Chapter 37 - Lives Like Flies

The magical investigator Yuren's eyes turned to Ferda.

Suspicion lay within his gaze.

"My apologies, Regent, but may I ask where you obtained this?"

Ferda answered.

"It was discovered in Count Concillus's territory."

"Apparently, the stranger hid his identity to the very end, so the guards caught him."

"That heretic..."

"He bit his tongue and died before they could even torture him."

"They were concerned there might be magic that activated after death, so they burned him as he was."

That was why they had burned the unclaimed corpse.

"You did well."

"Filthy Dark Mages never die cleanly, even in death."

The investigator clicked his tongue.

It came from his regret that they could not investigate the Demon Followers further.

However, the response had been perfect, so there was nothing he could say.

"In any case, to think there is someone capable of handling the demon tongue to this degree..."

"It seems there is a more dangerous bastard inside the Empire than we thought."

"Is this serious?"

Olivia asked, and Yuren nodded.

"Yes."

"Judging only by the level of understanding in the writing, this must be a Dark Mage who has reached at least the 5th Circle."

"How strong is the 5th Circle?"

"I am a 5th Circle Master Mage myself, but a Dark Mage at the 5th Circle can practically be considered a 6th Circle Archmage."

"They would be able to draw mana from Hell and use it as their own power."

"The 6th Circle!"

"You mean they are on par with the chief Great Mage...!"

In truth, most of the Dark Mages who had made their names known across the continent, and those doing so even now, were actually at the 5th Circle.

That was because it was common for them to pay a great price and obtain power surpassing the 6th Circle.

'The same goes for the Shadow Art grimoire I'm going to obtain.'

Worried his thoughts might be exposed, Ferda quickly shoved that thought away.

"If we cannot move swiftly and decisively, the Empire will fall into great chaos."

"No...!"

Olivia bit her lower lip in horror.

"If a Dark Mage of that caliber is involved... it should be difficult for them to even enter the Empire, so how is it possible that they are inside the Empire?"

"That... I do not know."

"No matter how good the security system is, it is not perfect..."

The magical investigator also kept tilting his head as if he found it strange.

"Even so, if they were a follower capable of using language to this degree, they should have been filtered out long ago..."

The Empire's surveillance always focused first and foremost on blocking major threats.

Even if it could not stop every small thing, if a 5th Circle Dark Mage had entered, an emergency alarm would certainly have sounded.

He could not think of what could have caused it.

Of course, that was only natural.

'Because there is no way a mage of that level would be in the imperial capital.'

A follower capable of using this much demon tongue would think it wiser to disguise themselves and live in a village rather than stay in the capital.

Then where had the demon tongue written on that paper come from?

From none other than Mori.

Within her mind was the library of all things, and among its contents was a demon tongue dictionary.

She had only translated and written it down as Ferda ordered.

'It may be forged evidence, but...'

The demon tongue was real, and so was its content.

The Dark Mages truly were lurking in the sewer.

And it was certain they were preparing terrorism within the Empire.

* * *

The Empire's underground aqueduct was vast.

There was one place the first emperor had paid particular attention to in order to create an appearance worthy of the title of a great human, and that was the underground aqueduct.

The underground was even more complex than the city's exterior.

However, construction often failed to proceed as planned.

'For example, things like underground reservoirs prepared for floods.'

But when they actually cost too much money, and the climate was not one where floods were likely, construction would stop.

In such places, it was common to build walls and abandon them rather than fill the excavated ground back in.

There were many such spaces within the Empire's underground aqueduct.

The place Ferda knew was exactly one of those places.

A place that would gradually be forgotten from the Empire's maps.

And a place discovered when rats driven into the shadows searched for a new den.

'A gathering place for reactionaries assembling to terrorize the capital.'

Striking at those who surfaced into the light was very common, but directly entering the underground aqueduct to strike them like today was rare.

There, the knight order and the magic unit surrounded the area and prepared for a surprise attack.

Everything had to be carried out swiftly and decisively.

One wrong move could lead to casualties, and the moment casualties appeared, it would become a muddy fight for the Dark Mages.

The magic unit was preparing silence magic and concentration-disruption magic, while the knights moved to deal with all the disrupted mages.

The work team that had been moving while touching the wall suddenly stopped and pointed to a spot.

"This is it."

"There is a space beyond this wall that we can enter."

"Good, stand back."

"Howard."

"Yes, sir!"

A huge knight holding a war hammer stood before the wall.

Bulging muscles could be felt beneath his plate armor and chain mail.

He swung the war hammer wide.

"Hup!"

THUD!

With a single blow, the wall collapsed at once.

"Aaah!"

"W-Wait, what is this!?"

"What is it?"

"What's going on?"

Confused voices inside were creating chaos.

And chaos was something that had to be answered with even more chaos.

"In the name of light!"

"In the name of His Majesty the Emperor!"

"Long live His Majesty the Emperor!"

"O light!"

They charged inside along with the knights' shouts.

What came after that was screaming.

"Aaaargh!"

"Aaaah!"

Screams, regardless of whether they came from men or women.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Then explosions rang out.

The sounds of steel clashing and something being torn apart echoed.

Ferda watched everything from outside and waited.

All he could hear was the sound of violent entanglement, but Ferda knew who had won without needing to see it.

The senior assault captain came outside first and reported to Yuren, the magical investigator, and the Knight Captain.

"Loyalty!"

"No abnormalities among the knight order!"

"We condemned forty-five who resisted and bound twelve."

"Any fugitives?"

"There is one!"

"Judging by the fact that they were standing on the platform, they seem to be the ringleader."

"You idiots!"

"What are you going to do after letting the one person you must not miss escape!?"

"The opponent may have been a 5th Circle mage."

"My apologies!"

"But they fled without being able to take all their belongings, so I don't think they will get far!"

"Well, fine."

"What belongings were there?"

"We left them inside."

There were more than a few knights greedy for valuables, but even so, they did not carelessly touch a Dark Mage's belongings.

Even if they were valuable, if a curse was attached to them, their heads would roll.

"Is that so?"

"Then that's fine."

The magical investigator smiled faintly, as if relieved.

"Excellent."

Ferda, who had only been watching everything, rose from his seat.

"May I go in with you?"

"Of course."

"This way, please."

He was nominally the Regent and the informant, so he deserved valuable treatment.

Yuren opened the path ahead, and Ferda entered first.

The scene of the knights' slaughter lay there in full.

Ferda took in each of their appearances with his eyes.

'There are Dark Mages too, but most of them are just paupers.'

Tents made of worn-out cloth, pots and spoons losing their original shape.

They were people who had sided with the Dark Mages because they could not even eat one proper meal.

Because at least the Dark Mages gave them food.

'Though there is a reason for that too.'

There was no soul more valuable than that of a person who had found hope in the pit of despair.

All of them must have been destined to become sacrifices.

Ferda stepped over the corpses like that and headed to the ringleader's room.

Befitting the leader within this underground reservoir, it was comparatively well decorated, and magical items had been placed there as well.

"There is a seditious book here."

Yuren spoke as he looked at the book placed on the desk.

The cover made from human scalp looked as if it were trapped inside the book and screaming.

The moment Ferda saw the cover, he knew what it was.

'It is Gamigin's necromancy.'

Gamigin, the demon of immortality and legions.

It was an item of Necromancers that he had created with magic.

The ringleader who had actually possessed this book would reach the 5th Circle and begin a full-fledged rebellion against the Empire.

'But they fail.'

Ferda recalled the things they had done.

When they started the rebellion, they piled corpses in the sewer, detonated them as they were, and caused chaos.

Many people died, and by raising a legion of undead in proportion to those deaths, they ran rampant inside the city.

They were material capable of causing chaos in the Empire that needed to collapse, but Ferda did not like them.

'Above all, they are useless.'

Generating corpses through explosions was fine, but their strategy was far too complacent.

The first reason was that they had far too underestimated the knights' latent strength.

The second was that it was terrorism aimed at the masses.

Because of that, hostility toward demon worshipers deepened, and unity grew stronger rather than chaos.

In other words, the hammer blow they had struck to break unity had instead made it harder.

'So it is better if they simply do not exist.'

If they could not weaken the Empire, they were of no use at all.

That was why he was eliminating a source of trouble in advance.

"Loyalty!"

"What should we do with the captured Demon Followers?"

All of them were starving, and their spirits were broken.

All of them looked up at Yuren with eyes pleading for mercy.

However, Yuren looked down at them with eyes full of disgust.

"Take the rest away."

"You must bring them to the imperial palace prison as carefully as if they were sacred vessels."

"After all, we must clearly show the end met by those who reject His Majesty's light and become drunk on dark magic!"

"Loyalty!"

It was a merciless disposition.

The paupers flinched in shock and began begging desperately toward Yuren.

"W-We did not pledge loyalty to demons!"

"We were only hungry!"

"Please give us just one chance!"

"Mercy in the name of light..."

"Silence!"

"How dare a heretic speak the name of light!?"

The person who said that ended up being struck.

"At least spare my child!"

"I beg you, my lord."

A woman holding a nursing infant pleaded.

Yuren knew it well too.

He knew that these people were not sincere followers of demons.

He knew that they had made an unavoidable choice because they were starving.

"What are you doing!?"

"Drag them out at once!"

However, there were many subjects of the Empire, and there were more reasons to kill them than to let them live.

'Lives like flies.'

If they were discovered, they would die to the knights, and even if they stayed, they were destined to be killed by the Dark Mages.

Swept up by a massive power, there was nothing Ferda could do for them.

The magical investigator smiled brightly as if he did not care what happened to them.

In his hand was the necromancy grimoire.

According to the method of handling dark magic grimoires, it was customary to wrap them in golden silk before transporting them.

But Yuren did not do that.

Instead, he was stroking the human skin and feeling its texture.

Then, suddenly, he felt Ferda's gaze and coughed before speaking.

"This must have made me look like someone absorbed in black magic."

"Haha..."

"A little, yes."

"Haha, how embarrassing."

"I was simply happy that I could add a line to my already lacking achievements."

As if realizing his mistake, he completely covered the necromancy grimoire with silk.

Then he offered Ferda his thanks.

"Thanks to your report, Regent, the subjects can sleep with their legs stretched out again tonight."

"Not at all."

"I am only doing it for my own benefit as well."

"Something beneficial to the Empire is a good thing, haha!"

It was clear he intended to gloss over it vaguely.

"So, is there nothing you can do for me?"

Ferda asked, putting an edge in his words.

"Something I can do for you, you say."

"Of course!"

If it had been someone else, he would have chased them off with a reward or threats, but the opponent was the Grand Duchess's fiancé and Regent.

He needed to give him compensation befitting that position.

Yuren thought about something, then seemed to recall something and asked him.

"Come to think of it, you are also a mage, are you not, Regent?"

"I am."

"Then should I not take you to a place that is like an amusement park for mages?"

The magical investigator made this proposal.

"How would you like to stop by the Sealed Warehouse?"

The moment finally came for Ferda to take the first step in his plan.

* * *

The Empire's warehouse was beneath the imperial palace.

Because one had to pass through countless guards and alarm spells, it was the most heavily guarded place on the continent.

If Ferda had not been accompanied by Yuren, the magical investigator, he would never have been able to set foot there.

When the warehouse keeper saw Yuren, he smiled and saluted.

"Loyalty!"

"Magical Investigator!"

"You work hard again today."

"You go through trouble every time as well."

"I have confiscated goods, so I need to enter the Sealed Warehouse."

"Record it."

"Understood."

"My apologies, but your companion is...?"

A young man with gray hair and blue eyes stood beside him.

That young man said nothing and stood with his hands clasped behind his back.

Yuren answered in his stead.

"Ahem, this man is the fiancé of the Grand Duchess of the far east."

"Though he is a Regent, he is the one responsible for the far east."

"Ah, ah... is that so?"

"So handle it properly on your own."

"Understood?"

"Yes, of course."

"I will leave him out of the record."

He closed the ledger without making any particular record.

"What a flexible young man."

"Haha, of course."

"You cannot survive in this field without flexibility."

"And..."

Yuren grinned and added.

"It is not as if there is anything bad about being flexible."

A moment later, Ferda and Yuren moved to another room.

Before them stood a stone door and a crystal ball embedded in the center of the door.

"It is called the Orb of Truth."

"Do you happen to know of it?"

"Is it not an item that lights green only when one answers the question properly?"

"That is correct."

"It is a valuable artifact handed down from ancient times."

The crystal ball recognized the person and began to glow blue.

Yuren walked over to it as if accustomed to this and placed his hand on it.

The moment he placed his hand on it, a voice rang through the room.

—Do you swear that you do not follow demons, nor abide by their resolve?

That heavy and dignified voice was like a god handing down judgment.

Yuren answered.

"I swear."

—Do you swear that your visit to this warehouse is not born of personal desire?

"I swear."

—Do you swear that you are loyal to the Empire?

"I swear."

The three questions ended, and the smoke inside swirled.

A moment later, the blue changed to green and lit up.

—Proven.

Yuren took his hand off it, looked at Ferda, and spoke.

"Would you place your hand here?"

"Do I have to do it as well?"

Ferda knew, but played dumb.

Because that was more natural.

"Is that not obvious?"

"If one enters this room and is not proven by the Orb of Oaths, one cannot pass."

"Unless..."

Yuren narrowed his eyes and asked.

The nature of that gaze was similar to the one he had directed at the Demon Followers.

"Do you have something to hide?"

Ferda shook his head.

"I am a man of many desires, so I thought I might be caught on the second question."

"Haha, there is nothing to worry about."

"As long as you are not thinking that you absolutely must take something out from here, that is."

It was still crude, but it was being handled with a reliable method.

'I did that in the past too.'

He had done it about three times, but Ferda had failed each time, with the orb glowing red.

So in the end, he had smashed it and gone inside.

That was the kind of person Ferda was.

He was full of personal desires, and he was not loyal to the Empire either.

Even though Ferda knew that about himself perfectly well, he confidently placed his hand on the Orb of Truth.

—Do you swear that you do not follow demons, nor abide by their resolve?

The dignified voice tried to press down on Ferda.