Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Southern Kingdom Alliance (5)
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"So, in the end, what exactly do you want me to help with?"
A quiet room.
As the warmth from the teacups began to fade.
I looked across the table at Cold Sword and asked.
Honestly, if you're going to ask for a favor, common sense dictates you start with what it is.
Who would help out when they don't even know what needs doing?
"...I can't tell you that yet."
"I'm getting tired of answers like that."
"The only thing I can say for sure is that this is connected to the recent disappearances in Adel."
Ever since starting the Assault Hall, we'd gathered quite a bit of information up to now.
Its truth was uncertain, but when rumors spread this widely, there was always something at the bottom of it.
It could be hallucinations or auditory illusions.
But with so many rumors overlapping on themes of missing people or the dead, the chance it was real was definitely there.
If Cold Sword's request involved those disappearances, then maybe the rumors about them were true.
That didn't mean I was going to accept his request like some fool.
I wasn't a volunteer.
The problem is... he kept saying he couldn't tell me until now, and suddenly adds that it's related to the disappearances.
I hadn't grilled him that long.
There was surely some reluctance in finally giving an answer, but I focused more on other possibilities.
Asking a stranger to help with something without revealing details from the start was abnormal.
So, is he testing me?
Whether I'm connected to the disappearances or not.
"Then, what's the reward?"
He hesitated at that before smiling and replying.
"Anything the Sword Lord desires. I'll do my utmost to grant it. Honor, money, secret arts... or even sorcery."
It wasn't bluster. It sounded genuine.
Like he could grant any request.
"And you'll tell me what you're asking for once I accept?"
"I can't reveal the big picture. You and that person both need verification first."
Verification. It's definitely something secretive.
Revealing the connection to disappearances meant they probably weren't the ones causing them.
The testing vibe suggested as much.
It seemed closer to someone who knew about the disappearances and wanted to take action.
"I'll pass. I'm too busy teaching the trainees."
Cold Sword narrowed his eyes.
But he didn't seem disappointed.
Instead, he nodded as if he'd expected it, then slowly rose from his seat.
"I figured as much. Still, this connection might lead somewhere else someday."
Cold Sword opened the door and left.
Even through the quietly closed door, I could hear his footsteps fading away.
Irena entered right after.
"What happened?"
"Ah, nothing much. He asked for help with the disappearances."
"And you turned him down?"
"He wouldn't say specifically what kind of help he wanted."
The next few days, the Assault Hall remained bustling.
The hall had expanded, trainees had increased, and challengers trying to break swords were lining up.
It was truly becoming a sect, a movement.
I'd never planned to grow it this big.
I just wanted to blend into the community, stay low-key, and gather info.
At this rate, staying under the radar is impossible.
But it wasn't a total loss.
Using the Assault Hall as a base let me investigate southern events faster.
More people meant more information piling up.
Stories from challengers and instructors, intel gathered by Irena and me.
One keyword kept surfacing at the center.
Missing people.
Lately, people were vanishing across southern regions.
At first, they thought bandits, but oddly, rumors of dead bodies in the same areas spread too.
Missing people and the dead.
Words that seemed unrealistic.
Maybe baseless rumors, but I headed to the remote village with the most disappearances.
I started investigating there for three days.
Gathering info on the missing and tracking down those who'd seen the dead.
"Doesn't seem like groundless rumors. What do you think?"
"The disappearances and sightings of the dead are probably both real. Hard to say they're coming back to life, though."
Too many circumstantial clues for mere rumors.
Lots matched the info we'd gotten wiping out Red Star.
The south was supplying corpses, so they're clearly doing something with them.
In fact, I knew reviving the dead wasn't impossible.
Not true resurrection, but as monsters.
In a way, that could be resurrection.
Count Baltazar starting experiments and turning his household into monsters definitely pointed to that.
I realized there was nothing more to investigate here and turned to head elsewhere.
That's when I sensed movement beyond the bushes.
Something was rushing through the low bushes.
Small, light footsteps. No adult, clearly.
Ragged breathing followed soon after.
"Hah... hah... please..."
A beastkin girl was fleeing.
She looked about fourteen, blood trickling from a shoulder wound, clothes torn in places.
Terror on her face as she glanced back while running.
"Secure the vessel quickly...!!"
"There! She's there!"
One man spotted her position and pointed at the girl ducking into the bushes.
The girl hurriedly passed the bushes, pressed her back against a tree, and hid.
She peeked back occasionally to check if they were still coming, then suddenly noticed me and Irena standing still.
"Ah, no...!"
"You're safe. We're not with the ones chasing you."
Irena reassured her and eyed the pursuers approaching from afar.
Irena drew her sword.
She'd left Frost Spear behind to avoid drawing attention.
"Who are you? Come any closer, and I'll cut you down."
Three pursuers.
Plain clothes, but movements like soldiers.
One raised a hand in signal.
"Wait, we're not here to fight. That kid just escaped from our facility."
"Facility?"
"She's in a dangerous state. Contact with outsiders could be risky. We're just trying to protect her—"
I snuck up behind the pursuers and struck one's neck with my wooden sword.
Thwack! One went down unconscious from the blow to the back of his head.
"Wh-what?!"
I smashed the crown of another's head as he reached to resist.
Fluidly, I struck the last one's neck, knocking him out too.
"That's done. Shall we ask for details after we move?"
I nodded toward more pursuers approaching from the other side.
They operated in groups of three.
Not just one team—multiple, spread across the forest.
Whatever it was, the girl they called a "vessel" seemed important.
Soon after, we moved to a nearby abandoned warehouse.
The girl huddled in a corner, an old blanket draped over her shoulders.
Irena gave a kind smile.
"It's okay. You're safe now."
"Wh-who are you...?"
"We run the Assault Hall. We took out the people chasing you. We can help if you need it."
The girl stared intently at Irena for a while, then bit her lip hard.
"I... I was locked up. By those people..."
"Imprisoned?"
Irena echoed.
The girl clutched her head as if recalling painful memories.
"Caged behind iron bars... they injected me with strange drugs, told me to go into the painting. At first it was just me, but later other kids too..."
The girl stopped abruptly.
She lifted her head as if something just hit her.
"...I was the only one who escaped. Only me... only... Ah, no...! My friends...!"
She staggered toward me, reaching out.
But before her hand could touch, her body pitched forward.
Irena rushed over and caught her.
She was still breathing, but out cold, deep in sleep.
"She fainted. She must've been at her physical limit."
I stared at the girl's feet.
Running barefoot through the forest had left them bloody.
She'd been fleeing nonstop since escaping.
"So, Ian. What now? Head back?"
Until now, we'd only pieced together fragments, but this made it easier.
Imprisonment, drugs, and a strange painting.
Imprisonment and drugs made sense, but the strange painting was vague.
It couldn't be harmless.
If it were psychological experiments, they wouldn't resort to kidnapping.
The only thing that came to mind was...
Sorcery.
After brief thought, I spoke.
"Let's take her home. We'll pry info out of those guys."
Before me lay the three unconscious men, bound tight.