One pleasant night at the end of spring, a man slumped onto a table in a cheap bar in the backstreets of the Imperial Capital.
The man was in his mid thirties, with short black hair and a stubble.
The man went by many names. He had a real name of course, but he used aliases more often than his real name. His number of aliases was typical of his trade—which is to say, his real job was as a con man.
People knew him as the Smoke Fox.

“Hey, owner. Gimme a beer….”

“How ‘bout you leave it there, okay? At least get some food in that stomach.”

“I’m too stressed. Can’t keep anything down.”

Even when too stressed to keep down any solid foods, citizens of the Empire always had room for beer.
The owner, who had been skinning beans, sighed while pouring another glass of beer. Then he piled the skinned beans on a small plate and placed it in front of the Smoke Fox.
The Smoke Fox pursed his lips.

“I didn’t ask you to add skinned beans to my tab, owner.”

“I’m giving ‘em to you for free, don’t worry about it.”

“You busybody.”

Grumbling, the Smoke Fox peeled his upper body off the table and chewed on the thin bean skins. They barely even tasted like beans.
As he slowly chewed on the bean skins, the bar’s door opened and a young man walked in.

“I heard all about it, Fox~! Sounds like a magnificent job just fell into your lap!”

“Haase, eh? Where’d you sniff that out?”

Haase was a refined man who floated a smirk to his sweet and elegant face.
He worked as a marriage fraudster. That is to say, he was a colleague of sorts to the White Smoke.
That said, while Haase had a good face, he lacked a good mind.
He entered the business of marriage fraud not because he wanted to, but as the natural result of trying to meet the expectations of all the women who approach him.

“Who did I hear it from? Umm, the girl I slept with last night had some connections to the mob that runs this neighborhood, so I think i picked some things up from there?”

“…..You know you’re going to get stabbed to death one day?”

While dropping the bean skins into his beer, the man thought back to the events of a few days prior.

A few days earlier, the con man known as the Smoke Fox had been had.
In a tiny room, sitting across from him as he was bound to a chair, were a suspicious-looking man and woman wearing hooded robes and veils over their mouths.
How did he end up here? …..Well, he got caught on the job.
The Smoke Fox didn’t often get entangled with his fellow con men; he preferred to work alone. However, the con he was running that time was connected to another organization, so he teamed up with a colleague for security.
At worst, all he had to do was sell him out and run away—that’s what he had thought, but his partner thought the same way.
He was sold out by the colleague he’d teamed up with, and captured by the noble he was trying to con. Then he ended up getting interrogated here.
The man and woman sitting before him didn’t look like servants of a noble house. They looked to be closer to his line of work—they were certainly used to roughing people up.

“I know who you are. Alias: Smoke Fox. You’re a con man who’s been active in the Imperial Capital area for a while.”

It was hard to get a read on her with the bottom half of her face covered, but from what she could tell from the woman’s voice, she sounded surprisingly young. Above her sharp, cold eyes rested a pair of reasonably thick eyebrows.
The Smoke Fox chuckled. Not because he wanted to present a charismatic appeal, but because he thought he’d be killed if he showed any hostility.

(Now, how do I make it out of here alive…)

The Smoke Fox was nothing special, merely a third-rate con man.
If this were chess, he wasn’t the type who could think a few moves ahead.
He was only concerned about overcoming the problems right in front of him—That’s how he’d always lived. Even now, without thinking about it too deeply, he weaved lies that fit the situation and spoke them fluently.

“I have another face that I hid even from my partner.”

“Oh?”

The man made an interested voice.
The Smoke Fox made a show of glancing around to see if anyone else was listening, then spoke in a whisper.

“….I’m actually an intelligence officer for the Emperor himself, and lately I’ve been on a mission to infiltrate the criminal organization that controls the Empire’s dark underbelly. I heard rumors that those people were planning an attempt on His Majesty’s life.”

It was a big lie. He could think of many organizations that controlled parts of the Empire’s dark underbelly, but he had no idea whether any of them were plotting an attempt on the Emperor’s life.

“I’d received word that a member of that organization had fled to this very manor. To get them to let their guard down, I played the role of a con man, and tried to capture the member of that organization while pretending to run a con. But then they saw through my disguise and….”

Why would he have to act as a con man to get them to let their guard down? Surely there would have been better ways—but he didn’t worry about that. Regardless, as long as he got through with vibes and confidence he’d be golden.
The Smoke Fox made the colleague who sold him out to be a fugitive member of that criminal organization, and weaved a story that made it sound plausible. Then, all he had to do was wait for his chance to escape. That was the Smoke Fox’s strategy.
Doing so, the veiled man spoke with a delighted tone.

“So, this man says he was working to protect the Emperor’s life.”

“Yes, exactly. I have sworn my loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor, and no one else. All hail the Emperor! …Well, I can’t exactly hail him while I’m tied up like this, ahaha.”

“WAHAHAHA!”

The man laughed thunderously, then spoke to the woman sitting beside him.

“Did you hear that, Heidi? Apparently this man has sworn his loyalty to me!”

(……huh?)

For some reason the conversation has taken a strange turn…….As the Smoke Fox was confused, the man brought his fingers to his veil.

“I also have another face, you know.”

The man tore off his veil.
Underneath was a strong and deeply chiseled face.

“I am the sixteenth Emperor of the Schwargald Empire, Leonhard Alois Maximilian Bernd Krewing! The one the world calls the Black Lion Emperor!”

The Smoke Fox’s mind went blank.
After three seconds, he concluded this must be a well-timed joke.

“Haha, my apologies, Your Majesty. Shucks, I wish I could bow down, but I’m tied up and all.”

“Hmph, certainly….. This treatment won’t do for such a loyal retainer of mine. Very well, Heidi. Undo this man’s ropes. Let’s give this man the treatment he deserves in the Palace.”

That probably meant this group of ruffians was going to bring the Smoke Fox to their base and interrogate him further.

(Well, I’m lucky they’ve at least decided not to interrogate me right here and now. All I have to do now is keep selling out my partners until I get a chance to escape….)

The woman with thick eyebrows named Heidi quietly stood up and began undoing the bindings on the Smoke Fox.
The Smoke Fox looked for a chance to escape, but Heidi observed the Smoke Fox’s every move without a single opening. If he tried to run away now, she’d probably just stab him in the back.

(….All I can do now is sell my charisma to this so-called Emperor.)

Under the watch of the woman known as Heidi, the Smoke Fox was lead to a carriage.
Then, after a half-day journey rocking back and forth in the carriage, they arrived at an impressive palace. It looked nothing like the hideout of a criminal organization.
It was only after being led into the palace and being handed a glass of wine by a beautiful young woman that the Smoke Fox started to realize that something didn’t line up here.
He realized far too late.

“Now, Mr. Smoke Fox. You’ve said that you are my loyal retainer, no?”

The so-called Emperor that brought the Smoke Fox here—this black-haired man had changed into luxurious clothing lined with fur all over.
He wasn’t like the wealthy folks the Smoke Fox had defrauded before.
The fancy clothes and accessories this man was wearing made him feel like they were supposed to be on this man.
The man hung a short sword from the belt on his waist. The sigil on that sword was one only permitted to be used by the Emperor himself.

(Wait, wait, wait! No way, is this really…..)

The black-haired man clapped his hands with a thunderous report.
Doing so, the beautiful young women who had been waiting on them quickly left the room.
The only ones remaining were the man who invited the Smoke Fox here, and, leaning on the wall, the woman with thick eyebrows known as Heidi.

“So, I command my loyal retainer thus.”

The man laughed, showing his white teeth. Like a ravenous lion.
—The Black Lion Emperor. That was the name this Empire used to refer to their current Emperor.

“I command you to infiltrate the Wedge Tower, as a teacher.”


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[V2C2] The Fox and the Black Lion