24
Chapter 24
Explosions rang out from all directions.
The screams of people engulfed in panic.
The Black Market had become a complete pandemonium.
Right in the middle of that chaos, a man in a black robe smiled softly.
'Everything is going smoothly so far.'
The plan to launch a terrorist attack on the Black Market under the name of Black Fang was proceeding smoothly.
Black Fang.
Impersonating the name of an organization feared and watched closely by everyone in the Empire to commit crimes.
The reason the man did such a thing was simple.
It was because he was a Knight of the Empire.
'Didn't they say to fight poison with poison?'
The orders from above were simple.
Commit terrorist acts under the name of Black Fang.
This Black Market had been a headache from the start.
They were bastards who traded Artifacts monopolized by the Empire, relying solely on the backing of an Archmage.
Until now, they had been kept under surveillance with tacit permission, but they had to be dealt with eventually.
The mystique contained within the Artifacts was indispensable for the survival of the Empire.
In such a situation, a third force known as Black Fang appeared. The High Command of the Empire decided to exploit this to the fullest.
They decided to disguise themselves as Black Fang and carry out a terrorist attack here.
A fake justification had also been prepared.
The liberation of Slaves traded in the Black Market. It was exactly the kind of thing that organization, which had declared rebellion against the Empire, would aim for.
Black Fang was an organization whose true identity remained unknown.
Therefore, it was impossible for the Archmage to distinguish them from the real Black Fang.
Black Fang would end up taking the blame without knowing why and incur the hostility of the Archmage.
The man himself, who held a fairly high rank, did not know exactly where the mystique within the Artifacts was used, but that was irrelevant.
As a Knight of the Empire, he was not supposed to question orders.
The recovery of the Artifacts.
Disguising as Black Fang and declaring a fake stance.
Releasing some of the captured Slaves as a decoy, but handing the rest over to the Holy See.
A simple mission.
It was at that very moment when the man was deeply engrossed in his work.
"Aaaargh!!"
A scream.
A terrible scream rang in his ears.
The man quickly looked around to grasp the situation, but there was nothing.
His subordinate who had been there had vanished without a trace. As if he had never existed in the first place.
The intuition built up from past battles sent a warning to the man. The man quickly scanned his surroundings and assessed the situation.
It wasn't long before two figures in black robes appeared before the man. He instinctively realized.
The identity of those people.
It was only natural.
His legs were trembling uncontrollably without him even realizing it.
The position of the weak, not the strong.
The position of the prey, not the predator.
The man was experiencing that overwhelming pressure firsthand.
However, the man didn't give up.
He somehow racked his brain and opened his mouth.
"I apologize for borrowing your name without permission."
The man hadn't been chosen as the leader of this operation for nothing.
He sent the two a gaze of admiration that couldn't possibly be taken as a lie and continued speaking.
He said it was an honor to meet them.
He was sorry for borrowing their name, but he still wanted to participate in achieving such a noble cause.
He asked if it wouldn't be too presumptuous to request their help in rescuing the Slaves—a lie close to perfection.
The man was confident.
Confident that he could somehow overcome this situation with his lies.
*****
Ciel stared blankly at the man before her.
The man was prattling on about something, but Ciel wasn't listening.
That was a given.
Why would she bother listening to someone else when it wasn't even Ian talking?
"Eat up."
At those words, the shadow morphed into a Beast.
The Wolf hungrily devoured the man's arm.
Thinking that the screams were annoying, Ciel watched the man thrashing in agony with an expressionless face.
"W-why?"
The man asked.
Why they were attacking him.
That question irritated Ciel.
Rarely one to frown, Ciel slightly furrowed her brow and replied.
"You upset him."
To Ciel, Ian was everything in this world.
The world existed for that person, and without him, it held no meaning.
Yet this man had upset Ian.
Ciel still remembered it clearly.
The sight of Ian lamenting that the Black Fang's reputation was being dragged through the mud.
Rather, Ciel felt like asking the man.
Since he had hurt Ian's feelings, shouldn't he be grateful that he could atone for it with his death?
"......P-please spare me."
While Ciel was lost in thought, the man managed to stop the bleeding on his mauled arm and crawled toward Rien.
"I-I really just purely sympathized with your ideals......."
It seemed he was about to spout some nonsense to Rien as well.
However, Ciel didn't try to stop him.
She merely added a single sentence.
"You can play with him. He's not a human anyway."
*****
As I wandered the streets, I felt a strange sense of incongruity.
Strangely enough, there wasn't a single black-robed thug in sight. I definitely should have run into at least one by now, so was my luck really this good?
I pondered for a moment before coming up with a plausible deduction.
'Did that disciple suppress the attack?'
He might not be as strong as the deceased Archmage, but he wasn't weak either. Plus, there was a time difference from the original work.
It wouldn't be strange if he had trained and grown stronger in the meantime.
'I should hurry up.'
If the terrorist attack was truly being suppressed, the time I had left to play the Righteous Thief was shrinking by the second.
I needed to hurry.
I needed to hurry, but.......
'Where the hell is the warehouse?'
The Security System had activated automatically following the explosion.
The Holy Sword was naturally transported to the warehouse beneath the Auction House.
That meant I had to find the Secret Passage leading to that warehouse... but I had absolutely no idea where it was.
Even in the original work, it only vaguely mentioned that a Secret Passage existed; it was never actually implemented in the game.
After agonizing over it for a while... I finally came up with a rather absurd idea.
'I think something rubbed off on me from Rien.'
A ridiculously simple and brute-force solution.
Yet, for some reason.
I had a gut feeling that this method would definitely work.
I quickly made my way back to the Auction House.
I located the spot where the Security System had activated earlier and took my stance. There had to be a passage leading to the warehouse right beneath here.
"Phew......."
Taking a slow, deep breath, I calmed my mind.
Just as I had practiced before, I naturally focused my Mana into my fist. Then, I struck down with all my might several times...!
-Kaboooom!
With a loud crash, the floor of the Auction House shattered.
After repeating this a few times, a hole large enough for a person to easily fit through appeared.
Who knew that the mindset of "if there's no entrance, just make one" would work so well.
Sure enough, when you have brawn, your brain doesn't have to suffer.
I immediately jumped into the hole.
The inside wasn't as dark as I had thought.
Perhaps it recognized that someone had entered, because the lights brightly flickered on the moment I stepped inside.
And it wasn't long before my eyes landed on.......
'Why are these kids here?'
They were children who hadn't even been put up for auction, kids whose presence here made absolutely no sense. And every single one of them had their ankles bound by iron chains.
...Their condition was severe.
It was harder to find a kid with an intact body.
Some were missing an arm. There was even a kid whose arms and legs had been forcibly sewn on backward.
The current situation.
It was obvious what had been going on here.
'He's disgustingly diligent.'
This was the Auction House directly managed by that Archmage's Disciple.
And as could be seen from the fact that the Archmage created the Black Market, his specialty was Black Magic.
This was likely the result of that Disciple's hard work.
Though I wasn't sure if diligently practicing Black Magic was something to be praised for.
While I was suppressing my nausea at the sickening sight, I felt a strange sensation near my leg.
A young girl recoiled in fright the moment she touched me.
Judging by her reaction, she seemed to be blind.
I had a pretty good idea of why the blind girl was so terrified of me.
Because there were marks of her being whipped.
She probably mistook me for her master.
"Don't worry. I'm not here to hurt you."
I fell into thought for a moment.
Wondering how exactly I should resolve this.
However, my contemplation was brief.
Didn't I come here to steal in the first place?
It just meant I had a bit more to carry.
I didn't know if these kids were key characters in the original work or not, but did that really matter?
It wasn't like I was a psychopath; it was better to save those I could. I didn't have to selectively rescue only those who would be useful to me.
"W-who are you?"
The little kid asked.
Their face was filled with terror.
Right in the middle of enemy territory.
A situation where there could be eavesdropping magic installed.
I wondered how I should answer... and soon came up with a decent idea.
Wasn't there one?
A name that was perfect to use in this situation.
"Black Fang has come to rescue you."