Chapter 169

The bandits occupying the cave numbered around fifteen.

But facing the knight armed with chain mail and longsword, they were cut down helplessly like practice dummies.

As expected, Belenka was practically a human weapon.

Jubal covered her rear in case of encirclement, but it proved unnecessary.

The thieves chose to flee with their lives rather than gang up on Belenka.

"Aaaaargh!"

"Run!"

The battle ended in an instant.

The cave entrance, transformed into a battlefield, became an unpleasant space filled with the stench of blood and piles of corpses.

Kira shook her head bitterly, while Maria made a small sign of the cross.

It seemed safe enough to leave now.

Ian quietly approached Belenka.

"Hm? Ian?"

"Nice work, Belenka."

Belenka looked at Ian as if surprised, though Ian also found the situation unexpected.

"How's the magic demonstration going?"

"...Not bad."

Ian briefly recalled Carl's enraged face, but shook his head to dismiss the thought.

At any rate, it was progressing fairly well.

"What about you? Did you find out anything?"

"I uncovered some rather interesting information."

"Good or bad?"

"If I had to choose, I'd say bad."

Belenka gestured.

Ian listened to Belenka's story in a suitable open space.

After Ian disappeared, saying he'd help the wizards, Belenka began an investigative search with the remaining companions.

First, Belenka checked the people entering and exiting the Baron's castle.

The economy of this medieval fantasy world was, on average, in a miserable state.

When one thinks of a medieval economy, they typically imagine a complex power dynamic between guild craftsmen, merchants selling their goods, and lords trying to tax the merchants.

That image was about half correct.

The city-states of the distant southern Coral Sea maintained such an economic system.

That area did feel like a place where people actually lived, by modern standards.

But this wasn't the Coral Sea, this was the proud Holy Empire.

In the Holy Empire's economy, agriculture reigned supreme.

Till the fields on your estate, grow crops, and make bread!

That was it!

A bakers' guild specializing in bread-making? That was only in big cities.

Merchants selling goods? With estates often having populations of just 300-400 people, what merchants would be roaming around? At most, you'd have peddlers coming and going.

Farmers worked, priests prayed, and lords lounged about!

That was the typical scene in rural estates of the Holy Empire.

In short, Holy Empire estates were characterized by their extreme isolation.

It was only natural, given how few visitors came from outside.

"So if an unfamiliar face is seen coming and going from the Baron's castle..."

"They'd be spotted immediately, right?"

"Exactly."

Belenka, along with her companions, compiled a list of people who had entered and exited the castle.

With Kira, capable of wizard cosplay, things progressed smoothly.

Given that wizards were currently wreaking havoc in Baron Vincents' domain, no one dared refuse Kira's requests.

"Come to think of it..."

The castle's cook testified:

"Recently, there's been an increase in strange fellows coming to eat and leave."

"Strange fellows?"

"At first I thought they were game wardens, but not a single one was carrying a bow!"

He'd assumed he didn't recognize their faces because they were game wardens, but that wasn't the case.

These were truly outsiders coming to eat at the castle and then leaving.

"They weren't merchants, were they?"

"No! What kind of merchants travel without wagons?"

Belenka immediately pursued these 'suspicious characters'.

With her extensive travel experience as a wandering knight, Belenka easily devised a way to track them.

She headed to the market and questioned the merchants.

"Has anyone been spending a lot of money suddenly?"

"Well..."

"Oh, there is someone who's been buying a lot of bread lately."

Belenka tracked down the home of this bread-buying individual.

There, she discovered a group of men.

They were operating out of a lodging house.

"Maria."

"Yes. It gives me an unpleasant feeling. They seem accustomed to death."

Maria easily sensed the aura of death surrounding them.

Belenka interrogated them physically.

Soon, she heard a strange confession.

"We're sorry! We... we killed people!"

"I already know that. If you don't tell the truth, your lives are forfeit, you criminals."

Their occupation was... surprisingly, professional killers.

Truly, they were men who only ate and killed.

"Are you assassins?"

Belenka reflexively thought of that profession.

Men who kill for money.

Far away, in the Sand Empire, there were said to be men called [Assassins] who specialized in assassinations for the Sultan.

But she knew there were no such men in the Holy Empire.

Could these guys possibly be professional assassins?

"Professionally trained killers-"

"No! We've never received such brutal training!"

"..."

Belenka, who had received such 'brutal' training (she had trained in swordsmanship), felt slightly offended but didn't show it and continued questioning.

"Then who did you kill?"

"Just... people walking on the road."

"???"

Highway robbers?

The more she heard, the harder it was to understand.

"If we bury the bodies in specific locations... a woman named Karenne gives us money."

"Karenne?"

"She's the Baron's lover."

"!"

The pieces of the puzzle came together in her mind.

They weren't assassins... but corpse production specialists!

The goal wasn't murder itself, but the corpses themselves.

"This is insane. Karenne? Are you saying she's really the Baron's lover?"

"Yes! It's all that crazy b*tch's orders! We had no choice but to-"

Slash.

Belenka executed one of the killers as an example.

Startled, the killers spilled every bit of information they knew.

"There are other collaborators outside besides us!"

"Collaborators?"

"A really terrifying bastard! He said if we betray them, he'll bury us in the pit too...!"

Belenka couldn't grasp what exactly was going on.

'A woman named Karenne is hiring people to collect corpses.'

'Collecting corpses. Why on earth?'

'And outside the estate, there are guys monitoring the corpse collectors...'

'Karenne and the monitors are likely working together.'

Her head ached.

She had only come running after being asked to help Professor Inglan.

What on earth was happening here?

'I need Ian's help.'

Belenka decided she needed to inform Ian about this.

Clearly, suspicious activities were taking place, and the wizards were completely unaware of it.

"Um, Belenka."

"What is it?"

"I sense... some kind of death in that forest."

Maria, with her aptitude for necromancy, could hear the whispers of death's mysteries even in unfamiliar places.

'Corpses.'

With no wars having broken out, there was only one reason to sense death in the forest.

Corpses.

The corpses that woman Karenne was supposedly collecting.

"Let's do a light reconnaissance."

Belenka told her companions.

She intended to gather as much information as possible to relay to Ian.

Belenka scouted the forest outskirts, not venturing too deep.

She encountered some thugs who appeared to be 'corpse collectors'.

After dispatching them, she headed to their temporary hideout.

That place was...

"That cave, I presume."

"Correct, Ian."

Ian eyed the cave suspiciously.

It seemed they had indeed stumbled into an incredibly troublesome situation.

Ian exchanged opinions with his companions.

"Things have gotten this bad. It must be because that bastard Baron's proxy turned a blind eye."

According to Belenka's information, the woman named Karenne was the Baron proxy's lover.

It was right to assume they were in cahoots.

"The Baron's proxy. Karenne. And the corpse collectors..."

Ian heaved a deep sigh.

"More black wizards, perhaps?"

An ominous feeling overwhelmed him.

Somehow, Ian felt like he was cutting straight through areas where black wizards were active...

'Am I just unlucky?'

He had the unpleasant thought that if he dug deeper, black wizards would inevitably pop up.

"Wait, wait, wait!"

Krysus, who had been listening, cried out in panic.

Black wizards? Did he just say black wizards?

Even if black wizard activity was frequent in the southern Empire, surely they hadn't run into black wizards?

"Black wizards! No way! Are you saying we've encountered the infamous [Golden Rule Society]? Right now?"

"Yes."

When Ian answered bluntly, Krysus turned pale.

As a wizard herself, Krysus had heard rumors about the Golden Rule Society.

Those lunatics who aimed to overthrow the current Holy Empire and rebuild the ancient Golden Empire.

The black wizards of the Golden Rule Society were known for recklessly using forbidden magic, making them both messy and powerful.

Most wizards' attitude towards black wizards was avoidance.

They avoided them not out of fear, but because they were filthy, like avoiding excrement.

After all, no matter how much trouble those guys stirred up, most of the damage fell on ordinary people.

From the perspective of privileged wizards, there was no need to bother dealing with black wizards.

Unless a noble's request came in...

The Empire was vast anyway, so as long as they didn't cross paths, it was OK.

"A typical noble's lover doesn't buy corpses with money, right?"

"That's true, but..."

This woman Karenne's actions were clearly suspicious.

But Krysus found it difficult to connect Karenne with black wizards.

"It's still strange!"

"In what way?"

"If this Karenne woman is plotting something! Wouldn't she naturally be wary of wizards?"

"..."

That was a valid point.

Even if ordinary wizards don't meddle in black wizards' affairs, such blatantly suspicious activities would inevitably draw attention.

Yet currently, Baron Vincents' estate was crawling with wizards.

This was because the Baron's proxy had captured Inglan and refused to release him.

"The Baron's actions and his lover's actions don't match up!"

"...Senior Krysus, what if..."

"Yes?"

"What if the objectives of the Baron's actions and Karenne's actions are actually aligned... would that be the answer?"

Belenka furrowed her brow.

"Then..."

It had to be one of two things:

1. The Baron's proxy releases Inglan, aligning with Karenne's purpose.

2. He keeps Inglan captive, aligning with Karenne's purpose.

However, the first option was definitely not the case.

Inglan was still being held by the Baron, after all.

So naturally, the answer had to be option 2.

"But if he keeps Professor Inglan captive, wizards will come rushing to rescue him..."

Krysus stopped mid-sentence.

If Karenne benefited from Inglan's captivity...

It meant the resulting gathering of wizards was also beneficial to Karenne.

"..."

As Krysus struggled to continue, Ian sighed and spoke for her.

"Perhaps... the reason the Baron's proxy was being so stubborn... was to ensure wizards were definitively drawn in?"

Krysus trembled.

Ian's hypothesis was all too plausible.

The wizards thought they had rushed here to rescue Inglan, but...

Perhaps.

Lured by Inglan as bait, had they walked straight into a black wizard's trap?

"No! That can't be!"

Krysus cried out desperately.

"I received a letter from a space-time wizard!"

"..."

"Are you saying those high-and-mighty space-time wizards were unaware of this situation?"

Suddenly, Ian impulsively asked a question.

"Who was this space-time wizard?"

"It was a woman named Larabel!"

Space-time wizard Larabel.

Coincidentally, someone Ian knew.

She was the woman who had plotted evil schemes in Baron Devosi's castle in the past, only to be subdued by Ian and Gerard.

Gerard had spared her life and taken her somewhere...

Had she possibly returned as a space-time wizard?

Ian rubbed his forehead.

There was still far too little information.

"Belenka. Stop the investigation and go fetch Anton the water wizard. He's probably by the river."

"Hmm. Alright."

"Senior Krysus. Let's go get Senior Herta together."

"G-good idea!"

After allocating the personnel.

Ian worried about the missing Carl.

'...He should be fine.'

"Ian. Let's at least check this cave before we leave."

Ian agreed with Belenka's suggestion.

Checking the cave would only take a moment to go in and out.

"Alright."

Ian's group entered the cave.