Chapter 151 : Chapter 151
Chapter 151 : Rat Hunting (3)
I said.
“Opening the sky……?”
“Yeah. The Supreme King wants that.”
Open the sky.
The meaning those words carried was never light.
“Why does he want to open the sky?”
Do you think a low-level grunt like me would know the reason? Of course I wouldn’t.
“Proof that what you’re saying is real?”
“Then try torturing me or something. Who knows? Maybe some decent nonsense will come out of my mouth.”
Bare chuckled.
“Reckless. Do you even know what’s beyond the sky when you say that?”
“No idea. I don’t know. But maybe the Supreme King might know. If he’s stirring up something like this, doesn’t that mean he knows there’s something beyond it in the first place?”
If his goal was to open the sky, it wasn’t too hard to guess what the Supreme King was after.
“Is the Supreme King after the Fragment?”
“A Fragment, huh. That’s fine too, but it’s uncertain. Who can guarantee that gathering Fragments will let you reach that sky? It’s not easy to bear the danger of Fragments in the first place. So rather than that, you’ve gotta use an easier and more reliable method.”
An easy and reliable method, huh…….
“So that’s the magic circle that was spread out across the Mülhen Granary Zone.”
“Could be, or maybe not. I’m just a low-level grunt, so I don’t know much. Most of what I said is just my speculation too.”
Bare kept cackling like a madman the entire time he talked.
“What’s so funny?”
“Look at you right now. The Plague Mask that heated up the Bulletin Board turned out to be just the Empire’s dog—how is that not funny?”
The Empire’s dog…….
Was that how I had looked?
Even for me, there was no need to bother correcting the misunderstanding, so I didn’t add anything more.
“Why do you follow the Supreme King?”
Does a salaryman need some grand reason to follow the boss? The benefits are decent and the pay is decent, so I stick around.
“You think you’re working at a company or something.”
“It’s not that different. Over there I kept working even though it was dirty and pathetic because of my family, but at least here I don’t have to.”
Bare’s constant cackling gradually died down.
“You know. I’ve got a kid. If time had flowed properly over there, he’d be old enough to start kindergarten by now…… but right now, he doesn’t have a dad.”
“Are you asking me for pity or something?”
“No. I’m saying I absolutely have to go home. I can’t raise my kid as a fatherless child, can I?”
The scenery of Earth I had seen beyond the sky surfaced in my mind.
Was it really a coincidence that Bare was bringing up a story like this now.
I didn’t think so.
“You asked why I follow the Supreme King, right? Like I said, it’s because the待遇 is good. And more than anything, the company’s vision is pretty good too.”
“……Vision?”
“The Supreme King promised.”
Bare added.
“When all of this is over, only then will all of us finally be able to go home.”
***
After finishing the interrogation and leaving the prison, Edric was waiting out front, seated in a chair.
Since I was already aware that with Edric’s hearing, he could have heard the conversation inside well enough, I had roughly set up a soundproof wall in advance using the Orb of Water and Demonic energy.
Meaning that no matter how much it was Edric, he wouldn’t be able to know the conversation that happened inside.
“Judging by how long you were in there, it looks like the rat woke up.”
“Yes. I asked this and that, but I didn’t get any big gains.”
Since I couldn’t tell Edric about the sky or anything else related to the Ascension Stone Fragment, it would be best to gloss it over to about this extent for now.
“For that, it was pretty quiet there.”
“Just in case, I took measures so no sound would leak out.”
“Hm, is that so? Well done.”
Rather than telling Edric a clumsy lie, saying it like this was better in many ways.
“Do you have any guess what the Supreme King’s objective is?”
“I still don’t know.”
“Is that so? I thought you would’ve found out something.”
“But I did roughly figure out what kind of thing he’s trying to pull.”
“Oh, tell me.”
“The Supreme King will have prepared magic circles everywhere that could become a battlefield.”
“Magic circles? Magic circles like the one that was in the Mülhen Granary Zone?”
“Yes. Probably.”
I selected and told only the information Edric could know, and needed to know.
“The Supreme King will have made preparations to burn not only the Empire but even the Eastern Union too, by turning all of it into a battlefield. This war will have been for that from the start.”
“This war…… you mean it isn’t simply a war to subjugate the Empire?”
“That might be the purpose of the kingdoms obeying the Supreme King’s orders, but at least the Supreme King who commands them will think differently.”
What was the Supreme King’s objective?
I still didn’t know much about it, but if what Bare said was true, then the Supreme King had probably seen, like me, what was beyond the sky.
But a doubt remained.
‘If the sky really opens as the Supreme King intends…… what happens to this world?’
Would we really be able to go home, just as the Supreme King said?
But if not?
Then this world and Earth…… what would happen to them?
Thinking about problems I couldn’t know the answer to wasn’t a way I particularly liked, but the scheme the Supreme King was plotting wasn’t something I could just let slide to the point I had to do something so meaningless.
“Then finding and dismantling those magic circles comes first.”
“Yes. That’s the most urgent matter.”
“Hm, then we should also tell the commanders to avoid engagement with the enemy as much as possible. We can’t do exactly what they want.”
Edric said.
“But what kind of magic circle is it? A magic circle is, by nature, a circle for activating magic, but I don’t know that part.”
“It will be a human sacrifice magic circle.”
Edric’s expression hardened stiffly.
“……I’ve heard there are mages who do that insane kind of thing, but I never thought someone called the head of the Eastern Union would do something like that.”
Edric shook his head.
“But what kind of magic is someone called the Supreme King trying to complete even at the cost of making such sacrifices? Don’t you have any guesses either?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, I don’t.”
“Hm, magic with no idea where it will head…… there’s nothing more dangerous than that.”
Edric lifted his head.
“What will you do now?”
“I plan to meet the Supreme King.”
“……What?”
Edric spoke awkwardly, unable to hide his shock.
“……Uh, I’m not sure so I’m asking, but was someone called the Supreme King, the head of the Eastern Union, someone you could just meet because you wanted to?”
“Of course not, but I still have to find a way.”
“Ha…… you always surprise me.”
What needed to be done was decided.
“Captain, please meet with the Bernhard-side council members and the other commanders. Before I meet the Supreme King, there’s somewhere I need to go.”
“Somewhere to go?”
“Yes. I’m going to briefly meet someone I used to know.”
“Someone you used to know…… come to think of it, I’ve never heard what you used to be before.”
“That’s…… well, later, when there’s time, I’ll tell you slowly.”
Of course, it would be a story I’d appropriately adapt and make up.
“Alright. Then I’ll pray for your fortune in battle.”
“I’ll pray for your fortune in battle too, Captain.”
***
Before meeting the Supreme King, there was one preparation I had to make.
Namely, meeting one of my past connections.
‘I should meet that guy.’
Back in the days of World of Justice Online, I had quite a lot of connections.
Of course, most of them were bad connections, but even so, a few among them remained as good connections to me.
Guar was also one of those good connections.
Guar was, even among Players, a rare person who held the position of lord of a land called Biarritz on the coast of the Eastern Union.
Even before playing World of Justice Online, he was a player who mainly preferred management simulation games.
From what I had briefly checked on the Anonymous Bulletin Board, he seemed to still remain the lord there.
I’d heard that among the lord’s subjects, he was a decent lord with a pretty good reputation, or something like that.
Since Guar held not a small influence within the Eastern Union, if I could get his help, meeting the Supreme King wouldn’t be that difficult.
“Vell, where did you go?”
When I returned to the lodging to pack for the journey, Alicia greeted me as she looked at me.
“I had a quick errand. I have to go somewhere again.”
“Huh? Where?”
“Looks like something came up.”
“Can’t I come with you?”
I knew Alicia would say something like this, so I tried to refuse like always.
But the moment I saw Alicia biting her lip tight, prepared to be refused once again, for some reason an inexplicable whim came over me.
“Sure.”
“……Huh? Really?”
“Yeah. It’s a long way, so hurry and get ready.”
“Ah, okay!”
Alicia brightened and hurriedly ran up to the second floor they were using as lodging.
I didn’t know if this was the right choice, but still, traveling as two would be safer than traveling alone, so it wasn’t necessarily a bad choice.
‘It’s still not certain Guar will cooperate willingly either.’
I was definitely quite close with Guar, and I had actually helped Guar several times too.
But people naturally change, and there was no rule that Guar would still be the same Guar I knew.
‘Still, there’s no other way.’
The existence of the Supreme King was being kept so extremely secret that even Edric didn’t know until I told him.
A few Players had at least noticed his existence and passed along word, but there was still no information at all about what kind of person the Supreme King was.
So if I couldn’t get Guar’s help, it was obvious things would get quite troublesome.
“I’m here.”
After packing and waiting on the first floor of the lodging, before long Alicia came down.
But what I hadn’t expected was the presence of the piles of luggage next to Alicia.
“Yo, Vell. Were you trying to go somewhere leaving just us behind?”
“You’re trying to carry it all alone again. Did you forget we’re the same Special Task Force?”
It was Conlan and Albino.
“What? Why are you all coming?”
“I heard from Alicia you had to go somewhere urgently. Then of course we have to go together.”
“……And you got permission from the captain?”
“Captain? Haven’t seen that old man for quite a while. Then doesn’t that make you the next one with command authority, Squad Leader?”
“Huh…….”
It was absurd, but strangely, that part didn’t feel bad either.
“Let me make this clear: this trip is pretty dangerous. Even if you had ten lives, it still wouldn’t be enough.”
“Hmph, when wasn’t it? If it’s something you’re doing, it’ll be related to Bernhard too. I’ll help.”
“I still haven’t forgotten the debt I owe you. So don’t think about dying on your own terms.”
It seemed Conlan and Albino had no intention of sitting this journey out.
Can’t be helped…….
Since Alicia was coming along anyway, adding these two didn’t seem like it would cause any special problems.
“Fine, do whatever you want. Still, wouldn’t it be better to tell the captain? If we just go, that’s desertion.”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
At that moment, Edric appeared from somewhere and said with a hearty laugh.
“I hear you’re going to follow Vell. Good thinking. Truth is, my heart felt heavy sending Vell alone anyway.”
Edric laughed.
“You heard? The captain allowed it too.”
“Good grief…….”
If even Edric was saying that, there was no longer any grounds to refuse.
“Alright, let’s go.”
It was time to head to Biarritz, the territory of Guar, one of my long-standing connections.