Unfortunately for Emilia, her lovers were a little more resistant to her plan than she originally expected.
Even the usually obedient Dixie was up in arms against her.
”Princess, it’s one thing for you to want to walk into danger, but another thing entirely if you won’t even bring me along to protect you!”
In fact, the loyal knight had already been quite upset after watching some of Emilia’s fights during the rebellion period, so it was understandable why she would be so against it.
After all, Emilia never informed them that she would be personally participating in that kind of dangerous combat when she left. By the time they discovered it, it had already happened.
But even if they couldn’t change the past, there was no way such a thing could be allowed to be repeated!
Sam also nodded in a rare move against her little sister’s whims. “Since you think it’s too dangerous to take Dixie along, then why should we let you go?”
Although Crystal didn’t say anything, her expression made her thoughts more than clear as well.
Emilia sighed. “As I said, I’m not just walking into their ambush blindly, didn’t Crystal find that spy girl with two personalities who was oh so happy to work for me? Plus, it’s possible that they still chicken out and don’t even do anything…”
Noelle couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Have you considered that the enemies may not fully trust their spy? And it’s also possible that they try to bomb the place to take you out, isn’t it?”
The crimson-haired girl blinked. “Well, I’ll admit it’s not impossible, but still… it’s highly unlikely. If you really want, we can always arrange anti-artillery and anti-aircraft measures around the area?”
Of course, no matter how she tried to appeal to their ‘reason’, none of them compromised on the premise that she take at least one of her lovers along.
It wasn’t that they didn’t believe in Emilia, but they’d seen the way she worked when left by herself, and even if it couldn’t be called completely reckless, it wasn’t far from it. Just because she could survive bullet wounds to her body didn’t mean that she had to walk into the line of fire, right?
While it was true that she avoided wounds whenever she could, the fact that their precious princess didn’t seem to particularly care even if she occasionally got hurt didn’t sit right with any of them.
If they could, they would definitely keep her by their side, forever away from danger, and let her enjoy a peaceful, comfortable, and happy life. Unfortunately, Emilia was not an existence so easy to chain, and they didn’t want to reduce her brilliance by pulling her down either.
What they could do, however, was make sure she did everything possible to protect herself, and take away any possibility of careless behavior as before.
Based on what they knew of her character, however, if Emilia had some of her lovers by her side, she would surely be far more cautious than she would have been otherwise.
Of course, there was a chance that some Noelle or Dixie might also get hurt by going along, but they’d already accepted that risk. Anyway, if they took a few more wounds on Emilia’s behalf, it wouldn’t really be a loss.
Faced with their determined gazes, the crimson-haired beauty had no choice but to raise her hands in surrender. “Alright! Fine, I give up. I’ll bring Dixie along with me, happy?”
Seeing them cheer and high-five each other, Emilia couldn’t help but roll her eyes. ‘I had no idea they could be so stubborn and silly.’
Cynthia hummed. “This wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t spoil them, you know?”
The crimson-haired girl blinked. ‘How can I not spoil such cute, adorable little darlings?’
Although she had long since known about her nature, Cynthia still couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Hopeless!”
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Sometime later in the Commonwealth of Red Dusk, the chief intelligence officer came to the president’s office looking extremely excited.
In sharp contrast, though, the president’s face was frighteningly calm, even after having read the whole document. “I will only ask this once, and you better be damn sure… can you guarantee that this information is accurate?”
The chief intelligence officer hesitated instinctively, but seeing the president’s face darken quickly brought him back to his senses. “A-A hundred percent, Mr. President! I-It comes from number three.”
The president raised a brow in surprise. “Number three… is that the same one from that failed experiment on orphans that your organization did without authorization?”
Even if he could tell that the president wasn’t seriously trying to pick fault, the chief intelligence officer still felt cold sweat soak his back. “Y-Yes, t-that one, Mr. President. She was the only survivor. She has the ability to completely shut herself off deep inside her psyche and let an alternate personality take over, which makes her a perfect undercover agent.”
The president hummed thoughtfully. Based on what others had told him, this kind of hidden weapon wouldn’t reveal itself no matter how it was seduced, hypnotized, or even if it was tortured to death.
After all, the ‘master’ personality would forever remain detached from the ‘shell’ that went through everything, and would be able to continue following orders perfectly regardless of what was happening outside.
But although this ‘technique’ had its advantages, and seemed almost flawless, he had never liked working with things he didn’t fully understand.
That being said, if he were to trust the intelligence division, it was really highly unlikely that the information he obtained was false. And if it was true… then this opportunity was truly too good to be wasted.
The president of Red Dusk tapped the table with his finger thoughtfully. “So not only is that fledgling empress not going to come with too much security, she even dares to arrange the meeting in a town close to the border just to spend more time with her ‘big sister’ who would be overseeing a project there, huh? Truly, a spoiled little princess that only the richest and dumbest parents in the world could have raised.”
He grinned. “That being said… if we are to do this, we definitely can’t let others discover it was us. After all, it’s one thing to kill our neighboring empress, and another thing entirely to kill the precious princess of White Deer.”
Although there was no need to fear their ‘retribution’, the commonwealth’s policy had always been to minimize whatever risks they could.
Plus, if they did things right, not only would the White Deer Corporation not be mad, but they would also be grateful that their princess had been ‘avenged’!
The chief intelligence officer nodded excitedly after he finished listening to the president’s plan. “Although it might be a little tricky, we can definitely pull this off! Not only would we be free of blame, but we could even be indignant that the rebels who once turned against their previous government also turned against their own empress, and even killed our diplomats!”
Needless to say, for this plan to really succeed, none of the ‘attendees’ could be allowed to remain alive… regardless of their affiliation.
The real genius of sacrificing their own pawns was that it also had the added advantage of giving them another reason to ‘get involved’. Even if there might still be a few raised eyebrows, that hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things.
The president chuckled. “Of course, we can’t let our neighbors suffer again and again, and this time we’ll have no choice but to forcefully take over to ‘stabilize’ the territory and save the people from their repeated suffering under rapidly changing regimes.”
Ecstatic at finally getting the authorization from the top, the chief intelligence officer almost jumped his way out of the office.
He was so happy that he almost shouted in joy. ‘After decades of waiting and planning, finally, some wussy politician decided to grow some balls!’
If not for them, with his spies already in place, wouldn’t getting a puppet government in their neighboring state have already been a foregone conclusion?
But no! Not only do they need to have a way to get things done, they also had to be positively, absolutely sure that nothing could ever go wrong!
In the real world, how many things could be truly, really certain?
Had he and his predecessor also been of such backward and cowardly thought, maybe the revolutionary experiment that created their most ingenious weapon — the perfect spies — would have forever remained a dream.
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