Translator: Wan ED/PR: Fan
It was one of the letters he put aside to read later.
‘… So this bastard is one of the people managing the six branches?’
Lucion, who opened and read the letter, suddenly smiled and spoke, dumbfounded.
“This bastard thinks I’m an idiot.”
The letter crumpled in Lucion’s hand.
What was his goal in sending a letter to him?
It was obviously a scheme to get close to him and then slice his throat.
Lucion wasn’t worried.
Excluding the place of the already dead Roberio, the materials had details about the people managing the branches. Lucion put on his mask and used the contact item.
⟨Yes, Hamel-nim!⟩
The leader of the Ratmen, Heroan, spoke up right away.
“Heroan. I have people you should look into right now.”
⟨Ask anything. I’ll dig out the bastards’ secrets.⟩
Heroan’s voice was overly enthusiastic.
Lucion also spoke quite happily.
“Five heads.”
Lucion didn’t treat the bastards as humans.
***
— Lucion.
Just when he was about to fall asleep, Latta quietly touched Lucion’s ribs.
“…What?”
Lucion’s voice was low.
He half-opened his eyes and yawned.
— Latta didn’t want to wake up Lucion, but No. 2 called.
At those words, Lucion sat up right away.
“He is running away?”
— Yeah! He is preparing to run away right now!
When Lucion raised his voice, Latta also spoke with excitement.
“Tell No. 2 to chase the bastard as far as he can. And to call periodically.”
Lucion called Russell after giving an order to Latta.
“Master-nim.”
After a moment, Russell stuck out his head through the wall.
[What, what? Did something happen?]
“That butler is moving.”
[Should I call Bethel?]
He thought that if someone had to chase him, Bethel, who had no restrictions on movement, was the perfect candidate.
“No. Leave Bethel to her devices. I’m going to chase him.”
He was curious if Bethel, with her sharp eyes, would find the same people he wanted to win over.
He also hoped he would find even better people.
He just had to return before tomorrow morning to send off Novio and Carson.
There was enough time.
[Hyum?]
“I’m going.”
— Latta knows Hyum’s room’s location.
“Let’s go.”
— Kay!
Latta smacked the floor.
After Darkness swallowed Lucion and Latta, they appeared in Hyum’s room.
Hyum was already standing as if he sensed Lucion’s Darkness, and he politely greeted Lucion.
“I’m ready.”
“Good. We have to chase after that butler. Can you run?”
It wouldn’t look good, but Hyum was faster and sturdier than a horse, so he planned to piggyback on him.
“I’m not tired, I can surely run.”
Hyum smiled widely.
“True. I’ve never seen you get tired.”
“No. I get tired too.”
“You…?”
Lucion’s eyes grow bigger.
“Yes. Latta has better stamina than me.”
— No. When Latta plays with Hyum, Latta gets tired and collapses first. Hyum’s stamina is really amazing, best amazing!
Latta sat down for a moment and drew a circle with a big movement of her front paws.
Sometimes, Hyum would take Latta for walks.
Each time, without knowing what they were going and doing, Latta got tired and fell asleep and Hyum would bring her back in his arms.
— Right, Lucion. Go out with Hyum and just run. Latta is very excited. The wind goes whoosh whoosh! Latta feels like she’s floating in the sky.
‘Now Hyum feels like an uncle playing with a niece.’
Lucion sat on the chair of Hyum’s desk and quietly listened to Latta, until Ghost No. 2 contacted him.
He was grateful that Hyum could do what he couldn’t.
[… Hoo. You’re now saying that Hyum’s stamina is comparable to the stamina of a Divine Beast?]
Russell was startled when he heard that.
“That’s right. But is the stamina of a Divine Beast good?”
Lucion asked back, noticing that something wasn’t right.
Latta seemed to prefer to be held or hugged.
[I never saw a newborn Divine Beast before, so I’m not sure how I should answer. Lucion, the last month I spent with you was more surprising than anything I went through when I was alive.]
Seeing Russell look at him with an uneasy gaze, Lucion giggled.
‘It’s not the time to be surprised yet.’
***
“… Huff! Huff!”
The man didn’t stop running, even though he desperately gasped for breath.
‘If I’m caught, it’s the end! The end!’
When twelve people, excluding him, were dragged away, he almost pissed himself on the spot.
They weren’t colleagues, but the screams of the twelve people, with whom he shared secrets, still rang in his ears.
If you enter Cronia’s underground prison, you will never see the light of day again — he seemed to go crazy every time the servants said that.
He didn’t know how only he had survived, but his blood dried up day after day, and he went three days without a wink of sleep.
His head wasn’t working.
A hallucination whispered in his ear that he should quickly go to sleep.
But his legs couldn’t stop.
‘I have to live. I have to live and go to my mother.’
He heard where he should go to receive protection if a problem arose, so the man headed to a certain house in the city.
Knock, knock!
After confirming the house, the man knocked at the door with full power.
“Who?”
The man with a grim appearance slightly opened the door and asked.
“Th-the jungle’s head is blue.”
“Blue feathers?”
“Treasures are passed from generation to generation.”
“Please come in.”
The grim man made a reluctant face, and let the man enter the room.
“Alone?”
Even though the grim man asked, the butler was busy trembling in fear.
“Wi-will I live? Didn’t you say that even if I clearly got found out, you would take responsibility and protect me if I came here?”
“The reports were cut off for some time. You have to first report the situation.”
The man’s eyes rolled at the words that sounded like a threat.
The group of big men in the room giggled.
The mood became strange again, but the man, who hadn’t gotten any sleep, had no idea what to do.
“Right. Everyone died. Only I survived!”
“… Haa. How far it spread would You say?”
“I-I don’t know. I really don’t know, please protect me as You’ve promised…”
At the sight of the sword that was about to cut his neck, the man made an expression of complete incomprehension.
“If you don’t know, you have to die.”
“Spe- eek… heuk, spare me…”
He reached out his hands towards the grim man with blood-soaked hands, but the sword pierced his head.
“Damn it. All thirteen people are dead.”
The grim man scowled and stretched out his hand to one of his subordinates.
The subordinate handed him a paper, and the grim man wrote that the thirteen people are all dead now.
“Run to No. 2 right now and report it. If the report is late, we’re all dead. Got it?”
“Who are you reporting to?”
At that moment, they heard a low voice from the corner.
At the appearance of the man in a mask, covered in Darkness, and a girl, everyone in the house instantly shut their mouths and lost their souls.
Warlock?
Whoosh.
The Darkness instantly spread throughout the room and covered the walls, blocking anyone from going out.
“So, who are you going to report to? Tell me, too, okay?”
The mask was dyed yellow.
Crunch.
The girl instantly twisted the head of one of the subordinates, and the grim man at last reacted.
“W-who are you!?”
“I asked first. It’s your turn to reply.”
The Darkness Lucion sent grabbed the grim man’s hand and twisted it.
“Keeuuk!”
“Shh. Everyone is sleeping, so you have to be quiet. Didn’t you learn that as a child?”
Lucion blocked the bastard’s mouth with Darkness.
“Do you hate talking? Or do you not know?… Ah. What did you say? If you don’t know, you have to die? Right. It seems that was it.”
The man’s voice was light, so why was it so heavy?
Crunch!
The grim man gripped his arms and looked around at the sound of something breaking every second.
“….”
At that moment, the willpower left the man’s eyes.
He broke into a cold sweat and, losing the strength in his legs, sank to the floor.
He met the eyes of the subordinate that died with his neck broken like all the others.
The man tightly closed his eyes and held his two knees with trembling hands.
Nothing came to mind.
“I’m asking for the last time. Who?”
Lucion asked.
At that tenacious question, the man trembled as if having a seizure.
He believed he wouldn’t survive.
As if he had let go of everything, he burst into tears.
Lucion thought that the man wasn’t in a state to exchange any words.
The moment he grabbed the man’s shoulder and was about to instill Darkness into him, he heard mumbling.
“Please — without pain. Please kill me.”
“Alright. I promise.”
“There is a house with a crow symbol like this house close to the Gate leading to the Western region. Look for that house.”
Lucion stepped back, and Hyum picked up a sword lying around and swiftly cut off the man’s head.
Swish!
At the same time the sword broke, the man’s head hit the floor.
[Do you know where the Gate leading to the Western region is?]
Russell asked.
“I know.”
Lucion decided to move before someone came.
“I’ll ask for a favor, Master-nim.”
[Got it.]
Russell left the house with that answer while Lucion searched the bastard who served as a butler’s bosom who had died.
‘Nothing special.’
What hurry he was in when packing his bags that all he had was money?
“What about the others?”
Lucion asked.
“Nothing special. I memorized the smell just in case.”
He nodded as Hyum answered.
“No smells you know?”
“No. None.”
— Lucion.
Latta came out of Lucion’s shadow.
Unlike usual, Latta’s big eyes were shaking.
— Latta’s eyes saw something.
“What did you see?”
Lucion asked, checking where Latta was looking.
— One moment. Latta will check and tell you.
Latta walked up to a corpse and stretched out her front paw.
At that moment, Lucion felt his Darkness waver.
Latta used something.
— Wake up.
Something translucent slipped out of the corpse with Latta’s words.
“…!”
Everyone could see it was a ghost.
Lucion couldn’t hide his surprise.
He thought it was impossible to deal with the ghosts because he had to arrive at home before dawn, so he didn’t even attempt it.
“Isn’t it a ghost?”
Hyum also pointed at it.
— Wooo! Right! Latta’s idea was right!
Latta wagged her tail.
— Latta’s eyes suddenly saw something white. It was quite like a ghost, so Latta said wake up and the ghost really woke up!
Latta ran up to Lucion and wagged her tail, asking for pet-pats.
‘Did Latta grow, too, as my Darkness increased?’
Lucion thought, while stroking Latta.
He was happy about her growth, big or small.
“Well done, Latta. Then would you like to do the rest? We should deal with everything before we go.”
— Kay! Latta will do everything. Trust Latta.
Latta smiled bashfully.
***
— Report Point No. 3 in the town close to South region Rolsho Viscounty. Disguised as a clothing store with a crow symbol.
Lucion looked at the note written by the leader of Report Point No. 2.
From the paper, he glanced at the body with a face buried into the wall.
‘The report relays don’t end here. There’s a third one?’
Lucion stared at the Darkness flickering like flames in the bastard’s eyes, and commanded again.
“Write how many report points there are.”
Regretfully, compulsion couldn’t be used for a confession.
It was limited to one or two phrases or actions based on what he said.
The bastard’s arm moved.
— Four.
‘Ha. That’s a complete tag game.’
Lucion felt his face twist.
He almost looked around for no reason.
[What? That’s a complete tag game. It’s really awful. As the number of report points increases, the reporting speed will slow down. If they go to such lengths, they must be an absurdly high-ranking person.]
Even Russell spit out with dissatisfaction.
“Don’t worry. Won’t we just skip over to the last one?”
Lucion, still maintaining the compulsion magic, gave the last command.
“Write down where the last report point is.”
*~*~*
Translator’s note: Give me a moment, I’m slightly obsessed with that code phrase. Who the hell thought it was good idea?
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