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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Sen, descended from the rooftop with movements as agile as a cat’s, just as she did back at the dormitory, and stood before me with an expressionless face.
We exchanged looks, each wondering why the other was here.
I was the first to break the silence.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came after hearing that the Tudogs were in Bethel.”
“Hmm?”
While there was a strange aspect to her presence, I nodded in understanding. Then, she asked me in turn.
“And what about you? What are you doing here?”
“I was on my way back from visiting Yggdrasil. I planned to leave today, but that’s become impossible.”
“Impossible, you say?”
Her expressionless curiosity made her seem like a broken doll, but I chose not to comment and moved on.
“It seems I’ve caught the tail of those Tudog bastards.”
“The guard you grabbed by the collar earlier, was that because of this?”
“Yes, it seems the hotel that person recommended to us is owned by those affiliated with the Tudogs.”
“I’ll come with you.”
As expected, upon hearing that I’d stumbled upon a lead related to the Tudogs, she immediately offered to join.
The atmosphere shifted as Sen and I returned to the hotel.
Hayun and Rin greeted Sen with a mix of surprise and formal pleasantries, as if amazed by the coincidence.
“Why are they like this?”
The hotel thieves stared blankly into space, unresponsive even as I waved my hand in front of their faces, their gaze fixed solely on the ceiling.
“Answer properly.”
Rin approached the old woman with a smile and asked, “What is your identity?”
“Johannes, 61 years old. A corpse supplier for the Tudogs, implanted with the power of a Devil Spider.”
“Look at this.”
“……”
It felt somewhat reminiscent of the army of death from my past life, yet no one died. It seemed Rin had enacted some sort of magical influence.
“It’s become easier, hasn’t it?”
If Rin could fully command the power of the army of death as her own, it was indeed a positive development. It seemed she had been in a state of rampage at the time.
Being able to control it meant it was also controllable.
Gathering information had become easier, so there wasn’t much of an issue.
“Shall we extract everything we can?”
I pulled up a chair in front of them, and Rin brought over a mug of tea, with Sen and Hayun standing beside me.
“Who is the highest in the Tudogs?”
“I don’t know.”
The unanimous response came.
Well, I hadn’t expected mere corpse suppliers to know much.
“What is the goal of the Tudogs?”
Sen chimed in with this question, but again, they claimed ignorance.
Further inquiries about their base, numbers, and presence in other cities yielded the same response: they knew nothing.
“Do you know anything at all?”
Hayun looked at them with a bored expression, seemingly fed up with the four who lived without any purpose other than money.
Sipping my tea, I felt the warm liquid slide down my throat and asked another question.
“Who is your direct superior?”
“Mikael Portren.”
“Finally, an answer.”
I grinned, and Sen added with a frown, “Mikael Portren is the current head of the Portren family. Despite his youth, he’s expanded the lodging business significantly by renting out land and buildings inherited from his parents in Bethel.”
“So, that’s why there’s such a hotel?”
The puzzle pieces started to fit together. Sen had thoroughly researched the information about Zavalanco, as I had suggested before.
“It seems the Portren family is connected to the Tudogs.”
“Are other hotels involved in this as well?”
If so, I was ready to take action, but fortunately, it seemed this murder hotel was the only one of its kind.
“Can someone explain this to me?”
“My head hurts. What’s this about Tudogs and such organizations?”
It dawned on me that Rin and Hayun were unaware of the Tudogs. I had centered the conversation too much around Sen and myself, so I briefly explained the situation to them.
Given that they had been affected by Hare’s use of Cockatrice illusion magic, they understood the explanation without much difficulty.
Both then looked at Sen as if wondering how she knew all this.
“……”
Sen chose to ignore the question, and I followed suit, implying that I wouldn’t disclose her identity either. The two didn’t press any further.
“Is anyone there?”
Amid our interrogation, a woman’s voice came from outside.
Given that we had put up a sign indicating the hotel was closed for the day, I wondered if it might be the Tudogs, but the voice unexpectedly belonged to someone I knew.
“Miss Heini?”
“Daniel McLean?”
Heini Rosales, a royal inspector whose relationship with us started off on the wrong foot and still couldn’t exactly be called good, appeared before us.
We both wore expressions of confusion, not understanding why the other was present, a sentiment seemingly shared by her as well.
“Why are you here?”
“No, I should be asking you that. Why are you here?”
For a moment, we stared each other down as if in a silent battle of wills until Heini conceded.
“Ha, thanks to your testimony, I’ve been given a reprieve from the accusation of having killed Fenil Leiros through coercive investigation.”
“A reprieve?”
“We needed evidence that the organization called the Tudogs actually exists.”
“Ah.”
It seemed unlikely that the Leiros family would let her off with just my testimony. After all, I had mixed truth and lies in my statements.
“In the meantime, I obtained information that the Tudogs were in Bethel and came here to investigate. Now, why are you here? Did you also come looking for the Tudogs?”
Heini Rosales sparkled with curiosity, but I scoffed in response.
“No? We’re just here for tourism.”
“Then why were you coming out of the counter?”
“The grandmother who runs this place wasn’t feeling well, so we were helping to take care of her.”
It wasn’t entirely untrue.
Heini still looked skeptical, but as I faced her boldly, she couldn’t press further and retreated with a grunt.
“If you find out anything about the Tudogs, please let me know! Our first meeting wasn’t great, but we did capture Zavalanco together, didn’t we?”
“Hurry along, I’m about to sprinkle salt at the entrance.”
“Eek.”
Initially, she had seemed a cold, sharp woman, but the false accusation seemed to have frightened her considerably, softening her demeanor. I personally thought it might be a form of growing pains.
“It really looks like something’s going to happen.”
Muttering to myself while looking at Rin, I nodded slightly and turned around.
It was strange.
“From knowing absolutely nothing about the Tudogs to this overflow of information?”
From Sen, who had lost contact with the Chokugen Faction, to Heini Rosales arriving in Bethel for information on the Tudogs.
“Something feels off.”
After some deliberation, I took Rin back inside the counter and pointed at those still staring into space, asking if she could make them move.
“It’s possible if I make them regain a bit of consciousness.”
“……”
Wondering what she meant, Rin snapped her fingers, and suddenly, as if surfacing from deep water, they began to breathe heavily and shake their heads violently.
Seeing them terrified of Rin rather than me made me realize this was a form of conditioning through fear.
“You have a job to do.”
It turned out to be easier to use them this way.
***
Stepping back onto the streets of Bethel, we decided to do some exploring.
Though “exploring” was just an excuse because we were hungry and looking for a place to eat lunch.
“There are quite a variety of restaurants here.”
“Being a city adjacent to the border, it attracts many tourists and people crossing over. There’s not much to tour, but it’s optimized for relieving the fatigue of travel,” Sen explained bluntly.
“What shall we eat? I didn’t have breakfast, so I’d like something hearty.”
“Could we possibly not eat meat? I saw something unpleasant this morning.”
Hayun raised her hand to suggest.
It seemed she had witnessed the horrors in the hotel’s basement while I was out. I agreed to her request.
“How about you, Rin?”
“Hm? Oh, I don’t mind anything.”
Rin smiled, truly indifferent, which somehow felt more unsettling, but I didn’t voice this thought.
“So, what will it be?”
Having too many restaurant options was a problem.
Each seemed to have its own unique menu item to survive the fierce competition, making it even harder to choose.
As we wandered for a while, a girl caught my eye amidst the crowded street, striking me as if I’d been hit by a hammer.
Could she be about 8 or 9 years old?
The girl, with her distinctive ash-gray hair, held a doll in one hand and joyfully explored her surroundings.
Like a brush soaked in paint on a white canvas, she spread her cheerful energy wherever she went, warmly greeted by passersby.
“Wow, such pretty sisters!”
The girl stopped in front of us as if she’d found an irresistible candy store, staring at the girls and exclaiming.
Rin and Hayun smiled, patting her head and asking her name.
She introduced herself as Michelle.
‘Michelle, then.’
I had felt guilty for a long time at night, not even knowing her name. Her absence was more significant than I had thought.
‘Gasp, gasp! A, a person? How can someone be here?’
I first met the girl in the forest.
At that time, she seemed about my age, worn and injured, when she stumbled upon me.
‘Thank you.’
After taking her home, treating her injuries, changing her clothes, and feeding her, it felt like adopting a cat. She approached me without hesitation, thanks to her natural affinity.
Back then, I assumed she was just grateful for the rescue, but now it seemed her cheerful nature was innate.
‘Why do you live here, mister?’
Her intrusion into my personal space wasn’t unwelcome. It felt more like she wanted to get closer rather than being rude.
‘Ah, mister…’
So when she turned into a cold corpse, I was unexpectedly overwhelmed with emotion, leading to the death of the entire Chokugen Faction squad that followed her.
“Wow, your hair is white? That’s unique! It’s pretty like the snow in winter!”
Michelle’s enthusiasm and Sen’s puzzled reaction on how to respond marked a strange convergence of destinies where Michelle dies at Sen’s hand and Sen at mine.
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