Chapter 688

The banquet hall was filled with countless people, among whom most of the participants from the temple were included.

Those who were second-year students at the time of the Gate Incident were particularly remarkable.

Not only were there the Demon King, the Emperor and the two Empresses, but others as well, all of whom had distinguished majors and held significant positions.

"Evia, how is your studying going?"

At Scarlett's question, Evia nodded her head.

"Yes, lately I've been gaining some practical experience. It's not something completely new to me."

Evia, who was unsure about what to do after the war, ultimately chose the path that best utilized her abilities.

In the reopened temple, she was now majoring in military science.

Although she was not yet in charge of any practical work, it was already confirmed that she would join the imperial army upon graduating from the military academy.

And while it was still in the distant future, the Emperor planned to make Evia the commander-in-chief of the imperial army.

Her ability to communicate with everyone within her reach while seated would undoubtedly be more efficient when she was in command.

Naturally, under the full support of the royal family, Evia was given an environment where she could focus solely on her studies.

Scarlett and Evia surveyed the banquet hall together.

The second-year students at the time of the Gate Incident were all important people, but it was not possible for everyone to attend or even survive unscathed.

In particular, most of the B-class students were absent.

"Almost none of our classmates are here."

"…Yeah, that's right."

There were only three B-class alumni present.

Charlotte, Scarlett, and Evia.

Asher, number 4, was dead.

Delphin Izzard, number 9, was also dead.

Excluding Ranian Sesor, number 10, who had become a bard, all the others were missing.

Dettomorian, number 8, who had remained at the temple, was carrying out the Emperor's secret mission after the war.

Occasionally, they would hear stories about Ranian Sesor, who was confirmed to be alive along with Dettomorian. Excluding those five, everyone else was missing.

Ludwig.

Christina.

Louis Ancton.

Anna de Gerna.

Their deaths were almost a foregone conclusion.

Since they could not witness their deaths firsthand, going missing in battle meant death. Ludwig had gone missing on the battlefield, so from the moment the final battle ended, he was considered dead.

Trying to search for them would be futile.

Two were missing from Class A.

Bertus, the former Emperor.

And Ellen Artorius.

Both were missing and wanted at the same time.

"Where did they all go...?"

Scarlett recalled the faces of those who were now impossible to find amidst the lively atmosphere of the banquet.

Hoping that they were all alive somewhere, was it too dangerous a wish?

Was it a frivolous wish?

Evia, Scarlett, and Charlotte, who watched from afar, were all thinking about the people they could no longer find.

As the entire palace was the venue for the banquet, the groups were divided into several smaller gatherings.

Naturally, the temple alumni gathered together in small clusters.

Although they kept a slight distance from one another, they shared a bond as they had fought and won the war together.

Even the politicians and other officials who were not involved in the war could not easily enter the groups where temple personnel were mixed, even though they were not explicitly excluded.

Of course, they were relatively young, so it was difficult for them to join in the conversation, and the attendees from the temple were originally unrelated to political gains, so they were not particularly interested.

That didn't mean everyone there had nothing to do with politics.

Excluding the Emperor and empresses, the person with the most influence was undoubtedly King Heinrich von Schwarz of Kernstadt, who held the most actual power and political strength.

"..."

"Your eyes are going to fall out, kid."

"What's going to change if you keep looking at that?"

Naturally, the esteemed King of Kernstadt was being reprimanded by his friends for staring intently at something instead of focusing on the banquet.

He couldn't help but be scolded by Kono Lint and Erich, since he didn't eat or drink, just kept his mouth shut and stared at something, even though they had gathered after a long time.

However, in response to the scolding, Heinrich twisted his mouth and glared at his friends.

Heinrich's gaze was fixed on the Emperor.

The Emperor was now talking to Empress Louise, who had approached him.

The contrast between the Emperor's awkward appearance and the Empress's disdainful gaze was striking.

"Can't you stop looking?"

"Can't help it, can you?"

"Have you ever been in a situation like that?"

Heinrich's brow furrowed at the irresponsible answers from Lint and Erich.

Cayer, who had seen his expression, chuckled.

"I know it's not something you can achieve just because you want to, but sometimes I think it's fortunate I wasn't born into royalty or the imperial family. Thanks to you."

Everyone realized that power sometimes brings about situations too difficult to handle with a normal mentality, as demonstrated by Heinrich's case.

It was something that had to be done, and it was necessary.

But it made everyone dizzy.

Kono Lint shook his head.

"Why are you so worried? He hasn't even held hands with her so far, has he?"

In fact, that was true.

The relationship between Empress Louise and the Emperor was extremely formal.

They treated each other like work because it was a marriage arranged for political purposes. Especially Louise.

That's why they should treat it like work, but Heinrich, hesitating, sighed.

"If it stays like this, you don't need to worry or be afraid of anything in the future, do you?"

As Erich said, regardless of what Heinrich thought, if there was only an official relationship between them and nothing else, he could just ignore it.

"I don't know... I just don't know..."

It had been five years.

A whole five years.

Heinrich's thoughts were somewhat different now compared to before.

Was it right for his mother to age like that her whole life?

He couldn't know for sure.

Naturally, as a Master Class, there was no significant difference in appearance between Louise and other empresses.

Occasionally, seeing himself severely discolored, Louise would say such words with a sad expression.

"... Don't worry about it, I won't have that happen in my lifetime. I wouldn't do something you hate."

Heinrich felt as if he had been struck on the head at her words. Naturally, Louise must have felt pressured by Heinrich's every action and attitude.

Unable to withstand such scrutiny, Louise had spoken those words herself.

He felt as if he was being cruel.

After that, Heinrich had no idea what to do.

"By the way, was it official that... Reinhardt was Heinrich's father...?"

"I'm not quite sure about that..."

"Enough, let's just drop it. Please."

Heinrich, who was the king of Kernstadt, was full of cold sweat on his forehead as he made the request.

Fortunately, the perfect timing to change the atmosphere arrived.

Cliffman, who had been dancing with Liana, seated her at Harriet's table and, after listening to some conversation, began to approach their table.

"It's been a while."

Everyone expressed their delight as Cliffman pulled up a chair and sat down.

Although they all belonged to the same empire, each had their own tasks to attend to.

So it was rare for all of them to gather in one place.

"How's everything going for all of you?"

At Cliffman's question, everyone nodded their heads modestly.

As the king of Kernstadt, Heinrich naturally resided in the capital of Kernstadt.

Erich de Lafaeri had become a knight and was now a member of the Holy Empire's Holy Knight Order.

Cliffman was in charge of guarding Liana, the empire's agricultural district supervisor, at all times.

The agricultural district was important, but above all, Liana de Grantz was an irreplaceable figure, so the overwhelmingly powerful Cliffman was assigned as her guard from among the empire's master-class warriors.

"Well, if you count rehabilitation as work, I'm doing that too."

Cayer, who was still in a wheelchair, laughed and nodded his head.

Naturally, Cayer relied on Redina's help to get by, as he couldn't leave the wheelchair yet.

"But I'm worried about what's next."

Even when his rehabilitation ended, there was no specific position prepared for Cayer. His talent for immense mana and his incompetence in magic manipulation remained unchanged.

If there were a war, he might have to use the Arc Crystal again, and at that time, he would have work to do, but it was better if that didn't happen.

At Cayer's words, Kono Lint shook his head as if he couldn't believe it.

"Hey, you can live your whole life without any problems just on your pension."

"That's true. But the same goes for you."

"Yeah, you're right."

Although very few received the highest level of pension based on their contributions, all of them had achieved such high accomplishments.

Of course, there were those who declined the pension based on their contributions.

"By the way, are they really going to give pensions to all the war veterans?"

Currently, only war heroes received pensions, but the long-term plan was to expand the pensions to all veterans.

The likelihood of this happening was quite low, though.

At Erich's words, Heinrich furrowed his brow with a cautious expression.

"Even if we can't give it right away, we plan to eventually. But it's still uncertain when it will be realized. We're also considering giving land as an alternative, but Reinhardt seems to be against that idea."

"Why would he oppose giving land? Isn't that better?"

"There's plenty of empty land out there. But if we just give any land as a fief, they'll have to do the pioneering work themselves, right? Is that fair? They don't even need any particular accomplishments to be granted land if they're willing to develop empty land. If we give them land and then say 'that's it,' resentment will only arise. It's even worse than not giving anything at all."

"Ah, I see."

Although they couldn't yet provide pensions to all veterans, there were certainly some who received them.

And gradually expanding the scope of those pensions was one of the empire's long-term tasks.

In the end, they each did significant work in their own right or held important positions.

"Have you heard anything new lately?"

Cliffman looked at Kono Lint.

"Not really?"

Kono Lint shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, it's best if you don't have much to say."

At that, everyone nodded their heads, except for Lint.

Kono Lint, of course, held his own place among them.

"It's quite fascinating how each of us is doing something, especially Heinrich becoming the king. To be honest, I find it more surprising that you're involved in such work."

"True."

"Yes."

"It is. How could that happen?"

At Cliffman's words, the others vigorously nodded their heads in agreement.

"…What's with you guys?"

Lint glared at them with an uneasy expression.

"Come on, someone like you being an executive in the Imperial Intelligence Agency? That's just unbelievable."

Kono Lint was one of the high-ranking officers in the current empire's intelligence agency.

"It was even more chilling that you pretended to be unemployed for three years."

He had even thoroughly concealed his involvement in such work from his friends.

Despite their subtle concerns about whether he should be doing something now, he had cheekily dodged the question, saying he would live off his pension as a lifelong unemployed person.

"This guy is sinister, isn't he?"

"I'm just a person whose professional ethics involve keeping secrets…! Sinister…!"

A man who surprisingly kept secrets well.

A man who was even thoroughly meticulous, to the point of being creepy.

The friends were most shocked by the truth that Kono Lint was not actually a ne'er-do-well.

Heinrich sipped champagne and snickered.

"But the way you were actually caught… was very you."

"What do you mean, 'like me'? What's so 'like me' about it?"

As Heinrich pressed the panic button, Kono Lint's face turned red, and he let out a suppressed yell.

Everyone else snickered, knowing the situation, and Kono Lint bit his lip in anger.

Kono Lint, who had hidden his affiliation with the Imperial Intelligence Agency from even his closest friends, was eventually exposed in a rather absurd way.

"My detective skills shined."

Kono Lint, who had been so thorough, was actually exposed as being a member of the Intelligence Agency by Erich, who had the least functional brain in the group.

This was how it went.

Erich occasionally visited the unemployed Kono Lint.

And then he saw it.

Kono Lint on a date with a charming woman from the Demon Realm.

Unable to intervene right away, Erich left in shock and later asked Kono Lint who the woman was, to which Kono Lint briefly replied.

His girlfriend.

Of course, Erich didn't believe that.

Erich sought Cliffman's advice about the urgent and unbelievable fact.

Was such a thing possible?

And he heard it from Liana, who was with them.

That it was probably the shape-shifting archdemon Dreadfiend, Sarkegaar.

And since Sarkegaar was part of the Intelligence Agency, wouldn't Kono Lint be a member as well?

So, they weren't on a date but discussing work.

In reality, Liana didn't have much connection with the Intelligence Agency either and didn't know much, but both Sarkegaar and Kono Lint were high-ranking officers of the Intelligence Agency.

The long-kept secret had been exposed all too easily.

"Of course, it could never be."

Though it wasn't exactly a deduction, Erich had unraveled Lint's secret through an absolute faith that such a thing could never happen to his friend.

"Why...? Why couldn't it be me...?"

"Why would an ordinary beauty be on a date with you?"

"It could happen...!"

"No. Unless it's a demon coworker, there's absolutely no way such a thing could happen."

Cayer shook his head, saying it wasn't in Lint's luck.

Infuriated, Lint quivered with resentment.

"Guys...! I'm telling you now, it wasn't about work back then...!"

Finally, Lint's words filled with frustration made everyone's expressions become strange.

"!!!!"

And then Lint, realizing what he had just said, froze.

"...?"

"Uh..."

"So, is that...?"

Amid the sudden silence,

"I don't understand... No, it's not."

"Ah, no. It, it was about work... Work."

Trying to recover, but it was too late.

Everyone had already heard too much and couldn't find anything to say.

"Um... Well, as long as you're happy, right? Uh, isn't that right? She's, she's not a bad person... No, not a bad demon, as I've heard... No, does that sound wrong...?"

Heinrich broke into a cold sweat as he spoke, and everyone nodded with a bewildered expression.

Erich mumbled blankly.

"This guy, since marrying a beauty is impossible, he's with a demon who could be any beauty..."

"No, it's not...!"

Just as Lint was about to vehemently deny it.

"Mr. Lint."

"...!"

Feeling a hand on his shoulder, Lint's eyes widened.

There, one of the maids in the banquet hall looked at him with a gentle smile.

Suddenly, one of the maids who had been quietly observing the banquet, filling glasses, and clearing plates reached out to a guest.

Doing such a thing out of the blue meant the maid in front of him had the qualifications to do so.

"If not, what isn't?"

Under her gaze, Lint froze with a pained expression, just short of biting his tongue.

And everyone else seated also froze.

They didn't know what was going on.

A situation where they couldn't understand what was going on but inadvertently found out.

"Again... were you... watching... me...?"

The reason Lint had been so strict about keeping his secret was not because he was sly and calculating.

It was because he couldn't tell when or where Sarkegaar, the demon, was watching.

"I told you, Mr. Lint...?"

The beautiful lips of the maid curved up into a smile.

"Always watching."

Whether it was affection, obsession, or surveillance to ensure he didn't say anything carelessly, no one could tell.

"You couldn't be careful with your words, so you'll have to be scolded again like last time, right...?"

"I'm, I'm, I'm sorry..."

But one thing was clear: Sarkegaar enjoyed Lint's reaction very much.