Chapter 703 – Restoration of Expungement (7)
***
The first night of the Atlantis Conference.
〈Return to Romania. Get ready.〉
After returning from the meeting, the representative of the delegation summoned the party and gave instructions.
At his words, the envoys began preparing for their return without asking questions. The only one who knelt down on the spot and asked a question was the bailiff.
‘Are you all right? The treaty has not yet been decided.〉
〈How much meaning would there be in the shackles that were imposed under the agreement of both parties?〉
The representative of the delegation answered while touching the piece of the knight whose paint had peeled off.
It was a famous board game piece in Romania.
‘The iron balls on your arms are a blunt weapon, and the shackles on your feet are, at best, a little annoying in normal times. The treaty that the Princess of Britannia understood and accepted had only that much value.〉
Of course, he did not mean to downplay the value of the treaty.
For diplomats’ job is to place the shackles on the enemy’s neck meticulously and covertly.
In order to limit the operation of Atlantis and protect national interests, they had to participate in the talks.
Unless there are more downsides than that.
─Talk. The representative put down the object he was holding in his hand.
The surveillance is meticulous. Enough that even the executioner who participated in the delegation could not secretly escape.
What seemed free at first glance was more vicious. Even an old woman who was fooled by that freedom and thoughtlessly went outside would not be able to escape the surveillance net.
In fact, in the pandemic a few days ago, the bicorn troops responded in a few tens of minutes.
It means that from the beginning, all the activities of the delegation from each country were being monitored.
Even before landing on Atlantis, they sensed the clairvoyance of the Nords.
That’s why I refrained from even reviewing the strategy I had prepared while being careful with each action.
However, since he suffered a failure at the meeting because he did so, can it be said that defeat was a predetermined fight in the first place?
“With one exception, the national interest takes precedence over everything.”
─Talk.
The article in the shape of a knight was pushed by his fingers and fell.
〈So it wouldn’t be strange if the treaty made out of conscience was broken at any time.〉
As he said, international treaties are the shackles on which agreements are concluded.
Could Britannia allow them to bind themselves tight like slaves?
A gap in the covenant is always born. No matter how much you do, you can’t fill the hole.
International treaties are shackles that can be loosened when the need arises—provided we ignore condemnation and international isolation.
“Don’t get caught up in notions. Only one thing in the world, national luck, is more important than national interest. So is Britannia, so is Romania.〉
Today’s international treaties may dictate national interests in peacetime, but they are useless in wartime.
If the country is going to perish, even if it is condemned for eternity, it would be right to ignore the treaty.
Therefore, the regulation of Atlantis could not influence the fate of Romania. By leading this treaty, there was only a small profit to be gained.
〈… Are you wary of the tricks of Count Wolfheddin?〉
Advantages of staying and attending the conference.
The downside that it may reveal a bigger gap in this surveillance network.
Which one to choose was a matter of consideration.
〈Already once, even in a meeting, I failed after being overzealous. There is no second failure.〉
The conclusion the representative made after consideration was a retreat.
He was blinded by the national interest and had no intention of ruining the country.
The bailiff left a greeting and left the door.
Left alone in the room with the lights off, the representative rested his chin on the table as if lost in contemplation.
His posture of organizing his thoughts did not move until morning.
After a long time, the sun rising from the shoreline lit up the morning. The well-behaved attendants opened the door of the Nord-made lodging without making a noise.
〈… Prince. Preparations for departure are complete.〉
Stopping his contemplation, he opened one of his eyes.
Answering cynically, he tidied up the place where he was staying without even serving as his attendant. After the prince’s hands were crossed a few times, the traces of him were neatly arranged.
As if there was nothing here from the beginning.
However, the prince paused before leaving the island.
〈… Did you say that what you don’t know is medicine?〉
As he looked out of his window, he suddenly muttered.
“Then it would be right to say that knowledge is poison.”
Even an empire built on a rock will crumble with a single drop of poison.
Therefore, those who want to stand at the top of the world must be wary of poison.
***
“Younglord. A guest has come.”
“I’m the lord’s agent.”
After having a cozy bed with Fran.
After eating breakfast and exchanging conversations with Weston as if I were brushing my teeth, I went out to see the guest. Talks are still going on, but someone came to talk about something.
When I opened the door to the parlor, there was the president of Asherard and Kiara.
One step away from that… What was your name I see a doctor asking what role it is.
Asherard stood up and greeted me as soon as he saw me.
“Count Wolfheddin. Good morning.”
“Good morning, we are rude.”
“… President.”
“Yeah? That’s right, right?”
Kiara twists his head and Ashelad keeps his mouth shut.
They are men and women who attended international conferences only for their names.
Asherad Cynthia, recognized as a competent and neutral archaeologist in each country, and the top of adventurers around the world. It’s a combination that looks a bit unbalanced, but it’s not such an unusual combination.
Archaeologists are half required to be strong.
However, in dangerous places such as exploring ruins, there were many cases where they borrowed the power of adventurers. Right now, even when I was at Carmine University, Yerna hired an adventurer, so I will skip it below.
So, these two people deserved to know each other well enough.
“Yes, good morning. What are you doing?”
Ask questions as you sit down.
Yesterday’s meeting continued late at night, so today’s meeting will start at lunchtime.
So, does it mean that it is a matter so serious that I have to commit rudeness to visit a noble (me) from this morning by reducing my sleep at night? Nobility is such a fucking thing.
“I personally wanted to ask you something, so I came to see you from this morning.”
“Personally?”
“In other words, ‘as a scholar’.”
Swallow, why do you do that? It was not my taste to have a long quadruped, so I urged the conversation.
“A Review of History According to the Dissimilarity Between the Runic and Elune Languages of the Golden Age”. This is the thesis of Professor Yerna Grasier, who was considered to be able to win a thousand-fold prize.”
Asherard did as I wished. Like a car crash, it was hit from the point of view.
As if trying to see through the lie, she stared at me.
“Isn’t that actually written by the Count?”
“Det?”
I completely forgot the dignity of an aristocrat, which I didn’t have in the first place, and responded stupidly.
Rather, she would not have been surprising to say, ‘This chewy cub, actually alien monkey from another world!’
“… How did you come up with that idea?”
“Because of my position, I have read many papers.”
Asherard pointed at himself and said.
“Then I found out. Even if the handwriting is different, the connection between contexts, the process of developing logic, the likes and dislikes of the form of dividing the table of contents, the expression of favorite words… “
She shook her head as if she had just given up.
“Other features that are difficult to describe in words are revealed in the author’s handwriting. The more people who write, the more inescapably they become.”
“… Did you see that in her thesis submitted by Professor Yerna Grasier?”
“Of course she rewrote it in her own handwriting. However, the writing was magical. Here, I was deeply suspicious of the theft of the thesis.”
“Yes?”
What does magical note-taking have to do with the theft of papers?
“The magic of writing letters exists, but scholars like us refrain from such magic in paper submissions. This is because there are cases of correcting ink or copying other people’s papers quickly.”
As I was dumbfounded, Lol or something interrupted as if asking her not to forget her self.
There are two facts that I realize only after being explained like that.
One was when I was at Carmine University, and I realized why the professors who treated me as a translation slave were so meticulous about line spacing and letters.
The other was that although I had seen papers written with magic a few times—I used it when Cromwell gave me an Associate Membership Card to the Wizards Guild—I had no intention of writing it.
Would the challengers feel like this when they saw fucking Columbus crack an egg and set it upright? Asherad said as he opened his mouth.
“However, pointing out doubts is practically impossible in academia.”
“Because there are not only two scholars who stole the thesis!”
Kiara clapped her hands, saying that she knew better. I pressed my temple in pain to the point where I could clearly see that I had brought Asherard for no reason.
“Yes. So, while I was only having doubts, I saw the thesis written by the Count.”
“Yes? My thesis? Weh?”
Asherard chuckled at the stupid question.
“Pray to the heavenly god (yáǵeswō deiwōm dyēus), a text on a stele found in the ruins of Sargadis. Its language system was quite similar to the language I secretly studied.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Did you read the paper I wrote for a regular report while looking for papers?
It seems like I found a book report I wrote during middle school. It’s a bit embarrassing.
“And after looking at the data from yesterday’s meeting, I was convinced. Even though it was rewritten with Professor Grassier’s handwriting, the feeling is definitely the count’s unique argument.”
“So you thought that my thesis was stolen by my advisor? Maybe you were just influenced by your advisor?”
“No, that’s not all. The Count’s dissertation, which was submitted after Professor Gracie suddenly published a tremendous thesis, was… So much… “
Are you talking about that improvised dissertation that I received a master’s degree in?
Thinking of an appropriate expression, I said, averting my eyes.
“… Miserable?”
“… Yes. To be honest, I couldn’t see a thesis that someone with that level of language skills would spend years deciding on their degree.”
There is no room for refutation because it is a bitch fact at the level of ‘Koreans will die if they don’t eat garlic?’. The degree of completion of the dissertation, which was breathlessly made, was almost at the level of failure.
“However, the content was completely different from the report from the Sargadis Ruins that arrived only a month or two later. Even with my own eyes, having read thousands of papers, it was flawless and perfect.”
Asherard, who was famous for being fair, shone with an upright gaze as much as his personality. The wrinkles on her forehead seemed to hint at her life history.
“Rather than the possibility that a person could have grown rapidly in that short period of time, it is much more reasonable to think that the Count would be the victim of the theft of the thesis.”
Swallow, what to do I feel like crying.
Has anyone noticed that my thesis was stolen in the absence of any evidence?
I took revenge on Yerna, but the way to get back my masterpiece thesis is hopeless.
Claiming plagiarism with power?
I guess it’s possible
However, if he didn’t go through with it, his grandfather and his grandpas would click their tongues at a soup restaurant saying, ‘It’s a plague to try to improve his achievements as soon as he lags behind his teacher.’
So, I had the heart to give up.
I thought about masturbation (not daughter-in-law), saying that I could build up enough achievements with other thesis or mana granting skills, and let’s not get caught up in the past too much.
However, Asherad picked up the things I dropped while walking toward the future. No matter how much I am a forager, there are no choice but to shed tears here.
After receiving the injection, I was holding back, but my mother came and it hurt a lot, right? If you ask her, it’s similar to the tears you’ve been holding back. Honestly, this is irresistible.
But in a man’s life he only has to cry three times.
Those three things are when I was born, when my parents died, and when the country collapsed.
Still, my country probably won’t perish, so wouldn’t it be okay to shed some of the tears that would be shed when the country perishes? I feel like a financial tech.
“… Big hum. What if?”
I ask a question while blinking my teary eyes. In the blink of an eye, his affinity for Asherard rose steadily.
If Dorcas or Hotulusil and Asherad had fallen into the river, they were 100% good enough to save Asherad first.
Excluding her wives, this level of increase is the first since her uncle left after giving 50,000 won in pocket money on the first day they met. Asherad you, Guinness update.
─Gulp. A nervous Asherard swallowed.
“The Count deduced the existence of the Hittites based on linguistic sources that everyone had neglected. We would like to borrow the count’s famous insight and wisdom.”
“What kind of request is it?”
Have you been the thesis ninja by your professor? Then please feel free to ask. If it’s an assassination request, I, the Norse ‘The Professor Slayer’ Wolfheddin, will help you both physically and mentally.
Asherard said with a smile as if he sensed a positive vibe from my tone of voice.
“Later is fine. Would you like to restore the forgotten history of the Hittites with me, Sir Colido, and Dr. Rolancis——?”
