Chapter 39 - Going Undercover

Wipera was a man in his late thirties with grizzled hair. He responded coldly to my sudden visit. “I thought the special unit was only taking people, not barging into other teams like this.” 

“Barging in? I just want to gain experience, even a little, before becoming vice-captain.” 

“It is arrogance to expect gaining experience by entering dungeons a couple of times.”

“As they say, a journey of a thousand miles starts from a single step.” I deflected Wipera’s hostility with a broad smile, and he clicked his tongue disapprovingly. He surveyed me as if to grasp my intentions, but by the look of his frown, he didn’t seem to have much success. 

“Why our team of all others?” he asked. “We are not capable enough to afford having a support mage like you.” 

“I’ve heard that you have a long career as the leader of the Blue Flames. Besides, the level of the dungeon we’re going to isn’t so high, is it? You’re being exceedingly humble.” 

Regardless of his sarcasm, I gave a jolly good laugh and flattered him in return. Wipera appeared to have realized his sneering was ineffective as he resorted to glaring instead. After a long moment of silence, during which I estimated how many times he was cursing inwardly, he spoke again. “…Will Reverend August also be with us?” 

“No, just me,” I replied.

Wipera shut his mouth again. I could almost hear the cogs in his head spinning. The man was visibly struggling but failing to suppress his animosity, which felt too excessive to dismiss it as annoyance derived from my intervention. The impression I had was more like he couldn’t tolerate my very existence. With a sudden, spiteful sigh, Wipera said, “Not being able to afford having you in our team is not being humble but speaking the truth. You may not know since your first dungeon raid was with Axion, but we do not have that much firepower. You may end up dying as we lack the strength to spare escorting you while clearing the dungeon. Even so, are you fine with joining?”

He seemed to want confirmation on whether or not I was okay with being in danger, and this was only natural; after all, he had to push the blame on me in case I died. How blatant… “I can handle taking care of myself, one way or another. I’ll be fine. Even if I do end up dying… it’d be out of my incompetence so it can’t be helped,” I answered, smiling even wider than before. 

Wipera’s face brightened as if I had given just the answer he was waiting for. “Could you give me an official confirmation on what you said just now?” 

“Sure. I could even sign a document right away.”

“I also ask that you swear to regard me as the leader of this raid and that you’ll follow my every order as a subordinate,” he added. 

“I swear.” 

“Very good. Let us meet tomorrow morning then, at the main gates.” 

We shook hands then. Although our motives were different, as far as appearances went, we couldn’t have looked any more harmonious.

* * *

On the next morning, I donned the mask of an ignorant vice-captain who entered the corps through the backdoor and joined the Blue Flames. Its team members, clad in black armor as befitting of a Dark Knight, welcomed me with hostile gazes. Wipera looked particularly confident as he dragged me along to make an introduction to the rest, perhaps because he was before his men. “Now, now! We have two new faces joining the dungeon raid this time. I’m sure everyone here knows Jun Karentia? She’s a support mage and our exalted vice-captain-to-be.”

The others were quick to respond to my introduction with sniggers and irritated sighs. Wipera’s tone was practically dripping scorn—his thoughts were almost written on his face, and I knew he wasn’t going to give me the treatment a vice-captain was due. “I want everyone to leave a hardworking impression on our rumored vice-captain…” he continued. “And this here is Sevi Ventus, the archer who’ll be standing in for Jaeger, who died in the previous dungeon.”

“I look forward to working with you all.” Holding a bow that was taller than himself, Sevi’s bobbed hair fluttered as he gave a deep bow in greeting. The boy’s expression was terribly cold, much too unfriendly for a rookie who had been newly assigned to a team.

I stared at Sevi—no, Mayer disguised as Sevi and mouthed at him, “Your expression! Manage your expression!” Somehow, it was deeply disturbing to call him Mayer with the way he looked. Sevi-Mayer frowned, but complied; with a sigh, he put on an awkward smile and I couldn’t help but wonder why he was acting so poorly. Normally, he could smile so well… Then again, the man had probably never dreamed he’d one day transform into a brat half his age.

There had been no need to even ponder on who Mayer would transform into. We had no clue who the accomplices involved were, and if the transformation target was too well-known, we’d risk being exposed. Choosing Sevi, on the other hand, posed the least risk as he was a recent recruit. Looking at Mayer’s skills now, I patted myself in the back for such a good decision. He most certainly wasn’t cut out for infiltration.

Acting was, in essence, paying attention to how others saw you. One would present oneself in a better way, or hide one’s inner self, and so on. Mayer, though, had no reason to do any of those things. Even the emperor tip-toed around the duke; how could he have ever experienced playing to somebody’s mood? In any case, the others didn’t seem to think much of Sevi, perhaps because most of their attention was on me, and that was a huge relief.