Atradeon Moves in Person
Atradeon had gone to the scene himself and come back with strands of hair taken from the place where Sertiphs was murdered. They were all much the same length, remarkably uniform.
"Hold on a second."
One of the two men cut in. Anyone could see that hair that short pointed straight at him.
"The accused. Is this your final defense?"
"......That alone can't count as evidence, can it? Honestly. And why am I the accused?"
He was built large even for a Korean, which meant he matched, almost exactly, the black-cloaked figure a celestial had witnessed earlier. His face was plain and honest, a thoroughly typical Korean face, but his bulk alone made it hard to believe he was human.
"There was a witness account that the culprit was huge, wasn't there?"
"You can't call that evidence."
"This hair is the evidence."
"Come on, why are you doing this to a fellow Korean?"
"In light of a fellow Korean committing a crime this vile, I'll weigh that as a mitigating factor and see that some leniency is worked into the sentence. So speak honestly. You can't run anyway, so let's not drag this out."
In truth, the barrier would not hold for long, and there was a real chance the man might escape. That was why he said it.
"......"
"Paranet."
Yujun called Paranet to his side—not only so the skeleton could give chase at any moment with spatial-movement magic, but because he was curious what the creature's instincts would make of this.
"Look like the culprit to you?"
"Yes."
"Oh? Getting a feeling?"
"No? Just—by the circumstances, isn't that one the culprit? Let us kill him."
"......"
"If you don't know a damn thing, then get out of the way!"
The Korean man shouted it at Paranet.
"And what is this puny thing babbling about? You. Do you wish to die?"
When Paranet looked down on him, baleful blue light pouring from his eye sockets, the man hunched his shoulders. A skeleton of a full five meters—and clad in massive black armor besides, his bulk was on a scale no mere human could match. Of course his spirit broke. He had just been named the prime suspect on top of it.
"What's your name?"
"Jang Geoncheol."
"Who ordered you to kill him?"
"......That......"
"How did I know, you mean?"
"......"
"A hunch. I'm certain you killed Sertiphs. So tell me who's behind it. Clamping your mouth shut and dying here is a worse bargain than confessing everything, fleeing Heaven, and living to scheme another day, isn't it?"
"Y-yes, that's right! Someone made me do it! They said if I didn't, they'd kill me......"
"You were threatened? That's your reason?"
"......What?"
"We're forming a soul contract."
"Why would we?"
At the words soul contract, the color drained from Jang Geoncheol's face. He knew the power that phrase carried.
"The terms will be nothing more than this: don't lie. Speak only the truth, and no harm will come to you."
"Even so, a soul contract is a bit......"
"You said you were threatened, didn't you? Is telling the truth that hard? Refuse the contract now, and you die here."
"Don't say such frightening things. We're countrymen. Let's not do this to each other."
"We haven't even gone to another country. We've ended up in an entirely different dimension. Countrymen? Where do you see any of that? And if you tell the truth, I said I'd show leniency."
"All I have to do is form the soul contract?"
"Yes."
"All right."
Having come this far, Jang Geoncheol had never had a crack to slip through. He nodded meekly and stepped forward.
Yujun cast the soul-contract magic at once. Well on his way to becoming a master of magic, he had reached the point where even that notoriously finicky contract could be sealed in a single instant.
"Is it done?"
"Yes. Lie in an answer now, and it won't be your neck that goes. Your soul will be gone on the spot."
Jang Geoncheol swallowed hard.
"What's your level?"
"Why are you asking? That has nothing to do with this, does it?"
"Read the soul contract again. Answer what you're asked, and answer with the truth. So answer. Quickly."
"620."
"Exactly level 620?"
"Yes."
"How did you kill Sertiphs?"
"I just hid, and then I ambushed him......"
"So you knew in advance that Sertiphs would go there."
"Yes."
"Who told you?"
"The one who threatened me...... no. My employer."
"Why the change of story?"
"You told me not to lie."
"So you were lying earlier? About being threatened?"
"......That's right."
"Why?"
"I thought I was about to die, so I blurted out whatever I could to get out of it."
"Then you, Mr. Jang, killed Sertiphs for pay."
"That's right. Strictly speaking, I was to be paid in both points and items."
"Hm."
He was in no position to lecture the man. Hadn't he himself been promised items by Sertiphs and killed a fair number of celestials? If Jang Geoncheol was guilty, Yujun could hardly claim to stand anywhere very different. Even so, Sertiphs was someone bound to him by ties of his own—and a celestial who had been meant to lead Heaven. The one behind this had to be found. The celestials gathered here would want that as well.
"Who was it that promised you the items?"
"I don't know who they are. Truly. They were dead set on never revealing it."
"They were hiding their appearance?"
"Yes."
"You know nothing at all? Not even what organization they belong to?"
"Ah—now that I think of it, I did hear one thing. I was eavesdropping, but while they were talking, the word Order came up."
"An Order......?"
The word brought something to mind at once: the Demon God Worshippers. They worshipped the Demon God. In a sense, were they not an order themselves?
But this is Heaven.... Can I really be so quick to tie this to the Demon God Worshippers?
Yujun looked at Manuela. Meeting his eyes, she nodded.
"Sounds like the Demon God Worshippers."
"Right? Well, even if it isn't, it hardly matters."
Demon God Worshippers or some other faction entirely, both were enemies all the same.
"Atradeon. Do you know anything of an Order?"
Too many eyes were on them, so he said it like a whisper.
"I know of no order that ought to exist in Heaven. Yet I, too, judge that the word must mean the Demon God Worshippers."
"So the Demon God Worshippers are involved in this."
"The likelihood is high."
Which meant the scale of the matter had just swollen enormously.
"Then there's a Demon God Worshipper among the celestials."
Atradeon's eyes went wide.
"So there is."
"What I want to know is why they didn't kill him themselves, and hired a mercenary to take the job instead......"
"There's a reason for that."
Jang Geoncheol said it as he drew closer.
"Which is?"
"Because I'm strong, isn't it?"
"......"
"I-I'm not joking."
"Well, you do seem strong. The real reason would be to hide that Sertiphs's death was the Order's doing. That's why they concealed who they were when they appeared before you."
Jang Geoncheol was certainly a strong player—strong enough to kill a commander of Sertiphs's caliber in single combat. Sertiphs had let his guard down, yes, but he had still died in one blow. Ordinary skill could not have managed that.
"Mr. Jang. You don't know where the Order is, correct?"
"No."
Yujun drew his sword.
"Wh-what! What are you...... doing......"
Jang Geoncheol stumbled backward in a panic.
"You don't realize what's happening to your body right now, do you?"
"What do you mean?"
He was in a state where he could not lie. Yujun clicked his tongue at the covert, vicious handiwork of the Demon God Worshippers.
"Haven't you felt as if you've suddenly grown stronger? Think carefully. Could you really have killed Sertiphs on your own power?"
"......"
"And level 620, at that? Your items aren't even exceptional. How in the world did you kill Sertiphs? In a single strike?"
"That's because he let his guard down, too......"
"I hear you thrust the sword in from the front. Sertiphs wasn't even sitting on the bed. He knew you were there."
"That's true. When I faced him, the power was overflowing in me. But that was......"
"That was?"
"Because of a potion they gave me. I checked the item information and confirmed there was no poison in it, and it had an option that temporarily amplified my stats. My stats really did go up."
"Even so, weren't you far too trusting?"
"If I didn't borrow their power right then, I couldn't have finished the job."
"And the items you were promised?"
"They said they'd give me three Mythic-grade items. Matched to my level, no less."
"You confirmed the items were real?"
"Yes. If I hadn't seen them myself, I wouldn't have judged so hastily either."
"So the potion wasn't the problem. The problem lies elsewhere."
"What on earth is the problem? I don't feel anything wrong at all."
"It isn't only the potion. Those Demon God Worshipper bastards planted a foul energy in your body."
"Energy? What kind of energy?"
"I don't know. But I know it has no business taking root in a player's body."
The longer he watched Jang Geoncheol, the stronger the ominous feeling grew. The man was not an evil of any profound degree—just a mercenary who killed people for money. Nothing more, and nothing less. And yet a terribly dangerous energy was rolling off him, and with every moment that passed, it grew thicker.
"Everyone, fall back."
Yujun said it low. Had it been an ordinary player, the crowd gathered in the square might have snorted, but the one who spoke was Yujun—and players who had survived every kind of hell could hardly miss how grave the air had turned.
In that very instant, Jang Geoncheol's body caught fire with a roar. There was no surge of mana whatsoever. He simply began to burn. Flames even leapt from him onto the ground, and they raged so fiercely that the celestials beat their wings in a panic and fled.
"What's wrong with him?"
"Spontaneous combustion?"
"Looks like he's trying to kill himself. Isn't it because he leaked their secrets?"
"Could be the soul contract. He must have mixed lies into what he said and been punished for it."
Guesses flew thick, but not one of them knew the truth.
Except Yujun.
This is the Demon God Worshippers' work.
The energy of the Demon God Worshippers, familiar to him. Faint, yet unmistakably leaking from Jang Geoncheol.
Madness. He's turning into a Demon God Worshipper, more by the second.
Jang Geoncheol was past the point of no return. The gloomy energy that only Demon God Worshippers gave off was swelling ever stronger—thick enough that even those who had rarely faced them could sense it.
"Ghk...... gaaaaah!"
Jang Geoncheol screamed and thrashed. While everyone stood frozen in horror, the dark energy clinging around his body burst outward like an explosion. Two celestials who had been relatively close were swallowed by it and died.
What kind of power is this......
Yujun had thrown up a shield at once and so escaped harm, but the force of it was nothing short of catastrophic. Jang Geoncheol, though, did not seem to have attacked on purpose. He was too busy roaring, unable to master his own body.
"We can't leave him like this. Manuela. Just give me a blessing and fall back."
"Got it!"
With the blessing laid on him, Yujun reached Jang Geoncheol in a flash.
If this is tied to the Demon God Worshippers...... then turning him back is as good as impossible.
He set his resolve. He had no idea what the Demon God Worshippers had done to Jang Geoncheol's body, but judging by the energy alone, it was the worst he had ever felt. A thread of tension ran through him as he gripped his sword and kicked off the ground.