Location: Her Highness, Princess Elodie’s Office

Time: 7:42 PM, February 11th 2108

My father ended up letting Her Highness use a spare office located in our house. I thought it was a bit imprudent for him to keep using the larger office for himself, despite the long term nature of her stay, but she seemed willing to let that transgression slide, so it wasn’t my place to complain about it.

I was called to her office along with Olivia. While I was truly honored to be of use to Her Highness, I was slightly concerned with the fact that she continued to treat Olivia as my equal.

Don’t misunderstand, even if we’re not actually family, I am rather fond of Olivia, despite the fact that she’s never made much of an effort to be able to communicate with me. It’s just that she somehow managed to inherit all of Oliver’s faults without any of his strengths.

And given how well I know her I think it’s safe for me to say that she isn’t qualified for the kind of work that Her Highness is training us for. I think that Olivia’s true calling is rather simple to deduce.

She’s meant to be an idol. Even she could recognize that.

It would have been most effective to have Olivia invest her time into actually becoming the idol she always purports to be. Then she could have been used as a vehicle for propaganda.

But instead, Her Highness is having her develop her augmentation. Sure, I can understand that on paper Olivia might have a lot of potential. That doesn’t mean anything if the person’s personality is a bad fit. Her Highness is just too focused on seeing things from a Pacific Empire perspective.

In all honesty, I’m probably in the same boat. The time Her Highness is having me invest in my augmentation would be better spent on other tasks. I’ll never be someone who’s capable of having use in battle. In that regard, I’m even more useless than Olivia. At least she had potential.

Now, if anyone else were to have such negative thoughts about Her Highness or her ideas, I wouldn’t allow such an insult to stand. But eventually I’m going to become one of her top advisors, so it’s important for me to think critically.

I’m one of the few people with the right to question her machinations.

[Is this going to take long? My schedule is already packed because of those extra ATC classes you’re making me take.]

The words scrolled across the lenses of my glasses as Olivia made a rather impertinent opening remark.

[Don’t worry, what I have to tell you is important, but it won’t take long.]

Her Highness elegantly took a sip of her tea.

Well, let me clarify something. I did once ask her for a glass of the tea she’s always drinking, and she informed me that it wasn’t tea at all. It was a form of distilled blood.

[Oakley, are your glasses active right now?]

How magnanimous. Her Highness took the time to make sure that I was being accommodated for.

I nodded my head in the affirmative.

[Good. I assume that the two of you are aware of the trip the ATC is taking this weekend?]

[Ah, yeah. I remember my manager putting something like that on my schedule.]

Rather than trying to express something myself, I decided to let Olivia speak for the both of us.

[Well that foolish brother of mine is planning on turning that trip into a bloodbath.]

[Huh? What did you just say?]

I didn’t know how to react to what I read, so I continued to let Olivia do the talking.

[That fool thinks that he’s managed to set a trap for me, but he’s been playing into my hand.]

[So then, what? You’re going to stop him?]

[On the contrary. I plan on using his desperate attempt to stay relevant. His little uprising will weed out any of the potential dissidents in the ATC. Then I can replace Kathrin Kaldsen with someone else who can mold the remaining students into my loyal soldiers.]

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

[Wait, isn’t that, like, dangerous?]

[For some people yes, but the two of you will be fine.]

[Huh? How can you be so sure? An idol is always at risk. And unless I’m misunderstanding something, it wasn’t that long ago that they tried to kidnap Oakley and accidentally held me hostage.]

[True, but this time neither of you are their primary targets. And while I can’t say there’s no risk, the both of you should be able to handle it. Olivia, if the need arises, you should run away. With your augmentation they won’t be able to catch you. And Oakley, your Number is more than capable enough to keep you safe.]

Her Highness paused for a moment to make a show of scanning the room.

[I had thought Hana was always supposed to be with you, but I guess she’s busy at the moment. I suppose things come up for everyone. Perhaps that’s for the best. I might even suggest that you don’t share the details of this plan with her until things are already in motion. No reason to give her time for any unnecessary thoughts.]

I obviously couldn’t pick up on her tone, but I didn’t need it. Her Highness knew perfectly well that Hana didn’t follow me around the house. Once we got home, she would instead patrol the perimeter.

She was alluding to the fact that Hana is starting to grow more independent. Hana is starting to lose sight of her purpose. Recently I’ve been noticing her sneak off when I’m busy with something else, and apparently Princess Elodie has noticed as well. I’m certain she brought this up as a reminder to keep my Number under control.

I quickly nodded my head up and down and signed, “I’ll be fine. I’ll make sure to keep her under control.”

Her Highness might not be able to understand sign language, but she could certainly understand the message I was trying to convey.

[I still don’t understand any of this. So I’m supposed to run away? From who? Did those kidnappers Oliver caught have more friends?]

[Yes and no. They managed to recruit some new talent. Devesh Darnal, Grant Glaif, and Kathrin Kaldsen. Those are the three you need to watch out for. And the one calling herself Emily Evret Evans. She’s not working with them, but she might try to pull her own stunt.]

[Now I’m even more confused. Those four aren’t with the bad guys.]

I instantly accepted the information Her Highness gave us, but Olivia wasn’t willing to. Normally that would be insulting toward Her Highness, but in this instance, I could understand why she wouldn’t immediately accept those four as part of the enemy faction.

[They are, and their targets are your instructor, Karen; my Henry; the Emin girl; and the two of you.]

[Wait wait wait. Ignoring everything else for the moment, Oakley and I make up almost half of those targets! Doesn’t that sound too risky?]

It’s almost impressive how easily Olivia looked past everything else once she realized she was in a potentially dangerous position.

[There is some risk involved, yes. That’s why I’m giving you two this warning ahead of time. Now you know to run away at the first sign of trouble. I don’t need you to get involved.]

[Oh, yeah. I guess that makes sense. But, then, shouldn’t you warn everyone, or just, like, have Karen cancel the trip?]

[No, I can’t have Eren catch on. I need him to fruitlessly struggle. And other than the two of you, there’s no reason to worry about anyone else. Henry will be fine. Eren’s lackeys could do their worst and I doubt it would even phase him; Henry is my personal minion after all.]

In a moment of weakness, I clicked my tongue as Her Highness spoke. Henry. It’s always about Henry. Why was she so obsessed with him? Just because he’s a little strong she thinks he’s better than me? From what I could gather, he didn’t even seem to hold any loyalty towards her.

[But then, what about Karen and Emelia?]

[Them? Well, I don’t really care what happens to Emelia. Eren seems to think he could use her family's infamy to his advantage, but I’m not interested in that desperate attempt to sway public opinion. And as for Karen Kaldsen, while she still has such a troublesome Number working for her she’s not worth the hassle of dealing with personally. I won’t complain if Eren takes care of her for me though.]

[I don’t understand, Emelia is one thing, but why would you say that about Karen?]

[Because she’s a liability, and I have no interest in things that far out of my control. I’m grateful that her meddling ruined Eren’s initial plan, but how long until I’m on the opposite end of her whims?]

It was a cold way to think about things, but I wouldn’t let anyone say it was wrong. In the future, Her Highness would have to worry about maintaining an entire empire. Any piece as non-compliant as Karen Kaldsen would need to be dealt with eventually.

Perhaps most would assume that meant reforming her, as that’s what I had in mind, but seeing her eliminated is a much faster solution. Assuming Her Highness won’t miss the utility that an experienced augmented like Karen brings to the table it’s a perfectly reasonable solution.

[If I’m lucky, they’ll end up killing Evans and the Albright girl as well. I can’t exactly go after either of them directly, but I wouldn’t mind if they disappeared. Maybe I should have those twins look for a good opportunity to get rid of them. Especially Albright. Ignoring my personal feelings Evans isn’t very relevant, but every fiber of my being is telling me that the Albrights are bad news.]

Olivia looked confused, perhaps even unwilling to accept the information she had been given. I was certain she was just trying to process things; I just didn’t know what side of things she’d land on.

All the more reason to think she wasn’t suited for this kind of thing.

[Wait. You still haven’t explained why I should trust any of this.]

Ridiculous. She should believe it because Her Highness said it was true.

[Remember that mind reader that Oliver captured when recovering you.]

[Of course. And I remember despite my request you had her executed.]

[That was the official stance, but I’m not so foolish as to waste such a valuable resource. I had a soulless homunculus created and made a public display out of its execution. I believe Eren had her going by Mock Turtle, well, she’s been observing the ATC. I knew Eren couldn’t resist trying to infiltrate my pet project.]