#141 Recruiting Talent (1)
“Oho, so they went and toppled Rohan after all? I thought they were an empty wagon making nothing but noise, but it seems that wasn’t the case.”
A blazing sun beating down. A scorching desert. Air boiling with heat.
Atop a rocky mountain in the southern desert, where human footsteps had long since vanished due to that extreme environment, a large man with a robe pulled over himself gazed at the horizon and murmured quietly.
“Yes, that’s the least they should do. They were all so incompetent I nearly grew disappointed.”
At his muttering, the others standing behind him, likewise draped in robes, bent deeply at the waist and bowed their heads.
Of course, if they opened their mouths without permission, their heads might burst, so no one answered him.
“Then we can start moving on to the next stage on our side as well. For the time being, the continentals’ eyes will be focused on the north, so things should proceed much more comfortably.”
The man who had been looking at the horizon finally turned around.
As he was making his way toward a cave on one side of the rocky mountain, a sudden gust of wind swept around him.
Flap, flap—
The hems of the robes whipped about violently.
And as the hood of the large figure at the front briefly parted—
A splendid flame-patterned tattoo that rose all the way to his neck appeared, then vanished.
“Tch, what a damnable environment.”
Clicking his tongue lightly, he roughly pulled his robe closed and disappeared into the cave as though nothing had happened.
Into the cave where the “Seed of Madness,” the decisive cause that had thrown this continent into chaos, lay hidden.***As time passed, the situation in the Principality of Rohan gradually worsened.
By now, it was barely defending the area around the capital; it had to be said that it had already lost its function as a nation long ago.
The one fortunate thing was that the Azerion Empire was gathering its forces in order to advance north.
Until now, because the principality had been holding out, they had been concentrating their strength elsewhere, leaving the northern border relatively lax, but soldiers began rapidly assembling there.
Since incidents of madness were continuing to break out even across the vast imperial mainland, this was quite a burdensome deployment for them as well, but…
If they simply allowed the Principality of Rohan to vanish entirely, things would become even more troublesome, so it was an unavoidable decision.‘The elites of the Main God Church led by the cardinal have already set out, did they say? They said they would gather as many refugees as possible in the capital and hold out until support arrives.’The imperial side was hurrying as much as possible, but it was only natural that moving an army would require a great deal of time.
And naturally, sacrifices would increase by that much.
For the Main God Church, which sought to reduce the number of victims as much as possible, that method was the best they could do.‘Heinrich… won’t be able to step forward for a while. He’s already busy with the continental allied forces and the Hero’s party, and the Hero, the only one who can stand against the Immortal King, can’t very well leave his post.’If it were a small number of powerful individuals that had invaded, that would be one thing, but reclaiming territory covered by numerous monsters was a task that could only take a long time.
Even if he did step in, it would probably only be possible after Rohan Temple’s gate was reclaimed and movement became smoother.
And while the continent was thus in the midst of chaos and upheaval.
At last.[Hmph—
I did not expect things to turn out like this. No matter how many of those wretches are caught, they crawl out from somewhere and prove themselves exceptionally skilled at being a nuisance.]
The Immortal King Hans appeared once more in the dimension of Auterica.‘But lately, it feels like something happens every time I’m away.’Of course, it was probably just his imagination, but both the invasion of the Yufersh Clan and the current matter were such major issues that he couldn’t help but be bothered by his inability to respond immediately.‘For the time being, I’d better avoid summoning the avatars to Earth if possible. 「Individual Projection」 can now be maintained for an hour, too.’With the continent in such turmoil right now, no one knew what might happen, or how.
Especially since those cockroach-like bastards of the Reverse Heaven’s Oath seemed to have begun moving in earnest, it was best to always be fully prepared for the smooth progress of his “living-room theater.”‘…No, now that I think about it, this is pissing me off. Why do I have to rack my brains like this because of those bastards?’All he wanted was to peacefully stage “the Demon King plotting the conquest of the continent and the Hero opposing him,” but because of those bastards, incidents kept growing larger.
Still, he had managed to weave things together somehow until now, but he couldn’t help being bothered by the very existence of variables that didn’t follow his control.‘Once this matter is over, I’ll have to shake them down more seriously. This time, Hans should step forward personally as well.’It wasn’t as if he had suffered any major direct damage from them; if anything, all he remembered was hunting them down like rats, but…
That wasn’t the important point.
Right now.
What mattered was the very fact that those bastards were getting in the way when he was trying to set things in motion.‘Whew… Still, for now, let’s start by establishing a base in the northern mountain range.’Just as Hans, having made up his mind, was about to summon his executives and issue orders related to that—
Banshee Queen Olivia, who had not been called even during the attack on the Great Temple and had continued devoting herself to her work, brought him information that made his ears perk up.[I compared the information obtained from those whom Your Majesty handed over previously… with that obtained from the executive captured recently… and carried out an investigation focused on the locations with the highest likelihood….]
The elite unit that had attempted to infiltrate Talaria under the orders of the one who had moved the Yufersh Clan, and Oldman, the branch manager of the Reverse Heaven’s Oath in the Tulk Kingdom.
And even the results of the ongoing investigation into them that had already been steadily progressing.
She pulled together every piece of information she could gather, both newly obtained and previously held, and succeeded in narrowing down the likely range.
What followed after that was, as always, an exhaustive search using ghosts.[As that proceeded… this humble one was able to learn that among those I had already been watching… there was someone related….]
What came after was swift and decisive.[The Azerion Empire, the city of Tobea near the capital….]
It was one of the imperial territories directly under the imperial household surrounding Zeron, the capital of the empire located at the center of the continent.
As a transportation hub, it was a place that, in its own way, approached the scale of a major city.[There is a high-ranking executive of the Reverse Heaven’s Oath there… the one who moved the Yufersh Clan….]
Thanks to her obsession, almost bordering on fixation, that continued day and night, the suspects had finally entered her field of view.[Oho—
You have done well, Olivia. So those bastards just happened to be hiding in the empire?][That is so… my King….]
They had already been getting on his nerves, so stopping by there briefly before heading to the northern mountain range didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Since the empire and the principality were right next to each other, there was a high possibility that they were connected to the ones responsible for this incident.
…Perhaps they might even be the culprits themselves.[How dare they arrogantly try to hide in the back and merely wiggle their fingers. This time, I shall personally drag them out.]
And so, the Immortal King Hans, who had been sharpening his blade for this moment,
began moving personally.***“Something’s strange. It’s definitely strange.”
A young man with dull blond hair paced around the interior of a lavish room, muttering to himself.
Then, as though something wasn’t going well, he ruffled his hair this way and that before dropping into an armchair and taking a deep breath.
“Whew—
No, I’m just overreacting.”
The evil organization that dreamed of overturning the world, the “Reverse Heaven’s Oath.”
Andrew Weaver, an Awakened from Earth who belonged to it, sank deeply into the chair and slowly closed his eyes.
Under the orders of Siana, a high-ranking executive, he had been assigned the task of monitoring movements in various places, but lately his nerves had grown sensitive due to several unsettling signs detected by his unique skill, 「Trajectory Observation」.‘Just what happened?’First, the Yufersh Clan, which had suddenly begun making strange movements immediately after heading to Talaria.
Observing Sacred Blood was beyond the scope of his ability, so he had not directly witnessed the battle between them and the Brokoslak Clan.‘But it’s certain that some problem occurred.’That was only natural, because the reinforcements Siana should have sent had vanished without a trace.
They, too, had apparently become entangled with a being of high enough caliber that he could not observe them, and in the end, he had been unable to learn any information about the reason.‘Their trail suddenly cut off while they were on their way to Talaria. …Could Brokoslak’s Sacred Blood have been there?’As though a black curtain had been drawn before his eyes, he could grasp nothing with certainty, so everything from beginning to end was riddled with questions.
How the fight between the two clans had ended, who exactly the being still blocking his gaze in Talaria was, and what had happened to the people Siana had sent.
There was not a single thing he could know.‘…It’s been a long time since I felt this powerless. No, this is worse than before.’Even back when the level of his unique skill had been low, he had not felt this helpless.
To begin with, back then he had rarely been entangled with beings of such caliber, and even if there was something he could not see, he would simply acknowledge his own inadequacy and give up quickly.
But now, after investing an enormous amount of karma to strengthen his skill considerably, at the very moment when his confidence had swelled and he was burning with ambition, to be faced with this kind of situation…
“This is… extremely irritating.”
And that was not the only thing he could not understand.
The unidentified barbarian currently making a name for himself at the Steel Fortress in the north of the Tulk Kingdom.
When Andrew first learned of the existence of the party that had returned from the northern mountain range, he had suspected that they might have received some secret mission and brought back a strong individual who had been hiding within the mountains.
Whether that target had been the dwarves, their superficial objective, or an entirely different existence, that would explain the anomaly detected by 「Trajectory Observation」.‘But that wasn’t it. They really did head to the mountains after accepting a request to rescue dwarves. The strange one is that barbarian bastard.’To say he grew after undergoing a trial was too insufficient; he was far too different going in and coming out.
So much so that one would suspect whether he was even the same person.
Even now, his caliber blocked Andrew’s vision, leaving things still hazy.‘There was a time when he disappeared from the Steel Fortress, perhaps because he briefly left his post, but…’He could only guess that the man had moved somewhere through a temple; he could not track his exact movements.‘That barbarian definitely has something going on. The collision of mana observed in the northern mountain range was most likely that of the Immortal King and a dragon. But someone who went into the mountains during the same period suddenly became that strong? While using the power of a dragon, at that?’It was difficult to examine that barbarian named “Harley” directly, but Andrew had been steadily gathering information through the rumors spreading around him.
Through that, he had even learned that the man was in fact a “dragonkin,” an extremely rare race, but…‘No, something smells off. The difference between when he entered the mountain range and when he came out, the gap between the two. What exactly caused it?’It was a leap in thought lacking both evidence and logic, but his extremely developed intuition continued to remind him of a sense of wrongness.
However, no matter what assumption he made, without information to support it, it would only be meaningless speculation.
Well…
Who could possibly predict that the barbarian had joined forces with the Immortal King, the calamity of the continent, to hunt and devour a mad dragon?
He would be lucky if he wasn’t called insane.
“Urgh, let’s put this aside for now too. It isn’t an urgent issue at the moment.”
It was connected to an order that had come down from the organization, so it was on his mind, but since it was not directly related to him, it did not matter if he did not dig into it.
He felt uneasy letting it go like this, but the truly important problem lay elsewhere.
“I’m certain. These bastards… it isn’t a coincidence. They’re tracking the Reverse Heaven’s Oath… tracking us, precisely.”
It was the perfectly coordinated movement shown by the Immortal Army.
Not long ago, Andrew had reported the anomaly he detected to Siana.
On top of that, since it was a matter directly related to him, he had been keeping a close watch on the situation and observing them ever since, but…‘They’re passing through the west and shifting their area of activity toward the center.’His intuition, which he prided himself on as sharp, rang alarm bells without rest, and the rising anxiety sent a chill down his spine.
But Andrew forced himself to analyze the situation objectively.‘They’re approaching the central region, but they’re still coming in from the outskirts. I’m in the heart of the empire right now, so it’ll take quite a long time for them to reach this place.’It was true that ominous signs had been detected, but that did not mean it was an issue that required him to move urgently right this instant.
Besides, the place he was in was not an underground organization like other branches, but a proper noble mansion of the empire.‘…Still, I can’t just stay like this. I’ll have to tell Sister Siana and come up with some kind of countermeasure.’His instincts continued to warn him of an inexplicable ill omen, but he prioritized rational thought and calmly sought a plan for how to respond from here on.
Dismissing the emotion he was feeling now as nothing more than an overreaction.‘Tch, I’d better avoid going outside for a while and keep my head down. Things are going to be boring for some time.’Having thus forced himself to settle down, Andrew opened the whiskey sitting on the table and poured it straight down his throat.
Only after the strong liquor, harsh enough to burn his esophagus, went down did his mind finally relax, and the sense of crisis gradually faded.
Unaware that it was already far too late to be cautious.
Around the mansion where he was hiding,
ghosts were gathering one by one.