé as an excuse to get rid of a useless son, and treat her like a house watchdog.
Given that Ferda is turning that wasteland into a gold mine, they cannot help but be disgusted.
The Arken Empire desires strong centralization and cannot tolerate the provinces developing.
— And if you look here, the answer appears.
— …Ah.
Ferda pointed to the list of the convened emergency board meeting.
That list read as follows.
President of the Serdes Magic Society, Erdes Roton.
The largest magic organization on the continent has intervened in the affairs of the Empire.
Isabella checked that name and nodded as if convinced.
— For Erdes-nim to step into a troublesome seat like this… She really must hate you.
— Exactly.
Wondering what right she had to intervene, but the one who swept away the monsters advancing on the Empire from the air was none other than her.
The 7th Circle Archmage, Erdes Roton, managed to completely devastate 20,000 monsters by casting a meteor shower from the sky.
It was enough to gain speaking rights.
‘Even if she cannot exert absolute influence, they will not dare to ignore her.’
Knowing that Erdes intends to intervene and harm Ferda, he cannot sit still.
‘A countermeasure is needed.’
What is needed for that countermeasure?
‘Information and strategy.’
Information is a weapon; strategy is a martial art.
Their relationship is mutual, and when the balance fits, they can produce a dramatic effect.
‘Is there anyone among us who can handle this well?’
Mori is a Slave Sage with the ability of the Universal Library.
Since she lacks the ability to think for herself, she is a weapon.
‘Besides, she is far from the current situation.’
Mori presents objective information based on data.
The logic that 45% of this achievement belonged to Olivia did not work, so this is never a situation where such logic matters.
Ferda needed people who could extract information flexibly while continuously monitoring the situation through informants.
In that regard, he knew an excellent organization.
‘Black Bandana.’
Every time he used them, they demonstrated their skill, and not once had they made their reputation be in vain.
If they have a problem,
‘The pay will be the problem.’
Black Bandana’s information varies according to scale and difficulty.
As skilled as they are, the larger the scale, the more the amount increases geometrically.
The scale of this work is close to the entire Empire, and it is a story that must go deep into its core.
They could demand an astronomical sum insufficient even if you sold one country to save another.
‘If I make a half-hearted proposal, I might end up giving them the information that I am desperate.’
Holding firm at the edge of the cliff until the end.
That was the struggle Ferda had to fight.
— Wouldn’t it be better not to attend?
Ruri, who had been listening, offered tea and suggested.
It was one of the methods Ferda was also thinking about.
Right now, Ferda is consistently using being busy as an excuse not to attend.
Since there is no target to interrogate, he thought he could buy time even if he were appointed.
— Since it is a Post Mortem, its weight is high, so it will be difficult to skip it using the excuse that state affairs are busy.
— And if the opportunity to argue is lost, they will tear you apart instead.
When someone bites your flesh and you don’t bark, you are just a piece of meat.
If you want to live, you must bark, and also bite the other party, and unfold your argument so that they can never touch you again.
At that moment, someone knocked on the open door.
— Regent-nim, may I come in?
It was Jed’s voice.
— What is the matter?
— Uh… Finetooth wants to see you.
— Finetooth?
— Garnet, that is. The Leader of Black Bandana.
Come to think of it, in the first meeting I called her Finetooth.
A nickname created by her protruding tooth, sharp teeth, and dark skin.
Anyway, the timing is truly exquisite.
Just when I was thinking about the necessity, she appears.
Anyway, the beginning was good.
The difference in position between when they come because they are needed and when you call them is from heaven to earth.
— Tell her to come in.
Ferda prepared to receive the guest.
With Ferda’s permission, Garnet entered.
— Greetings to the Regent-nim and the Administrator-nim. I sincerely congratulate you on your great victory in this subjugation war.
Garnet greeted politely.
As Jed called her Bucktooth, her protruding tooth caught attention.
— Did you come to talk about the Post Mortem?
Ferda went straight to the point.
— That is correct.
— You also knew that I am the bait.
— Of course.
As the continent’s best intelligence organization, that is a trivial matter.
— So did you come to try to get more money out of me?
Garnet spoke like that, took out a document, and placed it on the table.
— We are an organization that receives compensation according to scale and depth, but the purpose of this visit is somewhat far from business.
— Could you please take a look at this?
Ferda took the document and opened it.
The moment he saw the first page, he had to concentrate to calm his shocked heart.
Faded and yellowish marks were visible here and there, but the content was clear.
Isabella, examining the content next to him, asked in surprise.
— Isn’t this the personal information of the high executives of the Black Bandana?
Not only names or faces were recorded.
Where they impersonated whom, their traces were written in detail, and there were even clues to track them down.
Garnet exposed it.
It was a reckless act, beyond mere rashness.
Whether this was true or a lie, there was no need to ask.
Garnet said this.
— With this, the first stage has been overcome.
— What stage?
— Breaking the Egg.
The word ‘secret’ is the shell that protects a secret organization.
Garnet forcibly breaks the shell she protected and reveals it to the world.
Now that what is inside is exposed, there is no turning back.
— In short, the Black Bandana enters dissolution.
By discarding secrets, neutrality collapses.
Without neutrality, the reason for the Black Bandana’s existence disappears.
— And as of today, we will reorganize as the Intelligence Agency of the Grand Duchy of Valdrova of the Far East, and swear loyalty.
Ferda felt bewildered by her action.
Isabella’s expression, which he glanced at briefly, showed similar thoughts.
An air of astonishment over why these bastards were doing this.
— A reckless act.
Ferda threw the document he was reading back onto the table.
— If I refuse, what will you do? What crime did the bastards written here commit to die?
— That is precisely the Breaking of the Egg. If the egg breaks and a premature chick comes out, it dies as is. The Black Bandana team has no choice but to dissolve and disintegrate as is.
Garnet spoke as if that premature chick were someone else’s business.
They are the best among secret intelligence organizations, and their scale spans the continent.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that an entire country has disappeared.
“This order was probably also her goal.”
If she had said first that she offered personal information as a sign of swearing loyalty, Ferda’s suspicion would have been even greater.
Right now, it only seems that they have made their resolve.
— Do you mean that you will dissolve the Black Bandana and ask me to take you as vassals?
— No. We will be loyal, but if we wanted such cumbersome titles, this wouldn’t have happened.
— Then?
— Do you know the Dark Knights?
— I know them well.
Knights who transcend chivalry to protect chivalry.
Unlike existing knights who become the face that fights in honorable wars and duels, they are shadows dedicated to assassination and sabotage.
And all knights deny their existence.
Most show deep disgust at the fact that they attach the name of ‘knight’ knowing such a contradiction.
The few remaining understand and respect their necessity, so they deny them unavoidably.
And Ferda belonged to those few.
Because the honor and crowns of knights shine thanks to those who silently watch their backs.
— The stronger the light, the deeper the shadow. Under absolute power, dirty and foul plots constantly move; that is the existence of the Dark Department.
— Do you want to become the Dark Department of the Grand Duchy?
— Yes.
— I cannot believe it.
Precisely, I cannot understand it.
They have no honor.
Nor can they properly grasp visible power, and they are existences that must be eliminated without hesitation if their tail is caught.
It is a job difficult to endure with a pure sense of responsibility.
If Garnet feels that responsibility, she needed to persuade Ferda.
— This is the family business.
Garnet said that.
— The founder of this Black Bandana is the first Director of Intelligence of the Arken Empire, Mendel Bandana, and I came here to inherit that will.
Ferda tried to send a telepathic message to Mori just in case.
Things recorded in paper documents, even if top secret, her Universal Library cannot elude.
— The name Mendel Bandana is recorded before the founding of the Arken Empire. After that, it is not recorded in any form.
A real person.
And the fact that he could not adorn a page of history means that he actually accepted his foulness honorably.
Now Ferda’s question moved to the next.
— What is that will?
Mendel Bandana did the dirty work for the Arken Empire.
Ferda currently only wishes for the Arken Empire to collapse, so wouldn’t that make the ancestor’s work in vain?
— The founding ideal of the Arken Empire was to create land for humans. The ancestor said that intention might become distorted one day, so it had to be corrected.
The slogan attached to the current Empire was the arrogant phrase that there is no land we cannot conquer.
— As the ancestor’s last wish, the Empire began to change more and more in later generations. They protested several times, showed popular sentiment, but could not correct it.
The Empire became stronger and more arrogant.
In the end, aren’t they using a dragon like a dog?
— So are you trying to take revenge on this Empire that does not listen?
— It is not revenge. It is help.
Garnet replied clearly.
— If a hole cannot be made to drain the stagnant and rotten water inside the jar, and it has hardened, the right thing to do is to break it.
The truth is that the purpose is the same as Ferda’s.
Ferda was forced to worry again.
Even so, he felt his heart leaning more than before.
“The other party is an information broker.”
An information broker who swore never to sell lies.
By not allowing an inch of excuse, she maintained that reputation.
That was what Ferda feared most.
Believing only in that deeply established reputation and standing by their side, if the ground beneath collapses…
In that chain, can Ferda maintain his sanity?
Ferda threw a final question.
— What reason do I have to trust you?
— Because you will have no choice.
Garnet said firmly.
— The Empire will use this as a basis to formally intervene in the Far East, and that intervention could put a brake on you. No matter how firmly you have resisted until now, you cannot resist forever.
Building a country is like stacking a stone tower.
The higher it is stacked, the harder it becomes, and collapsing is a matter of an instant.
Evil stains easily; good is difficult to protect.
— If you cannot endure that, we will die together from now on.
A neutral secret organization abandoned neutrality and even revealed secrets, so Ferda can also take that as a hostage.
They expose their own weakness, create a community of fate, and prove it with skill.
For that, Garnet boldly broke the egg.
— Then.
Ferda asks her.
— What position should I establish for the Dark Department?