It's already one month and a half since the summer break started and currently, I was so busy with the game company I created with Eris thus I let Ron manage the Truth Agency website as the moderator while I would sometimes take a look during my free time.
The hot air balloon had been launched into the market where Zanuki Tourism already put a few hot air balloons at a few attractive places all over their territory. It went viral on the Star account and many requests come in to pre-ordered it.
The number of tourists coming to Zanuki territory tripled last month and I decided to stay home since the territory was bustling with people.
Since it was summer time, a lot of people went around on vacations and searching for entertainment thus Eris also launched the roller shoes as our first toy.
We gave a few Star influencers to demonstrate our products and after half a month, we managed to sell five thousand shoes while we were still barely able to fulfil every order.
This month, we decided to launch kites as our second product. Currently, I'm busy designing every single kite design that I could come up with since I won't be able to help Eris much after I went back to HGA.
Eris had also got the patent rights for our products and this prevent other companies to produce them until 5 years later.
Since this world atmosphere is fulled with mana which hindered things to fly at high altitude, the hot air balloon and kites were specifically imbued with special magic circle that repel mana from touching their surface area.
It was created by Kara and the army started to negotiate to buy the magic circle formula in order to produce more technology that could improve their air force since currently only mages on ranks above *Solda rank were able to fly.
*(specific rank system/level only applicable for mages. More details in auxiliary chapter)
The chess and Go game system is already in its final stage and would be completed before summer break ended. It would launch during winter break. The physical chess and Go pieces and board would also be sold on the company website.
Eris will manage everything since she didn't have to go back to HGA until her graduation ceremony.
Uncle Jinu also had assigned a few reliable assistants to me and Eris. Since I'm so busy during the day, I only manage to train for around four hours at night and I kind of improved a bit despite the limited training time.
"Ron, what's next on my schedule?"
"You will have to go to an on-site inspection for the finished kites before the launching event this weekend"
"So is the promotion video finished yet?"
"Hmm not yet young master since the influencer we hired leaked the information to other toys company so we fired him"
"Just let me do it. Bring a camera and just record me however you want during me testing the kites" I decided after much deliberation. Since there's not much time before the launching day, I'm too lazy to find another reliable influencer.
"Sure young master. I will give it to someone to edit later and show it to you and Lady Zerisa"
"When is my appointment with Kara?"
"Tomorrow after lunch, young master"
"Call me when it's already time to go to the inspections"
-Beep beep
[Eris: Since we are already done with summer products, you can rest for now until the launch of the games in winter]
[Eris: Good work and go have fun]
[Me: Yeah you too]
I got a message from Eris after I've just finished the final inspection for the kite. The promotional video would be finalized in two days after I've given detailed instructions on the video to the editor.
I take a look at my Scarlet site account and opened the Truth Agency profile. Only I could open this profile since Ron will only manage the Truth Agency website and the employees while the information was for me to handle.
This was the reason why no one can know that I'm the Boss of Truth Agency except for my family and close aides, Ran and Ron. If the employees know who the Boss is, my life will be I'm danger since I'm like a gold mine of information.
It's more secure to be careful in something dangerous like an information transaction. Currently, the employees that I've recruited were doing a good job and I might add more employees after the business is already secured.
There are a lot of events during summer and Royal Ball was one of them. Coincidentally, the emperor was born in summer thus this year, he especially hosted a grander and large scale birthday celebration for his 50th birthday. If everything went just like in the novel, there would be a terrorist attack during this event.
In the novel, Cedric and Shino were the ones who protected many of the commoners from the attack. However, there would be a lot of casualties in the incident caused by mana bombs.
At first, I thought maybe I could just let the incident go as it should be but...
"Ares, you should go to the Emperor's birthday celebration", Prince Theo said to me on the phone.
"I already sent an invitation to your grandmother with your name on it so see you there"
Klik tut tut..
The call was abruptly ended before I managed to say anything. Prince Theo might be busy preparing for the royal events since he is a member of the royal family.
After thinking for a while, I decided to use the Truth Agency account to send a warning to the mages from SMT since they were one of the groups responsible for security during the event.
Not many people knew that SMT and other government agencies have their own accounts in Scarlet Site to buy things from the black market, especially those mages who always lack funding for their research materials.
After that, I called grandpa and told him about the terror incident event and even though the information have no proof of whether it was true or not, he still gave me extra Shadows in order to protect me and help me with anything.
"It's kind of good when you have a caring family" I muttered before continuing planning on what I should do before the day of the event.
The terrorist mage would successfully flee after the event and the other terrorists chose to kill themselves in order not to be interrogated. Some of the mana bombs also had been planted around the plaza in advance where the royal event took place, a few days before the event.
"Hey Ron, tell the Shadows that I have work for them to do" I call Ron before giving him some instructions for the Shadows to survey the area around the plaza and catch any suspicious person.
I also ordered them to find the mana bombs before I sent a rough sketch of what it looked like since I was the one who designed them in the game.
They looked like marble balls with pretty inscriptions around them that make them look like normally decorated marble balls.
Thus it was not weird if anyone saw it since they would think it was just part of the plaza decoration for the royal event or something.
"Should I sell them to those mages" I muttered thinking I could have squandered more money.
A few days later, I went to another Zanuki mansion located on the outskirt of the capital to make it easier for me to go to the royal celebration. Uncle Jinu would be the one accompanying me but knowing his behaviour, he would not stand beside me all the time thus it's easier for me to go and try to finish the terrorist mage.
I also bought a few sets of earpieces for the Shadows to communicate with me during the royal event. After I arrived at the capital, I went to search for the place where that mage run away to hide for a while until the authority stopped searching for him.
"What are we going to do here young master?" Ron asked curiously while I try to confirm whether this was the right place.
"Ron take the coordinate of this place and put it on the teleportation scroll I bought before. We need it during the royal event later."
"Yes, young master" he answered eagerly since I already told him about the incident.
I already instructed the Shadows to dismantle the mana bombs they found during midnight just before the day of the event in order to avoid the terrorists to realize something amiss.
Preparation done.
"Young master, the crown prince invited the nobles' children to attend a dinner party tomorrow evening. Do you want to attend it?"
"I should attend, right? I'm the only one from my family that can attend the dinner right now and it's just a dinner party. I just have to show my face and then go back when I think I've spent enough time."
Its actually one of the tips Eris had told him when he had to attend formal events in the future. As a Zanuki, he must at least attend one of such events in the future.
"You will be seated along with other nobles from the northern part of the empire. Should I try to introduce you to any of them?"
"It's ok. We can just get to know each other during the event".
"Yes young master."
After finishing all my work, I took a shower and practised playing guzheng since I was asked to join a musical performance group during the HGA school festival. I was reluctant at first but seeing Ron looked so excited and grandpa also planned to come to see me, I didn't have the heart to reject.
How do HGA know I could play a musical instrument? Amma sent a video of me playing guzheng for my enrollment evaluation along with my test and research papers.
Fortunately, my performance was a solo performance thus I didn't have to practice with someone else. I practised for about an hour before going to sleep.
************************************
At Soraz Magic Tower administration room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{From: Truth Agency}
{To: User**+* }
Title: TERRORIST ATTACK IN ROYAL EVENT
As a trusted information broker, we got a tip that there will be a terror attack during the emperor's birthday celebration. As stated in our profile, we only sell true information, thus as responsible citizens, we kindly share this information with talented mages from Soraz Magic Tower as you're one of the parties responsible for maintaining the security and safety of the public and Royal family members during the event.
Additional information:
- There will be a mage (rank unknown) among the terrorists
- They will use bombs that can be activated using mana from the mage
(Advisable for you to use Mana Disturbance Tool to avoid the mana bombs from being detonated)
We hope you will take this reminder from us seriously and it's better to be cautious than careless.
Payment:
¶We will pay compensation of 10,000U if this information is not true.
¶If the information is true, you can pay us whatever amount you want to.
Best Regards
Truth Agency
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"How did he know?"
"Is this a prank?"
"But isn't this too serious to be a mere prank and he knows this account belongs to us"
The group of mages discussed anxiously after getting a message from an information broker. Finished reading the message, a lot of questions emerged in their minds.
'Is this true?'
'How did they know this is us?'
'What should we do?'
"Hmm Chief Officer, since this information broker knows about our Scarlet account, shouldn't we consider that this information is true."
"I also thought the same thing. He even offer to pay us if the information is not true" said another mage in agreement.
"I think I've heard about this information broker recently. They never sell any information that they can't confirm whether it's true or not. Their principle is that they only sell information that has been confirmed to be true"
"We have nothing to lose if we believe this information. It's better to increase our security personnel."
The Chief Officer remained silent while listening to his subordinates talking and giving their opinions regarding the matter. After contemplating for a while he decided to believe in the information.
"As you said, we got nothing to lose so proceed on increasing our security measures and prepare some magic devices to better protect ourselves and other people," the Chief Officer said clearly.
The mages started to plan on how to better prepare for the terrorist attack and whether to alert the royal family or not.
"But what if the information got leaked after we alert them. There's a rumour saying spies already infiltrated inside some of the government agencies."
"So we should try to do our best and prevent as many casualties as we can."
The Chief Officer of Soraz Magic Tower was worried since he had heard how his superior, the Soraz Patriarch was concern about the sudden movement from Zanuki matriarch's husband, the third Council Members, Zen Zanuki giving extra Shadows to protect his youngest grandson.
From the list of the attendees, the Zanuki sent their youngest grandson as the representative to attend the royal event.
Zen Zanuki, even though he looked indifferent, he wouldn't do something without a reason and as someone who have interacted with that man, the Chief Officer knew about that fact more than anyone else.
'The instinct of a beast.' That was many people impression's on Zen Zanuki who never wavered in anything he do.
If he said he will kill the emperor, he will definitely do it. Fortunately the Zanuki was a family that didn't really care about the so call political power that they deemed as worthless when the real disaster happened.
'There weren't any obvious lose if we believe the information given by this information broker.' The Chief officer thought.
After much contemplation, "We will choose to believe this information for now since it is our duty to prevent anything bad to happen during the event. We must ensure the event finished smoothly since it involved our reputation as one of the greatest magicians of this nation."
The Chief Officer decided in a high spirit and most of the mages also agreed.
After discussing it for a while, they decided to not tell anyone to avoid information leakage. The magic tower was busy with mages bustling everywhere until the day of the celebration.