Chapter 45
Creak, creeak, creeeeak.
The door noisily returned to its original position.
Ignoring the countless eyes watching them, Serden and his subordinates walked around looking for empty seats.
The moment they sat down, the owner rushed over and explained the situation.
He tried to make them leave.
“…You rented the whole place? This huge tavern?”
“That’s what I’m telling you.”
“Hmm…”
“Come again next time and I’ll give you plenty of free service, so please leave for tonight, all right?”
“…Wait. Those people look like city residents. You said the entire tavern was rented.”
“Ah, that’s…”
Serden kept trying to find excuses to remain.
Danforth walked directly toward him.
“We agreed those people would be the last ones allowed inside. No one else after them.”
“Oh… So you’re the one who rented the place.”
“Yeah.”
“Looks like you’ve got money overflowing from your pockets. Wasting it on something this useless.”
“You’re worrying about a complete stranger’s money. You must have a lot of free time.”
“…What?”
“I’ll handle my own money, so stop there and leave. You know perfectly well that causing trouble in this city won’t end well.”
“……”
Danforth stood with his arms crossed, looking down at him.
Serden clearly hated that gaze.
Before the sharp tension between them could explode, the owner stepped between them.
Serden stopped his arrogant subordinates from starting a fight and ordered them outside.
“Give us each a free strong drink next time, innkeeper.”
“Y, yes. Of course. Thank you, thank you.”
Serden also headed outside.
Before leaving, he turned and glared sharply at Danforth.
“You’d better hope we never meet outside the city, brats.”
The door closed noisily again.
The tavern quickly returned to its familiar noise.
Danforth stared at the entrance with an incredulous expression.
Then he laughed and picked up his cup.
The exhausted owner filled Danforth’s empty glass and released a deep sigh.
“Phew… I thought he was going to destroy the place again.”
“That’s the guy you mentioned before, innkeeper?”
“Ah, yes. Serden, the bandit leader. Lately, he’s caused more trouble for the residents than anyone else.”
“He seems fairly skilled and knows when to stop… yet he chose to become a thief. Tch.”
“That’s exactly the problem. He’s skilled and clever enough to stop just before crossing the line. That’s why we can’t ask the priests to do anything. We have no justification!”
Danforth tilted his head while watching the owner grab an abandoned mug of beer and drink from it.
“Can’t you simply tell the priests he’s tormenting the residents and ask them to intervene? Aren’t the priests always on the residents’ side?”
“The laws stand above the residents, and Mordiggian stands above the laws. If the priests interfered in every small incident, the city couldn’t function.”
“Hmm… Small incidents, huh…”
“If we want to ask the priests for help, we need proof that those men broke the laws. But what have they actually done? Broken some tables, beaten a few residents, smashed some bottles? They haven’t murdered anyone inside the city. They haven’t refused to offer the bodies of people they hunted. They haven’t disobeyed the priests!”
The more he spoke, the more frustrated the owner became.
The tavern was already noisy again, so his complaints attracted little attention.
Danforth nodded twice and touched his lips.
“So… for those reasons, you can’t take action against them. Is that what you’re saying?”
“…Yes.”
“What about disputes between outsiders? Is there any law in Zul-Bha-Sair forbidding those?”
“Well… It would be difficult to interfere in every conflict between outsiders.”
“And if the conflict becomes serious enough that someone dies, as long as it happens outside the city, no law is broken?”
“…I suppose not?”
“Excellent.”
“Wait. Don’t tell me you people are planning to fight them? For our sake?”
“Ha. Do we look like champions of justice?”
Danforth clinked his cup against the owner’s without permission and emptied the remaining drink.
A battle hungry smile appeared on his face.
“Still, he’s a bandit leader. He must have something valuable or useful.”
“……”
“They’ve done the same thing to visitors countless times. I doubt they’ll complain if someone does it to them.”
Dexter, who had been listening beside them, suddenly clung to Danforth.
His speech was badly slurred.
“Commaaander! Isn’t that… something only villains do?”
From Danforth’s perspective, nothing could have been more ridiculous.
Yohan, who had already taken a seat nearby and was pouring himself another drink, laughed softly.
“You still think standards like that exist in this world?”
“Well… yes, but… even so, we’re…”
Dexter could not continue.
He collapsed across the table.
More and more expedition members were becoming completely drunk.
That meant the party was nearing its end.
The sober members began carrying the drunk ones outside.
Yohan gathered the four commanders, excluding himself, around one table.
“Preparations are finished. We could leave as early as tomorrow.”
“We still haven’t opened the passage.”
“I think that problem can also be solved tomorrow. Right?”
Yohan looked toward Danforth.
Danforth scratched his forehead, then nodded.
“Well… yes. The only reason they haven’t been punished is because they never violated the laws. There’s no benefit to keeping men like that alive. If we offer them as payment, the priests should accept it.”
“Be careful. If you lose, it’ll be embarrassing. You’re still the expedition representing an entire nation and faction.”
“…What encouraging words.”
The five continued discussing their plans for the underground cities and various rules they would follow.
Around thirty minutes later, everyone except Yohan left the tavern.
Yohan headed alone into the city streets.
At that same time,
the dark mage Abnontha and his two disciples, who had accidentally met the expedition in the desert and helped them, were discussing their operation inside an expensive lodging near the temple.
His disciples and subordinates, Nargai and Vembachis, combined the information they had gathered in the city and began explaining their plan.
“Her death was officially confirmed two days ago… and her body was transported at midnight today. If we want to act, now is our only chance.”
“The camels are prepared, and we bribed the city guards who protect the entrance before dawn. We can leave at any time, Master.”
Abnontha examined the orb in his hand.
Countless negative forms of mana had gathered inside, turning it muddy.
He asked,
“Did the guards accept so easily?”
“We gave them quite a lot of silver and a cursed doll from Mount Nat. Apparently, the captain personally hates someone. That played a major role in his decision.”
“…If they change their minds later, we can simply paralyze them with a curse. You attached markers properly, right?”
“Yes. We mixed Gnophkeh blood into the strong liquor they drink. It only works once, but the effect is certain.”
“Good.”
Abnontha praised Vembachis for the clean report.
Before they began the operation, Nargai brought up the concern he had held ever since before they entered the city.
“Master… Are you truly planning to steal that woman from the temple? Could you reconsider, even now?”
Abnontha snorted and pointed a finger at his disciple.
“You’ve lived as a dark mage beside me for more than ten years, yet you still believe their legends? I know their tricks very well. Those lunatic ghouls hide their corpse eating habits behind the name of some god they invented, yet they dare think they can take my beautiful Arctella from me… They must be insane.”
“……”
In truth, the two disciples already knew.
Arctella had never originally been his woman.
She had been married to a certain noble.
Abnontha had secretly and carefully worsened her illness because he wanted to steal her.
In truth, he was practically the person responsible for her death.
He had also planned to revive her after death, alter her memories, and make her his own.
Something like that would be impossible for an ordinary human.
But Abnontha was both a dark mage and a necromancer.
He possessed power capable of reviving even corpses.
The situation became complicated when Arctella’s husband refused to accept her death.
He begged the priests to investigate.
Otherwise, Abnontha could have revived her the moment she was officially declared dead and taken her away.
Things would also have been easier if her husband had asked an ordinary doctor instead of a priest.
Unlike priests, normal doctors had almost no resistance to curses created through dark magic.
Abnontha could have moved Arctella somewhere else under the excuse of examination, revived her, and escaped.
But trying the same method against the priests was a bad idea.
They were the true guardians of the city.
And they were man eating ghouls.
Their naturally powerful bodies were protected by even stronger defensive magic.
They possessed tremendous resistance against nearly every type of magic.
Because of that, Abnontha had been forced to wait until the priests moved Arctella into the temple.
That opportunity had finally arrived.
The priest had confirmed that she had died normally.
Then her body was brought into the temple.
Once a priest personally confirmed death, even the most powerful noble could not object.
That was the law of the city.
So Arctella was stored inside the temple.
A preservation spell had been cast over her body to prevent decay and erosion.
“At least I should thank them for casting the exact spell we would have needed.”
Abnontha began preparing to leave.
Nargai spoke the name of the city’s guardian god.
“…Are you truly certain Mordiggian does not exist? That He’s only a false god created by the priests? I still find it difficult to believe.”
“……”
“Long ago, I heard a story about a man who broke the laws of Zul-Bha-Sair and violated His rules. His beloved had died from illness, and he entered the temple alone to revive her.”
“And?”
“The man managed to escape the city and ran deep into the desert. But the priests followed him all the way there. They captured both the dead woman and the man who broke the laws and brought them back.”
No one knew what happened afterward.
According to the story, even their souls were offered to the Blasphemous One.
“Should we really make an enemy of a being like that?”
Nargai’s face had turned pale.
Abnontha looked at him and shook his head.
“If you’re afraid of mere ghouls, then you’ll never reach the position of High Priest, you weak soul.”
“But Master…”
“Of course, the powerful bodies and persistence of ghouls are not things ordinary humans can deal with. Killing them would also mean becoming enemies with the Great Old One they worship.”
But not being allowed to kill them did not mean he was afraid of them.
Escaping outside after shaking them off would be simple.
“And I, Abnontha, am a careful man. Even if they were dangerous, there would still be no need to worry. That’s why I drugged them. They’ll fall asleep without understanding what happened. I had to create one more corpse to make it work, but what does that matter? If I can obtain Arctella, it’s a cheap price. A beautiful woman who will never age, forever young. What more wonderful gift could there be?!”
Nargai continued agreeing with his master.
Even so, the unease in his heart did not disappear.
“But I’ve heard Mordiggian is a god who never sleeps. That He watches everything in the city from the darkest place beneath the temple… Then our actions will certainly be discovered.”
That was his final objection.
Abnontha firmly ignored it.
“Superstition. Nothing more than blind faith without evidence.”
“…Then are you saying all those citizens worship a false god?”
“They are foolish creatures who do not understand truth. Pitiful, really.”
“……”
“Still, I suppose faith does not require evidence. Perhaps they already know the truth. Perhaps they know about the corpse eating ghouls.”
Abnontha spread both arms wide and continued loudly.
“But what does knowing change? Weak humans cannot possibly resist ghouls. They have no choice.”
“……”
“Then those ghouls began calling themselves priests and shouting Mordiggian’s name. If anything, that was convenient. Worshipping an imaginary god is far easier on the mind than worshipping corpse eating ghouls. Don’t you agree?”
Nargai still looked worried.
Vembachis grabbed him and pulled him back.
He nodded repeatedly.
“Master is right. There is no reason to fear a false being invented by ghouls.”
“Once we recover her, we’ll return here and then leave for our homeland together with Arctella after she awakens. Her existence will be of great help to the missionary work we plan to begin.”
Abnontha lightly patted both disciples on the shoulders.
Then he picked up his staff.
It was time to begin the secret and blasphemous operation.
“Come. Never doubt, my disciples. Bael will protect us.”
