Chapter 72
Chapter 72. Young Lady (Not) in a Greenhouse (1)
"I'm a retired Britannia military veteran. I was from the 7th Griffin Regiment stationed in the Soltera Protectorate."
"I wanted to earn a lot of money. I was dealing drugs to locals when I got dishonorably discharged by my superiors...... From then on, thinking my life was already ruined anyway, I might as well live recklessly, so I formed a cartel."
"Honestly, it wasn't difficult. After all, I'm still a 5th Rank Knight, aren't I? As I crushed small-time cartels that were just neighborhood punks, my organization quickly grew. Before I knew it, I was proudly reigning as the boss of the Montagra Cartel. Until you came, big brother."
"I got thoroughly beaten by you, big brother, and many organization members left. Now there aren't even 50 people remaining."
"But I held my position. Even if I ran away, I felt like you, big brother, would somehow find me and bury me."
"But as I actually farmed, I felt it......! The energy of the earth, the breath of the forest, the blessings that rain and sun bestow...... As I touched soil and grew crops, peace of mind settled in! How much I had been chasing after vain things these past ten-some years! So I'm very grateful to you, big brother. Though it came with violence, you showed me the right path......"
"Sorry to interrupt a good story, but could you shut up? You're distracting."
Jurgen cut off Lofo's farming testimony as he ran alongside, rambling on.
Still claiming to be a 5th Rank Knight, he was running quite fast without even being out of breath while chattering away.
"You broke a living person's fingers and now you're being cold-hearted."
"To sum it up, you learned the beauty of farming and completely reformed, isn't that what you're saying?"
"Tsk, that's too summarized."
Lofo's reformation was certainly praiseworthy, but right now there was no leisure for word games.
"Well, anyway...... After I quit the cartel business, the Costa Cartel originally took over that position."
"Why would bastards based in Costa confusingly name themselves like that?"
"It's a rule of this business, what can you do?"
It was a mistake from not knowing well about the Soltera cartels.
If he had, he would have known that the most powerful organization in a vicinity takes the regional name, and therefore organization names changing frequently is commonplace, and that Montagra is a more symbolic region than Costa so it's a name everyone covets.
The time limit he'd roughly estimated had long since been exceeded.
Even though he was making a U-turn and running to Costa Bay, it was already 3 hours over even at full speed.
Perhaps Serena had already been loaded onto a ship, and in the worst case, her identity might have been discovered, putting her in an even more difficult situation.
If the former, he could at least go to the slave market and purchase her, but if the latter......
A very terrible ending might be waiting.
"......"
He deliberately cut off his thoughts and controlled his emotions.
Anxiety and impatience adversely affect missions.
"Brief me about the Montagra Cartel while we go. Concisely."
"They're vicious bastards."
Lofo conveyed what he knew about the Montagra Cartel.
"The boss is a cruel bastard called 'Matador.' I don't know the details well either, but word is he was an assassin from the archipelago."
"Not someone you know?"
"Never even met him. However......"
Lofo hesitated, then spoke.
"Judging by the growth rate, he may have received support from the Empire. Perhaps the Matador himself is completely a rat for the Empire."
"Alcand Empire?"
"Yes, even when I led the organization, there were bastards secretly supplying weapons and funds. When I dug into it, circumstantially the Alcand Empire was the likely suspect."
"Makes sense. Lofo, no matter what, how does someone who received military pay accept money scattered by the enemy nation?"
Soltera also bordered the Empire.
From the Alcand Empire's perspective, Soltera was perfect land to release rats inside and give the kingdom a headache.
"Any idea where they might have smuggled the kidnapped companion?"
"There's a place that comes to mind."
Treya Salt Warehouse.
If you follow the coastline up from Del Alba Resort, there's a warehouse that stores salt.
"That warehouse is their headquarters. They sell salt from nearby islands. Human trafficking is a side business."
"Can you be certain? If what you say is true, it's been almost a year since you left this business."
"I'm 99% sure. There's no better spot to avoid outside surveillance while sailing ships toward the Empire. Usually loading salt sacks, occasionally slipping in a person—that's nothing, isn't it?"
"Understood."
Jurgen stopped briefly to catch his breath.
Lofo, who had been barely keeping up, also stopped with relief.
"Going to rest? Good thinking. I didn't show it earlier, but my toenails hurt too much. Do you know what ingrown toenails are?"
"From now on, only open your mouth when asked to speak."
"Why are you being so harsh, big brother?"
Lofo also whined while massaging his feet as if letting out a sigh of relief.
"......"
If there's no time, choices also narrow.
Now is the time for selection and concentration.
First, let's move assuming Serena is at the Treya Salt Warehouse.
"You follow behind. I'll go to the salt warehouse first."
"Hey, I can follow along."
If Serena moved tactfully, she might not have had her identity discovered yet, but that's closer to optimism.
In a state of being kidnapped without knowing why, the 'Actually I'm a noble!' card would look like an emergency escape button.
The problem is that it's not an emergency escape button but a self-destruct button......
"I'll have to push myself after all."
Jurgen closed his eyes and activated his dormant Magic Circuits.
The circuits he used to exert power as a 'Knight.'
"......Nngh."
Since they were circuits damaged from severe injuries during the Great Subjugation, just flowing Magic Power through them immediately spread a burning sensation and pain.
The level of circuit activation was fixed at 5th Rank Knight level.
Going beyond this would cause irreversible self-inflicted wounds.
Without caring, he slowly warmed up the circuits like starting an old engine.
At Jurgen's Magic Power-mixed breathing, Lofo's eyes widened.
"Big brother, weren't you an Alchemist?"
"Don't make me repeat myself."
"Go-goodness......"
Lofo was shocked seeing Jurgen, who was now spreading the wavelength of a 5th Rank Knight.
Knights condense Magic Power internally while Alchemists release it externally.
And the Jurgen that Lofo remembered was at minimum an 8th Rank or higher Alchemist.
For him to blatantly use Knight-style Magic Power circulation, of course he'd be surprised.
Jurgen gripped the Wind Feather in his hand.
Through 'Calling Wind,' he minimized air resistance, forming vortexes ahead like a slipstream.
If he simultaneously ran along the wind path with a Knight's body, he could reduce the time to Costa Bay to about an hour.
In this case, both his body and circuits would be severely strained, and because of that he wouldn't be able to choose the 'full-scale war' card, but it couldn't be helped.
"Don't take another route, come straight to Del Alba Resort."
"Aw, big brother, I told you I can keep up."
In front of Lofo, who had firmly bandaged his thumb.
Baaaaang!
Jurgen shot forward.
"No way."
Could that even be called running?
The dirt where he kicked off was flipped over as if a bomb had dropped.
"No, no way......"
Lofo could only watch Jurgen's back, which had instantly become a tiny dot, like a dog that had been chasing chickens.
***
He ran and ran again.
The steel body wrapped in wind deflected the rain as it shot forward, and after an hour of sprinting......
Jurgen arrived near the salt warehouse where kidnapped Serena would be.
Except for the grounds being surrounded by chain-link fence, it looked ordinary at a glance.
However, camouflaged guard posts were erected here and there, and fierce-looking men were loitering about carrying weapons.
While inputting the rough structure into his head, Jurgen panted like a sick beast.
"Can't...... do this...... twice......"
Sweat flowed like rain, and he tasted blood in his throat.
Not metaphorically—blood water had actually come up a few times.
His limbs became unsightly with multicolored bruises and protruding veins.
He couldn't see without a mirror, but his eyes were probably bloodshot red too.
This was the price of using circuits he shouldn't have used to arrive quickly.
To use an outdated hot-blooded boxing manga metaphor, it was like continuously throwing straights with a broken right hand.
The problem was that even after this suffering, he'd far exceeded the time limit.
Even if Serena used her wits to perfectly hide her identity and the situation rolled along without major variables, the possibility that she'd already been dragged onto a ship was strong.
There was no time to rest.
He'd start infiltrating immediately.
Anyway, the full-scale war card was sealed due to the forced sprint.
He'd identify Serena's location as quickly as possible, and if she hadn't been loaded onto a ship long ago, he'd initiate a maritime pursuit.
First, he confirmed the patrol route and personnel deployed at guard posts by eye.
Eight guard posts, patrols in teams of two, five teams.
They were walking listlessly along fixed routes.
By examining the patrol routes and deployments, he could predict the importance of each building.
There were largely three warehouses.
Warehouses A and B had workers and carts coming and going, loading salt sacks.
Meanwhile, Warehouse C, deployed relatively on the outskirts, had almost no personnel entering or exiting.
Yet the surveillance network was particularly concentrated on Warehouse C, and the windows were blocked with wooden boards so the interior couldn't be confirmed.
"That's probably the warehouse storing 'merchandise.'"
He'd check Warehouse C first.
With his purpose solidified, calm anger boiled along with impatience, like a safety pin had been pulled.
Britannia packaged and promoted Hanbin as a great hero, but he himself had never once thought of himself as a hero.
He'd never pursued perfect justice, nor had any obsessive sense of duty to exterminate evil forces.
Sometimes for comrades, sometimes for people around him, sometimes just because it rubbed him the wrong way—he moved.
He had power, and used that power as a means of self-satisfaction within visible limits.
If this journey had flowed as scheduled, he would have moderately enjoyed traveling, signed a contract to purchase peppers, then returned to make Seasoned Chicken.
However, the new Montagra Cartel had crossed the line of self-satisfaction Jurgen had set.
Their fate was simultaneously decided as well.
Just as the old Montagra Cartel had, the new Montagra Cartel would disappear.
Furthermore, if even a hair's breadth of harm had come to Serena......
All organization members, and even the resort staff who colluded with them.
He would eliminate them by any means necessary.
As Jurgen's body approached the salt warehouse like seeping in.
"Hm?"
Movement was suddenly detected.
A vehicle burst through Warehouse C's wall with a vroom.
And immediately following, several people burst out making a huge fuss.
Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!
The model was probably 'Caliburn Model M,' a model designed to drive on unpaved roads.
The Caliburn M that burst from the warehouse began spinning round and round in place like a colt on fire, sliding its rear wheels using the front wheels as an axis.
The organization members who belatedly rushed out hesitated, not daring to rush at the vehicle spinning fiercely while making a powerful exhaust sound.
"What the......"
Taking advantage of people around being unable to settle down, the Caliburn M that shot out through the gap in the dust like an arrow began racing through the salt warehouse grounds.
Vroooooom!
"Oho?"
Even in the absurd situation, it was driving skill excellent enough to naturally draw admiration.
Skillfully avoiding obstacles irregularly placed inside the grounds was basic......
Reaching a dead-end wall, it reversed at high speed and performed a J-turn, rotating the vehicle body 180 degrees.
Screeeeech!
Inertial drift employed to shake off pursuers chasing from behind.
Jurgen learned for the first time that such tricks were possible even with this world's vehicles, which still lacked technology.
Bang! Bang!
Not only that.
Not only did it slip through between rushing organization members, but it also minimized loss by obliquely striking those who blocked awkwardly with the vehicle body.
It felt like directly witnessing a car chase scene from an action movie.
Jurgen was confused.
Was it conflict between organizations?
Would this sudden event be a gain or a loss?
The option of stealthily infiltrating had completely disappeared, but what about using that vehicle as bait?
Vraaaaam!
The vehicle's exhaust sound gradually approaching with the Doppler effect.
And.
"Kyaaaaaaah!!! Move!!! Everyone move!!!"
A tremendous scream no less impressive.
Only then did Jurgen realize the driver roughly turning the steering wheel in the driver's seat had familiar pink hair.
Baaang!
The vehicle that leaped cleanly over the chain-link fence using a ramp disappeared as soon as it reached the public road connected to the salt mine, flooring the accelerator.
Organization members belatedly rushed out in a flurry, but the situation had already concluded.
"......Rescue complete?"
Jurgen muttered in bewilderment.