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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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In the streets soaked with blood stood a man alone exhaling roughly.
“Damn it… Did they smear honey all over the place or what?”
Hertlocker wiped the blood from his dagger on his shirt.
His finger joints were swollen red from gripping the blade for so long.
At times like this, he felt the urge to attach a comfortable wooden guard, but the blade had to be made of a single element from tip to handle for mana decomposition to be possible, so he had no choice but to endure the slight discomfort.
“They just keep coming out endlessly. Tch.”
Splash, splash.
Hertlocker’s boots stepped through puddles of blood as he moved forward.
This much damage was just from killing the fearless ones who charged at him, while 90% had fled.
To give money to such riffraff to interfere with Schlus Hainkel… It seemed the client behind this incident disliked the system’s hooligans as much as Schlus Hainkel.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have ordered these people who would be cut down with a single gesture from Schlus to block the way without telling them anything.
“Hertlocker. Are you alright?”
The artifact in his pocket vibrated with a buzzing sound.
Though slightly muffled, he immediately recognized Eric’s voice.
“Yes. I’ve arrived at the barrier.”
Hertlocker looked up at the main gate of the abandoned cathedral.
To his eyes, which could trace the flow of magical power, complex formulas engraved above the gate were visible.
The size was as enormous as the output of magical waves it emitted.
It was clear there was something they wanted to hide inside.
Or… it could be an ultra-high-level trap.
There were no other clues at the moment.
Whether trap or not, he had no choice but to confront it.
He couldn’t waste time, not knowing what might happen to Emilia…
“I’m going to try breaking through.”
He placed his hand on the gate.
The flow of magical power could be read more precisely, but…
“Tch.”
That was all.
Just taking in that vast amount of information made him feel like his head might explode.
At this rate, it would be impossible to even grasp the shape of the barrier, let alone interpret it.
“Damn it!”
But he couldn’t give up.
Rather, the difficulty in breaking through was a positive sign.
It meant there was a high probability that Emilia was inside.
“Grrrr…!”
He had to break through no matter what.
Even if it seemed impossible at first glance, things usually worked out when you actually tried.
Hertlocker had experienced this countless times.
Whether he had a guardian spirit or not, he always managed to win dramatically no matter how powerful the enemy.
Things had been going badly lately, but this time was different.
It had to be different.
Because it involved his little sister.
When it came to Emilia, he always managed to bring out superhuman strength.
So this barrier too should unravel like magic…
“Huk!”
Or so he thought.
Suddenly overcome by weakness, Hertlocker’s legs gave out and he collapsed.
“Don’t tell me… magical power exhaustion?”
He couldn’t feel any magical power in his body at all.
He had poured all his magical power into interpreting the formula.
No, that was impossible.
He hadn’t even interpreted half of the barrier yet, and now there was truly no chance left?
As Hertlocker was falling into despair, at that moment…
“Hey, you idiot. Trying to do everything alone again?”
“…!”
A large hand was placed on his shoulder.
When he turned around, Eric was standing there with a mocking smile, and it wasn’t just Eric.
Over a dozen Intelligence Agency agents had gathered.
“What are you doing?! Moving in such large numbers only increases the risk of being discovered by the Empire!”
“We were just going to help break the barrier and leave. You can go in and rescue Emilia yourself.”
“Everyone…”
“Idiot. Save the thanks for later.”
The agents all approached and clung to the gate at once.
A barrier that absorbed all impacts and magical power… Since it would require astronomical power to destroy physically, formula decryption was essentially the only option left.
“I’ve finished interpreting just under half. The location of the core is…”
With Hertlocker relaying information, the coordinated operation began.
The agents divided up tasks – interfering with magical power flow, interpreting the core, and disassembly – and focused intently.
They were all comrades who had worked together on the battlefield for years.
Not a single drop of magical power was wasted, used in the fastest and most efficient manner.
Just a little more.
Just a little more…
“Ugh!”
“Magical power depleted!”
The agents all collapsed face-down on the ground.
Hertlocker, who had recovered a bit of strength by then, jumped up.
The gate was still firmly closed.
It would take at least an hour for magical power to recover to a meaningful level…
As despair was clouding Hertlocker’s face, at that moment, Eric pushed the door with his trembling arm.
Creeeeak…
“Go, Hertlocker.”
“Section Chief!”
The door opened easily.
The barrier that had been emitting dizzying waves of magical power until just moments ago was no longer there.
They had done it.
“Hurry and go!”
“Yes!”
At Eric’s urging, Hertlocker quickly stepped inside.
He had to find Emilia.
His beloved little sister.
“Emilia! Emilia!!!”
In the spacious interior where sunlight streamed through stained glass windows,Hertlocker’s hollow cries echoed back and forth.
No sign of life was visible in the dark cathedral.
“Ha…”
He still couldn’t jump to conclusions.
Hertlocker lifted each chair one by one, checking underneath.
He went behind the altar too.
He even climbed up to the ceiling.
He even tore up the floor to look.
But there was no trace of Emilia, or any person, to be found anywhere.
“Don’t mess with me. Please…”
A crucifix broken in half lay on the ground.
Looking at it, Hertlocker felt an ominous foreboding creep over him.
An anxiety he wanted to deny.
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The adventurers were already close by.
Damn it.
I’d have to jump off the roof.
Boom!
“Huh?”
I jumped down right in front of the old woman, startling her into opening her eyes wide.
It was quite a natural act.
“Jin. Urgent request. Hide me and shake off those guys.”
“Young man, what are you talking about…”
“Here’s a gold coin.”
Clink.
When I handed over a gold coin, the old woman’s eyes changed instantly.
Then she whipped out the cloak she was wearing on her head.
“Really now. You’re treating me like some errand girl?”
Jin’s appearance had already changed to the pointy-eared elf form she had shown before.
‘But your outer appearance isn’t the issue, I’m in a hurry right now.’
“Hurry. Adventurers are chasing me.”
“Why are you being chased? Depending on the reason, I might not accept.”
“I killed people.”
“What? No deal. I don’t want to mess up my career for no reason.”
“Jin!”
Thud! Boom!
At that moment, vibrations shook the ground from behind.
When I quickly turned around, sure enough, adventurers were swarming in.
This was the market, surrounded by civilians.
I couldn’t use wide-area magic.
Damn it, how was I supposed to deal with these adventurers then?
Still, I couldn’t let myself be dragged away quietly.
I prepared to draw out Vafe as I made eye contact with the one who looked like their leader.
‘Huh?’
But the guy’s gaze shifted, as if he couldn’t see me.
“The scent ends here. Tch…”
“What?”
This is crazy.
I only just realized it.
That a barrier had been spread around me.
It was so intricately concealed that you’d barely notice it even if you knew it was there and looked closely.
“Sniff sniff. The scent is quite strong indeed.”
“What…”
A shiver ran down my spine as I heard a voice near my nape.
I shoved Jin away forcefully to put some distance between us.
I was a bit scared by the fact that she could trap me in a barrier if she wanted to.
“But it’s not particularly unpleasant.”
“Stop joking around.”
“Hehe. I’m serious.”
She used to gnash her teeth at the mere sight of me before.
Now that she had saved me from my predicament, it seemed she had regained some composure.
Jin flipped the gold coin casually… I really hated the sight of it.
“Don’t worry, citizens! We are adventurers!”
“We will begin a search to protect you all!”
“Do you have anything more to say? If so, we should change locations.”
Jin pointed at the market swarming with adventurers as she spoke.
Although Jin’s barrier was unlikely to be detected, I still felt it would be better to change locations for peace of mind.
After walking for quite some time, we arrived at a plaza.
It was usually crowded, but today it was deserted due to the commotion.
Soon the barrier disappeared cleanly.
“I doubt a man capable of killing dozens of adventurers if need be would give up a gold coin just to avoid one crisis. I wonder what other business you have?”
“…”
Jin mumbled as she chewed on the gold coin.
In truth, I had given it just to avoid that one crisis.
I simply didn’t have any silver or copper coins in my pocket, so I gave her a gold one.
But if she thought a gold coin was too much for just putting up one barrier… I might as well make more use of her.
“Do you know who’s behind this disturbance?”
“Hmm? Disturbance? There was such an incident in the Imperial District, the heart of the Empire?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know.”
There was no way an information broker like Jin wouldn’t know the full story of this incident.
She probably knew from the planning stages.
Almost all information about which crow received what request flowed to Jin.
“Well. That information might be worth more than one gold coin.”
“Three.”
“No, five.”
“…”
This woman’s crazy.
But I was in too much of a hurry to haggle.
“Fine. Five.”
“Oh right! You don’t haggle. I should’ve asked for ten!”
“Just hurry up and give me the information. Who’s behind this?”
“Hmm… I can’t reveal information about clients, even if they’re someone else’s client.”
Her confidentiality was frustratingly thorough, she was certainly a better crow than Henderson.
“Then at least tell me which crow carried out the request.”
“It’s someone you know well.”
“What?”
“Who else would have a grudge against you and kidnap your attendant? Besides Kingheart, that is.”
“…”
What nonsense was she spouting now?
“I don’t know what you two talked about when you met, but she must have been really angry. To think of kidnapping your attendant. I heard the request was put up for auction. Kingheart took it offering the lowest fee. Probably…”
“…”
“Hm. Looks like I’ve been found out?”
Jin, who had been carefully studying my face, seemed to sense something was off and smiled slyly.
It was her own gamble.
She was confident that my relationship with Hertlocker was bad, so she could make this bet.
But there was one fact she didn’t know, that the kidnapped attendant was Hertlocker’s sister.
“You seem to know a lot.”
“…”
Honestly, I had been suspicious since earlier.
But just now, at the moment she tried to deceive me, it became certain.
Jin was the one who kidnapped Emilia.
“Was killing me part of the request too?”
“Ahaha… That’s confidential so I can’t say!”
“…!”
At that instant, Jin was sucked into thin air and disappeared.
It wasn’t teleportation magic or anything like that, such high-level magic didn’t exist in this world.
I was simply being deceived.
‘Selection and Concentration. Use 1 second on mana sensitivity.’
I must have been trapped in a barrier without realizing it.
As soon as I used my ability, my vision cleared instantly, and I could detect the flow of magical power surrounding me.
While detecting it was difficult, the barrier itself was simple, so I could break through it quickly.
“Oh!”
Then I could see Jin fleeing in the distance.
I was about to rush after her…
“You’ve played quite a few tricks.”
…but I stopped myself.
Even using ‘Examine’, no information could be read from that back.
That wasn’t Jin, but an image projected by magic.
I quickly realized that even this place was inside a barrier, a barrier within a barrier.
I had no idea how many layers of barriers I was trapped in.
But what I had to do was clear.
Break the barriers, again and again.
I kept using 1 second of ‘Selection and Concentration’ to tear through barrier after barrier.
Each time, Jin tried various tricks to make me believe that world was real, but it was useless.
The flow of magical power was clearly visible to me now.
“H-how…!”
This refreshing air.
The endless sky stretching out, without a single trace of magical power flow.
I was certain, this was reality.
“How did you break through everything?!”
And Jin fell backwards without even managing to flee very far.
Perhaps due to her setting of poor physical abilities.
Judging by how her calf muscles were trembling as if cramping, it seemed she had reached magical exhaustion as well.
Until now, there had probably never been an opponent Jin couldn’t trap even after pouring out all her magic.
I checked just in case, and it was indeed Jin without a doubt.
“Crow Jin. If you don’t want to die, tell me who the client is.”
“…!”
Activating my internal circuits, I drew out Vafe and thrust it at Jin’s face.
With the crackling blade right in front of her nose, Jin trembled but then-
“Hehe. Are you stupid? If I reveal the client’s information, I’ll be hunted down and executed by the Crows anyway. Why would I tell you?”
She mocked me.
To be so composed even with death thrust before her, or was she confident I wouldn’t kill her?
“This will stay just between us two. I’ll keep it secret, so tell me now.”
“Even so, I can’t reveal anything about the client.”
“…”
“If you really want, I can tell you what happened to your attendant.”
“Tell me! Right now!”
“I’ll show you. Just a moment…”
Jin reached out and began forming a formula.
It was a formula to call up an image from somewhere.
I could have disrupted it but left it alone, soon a small hologram appeared in the air.
“This is your attendant.”
“…!”
It was Emilia.
The image quality wasn’t good, but it was clearly Emilia with her arms bound and mouth taped.
Her hair was disheveled and her face bruised, in a terrible state, but I was relieved at first.
However, that relief turned to despair when-
“Huh?”
The image began to zoom out.
Below Emilia’s waist.
What should have been there was missing.
What should have continued down was gone.
Instead, that space was filled with red blood…
…and entrails spilling out chaotically.
Thud.
The image cut off as Jin’s magic was depleted.
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[WTF]
