What Exactly Is That Clue? (1)
What Exactly Is That Clue? (1)
The deal with the Night Crows had been a success. The proof was that even after considerable time had passed, not only had no investigation team arrived—not even anything resembling an investigation team had shown up.
In exchange, Olivia had sold information on a few witches. She had deliberately selected ones the Night Crows could handle on their own.
Honestly, it hadn't been a bad deal. But she couldn't count on that kind of luck next time.
'I got lucky this time.'
The reason a deal with Calliope had been possible was that she was a ruler. By nature, rulers don't turn down sweet proposals. Even when the one offering the deal was a hated enemy.
The position of knight commander of a nation wasn't something you could seize with skill alone. In the first place, someone who didn't know how to play politics never would have risen to that rank.
Calliope must have profited handsomely from this deal as well.
She had taken down four witches hiding in the borderlands, so the Holy Kingdom would have sent all sorts of things in gratitude. Public support, of course, and she would have earned the emperor's trust too.
If Calliope had come from the Central Knight Order, which operated in the open, the achievement would have warranted a full triumph ceremony.
Calling it triumph-worthy might sound like a stretch, but considering that a single witch typically sacrifices more than a thousand people on average, it wasn't all that strange.
Four thousand people by simple math.
And on top of that, the ones Olivia had selected were particularly vicious even among witches, so it was probably double that.
'Damn, but I didn't expect them to take down four that fast.'
In any case, the job must have been sweet enough, because before long Calliope sent Seth up. Fortunately, this time he used a Teleport scroll rather than a wyvern.
"...At any rate, that's how it stands. There won't be any investigation team formed for the north, whatever happens elsewhere."
"Because it'll get buried under the other witches?"
"Correct. Three mages getting kidnapped turned out to be nothing at all. Those bastards, they really..."
Seth trailed off as if he didn't even want to think about it.
Olivia, who had a rough idea of the cause, nodded in agreement.
"They burned them thoroughly, I take it?"
"Burned them until their whole bodies crumbled. Only then did they die."
"Witches are tenacious by nature. They could still be alive, so dunk the corpses in Holy Water just in case."
"Is that so?"
Seth casually glanced around.
'Let's see here.'
In truth, if his only purpose was to deliver news about the investigation team, there was no need to come all the way up north in person. The sole reason he had come this far was to check on the condition of the mages Olivia had kidnapped.
But there was no need to check in secret. They were right there in plain sight, after all.
"Hrrrrrryaaaaahp!"
"Heh... hehehe... hehehehe!"
A living hell of a different sort was unfolding there.
The mages who had been "kidnapped" from the White Tower were shrieking at the top of their lungs, driven past the edge of sanity.
"I-I-I'm dying. I'm dying!"
"Jeina. Fix your posture."
"No, I mean, I really think I'm going to die!"
"Tch!"
"Grrrrrk."
"Oh, this one's passed out again. Wake her up."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Astoundingly, this was the scene of brutal training.
Last time, Seth had only seen them collapsed asleep, but looking at them today, he began to suspect they hadn't been sleeping—they'd been unconscious.
'Looks like they weren't being mistreated, at least.'
No, wait—wasn't this mistreatment in its own way?
He'd never in his life seen a training method this barbaric. Seth himself would take second place to no one when it came to being called reckless, but even he couldn't compare to the spectacle before his eyes.
This was genuine barbarism.
"Won't their bodies break down like that? I've heard that mages suffer physical strain when their mana is fully depleted."
"If you heal them right away, it's fine."
"Heal them? It's not as if you have a priest..."
Seth's gaze stopped somewhere.
Bottles of a familiar shape were scattered across the ground.
Seth bent down and brought his nose to one of them.
Sniff sniff.
'Th-this is!'
The moment he smelled that familiar strawberry scent, an instinctive terror etched into his very genes surged up.
"Any other special develop..."
"Hurgh... Hurrrgh... Hwaaaargh."
Olivia fixed Seth with a withering glare as he retched violently.
"My apologies. I just, hrrrrgh, hwaaaargh!"
"..."
"P-please don't hit me. I-I haven't been able to eat strawberries since that day."
So he knew he deserved it?
"I-I was wrong. In any case, it's all my fault. I, I, I was entirely in the wrong..."
Crouched on the ground, Seth trembled all over.
"...Forget it. Just get out of here."
Faced with that pitiful sight, Olivia couldn't bring herself to scold him further.
"I-I'll go! I'll go at once! Hyiiiiiiik!"
Seth bolted outside in a frantic scramble.
"..."
Watching him go, Olivia let out a hollow laugh.
'He wasn't originally that kind of character.'
He'd been a bit more forceful, strong—a manly-man type.
It felt like she'd ruined someone.
In any case, according to what Seth had relayed, she'd be able to focus entirely on training her disciples without interference for the next few months.
Olivia discreetly checked the date.
'Is it about time to thaw him out?'
There was somewhere she had to go today.
*****
"It's not like I'm doing some damn daily quest. Do I really have to keep this up forever?"
Grumbling, Olivia flew off toward where Kiel was.
It was about time for Kiel to come to his senses.
Of course, she had absolutely no intention of letting Kiel go.
Why had she released the Night Crows? Because the person who sent them was Aria.
She'd sent them with orders to track down this Olivia character—if contact was suddenly cut off, who would Aria suspect first?
Naturally, she'd think Olivia killed them, or at the very least was involved.
She'd released them because letting them live was more advantageous than killing them and shutting them up.
But Kiel was different.
'This bastard, I can keep locked up.'
Thanks to his habit of wandering the continent alone, wrapped in a thick robe with his identity concealed, neither House Rothschild nor even the continent's most renowned information brokers knew where Kiel was.
In other words, she could keep Kiel held captive here for years and no one would know.
Had he gone missing? Been kidnapped?
Would House Rothschild—who knew better than anyone what kind of man Kiel was—really think that?
Of course they'd just assume he was off roaming around somewhere.
That wasn't to say there was no one on the continent strong enough to harm the Sword Saint Kiel.
But most of them were public figures, and they weren't people so lacking in judgment that they'd pick a fight with a ducal house backed by the emperor.
The conclusion: there was no one on the continent who could harm Kiel head-on without holding back.
No one except Olivia.
'He's a goddamn white elephant.'
Of course, that didn't mean keeping him captive was easy.
'I've got to figure something out for this too. Three days of duration is ridiculous. Three days.'
No matter how superhuman Kiel was, he would die if left trapped in ice for years, so she had to repeat this cycle of thawing him out every few days and then freezing him again.
Once every three days—that came to about a hundred and twenty times a year. Factoring in the healing sessions in between, it'd be even more.
Which meant she had to keep doing this for thirteen damn years.
She'd only visited her best buddy once, and now she was going to visit her worst enemy a thousand times.
'...Should I just try moving up the Demon God's descent date?'
It wasn't as if she didn't know how to bring about the Demon God's descent. She had the locations of all the Demon God worshippers memorized, too. But...
Olivia shook her head.
Kiel, she could manage alone. But the Demon God, she couldn't manage alone.
That would be ruining her life just to take a short break.
'Dammit. If I could just shank him and be done with it, things would be so much easier.'
The fact that she couldn't was an eternal regret. If she had her way, Kiel, of course—and Aria, Melina, everyone who looked like they might get in the way—would all...
"Hm?"
Olivia landed on the ground and narrowed her eyes.
Kiel was still frozen solid. But there was something different from what she'd expected—unlike last time, he had regained consciousness.
And he was glaring clearly in her direction.
[Kiel Rothschild]
Level: 83
Favorability: -100
The Status Window was unchanged.
'He's awake already?'
The electric current last time had been anything but weak. Accounting for Kiel's exceptional magic resistance, she'd hit him several times harder than usual.
'Don't tell me he's got some permanent stat increase effect as a regressor perk or something? Nah, no way.'
Ssssssss.
Now that she looked, the ice encasing Kiel was melting much faster than expected too.
No matter how she looked at it, her ominous premonition seemed to be spot on.
'...Those goddamn Game Operators are out of their minds. Did they make this expecting someone to clear it?'
Olivia sighed deeply and approached Kiel.
"Why have you kept me alive?"
"..."
There was no need to answer questions like that. Engaging him in conversation would only mean leaking information from her side.
Kiel's eyes sharpened a little further.
"You. What are you scheming?"
'Scheming, my ass. I came to freeze your sorry ass again, what else.'
"...Even so, I will never forgive you."
'Yeah, yeah. Don't forgive me, then.'
As electric current flickered at Olivia's fingertips, Kiel jerked his head away.
"I will..."
But Kiel couldn't finish his sentence.
BZZZZZT!
The electrocuted Kiel crumpled to the ground on the spot.
That was the moment.
Ding!
[Clue #1]
[Memories of Imperial Calendar Year 992]
- You may view Kiel's memories once.
'...I could view this again?'
'Don't tell me I can see it every time I subdue him?'
Olivia looked at Kiel and smiled a subtle smile.
"You just got royally screwed."
Heh heh heh.