Chapter 107: Her Motive for Murder
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 107: Her Motive for Murder
Teramond lived in a small town in the west.
He was an orphan, abandoned as a child, but he met a kind-hearted general store owner and was raised as their own son.
‘We always wanted a son, since we only have a daughter.’
The couple’s only daughter was a year younger than Teramond.
Maria.
She was a lovely girl with red hair.
Teramond grew closer to her as he protected and cared for her, and eventually, he went from being their adopted son to their son-in-law.
‘After we’re gone, you two can run the general store and live happily.’
That’s what the old couple said on the day the two were joined.
And then, one dawn, when Teramond opened the general store earlier than usual…
He screamed and ran into the house.
“Maria! Maria!”
The west was not a stable city like Sohen. Amidst the power struggles between lords over the precious resource of the Labyrinth, it was common for rural villages to be attacked.
“Hide in the closet!”
Maria got into the closet and burst into tears, terrified. She clamped her fist over her mouth.
Screams and shouts could be heard from outside the window.
The crimson glow of flames was visible through the window.
The country bumpkins, who knew nothing of complex politics or war, were slaughtered overnight without knowing why.
It wasn't until around noon that the lord’s army arrived and drove the enemies away.
Teramond survived. So did Maria.
But her parents did not.
To investigate the enemy’s invasion route, the lord’s mage used ‘Speak with Dead’ magic. On Maria’s mother.
It was by chance that she was chosen from among the many corpses in the village.
The mother said this:
‘It wasn’t an army that killed us. It was Teramond.’
Teramond laughed.
“Looks like I’m caught.”
He said, wiping his dirty hands on the hem of his blood-stained shirt.
But why?
To Maria’s question, he answered:
“The general store is ours now anyway. Fewer mouths to feed, right?”
Why had he been abandoned as an orphan when he was young?
Because he had tried to kill his own mother.
That demon, who had been born with something fundamentally missing, thought the village raid was a good opportunity.
‘Let’s kill the bothersome old couple now while we have the chance! The lord won’t investigate too closely anyway. There’ll be corpses all over the village. Once they’re gone, the general store is mine.’
As he was being dragged away, Teramond told Maria he loved her.
He said he did it for her.
‘If you have our child, it’ll be hard for the five of us to live on the store’s income.’
Maria was five months pregnant.
She had a miscarriage.
*
You really can’t ignore the Consul’s experience.
I had suspected Bipa and Mugol for a time, then the red-haired woman, going back and forth as I searched for a motive and method. But the Consul had pushed a single theory from the very beginning: a ‘slave-hate crime.’
He was right.
“It doesn’t make any sense… Why… Why spare him? Why forgive him? Why let him become a free citizen?”
Maria’s shoulders trembled violently as she became extremely agitated.
“Because he has a talent for magic? Because he can be a successful adventurer in the Labyrinth? What does any of that matter…?”
The Magic University’s slave adventurer system was a program that quantified a crime into a monetary debt, then gave prisoners who proved their ability to exceed that debt a chance to contribute to society again.
…That was the official line, anyway. In reality, it was a desperate measure to replenish the number of mages, which had been decimated during the Labyrinth Eruption 12 years ago.
“I was trying so hard to forget, just wishing he would die, and then a letter came.”
Maria’s eyes grew moist.
“Do you know what Teramond said?”
When she opened the letter, she recalled the psychopath’s true nature and was terrified. She expected the letter to be filled with all sorts of curses, rage, and hatred, but…
“He said he was sorry.”
The letter’s contents were unexpected.
He said he had reflected a great deal while rolling through the pits of death in the Labyrinth, that he would live a new life as a mage, and that he would never appear before her again.
It ended with him saying he was sorry for what happened back then, and wishing her well.
It was written in a tone reminiscent of young students apologizing and moving on after hurting each other in a clumsy romance.
“I guess he liked the idea of starting a new life as a mage?”
What was she supposed to do after reading that letter?
Was she supposed to cheer on the new beginning of the man she once loved most, the father of the child she had carried in her womb, the lover she had grown up with since childhood?
Leaving her shattered life behind, he was about to live the second act of his life, washed clean in Sohen.
That letter wasn’t to alleviate his guilt. Nor was it to offer a sincere apology.
It was mockery.
A boast that he was talented enough in magic to pay off a debt of 30,000 gold.
A sneer that meant, you let a man this great get away.
“I can never forgive him…”
Her arms, wrapped around my neck, tightened.
The music had stopped long ago.
The session musicians had put down their instruments and were milling about in a panic.
For a while now, the entire club had been backing away from me, forming concentric circles.
“Boss!”
Back Attack was being held by the constables.
“Don’t move.”
The woman opened her mouth and showed me her tongue. A small capsule rested on it.
“It’s poison. If I bite down, it’s instant death.”
If she died, the Corpse Explosion Scroll would activate immediately and blow the entire club to smithereens.
“You too…”
She said.
“I heard you have a murder conviction, too.”
Fuck.
This is so unfair.
I don’t even know what Hyedam looks like!
*
Calm down.
Stay calm and slowly re-evaluate the situation.
There were a total of three women with red hair in the club, and the constables were watching all of them.
The reason they let her approach me was because they had no definitive proof.
If they had moved in and arrested her, only for her to be the wrong person, it would have just broadcasted our operation to everyone around.
To be honest, the Public Security Headquarters had been careless.
‘Soul Preservation is in effect, so even if the worst happens, there’s no real risk of me actually dying.’
That’s what everyone must have thought.
In fact, some constables might have even hoped the red-haired woman who approached me would make a move, just so they could finally end this tedious stakeout.
And to be honest, I was careless too.
In my case, it wasn’t because I trusted in Soul Preservation, but because I trusted in the Hourglass.
Even if I survived thanks to Soul Preservation, if I lost a leg like Avison, I wouldn’t be able to enter the Labyrinth, and it would be game over all the same. So Soul Preservation wasn’t something to rely on.
But the Hourglass would activate automatically the moment I was attacked, and as long as my opponent wasn’t a monster like Bipa or Mugol, I was confident I could handle them.
I was sure the culprit was a petty criminal, not some incredible adventurer.
Why? Because she clashed with Yernil at the dormitory’s back gate, and Yernil is still alive.
If she were a truly powerful enemy, Yernil would have been killed on the spot.
Maybe Sally’s level.
Ingelam, at best.
That’s what I had assumed.
But who could have possibly imagined she’d show up with Corpse Explosion Scrolls wrapped around her body like bandages?
This quantity is strange, no matter how you look at it.
The Consul had locked down Sohen and was tracking the sales records of Corpse Explosion Scrolls and Object Memory Erasure Scrolls.
Not just the ones sold within the Magic University, but also those on the black market.
An amount like this is impossible to acquire ‘secretly.’
‘Maria has an accomplice.’
Who could it be?
Looking back now, there are more than a few strange things.
Maria is holding a knife, not a wand.
This woman isn’t even a mage.
Or an adventurer.
She’s just an ordinary citizen who runs a general store.
So how could someone like this act so boldly as to commit murder on university grounds?
How did someone like this skillfully clean up the scene of Teramond’s murder, use Object Memory Erasure and Corpse Explosion, how did she know my door had a security alarm, and how did she disable it?
These are all things that would require a mage with considerable knowledge and skill.
Moreover, it would only be possible for someone who knows the inner workings of the Magic University well.
Therefore, her accomplice is…
“Did an assistant instructor or a professor from the Magic University help you?”
But even then, there’s one more thing I don’t understand.
The incredible number of scrolls.
Could this be possible unless someone was mass-printing Corpse Explosion Scrolls as if they were mass-producing golems in a steel mill?
Even if Meldini or Isilof were directly involved, this is…
‘Huh?’
In that moment, something flashed through my mind like lightning.
‘Wait a minute.’
It’s possible.
There is one person who could do this.
No, fuck, wait a second.
“I don’t know who it was either.”
She said.
“He was using disguise magic.”
There is one source that could provide this massive quantity of scrolls without leaving a record.
‘The Labyrinth.’
The Labyrinth grants an adventurer’s greatest desire. The giant treasure chest in a treasure room provides the item an adventurer desperately needs, placing it atop a pile of miscellaneous junk.
For example, something like a Corpse Explosion Scroll.
“I think he was a professor. That’s some comfort, at least. Knowing there’s a professor in the Magic University who is also against slave mages.”
If you had a legendary-grade compass, you could easily find a treasure room every time you entered the Labyrinth and pick up a scroll.
But what if the person belonged to the Labyrinth in the first place?
“He gave them to me. The scrolls.”
He wouldn’t need a compass. The infinite resources of the Labyrinth would be supplied to him at any time.
He is knowledgeable about magic and knows the university’s internal affairs inside and out.
‘The White Lion…?’
*
Looking back, I probably did get on his nerves.
I activated the stone monument on the 3rd floor, and the Spider Doctor was freed.
No one in Sohen knows this, but the White Lion might. He’s the same kind of monster as the Spider Doctor.
They might even be in contact with each other.
And after I came out of the Labyrinth, the professors started poking around the inter-floor village.
That’s right.
‘I must have pissed off the White Lion.’
He might have wanted to kill me.
But acting directly would have been a burden. Besides, the White Lion’s assembly thinks I’m part of Blackdog. That’s why they decided to watch me instead of touching me.
‘The White Lion used this woman.’
He gave power and knowledge to Maria, who was blinded by her rage toward Teramond, and egged her on just enough to turn her into a slave-hate criminal.
To point her knife at me.
“I can’t escape Sohen anyway, I’ll be caught eventually. I’m not an adventurer. I can’t even enter the Labyrinth.”
Maria, who had fallen into a panic, sobbed and gritted her teeth.
She was on the verge of swallowing the poison.
“Before I go, I’ll kill you too…”
CRASH!
The club’s main entrance burst open, and three Deep Layer adventurers stormed in.
“You fucking bastards.”
Veins bulged on the arm of the orc berserker, Krom.
“What the hell are you doing in my place of business!”
Behind him, as he roared, I could see the Deep Layer adventurers I’d seen in the elevator before.
Krom’s party members.
A mage from the northern beastfolk, a Frostian.
“Hello, Caleb. We meet again.”
And a human male, a Cardinal from the temple of Sanfriel, the God of Sacrifice and Challenge.
“Last time you blew up Krom’s casino, and now it’s his club?”
“Nobody move!”
Maria screamed at the approaching Krom.
“Hey, lady. Put the kid down and calm down a bit…”
“I said stop right there!”
What is the White Lion doing right now?
If I were in that monster’s shoes, what would I do?
“Dalstream…”
Fuck.
I remembered.
“Professors! Where is Professor Dalstream right now?”
I shouted at Meldini and Isilof.
“Wh-what are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Professor Dalstream?”
Professor Dalstream said he’d figured something out about the coin monster in the inter-floor village, didn’t he?
The White Lion would find Dalstream annoying, too.
He left me to Maria, and as for Dalstream, maybe…
“He’s probably in his office, writing his thesis?”
“Or maybe he went out to gather data.”
“…”
There’s no time.
If the White Lion is the one who got Maria the scrolls, he’ll have them himself. Corpse Explosion and Object Memory Erasure.
With most of the Magic University’s and the Public Security Headquarters’ forces focused on me at the Blackdog club, it wouldn’t be difficult for that monster to assassinate Dalstream in the dead of night and clean up the scene.
“By any chance…”
There’s no time.
I have to get out of here, fast.
“Are Bipa and Mugol among you?”
Please.
Be here.
It’s not like you have anything better to do.
All of Sohen’s exit gates are closed, and unless you broke out by force, you’re still in Sohen.
What else can you do besides stalk me?
“Please help me.”
You’re here somewhere in this club, right? Show yourselves!
“I’ll tell you what you want to know if you do.”
“Hmm.”
A human man at a corner table raised his hand. He tapped the shoulder of his companion, who was drinking a beer and observing the situation.
“Release transformation.”
He had now fully recovered from the penalty of Chakbyeokingwang. The young, handsome, white-haired Taoist smiled faintly.
“Those bastards!”
The Consul was agitated but didn’t change his target. Maria and I were far more urgent.
“What can I help you with, Caleb?”
The Consul of the Public Security Headquarters.
Meldini and Isilof of the Magic University.
The Deep Layer trio from Blackdog.
And now the Wyndham duo.
It was a ridiculous sight: eight monsters gathered, surrounding a single general store owner’s daughter with no Labyrinth experience.
You idiots!
The real monster is outside right now!
*
“Huh?”
Yernil, a citizen constable who had come down to the Public Security Headquarters’ underground archives, ran into an unexpected person.
It was someone she had seen a few times at the Labyrinth Union.
An incredibly old elf.
She had never exchanged greetings with him, though.
“Hello.”
He was Caleb’s university professor.
His name was Dalstream, wasn’t it?