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Having exited the portal to a location far away from the capital, Itski¹ and Arrold sit facing each other on couches and let out deep breaths.

“This is the first time I’ve had to prepare a teleportation with so much urgency. I’m…tired…”
“I’m really sorry I made you do that, Itski. But you really saved my neck there.”
“Don’t mention it. But tell me, while I was getting the portal ready I felt like something started tampering with the flow of mana for a while, do you know what that was?”
“Ah, I didn’t realize that had reached you as well.”

Still hanging his head in exhaustion, Arrold revealed that he had deployed a barrier to block mana.

The barrier was not supposed to be too large, so he had not thought it would reach the room with the portal too. That was the first time he had used it outside a training zone so it made sense that he was not fully aware of its range yet.

“A barrier to block mana?”
“Yes, it’s something we can’t use in our country though.”
“Right…because denying the usage of magic goes against the teachings of the Bran Church.”

After thinking about it for a few seconds, Itski figured out the reason. Their main base was located in the empire of Sacred Granleuche, a place that adhered to the teachings of the Bran Church.

According to them, weapons and magic to defend oneself had been granted to humans by their deity Branses. So denying a human the ability to use magic willingly was considered blasphemy, an act opposing the benevolence of their God. It was very easy to imagine the Bran Church would move in to brand anyone deploying such barriers as a heretic if they heard of it.

According to those beliefs fighting with bare hands while foregoing god-given weapons was also seen as an affront towards Branses, but that was usually tolerated by the Bran Church since otherwise the most trivial of conflicts would end with bloodshed. But weapons were a must when confronting monsters, criminals, or heretics. If some emergency happened and someone did not have any weapons nearby though, they could still be forgiven if they confessed their sins and showed repentance afterward.

“Ah, keep that a secret from everyone in this country though, okay? I’m only telling you because I trust you, Itski.”
“I understand. But well, I don’t think Leti would really mind.”
“You mean Leontina? The lady from house Zelk? You two seem close, huh.”
“Please don’t think anything needless, it’s nothing like that.”

It had been nearly four years since Itski woke up in this world, and he had spent most of that time living as a guest of the Zelk family. His relationship with Leontina was also a bit of an open secret for the public. She had always been known as a severe and strict person, being the commander of the third order of knights, but somehow Itski was the only person she allowed to use a nickname for her.

At first there was a lot of gossip about such a famous noble lady keeping a guy in her mansion, but her position and Itski’s own achievements quickly put an end to those unsavory rumors.

“Still, I can’t believe how talented you are, Itski. You researched teleportation magic, made advances in the construction of magic devices, and you’re even a bright politician.”
“You mean the situation we had with the kingdom of Berlomot? That was just a suggestion I made after consulting with Leti about it. It’s not really my preferred area of expertise.”

While Sacred Granleuche and Seperion were enemies, there was a cluster of smaller countries standing in the way between them, some of which were allied with Seperion as well. So they infiltrated one of those countries, acting behind the scenes to worsen public order, artificially devalue their currency, and sow distrust for their government. Then once things reached the breaking point, they sent something like a hero from the Bran Church to liberate Berlomot, provoking the entire populace to rebel against their monarch.

After that they changed their name to the republic of Berlomot, where the people elected a president by suggestion of the hero and reformed the government system. But their ruler was not the best, so the country remained in a state of instability.

However, making the country fall was enough for Granleuche, as their objective was to stop Berlomot from standing in their way if Granleuche’s army marched to Seperion. They did not need Berlomot to be politically stable to achieve that, and in a way leaving it crippled was even more effective.

Itski had been the mastermind behind that whole plan, and his feelings on how it ended were…

“Well, I just did it because Leti wanted my opinion. As long as they don’t get in the way I don’t care if they’re left as a wasteland or a mountain or a valley.”

…Basically nonexistent².

“And that’s all I have to report.”
“Good, you did well.”

Godwin listened to Mathias’ report, holding his chin with one hand.

All the remaining establishments linked to the Platiboros Company in the capital had been destroyed, all the workers arrested, and work had started on finding the remaining locations in other cities. It would not be long before they were completely extirpated from the whole country.

But considering how large the company was, there was too much information and people to go through. It was hard to say how long it would take to see what was actually important, and where to search next.

They were still fulfilling Christina’s request to keep everything related to the magic automaton Natalia secret, but it would be harder to do that if the issues kept escalating. It was better to take care of everything as soon as possible so that focus would shift to their headquarters outside the country.

For Godwin, that was going to be a difficult task, but not an impossible one.

“Still, I really thought Olivia had left the capital, and somehow she still stopped a few runaways that the guards missed.”
“Maybe she also realized what the company was doing behind the scenes?”
“The guards and military have all been told to keep quiet though, and when you saw Olivia you didn’t leak anything to her, did you? It would be a different story if she regained her status as a member of house Gardeland, but now she’s just an adventurer with no connections to learn about it. I’d assume it was a coincidence as they were on their way back to Bamel.”

As Godwin mentioned, that encounter made no sense unless it was a coincidence.

“Hmm, I don’t really mind that though, and I guess this is just another addition to Olivia’s heroic tales.”
“What are you even talking about now?”
“You don’t know? There’s a bard that’s been visiting the adventurer’s guild lately, singing Olivia’s praises. And the songs aren’t just about her performance in the Magic Academy’s tournament, but even things we never made public like her slaying the Black Roc.”

“Only a small number of people should know about that. Just how did they learn…”
“I don’t know for sure, but it might’ve been something Lady Charlotte started.”
“But why? Olivia has barely started her life as an adventurer, having people spread exaggerated stories about her so early in her career will only get in her way.”
“Then maybe that’s her aim, revenge for rejecting her offer.”
“Are you serious?”
“I’m just kidding, obviously.”

Both of them knew that Charlotte Pynemo was not the kind of person to do such a thing out of pettiness. Either way, that was something they did not need to worry about. Godwin had only mentioned it since it was tangential to their discussion.

“Once all of this winds down I’ll bring you back to the territory.”
“To Feullade?”
“Yes, there’s been strange movements over in Longshan, the territory next to ours.”

Back when Seperion was being founded, with many territories being absorbed into it, Feullade and some other neighboring places joined the kingdom. Most of them were glad to be part of this new country, but there was just one, Longshan, which resisted the new rule and fought to remain independent, which was now known as…

“The sovereign territory of the dragonborn…”

A territory where dragonborn lived.

Most species with human and animal traits were considered demihumans, but the dragonborn had such unique power that they were considered separate. They could fly in the air effortlessly, cast magic without any rituals, were covered in scales that could deflect swords, and so strong they could crack the ground with a barehanded punch. Dragons were always particularly powerful amongst all monsters, and some believed that dragonborn were like dragons given human form.

They had always isolated themselves from others, so after a lengthy battle without any allies to help they had no option but to capitulate to Seperion, as they were completely surrounded by territories that now served Seperion. But due to their isolated culture, they were permitted to remain as an independent territory in exchange for a small tax.

Some historians believed that hitting a snag there was what stopped Seperion from extending to the whole continent, as that was also the moment when Seperion stopped taking over territories with armed forces, and instead took more political and economic routes.

“Our investigation there has to be kept secret, as we can’t do anything extreme there. You’ll have to go with a handful of people you trust with your life.”

Since they were an independent territory Seperion had little influence there, done mostly because everyone knew how powerful the dragonborn could be and they wanted to avoid more conflict. While they were certainly not a numerous species, they were so strong that a thousand knights were needed to take one of them down, which had been seen in action even in recent times so it was no exaggeration. There were always delusional adventurers who believed they could best them and become famous, but then would be killed instantly by the first dragonborn child they encountered, and that would happen many times every year.

“Anyway, that’s for later. You should focus on your current assignment.”
“Yessir!”

Godwin and Mathias stopped thinking about the dragonborn and focused again on dealing with the Platiboros Company.

At the top of a tall cliff sat a lone woman, drinking from a round bottle. A white boozy cloud escaped her lips as she breathed, vanishing into the sky above the mountains.

“Pheww, the flow of wind is taking a weird turn now… No matter, it likely doesn’t concern me. Rushing in recklessly to whatever happens is akin to living like a weak bubble after all.”

Saying that, she tried to take another drink from the bottle, but only a few drops form on the edge, which she licks.

“Oh, empty already? Oh well.”

She languidly pushes her body up and throws herself off the cliff. But rather than falling down, her body seems to defy gravity as it floats down like a ball of fuzz, eventually landing in the middle of a village below.

1. Robinxen: It just hit me that his name is probably meant to be Itsuki… Well we can just have Itski being the local name because otherworlders can’t handle Japanese. Wait or was that the actual explanation for this novel. I’ve read so many isekai now they’re blurring together!
2. Robinxen: Okay if this guy is the protagonists original body, my conclusion now is that his soul being split up has basically robbed this guy of empathy and mostly left his intellect.