MagicalExplorer
Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim
“You want me to go to the Tréfle Empire?”
My boss nodded, sipping on incarnadine wine while the sun was still high in the sky.
“That’s right. I have a big job for you!” he said, raising the left corner of his lips into a smirk. The expression suited him very well.
Not because he was handsome. Though I couldn’t deny he was good-looking. His narrow eyes gave him a somewhat cold impression, but the individual parts of his face were balanced and well-shaped. His intellectual and compact physique made him even more attractive.
As for why the smirk fit him so perfectly, he was wicked to the core.
“This is a big opportunity,” he said before gulping down some of the bloodred wine set in front of him. “For you and for me both.”
Even among the members of the Church of the Malevolent Lord, he was especially morally bankrupt and depraved. The type who had no qualms about hurting others if it benefited him.
I had heard countless rumors about him.
If he happened to discover something harming his reputation, he would push it off onto others. Apparently, he had also killed his own subordinates to destroy evidence.
Once I had started working under him, I came to realize these tales were the truth.
“What would you have me do?”
“Our mole in the empire has reported they’ve devised a means to get to the Sanctuary. Using that information, I want you to sneak inside the Sanctuary and retrieve an item that’s been sealed away in there.”
“Aren’t the defenses around the Sanctuary very tight?”
“Don’t know much about the place, do you?”
How would I? The man refused to tell me anything outside of the context of my missions to prevent me from giving up important information in the event I was caught. Why would I need to go out of my way to learn things that didn’t concern me in the slightest?
“Please excuse my ignorance,” I replied, not actually feeling sorry. He probably didn’t believe for a second I felt that way, either.
“No matter. You’ve risen up the ranks lately, so you’ll have access to more information than you did before. Best if you took the initiative to learn some more.”
“I will endeavor to do so,” I said, taking a sip of my own wine.
“I’ll give you a brief overview of the Sanctuary, then. The place has a special barrier around it that prevents regular elves and humans from entering. The only ones who can get through it are the imperial family and a select few in their inner circle.”
“…Do I take this to mean you’ve captured a member of the royal family?”
“No, the truth is, there’s more to the Sanctuary than that. Though we initially assumed we would need a member of the royal family to get in, we recently discovered there’s a hidden key that will temporarily open the barrier to anyone. Chances are high we’ll be able to get our hands on it.”
This would let me to gain access to the Sanctuary.
“I understand the situation. Allow me to ask, then—should I go to the Sanctuary alone?”
“No, the plan we’ve worked out involves sending in a special squad. I’ve put in my recommendation for you to join them.”
Interesting.
“Does that mean I should retrieve this sealed item together with them?”
“Yes and no.”
There he went, spouting his roundabout nonsense again. This circuitous habit of his was one of his worst qualities.
“The Diamond Cross Knights will be going with you, but their primary task will be different. You need to focus on retrieving that item, first and foremost.”
“The Diamond Cross Knights…”
A force made up of the most talented members of the Church of the Malevolent Lord. If they were being deployed, then this mission was vital indeed.
“The Diamond Cross Knights will be releasing the seal on a particular elf. Ask them about it if you want the details.”
“Understood. When will we be carrying out this operation?”
“Ludivine will be making a trip home soon. The empire is bound to assign her a fairly large escort when she’s there. While that’s going on, we’ll launch several attacks at once in multiple locations. This isn’t our true aim, of course,” he said with a smile. It appeared the plan was to stretch thin the security force, so we could make our move.
“We’ll use the chaos as our opening to obtain the key and infiltrate the Sanctuary. And then, all I’ll need to do is grab the item?”
“That’s right. There will be one thing to worry about, however…Kousuke Takioto.”
Kousuke Takioto. Hearing the name made me remember what had happened at Amaterasu Girls’ Academy. He was a boy with inconceivably large mana reserves who brought a weird maid everywhere with him.
“Kousuke will be accompanying Ludivine on her trip. As you know, he’s the reason many of our recent operations have been foiled.”
Whenever Kousuke got involved in the Church of the Malevolent Lord’s plans, they would end in failure. Some claimed Ludivine would already be dead if it weren’t for him.
“Of course, that hasn’t stopped everyone from completing their missions,” he said, looking at me. My successful retrieval of the magatama from the Amaterasu Dungeon despite Kousuke’s interference had improved my standing within the Church.
“What’s your read on him?” he asked. Kousuke Takioto. Right.
“As far as his abilities go, I can say he is extremely talented. He’s also quite the…enigmatic individual.”
Takioto’s abilities were one thing, but it was his vast stores of knowledge that were truly astounding.
During our encounter, he had addressed me as though he knew me personally. It had been a bit creepy, really. Though visually, his features, height, and muscular physique were all pretty attractive in my book.
“I hear he’s developed a unique style of fighting based on his vast pools of mana,” he said.
“Going up against that stole of his will be quite irritating, I imagine.”
“You managed it last time. Just do that again.”
What an unreasonable ask. I only managed to succeed last time because I’d had a hostage, for one, and I didn’t actually fight him. I definitely wouldn’t make it out of a clash with him unscathed, so I would have really preferred to avoid doing so at all, thanks.
“I understand.”
“Oh, right. One more thing.”
“Yes?”
“You should get around to killing someone.”
I had, in fact, not killed anyone before.
“Wouldn’t it be better to avoid taking lives, if possible?”
“I can see where you’re coming from. But there’s a strength that only comes from killing, you know. That’s your whole goal in the first place, isn’t it? Hortensia.”
Killing was indeed my goal.
By any means necessary. No matter how dirty I needed to get my hands to do so, even knowing I would die in agony.
And the person I needed to kill was none other than one of the cardinals, second-in-command of the Church of the Malevolent Lord.