Great Intellect (1)
Knocked unconscious by Helio's lightning, Yuglerus was locked away underground with one of Lesert's specially made restraint devices clamped onto him.
Because Pass Wall magic would have made escape trivial, fitting him with the suppressor was non-negotiable.
Ney had arrested a criminal, yet she still refused to hand him over to the Peacekeepers. Setting aside the bounty contract between the two of us, there were several reasons for keeping Yuglerus imprisoned at Lesert. Chief among them was that Ney and her people simply did not trust the Peacekeepers.
Any investigation the Peacekeepers ran would produce nothing worth hearing — so she intended to interrogate him herself. The result of that decision was the man now bound to the apparatus right in front of us.
"Mmph— mmphhh…!"
"You asked me to cooperate, so I did — but is this really all right?"
A girl he had never met before watched Yuglerus thrash against his bonds and asked the question. Her name was Bel Viartin: head of Lesert Industries' city branch, and master of the man known as the Flash Knight, Helio Nightline. This entire operation — Helio's participation included — had only been possible because Bel had given her approval.
Ney answered with a face full of worry.
"There's something I need to find out."
"Something you need to find out?"
"Whatever the Peacekeepers were so desperate to bury — I'm going to dig it up myself."
Bel shook her head at that. She and Ney had known each other for some time, so she could roughly guess what was driving her. From the moment Ney had made the proposal, Bel must have known exactly what kind of scene would follow. Most of the equipment a Peacekeeper station might possess, Lesert already had on hand; if Bel simply cooperated, Ney's methods were far from impossible.
"Helio."
"Yes, my lady."
"This is illegal, isn't it?"
This was a city where every kind of villainy ran free in the open. Lesert Industries was hardly clean itself. So Bel was not raising the point out of pure righteousness alone. More likely, she was saying it for Ney's benefit — so that Ney would hear it.
Helio, standing behind her, accepted the remark without protest.
"I believe it is, yes."
"Then shouldn't our knight be the one stopping this?"
"Interfering with the Peacekeepers is also illegal."
"…Aren't you the one who shouldn't be doing this?"
"I have no desire to leave Lesert's enemies free to act. Following our guests' wishes does not seem unwise."
"Fine. If that's how you feel, there's nothing I can do about it."
Beep. Bel pressed a button on the remote in her hand. With a clanking of machinery, the gag sealing Yuglerus's mouth came free. He dragged in a ragged breath and swept his eyes around the room. Freed from that stifling gag, there was only one thing a man like him would try first.
"Pass Wall!"
"How stupid."
"Why— why isn't it working? Pass Wall! Pass Wall!"
Yuglerus cast the spell, desperate to break free of his restraints. But a man locked into a suppressor device was never going to be able to activate magic in the first place. All his failed escape earned him was Bel's mockery. As if he still could not believe his magic had been sealed, he screamed the spell's name again and again.
"What do you think Lesert's mithril-working techniques are for?"
"You don't mean…"
"Exactly. It's expensive enough that shipping it outside is difficult — but using it here? No problem at all."
Yuglerus bit down on his lip. The magic he had used all his life like a second set of limbs had been sealed away. The helplessness he felt must have been larger than anyone could easily imagine.
"So. There are a few things I'd like to ask you."
Ney, who had been watching the exchange, raised a stun gun as she spoke. Electricity crackled from the activated weapon — she looked ready to put it to work as a tool of interrogation. But Yuglerus opened his mouth faster than she could move. What came out was a vicious threat.
"It won't change a thing, no matter what you do to me. Before long, every last one of you will be ground into minced meat."
"…"
"You think you can defy the Cabal's will and still live?"
"The Cabal…?"
Usher voiced his confusion at the word that had spilled from Yuglerus's mouth. From where I stood watching, that was the worst choice he could have made. Hinting that someone stood behind him was not, in itself, a bad move — provided Yuglerus himself was worth that kind of protection.
"This city is crawling with monsters you can't even begin to imagine."
"Hold on. What exactly is this Cabal?"
"No matter how hard you struggle, in the end you'll all— ghhk—!"
He never finished the sentence. Mid-curse, Yuglerus coughed up blood and fell silent. A withered arm had burst from his chest and locked around his throat.
"Ghh— uurrgh…"
Creak. Creeeak.
A corpse's arm, stripped of every scrap of flesh, ground out a sickening friction as it crushed Yuglerus's neck. The Successor of the Cabal had left some kind of failsafe in place. Yuglerus thrashed, staring at us with a face gone bloodless white — nothing like the man who had been cursing us only moments before.
"S-save… meee…"
One arm jutting from the region of his heart. And Yuglerus, throat caught in that arm's grip. Startled by the sudden turn, Ney looked to Usher.
"Usher, what do we do about—"
"It's already too late, Ney."
"What…?"
"The moment that thing came out, he was dead."
Ney's gaze swung back to Yuglerus. The man who had been thrashing with his throat crushed was already slumped forward in silence, head hanging. He had trusted the Cabal enough to spit curses in its name — and in the end, it was the Cabal's hand that had passed judgment on him. In a way, it was almost funny. This was the fate of a loser swallowed by the city's current.
"This is… what the Cabal did?"
"Most likely. The organization he belonged to, I'd guess."
Ney stared at the dead man with a hollow look, as if the whole thing left a bad taste in her mouth. To them, this was a criminal syndicate they had never even heard of. Even so, they would have sensed the shape of an incident on a scale unlike anything they had faced before. The Cabal. And a Cabal member executed by his own side. This was the starting point of the great current that would soon surge through War City with Usher Hayes at its center.
"The Cabal. First time I've heard the name. Helio — do you know it?"
Bel, who had watched everything unfold, put the question to Helio. He shook his head without a moment's hesitation, looking down at Yuglerus's blood-soaked, ruined body.
"I have never heard the name either."
"I figured as much."
"Even so, the fact that they are our enemies does not change."
A member of the Cabal had gone after Lesert's information. That was the whole of Helio's conclusion. He had always been that kind of man. In the original story, Helio had fought the Cabal all the way into the late arcs — which was exactly why late-stage Usher had counted him among the handful of people he could trust.
"So nobody knows anything."
"…No. There's one person I want to ask first."
"Someone you want to ask?"
Just as Bel was about to settle her judgment of the enemy, Usher turned his head toward me. Thud. Thud. He crossed the floor and came straight at me, his footsteps ringing through the quiet basement.
"Dark Merchant. There's something I want to ask you."
"What do you want to know?"
"Do you have any information on this Cabal?"
About the Cabal. Of course I had information. I was probably the person in this entire city who knew the Cabal better than anyone. But this was also the question I had wanted to avoid most of all — one of the reasons I had deliberately refused to step into this incident first and get tangled up in it.
"Hard to say. I wouldn't know much."
"Is that so."
The Cabal was the single most important keyword running through every thread of War City. I could not simply hand that information to Usher without a second thought. Every story has an order to it. Just as charging the Successor head-on right now would give us no chance of winning.
"If you want answers, why not go find Riman of the Clairvoyant Eye?"
Of course, the day would come when the Cabal's members would have to be dealt with one by one. Every executive of the Cabal was a mage of formidable power. They would need to be cleared out before any direct confrontation with the Successor. But that day was not today.
"If even the Dark Merchant doesn't know, it can't be easy information to come by."
Usher did not drop the suspicious look from his face. He just gave a bitter smile, pulled out a cigarette, and set it between his lips. He was suspicious — and still he did not press the question. Instead, Bel moved toward him. She plucked the cigarette from Usher's mouth, flung it to the floor, and said:
"This is a no-smoking area."
"…"