The King in the Well and the Unexpected Gift (2)

Valentia, the slave market, was also known as the City of Balance.

Because the city was so vast, all kinds of factions had taken root there. Which was why, in Valentia, the idea of a line was treated with almost religious seriousness, a kind of rule that had to be protected more carefully than in any ordinary city.

There were exceptions, of course. An ignorant individual, or a newly risen power eager to make a name for itself, sometimes crossed that line without understanding what it meant.

But whenever that happened, the western ruler, Cyclops, and the old noble house of Valentia, the Devricks, crushed the foolish and the weak to preserve the balance.

That was why western Valentia could survive at all, despite being little more than lawless territory. And that was why the Devricks and Cyclops had maintained an uneasy partnership, respecting each other in their own way.

But now...

Why?

This was a blatant crossing of the line.

And it was Cyclops, of all people, invading Devrick territory.

Cyclops is... targeting us?

Of course, Ohad Devrick could not find an answer.

He considered emotional motives, rational ones, possibilities weighed through profit and loss, but nowhere in that chain of thought was there a reason for Cyclops to set foot on Devrick land.

Then, at that exact moment, the black-haired man wearing that faintly bloodthirsty smile spoke in a calm, utterly matter-of-fact voice.

"Satisfied?"

What was?

The question never left Ohad's mouth. He had already blurted out his own words mere seconds earlier.

-Why can't you do anything? Why isn't anything happening? Wasn't one word supposed to turn this whole place into a sea of fire?

Was it not a bluff after all?

Could a single sentence really control an entire city?

Naturally, a nobleman's hardened reason rejected the idea.

And yet, perhaps because the timing had been too perfect, the confusion pounding in his skull would not settle.

Then the crusader spoke again.

"If you don't act soon, this will turn into bloodshed."

With a leisurely smile, he lifted the cold tea that had been offered as an insult and drank it down.

A heavy silence fell.

Only the middle-aged mage, who knew nothing, stared in bewilderment, while everyone else in the room broke into a cold sweat and fixed their eyes on Raul.

At the center of that silence, Raul said, "And once it starts, it won't stop at bloodshed. It'll spread into a full-scale war between Cyclops and Devrick."

The nobleman's composure snapped. Ohad Devrick shot to his feet and shouted, "What are you trying to--!"

Crash!

Raul hurled the empty cup onto the table, cutting him off.

Then the crusader's eyes, cold and blazing at once, lifted with predatory sharpness.

"But I don't care who wins that war. You understand, don't you? I'm only a crusader of Motala."

Those black eyes carried a force that numbed even the sturdy reason of a nobleman.

Ohad Devrick lost the rest of his words.

"Co, Count!"

The middle-aged mage, now pale and frantic, raised his voice toward him.

But nothing changed.

Soon, the gang members of Cyclops appeared in a long line that stretched all the way into the heart of the Devrick mansion, the Cosmos Garden.

Among them was a familiar lieutenant, the same one whose jaw Raul had shattered.

At last, Cyclops had reached a point visible even from the reception room, and the knights and mercenaries watching from there each wore a different emotion.

Fear, confusion, anger.

Their reactions differed, but they shared one thing in common.

They were all waiting for Ohad Devrick's command.

Finally, Ohad Devrick, the old master of this noble house, picked up the cane resting against his chair and walked to the window.

"...Move aside! We have to confirm--"

By then, even the threatening voices of Cyclops men could be heard clearly.

Watching Ohad Devrick's face harden, Raul delivered the final blow as though setting a period at the end of a sentence.

"Choose, Ohad Devrick. Will you take a verdict of heresy from me and make enemies of both Cyclops and Motala? Or will you hear my request and remain a collaborator of Motala? This chance exists only now. Only in this moment."

Raul knew very well how two choices offered in a moment of crisis could narrow a human being's field of vision.

And soon, the trembling in Ohad Devrick's eyes vanished as he stared back into Raul's.

He said, "What can this Devrick do for the great crusader?"

Raul rested one hand lightly on the chair arm and gestured with his chin.

At the end of that gesture stood the young lady who, even now, was raising a devil's egg in the left side of her chest.

"For free? You said it yourself. Insulting the head of the Devricks costs a leg. Then what's the price of insulting a crusader?"

As soon as Raul spoke, Ohad Devrick reached his judgment without the slightest hesitation.

"Vash."

One knight widened his eyes and answered, "O-Ohad-sama! But--"

"Vash. There's no time. Do you want us all dead?"

"That is..."

The knight called Vash hesitated, but then, as if deciding himself, drew his sword.

The only one who still didn't understand the situation was the young lady, who until now had worn nothing but a blank expression.

But even that slow, foolish young lady seemed to wake up when she saw the knight approaching with a blade in hand.

"Vash? Why are you coming this way, Father? Father! No, wait!"

"Cut off both legs."

"Fatherrrrrr!"

The knight carrying out his lord's order did not hesitate.

His blade split both of the young lady's knees as she writhed.

"Aaaaaaahhhhh!"

Her scream filled the mansion.

But no one there stepped forward to help her.

Everyone knew she was the one who had brought the bomb known as Raul into this place.

Raul looked down at the young lady, who kept thrashing as blood poured from her, and said, "I told you. Think before you live."

There was no sympathy in his voice, nowhere at all.

That was life. Real life.

And in Exeria, even more so.

***

In the Cosmos Garden, the center of the Devrick mansion, two long lines formed.

One was made up of Cyclops thugs who kept shouting obscenities and demanding that they be allowed to search the Devrick mansion's interior as they pleased.

The other was formed by the red tower mages who owed favors to the Devricks, along with the family soldiers who had always served the house.

"This is Devrick land! Get out already!"

"I said we'd back off if you let us search only the mansion interior, how many times do I have to say it?"

"You bastards, trying to pull some cheap stunt! You think we wouldn't see through your little scheme to occupy the mansion and threaten the count!?"

"Goddamn it, this is insane. We're telling you, it's not like that! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠We just need to check inside! We're looking for someone, that's all!?"

The gang and the soldiers glared at each other, faces flushed red.

Through the reception room window, Raul watched the dangerous standoff and smirked.

If you looked closely, you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could even see the Cyclops lieutenant with bandages wrapped around his face.

Raul had known from the start that the bastard would make this move.

That lieutenant must have agonized after Raul's ambush.

What if Raul really was the sword of the tower?

If he, as a so-called lieutenant, received a declaration of war and then cowered without responding, that would be a perfectly good reason to get beaten to death inside Cyclops itself.

But what if Raul really wasn't the sword of the tower, just as the bastard suspected?

If he blindly gathered men and stormed in, only for the innocence of Devrick and the red tower to be revealed afterward, then he would die all the same.

That was the price of breaking balance in this city.

So the bastard couldn't move, and couldn't stay still either.

The answer he chose was this siege.

He would come here, act as if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he were doing nothing more than making a visit, and keep the atmosphere threatening without saying a word about what was going on inside.

If he found Raul with the red tower people, he could launch a full assault. If not, he could simply back off.

No matter what world they're in, thugs never change.

A method that never answered questions.

A method that never explained itself first.

That one-sided, selfish thug logic was exactly what Raul had been aiming for.

"Yeah. That's a good balance, all right."

Raul let out a faint smile.

"Sir crusader. Might I ask that you make them withdraw now?"

And it was the old knight Vash, the same one who had cut off the young lady's legs earlier, who spoke to him cautiously.

The mansion's residents, including the head of the house Ohad and the young lady Lorian, had all left Raul's side after that incident.

There was no way they could stay near him.

Who knew what other insult might explode like shrapnel?

Raul thought he had made the right choice by using the roughest method available.

He also extended one hand toward the knight without answering directly.

"The materials I asked for?"

When Raul asked, the old knight, keeping his emotions in check as best he could, finally let out a small sigh.

"The three underground auction houses you mentioned, the goods to be sold there, and the order of sale."

The knight handed over a thick stack of papers.

Raul accepted it, skimmed through it page by page, and lifted the teacup that had been set back on the table.

Once the current state of the city, the sort you couldn't learn from background knowledge alone, came into view, Raul focused on it completely.

There, listed with perfect precision, were the number and storage locations of the goods he had been searching for all along: the slave elves.

"Haa. If you need anything else, call me again."

When Raul remained silent, the old knight finally let out an open sigh and left the room.

The vast reception room was left with only Raul and the bloodstains.

Raul tucked away only the two or three sheets that mattered and left the rest of the documents untouched.

Before long, the sun climbed high overhead.

About time?

Raul checked the time limit he had set for himself.

There wasn't much time left before this outrageous hospitality, offered in the middle of enemy territory, would end.

The Devricks had swallowed Raul's bluff neatly enough, but they were still a noble house.

The kings of this city.

Their intelligence network was strong enough to slap the face of an information guild three times over.

By the time the sun began to set, they would probably have figured out the whole scheme.

But even if they noticed by then, it didn't matter much.

Raul had already gotten everything he needed, and he had already settled on a new escape route to match.

Now then.

Alone in the reception room, Raul began feeling around the place with both hands.

The reason he had intentionally acted like a bastard and put on such a frightening display was all for this.

To chase the watching eyes and ears out of the room first.

The moment the last old knight left, Raul's plan was effectively complete.

Outside the door.

That would be the old knight and the middle-aged mercenary who seemed to have some real skill.

There are people upstairs and downstairs too.

The divine power Raul scattered by hand seeped into the ceiling and floor, becoming his expanded eyes and ears.

There are obvious signs of life to both sides. Then the blind spots are...

Raul calmly recalled the Devrick mansion from the game, and with it the several emergency escape routes those sinister nobles had built.

Secret passages known only to the blood relatives of the noble house and their closest retainers.

In a nobleman's building, always exposed to the possibility of betrayal, such facilities were surprisingly common.

So Raul spread his divine power not just in one direction, but in all eight, searching every angle he could.

He stopped in one corner of the room.

Found it.

A secret passage belonging to the Devrick family, connected to various parts of the mansion.

The only problem was that several thick wooden planks had been stacked over the entrance, sealing it shut.

In normal circumstances, tearing through those layers of wood under the watch of knights and mercenaries would have been impossible.

If he gathered divine power, the old knight with his sharp senses would catch him.

If he just smashed the boards apart? Unless the mercenaries had gone mad, they wouldn't sit still for that.

Good thing I went to Tetra Mountain first. That's turning out to be a godsend.

But Raul had enough power to break this situation open.

He gathered a small amount of divine power into the tips of his index finger and thumb.

Then he pinched the iron nail fixed into one corner of the board and crushed it out of place.

With the power of an A-rank strength stat, reinforced by Strength Enhancement, something more miraculous than magic became reality with ease.

Creek. Creak. Thunk.

The dull sounds came one after another.

But the knights and mercenaries were not sensitive enough to react to something at the level of ordinary household noise.

Once the fixed nails had all been removed, the planks came away with absurd ease.

He repeated the same work, one board at a time, carefully.

How long had he been at it?

Whoooosh--

At last, Raul stepped into the passage where air was flowing.

It was so well hidden that anyone who saw it would have mistaken it for a simple underground tunnel.

Raul walked through the cave, guided by fragments of memory.

If he kept going north, the passage would eventually connect to the sewers.

But...

He had come this far, and it didn't suit Raul's nature to leave the gift behind.

At the large fork where the path split north and west, Raul turned west.

Soon, he found a room concealed behind an artificial stone wall.

Opening the stone door was not difficult.

Very few people even knew about this passage, and for a Devrick to use this secret vault would only happen in an emergency.

There had been no real need to seal it in the first place.

Rattle.

Inside the Devrick secret vault, Raul found treasures that even made him widen ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his eyes.

"Huh."

The moment he saw the display shelves stretching out to his left and right, Raul's breath caught in his throat.

And for good reason.

The scroll-shaped objects lined up along the long shelves were magic scrolls that activated the magic within them simply by being torn.

So they were hiding things like this... That explains why the Devricks were always so fearless, even when facing powerful enemies.

Beyond their value, the greatest strength of a magic scroll was speed.

Magic that would normally require thirty seconds or more just to cast at the third or fourth circle could be fired in the blink of an eye.

And the versatility is even better than the raw power.

He had used this passage before, but never under conditions like this; in the game, he had always been running for his life.

Right now, Raul had time. Not a lot, but enough.

Among the more than forty magic scrolls, he selected the ones he needed and secured them in the inner pocket of his robe.

It was a real pity he couldn't take them all.

As he was happily collecting his gift, another startling message Raul had seen before suddenly appeared in front of him.

"...An artifact?"

For once, Raul's eyes widened enough that he even voiced the words aloud in surprise.

An artifact.

In Exeria, that word referred to an ancient relic, a legacy of a vanished era of advanced craftsmanship that could no longer be reproduced.

Here?

It seemed Raul had found a far more valuable gift than he had expected.