Chapter 151
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 151
Chapter Title: The Remilish Ritual
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Bzzz! Bzzz!!
A message came from Melissa.
"What's up?"
- Is everything going well?
"Found her. She seems to still be alive."
- Really?! You're sure she's alive?!
"For now. Haven't confirmed yet. But if she's not completely dead, I'll save her and bring her back no matter what."
- Got it! I believe in you, Big Brother! You have to bring our little sister back!
Was this just a check-in on the situation?
"I'll bring her back no matter what, so wait there, you shoulder-perched paradise bird."
- Don't get hurt, no matter what...
She sounded like she was making a fuss, but her voice was hoarse.
That must mean she's too anxious to even take my teasing.
"I'm a bit busy right now, so I'm hanging up."
- Ah... wait a second.
She hesitated for a moment, then her voice came through again.
- Lady Navel sent a message. Things are getting serious, so we need to move right away.
"What?"
I didn't have the leeway to move right now.
The promise with the Saintess was important, but finding Arsha took priority over everything.
- I passed on the situation for now. She said she set up a meeting with the Hael Tribe. She wants to handle it alone first and asked us to join her once things are done.
"Alone?"
- I think she's taking a bit of a gamble, but we don't have much choice on our end.
"Got it."
I needed to rescue Arsha as quickly as possible and then rendezvous with the Saintess.
But why did this feel so ominous?
No, it wasn't something to worry about right now. Navel was the Saintess herself. Who could harm her?
I shook the thoughts from my head and sorted out the situation.
"You're heading to the Remilish family, right? I know a shortcut."
"Why walk when we don't have to?"
At that moment, the spatial transfer magic circle activated once more.
"How are you casting these massive spatial transfers nonstop...?"
Arsha hadn't moved from there. I was sure I could find her.
The Remilish family.
Rulers of Remilish Island, one of the islands in the Phinas Archipelago, with a lineage stretching back over 300 years.
Having governed the island for so long, the Remilish family was practically the kings of this place, just like the families on other islands in the archipelago.
In fact, rumors said the Remilish family was relatively moderate compared to others.
The mansion guarded by countless knights and soldiers was essentially a royal palace, the most heavily fortified spot on Remilish Island, and a symbol of the island's authority.
Mansion?
"That's no mansion. It's basically a palace."
"That's how much influence the Remilish family has here. They're the de facto rulers."
Leon turned his head slightly at Merrill's response.
"Mind if I ask something?"
"Go ahead."
"If I hadn't known about Arsha's survival and had rescued her safely anyway."
"......"
Merrill flinched under Leon's chilling gaze and lowered her eyes.
"What would you have done?"
"......I'm not sure. But at least if Lady Arsha Cascadia was unharmed, I would have sent her back to you."
"You'd better hope that's true."
"We have no reason to be hostile to you right now."
Leon fell silent, lost in complicated thoughts, staring intently at the distant walls encircling the Remilish estate.
"Senior... is this okay?"
"Permission's already granted. In this situation, cooperating is our only option."
"I... I guess so..."
The Moon Watchers' decision was swift. Since Leon had somehow learned the truth, they might as well cooperate with him to rescue Arsha for sure.
Of course, that was easier said than done—Merrill and Rebecca couldn't do much.
"So how do you plan to get in there? That castle is heavily guarded, and inside, there are top-tier experts led by a Sword Master. Remilish is one of the strongest islands in the archipelago militarily."
"No need to force our way in. They'll invite us themselves."
"Pardon?"
That was when it happened.
Suddenly, numerous soldiers appeared and surrounded the four of us.
"It's them! Seize them!"
As they all pointed their spears threateningly, I got the gist.
The slave trader Baron we'd smashed had powerful backers.
And it looked like those backers were the Remilish family.
Baron's records detailed how brutally they abused humans.
Among those who dealt with slaves, this family was one of the rare true human scum.
They were said to be reasonable and somewhat humane, but in the end, it was all the same rot.
Of course, the records said as much, but nothing was confirmed yet, so we had to be cautious.
One wrong move, and who knew what harm could come to my fragile little sister.
At the very least, spreading the word that I was looking for Arsha would cause problems.
"The Remilish family?"
"That's right! How dare you cause trouble on Remilish Island!"
Leon gave a cold smile as he pointed at the shouting men.
"Now that we've got our excuse to enter, let's go check it out."
We couldn't just smash our way in, so we'd have to go in peacefully and confirm for ourselves.
Remilish Island was essentially the Remilish family itself.
Vania Remilish, the de facto ruler of the family, gazed at the massive ritual circle before her and sneered coldly.
"This is it. This will do it."
Dozens of mages were already swarming over the ominous-looking magic circle.
Protecting those mages were a Sword Master-level knight and over a dozen Expert-level knights, guarding without a single gap.
She had lost her parents in a past war, secretly nurturing her hatred for the central continent while building up the island's power.
Still only in her late teens, just a few years into adulthood, Vania had secretly amassed more military strength than any other ruler in the archipelago.
"Miss, we're short on sacrifices."
"Bring more for whatever's lacking. What about the rest of the brats?"
"They have almost no value as sacrifices. Unless they're brimming with mana or aura, or blessed from birth..."
In that regard, the girl passed out in the coffin at the center of the ritual circle was the perfect sacrifice.
For some reason, cultists had told her the girl was born with a body optimized for this.
Of course, Vania had no intention of joining the lunatics dreaming of world destruction, but she'd use what she could.
By using the sacrifice to activate the ritual, she could contract with some enormous unknown entity here.
An entity of immense power.
One that rarely appeared in this world, and could drive people mad just by being seen.
The monster of the forbidden zone.
That's what the mermaids called it.
It was a power she coveted.
Vania gnawed at her nails.
"Contact Baron. Tell him to bring more useful ones, even if they're not as good as the prime one."
"That's..."
Ropal, the Sword Master guarding Remilish Island.
He bowed his head quietly.
"We just got word that Baron the slave trader was attacked by unidentified assailants. We sent forces to the scene, and there were no survivors..."
"You useless bastards!!! Is this how Remilish knights act?!"
Despite her hysterical scream, the knights and mages merely bowed their heads in unison.
"This is all because you failed to protect Mother and Father properly!! Get me sacrifices by any means necessary!!"
"We are ashamed... Miss."
Not one of the retainers showed any sign of discontent at her outburst.
"Miss."
Then a knight approached cautiously and bowed.
"What is it? Can't you see I'm busy?!"
"We've captured the ones who attacked slave trader Baron. Just four of them wiped out the place entirely, and from the traces, they seem highly trained."
Vania Remilish tilted her head at that.
"Bring them."
As soon as she gave the order, four men and women appeared, surrounded by soldiers.
One had their hood pulled low, but it didn't matter to her.
"You lot? You dared kill people on Remilish turf?"
Vania glared coldly at the gray-haired boy at the front.
He looked about her age.
But that gray hair and sky-blue eyes reminded her of that disgusting central continent sacrifice bitch, making her nauseous.
The boy said nothing, just stared at the ritual circle.
"Miss, they're suitable as sacrifices. What should we do?"
"Why ask? They're criminals anyway—what's there to pick? We can't fail this time."
At her words, the boy started walking forward steadily.
The Sword Master Ropal guarding Vania stepped in front, but the boy ignored his intimidating aura and took another step.
"Halt..."
The moment Ropal tried to stop him physically.
The boy's figure seemed to vanish in an instant, reappearing before the coffin at the ritual circle's center.
The ropes binding him had long been snapped.
Now he reached to open it.
Idiot. It's locked with hundreds of lock spells. Even a grand mage would need days to dispel them.
"Luna, master key."
Master Key
[Lock spells shattered]
That was when it happened.
The boy murmured quietly, and the robed girl—who had approached unnoticed—raised one hand.
She wore a black glove on it.
Krunch!!!
Hundreds of layers of interference spells rippled and twisted all at once.
There are two main ways to make decoding ciphers difficult through complex methods.
One raises the decoding difficulty to extreme levels with advanced techniques, while the other simply demands an absurd amount of time.
The former is incredibly hard to crack but can be breached in one go, while the latter is easy to break but physically requires massive time investment.
But what's the point of hundreds of locks on a safe if you just blow the door off?
I scattered the fragments of the shattered magic and reached for the coffin.