Chapter 249: Blockade
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 249: Blockade
"Sir Dexter. What on earth do you mean by that?!"
"Exactly what I said. I do not know the details of what you claim will happen in a week's time. However, I do know that in three hours, when the clock strikes midnight, something terrible will occur in the Southeast."
Sir Dexter had just sensed through his ability that an incident was brewing in the Southeast. He couldn't discern the exact scale of the event, only the time and location.
"Judging by your expression, it seems to be a matter of considerable gravity."
"...It is."
Three hours. There was no time. Yoo Eon gave Dexter a brief, condensed explanation of the situation.
"Incredible. Is that really true?"
"Yes, it is. We must summon the explorers to the Southeastern border immediately to prevent the damage from spreading outward. Please, notify the other sectors at once!"
"...Good heavens, I understand. Go now and do what you must."
* * *
"Is that the truth...?"
"It is, Delbaheim. We have no time. We must hurry."
The windows of Raya Delbaheim’s office had been shattered. Yoo Eon had flown straight from the Southwest branch to the Mayerbridge Union’s main building to inform her of the situation as quickly as possible.
He needed to tell Soles Getia as well, but Delbaheim’s office was the one he remembered most clearly.
"But midnight...! There is hardly enough time to even send out formal notices to the Union..."
"This isn't a situation for formal notices. You need to mobilize everyone in the Mayerbridge Union and blockade the border with the Southeast."
According to Iris, what Mystery Antoinette intended to summon was a Treasure used by the Succubus Queen in the Demon Realm.
With it, the Succubus Queen’s authority would be fully restored, allowing her to pull her subordinate legions from the Demon Realm onto the surface. The greatest concern was the casualties among the civilians who lacked the strength to protect themselves.
"Block the Southeastern border as tightly as possible to ensure the Succubus Queen’s forces can't cause any damage. I’ve already explained the situation to Sir Dexter regarding the Southwestern border."
"Then... uh, wh-what...? What should I do...!"
"Take your people out there, block the way, and cause a scene! Hurry!"
"I-I understand—no, I've got it!"
The Mayerbridge Union was a clan held in high regard not only in the Northeast but throughout all of Calax. If the entire clan’s explorers suddenly appeared and blocked the Southeastern border, it would naturally draw everyone's attention.
"You can explain the situation then. I’m off!"
"Ah, wait..."
Delbaheim watched in utter bewilderment as Yoo Eon leaped back out through the broken window, but she quickly regained her composure.
Thud!
She slammed her hand down on a small red button on her desk.
"Emergency alert to the entire Mayerbridge Union...! Arm yourselves immediately and move to the Southeastern border!"
In an emergency like this, letters were useless. They had to cause as much of a commotion as possible to grab everyone's attention and force the cooperation of the small and medium clans.
* * *
"M-Manager, sir. What in the world is going on?"
"Give me more!"
"Y-Yes! Right away!"
Katrina, the senior guide of the Guild’s Southwest branch, had led most of the explorers who had been on standby within the Guild building down to the border between the Southwest and Southeast.
Naturally, the residents of the Southwest, who had no idea what was happening, were dying of curiosity.
"Ugh, what a mess."
Katrina, who was currently devouring the stock of a goat skewer stall on a Southwest street, flicked a gold coin to the vendor without a word. She wiped her mouth with a handkerchief and spoke.
"Do you have a family?"
"My family...? Y-Yes. I have a young one at home..."
"Go get them. Move them somewhere far away from the Southeast."
With those final words, Katrina vanished into the sky with a faint whistle of wind, landing gracefully on a nearby rooftop.
'What if we make all this fuss and nothing happens...? A formal apology won't be enough to fix this...'
Of course, the chances of that were slim. Events seen through Arthur Dexter’s 'Fool's Foresight' always came to pass, and his vision coincided perfectly with the testimony of Yoo Eon—an explorer the Guild Headquarters was keeping a close eye on.
Whooooosh...
The sky had already turned pitch black. There were only two hours and forty minutes left until midnight. The Guild could demand martial assistance from explorers through an emergency mobilization; if the mobilization was later deemed appropriate for the situation, refusal to comply was a crime.
"Se-Senior... huff... wheeze... Senior..."
"Dahlia, I told you to stay at the Guild."
Dahlia, Katrina’s junior, had run all the way to Katrina’s location to deliver news from the Northwest. Squatting on the roof, Katrina looked down at the gasping Dahlia.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
"The Golden Glove Syndicate...! They used mana voice amplifiers to rally the Northwest...!"
"What...?"
The Northwest did not share a border with the Southeast, but it accounted for sixty percent of the legal currency circulation within Calax. It was the place where unaffiliated foreign explorers and high-grade explorers who refused to join clans were most concentrated.
The Northwest was a place of high pride and stubbornness, where the Guild managers' influence was at its weakest.
Since the high-grade explorers there acted individually, unlike the clans in the Northeast who could be pressured as a group, they felt no obligation to listen to the Guild.
The Northwest always had the lowest response rate to emergency mobilization orders, but there was one entity they feared more than the Guild.
"Lymain...?"
Auction Lymain, which supplied the equipment for high-grade explorers. Located at the end of the legendary Aureum Street, it was the largest and most prestigious weapon shop in Calax, owned by the Lymain family.
Furthermore, since unaffiliated explorers had to find their own healers if they were injured in the Labyrinth, the Lymain Treatment Center—another Lymain-owned facility—was their lifeline.
Since the Lymain family was the Golden Glove Syndicate’s strongest foothold in Calax, Katrina could easily connect the dots.
'They used the Syndicate's name instead of the family's.'
Calax was the Lymain family's backyard, but the Golden Glove Syndicate had its hands in almost every Great Labyrinth city. Calling them in the name of 'Golden Glove' rather than 'Lymain' meant that if they refused the call, they would face headaches no matter where they went.
"How did he pull it off...?"
Katrina knew that the one going around spreading the word was likely Yoo Eon, but she had no idea what kind of connection he had with the Lymain family.
* * *
"Thank you, Mother."
"Sigh... I hope a major problem really is about to happen, Aven."
"Of course. I've already sent my entire family to Roanmarie."
Renart Lymain, who had remained in Calax, let out a deep sigh as she looked out over the Northwest from the top of an Aureum Street skyscraper. The Golden Glove Syndicate’s request for cooperation echoed through the streets. When the Guild had tried to call them out using voice amplifiers, there had been no reaction.
But the moment the name of the Golden Glove Syndicate was mentioned, high-grade explorers swarmed out in an instant. This would likely result in the Guild turning a blind eye when the Lymain family aggressively expanded its business within Calax in the future.
'That's one thing, but a mother-in-law just did her son-in-law a favor. I should get something out of this.'
She already knew what she wanted. It was the monster transport contract she had her eye on. She thought it would be wonderful if Yoo Eon participated in it.
In truth, Yoo Eon would have been willing to help even without such a quid pro quo, but that was how Renart’s mind worked.
"Son-in-law, you owe me one for this."
"You're right. Without you, Mother, it would have been difficult to gain the cooperation of the Northwest explorers."
If the Succubus Queen had invaded with her army from the Southeast, the other explorers would have eventually crawled out. The problem was that by the time the distant Northwest joined in, the damage would have already been catastrophic.
"So, I was thinking... it would be nice to have a little give and take."
Just as she was about to naturally bring up the monster transport contract...
"Ah, Mother. I have a gift for you."
"Hmm...? A gift?"
Yoo Eon abruptly pulled a massive greatsword from his storage artifact and handed it to Renart.
"What... is this?"
She was expecting a signature on a transport contract, but she had suddenly received something else. And it was a material reward given to the billionaire Renart Lymain—the chairwoman of the Lymain family, which specialized in selling luxury equipment to high-grade explorers.
"It's a 100% pure Orichalcum Greatsword."
"Th-this precious thing...?!"
Of course, no matter how wealthy one was, one couldn't buy items that weren't on the market.
'W-what about the monster transport contract...?!'
Regardless, a good thing was a good thing. Looking at the magnificent greatsword, a smile naturally tugged at the corners of her mouth.
"I'm glad you like it."
"Ahem!"
Yoo Eon had heard that Theodora took up the greatsword because she followed her mother's example, so he had guessed that her mother's primary weapon would also be a greatsword. He had guessed correctly.
As Renart pulled an artifact from her pouch to store the greatsword and turned back toward the Southeast...
Whieeeeeeeee....
An alien sound echoed from the distance. It sounded like a firework being launched. Shortly after, a sphere of pink light soared into the dark sky from the direction of the Southeastern central district.
'What is that...?'
Even from this distance, the light was so bright it made one squint, as if a miniature sun had appeared.
The pink object traced an elegant arc high into the sky, and the moment it reached its zenith and lost its momentum...
SKREEEEEEEEE—!!!!!
With a screeching roar that shook the entire city, it was propelled toward the North of Calax.
"The N-North?! Why the North?! Aven?!"
"Mother! I'm going—!!!"
Yoo Eon instantly unfurled his wings and took flight toward the Southeast. The sky was thick with dark clouds as if a storm were about to break, and Yoo Eon vanished from sight the moment he soared into the air.
"What on earth is in the North..."
For an organization intending to make an enemy of all of Calax, there was only one facility that posed the greatest threat.
"Oh no...!"
KABOOOOM—!!!!!!!
A mushroom cloud rose along with a massive explosion.
No more Orichalcum-grade explorers from the outside could intervene.
"The Teleportation Gateway...!"
Calax had been blockaded.