[V10C16] Smoke Fox: Mission Accomplished
Translated by Jodas 10: A Job for a Con ManHütter, suddenly summoned by a youngster from the Finance Office, spoke dryly with his eyes narrowed.
“Why would someone under suspicion of a crime be giving orders to their guards?”
“That’s what I said.”
Wren shrugged with a resigned expression. It seemed that the Apprentices had been conspiring something while Hütter was busy shaking down Armster.
Sombart had already told him that the Apprentices who’d stayed behind had been arrested for treason.
Even though Julius, the one he’d supported all this time, had been arrested, that smiley bastard did nothing but watch.
Furthermore, it was clear that the Fifth Thorn Witch was mixed in among the Apprentices, so the higher-ups were at a loss for what to do with them. Ultimately, it sounded like they just decided to throw them all into one room and have someone keep watch for the time being.
That said, that approach was taken with the assumption that the Apprentices wouldn’t try anything funny.
The Fifth Thorn Witch was in a particularly precarious diplomatic situation. At the very least, they assumed he would keep quiet in that room until the higher-ups were able to patch together a plan. There was, however, a certain princess who turned that situation on its head.
Of course, that princess was Sevil.
“A simple kick in the back would help the higher-ups come to a decision faster, wouldn’t it? Most importantly, my comrades were famished and exhausted. I could not bear to let them endure it any longer.”
Her comrades were hungry, so she demanded food… Her actions made sense up to that point.
But what ended up happening was Gerald and Rose heading out to help cook.
As she put it “It looked like they were short-staffed, and those two had energy to spare.”
(Rose is the Fifth Thorn Witch, isn’t he? Is that really gonna fly?)
Inside the room with the guard outside, a few people were lying wrapped up in blankets, only half-asleep.
After having everyone eat their meal and having the boys and girls wash up at separate times, it seemed that Sevil had directed those who could to get as some rest.
Ella, Roswitha, and Sophie were all huddled together, sound asleep.
Rukiye had apparently headed to consult someone from the Management Office and find parts so she could repair Tia’s Magical Flying Device.
That left four standing before Hütter: Sevil, Tia, Wren, and Julius.
“So, why was I called?”
“Good question. As we will be heading out, I would like you to accompany us, Mr. Hütter.”
He had an unbelievably bad feeling about this.
Crying ‘No way! I don’t want to go with you!’ in his head, Hütter had to ask:
“Where are you… ‘heading out’ to?”
“Wherever Assistant Headmaster Miriam is.”
“Hold it right there, you little…! Do you have any idea what kind of situation you’re in!?”
“Piyopp! A really serious sit-u-ation!”
“That is correct, Tia! You’re in deep shit, don’t go stirring it around!”
Assistant Headmaster Miriam was currently in critical condition, on account of her attempt to forcefully control the Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Chariclea, the Wedge Tower.’
Meanwhile, Julius was under arrest for treason. There was no chance anyone would let the two of them meet.
Regardless, the man from the Finance Office who was responsible for watching the Apprentices nervously hunched over as he spoke to Hütter.
“Assistant Headmaster Miriam already gave her approval, on the condition that you accompany them, Mr. Hütter. I’m being for real here. Miss Abel also gave her permission.”
For whatever reason, there must have been some high-stakes negotiations going on between the powers that be while he wasn’t looking.
Hütter hummed in thought, and with his best stern expression, folded his arms and asked:
“At least tell me this: what business do you have with Assistant Headmaster Miriam? I won’t stand for it if you’re trying to punch, kill, or threaten her, you know.”
Sevil held up two fingers.
“We have two requests. First, we desperately need to have her undo the seals on Rose and Sophie. Then, the other is…”
“We need to talk about my father and the Wedge Tower.”
It was Julius who interjected.
He had clear determination evident in his expression. Somewhere in that pallid face of his, his snake-like eyes gleamed brightly.
(Julius’ father… Samuel Löwenich, huh?)
Just maybe, this might have something to do with Hütter’s mission to investigate the reason why the Wedge Tower cut off contact with the previous Emperor.
Trying his best to appear as hesitant as possible, Hütter nodded.
“I get it, I’ll accompany you. However, I don’t want you making Assistant Headmaster Miriam’s recover any harder, okay?”
The Miriam Hütter knew was a woman who always wore her nun’s habit and always stared directly forwards.
She was ostensibly the same age as Headmaster Möbius and Otto, but she was a beautiful woman who looked much younger than her age.
In contrast, the one lying in the bed before him now was an old lady no matter how you looked at her. Deep wrinkles cut across her sagging face and bags drooped below her eyes.
This was the price for forcibly interfering with the Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Chariclea, the Wedge Tower’ and re-summoning the wall.
The flame of her life would soon burn out. Anyone who saw her would say the same.
“Caspar Hütter of the Guidance Office, at your service.”
“…You are an outsider.”
Miriam spoke, in a voice so quiet and raspy he couldn’t hear it unless he listened real closely.
“…I thought you would flee once you learned the state the Wedge Tower is in.”
The unfortunate truth of the matter was: ‘If I ran away, the Black Lion Emperor would have my neck!’
Hiding the fact that he’d studied Darwockish in anticipation of seeking asylum there, Hütter wore the face of an earnest educator.
“You’re right, I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to run away… But if I did, it would only be after I made sure all my students were safe.”
“…There is nothing you can do.”
He sensed that he was being told ‘So it’s okay for you to run away.’
That was when Sevil jumped in to speak her mind.
“Mr. Hütter is my instructor. I can’t have him running off on me.”
(Let me run! Please! Your big brother is holding me by the neck, can’t you tell!?)
Under her breath, Tia whispered “Ooh, Mr. Hütter is popular!” That did not make him feel any better.
Sevil wasn’t quite at the level of intimidation… but her attitude was awfully haughty for how desperate she said they were.
“Assistant Headmaster Miriam, I will get straight to the point. I want you to undo the seals on Rose and Sophie.”
“…They will come undone after a week. That’s how I designed them.”
“That will come far too late for the operation. I suppose you truly don’t want to bring those two along to help retake the Wedge Tower, don’t you?”
The reasons they wouldn’t want to bring Rose and Sophie were quite different from each other.
As one of the Seven Sages from a foreign country, neither Miriam nor Abel wanted Rose to run around doing whatever he pleased.
Sophie, on the other hand, was a valuable asset, one of very few with the potential to use ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools.’ They surely wouldn’t want her dying in battle against these Monsters.
(All Assistant Headmaster Miriam has to do is let us know the formula for undoing the seal… Well, I suppose it’s not going to be that easy.)
If Sevil spoke too aggressively, he was prepared to decide that she was intimidating too much and making her leave, but Sevil was being surprisingly calm.
“In that case, we’ll move on to our next request. We want to ask you why Julius’ father, Samuel Löwenich, was exiled.”
As far as Hütter was concerned, this was the more important topic.
Hütter swallowed a lump in his throat as he bent his ear closer to hear Miriam’s voice.
“…Samuel Löwenich, collaborating with the previous Emperor, attempted to sell off the Crystal Territory and the Wedge Tower to another country.”
“There’s no way he did!”
Julius shrieked. Hütter wordlessly tapped him on the shoulder, prompting Julius to lower his volume just a bit.
“…My father was only trying to sell off the Crystal Territory.”
“What makes you so confident?”
“…Samuel was thinking of a way to free the contractor to ‘Chariclea, the Wedge Tower.’ He shouldn’t have even considered the idea of selling off the Wedge Tower as well.”
“Then, without proof, should I take that as nothing more than your imagination? I have proof from a letter hand-delivered by one of the previous Emperor’s men… Although it is currently inside the Wedge Tower, so I cannot show it to you.”
Julius’s lip twisted, but he fell silent.
Meanwhile, the third-rate con man Smoke Fox thought:
(W– wa– wait! Hold on, hold on! This is way too much information!)
Julius’ father, Samuel Löwenich, collaborated with the previous Emperor to sell off the Crystal Territory and the Wedge Tower to another country.
This was it. This was exactly what Hütter was trying to find out. The reason the Wedge Tower had for cutting off ties with the previous Emperor.
(Of course Headmaster Möbius and Assistant Headmaster Miriam would have been pissed if they heard that!)
For all this time, they had defended the Empire from the evil of Monsters with the help of the Emperor’s support. Then, all of a sudden…
“I don’t need you guys anymore. I don’t need any dead-weight money sinks like you around, I’m just gonna sell you and the place with all the Monsters off to someone else. Have fun over there, bye!”
It was only natural you’d be pissed.
After that, the deal to sell it off fell through, and a new Emperor ascended to the throne, but from the Wedge Tower’s perspective, they could no longer trust any Emperor.
This was another result of the Imperial Family’s tendency to change its approach dramatically with every successive generation. The treatment of the Schwarzenberg Family’s Shamans was a great example.
From the Wedge Tower’s perspective, the Emperor was untrustworthy and unreliable. Then, out of nowhere, one starts talking about selling them off. Of course they’d cut off ties.
(While I feel like everyone in this story absolutely sucks at politics, well, I can see how it got to this point.)
On the other hand, Julius’ perspective was different.
“Daddy Samuel’s a nice guy! That’s why he would have helped ‘Chariclea’s contractor! There’s no way he would have sold off the Wedge Tower to another country! Daddy Samuel was only trying to make the Crystal Territory someone else’s problem!”
As far as Hütter was concerned, he honestly found Miriam’s story much more convincing.
(…Julius’ perspective comes just from his understanding of Samuel’s character; it’s not like he has any proof. For what it’s worth, I don’t know all that much about Samuel myself. Oh, but Sombart did say he got soft after taking Julius in…)
But it still didn’t really click with Hütter.
It still felt more fitting for Samuel to say “I conspired with the Emperor to sell off the Crystal Territory and Wedge Tower to another country, all for the sake of my adorable little son!”
The fact was, Miriam already had proof in the form of a letter sent through one of the previous Emperor’s men, and that probably wasn’t a lie.
Nevertheless, Julius’ face showed it just wasn’t sitting right with him.
(I feel like we’re going to get off-track here…)
Times like this called for one of a third-rate con man’s handiest tricks.
When two people were fighting, invent a shared enemy for both of them.
“Do you mind if I say something?”
Everyone’s eyes turned to Hütter.
Prefacing his statement with “I know I have no place to say this as an outsider, but…” Hütter spoke up.
“Judging from the way this conversation’s going, it sounds like the previous Emperor and Samuel were communicating by some means.”
“…Yes, it seemed that a messenger would sneak in at regular intervals.”
Miriam gave a small nod. Well, that was probably right. There was a lot of distance between the Wedge Tower and the Palace where the Emperor lived. It was hard to imagine Samuel had the opportunity to leave the Wedge Tower for such a long time.
Thus, the con man who excelled at speaking with ideas that just popped into his head began to expound an improvised tale of a grand conspiracy.
“Is there not a chance that the messenger twisted both of their words?”