Chapter 299
Chapter 299
Chapter 299
Tauga who was eating the Ogre King's arm glared at the mage and said.
"The winner eating the loser's flesh is a very important battle ritual. Death awaits those who interfere with a warrior's ritual."
Despite Tauga's threat, the mage continued without hesitation.
"The Mountain Lord has been revived."
At the mage's words, Tauga threw away the arm he was eating and stood up.
"Mountain Lord, eh? Old bear meat is good for the body when well-boiled. I'll go bring back his head."
The mage shook his head.
"The Mountain Lord is a divine beast that has inhabited these mountains for thousands of years. We tried to weaken him by cutting off the mountain's energy veins and planned to wipe him out along with those druids... But a few days ago, golden energy swept across the entire mountain range, and that's when the Mountain Lord's power returned to normal."
As the mage's explanation grew longer, Tauga yawned and gritted his teeth.
"Humans always talk too much. Get out of my way. Either way, all I need to do is go bring back that old bear's head."
The mage frowned at Tauga's words.
"No, this isn't something to speak of so lightly..."
That's when it happened.
Suddenly, the orcs in the village became noisy.
Tauga shouted at the orcs.
"What's all this commotion about?!"
At his shout, an orc wearing iron armor ran towards Tauga.
"Captain! We have intruders!"
At the news of intruders, Tauga grinned.
"Intruders, eh. Is it that Mountain Lord fellow?"
The mage shook his head at those words.
"No, it can't be the Mountain Lord. Tauga, wait first. We need to identify who the enemies are..."
Without listening to the mage's full explanation, Tauga shouted to his subordinates.
"Bring my armor! I'll catch whoever dared to invade our fortress and reveal their identity myself."
The mage sighed watching Tauga act on his own.
'Damn these orcs.'
He lamented his situation, being assigned to oversee these ill-tempered orcs and being stuck in the Ogre Mountains going through all sorts of hardships.
'I should report this situation to headquarters first.'
The mage shook his head watching the orcs charging forward while gripping their weapons and shouting battle cries, then headed to the situation room.
The ogre village was structured with families living in caves carved into solid stone walls. The ogres who had become slaves to the orcs were kept in cages, and the mage was using one of the caves formerly occupied by ogres as a camp and situation room.
The mage entered the tent set up as the situation room and took out a crystal ball stored in a chest.
As he infused mana into the crystal ball trying to contact headquarters, only static noise came from it without establishing a proper connection.
"Why isn't this working? Seriously, I told them to properly supply equipment, those damn budget department bastards."
Just as the mage was about to raise his hand to tap the crystal ball,
He held his breath feeling a sharp sensation against his neck.
'Wh-when did..?'
The mage nearly fainted after being caught from behind without sensing any presence.
Zeke, holding Anexi's dagger behind the mage, spoke.
"I wondered who they were, turns out it's the Empire. Are you from Information Bureau Unit 13?"
Information Bureau Unit 13 was where Boris used to belong.
A department within the Information Bureau that handles only classified intelligence that cannot be revealed externally.
A Unit 13 mage was here occupying the ogre village together with the orcs.
After binding the mage with chains, Zeke brought a chair and sat facing him.
He spoke while looking at the mage.
"I won't waste words. Tell me everything you know. Then I'll send you off without pain."
Since Unit 13 only handled top secret matters, those assigned there were different from others.
Weak persuasion wouldn't work on them.
"I-I'll tell you everything so p-please spare me!"
……'What?!’
That's why Zeke was rather surprised by the mage's unexpected response.
‘Wait a minute… Is he really from Division 13?’
The feeling was clearly different from Boris.
Zeke asked while looking at the mage.
"Alright, first tell me if you're really from Unit 13."
The mage nodded vigorously.
"Y-yes. Unit 13."
"......"
Zeke pondered briefly at how loose the mage seemed for someone from the Empire's top secret intelligence department.
'Is this an act to lower the credibility of information?'
He couldn't find any reason why the Information Bureau would do that.
The mage whimpered to himself watching Zeke contemplate.
‘Damn it... I knew it was over from the moment I got assigned here…’
At the mage's resigned muttering, Zeke asked.
"Were you perhaps assigned to Unit 13 recently?"
The mage nodded.
"Yes? Yes. Actually, I was originally a communications mage in the Empire's Magic Corps before suddenly being drafted and assigned here."
Intelligence agents were normally selected for their qualities and put through strict training from the start.
Moreover, Unit 13 required even more rigorous training than regular agents.
It was very strange that they placed a mage with no basic spy training in a department handling only classified missions.
Zeke thought of one possibility.
'There might be some internal issues in the Information Bureau.'
In his experience, maintaining an intelligence department required both substantial capital and a patient department head.
Lacking either would destabilize an intelligence department.
SWOOSH!
Suddenly a poisoned needle flew from somewhere.
Zeke blocked the needle aimed at the mage with his palm.
Lethal poison that could kill within seconds of contact was applied to it.
Zeke immediately swung his sword toward where the needle came from.
SLASH!
The sword strike blew away part of the tent.
The person in black tried to flee deeper into the cave while clutching their wound from Zeke's attack.
But Zeke's summoned ghost soldiers were already blocking their path.
SWISH!
A ghost warrior that revealed itself slashed the person's thigh as it passed, causing them to collapse unable to move their leg.
They tried to commit suicide by taking poison like a proper Empire intelligence agent.
But Zeke was faster.
"Recovery."
Zeke holding Roland treated the poisoned agent and healed their wounds.
Though they had taken poison, the agent looked at Zeke in confusion as consciousness returned.
Zeke dragged the chained agent to where the mage was.
He tied them both to chairs side by side, removed the agent's mask, and asked the mage.
"Recognize this face?"
The mage was startled seeing the agent's face and nodded.
"Yes, yes. They're an agent who usually comes to deliver messages from headquarters and bring supplies."
Zeke grabbed the agent's chin and said.
"So you're a Unit 13 agent. A properly trained one unlike him."
The agent glared at Zeke at those words.
They tried to bite their tongue to die this time, but it was useless as Zeke healed them again.
Zeke asked the agent.
"What happened in Unit 13 that made you assign outside personnel?"
The agent kept their mouth firmly shut.
As a Unit 13 agent, they likely wouldn't give proper answers even under torture.
Zeke opened Blood Eye toward the agent.
"Look at this."
The Unit 13 agent under Blood Eye trembled.
But they seemed to have anti-brainwashing spells as they foamed at the mouth and collapsed.
Zeke shook his head looking at the agent who had rolled their eyes back.
"These Empire bastards. What on earth did they do to their heads?."
Zeke read the information remaining in the collapsed agent's shadow using Shadow Dominion.
He could extract clearer information by linking with the dragon's senses.
'Unit 13's director changed? Why did they suddenly change the command structure? Wait... the Emperor. Did something happen to the Emperor?'
Zeke searched deeper into the Unit 13 agent's memories but couldn't find specific details.
What he did learn was that something had changed concerning the Emperor, triggering significant personnel shifts within the Intelligence Bureau. The new head of Division 13 had started recruiting external personnel, causing internal unrest within the bureau.
'This one is also very dissatisfied with the new director. Well, bringing in outsiders to Unit 13 that should operate in secret would naturally make existing agents feel threatened.'
Additionally, existing agents were feeling severely fatigued from excessive workload having to monitor the outside personnel.
Through information obtained from the Unit 13 agent, Zeke could tell gaps were forming in the Empire's Information Bureau.
'Rushing things always creates gaps. I should have Boris probe this to find out what's happening in the Empire.'
After dissolving the dead agent with Decay, Zeke turned to the mage.
The mage's face had turned pale white seeing the agent completely melted by Zeke's power.
"P-please spare me! I-I'll do anything you want."
"Continue what you were saying earlier. Tell me what you were doing here."
"I was ordered to occupy the ogre village with those orcs!"
"I can see that. Tell me how you brought the orcs and what you plan to do after conquering the ogres."
Trembling, the mage opened his mouth.
"W-well, I don't know exactly..."
"Hmm?"
When Zeke glared, the mage wet himself and shook his head.
"No! I don't know where those filthy orcs came from, but they said we'll tame the ogres and deploy them to the battlefield!"
"Tame the ogres?"
"Yes! They said we'll brainwash them with drugs while the orcs hold them captive, then deploy them to battle!"
Something occurred to Zeke hearing the mage's words.
'The Empire's stimulant drug experiments. They're trying to use it on ogres.'
Even the mercenaries Boris experimented on went berserk after taking the awakening drug.
If ogres were given that drug, they would clearly become far more dangerous living weapons than those mercenaries.
Zeke could guess where the Empire planned to use the brainwashed ogres.
'The Bird race ghetto. They'll unleash ogres there to destroy the Bird forces, then brazenly take over the territory under the pretense of being peacekeepers.'
Dealing with monsters was sufficient justification for stationing troops, so the Empire could find an excuse to enter that territory while handling the Joint without getting their hands dirty.
Having roughly figured out the Empire's plot, Zeke asked the mage.
"What's the total size of the orc forces in the Ogre Mountains?"
"This unit I'm with is all of them. A total of 144 troops."
The orc force was quite large.
Even for intelligent ogres capable of forming villages, they couldn't handle trained orc warriors.
Zeke nodded at the mage's answer.
"Good, you answered very well."
The mage smiled at his words.
"T-then will you spare me as promised?"
"I'll keep my promise."
"Thank yo-"
Before finishing, Zeke's dagger slit the mage's throat.
As Zeke first promised, the mage's head fell without pain.
After disposing of the mage's body with Decay, Zeke gathered all documents remaining in the camp.
He had coincidentally caught the Empire's trail.
'I should release the ogres to create more chaos.'
As Zeke was leaving the cave while concealed after gathering everything,
THWACK!
A spear-like arrow flew toward him.
When Zeke deflected the arrow with his sword and looked around, surprisingly orc warriors had surrounded the cave entrance.