The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

I made my way back to the mansion, carrying Pochi on my back and Lina in my arms. Then, after putting both of them to bed, I teleported to the hideout of the Resistance. Pochi will probably whine about me leaving her behind later, but who the hell cares? Her fault for getting drunk!

It’s pretty late into the night now, but Warren doesn’t seem to take any issue with that, maybe because I told him in advance that I had another appointment before this.

“Good evening, Asley.”

“Sorry for being late, Warren.”

“Don’t worry about it. I understand that you’re a busy man. Now, this way — everyone is already here.”

“Everyone…?”

Hmm? Are Trace and Irene taking part in the meeting as well? This late into the night? Or did the Guild Master bring along his subordinates?

Warren led me to the hideout’s meeting room. Going through the entrance, I was welcomed by some unexpected characters.

“GAHAHAHA! And now the average age of the people in this room just shot WAY UP!”

Holy shit, check out those epic pecs and biceps! And good God, I want to throw my arms around those– actually, no, I don’t. Still, I was surprised by who the owner of that wild beast of a voice was.

“Sir Charlie!?”

“Well, well! I’m honored that you recognize me, boy!”

That’s Charlie, one of the Six Braves, former leader of the Duodecad Conference, famous as the Thousand Morphing Blade. He’s also the previous Headmaster of the Warrior University — the title now belonging to Dragan — and currently serves as the Brigadier of the Royal Capital Warrior Guardians. There’s probably no one who doesn’t know him. He’s also the very man who killed Baladd’s mother… in a normal monster hunt, that is. No hard feelings.

The room contains quite a few other interesting people, too — a total of seven, including Charlie.

“Hello, Asley. It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it?”

“Sir Argent… it’s been a while, yes.”

Argent of Team Silver General… Blazer’s grandfather and the leader of what’s probably the strongest private adventurer organization in the War Demon Nation. As far as I’ve been told, the founding members of Team Silver — Blazer, Betty, and Bruce — used to belong to this team, too. Now that we have War Demon Emperor Vaas with us, it makes sense that he’d agree to join our side… I guess. 

I only met him once before, a little bit south of Beilanea while on my way to my Rank S evaluation trials. Still, I could tell right then that he was ridiculously powerful — truly the embodiment of the phrase ‘experience comes with age’.

“Sir Dragan.”

“Now, unlike the others, it has not been long since we last met… well, technically just a little over a month, at any rate.”

Dragan the Dainty Tiger, one of the Six Braves and Headmaster of the Warrior University… The fact that he’s here suggests that he had indeed done his investigation on the conspiracies of the Nation that I not-so-subtly hinted at for him. Pretty sure he said something along the lines of not being able to believe it unless she saw things for himself, too.

And since he’s here, I wonder what his apprentice is up to… that young man Egd, who’s always not-so-subtly had a crush on Lina. Last I heard, he was working under Charlie as a Warrior Guardian.

“And…”

My gaze turned passive-aggressive as I looked at two people in particular, and they seemed just as aggressive as they looked back at me. I suppose it’s only natural that we’re angry at each other after what happened between us.

“…Hello, Miss Catherine and Sir Jacob.”

“The audacity…”

“The audacity, indeed. How dare you be in the same room as us, after doing THAT?”

“Listen, you two were…”

…On second thought, I should dial that back. They didn’t really do anything wrong — their personalities are unsavory, yes, but they were just doing their regular jobs. If anything, it was MY fault for throwing them into the Storeroom and just… forgetting about them. Just about anyone would probably develop a grudge from that.

Catherine the Benevolent Petal and Jacob the Demon Blader… two among the current Six Braves, they’ve supposedly been doing mostly odd tasks for Billy as of late. And they’re super strong, actually. Sure would be nice to have them working with us… but would they be willing to?

“And here he is, Asley. Meet Scott, Master of the Adventurers’ Guild.”

Prompted by Irene, I turned to the man in question.

Sitting next to Charlie, he doesn’t look big… but he is in fact two meters tall and just about as bulky as Dragan. His beard is especially long, his brows are SUPER thick, and his swept-back hair is mostly black with just little bits of silver gray. He spent a moment staring at me with those gray eyes of his.

“Aye, it’s me, Scott. Already heard the particulars from Miss Irene — You have my thanks for saving the world in the past.”

We proceeded to exchange a handshake.

Now THAT was another thing I never expected — being thanked for my… ancient exploits. Maybe it’s important to him as the Guild Master, considering that that’s what enabled the Adventurers’ Guild to continue existing after all this time? Or is it just one of Scott’s personal quirks?

At any rate, he’s not a bad guy at all, as far as first impressions go. He looked me in the eye the whole time, both when we spoke and when we shook hands.

After Scott sat back down, Warren pointed at the empty seat next to Irene, prompting me to sit down.

“So, what is everyone here for today?”

“Just now, everyone has gotten a look at War Demon Emperor Vaas’ current condition.”

…Which means they must be sure now that he’s under powerful mind control.

I did get to try and break that control once before, but it was far worse than I’d ever expected. It’s so deep and thorough that it makes him not even think of himself as a human being. He wouldn’t even move without our voices prompting him to.

That’s proof that the caster saw Vaas as a disposable tool. Attempting to fix this is like trying to tighten a broken screw — hell, maybe even the caster won’t be able to undo this easily. Chances are the only way to turn Vaas back to normal is to kill the caster.

In letting everyone see Vaas, Warren must have that to them. Now it makes sense that Catherine and Jacob would be willing to sit in this meeting room with the rest.

“I never thought the Devilkin’s nest was right under our noses, seeing that we’re just about as close as it gets to the center of the War Demon Nation. This is quite an impressive thing your contributions have managed to expose, Miss Irene!”

“Thank you for your acknowledgment, Sir Charlie.”

Huh, it’s quite rare to see Irene be this humble. Goes to show how much of a senior Charlie is, I suppose. Despite losing his seat to Billy’s schemes, his time as the leader of the Duodecad truly wasn’t just for show.

“Currently, Sir Argent and Team Silver General are also preparing to move their operations to T’oued. As for the Adventurers’ Guild… we plan to have them assist us behind the scenes.”

Warren proceeded to start laying out his upcoming plans.

Team Silver General in T’oued, huh? Sounds good to me. Their capabilities haven’t really been shown to the public all that much before. With Argent and his people working in the same scene, Team Silver is sure to have some good motivating competition.

And the Adventurers’ Guild working behind the scene is… only natural, I suppose. Their maintaining a neutral stance is what has enabled them to branch out to various nations thus far. Countless branches exist in the War Demon Nation, of course, and they all have to keep their own operations running, so we can’t expect them to focus their resources to help up.

“What kind of assistance, specifically?”

I asked, prompting Scott to turn to me and explain,

“Well, it’s not like the Adventurers’ Guild is an all-powerful organization, you know. We’ll still be working on our main mission — which is to protect the local civilians. What’s different is that we have received access to Teleportation Spell Circles thanks to Sir Warren here. That will enable easy, untrackable communication among each of our branches. In turn, it helps the whole organization within the War Demon Nation to quickly take action against suspicious activity – and detection, too, though all my staff are already super good at doing that. Hah!”

True, the Guild does have many capable people like Duncan working for it — goes to show how good the leader is at choosing his workers, eh?

But wait… doesn’t the Adventurers’ Guild already have access to the Teleportation Spell? …Well, actually, he said he ‘received’ the ‘Spell Circles’ — which might mean the ones they had before couldn’t necessarily be used freely. There might be people who can’t use Telepathic Calls, too. The Teleportation Spell, on the other hand, can be used by anyone and will stay up after being cast as long as it’s not destroyed by some external impact. That’s sure to give a great deal of long-term tactical advantages.

“And I just happened to get some excellent new recruits, you see.”

Saying that, Scott looked in the direction of Catherine and Jacob.

“Huh? So you two will be working as the Guild’s staff members?”

“What, you got a problem with that?”

“I have absolutely no interest in joining the Resistance or any similar organizations. It puts a stain on my career’s records.”

Damn, these two are already thinking of making the next move in their careers! Well, at least it looks like the Adventurers’ Guild is up their alley, seeing that it’s an international organization with a neutral alignment.

I mean, they probably wanted to avoid going somewhere that does background checks — and at this point, they sure as hell won’t find a better-paying job back in the War Demon Nation, either.

If everything goes well, though, War Demon Emperor Vaas will regain his authority over the Nation. Whether or not Catherine and Jacob’s records will be considered ‘clean’ as a result of that, though, remains to be seen.

“The Warrior University will take a similar course of action. We could try and alter the way we teach things, but Beilanea is not exactly known for the flexibility of its ways. Change will not be so easily achievable.”

“GAHAHAHA! Leave the rest of the Duodecad to me — I TOTALLY GOT THIS!”

“I foresee you having the most difficulty persuading Sir Stoffel, though…”

I nodded to both Dragan and Charlie’s statements. 

Then, the moment the name ‘Stoffel’ — the Blank Mask of the Six Archmages — was brought up, even Irene and Catherine had a notably… negative reaction. Whoever he is, he must be quite an eccentric character. I should keep that in mind.

“Now, moving on to the next topic… Asley would like to discuss something.”

Uh, no, I didn’t have any discussion planned for today, actually.

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