After reaching the maximum level, my "soft rice system" finally arrived.

"Is there anything I can help with? If you don't want external forces to interfere in the empire's internal affairs, I can intervene in my private capacity."

“No need.” Isabella shook her head: “What the empire needs now is not a mild-mannered, mediocre ruler, but a true emperor who can completely conquer the scattered noble families and then reunite them into a unified whole.”

"If I can't even overcome this challenge on my own, then there's no point in me winning the royal selection ceremony."

"Moreover, this is also an opportunity for me, an opportunity to achieve legendary status by leveraging external pressure."

Isabella walked step by step to Charles, her thin, dark stockings barely visible beneath her military uniform.

“I’m already seven years behind you… If I continue to live such an ordinary life, I may be stuck in this final step of breaking through to the legend for the rest of my life.”

"Looking back now, the time when I advanced the fastest was when I traveled the continent with you as adventurers, facing countless powerful enemies, desperate situations, and walking between life and death."

"For some people, the royal selection ceremony is a game they'd risk their lives for, and given the chance, they won't be lenient with me."

She looked at Charles with her beautiful, dark purple eyes: "If I said—"

"If I were to lose, or even be on the verge of death, and you couldn't save me, but if you did, I would hate you and hunt you down for the rest of my life, what would you do?"

Charles thought for a moment, then shook his head: "I will still save you."

He didn't look Isabella in the eye: "I'd rather be hated by you for the rest of my life than watch my friend die before my eyes."

Chapter Twenty-Five: Outstanding Intelligence Workers

Isabella recalled the time when she first met Charles ten years ago.

At that time, she was only fifteen years old. Like every candidate for the throne in the empire, she concealed her identity and left the capital to begin her adventures in the western continent as an adventurer.

Unfortunately, her adventurer team encountered setbacks before it could even be formed—

Warrior, Mage, and Priest are the undisputed iron triangle of a team in the Western Continent, but most of the wizards in the Western Continent are concentrated in the Arcane Capital, and most of the remaining outstanding ones are supported by powerful forces and nobles. In the end, there are very few wild wizards left, and most of them cannot catch the eye of Princess Isabella.

This is why Ciel and Isabella met.

Isabella still remembers what the Ciel looked like back then, his eyes bloodshot, with a small mountain of slime made up of slime corpses beside him.

He just wiped out an entire slime race.

"What are you doing?"

Isabella asked this question at the time, unable to understand Charles's behavior.

In Isabella's mind, people who become adventurers are either seeking fame, profit, or self-gratification.

As the lowest-level monsters, slimes have almost no valuable materials on them. Even if you kill hundreds or thousands of them, they won't be worth much money, and material merchants won't buy them.

It is obvious that people will sing praises to the hero who killed the dragon, but will never praise a butcher who wiped out the slime race.

Could the other party be a psychopath who finds pleasure in killing?

"Slimes reproduce extremely quickly, and only one needs to be left alive to reproduce a completely new race through self-division, making them the most efficient choice for gaining experience."

The other person spoke without turning their head.

"Of course, I don't know if the concept of experience points exists in this world, but perhaps based on some kind of feedback rule of the magic network, my maximum magic power does increase slightly every time I use a spell."

"If you want to quickly advance in your career, these are all prerequisites that must be met."

"Or rather, this is the optimal solution for speedrunning."

Ciel cast a "cleaning spell" on himself, washing away the slime covering his body.

He wiped his hands, stood up, and looked at Isabella: "I can guess why you came to see me. To be honest, although there are plenty of slimes, the preparation of materials for each spell is a huge expense for me, which seriously affects my efficiency in grinding experience."

"If you can reimburse my expenses in the field of magic, then I don't mind working with you."

Isabella considered her savings and ultimately decided, "Come on, I'll take care of you."

That initial adventurer team with only two members was the legendary adventurer group that would later be celebrated by countless bards in the Western Continent—"Morning Star".

……

"Perhaps, I was wrong."

"You've really changed a bit since the first time we met."

"If it were you back then, you would probably just nod and say that you respect my choice."

Isabella looked directly into Charles's eyes.

The corners of her mouth suddenly lifted slightly, and her previously icy expression melted away like snow.

"Don't worry, if things really come to a head, I won't force myself to keep going."

“And, I do indeed need your help in something—” Isabella’s smile flashed and then disappeared, quickly returning to her usual demeanor: “that mysterious organization called Ironmoon.”

Charles breathed a sigh of relief.

He knew Isabella's personality. The silver-haired princess before him possessed an almost stubborn pride that was completely contrary to her petite appearance. Once she made a decision, she would never waver in the slightest.

As for Isabella knowing about the cult's existence, that was exactly what Ciel had expected.

With the Third Princess's clandestine intelligence network and control over the capital, obtaining some basic information would not be difficult.

"According to the information I received, it seems that one of my competitors is connected to the cult known as the Ironmoon."

“The rules of the royal selection ceremony do not preclude the use of external forces.”

"But what they're planning seems to be more than just targeting me."

“I am not worried about the other side uniting against me. In fact, I hope they put more pressure on me so that I can break through adversity.”

"But if they break the rules at that time, or even cooperate with that cult and drag the common people of the capital into it, I may not have the strength to deal with it."

Charles nodded: "Leave it to me."

"it is good."

Isabella clearly had a lot of confidence in Charles, and after he nodded in agreement, she didn't mention it again.

After finishing their business, Isabella stood up, her black military uniform outlining a languid silhouette.

She casually picked up a cat-ear headdress that was placed beside the bed: "What's this?"

Charles recalled the masked guests in the hotel, who concealed their identities, and the half-elf at the front desk who exchanged secret signals with him, reminding him of a liaison officer in a spy drama: "Perhaps, it's a disguise tool used to facilitate escape when surrounded?"

He looked around the room and saw that in addition to cat ear headdresses, there were rabbit ears, dog ears, and even pointed ears of elves and vampires.

"I didn't expect that they even had tools to escape when they were searched, and the number of races they could impersonate was so complete. It seems that this hotel has long been secretly transformed into a secret intelligence base."

Isabella complimented it and put the cat-ear headdress on her head.

"How effective is the disguise?"

Charles nodded in agreement: "Indeed, you look no different from a beastman girl now."

He suddenly remembered the second key that the flat-chested half-elf had given him earlier. His gaze swept across the entire room, and he quickly found the entrance to a secret chamber.

Charles used the key with the heart pattern to open the secret room, and the scene before him shocked him.

"I never imagined this base would even have a torture chamber!"

Inside the secret chamber, all sorts of torture instruments used in interrogation were readily available.

On the walls of the secret room, there were even thoughtful illustrations and tutorials on various binding methods drawn on paper.

Charles took a rope and a whip from the wall: "Isn't this a bit too cruel?"

"No, what if time is of the essence and there isn't enough time to move the target? An on-site impromptu interrogation would be the best option."

"To be merciful to the enemy is to be cruel to oneself. As a person in a position of power, one should be aware of this."

Isabella's words were full of appreciation for talent.

"Such intelligence work skills are clearly a waste of his talents to be in charge of a hotel."

"Perhaps we could put her in charge of higher-level intelligence work."

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Success Guru Was Actually Me

Having already agreed to Isabella's request, Ciel decided to focus his efforts on the Order known as the Ironmoon.

The Third Princess's request was only part of the reason; more importantly, Ciel himself was very interested in the possible evil god behind it.

That is an ancient god who may have survived from several eras ago. No one else dares to even imagine how many secrets of the old era are hidden within him.

This was just as alluring to a classical wizard like Charles, whose life motto was the pursuit of knowledge and discovery, as it was to an archaeologist. Whether Isabella made the request or not, Charles could not possibly pass up this opportunity.

"However, this is, after all, the capital city."

"If you want to control the overall situation without alerting the enemy, then infiltrating the enemy's ranks is undoubtedly the best option."

"The problem now is, how can I get in?"

Although during the previous illusionary trial, the young missionary who asked him if he wanted to buy cheats had mysteriously said something like, "Once the assessment is over, the organization will naturally send someone to contact you."

However, Xia Er could guess that what the other party was talking about was probably locating believers by sensing each other through that wisp of gray-white aura.

The problem is that my own aura has been completely consumed by the ocean of spirit.

Not to mention that the young missionary was arrested by a cardinal from the Dawn Church as soon as his entrance exam was over, and he is probably still locked up in the dark dungeon of some inquisition.

Charles felt that even if he waited in the capital forever, the person he was supposed to meet would never arrive.