Chapter 166: Interrogation (1)
TL: Potato-tan
“. . . . . .I understand. Let’s put him in the dungeon. Sir Desburn.”
“Yes.”
As a knight named Desburn stepped forward, Russell wordlessly handed over the limp Weizen to him. The knight carefully lifted the slumped Weizen over his shoulder and hurried off towards the inner castle.
Lahart, who had been watching the knight go, rubbed his temples and muttered,
“The Empire, all of a sudden. What the. . . . . . Why would the Empire in the west be interested in the north? There’s no benefit at all. . . . . . Could it be?”
As if something had occurred to him, Lahart looked up sharply.
“Father? Do you have any idea?”
“. . . . . .No. Our priority right now is to clean up this mess. Will you help?”
“Of course.”
Lahart stared at him in surprise for a moment, then smiled wryly.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
With the capture of Percus, the mastermind behind the attack, the situation was quickly brought under control.
When Russell, Irrucil, Calia, and Aellasis joined forces to deal with the necrols, it was as swift as lightning.
Once all the monsters had been dealt with, all that remained were the ruins. Russell helped with the search and rescue efforts, going around the devastated city that resembled a battlefield.
There were many people trapped under the rubble of collapsed houses during the battle, as well as those trapped in basements with their entrances blocked. If it hadn’t been for Calia’s wide-area magic, there would have been at least hundreds more casualties.
Although the necrols’ rampage had lasted less than two hours, the aftermath took half a day to clean up. Everywhere, the sounds of crying and wailing echoed mournfully. It was better if they found the bodies.
Those who had been touched by the mist or devoured by the necrols had no trace left, not even a finger. Those who had their breath forcibly taken had their bodies replaced by necrols, and those who were eaten by those necrols were turned into nothing more than mana and nutrients, leaving no trace behind.
There were still people wandering around who didn’t know that their family, friends, and loved ones had been turned into monsters or devoured. They would only find out later that their family was dead.
The sun had set. As the afterglow that had been painting the territory red faded completely, a dark night sky and a chilly wind descended. Here and there in the pitch-black city, bonfires and magically created flames flickered, illuminating the surroundings.
Russell stood on the castle wall, looking down over the city.
“. . . . . .”
The wall he was standing on wasn’t unscathed either. There were bloodstains where it had been attacked at close range, and a round crack radiating out from one spot. Now, there were no necrol corpses or human corpses, just a desolate scene.
“You were here.”
As Russell turned his head, Irrucil was climbing the stairs, carrying a young girl in her arms. Her appearance was hardly neat. Her hair was matted with dirt and blood, and her clothes were covered in red stains. However, there was no blood that appeared to be her own.
“Who is she?”
“Ah. . . . . . She lost her mother. Her name is Lana. She won’t let go of me.”
The girl named Lana was sleeping, breathing regularly.
“What about her father?”
Irrucil shook her head at Russell’s question.
“I asked her, but she wouldn’t tell me. I don’t think she’s ever met him, not since she was born.”
“What are you going to do with her?”
“If there’s no one to take her. . . . . . I’ll have her work at the castle. She can work in the kitchen or as a servant.”
Russell shrugged and said nothing. Irrucil, who had readjusted her hold on the girl, came to stand beside him. Irrucil’s eyes also took in the devastated territory.
“What about the ringleader? Did you catch him?”
“Fortunately. Calia has him now. And we caught one more, a mercenary who came as an escort. He’s pretty strong.”
“If you say he’s strong, then he must be a famous mercenary. Do you know his name?”
“He said it was Weizen.”
“What does he look like?”
“He’s tall and carries a lot of blades. A longsword, a broadsword, a dagger, and a short sword. He handled all of them at a proficient level.”
“A mercenary who carries a lot of swords and goes by the name Weizen.”
Irrucil rolled the name around in her mouth for a moment, then looked up.
“Grisha. I think I heard that the younger brother of the Grisha siblings was named Weizen.”
“Grisha?”
“Yes. The older sister of the siblings was named Eden. Eden and Weizen. They’re both big names in the mercenary world. Why would the Empire. . . . . .”
Having already been informed by Lahart, she knew that the Empire was behind this attack.
“It’s not the princess. Now that she has secured her position as the next emperor, she wouldn’t do anything unnecessary. In that case, it would be more appropriate for the prince’s faction, which is losing power. But it wouldn’t do the prince any good to mess with the northern territory.”
“It’s something we’ll have to think about carefully. We can worry about it after we’ve finished cleaning up the mess.”
“That’s true.”
Irrucil’s black eyes gleamed fiercely as she looked out over the dark city. From one corner, the faint sound of heartbroken sobbing could still be heard.
“I’ll make them regret crossing us.”
🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷
“Hmm.”
Calia, who had been examining the censer that Russell had taken from the dark elf Percus, tilted her head. Russell asked,
“Have you figured anything out?”
“Just a moment.”
Calia, who had been holding the censer in both hands, soon spoke.
“For now, there are only two things. One, it uses people who have been touched by the mist as sacrifices to transfer them to the underworld as food and summon creatures from that dimension. Second, it obeys the commands of the one holding the censer, the master.”
“Which is more unusual?”
Calia, who had placed the censer on the table in front of her, raised her index and middle fingers.
“Both of them. Originally, the Breath of Nemesto isn’t a censer that produces enough smoke to be shared among several people. If you put rare ingredients inside, such as the horn of a unicorn, the heart of a giant, or a part of a demon’s body, flames will automatically ignite, and the smoke from those ingredients is inhaled.”
“The kind that gives you strength?”
Calia nodded.
“Yes. It temporarily grants you the powers of the creature you burned in the censer. Although temporary, the duration varies. Some have obtained the regenerative power of a Flocod. The duration of that regenerative power was one year.”
“Flocode?”
“A very rare lizard, even in the south. It has greater regenerative power than a troll. But it’s so rare and has been spotted so infrequently that even when I was ruling the kingdom, it was treated as a mythical creature. Anyway.”
Calia, who had ventilated the room, continued,
“Even though it came into my possession once, I didn’t pay much attention to it because it had a fixed purpose. After the war broke out, I was also sealed away, and the kingdom was destroyed, so it must have continued to wander the world. I never thought I’d see it here again.”
“So you’re saying that was its original purpose. Does that mean that some other magical measure has been taken now?”
“Yes. I’ll be more certain once I check what’s inside.”
Pa-chit!
As she reached for the lid of the censer, black flames shot out and pushed Calia’s hand away. The resistance was so strong that Calia’s right hand was charred black.
“As you can see. Russell, I tried to open that lid several times before you came, but I failed. It’s not simply enchanted; it’s imbued with a spirit. If you approach it rashly━ oh, why are you taking it?”
“I’ll give it a try.”
“Hmm. . . . . . Be careful. You could end up having your body taken over.”
‘Having your body taken over huh?.’ Russell chuckled.
“That won’t happen, so don’t worry.”
His right hand reached out and grabbed the lid of the censer. At the same time, fierce-looking black flames erupted and enveloped Russell’s right hand.
Whoosh!
“Russell!”
Calia, who looked like she was about to raise both hands and unleash her magic at any moment, stopped him with one hand and concentrated her mana.
Wooooooooo. . . . . .!
Indescribable voices overlapped. It was impossible to tell whether they were male or female, old or young.
The flames were now spreading beyond his right hand and onto his wrist. However, they stopped there and didn’t go any further.
He had plenty of experience with being invaded by extraterrestrial spirits. The devil Logos and Geliotos, and even the mist from the censer that he had inhaled directly a few hours ago.
He pushed down on it. Russell had an overwhelming amount of mana.
Even if it wasn’t his innate magic eyes or his body, the mana that Russell had cultivated as he lived his life wasn’t fake.
The mana that had been tempered through near-death experiences and by slaying monsters, soaked in blood and sweat, grew denser with each passing moment.
Crackle crackle crackle!
A blue aura and electricity erupted from Russell’s forearm and clashed with the black flames.
Russell’s eyes began to glow. The composition, structure, and essence of the flames came into his view. The flames were just a cover. And Russell’s magic eyes, true to their name, began to show him the answers he sought.
A vision directly connected to the flames. He saw a man in a black robe holding the censer and muttering something. Surprisingly, it was the same man in a black robe who had appeared when he had damaged the otherworldly tree the other day.
At that time, the man who had been chanting a spell and placing his hand on the censer shuddered.
━. . . . . .What? Where are you looking at me from?
The man with the black robe flinched and trembled, clearly aware of Russell’s gaze, even though this was a vision of the past. His red eyes darted around and soon met Russell’s gaze.
━You. . . . . .!
“You’re quite good at running away.”
At that moment, the periphery of his vision quickly darkened. A barrier was being placed over Russell’s magic eyes. The man in the black robe growled,
━You won’t be able to say that for much longer.
“Yes. Tell me that to my face.”
Then, his vision went completely dark and then lit up again. Russell saw that the black flames that had been covering his right arm had completely disappeared.
“Oh. . . . . . Did it work?”
Calia had no idea that Russell had just had a brief encounter with the man in the black robe. Russell nodded and opened the lid of the censer. The lid opened without resistance.
Inside the censer was a neatly folded human forearm, only bones remaining. It was a bony, pitch-black right hand. Russell could see that the interior space of the censer was much larger than it appeared from the outside.
No matter how he looked at it, it was clear that a large human forearm the size of the censer could fit inside without any problems.
“Do you know what this is?”
“I can’t tell right away. Can I take a closer look?”
“Yes.”
As Russell handed the censer back to Calia, there was a knock at the door.
━Young Master. The head is looking for you.
🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷
The place where Lahart had summoned Russell was the castle’s dungeon. After passing through the storage room where food and alcohol were kept and going down a spiral staircase, they reached the dungeon.
The dungeon, which was deep underground, was dark and damp, with the smell of blood in the air. Even the torches that were arranged regularly on the outer walls couldn’t spread their light beyond a certain radius.
Most of the cells were empty. After passing about twenty empty cells, they saw knights holding torches in front of them.
“Where’s Father?”
“He’s in the cell.”
At Russell’s question, the knight pointed to one side. As they entered, Lord Lahart and the wizard Simos greeted him.
“I came when you called.”
“You’re here? Come this way.”
They weren’t the only ones in the cell. Weizen was tied to a sturdy wooden chair. Not only was he wrapped in chains, but mana stones to restrain his mana were placed all over the cell, and the wizard Simos was floating a magic circle over one of his hands.
It was a spell to suppress and restrain Weizen’s mana in case of an emergency. Lahart said,
“I tried to wake him up, but he wouldn’t wake up. I remembered that you had knocked him out, so I had you brought here. Am I wrong?”
“No. It seems that my mana is still in his body.”
Russell immediately approached and placed his hand on Weizen’s slumped head. And he absorbed the mana that remained in his spinal cord.
The reaction was immediate.
“Ack. . . . . .!”
Weizen, who had regained consciousness, lifted his head with a whoosh. He gasped for breath for a moment, then soon checked the faces of the people around him and grinned.
“Ahaha. . . . . . You don’t have to hold me like this. I’ll tell you everything.”
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