Chapter 70
A few days later.
The funeral for a member of [White Shadow] was conducted solemnly yet swiftly.
All the members of [White Shadow] and the Knights, except for the Nebula Duchy's servants and those unable to come because of the distance.
All of them began gathering in the cemetery managed by the Nebula Duchy.
"..."
They had all gathered solemnly before a single gravestone, dressed in black mourning clothes.
The gravestone bore the following inscription.
[Richard, a member of the Nebula Duchy's [White Shadow], rests here. His devotion and loyalty will be remembered by the Nebula Duchy forever.]
Flowers of remembrance gradually piled up.
Thud. Thud.
As countless people filled the area around the gravestone with flowers, Abel, dressed in a black suit, made his way through the servants and approached it.
An old memorial custom of the Nebula Duchy.
A funeral held when someone died by a means other than natural causes, provided that the death was not the result of some sordid affair involving assassination, poisoning, or vested interests.
After everyone in the household had paid their respects, it was customary for the head of the family and the head's direct descendants to offer the final respects and words of comfort to the deceased.
However, the current head of the Nebula Duchy, Servan, was unable to move about freely.
Therefore, Abel was the only one who could come to pay his respects to Richard.
Thud. Thud.
All the household servants, the people of [White Shadow], and the Knights began focusing their attention on Abel's actions.
"..."
Ignoring the servants' gazes, Abel arrived at the cemetery.
After carefully placing the final wreath before the gravestone, Abel slowly opened his mouth.
"Richard."
A member of [White Shadow] assigned to investigate Saria Island.
"Someone who had never even seen me in person and had merely followed my orders."
Richard had never seen Abel in person.
As a member of [White Shadow], he had naturally been stationed outside.
Only later had he learned in writing that the current head of the Nebula family had officially appointed a new heir.
Nevertheless, Richard had risked his life to carry out Abel's mission.
Tap.
Carefully and reverently, Abel placed a hand on the gravestone and spoke in a subdued voice.
"I confirmed it in your report. You were an orphan from the back alleys before being taken in by the Nebula Duchy, and you graduated with excellent marks from the training academy operated within the duchy."
He had been an unremarkable man.
The training academy instructor at the time had said that Richard possessed talent, but not enough to enter [White Shadow]. That alone said enough.
Nevertheless, despite that lack of talent, Richard had proudly been selected as a member of [White Shadow].
Abel could hardly imagine it.
The loyalty of Richard, who had raised that inadequate talent through grueling effort and eventually entered [White Shadow].
An orphan with neither parents nor siblings.
A man who had devoted everything he had to repaying the Nebula Duchy, which had saved and raised him.
What sort of tribute should one offer such a man?
"..."
With subdued eyes, Abel looked at the gravestone where only Richard's head had been buried.
"I will remember you."
[...]
"I will remember your name, for you died by my orders, until the day I die."
They had not even been acquainted.
To Abel, Richard had truly been little more than a stranger.
But even so, he had been someone who died because of Abel's orders.
Even now, whenever Abel closed his eyes, he could remember them.
The organization he had created in his previous life to uncover those who had betrayed him.
And the names of those who had died on his orders within that organization.
So there was more than enough room for the name Richard among the people he would remember.
"I swear in the name of the God of Contracts."
[!!!]
At Abel's declaration, everyone present began looking at him with startled expressions.
But paying no attention to the gazes around him, Abel quietly closed his eyes and spoke the final words of his memorial.
"So rest in peace, Richard."
Swish.
Abel straightened his slightly bowed back and spoke as though making a declaration to himself.
"I will avenge you with my own hands."
***
When joining [White Shadow], nearly every member had a recording magic circle engraved on their retinas.
Now, Abel and all the members of [White Shadow] had gathered in one room to examine the footage recorded by the magic circle engraved in Richard's retinas.
"First."
After checking everyone gathered there, Lin, the captain of [White Shadow], slowly began the briefing in a heavy voice.
"At present, the recording magic circle engraved in Agent Richard's retinas has sustained damage."
It was only natural.
Even though it was a recording magic circle, it had arrived here after being preserved in salt.
The damage to the corpse was already extensive enough.
"Therefore, the footage we barely managed to extract is probably from near the end of Agent Richard's life."
"...Yes. I understand."
Saria Island was a considerable distance from the Empire, where the Nebula Duchy was currently located.
Furthermore, Richard had not been transported here immediately after his death.
They later learned that he had been reported as lost property by the only ship route operating from Saria Island. While conducting an extensive search for Richard after losing contact with him, [White Shadow] had barely managed to discover the box containing his head.
In other words.
Richard had actually died quite some time ago.
At Abel's reply, Lin carefully transferred the final footage extracted from the recording magic circle into a crystal ball and began playing it.
Crackle.
The footage was severely damaged and filled with noise.
But it was clear enough to understand what was happening.
The footage of Richard's investigation after entering Saria Island began playing, interrupted by frequent gaps.
[Excuse me.]
He had disguised himself as a tourist while becoming acquainted with the residents.
[Oh, I see. So this is the traditional food of Saria Island?]
Since Saria Island did not have a culture of rejecting outsiders, the crystal ball showed him quickly blending in.
"..."
"..."
The members of [White Shadow] watched their comrade with subdued eyes.
The scene began moving rapidly.
As if he had discovered some sort of clue, Richard suddenly entered ruins far from the city center.
Inside the ruins, he quickly discovered an anomaly and opened a hidden door.
When he finally entered the door leading underground without the slightest suspicion, the members of [White Shadow] began murmuring.
"Strange. He was far too hasty."
"Right? Even after eliminating the dangers around it, he should have checked at least twice more."
"Hmm..."
[Oh no!]
Perhaps Richard had heard the voices of [White Shadow]. Inside the crystal ball, he suddenly stopped where he stood, then let out a scream-laced sigh moments later.
The recording magic circle naturally had no function for storing the user's thoughts.
Therefore, all it could show was the situation and the user's reaction.
But even that alone was more than enough of a clue for the members of [White Shadow].
"Hypnosis... No, a cognitive alteration?"
"It doesn't seem like hypnosis. It's too..."
Shnk!
The sound stopped the people who had been about to exchange opinions.
[Kugh!]
[Did you notice?]
A languid man's voice.
[What a shame. You looked capable, so I was thinking of using you as a minion.]
The view went dark for a moment.
Before long, the crystal ball began playing again, filled with only a single color.
Blood.
A place that appeared to be underground.
A sea of blood was bursting forth from every direction.
Richard appeared to have looked around in an effort to leave as precise a record as possible in the recording magic circle.
[...]
Before long, a massive droplet of blood spread across the center of the underground chamber.
[Huh?]
The man standing before the droplet turned his head toward Richard.
A man with hair as red as blood, seemingly the owner of the languid voice from moments before.
[You're awake?]
But the languid voice had changed into a fairly high-pitched one, as though the former had merely been a bluff.
[...]
[But you're not talking? I don't like toys that don't talk...]
Shnk!
No sooner had the man's words ended than the sound of something rupturing rang out once more.
Despite spewing blood from the pain of his stomach being pierced, Richard did not make even a single groan.
[Oh, as expected. I thought you were different. You're an educated elite?]
[...]
[Hmm, right! I've decided. I was going to make you my minion, you know? But to do that, I have to break your mind.]
So bear with it even if it hurts a little, okay?
At the same time, a series of scenes filled with blood and flesh began to follow.
[Aaaaargh!!!]
Richard's scream.
[Hahahaha!!]
The man burst into laughter as he savored Richard's screams as though listening to the greatest masterpiece of the century.
But even in that situation, Richard's vision desperately alternated between the blood around him and the man.
"This is..."
One of the members of [White Shadow] cautiously voiced his opinion after seeing that.
"The blood around him is probably giving that man power."
The languid voice heard at first. The high-pitched voice heard from within that space filled only with blood.
And finally, that view Richard was desperately sending them.
The recording magic circle could capture objects, people, and scenery, but crucially, it could not capture mana.
So he must have tried to convey information in this way.
"..."
Unlike the members of [White Shadow], who began deducing the culprit's mana ability, Abel consistently focused on carefully observing the man's behavior on the screen.
'A murderer... specifically, a thrill-seeking, hedonistic murderer.'
Abel had never received specialized training in criminal psychology or profiling.
But even superficial knowledge could still be useful.
And much of what he knew matched the man on the screen.
He treated his victims like prey or toys, and regarded murder and every other act as though they were a game or sport.
He was the archetypal hedonistic murderer, unmoved by others' pain and driven solely by his own satisfaction.
[You endured this long?]
As though intersecting with Abel's thoughts, the man inside the crystal ball began speaking again.
His voice contained not a trace of doubt, only pure emotion.
The pleasure he felt at tormenting Richard.
[Are you enduring this because of the recording magic circle engraved in your retinas?]
[!!!]
[Oh, you didn't think I knew, did you? That's disappointing...]
The man trailed off for a moment, then clapped his hands as though he had thought of something good and looked at Richard.
[That's it! Three days. If you last just three days, I'll send you outside with your retinas preserved as much as possible without damaging them. How about it?]
Did the man see this entire situation as some kind of game?
As the man chattered about his idea as though it sounded amusing, an unpleasant anger began rising in the members of [White Shadow] and Abel.
[Then, begin!]
Click!
With those words, the footage ended.
"..."
"..."
Once the footage ended, only a razor-thin silence lingered in the room.
"Hmm..."
A low hum from Abel began echoing through the room, cutting through the silence.
"..."
Abel slowly tapped the table with his fingers as he reviewed his thoughts.
Tap.
A hedonistic murderer.
The words [Hello?] had been carved into his forehead.
Tap.
The culprit was most likely a half-improvisational type.
Impulsive and spontaneous. And yet, he still followed the rules of the game he had imposed.
The fact that Richard's head had arrived at the Nebula Duchy was proof of that.
Tap.
But it was clear that the culprit had not known about them.
If he had, he would not have shoved Richard's head into a block of salt to preserve it as much as possible and sent it outside the island.
In other words, [Hello?] had truly meant nothing more or less than mockery.
"..."
Rumble.
Once he reached that conclusion, overwhelming mana began erupting from Abel's body.
Crack.
It was merely the release of mana, but the sheer force of that release was enough to crack the table and shake the air.
Conclusion.
The killer had killed my subordinate for fun, mocked Richard's corpse after he had desperately kept his promise, and looked down on us for taking Richard back.
That's it.
"I will go personally to the one who killed Richard. Any objections?"
"..."
"..."
"If you have one, speak."
At Abel's words, Lin, the captain of [White Shadow], looked at him and spoke.
"I have one request."
"What is it?"
"Please exact blood vengeance on the one who killed that bastard Richard."
When he finished speaking, Lin immediately bowed his head.
As though that were a signal, every member of [White Shadow] around Abel bowed their heads to him.
[Please.]
...
Abel looked at the members of [White Shadow] bowing their heads to him.
"Very well."
Blood vengeance?
"Understood."
Abel had said from the beginning that he would go to Saria Island alone because he had intended to do precisely that.
.
.
.
Three days later. Saria Island Harbor.
Bwooooooo.
The horn of a ship powered by mana stones began echoing.
It was a signal that the ship was about to dock at the harbor.
Krrrreeeek.
A man disembarked from the ship that had arrived at Saria Island Harbor, guided by the orderly efforts of its crew.
"Haa..."
The gray-haired man Abel, a cigar clenched between his lips, had arrived at Saria Island.