Chapter 17 - Found It

The gambling den itself was relatively spacious.

However, due to the furniture being densely packed to make it impossible to distinguish day and night, and the large number of people crowded in, it was an unsuitable environment for using a long mace.

So, just as I was about to give up on the powerful and long-range two-handed mace and start the fight with a one-handed hammer, Loraine stepped back and said to me, "Would you like to handle this alone, Young Master?"

An unacceptable suggestion for a guard knight, but a reasonable proposal as a swordsmanship teacher.

I nodded lightly and walked forward.

"Ha... living all this time, now some kid who looks like a gigolo..."

Perhaps because I wasn't big and looked like a young master raised in a greenhouse,

The one sitting in the front sneered without even the slightest defense, let alone being on guard.

Looking at his large body without a single scratch, I realized he had lived by using psychological fear rather than combat, and immediately brought down my hammer.

Crack.

An intense impact sound struck.

Someone with some combat experience could have avoided this, but he didn't seem to be at that level, as his form quickly crumbled.

For a moment, silence fell and all eyes focused on me.

Watching this, I thought of my last day in the North, twisted my mouth, and walked forward again, shaking off the blood.

"C-catch that bastard!"

"Weapon! Where's my weapon!"

"Shit, what the hell is this all of a sudden!"

They didn't seem to be people who made fighting their profession, as they were excessively confused, tangling each other's movements and creating their own chaos.

Seeing this sight that seemed to push each other towards death, I laughed hollowly and started dealing with the ones rushing at me from the front one by one.

"Die!"

I lightly avoided the incoming attack, then smashed the opponent's face with the hammer I was holding.

It was a smoothly connected action, so at a glance, it might have looked light.

But that didn't mean the result was light.

Literally, with the sound of something breaking and blood splattering, those following behind froze in place.

Feeling my excitement wane at their excessively crude reaction, I extended my foot to strongly kick the one in front, then looked around.

Even though their comrade had died, they were too scared to rashly rush in, giving the feeling of looking at meek sheep.

Just as I was reminding myself that losing composure at such a sight would mean losing all initiative, a large vibration was heard from inside, and a large man smashed through the wooden door with his hands, rushing out and screaming, "Shit, who the fuck is it!"

A muscular man with so many scar marks on his face it looked like a sketchbook.

He threw down the man he was holding, who was covered in blood, grinding his teeth and looking around, then saw me and those around me, ground his teeth and said to me, "You bastard..."

He seemed to be quicker at assessing the situation than he looked, quickly calming down and massaging his wrists, then kicked a nearby man and said, "You worm-like bastards! Aren't you going to catch that guy right now?"

He seemed to have judged it efficient to wear me out with useless ones before attacking me himself.

Thinking this was quite an interesting act, I decided to start and began dealing with those who were hesitantly rushing at me one by one.

Bang!

Movements created through numerous sparring sessions with Loraine.

Although she always showed foolish appearances and stumbled, these were things learned from a genius who became the youngest top-grade Sword Expert and reached Sword Master in the latter part of the story.

Of course, my skills were far too lacking to evaluate this as perfect, but at least there was no problem in dealing with such crude guys.

After taking down about a dozen people at once, the muscular man quickly rolled his eyes, trying to assess the situation.

Probably because I was stronger than he had expected.

Looking at such a man, I slowly moved my feet, and a voice was heard.

"W-wait a minute! What do you want? Money? Or a contract? If it's an assassination contract, I'll pay ten times that!"

At those words, I was able to recall something I had momentarily forgotten.

Come to think of it, I hadn't come here to beat people up, but to get information.

I wiped the blood off my hammer on a nearby tablecloth and stated what I wanted.

"I need information."

"I-information? What kind of information?"

"Everything about black mages and the Church."

"...”

The moment he heard my words, he seemed to decide it wouldn't do and immediately fled, throwing every piece of furniture near him at me.

Seeing this, I realized that this man was definitely entangled with either black mages or the Church, and was about to chase after him when, a strong wind sound was heard, and the fleeing man's ankle was cleanly cut off.

This was literally what happened.

As if the process had been omitted, his ankle was separated extremely cleanly at a speed far beyond human cognitive ability.

...She really is a monster.

How long would it take to reach that level?

Thinking I couldn't even guess, I praised Loraine for doing well, then looked at the man crawling on the floor.

Unlike before, his attitude was now quite polite, as if he had finally decided to have a proper conversation.

I stepped on his back and said, "Tell me everything you know."

At those words, he nodded his head quickly with a groan full of pain.

***

"I, I just... I only received letters passing on information in between. I don't know anything."

When he said he didn't know, I raised my hammer, and new information came out.

"...Ah, ah! Come to think of it, I think they said they would bring a new letter tomorrow! I heard it contains the next orders!"

Thinking he might know more, I made a gesture of gripping the hammer tightly, and once again new information popped out.

"Also... that's right! Rusten! You have orders from the black mages, don't you!? Tell us about that!"

The one called Rusten turned pale at those words, then quickly shook his head and said to me,

"Y-Young Master, I didn't mean to do that. I was threatened and had no choice..."

"Did I ask for your personal circumstances?"

"...I received orders from the black mages! To become close to you, Young Master, and then make you become close to the people the black mages introduced!"

"Why?"

"I don't know that well either... Maybe they wanted to get something through you, Young Master?"

These guys were just small fry that could be cut off at any time, so they didn't have any major information.

But it turned the things I had been speculating, for example, the suspicion that black mages were targeting the Carsaril family, into certainty.

So I judged that I had obtained decent results.

And if I succeed in intercepting the letter tomorrow…

Thinking that I might be able to tackle the essential problem rather than just grabbing tails, I nodded.

***

And the next evening, Loraine and I were hiding in a nearby building.

As soon as we confirmed the scene of a suspicious-looking man leaving a letter, we grabbed him and entered the gambling den.

"L-let go!"

He struggled and tried to break free from us.

But after a few physical persuasions, he became quiet like a dead person and went limp.

"I-I think he's really dead."

Ignoring Rusten, who was trembling in fear in front of me, I looked at the stolen letter.

A plain white letter, nothing special about it.

According to what the collapsed large guy said, this letter contained information with the next orders written on it, but...

Only the person who wrote it and the one who read this letter would know whether orders are written here, or a self-introduction, or useless content.

The point was, how did he know with such certainty that orders were written in it?

Of course, there was a possibility that this guy had told the truth, but considering the sneakiness of black mages, it seemed highly likely that this was a trap.

So what I need to do is…

Not to open the letter and check the contents.

But to have the spirit sniff the remnants of black magic on the letter and guide us to where those traces lead.

So I immediately took out the spirit and had it smell the letter, then asked for guidance.

"Myeong!"

The spirit barked, "Myeong myeong," as if saying to trust only it and looked in one direction.

I walked in that direction and said to Loraine, "Knock those guys out."

"Yes."

Those guys could be used as witnesses when reporting to the family later, so it would be better to knock them out.

What was important now was to follow the traces on the letter before they completely disappeared, so I quickly moved my feet to follow it.

"Myeong!"

The place we arrived at was a nearby lakeside.

Just as I was showing puzzlement at a place that seemed to have no connection to black magic at all,

The Sun Spirit barked strongly towards the bottom of the lake.

Under the water surface?

Could it be that the place where the black mages were hiding was under the lake?

...The thought crossed my mind whether that was possible, but then I thought if magic existed, what else would be impossible, so I told Loraine that it seemed the black mages were below.

***

Dale, the protagonist and hero who defeated the final boss.

Originally, he should have brilliantly blocked the second invasion encountered in the North, gained the recognition of the Northern people, and grown at an abnormally fast pace, but…

"...I think I'll need rest for a while. The mace hit a very bad place."

He was lying in a hospital room because Damian Carsaril had hit him in the groin with a mace for the sole reason of flirting with Elisia.

Fortunately, because he had played a huge role in the invasion, he was being treated as an honored guest, but because the place he was hit was not a good place, he was in a state of despair, being worn down both physically and mentally.

"...Damian. Damian!"

Because he was hit in a precious place, not just anywhere else, his anger kept overflowing beyond its limits.

So he wanted to rush out right away and take revenge on Damian.

However, Damian was no longer in the North, and he was still in the process of treating his wounds, so there was nothing he could do right away.

So he kept accumulating anger towards Damian and ground his teeth, vowing to take revenge someday.