Chapter 69
Tap. Tap.
The clear sound of a typewriter began echoing through my room.
[Hello, Abel? Are you awake?]
[It's been about a month since you left the academy.]
Rustle. Rustle.
I read the report Bellias had sent in the middle of the night while drinking the coffee Mist had brought me.
"Hmm..."
Tap. Tap.
[Fortunately, nothing particularly unusual has happened at the academy over the past month.]
[There has been no suspicious movement, only peaceful academy life.]
Rustle.
After briefly glancing at the characters Ariel was writing, I slowly began reading Bellias's report once more.
[Report on Suspicious Activity on Saria Island.]
"Sigh..."
Rustle.
So this was why Bellias had left a report while I was asleep, for once.
"..."
The side effect of regression Ariel had mentioned.
Any action that revealed the regression or information derived from it resulted in distortion.
And I had discovered that the same distortion applied when she told others about her regression.
Since I had cross-checked it with both Mist and Bellias, it was probably certain.
Ariel had told me that, in such cases, she used methods that induced people to act.
Simply put, it was like the [Mirage] drug incident in the previous empire.
Back then, there had already been a large number of priests in the imperial capital under the pretext of volunteer work.
She was a saintess, and if she issued coercive or unreasonable orders, it would only arouse suspicion, so she had chosen that approach.
'But my situation is different, isn't it?'
It was the Nebula Duchy.
The Nebula Duchy, which even bore the title of king of the underworld.
The heir of such a duchy controlled [White Shadow] and [Black Shadow], so unlike Ariel, I had no reason to go out of my way to convince anyone or guide their thoughts.
I only had to give an order.
[Oh, and I learned one thing during this group assignment.]
"Hmm?"
[It came up in conversations while interacting with nobles from other countries. They said suspicious people have been turning up repeatedly along their borders lately.]
The borderlands, huh.
I briefly looked over the report in my hand.
It didn't contain much information, but, oddly enough, it mentioned bombs.
More specifically, it was a report revealing signs that they were importing the raw materials needed to manufacture mana bombs with large-scale killing power.
"Phew... Things are going to get noisy both inside and out."
The academy might be peaceful now, but it was obvious that peace wouldn't last long.
The academy I knew was attacked day in and day out, but even so, there had been intervals between attacks.
It was peaceful now because they were new students who had only recently enrolled, but as time passed, they would surely be plagued by the various events and exams the academy held.
Swish.
Thinking that, I finished the coffee Mist had made and rose from my seat.
"Have them investigate Saria Island more thoroughly."
At my words, Mist, who had been standing quietly behind me, bowed politely.
***
Saria Island.
It was a little too large to be called simply an island, yet too small to be called vast.
Normally, it should have been under the rule of the Maritime Kingdom and subject to its governance, but the situation was gradually changing.
The incompetence of the Maritime Kingdom's administration.
Corruption—wasn't that obvious?
It collected plenty in taxes, yet the goods produced on the island did not generate enough money to feed its people.
The island's residents were gradually losing the grounds on which they lived.
The only fortunate thing was that the deep-rooted faith on the island kept its people from going down a bad path.
Usually, in a situation like this, drugs, smuggling, and countless other illegal routes would spring up.
The conditions were more than sufficient.
With the island's geographical advantages and the kingdom's incompetence, it was a place where the risk of being caught engaging in such illegal activities was low.
Naturally, it was an optimal base for trading drugs, smuggled goods, or illegal weapons.
But the people did not reach out to such dealings.
"I'm sorry. These are this month's relief supplies, meager though they are."
Because faith and aid from the Sacred State went hand in hand.
"Please take them in an orderly fashion. We currently have enough food for everyone on this island."
The priest of the [Church of Light] said this while running around barefoot, treating with holy power the people who looked ready to collapse while waiting in line, and shouting himself hoarse.
"Please! Don't cut in line!"
Perhaps the priest's virtue had reached the heavens.
After delivering relief supplies to everyone on the island, the priest sighed in relief and moved on to sort through the supplies to request from the Sacred State once again.
"..."
A man watched that priest.
A man dispatched to investigate Saria Island.
He was a member of [White Shadow].
'Strange.'
The member began walking around Saria Island and searching the surroundings.
Because he had completed both the knight and assassin courses with excellent grades, conducting an investigation without drawing others' attention was extremely easy.
'I understand why Lord Abel ordered me to investigate this place.'
As he continued his investigation, he noticed that a darkness invisible on the surface was eating away at Saria Island.
Fortunately, the support from the Sacred State kept that darkness from running rampant in earnest, but darkness was still darkness.
Clunk.
A house that had now become a ruin.
The member entered the house and began surveying the interior with sharp eyes.
Since no human hand had touched it for a long time, dust had accumulated thickly enough to form layers.
A house with no trace of human presence, no matter how one looked at it.
Swish.
But it had not escaped the member's eyes.
At the edge of the house, in its deepest corner.
He had noticed that, strangely, the dust had not accumulated there at all.
"Interesting."
It was only large enough for a single finger to fit.
The strange fact that dust had not accumulated in just that space.
Whumm.
As soon as he discovered it, the member began concentrating mana in his hand.
Once he confirmed the mana gathered at the tip of a single finger, the member cautiously touched the floor where the dust had not accumulated.
He had already dismantled the security magic formations secretly laid around the area long ago, so there was no hesitation in his touch.
Click!
When that mana-infused finger touched the floor, the sound of something unlocking rang out.
Before long, one side of the wall opened completely, and a door leading underground began to open.
'Hmm...'
After checking once more that the escape magic circle was inside his clothes, the member cautiously stepped into the underground passage.
The musty smell of dust and the damp, heavy air peculiar to underground spaces.
But there was a smell that struck the man's sense of smell even more powerfully than those.
'Blood.'
The scent of blood.
No, it wasn't merely the scent of blood.
The underground passage was filled with a scent of blood so strong that it had seeped into every wall.
Halt.
Once he realized that, the man did not move any farther.
Dangerous.
His instincts were sounding the alarm.
It wasn't a conclusion reached through cool situational judgment or objective facts, but an emotion born solely of instinct.
'Wait.'
Come to think of it, why had I moved so rashly?
Even after dismantling the security magic formation, I had proceeded here alone?
Lord Abel's order had been a single one.
Investigate Saria Island. And if you find any suspicious circumstances, file a report.
But nowhere in that order had he been told to investigate personally and report back if suspicious circumstances were found.
"Damn!"
It was a trap.
Normally, he would of course have chosen to retreat in order to obtain information, but this time the situation was the opposite.
This entire thing was a trap that had twisted his perception.
"Did you notice?"
Just as he was about to move after realizing that, a languid voice reached him.
Squelch!
"What a shame. You looked capable, so I was thinking of using you as a minion."
.
.
Gloop. Gloop.
The consciousness of the man who was a member of [White Shadow] gradually began to awaken.
Something was leaving his body, causing a sensation of weakness and unimaginable pain, but the man paid it no heed and looked around.
There was only one thing the man saw at the end.
Blood.
Blood filled every corner of the underground chamber—a veritable sea of blood.
The man was wholly occupied with taking in the entire sight with his own two eyes.
Hoping that at least a little of it—just a little—would be recorded in his eyes, or rather, in the recording magic embedded in them when he was appointed to [White Shadow].
He didn't care if he couldn't survive.
After all, it was the people of the Nebula Duchy who had saved him when he had been living as a beggar.
Hoping only to be of even the slightest help to the Nebula Duchy, the man closed his eyes.
***
I pointed at the black box neatly placed in the center of the conference room.
"What's that?"
The conference room I had arrived at in response to [White Shadow]'s urgent request.
A black box placed in the center of that conference room.
An ominous feeling began creeping over me.
"..."
One of the captains of [White Shadow]—Lin, was it?
Lin spoke in a heavy voice.
"He's a member of [White Shadow] who was dispatched to Saria Island."
"..."
At Lin's words, I approached the black box with a slightly darkened gaze.
If it had contained something dangerous, it probably wouldn't have made it here. It had surely already been neutralized.
A black box.
A small box, barely large enough to hold a human head.
Click.
"Ha..."
At the sight inside the box, I had no choice but to let out a hollow laugh.
The inside of the box was filled with clumps of red salt.
I had no choice but to know what was inside, even if I didn't want to.
What was inside this box right now.
"Have you confirmed his identity?"
"Yes... They say it's the same blood as the sample he submitted when he joined [White Shadow]."
"Then that only means the blood is the same, right?"
"Yes."
Only the blood was the same, huh.
Thinking that, I slowly began digging through the salt hardened by blood.
I had mentioned this before.
That if someone died on my orders, I would be the first to verify it myself.
This had been my belief since my previous life.
If someone had died on my orders, I had decided that the least I could do was bury them with my own hands.
Swish.
As I carefully dug through the gradually hardening salt, my hand touched something both soft and hard.
I carefully lifted the object and showed it to Lin.
"Is he a member of [White Shadow]?"
"...Yes."
"I see..."
A face contorted in pain. He must have died in agony until the very end.
And on the member's forehead, letters had been carved with something sharp.
[Hello?]
Simple letters.
The emotion contained in those letters was simple.
Mockery.
"Ha..."
How much must the person who wrote those letters have snickered?
I began to feel annoyed.
"Prepare a grand funeral."
And.
"I will investigate what happened on Saria Island myself."
I said that as I carefully lowered the head of the man who had died because of my order.