Chapter 232
Chapter 232
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 232
Chapter Title: Not Coincidental Companions (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Oliver proposed to Willes that they travel together only as far as the train ride.
There wasn't any particular reason.
He was simply glad to run into him here, and he was curious about why someone would risk danger alone to head to Holland while wearing a leather mask.
Willes didn't exactly welcome Oliver's suggestion, but after some deliberation, he accepted. Oliver sat with him and chatted as they traveled.
The conversation amounted to little more than Oliver asking about Willes's fake name and his reason for going to Holland.
"My name is Will, and I'm a fixer... I'm heading to Holland on a job. Can't go into details, though... What about you?"
"I'm visiting Holland on mage tower business. I can't share the details either."
With the most important parts left unsaid, Oliver and Willes exchanged empty small talk before arriving in Holland without incident and parting ways.
"It was nice meeting you."
"You too. Hope things go well for you."
"Hm, things aren't going as smoothly as I'd hoped..."
Oliver sat in a café, sipping coffee as he pondered.
After arriving in Holland and parting with Willes, Oliver followed Captain Evan's advice: he stopped at an inn to wash up and bought fresh clothes to change into.
His entire body had been splattered with blood from the battle, so new clothes were a necessity.
On the way to the inn, people had screamed, and police had stopped him for inspection.
Thanks to his mage tower identification and Captain Evan's handwritten note, he avoided being dragged to the station...
After changing clothes and spending the night at the inn, Oliver headed straight to the Hall family, the prominent locals of Holland.
Mountain Phase, where the research district was located, was fairly remote. Getting transportation there would be easiest with the Hall family's help.
The outpost branch had provided an introduction letter, making it easy enough to meet them. The problem came afterward.
"It's not possible right now. We're too busy... Wait a bit."
They claimed business was keeping them occupied and said they had no car to spare for him.
Oliver even asked if they could at least introduce him to a driver headed that way, but they made excuses and refused. All their drivers were busy, they said.
It was an obvious lie.
It didn't match what he'd heard from the outpost branch staff, and more importantly, their emotional states gave it away.
But what troubled him even more was the head of the Hall family.
The outpost had said he was ill, but the man was perfectly healthy—healthy enough to meet Oliver in person.
He seemed to have ingested high-quality black magic drugs; traces of black magic lingered in his body. And not only that—he showed excessive interest in Oliver.
Asking where he was staying, suggesting he could rest at their estate while waiting... It gave off a scent similar to Landa's unique brand of scheming.
But since it wasn't directly Oliver's concern, he politely declined and left the estate, ending up in this café.
Pondering what to do next.
He considered walking, but shook his head. Even by car, it was a rugged two- or three-day trip.
On foot, it could take several times longer. Besides, it wasn't just about getting there—he needed to assess the situation en route.
He couldn't afford to waste time and energy recklessly. He needed a vehicle.
"And since I'm unfamiliar with the roads, I could easily get lost... Hm, even magic and black magic can't solve everything. Fascinating."
Oliver suddenly rediscovered the obvious truth that magic and black magic weren't omnipotent, finding a small joy in it.
After all, wasn't he sitting here agonizing over how to secure transportation precisely because no one was willing to help?
How intriguing and delightful.
"More coffee?"
An old man with thick glasses and a scruffy beard approached, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, teapot in hand.
"Yes, please... And a plate of those shortbread cookies?"
"Cookies cost extra."
"I'll pay for the coffee too. I can't just drink such delicious coffee for free."
Oliver complimented him as he'd learned from the girls at the Angel's House. The coffee really was quite good.
Fortunately, the praise landed well; the old man's reaction was positive.
"For a kingdom folk, you sure talk pretty."
"For the record, I'm from Landa."
"Landa, kingdom—makes no difference to us."
The old man poured the steaming coffee with a trickle and brought the shortbread cookies.
"So, what brings a Landa man to this backwater? You don't strike me as the type who comes to a place like this."
The old man eyed Oliver's attire and demeanor.
"Is that so?"
"Yep."
"I'm here on business. Do you know any drivers who can take me to Mountain Phase?"
"Mountain Phase? Why there?"
The café owner fired back a question.
"Not exactly a tourist spot."
Oliver read the owner's emotions and realized he wouldn't get an answer without a clear reason.
"I can't go into details, but it's mage tower business."
Oliver struck a balance—keeping the mission secret while satisfying the old man's curiosity. This much should be fine.
It's only polite to share that much when asking for help, right?
Oliver pondered how to politely deflect further prying, but the old man's response was completely unexpected.
"Is it about the missing people?"
Missing people. That's what the old man had clearly said.
But the targets were different. The old man was referring to the Northmen residents living in Mountain Phase, where Landa's research facilities were concentrated.
Mountain Phase had a dozen or so small villages inhabited by Northmen, but starting a month ago, people had been vanishing periodically from every single one.
"And the police here or the kingdom army? They couldn't care less. All they want from this land is the minerals."
That was why the café owner directed Oliver to a place where he could find a ride. Whatever Oliver's exact reason, it might solve the village problem in Mountain Phase as a bonus.
Just when he'd thought things were stuck in an unexpected place, they unjammed in another unexpected spot.
And then got stuck again in yet another unforeseen way.
"Ah, I can't go. It's not about the money."
"Ah, look elsewhere. Elsewhere..."
"Got a boil on my eyelid, can't drive. Can't do it."
At the transport cooperative the café owner recommended, Oliver sought drivers to take him to Mountain Phase, but the responses were uniformly negative.
Some flat-out refused, others made excuses about illness, some got angry—the reasons varied, but Oliver could tell from their emotions that they were all under pressure from someone.
Instinctively, he knew who.
The only ones who could pressure these rough-looking drivers were the city's prominent family.
The head of the Hall family.
This was the fifth rejection. Having grasped the full situation, Oliver was certain he wouldn't find help here either.
But he didn't give up. He kept approaching other drivers, politely asking if they could take him to Mountain Phase, the mage tower's research district.
He offered generous pay from his own pocket, but the reactions remained ice-cold.
Once he'd been turned down by double digits that way, word spread in the drivers' lounge-cum-cooperative office, and that's when Oliver spotted someone with emotions unlike the others.
Upon hearing Oliver's proposal, instead of the usual repulsion or fear, he reacted with surprise.
As if one thief had bumped into another.
He stared at Oliver, who promptly approached and asked him to drive.
He startled and refused like the others, but Oliver caught a certain scent from him. For instance...
"Ah, you're really being a pain. This is why I hate kingdom bastards!"
A burly truck driver grabbed Oliver and yelled, genuinely annoyed.
Oliver protested.
"Strictly speaking, I'm closer to a Landa person."
He meant it. From Forest to Murphy, Al, Jane, Coco—regardless of gender or status, he called those living in Landa his people. With pride.
So it was right for him to speak that way too.
Not that it seemed to help.
"Fuckin' kingdom pricks and their airs."
Another big guy joined, and together they hooked their thick arms under Oliver's armpits and lifted him.
Legs dangling in the air, Oliver was hauled outside the building.
The silver lining was that they set him down on the ground rather than throwing him—a bare minimum of courtesy.
"Come bother us again, and we'll kick your ass!"
The punch-happy brute warned Oliver with a shout. Having gotten what he wanted, Oliver politely apologized and promised not to trouble them further.
As mentioned, he'd already obtained his objective.
Thrown out, Oliver pretended to leave the transport cooperative office with its parking lot, then circled back and watched from afar.
And waited silently. Until the sky turned orange with sunset, shifted to navy blue, and finally became pitch-black night.
As darkness fell, lights went out in the surrounding buildings one by one—including the cooperative office.
After midnight, even the last stragglers drinking and eating doused the lights, locked up, and staggered home.
The cooperative office fell completely silent.
To normal eyes, at least. Not to Oliver's, with his black magician's sight.
Oliver focused his vision and spotted one... no, two people lurking quietly.
Coincidentally, one had familiar emotions.
Oliver stood, stretched his back to loosen his stiff joints, and moved silently without footfalls.
His targets: two sets of emotions moving while hiding their presence.
They were desperately avoiding detection.
"It's dark out. You sure about this?"
"Don't worry. I've lived here for years... I know the terrain like the back of my hand. Could drive blindfolded."
With that, the low rumble of a car engine stirred.
The vehicle was about to move.
"Mind if I join you?"
Oliver approached the pair stealthily like a stray cat and asked.
It was the truck driver who'd startled at his earlier proposal—and Willes, in his leather mask.
Vroom. Vroom. Vrooom.
The battered small truck creaked up the mountain road without headlights.
Destination: Mountain Phase. Passengers: Oliver and Willes in the cargo bed.
"So this is the job you were hired for?"
"Yeah."
Curiously, Willes's commission was the same as Oliver's: searching for missing people.
The difference was that Oliver's target was a mage tower researcher, while Willes's were local residents in the research district.
"Was planning to go alone, originally..."
"Sorry about that. And thank you for the help."
"Don't thank me. Not doing it out of the goodness of my heart."
He meant it. Oliver had politely threatened to make a fuss if not taken along, so Willes had no choice but to let him ride.
"If you were just some nobody, I'd have slit your throat on the spot. Shame."
"Thanks for thinking well of me."
"Not a compliment."
Willes spoke with feeling. He pondered briefly before opening his mouth again.
"How'd you know to wait?"
"Earlier today, I asked around the drivers about going to Mountain Phase. Your reaction stood out, so I figured I'd wait just in case."
"Never knew the mage tower still had lunatics like you."
Willes muttered reflexively. Oliver asked.
"You know a lot about the mage tower?"
Willes answered with silence. Fair enough—with his identity as the Kell Liberation Army's Willes hidden, it was a tough question... So Oliver switched topics.
"Why'd you take the Mountain Phase missing persons job?"
"What?"
"From what I heard, the villages in the research district are all poor rural spots. Hard to get paid well... Unusual for a fixer, no?"
Oliver spoke from his own common sense. For fixers, violence was a product involving risk, used only when the payoff justified it. Forest had said as much.
But Willes hadn't accepted the job from that perspective.
Not that he was a real fixer to begin with. Still, Oliver was curious about his reason.
He finally spoke.
"A Landa person like you wouldn't get it."
"Pardon?"
Oliver asked back at the cryptic words. Before he could press for meaning, the driver-seat peephole opened, and the driver spoke.
"First village. Let's rest up."