The Swarm Spreads
After assessing the situation in Cloud City, we headed straight back toward the city. Fortunately, no one questioned my guess. Whether they suspected anything or not, if that was real, it would be a disaster. A village where everyone had mysteriously vanished? That wasn't something we could afford to worry about right now. If we weren't careful, an entire city could be destroyed. Who knew what brainwashed people might do? We slipped back inside the walls and went straight to the lord.
"Lord!"
"Oh! You startled me. It's the hero's party. You haven't been gone long—have you already finished your investigation?"
"No time to explain. Can we get information on the scouts who went to that village?"
"Pardon? Ah, of course, that's no trouble at all… but quite a few soldiers have gone on reconnaissance so far. Are you certain?"
"That much doesn't matter. How many are we talking about, exactly?"
At the saintess's question, he answered—and we could only gape in shock.
*
Roughly 190 people. Fifteen per expedition. A total of fourteen expeditions. That was how many scouts had gone out, counting duplicates. The attacked village must have been quite large—too big for just a handful of people to investigate thoroughly. What started as three scouts had grown to fifteen. The scouts themselves had volunteered, insisting the village's strange incidents could be solved with enough manpower and time. The lord had gladly granted their requests. Back then, he had simply seen eager soldiers. Now, to us, it looked like they had all fallen under the Puppet Master's control.
I spoke plainly. "We're screwed."
"Hey!!!"
"Sir Hero, even so, speaking so bluntly is a bit…"
What could I do? It was the truth. The lord stared at the floor, his face blank. "Good heavens… Does that mean I've been sending my own soldiers into a trap all this time? How could I have been so foolish…?"
He looked utterly crushed. The saintess tried to comfort him. "Don't blame yourself. Anyone would have fallen for it."
I nodded. The lord wasn't stupid. Even if he had been careless, without knowing the Puppet Master existed, he never stood a chance. That was simply what the Puppet Master did—lay traps so naturally that by the time you noticed, you were already caught.
I tried to steer the conversation toward something productive. "More importantly, who were the first scouts? We need to start there."
Those three were almost certainly brainwashed. Investigating them first made sense. The lord pulled himself together. "Yes. The very first group consisted of three men: Rickby, Nelby, and Kelvin."
"Easy names to remember as a set."
The names sounded made up, but at least they were memorable. After obtaining information on the remaining 187 scouts and a few additional permissions, we parted ways with the lord.
"Let's begin the investigation immediately."
Once it was just the party, Kamilla spoke up. "Time is short. We don't know what that bastard might do at any moment. We can't just let people die."
Typical of a knight—worrying about the people first. Surprisingly, it was Adel who stopped her. "Wait. We can't act recklessly. We need to at least define the scope of the investigation first."
"The scope?"
"Yes. How many people will we monitor? How many suspects are we estimating? Where exactly will we search? We need to decide these things or it'll be chaos."
Typical of a rogue—thorough when it came to investigations. But she had overlooked one thing: the situation had already spiraled far beyond the point where careful, detailed work was feasible. We had 190 scouts to watch, scattered throughout Cloud City. They interacted with residents constantly. We also had to protect any citizens who might become secondary victims. And this was a city—wide enough to be called one, even if it sat at the edge of the frontier. The one saving grace was that the Puppet Master's ability didn't spread like a virus. Still, five people alone couldn't possibly monitor everyone.
"Even if we narrow the scope, it's still too broad."
"Ugh… Just wait. If we keep trimming it down, we'll find a way…"
"Shouldn't we request reinforcements from the Empire at this point…?"
"That would mean waiting several more days."
The party members' voices were heavy with worry. I sighed. There was one method, though I doubted they would like it. "There is one way to cover this much ground."
"What? Really?"
"Hmm… I don't trust that. Is it true?"
"Yes. But we'll need to move somewhere out of sight."
We headed to the edge of the city—near the tall walls, where no one else could be seen. I stepped forward while the others watched from behind, curious. I raised one hand and clicked my tongue inwardly. Well, I didn't want to show this if I could help it…
Whatever. They would have seen it eventually. I had no intention of hiding a skill just because I was afraid of getting scolded later.
Vwoooom!
A purple magic circle appeared above my right hand. Pitch-black mana seeped into it—the summoning circle Valcan had drawn so obsessively. Back in the Insect Assembly Castle, Valcan's detection range had stretched for kilometers. Not because his senses were sharp or because he knew some incredible detection magic. It was simply because his little bugs had crawled everywhere.
Whoosh!
Small one-eyed insects poured out of the summoning circle—hundreds, thousands of them. What looked like a single black stain soon scattered in every direction. It wasn't a pleasant sight, but from now on, they would be my eyes and ears.
Alright. Time to start.
The game of finding the mafia had begun. I ignored the horrified stares from behind me.
*
"What are you?"
"What do you mean?"
"How can you use Insect Magic? Since when?"
I couldn't just brush it off. I had hoped to move on quietly, but within seconds Lily grabbed me. She glared, her expression fierce. I merely shrugged. "Who knows. If I had to say, probably around the time we left the Insect Assembly Castle."
"Since then…? No—how did you learn it? Start with that. Was that even something you could learn?"
"Yes. Insect Magic ultimately stems from magic, doesn't it? There happened to be books on it in Valcan's study, so I thought they might be useful and studied them."
Technically, it had dropped as a reward after defeating Valcan, but there was no need to mention that. I thought it was a decent excuse, but she clearly didn't buy it. Her face twisted in displeasure. "Don't give me that crap."
"Huh?"
"Do you think I'm an idiot? Sure, it started as ordinary magic. But Valcan developed it himself and pushed it to its peak. You think you can just pick that up from a book? And that level of skill? There's no way you reached that in a day or two."
"……"
She was sharp. Maybe that came with being a mage—she could see straight to the core. This summoning technique really wasn't something you could master with a few days of practice. I wished she could see through my true nature that clearly too. Unfortunately, I had already prepared a backup excuse. "I'm the hero."
"What?"
"The most talented being in the world. A walking talent monster. Insect Magic just worked when I tried it. Why? You never taught Kamilla swordsmanship either, yet she picked it up fine."
"…Kh."
Kamilla frowned, as if recalling an unpleasant memory. It was an absurd explanation, but it was true. They all acknowledged my talent. The man who had been the weakest in the party when we first met had become a proper combatant in half a year—strong enough to beat two party members at once now. So they had nothing to say against that.
"Oh, and just so we're clear, I won't accept any arguments about how I shouldn't learn black magic or creepy techniques. We already fought over something similar last time. Repeating the same argument would be boring."
If they wanted to argue, they could show me something more efficient. Thanks to that, I won the verbal spar. I turned away and watched the one-eyed insects spread throughout the city. Now all I had to do was wait for them to bring back information.
And so, five days passed.