Catching the Spy (3)
The door to the basement creaked open, and a musty stench assaulted my nose.
I instinctively pinched my nostrils shut with two fingers, holding my breath.
Then, focusing my mind, I conjured a small flame in my palm.
Not as clean as Elia's, but I can make a light source like this too.
With the light now glowing, I could make out the surroundings.
Right after climbing down the ladder was a staircase. Another set of stairs to descend.
At the bottom, a heavy iron door loomed. Fortunately, it wasn't locked.
From beyond it came eerie, inexplicable screams.
Kkiiik-
Keng-!
Grk- Grrrk-!
Sounds of something writhing in agony. Clashing chains and steel. A cacophony of twisted, horrifying noises.
"This is... kinda creepy to open."
But what choice did I have? I'd attacked Professor Temiri, so before that blew up, I needed solid proof she was a kingdom spy.
Plus, I might uncover clues about other spies not mentioned in the story.
Steeling myself, I yanked the door open with all my strength.
It groaned rustily, revealing the horrors inside.
Kyeng-! Kyeng-! Kyaeng-
Chiiisik-
"Whoa... what the hell is all this?"
The basement was crammed with cages full of magic beasts. And traces of experiments everywhere.
It was obvious what had gone down here.
Professor Temiri taught botany. And she was genuinely brilliant at it.
How to mix magic beast parts and bury them in soil. How to brew poisons. How to make antidotes.
She'd amassed vast knowledge not just in botany, but in any field even tangentially related.
When Maria's curse worsened and she started coughing, Temiri had made her medicine. It didn't lift the curse, but it had a real effect.
And the shock to Maria when she learned that medicine came from materials extracted by torturing these magic beasts...
"Feeling sorry for magic beasts, huh."
I said that, but anyone would feel a pang seeing this.
All I could do was end their suffering quickly.
I drew my beloved sword and started stabbing the beasts one by one.
A wolf-type with its belly splayed open, whimpering. A slime pickled and hardened in chemicals. A giant bat with its eyes gouged out. A snow hog skinned alive.
Any of these would be deadly in the wild, but here they were just pitiful things lingering in torment, unable to die.
I plunged my blade into the last one.
"Why bother with spy shit when you're gonna do horrors like this?"
I flicked the blood off my sword and headed to what looked like Professor Temiri's desk.
Sure enough, there were letters from the kingdom and core evidence proving she was their spy.
She'd fled without cleaning this up. Or maybe the opposite...
Doesn't need to. Her cover's blown, so she can just change identities and operate elsewhere.
No, that couldn't be right. The kingdom losing the element of surprise against the empire was damage enough.
So that left one possibility.
A trap?
Right then—
Clank-
Something clicked open.
The whole basement shook violently.
Cages tumbled everywhere; I struggled to keep my balance.
Drddruk-
And at the same time, filthy, sticky glop began dripping from holes in the walls and ceiling.
"Slime?"
Not the slimes I knew.
Something was off. It was a slime, but not the bottom-tier trash mob.
A memory from Kael's past flickered: something similar.
"King Slime."
King Slime. Lord of slimes. Dangerous on its own, but especially here.
The chemical reek was overpowering alongside the stench. Definitely Temiri's experimental modification.
"I get it. Destroy the evidence and the intruder at the same time."
Why leave the kingdom collusion traces intact?
Obvious: no need.
Erasing all this evidence manually would've been a nightmare. Low oxygen meant fire would fizzle out, and acid would take a fortune.
But with slime? Two birds, one stone.
"Clever move, Professor Temiri."
Kingdom spies were no joke.
I drew my sword and slashed a huge chunk leaking from the ceiling tiles.
But it just reformed like nothing happened.
Slimes don't die unless you destroy the core. And hidden in walls and ceiling cracks? Impossible to reach.
Shwick-!
Sliced the wall clean through—no effect.
Kwajik-!
Hacked the ceiling—core nowhere in sight.
But I didn't panic.
"Hated getting dirty, but no choice..."
Normal people wouldn't dream of this, but...
Plunk-
I thrust my hand into the advancing slime.
Acidic burn seared my skin.
"Guhk..."
But even enhanced, it couldn't dissolve me instantly on contact.
Size up, but slimes' destructive power is still meh. So...
Focus.
I sensed the mana, like casting a spell.
Ignored the pain surging up my arm. Linked the thread-like mana to the world around me.
Felt every vibration and rhythm flowing through me. At the end, a pebble-like foreign presence.
Simple: same as concentrating for a fireball. Mana sensing first and foremost.
"Good thing I practiced."
This was Heidel's trick from the original story against a King Slime.
Owe Heidel one. Live long and prosper.
"Found it."
Powerful mana pulsed from that pebble sensation.
Done. Arm skin scorched and polluted, but this brute method worked.
Shwick-!
Kwagang-!
Nicely hidden in the corner.
One strike. My sword pierced the wall, bisecting the core perfectly.
Glad I practiced on stone golems for hard targets.
Plop plop plop-
Coreless, it collapsed into worthless sludge from the ceiling.
I dodged the falling muck like a shit-avoidance minigame.
"Ugh, gross."
I'm a scumbag, but I hate filth. That's non-negotiable.
I bolted for the stairs, evading the deluge.
"Oh, right."
Doubled back, stuffed the spy evidence into my pockets, then escaped.
Academy Boardroom.
The academy was in chaos.
All because of the evidence Kael Lotus had brought on Professor Temiri.
A paper with an unfalsifiable mana signature, blatantly detailing her collusion with the kingdom.
"The aptitude test, and now this—truly remarkable."
"Shh. That's enough. We can't talk freely about a kingdom spy."
Indeed. Though an academy professor was involved, this was now Imperial Intelligence's turf.
"Maybe that student Kael Lotus is Intelligence himself?"
"Makes sense."
"Are you mad? If he is, your loose lips just put you under interrogation!"
They said that, but...
Most board members were already convinced Kael was Imperial Intelligence—or at least on some imperial mission.
He'd been suspicious from the start.
At the social banquet, he'd played the blatant delinquent, building his image meticulously. In the aptitude test, he beat the sword instructor and cast magic in ways professors had never seen.
Then picking the arts department? Suspicions piled up.
"So... how should we treat him?"
"Keep this quiet. No telling the faculty. To the public, Temiri just retired due to age."
That was the board's decision.
Just as misconceptions about Kael Lotus began to bloom.