Chapter 428
Chapter 428
Chapter 428
The Black Specter Squad, including Zeke, moved to stay at the mansion prepared by Azmund.
Built in the Rom Empire style, the mansion was a magnificent building boasting practical yet refined beauty.
Although it was a mansion designed and built by one of the imperial family members who spent ten million in gold, they were reportedly captured and beheaded on the day Abel occupied Rom.
The empty mansion was taken over by Azmund and used as a villa, which he specially gave to Zeke's group.
Zeke gave a bitter smile when he saw the VIP room prepared by Azmund.
'While the outside of Rom is completely a dead city, this mansion is like a completely different world.'
The VIP room, decorated with all kinds of luxury goods, felt like it contained every luxury item from across the continent.
Zeke sat on the plush sofa, stretched his legs, and fell into thought.
'Working with Azmund to strike at Abel...'
At the negotiation table, Zeke accepted Azmund's proposal.
He was delighted with Zeke's decision and detailed his plan.
The plan was for Azmund himself to report that he had caught Zeke in a trap and drag him before Abel at the imperial palace.
When Abel approached, Zeke, disguised as a prisoner, would break free from his restraints and kill him, then the knights of Crab Palace who were waiting would occupy the imperial palace.
Though it seemed clumsy at first glance, most usurpations weren't carried out with any grand plans.
Unlike the former Emperor Nero who was so suspicious that one had to go through several stages just to have an audience and even then could only communicate indirectly, Abel was different.
Azmund said it would be better to approach in a simple way since Abel was so unguarded.
Agreeing with this, Zeke decided to participate in Azmund's plan and stay at Azmund's secret villa where no one could approach until he disguised himself as a prisoner.
However, Zeke did not trust Azmund Varios at all.
'A cunning schemer being angry for the Rom Empire and wanting to kill Abel? A dwarf becoming vegetarian would be more believable.'
Having dealt with Azmund Varios in his previous life, Zeke knew too well that he wasn't someone who moved out of loyalty or affection for the Empire.
Rather, he was the type of person who would sell out the Empire for his own benefit.
After carefully considering Azmund's plan, Zeke came to one conclusion.
'This must be a trap planned with that Dark mage in the imperial palace.'
The Dark mage serving as the acting regent who was supposedly moving Abel from behind.
Zeke was convinced this Dark mage must be connected to the Abyss.
And if so, it was clear that Azmund and the Dark mage had joined hands to make plans to capture Zeke.
'A trap by a schemer and a Dark mage...'
After pondering, Zeke got up from his seat.
He used the skill Shadow Clone.
TSTSTSTS!
Zeke's shadow rose and soon created an exact copy of him.
The clone created by Shadow Clone can exert about 40% of the original's abilities.
Even just the clone could exert power close to that of a red knight.
Unlike regular clones, it had physical substance, making it difficult even for knights to detect that it wasn't real using their knight's sense.
Zeke left the shadow clone there and activated the system portal after a long time.
After checking the coordinates he had marked earlier on the map, Zeke confirmed the portal transfer details.
'100 points for movement. This is worth using.'
Since the system portal operated on karma, it couldn't be traced even by magic. So 100 points was certainly worth the value.
WOOOONG!
Zeke's body soon disappeared with the light of the portal, leaving only the shadow clone in the room.
* * *
"Hmm."
Boris was reading a report inside a house in Rom's abandoned city district.
Behind him, Aaron and Visco were maintaining security while holding magic guns.
Zion sat on the sofa with a bored expression while tossing a metal ball up and down, and Serina was lying on the sofa wearing an eye patch.
Then Adol, wearing a skull mask, brought something.
"Food's here."
With those words, Adol distributed mess tins to everyone.
Zion frowned as soon as he opened his mess tin lid.
"Damn, why is it Type C? I told you I can't eat chicken."
Serina, who was next to him, spoke as if to scold him.
"Zion, I told you not to complain about food. If you keep doing that, I'm going to tell Lady Arina everything."
Zion flinched when Arina's name was mentioned.
With trembling hands, he picked up his spoon and put the Type C combat ration from the mess tin into his mouth.
"Ugh, chicken is so annoying."
While Adol was surveying the surroundings, Boris, Aaron, and Visco each picked up their mess tins and began eating.
That's when Zion looked at Boris and spoke.
"Captain Boris, how long do we have to stay here?"
At Zion's whining words, Boris looked at him and said.
"Until the boss arrives."
At Boris's words, Zion, who was still afraid of Zeke, shuddered once.
After regaining his composure, Zion grumbled while picking out the peas one by one from the combat rations.
"Ugh, if I knew this would happen, I should have just stayed at the academy with Arina. I heard the boss brought Martha this time too."
Martha was the only Six member who was around the same age as Zion.
In the past, Zion used to bully and play pranks on Martha, which always got him scolded by Serina.
While Zion was reminiscing about the past and eating glumly, Aaron finished all the food in his mess tin and spoke to Boris.
"Captain, can't we ask the boss to bring some snipers? It's weird that I'm the only sniper when I'm supposed to be the sniper team leader."
To those words, Boris looked at Aaron and said.
"Why don't you tell the boss yourself when he arrives?"
At Boris's words, Aaron also shuddered once like Zion and kept his mouth shut.
They had all been disciplined by Zeke at least once, so they felt an instinctive fear.
But then it happened.
TSUTSUTSU!
A portal appeared in mid-air and someone appeared before them.
Boris and all the intelligence unit members raised their energy and went on alert.
However, as soon as they saw who emerged from the portal, everyone relaxed.
It was none other than Zeke who had appeared.
"Long time no see, everyone."
Zeke had left his shadow clone in the room and made contact with the intelligence unit members he had deployed in advance in Rom.
Along with his greeting, Zeke silently observed them eating combat rations from their mess tins.
Then he took out several food items from his inventory and handed them over.
Seeing this, Zion cheered.
"Wow! Beef stew! White bread! Those are delicious!"
Even Visco and Adol, who usually didn't say much, swallowed their saliva when they saw the food Zeke had taken out.
After distributing the food to the members, Zeke took Boris and went inside the room.
Zeke sat down and said to Boris.
"You seem to be doing better than I expected."
At Zeke's words, Boris gave a bitter smile.
"Sometimes I resent you, boss, for gathering such unique members."
"I heard you were voted number one agent that people wanted as a partner when you were in Section 13. They're capable kids in their own way, so try to train them well."
Zeke said with a smirk, then rested his chin on his hand and changed the atmosphere as he spoke to Boris.
"So, how does the situation in Rom look?"
At his words, Boris's expression darkened.
"As someone from the Empire, I really... if Abel were in front of me right now, I'd kill him immediately."
Boris was originally from the Rom Empire Intelligence Agency and had attended Imperial University in Rom during his youth.
The Rom he remembered was one of the continent's largest cities, second to none compared to Atlas.
However, after Abel and Jiemens usurped the throne and occupied the city, Rom's former glory had completely vanished.
"Most citizens have been captured by soldiers and thrown into camps, and even those who managed to avoid danger are all hiding in basements, trembling in fear and not coming out. The city itself isn't functioning at all, so it might as well be dead."
Zeke responded with puzzlement to those words.
"That's strange. When occupying a city, the normal course would be to rule it and try to expand one's sphere of influence somehow."
Boris nodded in agreement and answered.
"I'm curious about that part as well. It seems Abel rather wants to make this city completely empty."
Zeke couldn't grasp why anyone would want to do that to Rom, one of the continent's largest cities.
That's when Boris handed Zeke a report.
"What's this?"
"It's a record of suspicious things I discovered while staying in Rom."
Zeke quickly scanned through the report Boris handed him and his gaze stopped at one point.
"You say fog covers the city in the evening and monsters crawl up from the sewers?"
The report contained what sounded like an urban legend about the city.
At Zeke's somewhat incredulous response, Boris spoke with a serious expression.
"Though it may be hard to believe, it's true. My unit members and I surveyed every corner of the city, and we discovered monsters really do appear in certain areas."
At Boris's serious words, Zeke examined the description of the monsters in the report.
'This is...?'
Bizarre creatures with forms rarely seen in nature.
They were characterized by sharp teeth, tentacles, and undefined shapes.
Zeke had seen monsters with similar appearances before.
'They look similar to the Outer Being beasts that were in the Forest of the Forgotten.'
As Zeke was pondering about the Outer Being, Boris shared new information.
"Also boss, it seems there's a Nostra Family laboratory here."
Zeke raised his head at Boris's words.
"A Nostra Family laboratory. Are they conducting human enhancement experiments?"
"We haven't infiltrated deep enough to know the research details... but I estimate it's related to the monsters appearing here."
Zeke recalled the chimera-creating drug that Rahim had.
'If the Nostra Family is under Jiemens's protection, there's no better place than here to conduct chimera experiments. Did they move it from somewhere else? Or were they hiding here all along....'
There was a possibility that drug Rahim brought was made here too.
After contemplating, Zeke spoke to Boris.
"Tomorrow I'll enter the imperial palace and face Abel."
At his words, Boris's jaw dropped.
"No, boss. What reckless thing are you trying to do now?"
"You're right that it may be reckless. I'm walking right into the trap Azmund Varios has set."
"You're saying you're doing this despite knowing that?"
"There's no other way to catch Abel. We need to draw him out somehow with this opportunity."
After firmly stating this, Zeke looked around once and gave Boris some orders via telepathy.
Boris's face turned even paler than before after receiving his orders.
"B-Boss, just what are you planning to do in Rom?"
"If we don't shake things up, the snakes won't come out of hiding. Remember Boris. Your movements must not be exposed until I give the signal."
At Zeke's words, Boris nodded with a solemn face.
"Understood, boss."
Against Azmund and Ropocale's trap, Zeke was meticulously setting his own trap and waiting for the prey to take the bait.
'Let's see who falls deeper into the trap.'
* * *
DUDUDUDU!
A carriage was racing at high speed toward Rom's imperial palace.
Knights from the Crab Palace were escorting the carriage, with Azmund Varios at the front.
Azmund Varios entered the palace grounds pulling a black security carriage.
THUD!
The palace gates opened and Azmund pulled the mobile prison covered in black cloth toward the throne room.
Dozens of Crab Palace knights who were escorting the carriage followed behind.
Soon the throne room doors opened, revealing lined up imperial guard knights and Abel sitting on the throne.
Next to Abel stood Ropocale disguised as a human wearing a robe.
Azmund knelt before Abel and bowed his head.
"Your Majesty! I, Azmund Varios! Have captured the Empire's criminal Zeke Draker and brought him before you!"
At the mention of Zeke Draker, Abel suddenly jerked his head up, drooling and grinding his teeth.
"Zeke, Zeke Draker..."
Then Ropocale beside him put a bowl of fresh blood he had prepared to Abel's lips.
Abel greedily gulped down the fresh blood in the bowl.
Thanks to that, Abel barely suppressed his madness and calmed down enough to gesture toward Ropocale.
"Bring in the criminal Zeke Draker!"
At Ropocale's words, Azmund personally pulled off the cloth covering the mobile prison.
KUGUGUGUGU!
Inside the cage was Zeke, kneeling with his head bowed, his entire body bound in chains.
Seeing this, Abel suddenly stood up from his seat and shouted in excitement.
"Zeke! Zeke Drakerrr!"