Chapter 138
Chapter 138
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 138
Chapter Title: 8th Hierarchy, The Frozen World
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Having suddenly found himself in this place, Havel was being guided by someone.
The guide was a Rank-2 agent named Dariz.
Along the way, after exchanging a few words with him, Havel picked up some valuable information.
'Feels like a world completely different from ours.'
It was the kind of vibe storytellers often rambled about.
"Here we are."
In the meantime, Agent Dariz led him to a building.
The structure Havel entered was far taller than the surrounding ones.
Stepping inside, Havel immediately boarded something.
With a metallic clang, it shot upward at high speed.
It was bizarre technology.
Anyone else might have made a fuss over it.
But Havel's reaction was utterly indifferent.
After all, he was someone who could fly through the skies on his own power.
Nothing like this would surprise him anymore.
A short while later, as the rapidly climbing numbers hit the 100th floor...
The doors slowly slid open.
The room evoked images of an audience chamber.
A massive door dominated one wall, flanked by a waiting attendant.
The attendant looked every bit the knight guarding a king's quarters.
Moreover, Havel sensed a formidable presence beyond the door.
It seemed the presence had partially sensed him too, radiating intrigue.
"Chairman, Agent Dariz Rank-2 is here to see you."
Meanwhile, the attendant knocked to announce the guest.
"Send him in."
"Yes, sir."
The attendant nodded to Dariz and slowly opened the door.
Dariz gave the attendant a quick bow before turning to Havel.
Catching the cue, Havel strode inside without hesitation.
Creeeak—thud.
Once the door shut behind him, Havel surveyed the room.
It was more barren than he'd imagined.
A lone table and sofa sat in the center.
At the far end, a solitary desk.
But the walls were entirely windows.
Thanks to that, the view outside flooded in at once.
From the 100th floor, even the distant horizon was visible at a glance.
Then, a man entered Havel's view.
A man of moderate build stood with hands clasped behind his back, gazing out.
His eyes fixed on the spot where Havel had just fought.
He turned from the window to look this way.
His deep blue eyes suggested early twenties in appearance.
But Havel could tell he was far older.
At the same time, Havel instantly grasped the meaning in those eyes.
'He saw it.'
He'd watched Havel's battle from here.
At that level, he could've seen it as clearly as if it were right in front of him, even from this distance.
'No wonder that gaze stung.'
He must have been watching from here.
"Chairman, this is him. If you're having trouble sensing him..."
"No need to worry. My detection skills aren't quite on your level, Dariz, but they're decent enough. I knew the moment I laid eyes on him."
The founder of the Dimensional Beasts Special Division.
Zero-rank agent, Freddy.
He eyed Havel with keen interest.
"One question. Where are you from?"
Havel blinked at the query.
Meanwhile, Freddy continued.
"After hearing about you, I looked into it right away.
But there's no record of you anywhere.
It's like you dropped out of the sky."
He'd dug that deep in such a short time?
Advanced civilizations like this felt like shackles in a way.
Every individual's existence laid bare.
"Did you come through a dimensional gate, by any chance?"
Dariz tensed at the next question.
It could spark misunderstandings.
But Havel's expression didn't change.
"I wouldn't know."
He truly had no clue about the situation.
"All I did was approach from outside until I saw the city's outline, then cross the wall encircling it."
Freddy's eyes slowly widened at those words.
"...The wall encircling the city?"
"Yeah. To me, the city looked deserted, but once I entered... this."
"That's..."
Freddy trailed off.
Did that mean he'd really come through a dimensional gate?
"...You truly came from Ideaya."
He called the realm beyond the dimensional gates "Ideaya."
The dimensional beasts emerging from those gates were mindless monsters incapable of communication.
Where they came from...
And why they appeared remained mysteries of the world.
Even now, countless studies were underway.
This could be the moment those secrets unraveled.
"Sorry, but there were no dimensional beasts where I was."
Unfortunately, Havel couldn't satisfy Freddy's curiosity.
For starters, the Ideaya Freddy meant wasn't the same place Havel had been.
"I see."
Freddy showed a flicker of disappointment.
But he nodded soon after.
He hadn't brought Havel here just to ask that, anyway.
"Now it's my turn to ask something."
"Go ahead."
Fair was fair—he'd answered, so he'd hear them out.
"That boy who closed the dimensional gate in the sky."
The next words made Dariz and Freddy freeze.
"Where is he?"
Abraksas.
The being no one had ever seen—yet Havel had witnessed him.
The boy he believed was key to clearing the hierarchy.
Abraksas.
Freddy paused at Havel's question about him.
"...You saw Abraksas?"
"Abraksas?"
"The one presumed to close the dimensional gates."
Havel realized from Freddy's reaction.
They'd never seen the boy they called Abraksas.
Freddy noticed Havel had caught on to their ignorance.
Here, they had to prove their worth somehow.
Abraksas was the key to unraveling the dimensional gates' secrets.
"Abraksas uses spatial refraction on his own."
At "spatial refraction," Havel pictured him.
Come to think of it, that did seem right.
For Havel, spatial whatever didn't matter—he pierced straight through illusions.
Even though he'd seen Abraksas directly.
Despite their advanced city full of tech, they'd never spotted him because he bent space himself.
"That's why we've never seen him in person.
But if you describe his appearance, we'll investigate thoroughly."
Havel sensed Freddy's sincerity.
"It could save countless lives. Please."
The dimensional gate incidents happened constantly.
Every year, they claimed innumerable victims.
Abraksas had the power to close those gates.
With that power, they could prevent all the past tragedies.
Seeing Freddy's desperate eyes, Havel nodded.
He had no reason to withhold it.
He saw Abraksas as the key to clearing the hierarchy too.
"The Abraksas I saw was a kid in his early to mid-teens, with black hair."
Freddy's face lit up as Havel described him.
He'd been wondering what price to offer for the info, but Havel was more cooperative than expected.
"Sorry about this. Mind if I bring in a device to input what you're picturing?"
They had gadgets for everything.
So thought Havel as he nodded.
"Dariz."
Freddy promptly urged Dariz on.
Understanding the urgency, Dariz rushed out of the room.
He grasped the importance just as much as Freddy.
Soon, Dariz returned with the device in hand.
He carefully placed the black spherical gadget before Havel.
Then connected something to its base and picked up a rectangular one.
"What's that?"
Havel showed a bit of interest, and Dariz let out an ah.
"It's a device called Adrin. It doubles as a dictionary. First time seeing one?"
A dictionary, huh.
Like that book Baria toted around from the Graiza family.
'If I could just take the knowledge from here outside the tower, it'd be a goldmine.'
Come to think of it, while Havel climbed the Crow Era...
Recent rapid advancements stemmed from studying that era's civilization.
Havel hadn't cared much, but for those delving into knowledge with mages, it was a treasure trove.
'Wonder if it's the same here.'
Elashia could've told him.
Regrettably, Havel was a layman in magic.
"Just place your hand here."
Havel did as Dariz instructed, resting his hand on the sphere.
He felt a strange energy linking him to it.
Quite an odd sensation.
"Now, visualize Abraksas."
Havel recalled Abraksas's image at once.
Moments later, the face Havel remembered appeared above the sphere.
"So young...?"
Freddy murmured in shock, staring at Abraksas.
He really was incredibly young, just as described.
Meanwhile, the image transferred to Adrin.
Dariz waited for the facial recognition search.
Soon, a tone rang from Adrin.
Search complete.
Dariz froze upon seeing the results.
"Chairman, you need to see this."
Freddy took Adrin from him.
And he froze too.
"What is it?"
At least clue in the guy who provided the info.
Freddy realized with an oh.
"We got a hit on Abraksas's identity.
He's a boy living in the Eastern-Western Sector 6. And..."
Freddy spoke with a dubious look.
"He's a 4th-grader at Eblon Elementary School."
Abraksas was indeed early teens, as Havel said.
But hearing it and seeing the records were worlds apart.
For him to be this young...
That meant when dimensional gates first appeared five years ago, Abraksas was just six.
Meanwhile, Freddy noticed Havel's silence.
Turning to him late, he found Havel staring blankly.
"What's a 4th-grader?"
There were no elementary schools in Havel's era.