Evade The Hero and Flee!

What happened on the field, Team Leader Mirua?”

And so, the meeting went underway after my innards settled down somewhat through the brave sacrifice of the magician uncle.

The seat of honour during the meeting was occupied by Big Sis Reia.
Every agent with the status of team leader or higher currently present in the imperial court also gathered for the meeting.

I began briefing them.
“It seems that the instructor has fled to somewhere very far away.”

“Urgh… Does that mean we lost him?”

Big Sis Reia furrowed her brow deeply.

Her Highness hadn’t arrived yet, and once she heard about the news of the instructor slipping out of our grasp, she’d no doubt become very sad.
That’s why Big Sis Reia was making such a face.

However, that wasn’t the real issue here.

“Although he managed to flee, a couple of agents still managed to stick onto him.
However, their current location is…”

“Where are they?!”

BANG!

Big Sis Reia slammed her fist on the desk, hard.

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Her sudden burst of energy forced me to inadvertently blurt out the location right away.
“It’s in the demon continent.”

“Ng?”

“The magic tool picked up the response coming from somewhere beyond the place called the final city, ma’am.
Unfortunately, we were not able to confirm whether he did cross the border or not.”

“The demon… continent, you say?”

“Yes.”

When I nodded in affirmation, everyone began looking around as dazed expressions floated up on their faces.
They were trying to make sure that they didn’t hear me wrong just now.

“Is something like that even possible?”

“Who knows.
The signal is coming from the collar, isn’t it? It’s possible that he had tied the collar on a bird or something then sent it flying that way.”

“Or, he could have sent that agent named Ria alone into the demon continent…”

“Hey, dude.
That’s not something a human being would do in good conscience, you know? You think he’d force someone to enter the demon continent alone?”

“You moron! We’re talking about Ast here.
That Ast! If it’s him, then yes, he’s completely capable of doing so!”

“What’s this? You’re saying something nonsensical, but the moment you brought up that name, I began thinking that it’s totally possible with him!”

“Indeed, our opponent is none other than Ast, the son of the evil god that even scammed a great demon!”

“You’re right.
He has the previous form of bringing a nation down to its knees with nothing but his glib tongue.
If it’s him, then it wouldn’t be strange to see him pull out all sorts of underhanded tricks!”

The atmosphere in the meeting venue heated up a lot, but despite that, I still found the reason for the fiery exchange a bit strange.

Everyone present seemed to agree that those possibilities were unrealistic, yet they changed their tunes as soon as our instructor’s name was brought up.
They were now saying that the possibility was all too real.
Oh, before I forget, I did come to the same conclusion as them.

It sounded like these people had suffered a lot at the hands of our instructor, too.

“I see.
For sure, if it’s Sir Ast… If it’s him, then he’s fully capable of forcing a person into the demon continent and slip away by himself.”

“Where could he possibly be by now, then…? Wait, could he be still hiding somewhere in Ruibella the City Alliance?”

“That’s definitely a possibility.”

“Indeed.
He could have even infiltrated back into the empire, too.”

“Right.
He’s disappeared somewhere up in the northern region, so he could be hiding among His Highness the First Imperial Prince’s faction.”

“No, that will be too much of a stretch.
Even in His Highness’s faction, there must be quite a few people who’d grit their teeth at the mere mention of Ast’s name.
It’ll be too dicey.
It doesn’t suit Ast’s personality.”

“But, he could be aiming exactly for that.”

“Mm, now that you mention it, that also sounds logical.”

All sorts of guesses began flying around now.
We were working hard to determine the escapee’s flight path but said paths were gradually getting higher in number instead.

“No, wait.
The demon continent option is still available, too.
We can’t ignore the possibility that he really did step foot into the demon race’s territory!”

“You’re right.
That man is fully capable of scamming even the demons!”

“He could scam a demon and establish a slave contract, then start living a cosy little life in the demon continent for all we know.”

“That’s a crazy notion, but the real crazy thing is our current situation since we can’t even dismiss that notion as something crazy!”

This meeting was supposed to help us narrow down our instructor’s possible escape path, but in the end, we concluded that from now on, we had to scour the demon continent AND the human continent, too.

“Hold on, everyone! At this rate, Her Highness might really start the continental war, you know!”

“Well, we don’t have a choice but to do that if we were to perform our investigation inside the demon continent, Dame Reia.”

“Even though we work for the empire, we can’t extend our influence into the demon race, after all.”

“Right.
The demon continent is out of our reach, isn’t it.”

I noticed other team leaders nodding away, so I nodded along with them.
But this happened just then.

“We think it’s out of our reach, and that’s precisely why he’ll go there.
Ast would surely do something like that.”

“Your Highness!”

Her Highness opened the door and stepped into the meeting venue.
Big Sis Reia yielded the seat of honour right away.

“I’ve heard the gist of it on the way.
So, the response was coming from somewhere in the demon continent, you say?”

“Yes, Your Highness.” I nodded while being subjected to the Imperial Princess’s gaze.

She closed her eyes and didn’t say anything for a while.
She must’ve been thinking about something.

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She finally spoke up a short while later, but her eyes remained closed.
“Team Leader Mirua.
How many of our agents are currently stationed in Ruibella the City Alliance?”

“The total number of agents are three hundred, Your Highness.
As for the deployment status, five agents form one team, and one team is deployed per city.
Teams consisting of three agents are monitoring various main roads, ma’am.”

“Besides them?”

“Temporary bases consisting of around twenty agents have been set up to activate teleportation magic, ma’am.
Without running into any issues, we were able to set up three such bases near the City Alliance.”

“Is that so?” Her Highness finished listening to my report and opened her eyes about three minutes of silence later.
“Very well.
This is what we will do.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Everyone began paying utmost attention to Her Highness’s lips.
But that’s because what our duties were would be decided by what she chose to say now.

“For the time being, each team leader will continue to monitor the zones you’ve been assigned to.
To make sure that not even a rat can slip through.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Maintaining status quo? It seemed that Her Highness wanted to observe the situation first.

“However, I shall assign Team Leader Mirua with a new solo mission.”

“Sorry?”

Uhm, this doesn’t sound good.

The instructor once told me that no solo mission in history was what you’d refer to as ‘normal’ by any stretch of the imagination.

Sure, that mission to infiltrate Marsis a few years ago was pretty enjoyable, but now…

“You’ll have to enter the demon continent and acquire intel for us, Mirua.”

“Hiiiing…”

My foreboding was never wrong.
Not even once.

The demon continent, Your Highness? How was I even supposed to go there, though?

“B-but, Your Highness…”

“It’ll be alright.
I have a plan, you see.”

Her Highness told me to wait, then vacated her seat.
And a short while later…

“Here you go.
With this, you can do it.”

“…Your Highness?”

While smiling away, Her Highness put a headband sporting demon-like horns on my head.

“You can do it, can’t you?”

She continued to smile while asking me a question that nearly made me swear like a sailor.
However, she was my boss, an Imperial Princess of this empire.

Which meant my answer was already set in stone, more or less.

“Yes, ma’am…”

And so, the meeting came to an end there.
Other agents looked at me with eyes of pity while orderly leaving the venue, but Big Sis Reia remained right until the end.

She patted me on the shoulder and tried to comfort me somehow.
“Treat this as an opportunity to sample the demon race’s unique regional cuisines.
I’ll also contact the treasury so that you can take lots of money with you, too!”

Her comforting words managed to undo this sadness and frustration welling up in my heart.

She was right.
Since things had come to this…! Let’s think of this as me going on a journey to find new cuisines in the mysterious demon continent!

However, the moment I thought that, a question suddenly popped up in my head.

“By the way, big sis?”

“Ng?”

“Will the empire’s currency even be accepted in the demon continent?”

“Uh? It won’t?”

Big Sis Reia just stood there, her eyes blinking away absentmindedly.
And witnessing her response left me speechless in turn.

“…”

“W-well, I’ll get you gold, instead.
How about that?”

“Sure thing…”

And so, that’s how I got to travel to the demon continent.