The Holy Relic Knows the Answer (4)
The Holy Relic Knows the Answer (4)
"Fortunately, I arrived on time."
I had rushed to the slums straight after finishing the lecture, so I got there earlier than scheduled.
Because of that, I hadn't been able to change into comfortable clothes and had come in my formal attire.
I made my preparations in a suitably secluded spot.
I checked the Holy Relic that would help me when I spent some quality time with the Demons, and the brooch that would protect my identity.
The moment I habitually took out the brooch to pin it to my chest.
"Hmm."
The thought flickered through my mind that there might be a better approach.
I fiddled with the brooch and let out a soft hum.
'The brooch is certainly effective, but let's think about this differently.'
Since most of them wouldn't know my face anyway, I decided to make use of my current status.
The image of an academy instructor saving people in the slums was something everyone would like.
"Academy instructor is the answer."
I put the brooch away and emerged from the alley.
With my preparations finished, I entered the slums and observed the situation.
Nothing had changed significantly from my visit before the imprisonment.
If I had to point out what had changed…
The gazes people gave me carried the nuance of why a gentleman like me had come to a place like this.
You could say it was the exact opposite of when I had lowered my Perception Obfuscation before and people had been wary just from seeing my appearance.
Savoring the quite different atmosphere, I positioned myself in an open space.
"…They should be arriving soon."
Leaning against a wall, I pulled out my pocket watch.
Fewer than five minutes remained until the Hamel head's arrival.
No sooner had I spoken than a hazy cloud of dust rose from the opposite side.
A carriage emerged from within it.
The slum residents began to gather one by one in an orderly fashion.
"The family head is coming!"
"As long as you stand in line, everyone will receive something, so don't cut in!"
Each of them grabbed their tattered baskets, and a long line formed.
I kept my distance and turned my gaze elsewhere.
"Scan."
And then, the main characters I had been looking for revealed themselves.
Two of them hiding behind a building, watching this place.
A horned bastard next to them.
And a number of others lying in ambush.
Those ones were targets to be killed without exception.
Even if I had agreed with Flora to hand over humans at my discretion, the story changed when they colluded with Demons.
Because they would have abandoned their humanity in their craving for greater power.
So in the eyes of the Empire, they could only be targets for elimination.
I had to finish this before the incident grew more complicated.
I intended to tail them quickly and find their base.
"Got them."
At that moment, the watcher and the Demon moved away from their spot.
They were probably going to relay the news to their comrades lying in ambush.
I leisurely unbuttoned my cuffs and followed.
"Plenty of troublemakers today."
Just as I was about to prepare a spell to deal with them all at once.
Gilbert and the Hamel head stepped down from the carriage.
Because I had excluded the carriage from the scan results, this was an unexpected outcome.
Naturally, my eyes met Gilbert's.
'Why is Gilbert here?'
A silence settled into the gaps of the noisy slums.
The unexpected development flustered me, but I responded calmly.
I attempted to piece together the puzzle by assembling the information I had.
It didn't take long to reach an answer.
I just had to eliminate the eyesores lurking in the vicinity and resolve my curiosity, that was all.
So, at the moment I was drawing up Mana.
Sure enough, the long-tailed rats stirred up trouble.
"The target is the family head! Loot the carriage at the same time!"
Armed men rushed toward the carriage from all directions at once.
They clashed with what appeared to be the Hamel Family's private soldiers, and the area instantly descended into chaos.
"Protect the family head and the young master!"
"Hold the line!"
At first, they seemed to be holding out well and carving an escape route, but numbers overwhelmed skill.
Before they were pushed back further, I decided to stick close to the Hamel Family and lend them my strength.
I swiftly assessed the enemy's numbers and prepared a spell. A simple spell seemed sufficient.
The spell to cast was Fireball. I quickly finished Multicasting and mercilessly hurled fireballs at the backs of their heads.
"Gyaaah!"
The enemies thrashed about as they burned in the flames.
Those who were at least somewhat composed tried to grasp the situation.
Each time, I targeted their throats and cut off their breath.
Taking on multiple enemies alone, the tide of the battlefield turned in an instant.
Only then, as they grasped the situation, the long-tailed rat organization members began to hesitate.
The private soldiers who witnessed this realized I was an ally and raised their swords.
"Don't let this opportunity slip! Fight back!"
Riding the momentum, they sent every fleeing enemy to their grave.
A moment later, they sounded their victory cry with a shout more vigorous than anyone else's.
Once the situation was brought under control like that, the Hamel head restored order in the surroundings and distributed the goods as planned.
The slum residents who had hastily fled offered their thanks as they received the daily necessities.
In the meantime, I inspected the traces of battle and continued with the aftermath.
I carefully surveyed the area and stepped over the blackened corpses of the enemies.
"Hmm."
As expected, I spotted a survivor fleeing in the distance.
It seemed he had hidden among the corpses and preserved his life.
"Moving along nicely."
I brushed the dust off my shirt and pursued the survivor.
The survivor was injured, so catching up wasn't difficult.
I blocked his path in a remote alley and gestured at the bastard.
"Where are you going?"
"H-hiik! P-please spare me!!"
Trembling like a leaf, the bastard staggered backward and collapsed to the ground.
Grabbing hold of his limp legs, he barely managed to stand and assumed a deferential posture before me.
"Well, you see. I was just passing by…"
"…"
I looked at him with a gaze so cold it could have frozen him on the spot.
Whether the silence had produced a considerable effect, he whimpered and begged for his life.
"Please, just spare my life… I'm begging you!"
"I'll think about sparing your life depending on what you do. You know what you have to do, right?"
"Y-yes! Of course!"
The surviving bastard bowed his head so low it nearly touched the ground and spilled every piece of information he knew without hesitation.
"If you follow this alley all the way down, there's a collapsed building with a special mark inside. That's the entrance leading to the base."
That was genuinely useful information.
"And if you're lying?"
"What would I have to gain by lying…?"
"Right?"
The bastard nodded rapidly.
Only then did color begin to return to his face.
He seemed to be basking in the relief that he might escape with his life, apparently.
"I've got a quick errand to run, so wait here."
"Huh?"
I knocked the bastard unconscious for a moment with some magic (physical) and returned to where the carriage had been.
Even though the surroundings were a mess, the distribution seemed to be mostly finished.
I stood at the very back of the line and waited for the final turn.
The line quickly vanished, and when I stood before Gilbert, the bastard froze on the spot with a dumbfounded expression.
"I thought it couldn't be, but the person who helped us was you, Instructor?"
"It turned out that way. Are you unharmed?"
"Thanks to you, the damage was minimal."
Gilbert set down a box and bowed his head deeply.
I caught sight of the private soldiers being treated.
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any major damage.
Gilbert, who had noticed my gaze, scratched his head.
"Everyone was looking for the person who helped, but he suddenly disappeared, so there was talk about whether we should start asking around."
"Fortunately, that need has disappeared."
While Gilbert and I were exchanging simple words.
"The person who helped us here has come, you say?"
Apparently, this conversation had reached the family head's ears, because he stopped what he was doing and came running as if he'd forgotten his shoes.
No one stopped him at that moment.
The Hamel head caught his rough breath and asked.
"Are you the benefactor who assisted us in battle?"
"Yes. That is correct."
"Good heavens…"
The Hamel head, who then introduced himself as Robert, expressed his gratitude with sincerity.
"Thank you so very much for saving my son. We survived thanks to you."
"I merely did what had to be done."
Hmm, son, was it?
I hadn't known they were family.
I had come to catch Demons and ended up learning about the Hamel Family's composition.
I taught the son at the academy, and now I had coincidentally saved both their lives.
I glanced back and forth between the family head and Gilbert.
Looking at them now, I could sort of see the resemblance.
While I was naturally accepting this, a question came from the family head.
"Might I be permitted to know the name of the benefactor who saved our lives?"
"I go by Karon, and I serve as an outside instructor at the academy. I teach your son."
"Ah! So you are his teacher."
Suddenly, the Hamel head delivered a firm slap to Gilbert's back as he stood there quietly.
"What are you doing, not thanking your teacher this instant!"
"I already did before you arrived, Father…"
"Hmph."
I hurriedly waved my hands, telling the family head that Gilbert had already thanked me several times.
Nevertheless, he cast a glance around and wore an apologetic expression.
"I do not know how to repay this kindness."
"You needn't concern yourself. Rather, it was your son's calm response that lessened the damage."
"Truly?"
The family head nodded slowly, his expression deeply satisfied.
Seeing how proud Gilbert looked, I had clearly scored considerable points.
Afterward, I earned additional points by simply helping with the cleanup.
Establishing a connection with a noble using my status as an academy instructor was by no means a bad thing.
Starting as an academy outside instructor, coming to catch Demons, and ending up meeting a student's parent.
You truly never know what will happen in life.
* * *
After the commotion had passed, the slums returned to their original state.
As if nothing had happened, people quietly watched the carriage depart.
I, too, blended into the crowd and kept an eye out for suspicious movements.
Fortunately, no second attack was launched against the carriage.
If there had been, I would have rushed over and stopped it on the spot.
After it had completely vanished from view, I walked into the alley, stroking the Holy Relic I had carefully kept in my pocket.
The bastard who was still obliviously sleeping peacefully came into sight.
"Tsk."
He was even drooling, making it hard to believe this was the same guy who had been groveling desperately just moments ago.
I prodded his thigh with the toe of my shoe, tap tap.
"Hey, wake up."
"…?"
Still groggy, he suddenly wore the expression of someone who had just seen a ghost.
"U-uaaah!!"
He shot up, his eyes bulging wide.
After a brief exchange of glances, the bastard took the hint, bowed his head, and led the way.
"Ahem, just follow me."
We soon left the dim and dingy alley behind and emerged into a secluded area.
It was a lawless zone even within the slums, a place where footsteps ceased—a place where you could be abducted if you looked away for a second.
I thought he might try to stab me in the back here, but he entered the collapsed building without a word.
He must have truly been desperate to live.
I nodded and praised the bastard.
"So you weren't lying."
"Would I gamble with my life for a prank?"
Now that we had come this far, it was time to find the hidden entrance.
First, I had to locate the special mark.
Looking around carefully, I discovered it carved in a corner.
You could consider this the mechanism that concealed the entrance.
For someone like me who had dismantled and analyzed the Prison Block's Magic Circle, something of this level was not difficult.
If you took the mark as a reference point and traced the flow of Mana all the way through, it naturally converged on a single spot.
"Simple."
"What is?"
"You don't need to know."
I brushed off the question from the bastard serving as the guide and examined the floor.
A Magic Circle, crafted with finesse to avoid detection as much as possible, lay hidden there.
Looking at its rough structure, it had been designed to permit only authorized personnel to enter and exit.
I could dismantle it if I devoted a little time, but there was no reason to go in circles when I was holding an admission ticket.
Without an ounce of hesitation, I pointed at the floor where the Magic Circle was concealed.
"Open the entrance."
"Well, about that…"
Even though he knew this was the moment he needed to step up, he hesitated, as if worried about loyalty, so I subtly gestured with my chin.
"Blowing this place up works too. Should the two of us have a nice little chat?"
"No. No, that won't be necessary."
He shook his head frantically and placed his hand against the wall, and a passage leading underground opened up.
This time, intending to take the lead myself, I called the bastard over.
"Follow me."
"Huh? Me? I think my job here is done."
"You have to guide me all the way to your boss."
The bastard squeezed his eyes shut, slapped his own cheeks, and bit down hard on his lip.
"Understood. To hell with it, let's do this."