Chapter 215 : Chapter 215
Chapter 215
Blue Light was a little different from the knights who worked in the field.
His frame was willowy, almost like an Inquisitor's, and his features were delicate.
His cheekbones jutted prominently, his eyes were sunken deep, and beneath them hung heavy dark circles.
His lips held a perpetual twist of irritation, and even the cigarette dangling from them somehow looked annoyed.
At a glance, he looked as though he might be suffering from consumption, which made the cigarette in his mouth seem terribly out of place.
"You're overstepping your bounds."
He sighed, exhaling a plume of smoke.
The wind caught it, and the smoke brushed across his face before scattering into the air.
"Does an Academic Exchange Conference really look like overstepping to you?"
"Everyone can see this isn't just an academic exchange."
"That's strange. We were simply paying tribute to the Empire's academic exchange tradition."
"And that's exactly why I'd know. The Empire is the most fucked-up place on earth."
That was hardly the kind of thing one expected from the head of Blue Moon.
It didn't sound like lip service, either.
When he said the word "Empire," his tone was soaked in genuine irritation.
The micro-movements of his muscles, his breathing, his heartbeat, his pulse.
Everything told me he was speaking the truth.
"We used academic exchanges as a front to promote the Empire. And we made the world's brightest talents despair, until all they could do was idolize the Empire."
"......"
"We crushed the geniuses, and in the same stroke, planted a vague yearning for the Empire in the elites. Can you imagine how powerful that effect was?"
"Blue Moon. You people crafted that strategy and spread it through the academies."
"Well, it wasn't just us. Blue Moon did it, Dark Moon did it, Red Moon did it."
Blue Light exhaled another stream of smoke.
The cigarette burned down to the filter in no time.
With an annoyed expression, he slid his hand inside his coat, rummaged around, and produced an expensive-looking cigarette case.
He pulled out a fresh cigarette and lit it off the dying ember of the old one in one continuous motion.
The moment the flame took, a rich herbal fragrance diffused through the air.
I'd smelled it before—in the infirmary, and near Ulf.
"Medicinal herbs. Are you unwell?"
"The Empire works me like a dog."
Blue Light's lips curled into a crooked line.
"But when you look at the bigger picture, it's not just the Empire's fault. There are so many lunatics running around that I have to stay busy. What choice do I have? Long live His Majesty the Emperor of the glorious Empire."
How remarkable.
For someone who looked at the world with such a jaundiced eye to be the head of Blue Moon, of all things.
Blue Moon was the Emperor's direct intelligence unit, meant to keep Dark Moon and Red Moon in check.
As if reading my expression, Blue Light's lips twisted again.
He shifted his gaze away from me, toward the distant horizon—the direction of the Fog Desert, where the Emperor was presumably located.
"Tch. And then it turns out the Empire's even more fucked up than I thought."
"Do you regret it?"
"Regret? I don't cultivate soft feelings like that. Do you have any idea how many innocent people I've swindled in this line of work?"
Dark Moon, Red Moon, and Blue Moon were all infamous.
When innocent people achieved success within the Empire, these organizations would strip them of their wealth.
They robbed people outside the Empire of their assets, their honor, their accomplishments too.
They lived solely for the Empire's success, solely to maintain the iron fortress called the Empire.
"I'm simply angry."
"That emotion doesn't seem so soft."
"Anger is a good emotion. It keeps a person moving, endlessly."
He blew out a long breath of smoke.
"I've destroyed my own body working my hardest to protect the Empire, and now it's falling apart? That's unemployment. Plain unemployment."
I thought I understood why he'd come to me.
"So I've got plenty of people holding grudges against me. Red Moon, Dark Moon—all of them."
"Are you requesting asylum?"
"Weren't you going to take in all Imperial citizens? I'm an Imperial citizen too."
He spat out his last puff of smoke, then flicked the cigarette to the ground.
He ground it under a military boot hidden beneath his coat, dusted himself off, and swept his hair back with both hands.
Short, half-curled blue hair slicked backward.
Sharp-eyed, the man fixed me with a dead-serious stare.
"I'll hand over everything—the Empire's nobles, its intelligence operatives, every piece of information beyond the Empire's borders. Grant my asylum. Right now."
***
"I'm against it."
Abrahal shook his head in distaste.
"There's a saying among merchants: never associate with Dark Moon or Red Moon."
"And Blue Moon?"
"Even worse. They're the ones who keep Dark Moon and Red Moon in line."
Abrahal's face twisted as if he'd bitten into something sour.
"You've had run-ins with them, I take it."
"A merchant who hasn't been burned by the Imperial intelligence units? No such merchant exists. If there is one, it's a demon. You'd be justified in killing it."
Abrahal shared several anecdotes involving Blue Moon.
The Goldline Merchant Guild had grown by supplying military goods to the Empire.
Naturally, they'd been investigated by Red Moon, Dark Moon, and others.
Where they sourced their raw materials.
Where artisans processed their goods.
What routes they used for distribution, what means of transport they chose.
They'd investigated everything, and then—
"They took all of it. And do you know what happens next?"
Raw materials became harder to procure.
Artisans disappeared, and distribution channels shrank.
All of it inevitably led to rising prices.
"The Empire pretends not to notice and pays the inflated prices."
Trade continued.
The Empire lost nothing.
They paid more for their purchases, sure, but they had weapons being produced by the artisans and resources they'd secured for themselves.
Then, at some point—
"Those same people suddenly set up a new company and come out swinging."
And they'd slash prices to rock bottom.
For merchant guilds accustomed to trading at those inflated rates, it was a bolt from the blue.
What's more, the supply never stopped.
"It's a shell game. You take the weapons you've supplied, funnel them back into the new company, and off you go. Or you just shuffle the paperwork."
So when a merchant guild finally went under, the new company would swallow up everyone left with nowhere to go.
People who'd worked at prices far lower than the original rates—artisans, goods, and all—absorbed at a fraction of the cost.
And eventually, the Empire would swallow the merchant guilds whole.
"That was how the Empire operated. Merchant guilds? Artisans? It didn't stop there. From construction to academia—there were far more fields that couldn't escape those kinds of schemes."
After finishing his account, Abrahal waved his hand dismissively.
"So don't even think about letting Blue Moon in. Let's keep this clean. We're not the kind of organization that needs to run an intelligence unit."
***
"Wow, an intelligence unit."
Charlotte's eyes lit up with interest.
I could understand her reaction.
At the Imperial Royal Academy, one inevitably heard stories about the Empire's intelligence units.
But the stories told in textbooks had a very different tone from the real-world accounts Abrahal had shared.
In the textbooks, the intelligence units were all-purpose fixers who cleaned up the small problems the Empire overlooked.
Their strategies won colonial wars without sacrificing thousands of soldiers' lives.
They punished corrupt lords who drained the food supplies of the impoverished, and they dismantled criminal guilds that kidnapped and trafficked children.
Universal problem-solvers who handled what the military couldn't.
"We need them! Absolutely!"
Queen Charlotte exclaimed in excitement.
"I've been thinking we should build an intelligence unit for our kingdom! Look! Those idiots at the top, huh? They didn't even know what Akarind Academy was, what Aura was, and they killed themselves over it! At that point, it's basically natural causes!"
Her language was harsh, but she wasn't wrong.
They'd been content inside their own little empire called Belmain Royal Castle.
They hadn't known what demons were, what Aura was, how the world's politics were shifting—and that ignorance had cost them their lives in one fell swoop.
"My brothers, huh? Those lunatics? They'd all studied abroad at the Imperial Royal Academy and they were still a bunch of brainless halfwits."
"Your Majesty."
"It's the truth. Anyway."
Charlotte cleared her throat.
"I could end up the same way. So could you, Teacher."
Her eyes were serious.
Her words were rough and her personality was nihilistic; she seemed to feel nothing but disgust toward everything in the world, and yet our Queen—
She was a finer leader than anyone.
"It happens to me sometimes too. Me, a queen? Really? Is this kingdom really going to be okay? When I think about it, the workload compared to when I was at the Imperial Royal Academy is absolutely insane—kill me, kill me, I'm dying levels of work—but my body's comfortable, you know?"
Her eyes had never once lost their spark.
"And when that happens, a person can't help but get complacent. Doesn't it happen to you sometimes, Teacher?"
It felt like she was reading my mind.
Laying bare the shameful feelings I'd been carrying.
"An intelligence unit lets us look at ourselves objectively. Side effects? Sure, there'll be some. Who knows what shady people might do? But even accounting for that, it's worth accepting."
"Isn't it dangerous?"
From what I'd observed, Blue Light did seem to be telling the truth.
But that was only from my perspective.
He could have used an Artifact, or he might have been trained to control his physiological responses to a fine degree.
"It's dangerous, sure, but there's also this feeling. Even if he is dangerous, what can he really do? We're Akarind."
Charlotte smiled.
"I trust the solid strength that protects us more than I trust an uncertain future."
***
I asked Berlis for her opinion.
"Shall I brainwash him? Then your worries would vanish completely~!"
Let's stop asking.
I consulted a range of other people as well.
I asked Sihan, I sought out Rozalin, and I visited anyone who might have insight into the Empire.
And I reached my conclusion.
I went back to find Blue Light, who was sitting on a rock outside the outer wall, quietly smoking.
"Made your decision, then. Will you grant me asylum?"
"No."
I shook my head.
"I see."
Blue Light nodded as if he'd expected my answer.
I agreed with Charlotte's reasoning, fully.
But that didn't mean we had to achieve it by absorbing the Empire's intelligence unit.
If it took time, then we'd take the time and build something of our own.
Once we started producing Akarind Academy graduates, it would happen naturally.
"Then let's negotiate. Can you protect me for just one year?"
Blue Light immediately countered with an alternative.
Judging by the way he presented it, his original asylum request had never been realistic to begin with—this was the real proposal all along.
"And what will you bring to the negotiating table?"
"Let me turn that around. What do you want?"
"You're speaking as if you can deliver anything I ask for."
"Within reason, yes."
"That's hard to reconcile with someone requesting asylum. I don't think this is simply about the Empire collapsing."
Blue Light clicked his tongue.
"It's because of the demons."
Demons existed everywhere in the world.
"But these particular demons are tricky. They parasitize human bodies."
"Parasitize?"
"And unfortunately, the one being parasitized happens to be a high-ranking officer in Imperial intelligence. He knows all my weaknesses, and every weakness the Empire has."
A demon that parasitized human bodies.
Rozalin had never mentioned anything like that.
As if he'd anticipated my reaction, Blue Light met my gaze.
"Take that thing out and help me clean up the mess around it. In return, I'll hand over whatever information you want for one year. Oh, and one more thing."
He curled his lips upward with the confidence of someone presenting an offer he knew couldn't be refused.
"I'll screen out every pest that tries to sneak in under cover of the Academic Exchange Conference. How does that sound?"
It was, without a doubt, a temptation difficult to refuse.