Chapter 26
Chapter 26
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Red Star (4)
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The worker nodded.
His fingertips trembled.
It wasn't the handiwork of someone who professionally dissected monster and human corpses.
I guess he is scared after all.
"Where are the things disassembled here delivered?"
"I... I don't know. We just disassemble them and pack them into boxes. It's true. We only know the code words."
"Who picks up those boxes?"
"People from upper management come. We don't know when they'll show up. We just stack the finished products in the warehouse, and they take them whenever they please."
I lightly brushed the back of the worker's hand with the tip of my blade.
"I-it's true...! That's really all we know."
"Do you know who these people are when they come? Any distinguishing features?"
"...Red armbands. They wear something like military uniforms under their robes. Hard to see their faces. They had a bit of a Southern accent."
I recalled the lore on Red Star.
In the original story, they were a cult obsessed with evolving monsters and humans into a third transcendent race.
But that was all premised on monsterization existing.
Red Star had grown its power by weaponizing the side effects of the Aura Energy technique that the Empire had hidden.
Now that the core symptom of monsterization seemed to have vanished, Red Star might be an entirely different faction from what I knew.
...But there's still a lot that matches the original.
It was hard to properly gauge what kind of world this really was.
For eleven years, I'd firmly believed it was the original world, but differences were gradually emerging.
At the same time, there were plenty of similarities.
Now, I couldn't tell if this was truly the original story—or something else entirely.
Was it really romance novel mode?
Or a new creation based on the original as its backdrop?
I couldn't jump to conclusions.
The Empress described Red Star as a rebel organization.
I organized the information I knew with what I'd just extracted.
First off, Red Star wasn't a cult but a rebel group.
They procured corpses of great beasts, monsters, and fallen warriors, disassembled them, and distributed them to various places.
Nine out of ten shares of the profits went to upper management.
From here on, it was speculation.
The corpses disassembled here were just a fraction.
Most were probably shipped intact, preserved in their original form.
I figured that destination was the South.
In the original, the South had conducted all sorts of biological experiments to replace the Empire's proprietary Aura Energy technique.
It was their ambition to surpass the Empire and dominate the continent.
My hypothesis: the South had allied with Red Star to obtain corpses for their experiments.
If true, it even roughly explained the "procedure" that bald guy at the auction house had mentioned.
Corpses in exchange for Southern technology.
Then refine that tech, spread it within the Empire, build power, and plot rebellion.
It's not an impossibility.
If even a sliver of possibility remained, I wouldn't discard it.
Keeping that hypothesis in mind, I posed another question.
"Any transaction records linked to nobles or higher-ups?"
The worker's eyes darted side to side.
I immediately yanked off his shrike mask and clamped his mouth shut.
I slowly—so very slowly—drove the sword in my hand into his thigh.
Twisting the flesh as I pushed it in to maximize the pain.
I crushed his throat and mouth to stifle the scream building inside.
"Th-there is...! We have transaction records!"
"Where?"
The worker flailed and pointed to one side.
I gripped his neck from behind and let him retrieve the ledger.
It listed the corpses for delivery and their buyers.
Transaction records, sure—but no proof linking to nobles.
...Not enough. To drag out the real culprits, I need to dig deeper.
I flipped through the pages rapidly, scanning the ledger.
All proper nouns. No personal details to identify anyone.
The ledger was a clue, but the key was connecting those nouns to real people.
My grip tightened on his neck.
I heard the bones in his neck twist.
"Something else."
"Th-that's... not here. If I tell you, I'll really die...!"
I saw his eyes shake violently.
He seemed terrified of both hiding the truth and revealing it.
"So where is it?"
His eyes spun wildly.
Suddenly, the sound of metal sheets clattering echoed from below.
I reflexively withdrew my blade and melted into the shadows.
A group of heavily armed figures marched down the corridor.
Black robes and masks, red armbands on their arms.
"Bring out everything processed so far!"
I quickly pressed against the wall, donned the worker's robe, and hid the body in the corner.
I pulled on the shrike mask backward and crouched slightly to match his height.
Tucked the sword and ledger inside the robe, then slipped out of the workshop behind the original worker—both of us masked.
The armbanded man glanced at the worker and asked curtly.
"Number 11. Where's the merchandise?"
"...!"
The worker beside me—called Number 11—jumped in surprise and replied.
"S-sorry. I'll grab it right away."
His lips trembled as he trailed off.
He knew I was watching.
Yet he didn't blow my cover immediately. Looked like his life was still precious to him.
Number 11 headed back into the workshop to fetch the goods.
I followed discreetly behind him.
Just as I turned to enter—
The armbanded man grabbed my shoulder.
He released it as if appraising me, muttering.
"Pretty muscular. Number 38. Been working out during dissections?"
The robe hid most of my build, but not the muscle mass.
I turned my head slightly, meeting his gaze.
Blood-red eyes gleamed through his black mask.
A dark gaze that betrayed no emotion.
He probed further.
"Training's good. Especially in this harsh world."
He suspected me.
I didn't know why.
But it didn't seem based solely on my physique or muscles.
Number 11's reaction?
Right up until we left the workshop, I'd been threatening him.
If he stayed calm after such a mortal threat out of nowhere, that'd be suspicious too.
Maybe the man suspected me because of Number 11's demeanor.
I couldn't disguise my voice.
Astier might have a way, but not me.
Whispering softly was an option, but only in limited situations.
Not now—that'd only heighten suspicion.
As if he'd gained some conviction, his gaze deepened.
He took a slow step back.
His hand had already drifted to his curved sword.
"Using enhancers? Your eye color seems different too. Don't overdo it. Your body goes boom!"
He said it like a joke, but his eyes weren't smiling.
The air grew heavy.
His curved sword slowly left its sheath.
He's onto me.
Red smoke rose around him.
Similar to Aura Energy at a glance, but different.
An energy closer to the essence.
The hazy Aura from the auction house flashed in my mind.
I sighed and replied.
"Yeah. I did."
"Now that you mention it, your voice changed too. Didn't expect the speech pattern to shift as well. First case of so many side effects at once, Number 38?"
The words barely ended before we both swung our blades almost simultaneously.
His curved sword clashed with my Rigid Body Armament—and he was the one repelled.
The edge of his blade was visibly notched from the single exchange.
He laughed maniacally in response.
"...I suspected, but didn't think you'd actually be here."
A burly man stepped forward from behind.
He'd been standing at the rear, arms crossed, observing until now.
"Be careful. He might be the one who killed Haileyre."
"Captain. Can't you tell? I had Aura up and still got pushed back. It's that bastard."
"Could be more than one."
"Ah, right—you're onto something—!!"
Another curved-sword wielder charged me.
Black-masked men followed in a rush, while the workers scrambled into the workshop.
I'd already decided to kill everyone here anyway.
Turn this corpse disassembly site into a dead zone.
That was the other task here, beyond gathering intel.
Unlike the auction house, I channeled Wave and Aura Energy.
I slashed horizontally with my sword.
Light and nimble, like swinging a tree branch.
The heads of a dozen charging men flew, tumbling across the floor.
Fountains of blood erupted from the severed necks.
"...!!"
Only the one who seemed like the captain managed to block my strike.
Not perfectly—his stance buckled halfway.
Blood seeped from his neck.
His eyes went wild with frenzy.
The gaze of someone realizing things had gone terribly wrong.