Chapter 316: Spy

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

“There’s a spy among us. Or else why are we always forced to react so passively? The enemy knows about every step the Mage Country is taking.”

“You’re saying that there’s an enemy spy among the archmages with Emblems of Endless Truth that attended the Truth Symposium conference? Who could it be?”

“It’s definitely that Blackeye bastard. Don’t you see how he’s always hiding his face every meeting, never daring to reveal his true appearance?”

“…He’s acted that way for several hundred years. Why is it suddenly strange now that you’re here?”

“That’s even stranger, then. Why could he possibly have to cover his face for several centuries? Perhaps under his mask isn’t any normal person. Perhaps he’s not even human at all…”

That was my logic, one which I explained to Auntie Amala. Although I was obviously just making stuff up, what I said wasn’t completely unreasonable, either. However, Amala apparently didn’t quite agree with me. Margaret remained as a bystander and calmly read her book, while Adam snickered in the background.

After the conference, the overall situation in the Cloud Tower began changing. Mystical Blade and several other mage organizations were of the opinion that they should intervene with this more and more chaotic situation before it got out of hand. Naturally, this created several small factions. We had invited Amala from Star Revelation over for a friendly discussion.

However, in our conversation just now, she apparently didn’t quite agree with what I said about Blackeye. She looked at me as if I was a scammer and a hoodlum, which… which was correct!

After all, I had no evidence to begin with. I made everything up that I had told her just now, and I didn’t even know if there really was a spy.

I just wanted any excuse to give that Blackeye some trouble. If it turned out in the end that he wasn’t a spy, all I had to do was apologize with a “Sorry for mistaking you as a spy, but I’ll be giving you trouble in other methods anyways.” Hehehe!

Although it seemed like I was just casually chatting with Amala, in a way I was hoping to get her tacit permission. After all, I needed to make sure that Blackeye wouldn’t receive outside assistance. As for my plan, what we needed to do was quite simple. While my Second Senior Brother Sandro did his “important stuff,” all we had to do was keep Blackeye busy. Having Adam and Margaret help me would be all that I needed.

Of course, if we were able to defeat and kill Blackeye, that would be even better. However, without even mentioning the incredible difficulty of accomplishing that, killing a long-term member of the Truth Symposium right after I joined it wouldn’t look too good. A recently joined outsider who immediately went on such a strong offensive would definitely put others on guard. Things would be quite bad if I ended up becoming everyone’s biggest enemy.

Our plan was quite direct. Simply find Blackeye wherever he was and then keep pointing at him and calling him a spy. Keep verbally attacking him in a public location. Anger him, and stall him for as long as possible.

And if he really was a spy? Ahaha, I was just casually saying it. After all, I was no famous detective who could jump to such an incredible deduction, being able to point out whoever I disliked as a spy.

“How did you know I was from the Tark Republic?!!”

However, our sudden ambush on Blackeye ended up in exactly such a result. The magical acid not only dissolved Blackeye’s magical defenses, it even dissolved his mask that he permanently wore. Underneath that destroyed mask was a familiar undead species. The soulfire in his eyes didn’t need any further explanation. Blackeye was actually a top-level lich!

As for me, I retracted my index finger which was pointing at him and tried my best to remain calm.

After all, I had just shouted “There’s only one truth, you’re the spy!” at Blackeye, which turned out to be really cool as Blackeye misunderstood me to have evidence on him, causing him to instantly reveal himself and turn on us.

“…How did you all know that I was a spy! My disguise should have been flawless! My fake identity was perfect! I even pretended to need to eat and go to the bathroom just like humans!”

“I can’t laugh! I definitely can’t laugh!”

I did my very best to pretend to be serious, but I was actually laughing uproariously inside my mind. But if I laughed out loud, everyone would find out that I had only accidentally revealed him as a spy.

This veteran lich had a look of incredible astonishment on his face, still not understanding what could have possibly given him away. Behind him was Adam who was so shocked that he dropped his sword. After all, Adam knew that I had been making all this up just to slander Blackeye. Adam was only here to help me stall him.

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law!”

Alright then, since my luck was so good, I might as well keep playing. Since I finished copying Detective Conan’s lines, it was now time to pretend to be a policeman and read him his rights.

But judging from the negative energy accruing behind “Blackeye,” it was obvious that he was in no mood to join in my fun. In that case, let’s skip the trial and go straight to the sentencing instead.

“Law Incantation: Silence!”

This entire area was completely silenced. For a lich mage at Blackeye’s level, even if this magic he’d never seen before was effective, it wouldn’t last longer than an instant. However, that was more than enough for us.

With the arrival of abnormal silence, Blackeye momentarily paused in surprise. This was an excellent combat opportunity. Adam, who was a veteran fighter with countless battles under his belt, would never miss such a chance.

Although Adam’s overall power level had somewhat decreased after he changed to using the thunder element, it had the benefit of multiplying his speed and reactions by several times over. And once a SemiGod warrior like him got into melee range of a lich, with the Great Saint Margaret and her teacher Amala backing him up as support, plus a professional troublemaker like me simply playing it cool and enjoying the show, the result was obvious.

Ten or so seconds later, Blackeye’s bones were all over the ground. He was defeated faster than any of us expected.

“Ha, it’s the death penalty for you. The death penalty.”

Although the Truth Symposium just concluded a conference, the Truth Overseers were summoned to yet another emergency conference right away as the angry archmages all cursed the traitor among them and discussed what to do with Blackeye. I was also delighted to learn that Sandro’s plan to rebel and take over the Sword of Order was extremely successful and completed ahead of schedule due to Blackeye’s absence. Sandro successfully became the temporary leader of the Sword of Order, the big boss there.

“He’s a fake?”

“Yep, he’s a fake. But, he’s no ordinary fake. That lich was originally an academic mage, as well as a real Myth rank. But rather than saying that he isn’t Blackeye, it would be more accurate to say that there was never a person called Blackeye who existed in the first place.”

The mages’ interrogation of Blackeye soon came up with results. After all, mages had far too many methods to make a person speak all the secrets they knew. Even if that lich was already an undead, there was still no way for him to hide the secrets within his soul. Margaret attended the Truth Symposium conference in my stead and told me about what she learned.

Now that I had uncovered a spy for the Mage Country, it seemed to have helped to make the mages trust me more than before. Even Amala seemed to trust Margaret more as well.

“Blackeye wasn’t a single individual. It was more of an identity that the Tark Republic undead used to do what they wanted in the Mage Country. There were various powerful undead acting as Blackeye at different points in time. Of course, they also made sufficient research results and wrote enough research theses to make the name of Blackeye more and more famous as time passed. As for the Blackeye we just captured, that was just a body double.”

“Ha, making a Myth-rank lich act as a body double? Who could afford that… wait a moment, only an even higher-level undead could make such a high-ranked lich act as a subordinate and body double. That means there’s only one possibility!”

“Yep, that’s exactly the possibility I’m thinking of as well. The recent Blackeye is someone you’re quite familiar with.”

“Aso! Only an Undead Emperor could make such a powerful lich obediently act as a body double. So, what this means is that Aso spent an incredibly long time in the Mage Country? Perhaps the ‘Teacher Blackeye’ that we met when we were both acolytes here was even Aso himself!”

“Blackeye, who was one of the Truth Overseers and the leader of one of the largest and most powerful mage organizations, Sword of Order, was actually an enemy of the Mage Country all along? This obviously means that all the Mage Country’s plans made at the Truth Symposium were known to the Tark Republic all this time. This is a huge slap to the face to all those mages who pride themselves in their wisdom. You really should have attended this meeting. When the news spread, the archmages were so, so angry. Teacher Amala even joked around and said that ‘even an Undead Emperor has spent so long learning here at the Cloud Tower from us, even participating in so many of our research discussions. Perhaps it’s our honor to have had such a glorious coworker.’”

Margaret chuckled as she recalled how angry the archmages were at finding out the news.

“Well, I’d say that Amala’s quite right, don’t you agree? After all, Aso was an Undead Emperor. Perhaps it’s even possible that he was here to study magic at the same time we were.”

I nodded in agreement with Margaret’s words. In fact, this was perfectly understandable. Who said that undead couldn’t disguise themselves and come study magic at the Cloud Tower?

Looking at it from the enemy’s standpoint, if I was an undead who wanted to find a place to lay low and do some spying, as long as I didn’t need to worry about being exposed, hiding in the Mage Country would obviously be the best choice. One could do whatever research they wanted in privacy here, not to mention exchange all sorts of ideas with other mages. The undead would even be able to obtain information directly from their enemy.

“Is there any other news besides this? It’s rare to catch such a high-level spy.”

“Ah, right, the Truth Symposium told me that you have their gratitude. ‘As expected of that Roland, he actually uncovered such a deeply hidden mole.’ Did you really have some information that you worked with when you uncovered him? Did Aso leave you any information about this?”

“…Do you really feel that Aso would do something so foolish?”

“In that case, as I expected, you must have just made a lucky guess.”

Margaret nodded, certain that I was just lucky, before tossing me a tattered diary. This diary was written in the undead language. I casually flipped to the last few pages and instantly understood why all the archmages at the Truth Symposium were so enraged. Luckily for me, they all misunderstood and thought that I had actually uncovered a spy for them through my investigations, rather than it being a fortunate coincidence.

“…I’ve already given the information over to Emperor Aso. These foolish old buffoons are still under the impression that this world belongs to them. They’ll never expect that we’re almost finished with our preparations. It’s about time for us undead to make our return, bringing death to all the living…”

“…That idiot, Sandro, is actually contacting the other vice leaders of the Sword of Order, investigating who I really am! Damn it, could it be that the constant leak of information is causing them to suspect me…?”

“…Today, I saw that person… Yongye. As expected of the former Undead Emperor, as expected of the powerful individual who defeated Emperor Aso. Simply passing by and exchanging glances, his look was filled with enmity and vigilance. Could it be that he’s already discovered something…”

“…The shadow guards brought some information to me. Sandro and Roland are secretly meeting with each other. It would seem that I’ll probably be exposed soon. I need to hurry up and send out the newest information right away…”

Alright then, in a way, this lich truly deserved what he got. He actually dared to write such things in his diary and carry it on him?

“Eh?”

Suddenly, I paused as I flipped through the pages. At the bottom of each page was a number. Anyone else looking at it would probably be baffled at why there would mysteriously be a number on each page. However, I had received a gift of knowledge from Aso and knew that this was his personal code.

“Mage… tower… at… 376… Abo… Street? What’s this? Aso’s personal research laboratory!”

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