NOVEL NEXT Chapter 812
<812 – Newbie Acceptance (11)>
Jonnas and Reap were unable to join the front lines during the recent Foundation Workshop Battle.
“Is it really okay not to go to the front lines?”
“We can’t leave the Academy just relying on the Principal. Above all, there are friends and precious pets that Agassi cherishes here.”
Unlike those who went off thinking they could save a fake Oknodie right in front of a real one, this version of Oknodie, even with a little mischief and some bad traits, was much closer to the real deal.
It’s an Academy that still has true friends who love both the good and bad sides of Agassi.
If the Academy is left unguarded and suddenly attacked by clever tactics, and if the Principal finds the scene entertaining and happens to sit back and watch, the heartache Agassi would suffer would be immense.
For this reason, Jonnas and Reap couldn’t intervene, and it soon became clear that their judgment had been correct.
“There’s an Assassin Maid.”
“You’ve got some nerve. To send such a low-level maid to our Academy.”
“This isn’t simply a direct unit of the Maid Jang. These maids were trained in different factions. When they face me, who knows all their tricks, they won’t work, but if I had left it to the professors, they would have been quite troubled.”
The guess that there would be some forces attacking the Gift Academy headquarters turned out to be correct.
Even though there were quite a few professors and instructors left behind to protect the students, the number of infiltrators who managed to breach the barriers and surveillance and sneak into the Adventure Department Dormitory was significant.
However, stopping the assassins sent by the Foundation wasn’t a particularly big problem.
The real trouble started after the battle was over.
“Will you give us a chance to leave the Foundation as well?”
“Granted.”
The defectors.
Those who had lost their will to fight.
When their surrender was accepted, unexpected problems continued to crop up one after another.
“I want my apprentices, whom I raised, to join us as well.”
“I have a herbalist and a spirit healer who have been cooperating with me in the civilian sector.”
“I’m worried that the farmers who provide our food will be assassinated while I’m gone. I want to migrate with them.”
The Foundation was fundamentally a covert organization.
While the core powers of the branches were openly revealed, there were many who had not reached the center or had been demoted to minor positions, and many of the support personnel didn’t even realize they were part of the Foundation.
This essentially meant that the Foundation had quietly and meticulously established a lower-level organization, but Jonnas, who was accepting everyone without any resistance, was starting to sweat.
“Is the whole world part of the Foundation? What… does it ever end?”
At this rate, even bringing back the vaporized Prill would not be enough to accommodate all the defectors from the Foundation.
This had surpassed what could be managed alone.
“Have you accepted the request for support?”
“I received instructions from the Destroyer that we must not disregard those caught in a dilemma of turning foes into allies.”
“Thank you. I owe the Thief Guild a debt.”
Jonnas sought help from the Destroyer, the master of Oknodie, and the Destroyer contacted him through the Thief Guild. He utilized a portion of the massive profits from Collection City and his personal assets to urgently provide settlement funds for the defectors from the Foundation.
Much like the saying that rich families can survive three generations, there were those who had brought some resources with them from the collapsed Foundation, so even with the support from the Destroyer, the lives of the defectors were smoothly managed.
However, when the local lords suddenly realized that the unfamiliar population in their territories had increased by the tens of thousands, they trembled in fear.
“Where did they even come from?”
“I don’t know. There are no names on either the tax payment list or the residency registration list.”
“No way. After seeing the Foundation go down, I can’t believe there are tens of thousands of their unknown identity assassin aspirants cropping up?”
“Oh, that seems likely…”
“I don’t know. We didn’t see anything, got it? Absolutely do not touch them. If we get marked as the Foundation’s henchmen by Central, our territory is doomed. Let’s leave them alone until they disappear on their own!”
Thanks to the cowardly lords fearing ties with the remnants of the Foundation, they didn’t find themselves swiftly expelled from the city and in a dilemma.
But there’s no way the unknown identities could continue living on scraps in the city indefinitely.
“Why don’t you directly ask Agassi for help? Although she is hostile to the Foundation, her grievances are against the individuals who troubled her and those around her, not against the Foundation itself, I think.”
“Is that so?”
Reap’s prediction turned out to be correct.
“Since we happen to be short on managers in the city we built in the Gold Zone, would you like to migrate there?”
The city in the Gold Zone where the golden merchant Avalon resided in hiding.
Considering the numerous contraband and treacherous legacies of the Foundation that would be hard to expose, slipping into the Gold Zone wasn’t a bad idea.
Moreover, the Gold Zone city was filled with gold, so there was plenty of funding needed for real urban development.
A land where you strike gold with just a shovel!
There were no limits to financial resources.
With housing and safety issues resolved, most of the defectors were satisfied, but a small number of competent individuals began to overthink things now that they were more comfortable.
“I have lived my whole life under the Foundation, focusing solely on my personal growth and nurturing young masters and young ladies. I don’t want to lose my suitable profession and revert to being a commoner.”
“I want to return to the assassin’s profession. Please give us tasks.”
The requests for job reintegration from butlers and maids!
After careful consideration, Jonnas and Reap decided to commit to putting in some effort for the crisis-ridden unemployed who were just a step away from long-term unemployment.
Surprisingly, there were quite a few people who wanted to stay out of the front lines and genuinely wished for the success of their young masters and young ladies, nurturing them.
No matter how evil an organization is, those who raise innocent kids on their own will inevitably have a little light in their hearts, and the malice tainted by the Foundation will gradually fade.
Such commendable individuals deserve a chance for a new life.
“These maids are more skilled than April in household duties. They will surely be a great help to Agassi.”
“If the butlers educate the homunculi, they will grow into excellent homunculi. Please give them the opportunity to prove their dedication and validate their abilities.”
Oknodie willingly accepted Jonnas and Reap’s request.
“I was just thinking of helping Velvet’s faction, so sending them would be just perfect!”
Thus, the former butlers and maids of the Foundation participated in Seoguyeon’s internal strife and allied with the Velvet faction.
—
The Kingdom of Deutsch. The Kingdom of Florence. The Kingdom of Talrand.
An alliance created by the nobility of the Western Three Kingdoms is called the Western Noble Union, abbreviated as Seoguyeon.
The core members of Seoguyeon are naturally the authority figures of the large noble families, along with the competent individuals they employ.
“Rebellion? How laughable. They’re terrified of us wielding our power and have long been aware of the decay at the Academy. We are different from those cowards.”
“While they focus on meaningless growth, we receive overwhelming support from our families and carry out missions that align with our family’s interests, acquiring more elixirs, magic tools, and knowledge as rewards.”
“In terms of sheer power, we are not losing to them at all.”
The central army of the Western Noble Union aims to expand their influence by actively using the power they accumulated at the Academy for their families and to dominate the Western Three Kingdoms, with plans of eventually spreading to the Empire.
They had no intention of tolerating Velvet’s faction or the rebellion of the youngsters, who simply support their families while shirking the responsibility of power expansion.
“Kill every last one from every class except the new students of class 982 and those of high rank. Dispose of the unusable generations and only recycle those with potential.”
The art of intrigue is the specialty of the nobles.
Removing rivals.
Assassinating competitors.
If limited to battling with despicable and cruel tricks, there are very few professions that surpass the nobles.
Slander is basic.
“The Seoguyeon students who have yet to return from the Academy are those who have become engrossed in the Foundation’s flawed ideology, crossing an irreversible line.”
“We pledge to make this erroneous generation a past mistake and ensure that no more underlings of the Foundation tarnish Seoguyeon’s name.”
They smeared the students’ reputation and declared them official collaborators of the Foundation, spreading their names far and wide.
The Adventurer’s Guild, the family soldiers, and the knight orders and magic corps loyal to the state began to move.
“Haha, the state is on our side. Did you just realize that? Velvet Belle, you’ve turned the whole Western Three Kingdoms against you. Did you have fun acting like a national-level awakening? Now, it’s time for you to be trampled by the strength of the state and vanish without a trace!!”
As the great noble from the West shouted with bravado, a shadow loomed over his head.
It was not a shadow that covered just one great noble.
The fortress, the fields, it was a shadow that enveloped an entire border defense line filled with a hundred thousand soldiers.
[Velvet Belle]
[Super Mass Area]
[Invasion of Border Region 2]
“…No way.”
Velvet’s shoes trampled the fortress, the fields, and an entire border defense line.
“Help a woman like this…?”
“What in the world have we come here for…?”
The butlers and maids who had received Oknodie’s permission and came to aid in the battlefield stared blankly at the scene from a distance.
“Commence operation. Send an alert to the relevant areas until the next activation. All obstacles and resistance forces in our path will perish.”
Now, both enemies and allies knew.
That Velvet had power to stand against the state.
That she was a force equivalent to national power.
As the Seoguyeon Velvet faction started moving to issue regional evacuation orders and repel the opposing enemies, only then did the butlers and maids find their purpose and felt relieved.
Thus began the Seoguyeon civil war, which was entirely different from the Foundation Workshop Battle.