Chapter 132: No False Accusations!
“Yes! I’ll write it up and submit a detailed report by today!”
After finishing her report, Reina, the labyrinth management priest, spun around in place in excitement.
They had reached the tenth floor in just one week.
The Inquiring Lantern, the priestly order that managed the labyrinths of District Six, had already unearthed the Hidden Piece of [Tower of Trials].
They had broken through the tenth floor faster than the best record from when Graik the Fist King built the tower, which had been sixteen days.
Since forcing an attempt could lead to severe injury or death, they had not revealed it to explorers.
And yet the Moon Expedition, led by the cultist Kar, had set the astonishing record of just seven days.
I knew my intuition was right.
Kar, the Cultist of the Twisted Truth, would become a great explorer.
The intuition she had felt when she saw the cultist and the tiger beastman girl come out after finishing the [Fire Ant Nest] exploration was peeking its head back out once again.
…What is this?
Reina sat down to calm her excitement, then suddenly shuddered.
A sharp ache throbbed through her head.
A warning sent by [Mysterious Intuition], the Third-Tier priest Mystery of Arteine.
“Excuse me.”
At the sudden voice calling from behind, she jumped in shock and turned around, only to see a cultist standing there with a filthy blindfold over his eyes.
He was such an unexpected figure that Reina almost let out a most unharmonious scream.
“…Yes! What is it, Lord Turakos?”
The Cult of the Murky Rainbow.
Its leader, Turakos.
The cult had fewer than two hundred believers worshipping the Evil God Radmie, but he was still undeniably its leader, and therefore someone she had to treat with respect.
“Kar.”
Turakos spoke in a slightly excited voice.
“I want to know more about that half-elf.”
“……”
As requested, Reina told him everything known about Kar.
After listening attentively, Turakos suddenly disappeared.
Will this be all right…?
Reina looked up at the sky.
As she quietly watched the slow-moving white clouds, the worry that had just surged up quickly faded away.
He’ll handle it himself.
If anything happened, Kar would somehow resolve the problem himself.
Rather, the more dangerous it became, the more he would surely welcome it.
That was the intuition she felt.
[Tower of Trials].
[Trial Sewers].
The two labyrinth raids carried out simultaneously both ended successfully.
Unlike Team 2, whose exploration had gone so smoothly that no one was hurt, Team 1, which had to fight fierce battles without rest, came back covered in minor injuries.
“Get plenty of rest.”
At our cozy home in Cultist Town, Pendrick, who had worked hard in place of the weak cultist, laid Marlin down on the bed upstairs.
“Kar.”
He had just started heading back down when Marlin suddenly called out to me.
“What is it? Want me to read you a bedtime story?”
I happily went back up, only to find two Marlins lying on the bed.
A clone created through [Rabbit Division], which Yallen had taught her.
“Which one is the real me?”
“Which one is the real me?”
《Fake / Real》
“I really can’t tell at all. Even with [Eye That Perceives Truth], I can’t distinguish which one is the real you.”
《>:(》
The spiteful Mystery quivered, but seeing Marlin giggle so proudly made me feel happy too.
“Sleep well.”
“See you tomorrow.”
“Want me to sing you a lullaby?”
“…I’m not that young, you know?”
The person concerned refused, but I stubbornly pulled the blanket up over her anyway while singing a verse from a song popular in Pletika.
“You worked hard. Tomorrow, let’s all eat our fill of meat together.”
“Yes…!”
After lightly tapping Marlin on the forehead as she smiled brightly, I went back downstairs.
Then, together with the waiting Pendrick, I headed to Odilon’s mansion.
“…I’m dying.”
Pendrick muttered as he trudged along.
He really overdid it….
Astrimia, cradled in her lover’s arms, let out a mental sigh.
Lord Kar, I don’t think Pendrick should be moving his hands carelessly for a while.
“That is how it looks.”
Even at a glance, Pendrick’s wrists did not look to be in good condition.
It was probably because this was the first time he had fought using proper swordsmanship, so he had failed to regulate his strength correctly.
“But I still feel good.”
Of course, our positive monster Pendrick was not the type to be shaken by a mere injury.
“All three of us grew a great deal this time. Marlin reached Level 3 too. Isn’t it all thanks to the homework you gave us, Captain? You really are amazing!”
“No. Rather, you are the amazing ones for clearing [Tower of Trials] in just one week.”
It would not have been strange if it had taken more than ten days, yet they had conquered it in only seven and even obtained the Hidden Piece.
Thanks to that, the labyrinth management priest Reina had come over in a great fuss to buy the information.
Since it was information about the expedition team containing an honored guest of the Harmony Church, she had boldly declared that she would pay more than the standard price.
“Now that I think about it, we really did do something incredible.”
Pendrick laughed cheerfully.
“You’ll have to praise us a lot!”
“Shall I pat your butt?”
…I hate that!
Before I knew it, I had to soothe Astrimia as she shook her blade furiously in indignation.
“Lord Pendrick, please do not push yourself and rest for now. I am thinking of going to see a truly remarkable healer soon.”
“…Could you mean Saint Seraphina?”
“She is known by that name as well.”
Team 1’s injuries needed treatment, and I still needed to remove the remaining side effects of [Ritual Usurper], so there was a need to go pay her a visit.
“…Captain.”
Pendrick’s expression suddenly turned serious as he asked me carefully, “Is Saint Seraphina… a monster?”
It was a rather abrupt question.
Still, Marlin had happily chattered all the way home about how the [Tower of Trials] raid had progressed, so I more or less understood the circumstances.
“So you found that out in the end.”
Wearing a deep cultist-like smile, I continued, “Saint Seraphina is indeed a monster.”
“……”
Pendrick’s face stiffened slightly.
That was only natural.
The saint he had respected so deeply was actually a monster with an innately vicious nature… It was a cruel and shocking truth, on the same level as learning that Santa Claus was not real.
“Would you be disappointed if I said that?”
“…What?”
Tapping Astrimia’s bluish-green blade lightly with my finger, I looked Pendrick in the eye.
“Saint Seraphina is human. She is just a little different from others. Is that not so?”
“…That is true.”
The once-serious look of the super-genius swordsman quickly brightened back to normal.
“Even if the Saint had been a monster, the fact that she possesses a shining nature would not change. It is a little startling, but I can understand it well enough!”
“She would have been pleased to hear that.”
Nodding, I looked up at Odilon’s mansion, which we had arrived at before I knew it.
“For the record, the Saint truly is not a monster.”
“…Is that so?”
“This is a secret, but Lady Arteine of that time was not harmonious enough to choose a monster as a saint.”
Saaa.
Arteine of the past revealed her will through the mark.
That was impossible to deny.
Pendrick hugged Astrimia with a much more relieved expression.
“…I thought I would still respect her even if she were a monster, but somehow I still feel relieved.”
Then why does Saint Seraphina possess [Sky Ear], a Mystery unique to monsters?
“Could she not have obtained it through the Stone of Records?”
But [Tower of Trials] was built long after the Saint died….
I leisurely watched the two lovers sink into thought, then pushed open the door of the mansion.
“If you keep thinking about it, you will be able to figure out the answer soon enough. Especially someone as dazzlingly intelligent as the beautiful Lady Astrimia.”
Oh my, Lord Kar, honestly!
Leaving behind Astrimia as she performed a sword dance of joy, I went downstairs.
The basement of Odilon’s mansion, which had never once been used as an interrogation chamber.
In the middle of the room sat a dead man bound to a chair, bathed in the brilliant light of a high-grade Magic Stone lamp shining down on him.
“You came.”
Odilon, sprawled out in a soft chair someone had brought over, glanced at me and then gestured with his chin to the butler beside him.
Sergius bowed to me and indicated Brownmane with one arm.
“As requested, I interrogated this outlaw. Unexpectedly, he behaved quite obediently, so I was able to obtain a considerable amount of information without much trouble.”
“Is that so? I’m glad he listened to my polite request.”
I walked over to Brownmane and patted him on the head.
I had only meant to express my gratitude, yet for some reason the horse beastman dead man started trembling.
“He did not attempt to deceive me by withholding certain parts of the truth. He truly gave up everything he knew.”
More than anything else, I am a hunter who hates lies the most!
Brownmane jerked his head up and appealed to his own honesty.
The effort to raise my favorability was admirable, but I was not such a promiscuous cultist that I opened my heart wide to just anyone.
“Sir Brownmane.”
Yes!
“If you open your mouth without permission from now on, you will enjoy a cheerful interview with earthworms underground.”
*……. *
The horse beastman dead man immediately clamped his lips shut.
Staring at Brownmane with icy eyes, Sergius continued his report.
“However, there was a magical restriction placed on him that prevented him from mentioning certain information. It caused me some difficulty, but I still managed to roughly identify the one called the leader of the Silent Alliance.”
“That could not have been easy.”
“I asked more than a hundred questions designed to bypass the restriction. Only after an unbroken series of questions did I finally manage to find a clue.”
The butler paused for a moment, slowly stroking his chin as he furrowed his brow.
“The leader revealed his identity only to outlaws of vice guild master rank or higher. He did not simply meet them. Only after injecting all manner of restrictions into their minds and making them wholly his people did he show himself.”
It was quite a meticulous and obsessive method.
“I could sense a near-obsessive will to ensure that his connection to the Silent Alliance would never be discovered.”
“Then he must be the kind of person who cannot rest unless every matter is handled with excessive thoroughness?”
When I asked with meaningful nuance, Sergius smiled faintly.
“Yes. Quite ‘coincidentally,’ our Brites family’s eldest young master, Lord Nicholas, is also a perfectionist bordering on obsession.”
Nicholas Brites.
Unlike Odilon, the illegitimate son born from a one-night indiscretion, he was the eldest young master born between the head of the house and his lawful wife.
…Ah!
Brownmane, who had been listening to the conversation, let out a sound and flinched, but quickly bit his lips shut as though he remembered my warning.
While stroking the dead man’s head, I spoke.
“Butler. Surely you are not suggesting that the solemn and serious Lord Nicholas is running outlaw guilds and making them carry out all sorts of filthy tasks?”
It was truly a slander so outrageous that it stirred fury just to hear it.
“I absolutely will not forgive such absurd nonsense!”
“Oh dear, my apologies. I nearly painted the noble young master who pursues flawless perfection as a coward who resorts to dirty schemes.”
“Reflect on your conduct.”
“I reflect.”
As the two of us together displayed our respect and reverence for the eldest young master’s reputation, Odilon, who was inhaling the smoke of [Comforter], clicked his tongue.
“…Butler, do not agree with Cultist Kar’s nonsense from now on.”
“Understood.”
Contrary to his answer, the relaxed glance he sent me suggested he had no intention of obeying such an unreasonable order.
“I truly hope we do not gain any more team members here who are fond of pointless pranks.”
“There you go again. I know very well that inside, you are thinking something tender like, ‘Cultist Kar, I can’t live without you now!’”
“…Delusions that advanced are a mental illness. Ask Saint Seraphina for treatment.”
After giving the deeply frowning young master a fresh wink, I turned to Sergius and said, “Butler, so what is the conclusion? That we should not insult Lord Nicholas?”
“That is more or less correct.”
“Then how about we all shout ‘No false accusations!’ three times and wrap this up neatly?”
“……”
Odilon finally squeezed his eyes shut.
Behind him, Rosalia silently pulled a fan from the shadows and gently fanned the young master, who alone seemed unusually warm.
Scratch!
Then by mistake, she scratched his nose.
“…Exploration maniac, just shut your mouth. Butler, move on already.”
“Very well.”
As befitted an experienced butler, Sergius answered neatly enough, then returned to a contemptuous expression and looked at Brownmane again.
“The one behind it has been identified, ah, no, we can ‘not’ identify them at all. However, we did clearly identify the anonymous informant who provided the information about the being that destroyed the Black Sword Guild, which was hidden together with the restriction.”
The horse beastman dead man, who had only been quietly listening, blinked stupidly.
He seemed curious how they had found out when he had given only vague answers because of the restriction.
“This time as well, purely by coincidence, it was someone we know.”
With eyes grown even colder from the weight of years, the butler spoke in a low whisper.
“It was a Deep Shadow agent assigned to Lady Flora, the second young miss.”