"I was asked by the lord to investigate the instructors as an undercover investigator...

...That's the official story."

"There's more?"

"The lord's real mission was to identify the hidden enemy...

Ash, the stampede was your doing, wasn't it?

You're an undercover agent from the Goebelk Duchy."

"What?!"

(How did he know?!)

"Wait...can humans actually cause a stampede artificially? I suspected Ryujeen because he wasn't human, I thought he might be a demon, but Ash is human, right?"

"So you thought I was a demon..."

"Sorry."

"It's fine. As for causing the stampede, you apparently use a magic tool to incite extreme hatred among monsters. I'm not an expert, so I don't understand the details, but apparently, many countries have researched the technology of artificially causing stampedes for use in war. Apparently, many methods have already been invented, but what's interesting about this magic tool is...

...that it can also incite hatred among humans. You can use it to make someone dislike someone else."

Everyone's gaze turned to Iraira.

"...Hee hee hee ha ha ha! So you've figured it out! I thought I'd hidden my identity perfectly, how did you know?"

"That's a secret."

The method, of course, was reading minds with the Divine Eye. But it's surprisingly difficult to find objective evidence even after reading someone's mind.

"What was the goal?"

"That's obvious, for my country!"

"You answered vaguely. I wanted to hear something more specific..."

"I'm not going to talk about the operation so easily!"

"For your country? It was for yourself, wasn't it? Extra cash. You weren't even sending money back to your country, were you?"

"A little perk wouldn't hurt! It's their fault for being deceived...This is the end of the conversation!"

Ash slammed something on the floor. A small explosion occurred, and a massive cloud of smoke filled the room.

They hastily opened the windows, and by the time the wind cleared the smoke, Ash was gone.

"Escaping with a smoke screen? What a cliché."

One of the lord's subordinates rushed out to chase Ash.

...

"Ryujeen, you're not going to chase him? You're a member of the secret service, right?"

"Secret service?! A national intelligence agent! That explains it...he doesn't look strong but he actually is. That's what an intelligence agent would be like."

"No, no, no, I don't know anything about intelligence agencies or secret services. The lord just happened to ask me for help. It's true that I wanted to re-register as an adventurer...but there are various reasons. I wanted a fresh start."

"Various reasons...the Mirmul incident?"

Ryu shrugged, avoiding the question.

"Any town would have been fine. I could have just re-registered as an adventurer, but I happened to meet the lord. And he asked me to do it in this town..."

Let's go back to when Ryu left the Garyza Kingdom.

Ryu crossed the border into the Fermar Kingdom, south of Garyza. Garyza and Fermar were allies, and they had a very good relationship. The border was practically non-existent.

(The Garyza and Fermar royal families have a history of intermarriage, and the two families are related. If the Garyza royal family had perished, they would have welcomed a new king from the Fermar royal family.)

As he was traveling along the road after crossing the border, Ryu discovered a carriage under attack by bandits and rescued them. (Ryu wasn't traveling to a specific destination, so he was traveling by horse, going wherever he pleased.)

The carriage contained Ordelian Sindral, the lord of Sindral Territory in the Fermar Kingdom, and his daughter.

And the lord asked Ryu to escort them to Bayjim, the capital of Sindral Territory.

Ryu had initially refused the escort request, saying that he wasn't an adventurer, but the lord's escort knights had all been killed by bandits. If the lord's carriage continued down the road, with monsters and bandits around, without any escort, there was a high chance they'd be attacked and killed.

The bandits he'd defeated were quite famous bounty hunters. A lord would usually have skilled knights for protection. But it turned out there was a plot to trap and kill the lord, and he'd been attacked by notorious bandits, his guards were separated and killed individually by the bandits' leader.

The bandit leader was skilled enough to take down all the escort knights. There were rumors that he had been a famous member of Fermar's royal knight order, but it was irrelevant now since Ryu had effortlessly killed him.

Ryu had a traumatic past of being enslaved and didn't like nobles much, but his feelings had softened considerably after interacting with Sophie and her father, King Largo. Of course, he still hated arrogant, pompous nobles who treated commoners like tools. But he didn't avoid those who were gentlemanly and kind.

And the Sindral lord and his daughter were extremely gentlemanly and kind people. So Ryu agreed to escort them to the capital, Bayjim.

After arriving in Bayjim, Ryu ended up staying at the lord's mansion and received a warm welcome. But then the lord asked him for a favor.

Ryu thought it might be related to the assassination attempt, but he was wrong. The lord said he could handle it himself. He seemed to have identified the culprit.

He said he wouldn't force Ryu, and that it was fine if he refused. So Ryu decided to hear him out.

Next Episode

Ryu: "I'll become an adventurer after all!"

Stay tuned!