Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Union's Judgment
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Aul's stomach deflated in an instant, but its stretched skin hadn't recovered yet.
It looked as if it were hiding its long legs with a long skirt that sagged to the floor.
"What... is this?"
The mayor, who had just been burped in the face, turned to Sienna with a look of disgust and bewilderment.
At the same time.
"Aul!"
Aul suddenly shrieked, flew over to the startled mayor who was backing away, and settled on his head.
Aul's sagging flesh completely covered the mayor's face, leaving only his mouth barely exposed.
The flustered mayor tried to raise his arms and shake Aul off, but his body froze in an awkward position as if paralyzed.
Stiff as a board, only his mouth moved.
"Damn it... Those bastards are here... If I'd just stalled a little longer... the slum cleanup would've been almost finished..."
The halting, emotionless voice continued, yet it seemed closer to the truth.
The process was so sudden and the ensuing situation so bizarre that even the royal guards and officials were momentarily stunned.
They soon snapped out of it and approached the mayor, reaching for their weapons.
In an instant, sharp sword fragments were hovering in the air, pointed between their eyes.
Loan, his eyes glowing teal, said.
"Stop."
At the same time, *thud*—!
Lucas stood next to the mayor, slammed his claymore into the floor, and then turned toward the Olen officials.
"You heard him. Don't even think about moving."
It looked more like they were guarding him.
Having already lost the upper hand, no one dared to move recklessly.
Sienna said.
"Loan. I think the mayor has more to say."
"Yes."
Whether it was due to the unexpected confession or the passage of time, Aul's sagging flesh had regained some of its elasticity, slightly revealing the mayor's flabby jowls.
Loan asked.
"Are you saying you allowed Le Tell to create ghouls?"
"...A way to clean up... that high-crime area... was the only... I let them make ghouls... and I was to receive... a huge sum of money..."
As expected, the more truth the mayor spoke, the more Aul's body, which covered his face, began to recede.
"Was unleashing mercenaries to kill the ghouls also Le Tell's idea?"
"Le Tell needed... to experiment with making... stronger ghouls... and I had a problem... with the high-crime area..."
"So that's what you meant by 'cleaning up the slums'."
"...Just a little more time... and all the trash in there... would have died off... Once they perfected a ghoul... the mercenaries couldn't handle... Le Tell would leave..."
"And you believed that?"
"...I believe her words..."
"Her?"
"...Priestess Amy... my goddess... She gave me ecstasy once more... She will surely keep her promise..."
At the name Amy, Loan's brow furrowed.
In that moment, Aul's body returned to its original form.
Aul, who had been showing off its long legs atop the mayor's head, shook itself off and then.
"Aul!"
It flew to Loan, left a footprint on his shoulder, and vanished.
With that, the mayor, freed from Aul's influence, looked around in confusion.
He seemed to have no memory of what had just happened.
"That was quite the story, Mayor."
Sienna had drawn her greatsword at some point and was now pointing it at the mayor's neck as she spoke.
"Colluding with Le Tell, conducting human experiments, and trying to 'clean up the slums'..."
"What? What are you talking..."
"For the crimes of treason against the kingdom and the massacre of its people, I hereby strip you of your position, sentence you to beheading, and shut down the Olen City Hall."
"What?"
*Swish—*
The mayor, with a bewildered expression, started to retort and defy the order, but his head was severed before he could finish.
* * *
The three of them immediately began to shut down the city hall.
After gathering everyone inside, binding them in the reception hall, and locking all the doors leading outside, Loan identified several individuals with tainted mana.
Sitting amidst the mayor's corpse and the rows of ghoul tongues, these individuals were interrogated by Sienna one by one.
They learned nothing more than what they had gotten from the mayor through Aul, but it did prove that the mayor's words were, at the very least, true.
The suspects were left bound and isolated in the reception hall.
Sienna instructed a few trustworthy individuals to maintain the lockdown of the city hall, then went up to the roof with her juniors to survey the area.
Then, she took out her notebook again, wrote with a pen that looked like a magic tool, and sent the message into the air.
She leaned against the railing and said.
"Good work, both of you. We'll take a short break here, then head back to the quarantine zone."
"Uh, senior. What you just did. It looked like magic. Could I see that pen for a moment?"
In response to Loan's question, Sienna handed him the pen and said.
"It's a messenger tool. You'll get one when you become a Runner."
"Ah, so it is a magic tool. The text written with this formula..."
"Goes to the Administration Bureau. From there, the message is relayed to each division."
Loan turned the pen over and over, memorizing the magic circle on it.
After catching his breath, Lucas cautiously asked Sienna.
"Um, senior. About beheading the mayor earlier. Are you allowed to do that?"
"If the crime warrants it, we can make that judgment call, but it's usually better to just arrest them and wait for the auditors from headquarters. It helps avoid getting caught up in political squabbles."
"Then why did you..."
"I needed to be decisive. We made him confess the truth using a method that's hard to explain in front of everyone. In that moment, it was even difficult to know if it was the truth. So what would have happened if we had questioned its authenticity or hesitated among ourselves?"
Loan, who had been listening quietly, finally understood Sienna's reasoning.
He spoke cautiously.
"My ability to interrogate would have been questioned, and the Union's credibility would have suffered. You were silently declaring that the truth was revealed through magic."
"Exactly. I trust you, Loan. Therefore, I also trust the ability shown by Aul, who serves you as its master."
"..."
"I believed it to be the truth, so I acted accordingly. The mayor's crimes were severe. Treason and massacre. Beheading is not an excessive punishment."
"Thank you. I didn't even realize."
"There must be conviction in your actions. That is the strength that supports the Union."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
As her juniors answered with spirited voices, Sienna let out a small laugh.
Her smile seemed to instantly ease the tension.
Lucas said to Loan.
"That Aul is really something else. But can't you call it back out?"
"Yeah. It seems the last question made it use up a lot of mana. You saw how it suddenly shriveled."
"The last answer was something about Priestess Amy."
"..."
"The mayor really seemed to hate talking about that. Maybe that's why Aul had to use so much power?"
"Yeah..."
Sienna glanced at Loan, who was trailing off, and asked.
"Loan, are you thinking it's the woman who taught you how to write?"
"Yes."
Lucas stared at Loan, his eyes wide with surprise.
Loan smiled sheepishly and said.
"I don't know if it's the same person, but there was someone like that. She seemed to be with Le Tell. She ran away five years ago when I left the shelter."
"Oh, I see. Then maybe we should have listened a little longer..."
Lucas stopped mid-sentence, startled by his own words.
He now understood the reason for the beheading. What he was about to say would have been a contradiction of their senior's judgment.
As Lucas berated himself for his big mouth.
Sienna spoke in a rather stern tone.
"There was nothing more to hear. We have enough information."
"Yes... I'm sorry."
Lucas scratched his head.
"And Loan."
"Yes, senior."
"The Union's policy is the execution of all Le Tell members and the annihilation of the group. Now that you've joined the Union, consider any lingering grudges in the world to be gone."
"Yes, I'm not worried about it."
"Good. That's settled then."
Sienna's gaze shifted from nearby to the distance.
Under the now-waning sun, the quarantine zone's barrier cast a cool shadow over the city.
Sienna said.
"Let's move out."
On the way to the quarantine zone, they took one of Olen's officials and one of the bound Le Tell members with them.
Loan, who was following Sienna, spoke up.
"Thinking about it, it seems you had some idea of this from the start, Sienna."
"Hmm?"
"It seems like there would have been no problem revealing you were from the Union from the beginning and gathering information in the quarantine zone, but you chose to go undercover instead."
"It's an obvious and easy guess that there would be remnants on Olen's side. It was the same in your case."
"Ah..."
The day the Union raided the Dengton Shelter, the Runners of the Faith Division had reported to Oscar that they had purged the government office's lackeys.
That was Le Tell's way, and this was the Union's way of dealing with it.
"So that's why the barrier looked similar to the shelter's wall. And yet..."
Loan felt anger welling up inside him once more.
At the evil deeds of Le Tell, driving people to a fate worse than death.
And at himself, for killing ghouls and collecting their tongues to gain recognition, all while unknowingly being manipulated by them.
His face flushed red with shame.
Sienna glanced at Loan again.
"It's not your fault. This will keep happening as long as Le Tell isn't rooted out."
"Yes..."
"Let's do what we can right now."
The last sentence was surprisingly gentle in tone.
Hearing what Sienna said to the guards in front of the barrier, Loan was convinced he had misheard.
"This is Runner Sienna of the Union. The mayor of Olen has been beheaded by my hand for the crime of colluding with Le Tell. The Union is now in temporary control of Olen."
"..."
The guards, mercenary administrators, mercenaries, and residents who had gathered all stared at each other, unable to believe what they were hearing.
Sienna continued.
"From this moment on, the Olen quarantine zone is fully opened. Anyone who interferes or objects will be considered an agent of Le Tell."
Even those who had been cautiously observing were greatly shaken by the announcement that the quarantine zone was being lifted.
One of the guards mustered his courage and spoke.
"Wait, if you do that, the paupers inside—no, the ghouls—will come flooding out. How are you going to handle that?"
"Are you with Le Tell, or are you a guard?"
"What kind of question is that? I'm a guard, of course. What do you take me for?"
"Since you're a guard, it's your job to handle it. Stop them."
"..."
After the Olen official they'd brought with them explained the situation, the people realized Sienna's words were not a bluff.
The other heavily bound official also served as a sufficient example.
"First, evacuate all residents and vagrants from the area near the entrance, close to the barrier. The guards will take charge."
It was a sudden measure for everyone, and a commotion arose even among the vagrants.
They followed the guards out of the quarantine zone, looking bewildered.
It took quite some time just to evacuate the people near the entrance.
No ghouls were seen during that time.
Instead.
"Hmm..."
Loan's gaze drifted toward the area around the barrier.
He could see a small cloud of dust rising from far to the east of the barrier.
Sienna muttered under her breath.
"They're fast."
"Is it Le Tell?"
Sienna shook her head at Loan's question.
"That's the kind of dust kicked up by warhorses. It's unlikely Le Tell would arrive so conspicuously."
"Ah..."
A moment later.
The Faith Division, led by Commander Adrian, and the Honor Division, led by Commander Magda, arrived in front of the Olen quarantine zone.
Among the members of the Honor Division was Loan and Lucas's friend, Sophie, looking extremely tense.