Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: I'm the Final Boss of This Area
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Dominic couldn't recall the three extras he had subdued right up until the end.
The knights headed toward the three men skewered like kebabs on swords.
"Good work, Sir Dominic."
The knights deployed to the scene belonged to the territory and currently recognized Dominic as a Shadow Knight.
For the mission, he was disguised as an old butler affiliated with the intelligence agency Hell, and so on.
With one of them even helping forge his identity from behind the scenes, no one suspected Dominic's true identity—let alone wanted to dig too deeply into it.
- "Shadow Knight, right?"
- "Not a secret sentry?"
- "That's for ideological verification. In a case like this, it's gotta be a Shadow Knight."
In the midst of that, whispers from the senior knights commanding the scene reached Dominic's ears.
A fine officer's archetype was to leave the auction's criminal captures and cleanup to the subordinates while chatting idly near the entrance.
- "For a capital Shadow Knight, his rank seems kinda low?"
- "Idiot. Didn't you see that swordsmanship? You think you could pull that off? No way."
- "No chance. Looked like 5th-rank swordsmanship to me."
- "Should we ask him to teach us some swordsmanship?"
- "Yeah, right. As if the Shadow Knight Order would share their manuals."
Dominic's mood lifted.
Yeah. That's the reaction I wanted.
Not awe at overwhelming power like with Duke, but applause for the beauty of the technique.
Satisfied that his intended performance had landed perfectly, Dominic turned his gaze away from the two knights.
He would've loved to hear more tales of his exploits, but as old butler Dominic, his top priority had to be the young lady.
"Young Lady. I'm sorry for causing you such worry."
"I wasn't worried at all. I believed you wouldn't fall for a trap like that, Dominic."
Jane, reverting to her role as the Liribel young lady, hurriedly adjusted her speech.
However, the knights eavesdropping on the conversation couldn't help but inwardly tsk at her manner of speaking.
- 'Still acting?'
- 'It's already too late for that!'
Unlike Dominic, who had stuck to his concept until the very end, the evaluation of Jane (the young lady), who had failed to maintain hers, was harsh.
Naturally, this established a hierarchy even among the Shadow Knights, imprinting the fact that Dominic was the superior in this mission on the knights' minds.
"Young Lady. So, what do you plan to do with this woman?"
Dominic looked down at Camilla, who lay subdued at Jane's feet.
Camilla trembled faintly, unable to lift her head.
The tiger beastkin, who had at least tried to act tough when the trap was sprung, couldn't bring herself to meet the eyes of the old butler who had pierced right through it.
Jane gazed at her old friend, now reduced to a pitiful state, with sympathetic eyes and outlined their next steps.
"First, we interrogate this woman, those three guys left over there, and the heroes from the auction. We'll also need to protect the alchemist and the Bagua until knights arrive from the capital."
Of course—to reiterate—Dominic was strictly the superior on this mission.
But it wasn't uncommon for the two of them to act out a superior-subordinate dynamic on specific assignments.
Thus, the plan Jane had just voiced was less her own decision and more her way of checking Dominic's intentions in advance.
"What do you think?"
- Shall we proceed?
"An excellent idea, Young Lady."
- Let's proceed.
The other knights, listening quietly, got the gist.
The knights promptly took charge, moving the captured criminals, the alchemist, and the Bagua to appropriate locations.
Satisfied with their efficient movements, Dominic prepared for the interrogations.
At that moment, the condition of the extra trio Dominic had subdued suddenly changed.
"No... I can't go like this..."
"Violated again. So unjust."
"Ughk. Gruk."
The extra trio abruptly rolled their eyes back and began foaming at the mouth.
"Grgrgrgr... th-that. Gra."
They repeated strange, broken-radio-like noises before their breaths cut off.
The knights carrying them panicked and raised both hands, protesting their innocence.
Dominic didn't reprimand the knights. Instead, he stared gravely at the trio whose lives had ended.
'Did I stab the sword into their blood vessels wrong?'
Jane, who had been blankly staring at the suddenly deceased trio, thought of Camilla and searched for her.
Sure enough, Camilla was convulsing and on the verge of death as well.
"No!"
Jane hurriedly cleared Camilla's airway.
There was the practical need to keep a prisoner alive for interrogation, but more than that, she couldn't bear to let her friend slip away like this.
Camilla gazed at Jane with lifeless eyes.
The tiger beastkin couldn't tear her gaze from her friend's face.
Then, she let out a smirk and sent one final hand sign.
[Stupid bitch. Time to move on from the past.]
With that hand sign, Camilla's life flickered out.
"No! How can you go already! At least atone first!"
Jane shook her friend's cooling shoulder.
But there was no response.
Dominic, who had quietly watched the scene, pondered for a moment.
'What did that final smile mean, I wonder.'
Depending on the smile's intent, the nuance of the translated message could change drastically.
In some cases, it might inflict great pain on Jane.
But after some deliberation, Dominic relayed the message verbatim.
"...That's what she said."
"You said 'stupid bitch' clearly, right?"
"Yes. That's correct."
"Yeah... I see."
Jane looked down at her friend's coldly cooled body and gently closed her unclosed eyes.
"This one's total trash."
"Indeed."
"But she was my friend."
"I understand."
"What should a knight do in a case like this?"
Dominic turned his back to Jane and replied.
"Knights are people too."
Dominic stepped aside.
The elf girl left behind didn't cry.
She wasn't emotional enough to shed tears for a madman who had executed people with a saw.
She simply prayed silently.
With the help of the territory's lord, Dominic and Jane investigated the four bodies.
Fortunately, the port city's lord had received a monocle from Rex for appraising goods, which proved immensely helpful in the examination.
"Krhung. Sorry. Lots of pollen this season. Khrng. Here are the investigation results. Khng."
The boar beastkin lord, whose rhinitis was as prominent as his freckles, reported the findings while honking his nose.
"They couldn't live—what does that mean?"
The lord shot Jane one more cold glance, as if to say "still acting?", before answering her question.
"Kruuung! They were puppets. Revived via necromancy magic, but khng, they required periodic mana infusions to function."
In other words, it was less about remotely eliminating evidence and more like their batteries had run dry.
"Khng. Brilliant strategy. A remote signal could be traced, but khng, this makes tracking difficult."
This explanation accounted for the trio's grotesque yet incomplete regenerative abilities.
Undead revived by necromancy could regenerate, but they couldn't heal wounds sustained in their corpse state.
However, resolving one mystery only brought up a new one.
"So who was behind them?"
The lord's eyes gleamed at Dominic's question as he shook his head.
"No way! Khng. With this monocle bestowed by His Majesty and my own abilities..."
His attitude toward Jane was night and day.
And for good reason—to the lord, Dominic wasn't some butler play-acting a concept like Jane was.
In his eyes, Dominic was an elder worthy of respect.
Anyway, to summarize the lord's report, mixed with a bit of self-praise:
- The revival method differed from the necromancy techniques of the Twilight School, which had persisted since imperial times.
- Far too refined to be the work of self-taught necromancers.
- There had to be a massive organization behind it. At minimum, lord-level or higher.
"And I found something interesting, khng."
The lord pulled out a glass jar filled with green liquid in which eyeballs floated.
"All the corpses had specially crafted prosthetic eyeballs. Eyes that peered through the immaterial via non-material means. Krhing!"
The lord, trying to report without honking his nose, ended up breathless and rapping at the end.
Interpreting his explanation roughly, their eyes saw a different landscape from those of ordinary people.
Eyes that viewed people not as physical matter, but as souls and mana.
According to the lord, they were eyes specialized for espionage.
Combining this with the earlier findings narrowed down the suspects behind it all.
"In other words, a kingdom is backing them!"
"So which kingdom?"
"Krhing?! Sorry. Even I don't... khng."
The pig beastkin looked embarrassed at Jane's sudden question.
Dominic said that was enough and expressed his thanks to the pig count before exiting the office.
"No need to see us off, madam. It's a chilly night—please head inside."
After greeting the elf madam of the potbellied pig count, Dominic and Jane made their way to their lodging.
They could have stayed at the count's mansion or an annex, but for security reasons, they had secured separate accommodations.
Back at the lodging, the two began reorganizing the information from the beginning.
"First off, this quintet was revived by some unknown party—as kingdom spies."
The revived five shared a common hatred for one person.
Duke Awik (or Dominic).
"Probably not a coincidence. Feels downright malicious."
The black curtain had likely selected and revived individuals harboring grudges against Duke.
And dug this trap for revenge against Duke.
"To that end, they tossed out baits."
First, secure the Bagua and the alchemist, then put them up for auction.
Put the items on auction; the undead with soul-seeing eyes check if Duke is among the participants.
If Duke doesn't show, the undead win the bid and relist them for auction.
Repeat the process, and rumors of the Bagua will spread through the underworld. Eventually, Duke will bite.
Of course, it was a trap full of holes if some other knight was dispatched instead of Duke, but since it worked in the end, all good.
At that point, Jane proposed a new hypothesis.
"On the contrary, I think the culprit knows Duke all too well... Aish. This speech pattern is seriously tough."
Jane believed the opponent had planned this precisely because they knew Duke so well.
"Duke's the type who can't stand injustice. And he was the most active undercover knight during the early founding days of slave liberation."
In short, the opponent had banked on Duke's nobility to prepare the trap.
From that perspective, the black curtain's plan could be called masterful.
It was tantamount to perfectly winning the psychological war against Duke.
Unfortunately, no matter how well-dug the trap, there's a limit against a tank that bulldozes right through it and advances.
- "See? When your power's weak, your brain has to work overtime."
For some reason, a translucent vision of Rex thumbs-upping and grinning danced before Dominic's eyes.
In any case, the opponent was undoubtedly someone who knew Duke extremely well.
Dominic (Duke) compiled a list of people who fit that description.
Peter and Rex were unlikely, so exclude them.
A, obviously excluded.
Ah, wanna see A.
He reeled in the stray thought and compiled the list again.
Family all died 200 years ago. (Natural causes, after living long lives.)
'The 12 Tyrants?'
The 12 psychos he knew from his Opfir days briefly came to mind, but he shook his head.
The 12 Tyrants were under extremely close watch by Rex.
Not just Rex—all nations on the continent were monitoring them.
There was no way they could've moved without anyone noticing.
Besides, before that, those lunatics despised such陰湿 methods.
The mildest one was a pirate who crashed his ship into a fortress smack in the middle of a mountain as his declaration of war—their style wasn't sneaky undead traps like this.
'Hmm... who could it be?'
A black curtain brilliant enough to outmaneuver him psychologically...
Wait.
'This setup makes that guy look like the final boss.'
Why was he the one getting played, while the other lurked in the shadows?
Thinking about it pissed him off.
Feeling like his role had been stolen, Duke's composure crumbled.
'The only one allowed to scheme in this country is me.'
Dominic's brain, which had been on pause for a while, began turning again.
'Alright. First off...'
Dominic promptly lined up clues in his mind that could lead to the black curtain.
'The Bagua and the alchemist.'
Recalling the lead, Dominic headed straight for the alchemist.