Chapter 67 : Chapter 67
Chapter 67. Spy
“A 3rd Circle mage is asking a knight aspirant with no circles for a method. My, oh my.”
“……”
Nigues looked at me, his lips sealed, and let out a long breath.
“You were so quick-witted when you needed something, but not anymore, is that it? My, oh my.”
“No……”
Nigues’s face turned red, and he hung his head low. With his family rescued and Gwanju gone, he probably had nothing to say. I decided to find out later why his family had become products for the Moonlight Festival…….
“Odekerkh.”
First, I needed to sort out this noisy situation.
“Uh, yeah.”
“You know how to send a carrier pigeon, right?”
“Uh, I learned when I was little. I know how.”
“Good. There should be a carrier pigeon here, so find it and send it to Mayor Graf.”
“M, Mayor? Mayor Graf?”
As Odekerkh showed his surprise, the others looked at me with the same expression.
“W, what should I write?”
“Gwanju is dead. Don’t be afraid, come and claim the credit. Bring the entire Bureau of Inspection. Like that. Ah! And write that I sent it. 5th Prince Maximilian Le… Maximilian Caesar.”
Odekerkh nodded and headed to the next room where the carrier pigeons were.
“Will the mayor really move because of that?”
Adellian asked. She seemed to think it was absurd for a government agency to move based on a single note.
“Have you met him?”
“Huh? Who?”
“The mayor.”
“Ah… no. Then have you met him?”
“I have. That man looks like he’d take bribes and commit corruption, you know?”
As I began to explain, I felt a sense of disbelief from those looking at me. Why can't these bastards trust people? I hadn't even finished explaining.
“Hear me out. He looks like that, but his actions are the epitome of integrity. He’s a man who works hard for the city of Graf.”
“So you’re saying he’d want to get rid of the Black Market? Then why did he leave it alone until now?”
“Because a ridiculously strong person was holding the fort.”
Gwanju, though sloppy, was a monster with four mana circles. This was not a level the local Bureau of Inspection could handle. It was a level that required the mobilization of a professionally trained army to resolve. Thus, it would have been difficult for Graf city to clean up the Black Market. Even if they requested support from the central Bureau of Inspection, there was no guarantee that proper forces would be sent. They might have even been scolded for stirring up unnecessary trouble.
And…….
‘It was also true that things were somewhat quiet because of Gwanju.’
Paradoxically, Gwanju’s presence likely suppressed large-scale crimes.
The Black Market was a place that disliked disturbances. As a market where illegal goods were traded, things like anonymity and secrecy were important. But if a disturbance occurred in the Black Market, it would inevitably attract watching eyes. Whether from other criminal organizations or government agencies.
‘The manager wouldn’t have liked that.’
So, Gwanju would have tried his best to manage things to prevent problems from occurring.
However, Mayor Graf’s position had to be different. Even if the incidence of problems was low because of the Black Market, the fact that it was a den of criminals remained unchanged. Also, the existence of the Black Market had killed off the surrounding commercial districts, living environment, and roads. A normal person wouldn’t want to go anywhere near a place full of criminals.
For these reasons, Mayor Graf would have wanted to eliminate the Black Market.
“But if Mayor Graf gets involved… won’t we be in big trouble?”
Piontek asked.
I furrowed my brow, made a displeased face, and scratched my forehead.
What trouble would we be in… Ah, we snuck in.
“Well, when the mayor comes, I’ll figure something out.”
We’ve met face-to-face and exchanged words, so I should be able to sort it out through conversation.
I patted my chest as if to say, ‘Just trust me.’ But their gazes were filled with anxiety and disbelief.
These people, do they have so little faith? They believe so fervently in gods they’ve never seen.
“Just trust me!”
I’ll handle everything.
***
Andolini Cosca, the mayor of Graf, wore his characteristic vile expression.
Adellian, Piontek, and Odekerkh stared at Cosca with curious eyes.
“It’s true, just like he described.”
“I know, right.”
“B, but he said he was a cl, clean p, person.”
Maxim clicked his tongue at the three idiots.
“Mr. Mayor, it would be best if you relaxed your expression.”
The mayor’s secretary, whose eyes had met Maxim’s, whispered to Cosca.
“Ah, right.”
Cosca closed his eyes and diligently tried to move his facial muscles. But not much changed.
Adellian, Piontek, and Odekerkh looked at Maxim with suspicion, thinking, ‘Is he really a man of integrity?’ And Cosca, as if accustomed to this atmosphere, maintained a calm demeanor.
“I couldn’t help but be surprised by Your Highness’s message.”
“Oh, what’s there to be surprised about? We’re all just helping each other out, aren’t we?”
“You are being overly humble. Your Highness has uprooted a great danger to the city of Graf.”
At Cosca’s words, Maxim smiled brightly.
Seeing this, Cosca felt a chill. Wondering if he had misspoken, he looked at his secretary.
There was no particular change in the secretary’s expression.
‘I handled it cleanly, so what is it?’
Cosca brushed the goosebumps off his arm and forced an awkward smile.
At that moment, Maxim’s eyes glittered frighteningly.
“With just empty words?”
At Maxim’s words, Cosca recalled the shattered cathedral and the foul stench that hadn’t disappeared even after a week of cleaning.
“Ha, ha, ha. You said we’re all helping each other out……”
“Come on, why are you being like this when you know better? I helped first, so now it’s time for you to help. That’s how it is.”
Maxim looked at Cosca with an unparalleled bright smile. It seemed like a signal to quickly offer the help he wanted.
Cosca broke out in a cold sweat. He thought it would be best to change the direction of the conversation.
“So… how did you end up at the Black Market? It’s not a place one can just enter.”
“I had things to look into, and a job to do. So I came for both. There are ways to get in, of course.”
“What were you looking into?”
“Come on, Mr. Mayor. You have a talent for dragging out conversations, don’t you? Do you have a lot of time?”
“……What do you need?”
At Cosca’s declaration of surrender, Maxim nodded with a satisfied smile.
“Let’s announce that I infiltrated the Black Market at your request and we solved the problem together.”
“Is that really all?”
Maxim made a sly expression.
“You’ll be making a list of the confiscated goods, right?”
“We will, but……”
“Let me see that first.”
“That’s a bit difficult.”
“Difficult, you say? Some of us risked our lives fighting, while others are trying to get by with just a few words? Is that right?”
Maxim glanced at his comrades standing behind him. At that, they chimed in with, ‘That’s too much,’ ‘We really could have died,’ and ‘I, I think we need to s, see what k, kind of things were being traded in the B, Black Market.’
Cosca looked at Maxim with a resentful gaze, as if asking if it was really necessary.
“Do you think we’d use it for anything bad? We’re just trying to confirm what kind of people we were fighting.”
“No, that confirmation… Haa, I understand. Just confirming.”
“Come on, of course. Have you only been deceived all your life?”
At Maxim’s slick face, Cosca swallowed a sigh.
‘I’m doing it because I’m anxious. Because I’m anxious.’
Cosca felt like entrusting the fish to the cat by doing as Maxim wished. But he couldn't refuse. What Maxim had done was too great. For a man of Cosca's character, ignoring such a deed would be to become an immoral person himself.
So, he decided to listen to what Maxim wanted.
“Let me know if there’s anything unusual. Organize it well. And if there’s a spare carriage when we leave, let us ride it too. It was incredibly tough here. Ah! And buy us a meal too.”
“……”
At Maxim’s continuing demands, Cosca began to think, wouldn’t it be better to just be on the receiving end?
***
“Thank you for your help.”
After Cosca went outside to direct the scene, Nigues’s family came to see me.
I said I had only done what I had to do and looked closely at Nigues’s wife and child. On the outside, they didn’t look particularly special. Except for the fact that they weren't from Poinus.
“Why were you taken?”
The wife of Nigues, upon being asked, looked at Nigues.
A silence fell. Nigues and his family held the lid of the box containing the truth and deliberated.
“I mentioned it once before. That they have healing abilities. As long as their hearts are alive… my wife and child can recover even from severe injuries.”
Nigues said, forcing the words out.
But isn’t that the case for everyone?
“I suppose I’ll have to show you.”
Nigues’s wife drew a dagger and stabbed herself in the neck.
It happened so suddenly that there was no time to stop her.
“Just watch.”
Nigues said, waving his hand at me as if to calm me down.
Nigues’s wife pulled the blade out of her neck. Blood gurgled and flowed out of her body.
I was about to offer her a cloth, but Nigues’s wife declined.
“Look.”
She pointed to her neck.
The blood that had been gushing out stopped flowing. Then, the wound on her neck began to heal.
“Were you a test subject?”
I recalled what Alfred had said before. The rumor about people being used as experimental tools.
“……Yes.”
“Where? You don’t seem to be a native of Poinus.”
“I am from Uresra. I was born in a laboratory.”
I thought the practice of experimenting on people had disappeared, but it hadn’t.
‘Uresra. What are these guys up to?’
A mage from Homilia Sotolts was managing the Black Market in Poinus. Of course, there was no evidence that Gwanju was in continuous contact with Uresra. I had his office searched just in case, but nothing came up.
However, I couldn’t conclude that there was no connection. It was unlikely they would retire a 4th Circle mage, especially one from a special forces unit. If he had deserted, he wouldn’t be alive and moving around like this. Letting a former special forces member go would be a great risk if they were to fall into enemy hands.
It could only be assumed that he was planted for a special operation.
‘Tensions on the border are rising.’
That’s what Chris had said.
They experimented on people and placed a mage from Homilia Sotolts in the heart of an enemy nation. If so…….
“Have you seen this before?”
I took out the pendant with the bull emblem.
Nigues’s wife and child looked back and forth between me and the pendant.
“Homilia Sotolts. Bullshot.”
The child, who had been sitting quietly, opened his mouth.
“Ah, that’s right. There are three organizations within Homilia Sotolts. One of them is Bullshot. They are known to use a bull as their symbol.”
At Nigues’s words, the blurry picture became clear.
‘Homilia Sotolts. Hoso. So the Hoso Merchant Guild is these Bullshot guys.’
A bitter laugh escaped me. To think that the princes were being played by the special forces of an enemy nation.
‘Things are about to get noisy.’
With spies from an enemy nation having reached the royal family, it was as good as saying that war preparations were more or less complete.
A great crisis, an opportunity, was approaching.
“M, mister.”
At the words of Nigues's child, I stopped my thoughts.
The child fidgeted with his small, fern-like hands.
“This……”
The child held out a necklace to me.
I couldn't believe my eyes. A unique necklace with a white gem inside a purple gem—it was an item I had never expected to encounter in a place like this.
“It is the Talisman of Murti. Please accept it.”
Nigues’s wife said.
‘Do you even know what this is to be giving it away?’ The words almost came out of my throat. But seeing Nigues’s face, I swallowed them. With a mage present, there was no way he wouldn't know what the Talisman of Murti was.
“It seems you have something other than a mana circle… could it perhaps be a mana heart?”
Nigues asked cautiously.
Having seen me fight, it wasn’t unreasonable for him to think so.
“That’s right.”
“I knew it. That’s why I want to give you this. It is a family heirloom. It’s the necklace used by Ramana Murti, who righted the meaning of a knight. It is known to purify the mana in the mana heart.”
That wasn't all. It also had the effect of improving the flow of mana and amplifying its power.
That was why I had searched so desperately for it during my Leonhardt days. It was also an item I ultimately failed to find. After Murti's death, it had vanished, and I had thought it was destroyed, but to encounter it like this.
“Please accept it.”
Nigues’s child said, looking at me with round eyes.
“Are you sure I can accept this? You said it’s a family heirloom.”
“Thanks to Your Highness, we were able to find what is most precious to us. Please accept it.”
Following the wishes of Nigues’s family, I placed the Talisman of Murti around my neck.
“Oh? It’s sparkling.”
Nigues’s child said, looking at the talisman.
“D, did it always glow like this?”
This time, Nigues reacted.
“The chosen one.”
Nigues’s wife stared blankly at the talisman.
The Talisman of Murti, resting on my chest, was resonating with my mana heart, emitting a purple and white light.