Backlash (5)

The meeting commenced.

Frondier, seated beside Azier, quietly observed the proceedings.

This gathering differed vastly from those held at Constel or the barrier. It was a large-scale assembly with significant participation from Constel, the Imperial family, and Pros. A

mong them, few knew Frondier, and he anticipated having minimal opportunity to speak.

However, Frondier had much to do, and for now, lacking a voice was preferable.

‘As expected, it definitely started in the north. Just as Azier predicted, they made contact with the monsters outside.’

Frondier condensed information by feeding meeting materials into the workshop. It was less him doing the condensing and more the workshop acting on its own accord.

Examining the scattered materials one by one would be immensely time-consuming. Moreover, human memory is not infinite, and as the materials piled up, the initially reviewed information would inevitably fade.

However, Frondier conjured images of the materials before his eyes. It was an application of the ‘3D blueprints’ he had previously experimented with.

The maps he had just fed in overlapped, forming a three-dimensional representation of the surrounding area, with incident locations and movement paths marked by lines and symbols.

The images constantly before his eyes would neither be forgotten nor omitted.

While some false information might be mixed in, comparisons with other materials gradually eliminated less likely possibilities.

‘Contact with monsters implies the presence of significant intelligence on their side. Naturally, the ones outside are the most likely culprits. The problem lies in the route. Where in this central region are they meeting with those beyond the barrier to distribute the mana injections?’

As the meeting progressed, Frondier’s 3D map continuously gained detail, with new information adding symbols and lines.

Like watching a puzzle assemble itself, Frondier meticulously observed the 3D blueprint before him.

“Sigh, at this rate, we’ll be swallowed by the sea of information.”

One of the Pros muttered in frustration during the meeting. Hearing those words, Frondier smiled faintly. ‘Sea of information,’ he thought.

He hadn't expected to hear such a phrase in this world.

Unlike Frondier’s map steadily nearing completion, the meeting lacked direction and floundered.

It was to be expected. Unlike Frondier, the materials within the meeting remained unorganized.

Furthermore, unaware of the information's veracity and importance, any opinion presented was easily dismissed by another’s rebuttal.

Of course, neither those offering opinions nor those refuting them held malicious intent, but deciding which side to prioritize was no easy task.

Unlike Frondier, who was accumulating and synthesizing information, they viewed each piece of data with a singular perspective. Whichever material was placed on top seemed the most crucial.

‘Plus, there’s an unnecessary amount of false information.’

For Frondier, such information naturally fell away as the materials merged, but for them, discarding any data was difficult.

Therefore, they likely remained unaware that nearly half of it was false.

This number was excessive, even considering the difficulty of identifying symptoms of mana injection, despite the materials being filtered before reaching the meeting.

‘Someone is increasing the false information. They deliberately introduced it into the meeting to make things difficult.’

Only one person was capable of such a feat. Of course, Frondier did not directly focus on that man.

He merely accelerated his thoughts further.

‘For false information to work, there needs to be a corresponding amount of genuine eyewitness accounts. It only holds meaning when mixed within numerous pieces of scattered information.’

In other words, Eden knew from the beginning that the mana injection incident would generate a multitude of eyewitness reports.

Instead of restricting all the information, he chose to flood it with false data, concealing the truth within.

“Then, let’s start by eliminating the most suspicious areas first. That will help condense the information.”

Eden spoke during the meeting, marking regions on the map displayed for all to see with circles.

“Based on the information so far, these are the locations with the highest number of reported sightings. Let’s first form teams to investigate these places. It’s meaningful even just for organizing the materials, and if we discover their research facility in one of them, it’ll be a jackpot.”

Everyone nodded in agreement with Eden’s words. The sheer volume of sightings made the areas Eden marked excessively scattered, but there was no other method to proceed with the operation at this point.

Frondier remained silent. No one would lend an ear to anything he might say now.

In such meetings, rational judgment or facts held little weight in persuading others. What mattered was whether the speaker seemed trustworthy to the attendees.

In that sense, Eden was a reliable figure to them, while Frondier was just a young boy they were meeting for the first time.

However.

“What about you, Frondier?”

Eden was the first to call Frondier’s name.

“We’re planning to proceed like this, do you have anything to say? You seem to have a dissenting opinion.”

At Eden’s words, everyone turned their gaze towards Frondier.

Most of them weren’t looking at him directly but rather following Eden’s line of sight, which happened to land on Frondier.

From Frondier’s perspective, Eden had just given him the floor, and it was the perfect timing to present the information he had compiled to the meeting.

However.

“I have no objections.”

Frondier replied plainly, offering no further elaboration.

Eden smiled and said,

“You’re a man of few words.”

“I just know my place.”

At Frondier’s response, Azier, who was sitting next to him, had a glint in his eyes. It was no wonder, as he recalled the noble meetings he had attended in the past regarding Misstilteinn.

* * *

In the end, the meeting concluded without any significant contribution from Frondier.

The participants decided to form teams as Eden had suggested and begin their investigations. Due to the numerous locations, the teams were kept to a minimum size.

Typically, when forming teams, the minimum number was understood to be ‘three people.’

However, Frondier and Azier were a team of only two. Philly did not participate in the investigation, as she was responsible for managing and overseeing the operation. As the Empress, she couldn't possibly travel to such places.

Despite all other teams having at least three members, neither Frondier nor Azier had any complaints about being paired up alone.

Their thoughts were quite similar.

‘More than enough.’

“Frondier, I forgot to mention, but your Constel activities are suspended for the time being.”

“I was just about to ask about that, but it seems the procedures have already been completed.”

“Of course. Since it was the Empress’s order, there won’t be any negative repercussions for you at Constel.”

Frondier nodded in agreement.

They got into the car. Frondier unfolded the map and briefly glanced at the investigation point they were heading to.

That was it. He folded the map again and put it away.

“Frondier, it was a wise decision to hold back your words earlier.”

“Thank you.”

“However, even I could tell that you’re not entirely positive about this operation. You have something on your mind, don’t you?”

Only once they were in the enclosed space of the car did Azier bring it up to Frondier.

He had noticed that he wasn’t simply lacking things to say but was deliberately choosing not to speak.

“...Of course I do. But it’s not something I can speak of carelessly. I, too, cannot be certain.”

From Frondier’s perspective, Eden Hamelot was the enemy.

This current alliance was operating under the enemy’s leadership. Naturally, there was nothing good about leaving it be.

However, Frondier still didn’t know Eden’s goal, whether Eden was the sole enemy, or if there were others among the alliance members, or even if the entire Phenomenon was the enemy.

It was still too early for him to act rashly.

“I see. Then let me ask you this.”

Azier changed her question.

“What do you think of this operation, where we’ve formed numerous small teams to investigate suspicious areas?”

He narrowed the scope of the question to the content of the operation itself, rather than the overall situation.

Answering this was not difficult.

Even though the content itself was not exactly favorable.

“We’ll probably catch a few individuals who have been injected with mana. We might even be able to prevent incidents where they run amok.”

However, Frondier spoke calmly,

“Nothing else will happen.”