Chapter 157: The Eve of the Storm
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 157: The Eve of the Storm
This was expected.
In fact, it came much later than I thought.
I’d originally figured I might face a similar line of questioning from Meldini or Isilof right after Enver died.
“The reason I went to Blackdog with Professor Enver was…”
I should just tell the truth.
Why was I trying to investigate Blackdog back then?
“Because I suspected there might be a possessor in Blackdog.”
“An old rumor, but a plausible one. Blackdog is the darkest shadow in this city. Hide there, and no one can find you. It’s a suitable place for a possessor to lie low,” Meldini said.
“But it’s unexpected that you went to Blackdog looking for a possessor. According to the report from your questioning at the Public Security Headquarters at the time… you went to investigate at the request of Constable Neko.”
“That’s also true. In the end, we didn't find Constable Neko’s partner, but we did arrest Inspector Ennes.”
“I see. Did you obtain any information about possessors in Blackdog, then?”
“No.”
That was a disappointment for me, too.
They were hidden so damn well. Even after that, I had Back Attack ask around about key figures in the back alleys, including Krom’s party members—the former cardinal Rococo and the Frostian mage Nimue.
“I didn’t get much.”
“Do you know why the organization Blackdog got its name?”
“Why is that?”
“Because the leader who founded the organization long ago was called Blackdog in the back alleys. He always had a black Doberman with him.”
“…”
“Rumors were rampant that he was a possessor.”
I’d never even heard of the man.
“The leader of that organization has been called Blackdog for generations. It’s possible the current Blackdog is a possessor.”
“I see.”
“I understand why you went to Blackdog. But why did Professor Enver follow you?”
“He was trying to recruit me into the Assembly.”
“You are…”
Meldini stared at me intently.
“Not a possessor.”
“Correct.”
“Then why did he try to recruit you?”
“There are members working for the Assembly who aren't possessors.”
“What?”
“It seems they invite anyone they find useful and put them to work.”
“Wait a moment.”
Meldini became slightly agitated.
“Does that mean you know of an Assembly member right now? Besides Professor Enver?”
“Yes.”
Isel.
But.
“I cannot tell you who that person is.”
“Hahaha.”
Meldini let out a short laugh.
“Caleb.”
The old professor leaned back, putting his weight against the back of the chair.
“You know I’m very fond of you.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want to argue with you. And I don’t want to suspect you.”
“…”
“I’m trying to protect you. Tell me who that member is.”
“Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because they’re on my side.”
“…Is that person feeding you information about the Assembly?”
“They’re a low-ranking member, so their information is limited.”
“I see. If they’re that kind of undercover agent, then the fewer people who know their identity, the better.”
My refusal to speak wasn’t because I didn’t trust Meldini.
It was because the world of mages is a frightening place.
For example, say I let Isel’s name slip to Meldini.
What if the Dagger Raptor showed up tonight, murdered Meldini, and then used a spell to speak with the dead and learn Isel’s name?
In the world of mages, there are countless ways to extract information from a person.
Things like highly effective ‘truth serums’ are commonplace in this world.
So I would never speak of Isel to anyone, anywhere.
Hell, even Yernil, who lives in the same mansion, doesn’t know.
“Don’t tell anyone.”
Fortunately, Meldini was more of a tactician than an authoritarian.
“Thank you for understanding.”
“But let me confirm one thing, just to be safe. Can this informant be trusted?”
“Yes.”
Isel’s trust in me was at 100%, the same level as Yernil or Aimus Back Attack.
There was, however, one thing that bothered me.
I didn’t know if that trust level was still being maintained.
The message window that displayed trust levels had disappeared after I subjugated Back Attack.
“Is there anything else you can tell me about Professor Enver?” Meldini asked.
“He said this before he died.”
“What was it?”
“‘My name was Kim Min-sung, twenty-seven years old. A good-for-nothing bum who’d finished his military service as a sergeant, taken a leave of absence from school, and did nothing but play games.’ That’s what he said.”
The old professor’s face was filled with confusion.
“K-Kim Min-sung? What does all that mean?”
“Kim Min-sung was likely his real name before he was possessed.”
“Hmm…”
“He said something else, too.”
“And what was that?”
“‘If you are chosen by the Labyrinth, you can return home.’”
“Chosen by the Labyrinth, you say.”
“He said that’s what the White Lion told him. That all they had to do was make it into the top ten.”
“What does ‘top ten’ mean?”
“I don’t know either.”
“Hmm…”
“There’s something more important, Professor.”
I had been worried about this for a while, and that morning, I had cross-checked it through Isel.
“The Assembly might try to rescue the White Lion.”
“…”
Meldini nodded.
“That’s a problem we’re anticipating. It’s possible that blood will be shed within the Magic University very soon.”
The position of Chief Inspector was offered to Consul Peterson, but he personally turned it down.
The position would remain vacant for a while.
The reason was that Peterson himself wanted to be free from various administrative duties.
“Consul, are you insane?!”
Magistrate Delphin was aghast at the consul’s insane decision to simply not do the Chief Inspector’s job at all.
“Administrative work is a pain, but someone has to do it!”
“You do it, Delphin.”
“How can a magistrate do the Chief Inspector’s work! That’s overstepping my authority!”
“Just give things a quick look-over instead of just stamping them.”
“Argh!”
“I always appreciate you, Delphin.”
The consul was a man who had protected Sohen for the past twenty-odd years.
“I can’t just sit in the Chief Inspector’s office right now.”
The consul’s experience, forged from painstakingly upholding justice and order amidst all sorts of bizarre crimes, plunder, and brawls that occurred both inside and outside the Labyrinth—including the Labyrinth Eruption incident 12 years ago—could not be ignored.
It was what now gave him a beast-like intuition.
“I need to be ready for combat at all times.”
Instead of the Chief Inspector’s office, he had to be on standby in the consul’s office on the first floor of the Public Security Headquarters, or personally patrol the city to keep an eye out for danger.
He couldn’t be tied down to the Chief Inspector’s office.
He needed to be able to go out freely at any time to assess the situation at the university and check on the White Lion, who was imprisoned in the basement of the Public Security Headquarters.
“They’ll come soon.”
The first Labyrinth to open since the White Lion’s capture had now closed.
‘The Labyrinth is closed.’
What had the White Lion’s remnants, hidden within the Magic University, been plotting all this time?
“They’ll definitely come to rescue the White Lion.”
Perhaps another Labyrinth Eruption would occur.
Perhaps that monster who murdered Dalstream would come.
‘The Dagger Raptor.’
When would they attack the Public Security Headquarters?
Probably…
“When the next Labyrinth opens.”
There was a reason for this.
For monsters from the Labyrinth like the White Lion or the Dagger Raptor, the Labyrinth was the safest place.
When the Labyrinth reopened, the Dagger Raptor would lead the Assembly’s mages to attack the Public Security Headquarters, rescue the White Lion, and try to escape with him into the Labyrinth.
The Public Security Headquarters had to prepare its best forces.
They had to gather not only the Deep Layer adventurers but all the high-floor adventurers as well.
And there was one team right on that borderline.
“Caleb’s party.”
The consul spoke to Delphin.
“You said they took down the 7th-floor special boss this time, right?”
“With Clorence’s party.”
“Can you contact both teams?”
During a Labyrinth Eruption, low-floor adventurers protect and evacuate ordinary citizens.
Those from the middle floors and up are combatants. Among them, adventurers up to the 6th floor are mainly deployed to defend key points and maintain the front line.
And as for the high-floor members…
‘The attack squad.’
They are tasked with annihilating the enemy that emerges from the Labyrinth.
Caleb’s party was now more than capable of handling that role.
This is what the White Lion had said.
The Labyrinth is on the verge of its final eruption.
When that time comes, it will swallow everything on the surface.
And the Labyrinth Master will ascend to the Ethereal Galaxy and create a new world.
What will you do?
Will you risk your lives to protect this world?
Or will you join his grand plan as a servant of the Labyrinth Master?
Like it or not, you are all already pawns on a chessboard.
See who is truly wicked. Discern the real monster.
Who was it that kidnapped you and dropped you into this world without so much as asking for your consent?
The gods of the Ethereal Galaxy are afraid to join the war themselves. So they use you as consumables to protect the people of this world.
What reason do you have to fight for them?
Give up.
The Labyrinth Master’s plan can no longer be stopped.
This world is not your home.
Follow the Master’s will.
On the day he ascends to the Ethereal Galaxy.
“You will be able to return home.”
Elaine, a professor at the Magic University.
She lay in the bathtub, gazing at the ceiling with weary eyes.
“Damn it.”
A gloomy sigh escaped through the steam.
“I want to go home.”
Her name was Kim Min-ha.
She was a 28-year-old civil servant from the Republic of Korea. An 8th-rank clerk, said to be one of the most thankless positions.
Her routine consisted of getting chewed out by her section chief once a week, being swamped with civil complaints, going home after work to eat a convenience store meal while watching videos of male idols on MyuTube, walking her dog, and liking her friends' posts on Insta.
Who knew she would miss that boring life, a life she’d wanted to throw away at a moment’s notice, so much?
“Ah-ah-!”
Kim Min-ha clutched her hair with both hands.
“That White Lion! The idiot had to go and show off, and now he’s caught!”
That monster was a gifted speaker, possessed considerable strength, agility, and magical skill, and on top of that, had the insane ability to produce scrolls from his palm as if pulling tissues from a box.
He was skilled enough to crush two or three Deep Layer adventurers on his own, but surprisingly, he had been captured while fighting the Archmage Dalstream!
“I never knew that old man was so strong.”
No one knows what happened in the end at the collapsed annex of the Public Security Headquarters.
The only people with Dalstream at the time were three mid-floor adventurers.
Caleb, Aimus, and Back Attack.
Of course, Caleb was a superstar rookie whose stock was rising these days, but his party’s contribution to a battle between Dalstream and the White Lion would have been nonexistent.
Dalstream must have done it.
The combat power of that old man, long since retired, must have been far beyond imagination, enough to inflict a critical wound on the White Lion by blowing off one of his arms and, through some unknown method, forcibly transport him to the stairs of the Labyrinth Union.
And that’s where Krom’s friends, who were waiting, captured him.
The panic when they finally grasped the situation later was immense.
‘If he’s interrogated and gives up our information, we’re finished!’
‘Let’s go rescue him now!’
‘The Labyrinth Eruption is almost over, where are you going!’
‘Going now is a suicide mission!’
Opinions were fiercely divided within the Assembly.
In the midst of it all, they learned with horror that a crazed cardinal named Rococo was extracting information with some kind of homicidal interrogation method(?), and now the mages of the Assembly were in a panic.
“When the next Labyrinth opens.”
That’s when the Assembly would launch an all-out offensive.
All they had to do was grab the White Lion and escape into the Labyrinth.
The final eruption of the Labyrinth was not far off. They just had to survive until then. They would hold out inside the Labyrinth.
“We can do it.”
Kim Min-ha got out of the tub and picked up her wand.
She tapped her own face.
“Disguise.”
She had several names.
Professor of the Magic University, ‘Elaine’.
A civil servant of the Republic of Korea, ‘Kim Min-ha’.
And a member of the Assembly.
Growling Chihuahua.
“Grrrrr~!”
She bared her teeth at the mirror. Doing this reminded her of the dog she had back home. Its name was Happiness.
“Happiness.”
Playing around like this in front of the mirror often cheered her up, but not today.
“When I get home, let’s go for a walk first, okay?”
The de facto leader of the Assembly now that the White Lion was gone.
Growling Chihuahua was preparing for the coming war.
“Shall we get going?”
The chihuahua got dressed and went outside.
“New professor.”
The newly appointed professor at the Magic University, Isel Berten, was the Assembly’s Koi Carp.