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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Ruby
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Belrak, known as the ‘Underground King’ of Arkan, sat before his subordinates.
“Tomorrow morning, I will have Gelmore the mayor in my grasp.”
At Belrak’s words, his subordinates in front of him raised their bodies that had been crouching.
“We can finally reap the seeds we’ve been sowing all this time! Boss!”
Belrak smirked at the subordinate who spoke loudly with excitement.
“Yes, it’s time to discard this title of ‘King of Maggots’. Hahaha!”
Belrak put a thick cigar in his mouth and lit it.
His protruding belly, full of greed, undulated with his breathing.
The roots of drugs that Belrak had spread were more extensive than expected.
The reason Belrak, once a mere drug dealer, could fully establish his roots in an entire city was because this place was not a city belonging to the hereditary noble territory, but a term-limited autonomous city where the emperor directly appointed the mayor.
A thin man sipping alcohol nearby had a woman approach and whisper a few words to him.
“A representative of First Princess Brigitte arrived in Arkan this morning? Drove out the revolutionary group alone on the train?”
David, acting as Belrak’s advisor, frowned.
“It’s information sent by one of our pawns in the Halo company. If so, it’s highly credible…”
Listening to David’s words, Belrak chuckled.
“If it’s such a person, they’ll move quickly to finish their business. Would they have time to worry about us? Besides, our forces aren’t that weak.”
Belrak stared at one of the large men standing behind him.
“I can handle the likes of the revolutionary group. Even if that guy interferes with us, we can kill him easily. My drug slaves have infiltrated every corner of this land.”
The grayish smoke Belrak exhaled rose thickly like a dark cloud.
“Even those trusted and relied upon by Gelmore.”
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Inn, Wollo.
Since Yuma didn’t have anything that could be called luggage, he just unpacked the bag Cloney was carrying and came down to the restaurant on the first floor.
The waiter wore a gentle smile.
“Here’s your steak and tea. Please enjoy.”
The waiter who introduced the food with a very kind smile bowed gracefully and disappeared.
“Yuma.”
Cloney looked at Yuma intently.
It was because of what Yuma had said just before leaving the room.
Yuma’s words not to eat anything until he said so.
“Use your magic.”
And his question about whether she could check if anything was added to the food.
“Yes.”
The spell formula for the material analysis magic, Elemental Spectrum, was completed along Cloney’s fingertips.
The target of the spell was the tea in the cup.
Cloney’s eyes widened.
Floating in the air before Cloney’s eyes were formulas of chemistry and magical engineering.
They told her that something was wrong with the tea in front of her.
Cloney whispered in Yuma’s ear.
“…It’s poison. Probably some kind of sleeping drug or anesthetic.”
“I see.”
In Yuma’s mind, the image of the blue-haired man, Mayor Gelmore, appeared.
‘It seems your city is no longer yours.’
The inn of someone introduced as trustworthy had already become a den of corruption.
Adding this kind of drug to food could only be for human trafficking or organ harvesting.
Since the original purpose was not to eat but to find out if they would try something or not, they had achieved their goal.
“Can you evaporate the tea in the cups?”
Yuma intended to lay a trap.
To prevent those who had tampered with this food from realizing that their trick hadn’t worked.
“Yes.”
Following Cloney’s gesture, the tea in both cups slowly evaporated.
Those empty cups would serve as bait.
They had already eaten before entering the inn, so it didn’t matter.
“Let’s go up.”
“Yes!”
Cloney, excited that she had been useful, nodded vigorously.
In room 302 assigned to them, the two began preparing to welcome the guests who would soon be caught by their bait in the considerably spacious inn room.
Thump thump
The sound of multiple footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs.
“They didn’t touch the food?”
“They drank all the tea without leaving any. They should both be unconscious by now.”
“Just harvest the organs from the guy… Oh, his face was quite handsome. Would it be better to sell him to some madams?”
“What about the girl?”
“What do you mean what? Fuck! Kekekeke!”
“Didn’t they say tomorrow is the day Belrak-nim will grab Gelmore the mayor by the throat?”
“That’s right, our fortunes are about to change. What do we lack compared to those knight bastards? Huh?”
Along with these vulgar conversations…
“Here, the key.”
Click click!
The doorknob shook violently.
The door opened.
“Huh? They’re not collapsed?”
Creeeeak─
Yuma was standing still in front of that door.
Three men exchanged glances with Yuma.
Seeing that Cloney beside him was also fine, the men seemed quite flustered.
The brown-haired man scratched his head.
“Did they just lick it a little and notice? Are you gourmets? But no… they seemed to have drunk all the tea.”
Yuma’s gaze quickly scanned the levels floating above the three men.
‘Small fry.’
The [Lv.31] man stepped forward.
“Hah, you’re making us spill blood unnecessarily.”
Contrary to his words about not wanting to see blood, the man grinned widely and drew the sword at his waist without hesitation.
Shing─
“Hey, this is what you call aura.”
A faint aura rippled on the longsword.
Although calling aura-using swordsmen ‘small fry’ might seem harsh, compared to those Yuma had faced so far, they were indeed small fry.
And he swung towards Yuma.
The longsword striking like lightning.
Clang!
Followed by the sound of metal.
A purple airflow flowing from the tip of
Slash!
The man’s head rolled on the floor.
Red blood slowly covered the corridor.
“…Huh?”
A dull sound came from the mouth of the man with [Lv.34] floating above his head.
Yuma strode towards him.
“F…uck.”
The man twisted his mouth.
The purple sword trail that had blown off his comrade’s head.
He couldn’t even perceive the sword trail itself.
Yuma’s languid expression, which had seemed like that of a fool who couldn’t even recognize his own grave, started to look like the face of a confident strong one.
Even the action of the guy who had his hands in his pockets while the opponent was drawing his sword now looked like the composure of a strong one.
“Hey.”
And he jerked his chin towards the remaining comrade.
A pathetic guy who couldn’t even properly handle aura yet.
But now, there was no choice but to rush him together.
“We go together. Just kill that bastard no matter what.”
The [Lv.27] nodded vigorously.
He was actually in a more confident state than the [Lv.34] man.
This was possible because he had even less knowledge about swords than the other man.
The two simultaneously stomped the ground.
Swoosh!
Swish!
Two streaks of light rushed in.
Yuma focused on the trajectories.
The trajectories of the two swords.
And in an instant, he calculated.
Clang!
The perfect parrying timing.
Two golden light impact effects burst out.
The neck of [Lv.27] flew off.
The heart of [Lv.34] was pierced by a gale.
Thud
Boom!
It was the moment when the corpses increased from one to three.
Yuma passed by the three corpses and headed forward.
Towards a white-haired middle-aged man sitting down with a blank face.
Towards the owner of this inn, Wollo.
He appeared to be an ordinary person without any significant power.
Yuma walked nobly, sheathing the dagger Bernac.
“I think we need a long conversation, owner.”
“I… I… I failed to recognize such an honored guest!”
Yuma lowered his head to meet the eyes of Wollo’s owner, Meidel.
Having witnessed not just some street thugs, but strong men directly bestowed by Belrak fall in one stroke, deep fear had risen in Meidel’s eyes.
“I heard quite an interesting conversation before killing these guys.”
– Didn’t they say tomorrow is the day Belrak-nim will grab Gelmore the mayor by the throat?
It was something one of the three who had just become cold corpses had said.
Yuma heard that and connected it with the information about the Underground King Belrak he had heard from William, the Halo branch manager in Arkan, this morning.
“Underground King Belrak. What is he plotting? Is he trying to push out Gelmore, the mayor of this Arkan?”
The answer was delayed.
Crash!
“Kuheeeeek!”
Yuma slammed the sword that [Lv.27] had been holding into the floor.
Right next to Meidel’s right leg.
The effect was tremendous.
“He… he won’t be able to push him out completely! Gelmore is still a mayor directly elected by the Emperor! He’s trying to completely grasp his weakness and use him as his puppet!”
“Weakness?”
“Ge-Gelmore’s younger brother! Gelmore’s younger brother is completely soaked in Belrak’s drugs! He’s going to use him as leverage to manipulate Gelmore as a puppet! The execution of that plan was probably set for tomorrow!”
The king of the underground who had been ruling Arkan’s underworld was trying to come up to the surface.
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A little disappointed that he didn’t parry the cup of tea, as dumb as that would’ve been.