“What for?”

Leo asked me, stopping Narce who was about to cheer.

I repeated what he had said earlier.

“As you said, the investigation doesn’t seem like it will go smoothly. The Royal Investigation Bureau probably has no clue where to even start to catch those who gave the revelations.”

“So you’ll move? You don’t know where to start either, Lucas.”

Leo’s voice was cold, unlike usual.

No.

It is true that this ‘revelation’ was used in Pleroma under the name of ‘Mission,’ but I know that the Primrose Path thugs also worked under revelation this time.

If I go up that way, I have a good chance of success.

‘But… if I say this, I’ll be suspected again.’

What should I do.

I looked into his eyes and fell into thought.

“Or are you perhaps going to just barge in? To Pleroma? You must know it’s a waste of time, a waste of stamina, and the chances of success are extremely low. It’s practically going to your death.”

Leo, who had been speaking in a hollow voice, laughed.

“No matter what, I have to oppose what you’re trying to do this time.”

“…….”

He was different than usual.

He always tried to stop me, but never in this half-maddened state of tone and expression.

‘The homeroom professor’s incident must have been a great shock.’

That’s all the more reason not to back down here.

“Then if I know the information, you’ll have no reason to oppose. Right?”

“What?”

“I know. Where to go in.”

“…….”

Leo looked at me silently.

“There are two reasons we have to move fast. Firstly, if this state of having no leads lasts for a long time, the investigation will eventually turn unfavorably against the professors. Secondly, what do you think the real culprit will do if they hear that the professor was caught by the Royal Investigation Bureau?”

“…….”

“They won’t try to move further here. Or they’ll try to give a revelation to another person. If we can’t stop this, who knows what else will happen nationwide?”

Even if I’m suspected, there’s information that must be told and information that mustn’t. This is information that must be told.

Transparent light blue eyes were piercing me. Soon, he opened his mouth.

“Then you?”

“What about me.”

“If you die in the process, what’s the point of it all?”

“…?”

I was speechless.

It was something I hadn’t expected at all.

“Even if you save everyone nationwide, if you’re already dead and can’t see the sight, what meaning does that have for you? Is being remembered as a hero who died in the line of duty the final goal?”

“That can’t be. Why suddenly…”

“Of course not. But you’ve always made choices with a high possibility of death. When you said you’d go meet a Pleroma assemblyman alone, when you disguised as an Old Human journalist to approach Asman, when you acted as an Old Human aspiring actor to enter the Catacombs….”

Wondering how far he would go, I waited silently without speaking.

Narce looked between us, pressing his lips together.

“You don’t care what you go through?”

“…….”

“Need an explanation? You don’t care if you get concussed, strangled, have blood drawn for four days straight, take illegal drugs with double effects, get beaten by aspiring actor guys, etc.? Should I continue? Handed over as a trade object to Pleroma, nearly killed by a bishop chanting Strauch….”

“Stop.”

Silence continued for a long time.

He had gone off-topic since earlier.

But he wouldn’t be saying this for no reason. He doesn’t worry unnecessarily.

Something he read from me earlier must have led to this conversation.

That would be the correct way to think.

‘Exactly what did he read.’

Narce looked at us, then warped outside the hospital room. He seemed to think it wasn’t a conversation for him to hear.

Neither of us paid attention to where he left from.

“…….”

“Lucas. Is this not reality for you?”

Not reality?

I slowly raised my head and looked at him.

Unlike me, Leo’s eyes showed no wavering.

“Or even if it’s reality, you have no attachment?”

“…….”

“Then, after you’ve escaped from big brother. Will you keep living?”

Wrong.

This is another reality.

Whether I can go back, why I came here, why a novel with content identical to this world existed in the magic-less 21st century, I know none of it.

In such circumstances, could I casually think ‘It’s in a novel, so it doesn’t matter if I die or not’?

However, to be precise, his words weren’t wrong.

It’s not because of this place, but reality has never been reality for me.

‘…This is why.’

I didn’t want to be left alone or talk with him.

My neck started to stiffen.

“And, I wanted to say this since earlier. You said, ‘According to what I found out, there’s no problem receiving revelation even if they’re not Pleroma.’ You also believed people can be controlled via revelation. What’s the basis for that? As I recall, we never found that out.”

“…….”

“It’s always been like that. You always find things we don’t know and attempt ridiculous challenges. And then you succeed, as if showing off.”

“…….”

“What is telling you such things? No matter how useful the information it tells you, it will never….”

Leo looked at the air, his lips moving.

“It will never be on your side.”

“I know.”

At my answer, Leo just looked at me for a long time with an expressionless face.

Soon, he turned his gaze towards the window and started to smile faintly.

“Looking closely, it seems I know nothing about you. At some point, you started looking at me with eyes that seemed to have known me for a long time.”

Was that so.

I don’t have any particular memory of that, but I can’t hide my unconscious, so it’s plausible.

I frowned, feeling my head continue to grow fuzzy.

“In the first year, if I hadn’t treated you like that, would you trust me now?”

“…….”

That has nothing to do with it.

It’s just my problem.

Leo doesn’t have to do anything.

How do I explain this series of non-standard events, of which I know nothing myself, to him who acts by the book, no, to my friends who live everyday lives?

The truth is I’m not myself. How crazy would that sound?

Being able to turn back time, reading a novel with identical content in another world, reading others’ information as a Status Window, all the same.

Leo exhaled, opened his mouth.

“Do as you wish. If you grant me one request, I’ll help you too.”

“…….”

“Your choice is beneficial to all people. On the other hand, there’s nothing I can do to stop you.”

It’s true that I need his help.

The reason I told him the plan despite expecting opposition was because Nicolaus is not in a position free from Bavaria. He has to handle the vacuum created by my insertion into Primrose Path.

Anyway, this readily?

Leo seemed to read my doubt and continued on his own.

“You’re right. I’m doing injustice. I’m in a position where I should protect everyone, yet I’m worrying about my friend’s safety, so what else could it be but injustice? Elias and Narce, even Yulia, wouldn’t stop you if they were in the same situation as me. That’s the role of a leader.”

Leo stood up and looked down at me.

He patted my shoulder and smiled.

“Anhalt has a great monarch.”

And Leo has not a great friend. I cannot be a good human as a friend.

“I’ll bring Narce and Elias now.”

“After I finish everything.”

At my words, Leo, who was about to leave the room, turned back.

“I’ll tell you then.”

“…….”

I can’t let go like this.

I’ve already come too far to turn back.

Even if Nicolaus withdraws, Pleroma is already targeting Lucas Rene Askanian. They target me purely out of ambition.

It was something I couldn’t help.

The information that the bishops of Baden are looking for me, and knowing where to go to catch this problem, means I have a chance now.

Therefore, attacking first is the most effective.

“Okay.”

He didn’t tell me what he would tell me, or when after finishing everything, but he answered like that.

I didn’t see Leo’s face, so I couldn’t read his expression.

A long time later, he warped back into the hospital room with Narce and Elias.

Perhaps his earlier watchfulness was only for a moment, as Narce was now smiling again.

The problem was Elias. His eyes were unusually fearsome.

‘Looks like he heard everything already.’

From the warp magic to Primrose Path being installed in my room, to the professors being used in this matter.

There’s no way he could have that expression otherwise.

Noticed me watching his new expression, Elias twisted his lip up the moment he saw me.

“Hmm, Luca, you were here~”

“Yeah.”

“Word has spread all over the school that Nicolaus came and went. Would’ve been fun if you saw the kids freaking out, too bad.”

I observed his state instead of answering.

His forte is always burying things with jokes, but it seems he can’t this time. Unlike his effort to bring up a light topic, his tone was completely sunk.

“Eli.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s not your fault. Even if you hadn’t started it, everything would have turned out like this.”

“…….”

Since Baden, specifically the Freiburg bishops, targeted me, even if Elias hadn’t touched Primrose Path, things would have happened similarly. On the contrary, because he decimated Primrose Path, they rushed their plan, creating many loopholes that made it easy for me to infer their intentions.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Elias answered smiling.

A chilling feeling still remained, but it seemed genuine.

‘Moreover, I thought he’d be crying and faceplanting into the bed….’

Unexpected?

Narce seemed to have the same thought, his eyes wide.

“Oh~?”

“Haha! If Luca says so, then it must be true. Luca doesn’t comfort people. He only tells the pure truth.”

“…….”

He doesn’t comfort? I haven’t lived that heartlessly.

Anyway, seeing him like this now, it seems he’s full of resolve.

“Alright, let’s think this through one by one from now on.”

Elias pulled out a chair, sat beside me, and continued speaking.

“Leo told me on the way here that Professor Traut and our homeroom professor were involved in this. But Leo didn’t know why our homeroom professor was chosen by those guys?”

Elias smiled and said.

“Probably because of me.”

“……..”

He said what everyone else only thought but didn’t voice, as if it were nothing.

“Because he’s my homeroom teacher. And Lucas is targeted because he’s my friend.”

“Didn’t you just say I only tell the truth earlier?”

“It’s because of me, but it’s not my fault~ The fault is theirs for doing it.”

Even as he said that, his face was pale.

He pressed his skin with his fingernails and muttered.

“No time to waste blaming ourselves. Now we have to stop them before they do something even crazier. And if we can stop that, it means it won’t be long before we can cut their heads off.”

I quietly looked at him and nodded.

“Okay, so what’s Luca’s idea~? I’d like it if there’s something I can help with.”

“From what I’ve found out, you can find the person who gave the revelations by following the path of Primrose Path. We need to find the person called the Chairman there first.”

It could be that the person with the ability is somewhere between the lowest ranks and the Chairman, but targeting the Chairman and working up is easier in many ways than finding a middle manager.

“…….”

I felt Leo’s sharp gaze hitting me.

No need to try to distract, thankfully Elias clapped his hands.

“Wow~ That’s great information. Won’t ask where you found out. Anyway, anything Luca says is trustworthy. But if that’s the case, it’ll be hard for me to join.”

“Right. It’s hard for you to infiltrate Primrose Path. They know your face there. More importantly, there’s something we need to do before infiltrating anyway.”

Leo, who had been listening silently, said.

“We need to start with document research. To know how to meet that person called the Chairman, we need to know his needs, right?”

“Accurate. I need to go to the Prosecutor’s Office now. I’d appreciate it if you, Elias, would also go to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Public Security Headquarters.”

“Hmm, what do you need to find out?”

Elias, who had been sitting with dead eyes the whole time, said with a confident face.

Due to the sudden change, my eyes met Narce’s and Leo’s.

“No, wait, why is Luca going to the Prosecutor’s Office?”

“Need to find out if there’s anyone affiliated with Primrose Path, and Pleroma.”

“Need to go right now?”

“No. Just to do a final check. Other mages are interrogating there.”

“Ah, okay. Then I can go a bit later, right?”

Elias disappeared from sight for a moment, then came back holding a bundle of papers.

“What is it?”

“Copied it from the Prosecutor’s Office~”

“What?!”

Leo’s face instantly darkened.

“Since they were acting like they’d send the documents back, I infiltrated first. Killed two birds with one stone, hit the Imperial Archives again after a long time.”

“…….”

Unlike me, who prepared myself to infiltrate, this is his everyday life.

Not surprising.

“Okay, tell me. What do you need?”

“Primrose Path is falling apart, difficult to use again now. But Pleroma is also involved. Clearly, that guy called the Chairman won’t abandon Primrose Path here.”

“Right. No one would easily abandon that gold mine~ So?”

“Then how are they planning to rise again? Do you know that too?”

Elias, who had been blinking for a while, suddenly burst out laughing.

Seems he understood my intention.

Gotta stop that before infiltrating.

To make them come down to me when I show my face, I have to kick away their opportunity to rise.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep