LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 103: Orhen (1)
Hannut Campbell.
A named character with the high-level trait of “Genius”. He was a person who completely specialized in using his head.
Although there were some who had “Genius”, what made him special was his exceptionally high output.
As you could tell from his other traits like “Great Strategist” and “Intellect of the Age”, he was brilliant.
He was one of the top three people that you absolutely had to recruit.
Although I hadn’t gotten past the latter half of the main story, whether Hannut was there or not made a huge difference.
It was already a difficult game, and there was a saying that it was better to raise someone new if Hannut died. (+)[1]TLN: I’m really not sure if ‘to raise someone new’ is right or not. Either that or it’s something like ‘make a new save.’ Here are the Korean text if some of you here can confirm it: 그렇지 않아도 어려운 게임, 하누트가 죽으면 새로 키우는 게 낫다는 말이 있을 정도였다.
The latter half of the main story was a grand battle against the devil, and if you didn’t have Hannut, you couldn’t even get there.
‘I’m glad I had my eye on him.’
I had confirmed he was at the university but hadn’t been able to meet him because he wasn’t publishing papers.I didn’t have a pretext. I couldn’t just suddenly say I knew the future. But then last week, I confirmed he had published a paper and contacted him immediately.
“To be honest, I really didn’t expect Sir Carl to be here. Shouldn’t you not be interested in someone like me? To be honest, I half thought it was a prank by my friend.”
“A prank?”
“Because I can’t stop praising your strategies from the recent war with my friends.”
“Ah, is that so? But I’m glad you came.”
“Of course, I had to come to see if I might get to meet Sir Carl!”
After speaking like that, Hannut glanced at me.
“May I ask what business you have calling me here?”
Hannut was a university student studying economics. I know he started off in the game as a merchant too.
It was natural for him to find it strange that I, an imperial knight serving the imperial princess, called him.
In fact, I was a bit worried that trying to recruit him only based on his paper might look a bit odd.
But after seeing the paper Hannut had submitted, my worries disappeared.
“I was very impressed with the paper you recently submitted.”
It was a paper laying out discourse on how economic structures changed, using a war from 200 years ago as the theme.
The core of it was how the economy would have changed if the nature of war had changed, and I paid attention to the “IF” in that.
“My paper?”
“Yes.”
“Are you also very interested in economics?”
“Ah, I came across it by chance. But in that paper, I was able to see your insight into strategy.”
Hannut was a bit surprised at that. He even looked excited for a moment.
“You noticed!”
“Yes. Your critiques of the opponent’s responses in the Battle of Vomel and Semiren Siege were impressive.”
“That’s right. The Legoton Kingdom actually had several ways they could have defeated the Empire.”
“Your perspective was very deep. Those were strategies that even I would have had trouble thinking up easily.”
The now-nameless kingdom that stood against the empire. Hannut presented five different ways that the kingdom could have won.
Five different ways.
And that was to explain how the economy would have changed if the Legoton Kingdom had been victorious.
“Haha. Is that so?”
“Yes. In my view, Hannut, you are a genius of tactics.”
“To receive such praise from the Hero of War and Imperial Founder’s Medal receiver, I’m embarrassed.”
Even as he spoke like that, he didn’t look embarrassed at all. The corners of his lips were smiling widely.
Well, Hannut was originally that kind of person. Right now he’s holding back because of the disparity between us.
“I’m speaking sincerely.”
“Hoho. Indeed, I guess heroes know how to recognize heroes?”
Hannut laughed loudly.
“To be honest, my family was so poor that I dreamed of becoming a knight. I probably would have become a general.”
It was more because he didn’t have much talent rather than because of his family, but I roughly played along.
“That’s too bad. I’m sure you would have if the Western War had happened a few years later.”
“Hehe. I felt some regret too.”
He was originally an overconfident guy with a little tact. But his abilities themselves were solid.
In fact, right now was quite decent for him. This was the extent to which he was refraining himself in front of me.
‘Or maybe it’s because he’s become more like that as he gains confidence in his abilities.’
He was a man whose personality often got him killed. He incurred the wrath of princes who became emperors.
Usually, it was for the crime of insulting the imperial family.
For me, it was also quite satisfying at times.
Yelling at the frustrated emperor about why we kept losing wars and getting a jab in.
-Damn, there’s no other f*cking retard like this! It’s because you’ve got an incurably thick skull!
-What? You call that speaking? Ugh. Isn’t this guy completely crazy? How the hell did a clueless punk like this become emperor?
-Yeah, just kill him. If I stay under him any longer I feel like I’m gonna blow up.
The execution proceeded right then and there.
When I first saw that scene on the monitor, I was shocked. For a while, my jaw dropped open.
It was a mix of frustration that such a reliable strategist had died, and an ambivalent feeling of “Damn, that’s refreshing.”
Well, whatever happened in the past, his abilities were solid. He wasn’t an arrogant person despite his overconfidence.
“So with that said, would you be interested in working under Her Highness the Princess?”
“Of course! It would be my honor.”
Hannut immediately agreed.
He had said he found it unbelievable when I called him, but of course, he had come expecting there was a possibility.
He would have naturally guessed the reason I called him. And from the beginning, I never thought he would refuse.
Because he was confident, he also had the ambition to rise in status.
Despite his personality, he was quite respectful to the princes before he exploded.
It was probably because of the difference in status at the time. And because frustrations had built up to the extreme then.
“In that case, I will arrange a private audience with the Empress in the near future.”
“Please feel free to contact me anytime. I’ll even attend your parents’ memorial services.” (+)[2]TLN: The part “I’ll even attend your parents’ memorial services.” expresses a willingness to attend even such a solemn event as the memorial service for the other person’s parents, indicating a strong sense of support and commitment.
Because imperial surveillance was severe, recruiting talent was the only thing I could do on my days off.
But I didn’t need to move around that much. I only met the people who were absolutely necessary.
Even so, the quality of Erendil’s supporters was very good.
It wasn’t thanks to me. It was because Erendil could see the truth.
Although I said there were several people I was meeting, ultimately the people chosen were the ones Erendil took notice of.
That is, people who genuinely support her or serve the empire gather.
Of course, there were also some who just had tremendous power mixed in, but compared to the princes’ side, it was quite wholesome.
That’s why these were somewhat uneventful days.
‘Well, it hasn’t been too bad.’
Because I was already pulling all-nighters every other day, the assassination attempt had piled on quite a bit of fatigue too.
I focused on resting comfortably and training.
It was the same when I played the game. Quiet between big events, like an interglacial period.
Right now was the time to prepare.
I couldn’t neglect this period. Valhǫll had to go all out in some way too, since there was no time skip.
The longer this period was, the bigger the next incident that approached.
‘Looking at the current situation, it’s probably related to the leader.’
I knew Duke Brusek also had suspicions, but so far there hadn’t been any big changes.
He must be preparing something.
Phiri wrote up a statement of reasons for his disobedience.
The excuse was that the target had important information because there were more devil worshippers than expected.
He was scolded quite a bit, but it didn’t become a serious issue, I heard. Maybe the Duke pulled some strings.
I still hadn’t heard what information the target had. Instead, Phiri brought new news.
‘Orhen is coming.’
She even became the Count of Altre. It seemed she had regained her family’s peerage.
Now she was a noble. It feels a bit coincidental now that I’d also received an honorary Count title.
Orhen’s life would probably be comfortable now. Valuable intelligence nobles weren’t used lightly.
Now that I think about it, I wonder if Denif is doing well.
After being captured by the empire and released, he moved his location to the Temerza Kingdom bordering Haisen.
I hadn’t contacted him after briefly meeting him before he left. Same with Orhen.
‘With that prideful personality, I’m sure he’s doing fine on his own.’
He was probably grinding his teeth thinking he was falling behind. But that could actually be better.
It was best that he was outside of the currently chaotic empire and Haisen.
Anyway, the reason Orhen was coming was to establish the prestige of the Princess.
It didn’t change anything that a foreign noble was pledging support, but it was a different story when it came to interests.
The mines in Orhen’s territory were important.
They produced a rare metal, solar metal, necessary for making enchanted weapons and high-quality arms.
It was harder to obtain than the Lyon Minerals in the north.
‘To be honest, I’m a little surprised.’
Altre wasn’t stupid, so for Orhen to gain control of that land, Haisen must have put in quite a bit of effort.
It was possible because Orhen had the justification of being the rightful heir, but according to what I heard, it was in the form of a treaty between the empire and Altre where they would only tribute the originally agreed-upon amount.
On the surface, it was framed as Orhen voluntarily providing assistance, influenced by Erendil’s abilities.
It had already made the newspapers to the extent that articles were coming out about how the princess had rolled up her sleeves to secure the solar metal supply.
Once it was finalized, an even bigger article would probably come out.
‘I guess you could say this is thanks to me.’
Altre’s interests were involved here. Orhen wouldn’t have been able to make this decision unilaterally even after gaining her title.
Since Erendil currently had a high chance of becoming emperor, this was probably Altre’s move to set the line in advance.
The meeting was tomorrow. I felt regret that I couldn’t meet Orhen separately due to the surveillance, but the joy of seeing her after several years was greater.
Dawn.
I now felt it was time I made a decision soon. The end was nearing for the character Carl Schurtafen.
The reason was simple. Someday my identity would be peeled back. I would soon come under attack.
The devil worshippers knew I was from Haisen through the leader.
They would probably attack Erendil using me as an excuse during the most crucial moment.
The imperial princess’s close attendant actually being a spy from Haisen would be a serious blow.
‘No matter that I’m the empire’s hero of war.’
The emperor would absolutely not tolerate it. Public sentiment towards citizens with imperial superiority would thoroughly turn against us too, now that Haisen had declined as a nation and the princess had left the imperial palace.
The Duke was probably worried about it too now, but for me, it had been a future I was concerned about ever since first becoming an imperial guard.
Hadn’t Death Avoidance also given a warning? The leader’s betrayal was the variable with the highest likelihood of occurring.
There were other possibilities of course.
If the leader had not become a traitor before or did not become one at all, this would not have happened.
Or if Duke Brusek had taken care of the leader a bit faster, that would have been fine too.
But now it couldn’t be undone.
‘And well, there were no other options from when the Empress got subverted.’
The Empress didn’t even need evidence. If she exposed my identity claiming it was a confession of conscience, that was the end.
In fact, leaving the imperial palace itself wasn’t a bad thing for me.
In the long term, it was much better for me to get out of the imperial palace. What I could do inside was limited.
It was the same for being from Haisen.
Haisen’s goal and my goal were similar but different. A future where we collided was within expectations.
In fact, once I discarded Carl Schurtafen, my plan had been to distance myself from Haisen to some extent too.
To utilize the information I knew from the game, it was better for me to move alone.
There were quite a few capable people like Cedric and Denif scattered around. I would have to move diligently.
Helping Erendil was something I could still sufficiently do from outside the palace.
I believe enough trust had already been established between the two of us. I was already drawing a line with Haisen and showing it too.
‘The problem is Erendil’s safety….’
Under the current circumstance, it was a risk I had no choice but to allow.
From my conversation with Faorn when I went to Tenorio, I thought he might help out, but it wasn’t certain.
Rather than that, it might be better to escape imperial surveillance and swiftly make Erendil the emperor.
Once she was the emperor, the Sword Masters would guard her, so it should be fine.
‘Anyway, I need to move before I’m attacked.’
Originally, my plan had been to fake dying in a terrorist attack after discussing with Erendil and then disappear.
That way, Haisen would also have a hard time finding traces of me.
But the devil worshippers were moving more tenaciously than I knew.
And the situation was that the Empress herself had been subverted by the devil worshippers.
If I, Carl Schurtafen – hero of war – have to discard this identity, might there be an even better method?
An idea flashed through my mind for an instant.
If it’s turned out like this, wouldn’t it be better for me to attack the devil worshippers first?
- 1. TLN: I’m really not sure if ‘to raise someone new’ is right or not. Either that or it’s something like ‘make a new save.’ Here are the Korean text if some of you here can confirm it: 그렇지 않아도 어려운 게임, 하누트가 죽으면 새로 키우는 게 낫다는 말이 있을 정도였다.
- 2. TLN: The part “I’ll even attend your parents’ memorial services.” expresses a willingness to attend even such a solemn event as the memorial service for the other person’s parents, indicating a strong sense of support and commitment.
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