Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: A Meal and a Meeting
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The guards, their faces pale with shock, grew even more flustered upon seeing Sienna's attire and emblem.
No matter how insulated they were in their own little world, antagonizing the Union was unthinkable.
Some immediately bowed their heads, while a few others dashed out of the entrance.
From their shouts, it seemed they were going to fetch someone in charge.
A short while later, men identifying themselves as Olen's elite guards arrived at the entrance.
Their latent mana and the aura they exuded were vastly different from the guards'. Unlike the guards, they maintained a somewhat haughty attitude and tone.
"Follow us."
Loan's party followed them.
Some of the vagrants followed them out, disappearing into the dawn-lit city.
Those who tried to tag along were stopped by the guards, but Sienna shook her head at Loan, as if to say she couldn't be responsible for them too.
Loan felt a pang of helplessness.
He looked back, etching the image of the quarantine zone's thick walls, the unyielding guards, and the people beyond them deep into his memory.
Olen City Hall was in the center of the city.
It was a renovated castle that must have stood for ages, set apart from the other buildings, making it feel like a small fortress.
After confirming their identities, Loan's party was shown into a reception room on the first floor.
Loan neatly placed the ghoul's tongue and the priest's head on the large table.
He didn't forget to create a subtle vortex of convection in the surrounding air to block the stench.
The sight startled the official, but he didn't make a scene like the guards at the quarantine zone had.
"Would you please wait here for a moment? I will fetch the mayor."
From then on, an endless wait began.
The languid morning sun gradually poured into the spacious reception room.
Feeling bored, Lucas sat on a sofa and began to doze off, while Sienna took out a small notebook and started writing.
Loan watched from a distance, and it didn't seem like she was simply taking notes.
‘She's writing with mana.’
The pen she was using looked quite special.
Looking closely, he saw it was more of a metal model without a nib.
Instead, a magic formula was wrapped around the pen's body, structured so that Sienna's mana flowed naturally through the pen and left letters on the paper.
After she finished writing, Sienna tucked the pen back into her clothes and tore the page from her notebook. She tossed it into the air, and soon, only the words written in mana remained suspended before scattering.
Loan found the process fascinating and was about to strike up a conversation, but Sienna quickly closed her eyes and fell into meditation, so he couldn't.
‘I'll have to ask her later.’
Despite having been up all night, Loan didn't feel tired.
Sitting by the window, he gazed outside, and the gray walls of the quarantine zone came into view as a silhouette.
Its hazy outline resembled the look in the vagrants' eyes.
Their situation was no different from his own when he had been confined in the shelter. In fact, it seemed even more tragic.
So much so that he wondered if they were being kept there to become ghouls.
Suddenly, Loan summoned Aul.
"Aul!"
Now, it appeared instantly when called.
Loan asked Aul the questions he hadn't had time for earlier.
He showed it the formula in the book, asking about its identity, where it lived, if it knew anything about Le Tell, and so on.
Aul had no memory of itself, nor any information about what Loan was asking.
Aul seemed to feel guilty for not being able to give its master a proper answer.
"Aul..."
"It's okay. I'm not disappointed."
"Aul."
Loan reassured it, but Aul boasted that it would help its master with another ability and make him happy.
"No, you don't really have to go that far... All right. What can you do?"
"Aul!"
Loan's eyes widened, his expression brightening.
According to Aul, while it had no knowledge of its own, it possessed a special ability to uncover someone's secret information.
"Oh, really? That's a very interesting ability. I thought mental magic was a power exclusive to the priests of Sion."
"Aul..."
"Huh? That?"
Loan turned his head and asked again.
Aul raised a wing and pointed at the dark priest's head on the table.
"You can use your power if you eat that?"
"A—ul!"
A lengthy explanation followed.
For some reason, it couldn't use its power now, but if he gave it the priest's head, it seemed it could regain some of its abilities...
Loan hesitated for a moment.
Seeing it drool, it clearly wanted to eat it, but he couldn't just hand it over.
The ghoul tongue was one thing, but the priest's head was practically Sienna's kill alone.
However.
"Let it have it."
Sienna said, her eyes still closed.
Apparently, she had been listening to Loan and Aul's conversation all along.
"Are you sure? Capturing a dark priest will surely be recognized as a great achievement."
"I don't mind. The tongue, too. It was useful getting here, but I'm well aware of your contributions."
That was a relief.
In fact, hearing the word 'contributions' made his heart flutter.
It was as if he'd been praised twice, which made it even better.
"Then, Aul, do as you please. Thank Sienna."
Aul, seemingly overjoyed, flew into the air and spun around before giving Sienna a perfunctory, reluctant nod of thanks.
It seemed to have opened up a little because its master was being so polite, and its impudent demeanor was so cute that Sienna let out a small smile.
Aul flew silently back to the table and settled itself.
Using its long legs, it strode over the ghoul tongue and stopped in front of the dark priest's head.
Then it tilted its head back to look up at the head, several times its own size, and opened its dainty beak.
Its beak stretched impossibly wide, and as it opened, Aul's head grew larger with it.
CHOMP—
With a snap, it took half the priest's head into its mouth.
At that very moment, Lucas, who had been drifting in and out of sleep, woke up, witnessed the scene, and screamed.
"Aargh!"
Faced with a sight straight out of a nightmare, Lucas scrambled back into the sofa, flailing his arms, but the claymore he was searching for was far out of reach.
Aul paid him no mind, tilting its head further back with the large head half in its mouth.
Then, it opened its throat wide and, like a cormorant swallowing a large trout, gulped down the priest's head.
It was easy to see where the swallowed head went.
Aul's body stretched to the contours of the priest's face, and its long legs sank into its flesh all the way to the floor.
‘It'll probably take a long time to digest that big head.’
Just as Loan thought, Aul stood perfectly still, like a statue. With its eyes and beak closed, it seemed best not to disturb it.
Still trembling, Lucas asked quietly.
"W-what is that thing!"
"Its name is Aul. Remember? The day we first met. The stone you bought me at the magic shop."
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I remember. It was on our windowsill until just a little while ago..."
"That's right. The Stone of Goetia. It came out when I broke the formula."
Loan then recounted what had happened in the quarantine zone and the events of a few moments ago.
Finally, he pointed to the grimoire still floating in the air.
"I think there might be a connection, but I'm not sure yet."
"Then isn't it dangerous? Like, if it's related to Le Tell or something."
Loan looked at Aul for a moment before shaking his head.
"I don't know. I did purify the Stone of Goetia completely when I first broke it. It was a process similar to this Sheville. So it's clean and pure now."
Lucas didn't know what 'purify' meant, but if Loan was that certain, he figured it didn't matter.
"So now that it's eaten the head, it can use some kind of ability?"
"It says it can learn an opponent's secrets."
"Whoa... that's insane. It can really do that?"
"We don't know yet. It seems like it'll take some time to digest that head first."
Even as they talked about it, Aul remained perfectly still, as if it were asleep.
The three of them stared at Aul for a while, but seeing no change, they naturally changed the subject after a moment.
Loan spoke.
"I heard Olen has been neglected for political reasons."
Sienna nodded.
"Yes. Geographically, this place is a transportation hub. That's where it all started."
A short way east of Olen is Schwerin, and to the southeast, you reach Sion. If you cross the river to the north, you're in the Grafton mainland. In other words, this small city offers easy access to all three nations.
"If it's a hub with easy access to other places, shouldn't it be more developed?"
"It would have been, if it were a single nation, but the world has been at war for a long time."
It was also a place where fierce battles were fought for a long time as each side tried to claim it.
From the perspective of the Grafton Kingdom, which ended the war, investing resources in the city could be seen as a check or a threat to the autonomous duchies. That's why Olen received no significant support.
The same was true for the other duchies. Neither Schwerin nor Sion put much effort into developing the area around Olen.
This was due to concerns that it would cause unnecessary misunderstandings.
"So it has a strong character as an autonomous city."
"Regardless, where people gather, money is bound to circulate. Whether it's right for the mayor here to be using it in such a way, I don't know."
Sienna's gaze turned toward the quarantine zone.
Loan could somewhat understand the meaning behind her gaze.
More time passed.
Still, no one opened the door to the reception room.
Despite the disrespectful treatment, Sienna remained composed.
Lucas was different.
"This is still Grafton territory, yet the officials seem to be treating the Union poorly."
Sienna responded to his complaint.
"What did you expect, a floral crown?"
"That's not it, but..."
"This is just right. If they had made a fuss over us, it would mean they have something to hide."
As if on cue, the door they had been waiting for burst open.
The officials who had greeted them and a flood of elite guards poured in.
Behind them, a round-faced, round-bodied man rushed in, wiping his face with a handkerchief.
"Oh, goodness, my sincerest apologies. I am Bruce, the mayor of Olen. I was out on a regional patrol and was completely unaware of your arrival from the Union, hence this terrible discourtesy. It would have been wonderful if you could have contacted us beforehand—ah, not that I'm blaming you esteemed members of the Union, of course! I'm merely lamenting the hardships you must face in your busy work. I heard you visited the quarantine zone before arriving. I trust you are all unharmed...? *pant, pant*."
He had spoken so quickly that his breathing was ragged, and he was sweating buckets.
As the mayor caught his breath, his gaze drifted from Sienna to Lucas, then to Loan, before finally stopping at the table.
"Eek! What is this...? Did you perhaps lay out a ghoul's tongue like this...? Goodness, you are all truly remarkable. A great feat that mercenaries could never accomplish. Just as expected of the Union. Yes, yes indeed. But what is that owl sculpture in the middle...?"
Mayor Bruce moved to get a closer look at Aul.
Lucas looked at Sienna and asked.
"Is this what you'd call making a fuss?"
"Yes."
Sienna placed a hand on her hip and stepped forward.
The mayor, already captivated by Aul, paid Sienna no mind and bent his thick body to look at it, and at that moment—
"Bu—ur—rp—"
Aul let out a massive burp.