Abyss Cult (Revised)
Abyss Cult (Revised)
"Night Vision."
With that brief utterance from Yustaf, the party's vision brightened as if it were broad daylight, even inside the pitch-black tunnel.
Once the darkness became clear as day, the entire party silently marveled at the effect.
Normally, magic required a practitioner to recite a fixed, lengthy incantation correctly before the spell would take effect.
But it was said that the more a wizard reached a higher realm, the shorter their incantations became, and Archwizards could even perform chantless magic that omitted the incantation entirely.
Magic cast with shortened or omitted incantations was normally weaker than the same spell performed with a full chant.
Yet Yustaf’s one-word Night Vision was far more potent than an ordinary wizard’s carefully cast version.
The Imperial Intelligence Bureau agents felt the difference especially clearly because they had received the spell many times before.
Ordinary Night Vision let them see in the dark, but their vision was usually hazy.
Now, however, the gloomy tunnel looked as bright as the surface.
Furthermore, Harun, the empire's foremost alchemist, also distinguished himself, not to be outdone.
"I was worried by all these forks, but I never imagined you could track people this way."
The party had barely begun moving through the tunnel Yustaf illuminated when countless branching paths stopped them short. Harun, however, quickly produced a solution.
He pulled a small reagent vial from inside his coat and misted a little at each branching entrance. On one path, glittering traces immediately appeared.
"This is a refined substance made from the bodily fluid of a chaser puma. When those creatures track and hunt humans, they scatter their own saliva and follow the trail. By using that, we can discover traces of people like this."
Under the party’s admiring looks, Harun finally recovered a little of his professional pride.
Throughout the investigation, Harun had repeatedly found himself in awkward situations whenever people asked him to demonstrate alchemy.
"Sir Harun, what epithet do you have? Iron-Blooded? No, that’s too obvious. Something like the Light Alchemist, perhaps?"
"No. I’m just an alchemist."
When he answered that, people had made disappointed faces.
Worse, people had stared at him suspiciously and asked why he could not draw a Transmutation Circle in midair. The injustice of it nearly drove him mad.
Alchemy is not that kind of discipline!
Alchemy was a practical discipline for studying and understanding the principles of the world, not some kind of summoning art. Holding back that explanation every time was driving him insane.
'In any case, membership is exploding at Alchemy Guild branches across the empire, so I have to endure this humiliation.'
Originally, there had been few people who wanted to study alchemy, so securing talent had not been easy.
But after receiving word that membership at every branch of the Alchemy Guild had surged since the release of Iron-Blooded Alchemist, Harun had resolved to endure all this disgrace.
He had even instructed the alchemists in every guild branch not to explain the truth yet. Instead, they were to say those techniques belonged to an advanced level students would learn later.
What would happen when they learned the truth later?
By the time they had learned advanced-stage alchemy, ten years would already have flown by, so what could they do about it then?
When unexpected luck arrived, what mattered was making use of it while you could.
Thus, thanks to the efforts of Yustaf and Harun, the party advanced deep into the tunnel and witnessed horrific sights throughout.
Even these seasoned investigators struggled to keep their composure at the sight of human corpses lying everywhere, dried into mummies.
"I had hoped, on some level, that my guess was wrong."
Everyone sympathized with Yustaf's somber murmur.
The more they investigated, the clearer it became that something terrible was happening. Even so, Yustaf was not the only one secretly hoping the whole thing would turn out to be a mistake.
Shh.
Yustaf, who had been leading the way, turned around and gestured for the party to stay quiet.
Everyone obeyed, quieting even their breathing as they braced themselves.
Soon they understood why Yustaf had given such an order.
"We've been doing nothing but disposing of sacrifices for months now. Damn it, I want to go outside and hear people scream too!"
"Oh, give it a rest. You saw Venom—the one responsible for procuring sacrifices—get chewed out by the Cult Leader today, and you can still say that?"
"Hmph, how hard could it be to just go to some quiet village and cut the throats of commoners?"
The voices chatting back and forth were gradually drawing closer.
From the conversation, Yustaf guessed they were low-level underlings of the organization behind the plot.
Yustaf quietly extended his mana to determine whether anyone else was nearby.
Having soon confirmed that only those two were present, Yustaf quietly brought his hands together.
At the same moment, earthen tendrils surged from the ground and bound the two approaching men before they could react.
"Mmph mmph!!!!"
They tried to scream a warning, but the earthen tendrils had already sealed their mouths.
"This old man is not usually cruel, but I do not think I’ll extend that courtesy to you. Drag this out, and you will be the ones who suffer for it."
Yustaf's expression as he slowly walked toward the bound men was utterly murderous.
A murmur ran through the party as they watched Yustaf.
'Isn't that the alchemy from Iron-Blooded Alchemist?'
'Oh, you thought the same thing.'
'But didn't Harun say such things don't actually exist?'
They thought they were whispering quietly, but Harun could hear every word.
Harun sincerely wished he could get out of this investigation team as soon as possible.
***
"Guard this place like an iron fortress and keep it secure!"
"Yes, sir! We will defend it without fail!!!"
Under the Crown Prince's command, the troops moved in perfect order.
They had been hastily gathered from surrounding territories and should have been difficult to control.
The status of Crown Prince transformed them into elite soldiers.
Even the dullest soldiers knew better than to dawdle before an order from the imperial family—especially from the Crown Prince, the man expected to become the next emperor.
"Is this the last of the areas Yustaf identified?"
"Yes, it is, Your Highness. The deployment is now complete, so please return to the imperial palace."
"Enough. You know full well that they are following orders like this only because I am here in person, and yet you still say that?"
"However, if the enemy appears here...."
"Then all the more reason for me to stay. Surely there is no one who would flee and leave the Crown Prince behind?"
Cross, commander of the Crown Prince’s guard knights, sighed at Alex’s words and fell silent. He could not deny the logic.
'His Highness has changed.'
At first, when Alex stopped lashing out whenever his emotions got the better of him, Cross had assumed the change was temporary.
But now he had to admit it.
That the current Crown Prince was clearly different.
The Crown Prince who, in the past, would have long since returned, telling them not to drag him into such troublesome matters.
Now, even when they begged him to return, he insisted on staying until the mission succeeded. It was almost hard to recognize him.
When he sent his attendants to the capital as messengers under the pretext that they were of little help in the mission, it was admirable.
In truth, attendants had no particular role in battle and might even become casualties, so his consideration in withdrawing them was evident.
'When in the world did he grow so much?'
Cross had always been loyal as commander of the Crown Prince’s guard, and that had not changed.
But it always pained him when the person he served was spoken ill of.
Because he had always attended him closely, he knew the Crown Prince's character was not bad, but others did not, which frustrated him.
This transformation—the Crown Prince finally issuing the kind of orders Cross had long hoped to hear—was something he had waited years to see.
No matter what happened, he wanted to protect the Crown Prince and show this gallant figure to others.
To show that this man was truly the Crown Prince who would lead the empire.
***
"No!!! This cannot be happening!"
A scream burst from the palace of Imperial Princess Iolin Bell.
Such a scream would once have caused panic, but lately it happened often enough that the palace servants barely reacted.
Aiton, of course, had learned to suspect Rupert whenever the princess screamed. But since the recent “incident,” he had been unable to detect anything suspicious and could only watch.
The attack that people working in the palace called the "Third Prince's Rebellion."
Everyone had worried that the princess would surely express her fury afterward.
But Iolin took no action at all.
Even Aiton had wondered whether the measures taken during that incident had gone too far.
He had been prepared to accept it willingly if the princess reprimanded him, but she was so quiet that he was instead uneasy.
"Aiton, didn't the elves bring elixirs as a gift of exchange last time?"
The princess's voice instantly blew away Aiton's idle thoughts.
As if she had never screamed, the princess opened her door, stepped out, and addressed the waiting Aiton.
Elixir?
The word “elixir” made Aiton’s thoughts freeze.
It was one of the elves’ greatest treasures, created only with rare ingredients and immense amounts of time.
A single bottle of elixir was a legendary miracle medicine that could make even a person on the brink of death spring to their feet.
Even the imperial family possessed only five bottles of the priceless medicine.
But why was she suddenly asking about it?
He examined her, worried that the princess might be ill, but aside from the slight dark circles under her eyes, she looked perfectly healthy.
In the first place, members of the imperial family were examined weekly by the empire's finest doctors, and cardinal-level clergy from the church came to bestow blessings, so they could not fall ill even if they wanted to.
For now, Aiton suppressed his questions and answered the princess's inquiry.
"Yes, that is correct."
"I recall they were stored in the imperial treasury, weren't they?"
"That is so, Your Highness."
At his answer, the princess began biting at her nails, visibly agitated.
She was also muttering to herself. Aiton could not make out the words, but her expression was extremely serious.
Aiton sensed something suspicious.
"Your Highness, are you perhaps feeling unwell somewhere?"
"...No, it's nothing. But didn't elixirs have an expiration date or something like that?"
"I cannot be certain of that either, but I have never heard that elixirs have a shelf life."
The princess's expression seemed somewhat relieved at Aiton's words.
"Only Father has the key to the imperial treasury... Should I just ask him directly? No, but an elixir is still a little..."
It was very faint, but the hearing Aiton had honed during his years as head attendant caught the princess's small muttering without fail.
'Does she intend to enter the imperial treasury?'
The princess appeared to need an elixir for some reason.
Aiton felt certain he was missing an important connection, but he could not see what it was, and the gap gnawed at him.
"Aiton, summon the imperial physician. There is something I must ask of him."
"I shall carry out your command."
The princess gave the order as naturally as if nothing were wrong, then returned to her room.
Aiton was certain that something was going on.