[V7C18] Bad Men Smoke Together
Translated by Jodas 7: To the NorthWren’s half-brother Kevin had left the Wedge Tower — Once he was done reporting that news and was on his way back to the Guidance Office, Hütter heard someone call out to him.
“Hey, Hütter, would you like a smoke?”
(Don’t talk to me like we’re friends!)
With much chagrin, he turned around to catch sight of that smile that looked sketchier every time he looked at it.
It was, of course, his fellow Guidance Office Instructor, the smiley piece of shit himself, Sombart.
Every bone in his body wanted to refuse the offer, but Sombart already knew that Hütter wasn’t the real Dream Mage.
If he refused here, this could materialize into a much bigger headache.
Wordlessly, Hütter approached Sombart.
There were a reasonable number of smokers on the Wedge Tower’s campus, but smoking was prohibited inside the Guidance, Medical, and Library Offices.
The latter two were obvious when you considered that those places conducted surgeries or stored precious books, but the Guidance Office was simply because Director Hegelich abhorred the smell of smoke.
Sombart walked around to the backside of the First Spire: White Smoke and took out his cigar case, handing one to Hütter.
“No thanks, I’ve got my own.”
While the prospect of a free cigar was tempting, he didn’t want to take anything from Sombart.
Hütter took his own cigar case from his robe and lit one with a match before a realization hit him. He’d never seen Sombart smoking before.
“Hold on, you smoke?”
“To be more precise, I think that what a bad man needs is a smoking habit, so I carry these around in case I ever need to offer them!”
“……”
Good thing he didn’t take it.
“Mr. Hütter, you smoke quite frequently, don’t you? I hear you often take smoke breaks with Director Kappel, too.”
“Well, maybe.”
Brushing him off with a noncommittal answer, he took a long drag on the cigar.
While Hütter did enjoy alcohol and tobacco from time to time, he made sure to put those habits to use in his scams.
Some marks will become loose-lipped when alcohol and tobacco were on the table, while others would only be more suspicious of you.
Since his direct superior in the Wedge Tower, Director Hegelich, disliked the smell of smoke, Hütter kept his smoking to a minimum. Now, however, he was here to exchange information, so he felt obligated to smoke.
Glancing at Sombart, who showed no signs of smoking himself, Hütter cut to the chase.
“So? If you don’t like to smoke yourself, then you must have brought me over because you have a question to ask, right?”
“Wren’s Big Bro back there was the third son of the Bayer Trading Company, right? What are you planning this time, getting a man like that on your side?”
Rather than sounding like he was prying for information, he spoke more like a kid who could barely contain his excitement.
(I’m not planning a damn thing! All I did is listen to his heavy, intimate talk and brush him off in a way that sounded nice!)
…Swallowing those thoughts, Hütter responded with a serious expression.
“All I did was ask him to continue supporting Wren.”
“I see! So you want to use Wren as a go-between to get the whole Bayer Trading Company on your side then!”
“Wren’s the son of a mistress. I doubt he has a lot of influence on the Bayer Trading Company. Director Hegelich has to think the same way.”
It was the honest truth.
Director Hegelich was aware of Wren’s background and had concluded that he had no sway on the Bayer Trading Company.
At the very least, bringing up Director Hegelich’s name succeeded in shutting Sombart up for a little bit.
‘It would be nice if this was the end of it,’ he thought as he glanced at the shrinking cigar, but then Sombart opened his mouth again.
“Sounds like you’ll be going to Darwock soon.”
“…All thanks to the Princess’ whims.”
“Are you sure you didn’t set things up to work out that way?”
‘There’s no way in hell I could make Sevil do anything! It’s Sevil, you know!?’
He really wanted to scream, but Hütter tensed up and held it in.
Just about the only one who could make Sevil dance on the palm of his hand was the Black Lion Emperor himself.
Hütter maintained a sour expression as he moved only his eyes to glare at Sombart.
“…What would I have to gain from going to Darwock?”
“Would it not be to your advantage to have the latest intel on Darwock, Mr. Hütter?”
Well, he wasn’t wrong about that. That said, his honest thoughts were that the work required to get that information was ridiculously out of proportion to the value of said intel.
If anything, he was tempted to seek asylum there in Darwock. Perhaps he should try to start learning Darwockish while he had time.
They would head to Darwock in five days’ time.
Going on the journey were:
Prince Axel and his followers.
Hütter and the three students in his class. Plus, in order to maintain Tia’s Magical Flying Device, Rukiye would be coming along as well. This was apparently a request from Rukiye herself.
On top of that, to escort Prince Axel and Sevil, several mages from the Wedge Tower would accompany them. There would be quite a lot of them, but considering this was supposed to be an escort for royalty, it was actually a relatively light contingent.
It seemed there would be more mages aside from them deployed in secret to guard this caravan.
“Hey, Mr. Hütter. Do you think Prince Axel could request help from the Black Lion Emperor?”
“…I doubt that Prince Axel would want to rely on the Black Lion Emperor.”
Since his fiancee, Sevil had run away from Prince Axel, that probably left him with a poor impression of the Black Lion Emperor as well.
Besides, the Wedge Tower and Black Lion Emperor were not on speaking terms, so it would be difficult to rely on both of them.
If he wanted to take the King of Darwock down, it would be best to rely on the Wedge Tower. If he ever gave up on taking him down and sought asylum, then it would be best to seek the Black Lion Emperor’s help.
…But that was only in the case of Prince Axel.
“Oh, right. Maybe someone else from the Queen’s faction escaped Darwock to go ask the Black Lion Emperor for help? Then maybe the Emperor would dispatch troops to Darwock, right?”
“I doubt it. At the very least, the Black Lion Emperor won’t move so quickly.”
Hütter had already made contact with the Black Lion Emperor’s messenger — Miss Big-Eyebrows Heidi — and informed her of the presence of Monsters in Darwock, about Prince Axel’s request, and about the Wedge Tower’s secret plans to retake Darwock.
In response to all of that, Heidi’s comment was simple.
“Understood. Please continue with your mission.”
Surely there was a limit to how stone-faced you could be.
She had no intentions of letting any information slip to a disposable con man like him. That said, Hütter had a reasonable guess on the Black Lion Emperor’s intentions here.
Should the Kingdom of Darwock join hands with the Monsters, it could pose a serious threat to the Empire.
However, so long as the King of Darwock shows no indication of moving to attack the Empire, it would be far too risky for the Empire to make the first move.
Therefore, the Black Lion Emperor would not make any moves for the time being. Hütter felt confident in that assessment, to which Sombart smiled.
“The Ras Belsch Orthodoxy preaches that Monsters are an absolute evil, don’t they? In that case, wouldn’t it be justification enough for the Empire to send troops to Darwock in order to ‘purge the evil’?”
“If they did, then the countries where dragon worship is common would align with Darwock, wouldn’t they?”
“…?”
Sombart’s nonplussed face in response to Hütter’s retort made it clear that he’d been caught off-guard.
“You haven’t read the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy’s Bible, have you?”
“Wouldn’t the Bible destroy a bad man? No, wait, destruction is fine, but there has to be an art to the way a bad man is destroyed…”
“I’m not talking about your fetishes.”
For his part, Hütter had read through a decent chunk of the Bible. He had to, in order to impersonate a priest once.
If he really wanted to, he could keep up with a real priest in a theology debate.
“Look, you know the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy teaches that Monsters are an unambiguous evil, right? Then, what about dragons?”
“What about them? I don’t think dragons show up that much.”
“In the Bible, dragons are usually treated as nothing more than natural disasters. They’re God’s way of testing us, basically. So, you can’t say they’re the same clear and unambiguous evil that Monsters are. That’s the reason why the Emperor can get along with dragon-worshiping countries.”
There were a number of countries in the Northern Federation where the Dragon Faith, which worshiped dragons as gods, was dominant.
As far as the Empire was concerned, they were meaningless little fiefdoms, but if they banded together in resistance they could end up as quite the troubling opponent.
“…So, turning back to Darwock, the new religion that the King of Darwock is proposing isn’t even worshiping Monsters as gods, right? All they’re saying is ‘Monsters aren’t evil.’ If we still attack them regardless, how do you think the Dragon Faith countries would feel?”
Sombart’s face looked like it had finally clicked for him.
All the new Darwock religion was proposing was that Monsters ‘weren’t evil.’ They weren’t worshipping Monsters as gods in any way.
But if the Empire were to send troops to Darwock purely for the crime of working alongside Monsters, how would the nations that followed the Dragon Faith interpret that news?
—Without a doubt, they would see the Empire as a threat.
The Empire attacked Darwock because they cooperated with Monsters.
In that case, wouldn’t they, who worship dragons as gods, be seen as targets for invasion as well? After all, the Empire treated dragons not as an object of faith but as targets to be destroyed.
“If the Black Lion Emperor were to attack Darwock, that would mean making an enemy of the rest of the Northern Federation. So I doubt that the Emperor would decide to make any overt attacks towards Darwock. Of course, all of that is just my speculation.”
—After coming to a cool and definitive conclusion, Hütter thought to himself.
Considering just who the Black Lion Emperor was…
“No matter! I shall make all of the Northern Federation provinces of the Empire! WAHAHAHA!”
…He would definitely say something like that.
‘Please don’t turn out that way,’ Hütter pleaded as Sombart’s eyes began to sparkle
“So what I’m gathering is… Mr. Hütter, you plan to go behind the Black Lion Emperor’s back and trick him into attacking Darwock, dragging the surrounding countries into a religious war, right!?”
“Well done. Your comprehension abilities are even worse than an Apprentice Mage.”
‘You should learn a thing or two from Tia. She’s been putting in some good effort lately,’ Hütter thought in all seriousness.