The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

Chapter 185

October was busy from the start.

It wasn’t the Academy schedule that kept me occupied. The reason I was so busy was mostly due to my personal goals.

My goal to prevent the war.

Whether it’s fortunate or not, the Academy is located near the Imperial Palace, which lies at the heart of the Empire. The distance was inconvenient for walking, but not impossible. Especially for someone like me, who has what feels like infinite time, that distance was hardly an issue.

In other words, I could sneak around the palace at night collecting information without much difficulty.

I didn’t even need to secure an escape route. Once I saw what I wanted, I could simply rewind time. I could even rewind to the moment I entered a location, minimizing my travel and securing more time for exploration.

Wars don’t erupt overnight.

Even though there were no major changes at the borders for now, the planning for a strike to catch the opponent off guard must have started long ago.

The problem was, no matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t find any evidence of such preparations.

The defense budget was not significantly different from previous years. While it had increased, most of the additional funds went toward the mass production of new weapons—hardly a direct sign of deploying them to the battlefield.

Several monitoring ships had been constructed, but after the northern border skirmish that wiped out the warlord factions, they had been relocated to satellite cities near the capital. Some ships, plagued by recoil issues due to their oversized frames, were undergoing repairs and inspections, leaving similar models on indefinite standby.

There were no plans for constructing additional warships. Even for the Empire, building new warships would take time. The absence of such plans, even in the palace, suggested...

...Could they be hiding the plans elsewhere? Had the Emperor caught on to my abilities and dispersed information to locations I couldn’t physically reach?

It seemed like a plausible explanation.

“Interesting.”

After failing to find concrete evidence despite my extensive investigations, I decided to take a direct approach: meeting the Emperor himself.

“So, you mean to tell me you’ve come to *me* to ask about the ‘hidden information’ that *I* might be concealing?”

The Emperor rephrased my words with a bemused expression, his voice tinged with amusement.

“That is correct.”

“Hmm.”

The Emperor gazed at me for a moment before a sly smile crept onto his lips.

“Then let me ask you something. What would you do if someone capable of killing you was watching you closely?”

“...”

“Wouldn’t you naturally avoid doing anything to provoke such a being? Of course, this might require you to alter your lifelong ambitions. But that doesn’t mean life becomes meaningless, does it? After all, losing one goal simply means finding another.”

“...Are you saying, Your Majesty, that you abandoned the idea of war because you knew I didn’t want it to happen?”

“So, you think I was planning to wage war against the entire world?”

In typical harem manga, scenes of the male lead being ostracized by his peers are played for laughs. But depicting it seriously as outright bullying... that’s too heavy.

Seeing it in real life, though—

“...Huh?”

And then, I noticed something else.

Far off in the distance, at the corner of my vision, I saw purple hair fluttering in the breeze.

If it weren’t for the sudden gust of wind, I might not have noticed.

“...Sophia?”

My brow furrowed deeply.

Her appearance was quite different from how she was portrayed in the original, but it was unmistakably her. Perhaps the image she presented to me was a façade, or maybe she hadn’t yet fully developed into her original character. Still, as a Cathedral Knight, she seemed fully committed to her mission.

She probably thought there was something to gain from watching Leo. Maybe she believed he was connected to the Holy Kingdom in some way.

“...”

I had initially intended to approach Leo and strike up a conversation, but I quickly changed course and returned to my room.

I gathered my equipment and prepared to leave again.

Not to approach Leo directly, but to circle around the Academy grounds far enough that neither he nor Sophia would notice me.

From my new vantage point, I had a clear view of Sophia’s hiding spot.

As I suspected, she was watching Leo intently. Through my telescope, I confirmed that she hadn’t noticed me.

Adjusting the angle, I turned my focus back to Leo—

“...Sylvia?”

A soft, clear voice called out from behind me.

The fact that I didn’t scream is a testament to my restraint.

Instead, my shoulders jerked violently.

Cautiously turning my head, I saw none other than Charlotte.

Her face was pale as she stared at me.

She looked at me as though I were a stalker.

...

No, it’s not like that!