Chapter 43
I turned my gaze back to Ruen after seeing Dale pass out with his head on the table.
The noisy guy had quieted down, so I looked at her eyes to signal that we should return to the main topic.
Ruen nodded and calmly continued speaking, "To continue what I was saying earlier, the church's volunteer organizations are pretending to do charity work while selling vagrants to black mages."
As this was what she had said before, I nodded to show I remembered.
Ruen then began to give a detailed explanation about this.
"It's quite complexly intertwined, but to put it simply, what they call 'volunteering' is a business where the interests of three groups are meshed together."
For the city, it was beneficial because they could legally sell off vagrants who were useless and damaging to the city's value.
Some corrupt clergy could legally extort donations from the imperial family or wealthy organizations under the pretext of doing charity work.
Black mages could obtain large numbers of people they could take without repercussions, so she said it would be strange not to do this.
So that's why there were so many human test subjects in the black mages' stronghold.
Since the church, which should be monitoring this, was turning a blind eye to human trafficking, there was no problem even though they captured so many people.
Moreover, we're at war with demons right now.
Whether they wanted to or not, people who lost their homes and hometowns were flocking to the cities, so the number of vagrants was increasing incredibly.
It seemed they could keep selling them without much notice.
As I was laughing hollowly at their behavior of seeing people not as humans but as money, Ruen spoke to me in a calm voice, "So, could you investigate and annihilate the related volunteer organizations?"
Annihilate... Such a violent word popped out, so I looked at Ruen somewhat surprised.
Ruen took out an old book from her chest and said to me, "Of course, I've prepared a reward...! Although the decoding isn't finished yet, so we don't know what content it contains, according to Liana, there's a high possibility that it's a book containing very powerful techniques."
At those words, I silently looked at it.
An old book from which intense mana was spreading.
Since there was no mention of such an item in the original work, I couldn't know what content was inside, but I could be certain that it wasn't an ordinary item.
As I was recalling the items the Saint gave to Dale in the original work and becoming certain that this item wasn't ordinary, Ruen, seemingly sorry for entrusting this incident to me, hesitantly said to me, "If possible, I'd like to investigate together, but... I have somewhere I need to go urgently, so it seems impossible to investigate together."
"Somewhere you need to go urgently?"
"Ah, yes. The Pernoir Cliff, do you know it? I heard that monsters have appeared there on a large scale and many people have been injured."
Of course I knew it.
Pernoir Cliff was the place where Ruen and Dale first met in the original work.
It was the place where Dale saved Ruen when she was in a life-or-death crisis.
In other words, it was a predetermined fate that Ruen would be in danger if she went to Pernoir Cliff, so I couldn't help but express concern to Ruen.
"It sounds very dangerous. Wouldn't it be better to at least take a large number of troops with you?"
"Ah... The church is in a chaotic state right now. There are many complex problems involved, so that seems a bit difficult."
The complex problems Ruen was talking about were likely to mean problems that arose because “some corrupt church people” were keeping Ruen in check.
I pondered for a moment at those words, then nodded and glanced at Dasoon, who was groaning beside me.
It would be better to have her take that guy.
It wasn’t a bad conclusion as it would increase safety and could also feed experience to Dale.
I was about to tell Ruen to take Dasoon with her, and approach Dasoon to tell him to go with Ruen and cut down some monsters, when…
"Ueeek ya! Damian!"
Dale, who was fiddling with a wine glass with a flushed face, presented me with a question.
"What's that? Isn't something strange...?"
"What is?"
"In the original work...?! Elisia didn't... go this far, did she!?"
That was right. Many things that shouldn't have happened in the original work have happened, and things that should have happened hadn't.
"Huh?! Something's strange... Is she being controlled by black mages!?"
"Controlled?"
"It doesn't make sense otherwise..."
Being controlled by black mages...
As I was listening to this somewhat interesting speculation, suddenly a thought crossed my mind.
Come to think of it, Elisia's actions were quite instinctive compared to the original work.
It was a bit strange that she, who used to cut off unnecessary things mercilessly while considering efficiency and value, suddenly became excessively attached to recognition at some point.
Of course, if asked to guess the reason, there were some things that came to mind.
Elisia was “suffering from hallucinations and auditory hallucinations for a long time”, and on top of that, these things had turned into nightmares.
She was living a life where she couldn't even sleep properly for two hours a day and was cursed by ghosts all day long.
So even if she's a person with a strong mentality, it's natural that she would be terribly broken, but...
...Even so, Elisia was Elisia, and this alone wasn't enough to explain her breaking down, so I couldn't help but have doubts.
As I was thinking about this,
Dasoon in front of me drank alcohol and said to me, "Hallucinations and auditory hallucinations... and headaches are black magic, right...?"
With those words, she passed out.
As I watched Daisy suddenly pop out of my chest and hit Dasoon's back of the head, I fell into thought for a moment.
Maybe it's really related to black magic as Dale said.
If I were a key figure on the eldest son's side who knew about the artificial sun, I would want to shake off Elisia, who was continuously making great contributions to the North and showing ambition for the family head position.
In other words, there was an extremely high possibility that they had carried out some kind of interference operation to prevent Elisia from exerting her power properly.
Black magic...
The moment this thought came to mind, the fact that only Elisia suffered particularly in the North crossed my mind, but I shook it off and snorted, shaking my head.
Well, it's not my business.
Whether it was black magic or whatever, it was already over, and it was no longer related to me.
Thinking that whether Elisia lived or died was no longer worth my concern, I clicked my tongue and said to Dale, "Stop talking nonsense and follow the Saintess later."
"..."
There was no response.
Looking at Dale like that, I said, "Well, he was used for a long time," shook my head, and stood up.
***
After receiving documents about the volunteer organizations from Liana and returning to the lodgings, Damian's mother came with a proposal to return to the family home together.
"Won't you come home with me?"
As I had things to do right away, I said I would go later.
Damian's mother hugged me carefully and said kindly,
"I see, it might be good to unwind the things you've accumulated during your travels. But your family will be worried, so come back as soon as possible."
"Yes."
After seeing off Damian's mother as she left, I calmly turned my gaze and said to Liana, "Guide me to where the volunteer organizations are."
"Yes. Please follow me this way."
Thinking it would be good to go and assess the situation first, I followed Liana forward and a somewhat shocking scene unfolded before my eyes.
Countless vagrants flocking from sewers connected to the outside, and clergy doing relief activities mixed in between them.
I silently frowned at the sight of such a high population density that it seemed as if they were cramming humans into a can and compressing them.
As I was watching this, Liana handed me an artifact and continued speaking, "This is an artifact that can hide your identity, so please wear it. With this, unless it's a high-level mage, you won't be discovered."
"Thank you."
"Huhu. It's not difficult to do this much to help the Saintess."
However, there was a high possibility that high-level black mages were mixed in over there.
Considering this, I thought it would be better to wear something like a helmet pulled down deeply, so I bought a suitable helmet nearby and covered my face.
After confirming that the disguises for me, Siren, and Liana were all complete, I moved towards the volunteer-related building near the sewer that Liana had told me about.
***
Getting into the building wasn't that difficult.
Although I was wearing a strange helmet, when I said I wanted to "make a donation" while wearing expensive clothes, the soldiers opened the door without much suspicion.
As I was frowning while looking around the interior of the building, which felt more like a den of thugs or gangsters' headquarters than a volunteer organization, someone who seemed to have a fairly high position hurriedly came down the stairs and spoke to me. "Oh my, what brings you here?"
A man with a rat-like, sly-looking expression clasped his hands together and spoke to me.
Looking at him, I acted out the tone of an arrogant noble as much as possible and briefly said, "I came to get a few things through donation."
"Ah... What do you mean by 'get'? I would appreciate it if you could explain in more detail."
He expressed his question to me with an expression as if he really didn't know, so at first I thought he might really not know, but thanks to Siren beside me whispering in my ear, "Judging by the fluctuation of mana, he's lying," I could realize it was a lie.
I whispered a small thank you to Siren and then clicked my tongue as loudly as possible and said, "Do I really need to explain?"
He glanced around and quietly said to me, "...I-I'm sorry. Let's continue the rest of the conversation upstairs."
I nodded, and he guided me up the stairs, quickly and calmly ascending.
As I noticed that the carpet on the floor was slightly worn, realizing that more people than expected had come and gone, I went up.
He guided me to the best seat and said to me, "If it's not rude, could you give us a detailed explanation?"
I nodded nonchalantly at those words and answered somewhat brazenly,
"I've come on Elisia's orders to purchase sacrifices for opening the rift. How many can you sell?"