Volume 8 Chapter 5 Part 1
[previous_page]
[next_page]
Translator: Kell
I was at the inn looking at the map and thinking about the location of the Enchant Shaft when a knock came at the door.
I had no idea who would come at this hour. Not many people know that I’m staying at this inn in the first place.
A messenger sent by the king perhaps? Wait, don’t tell me we already have information on the Enchant Shaft.
I opened the door and found a woman standing there. She was wearing the guild’s uniform. Probably a receptionist.
Is this urgent or something? Now that I think about it, I’ve never had a receptionist come to my place out of the blue before. And in the middle of the night, at that.
“I apologize for disturbing you so late at night,” she said. “I’m here because I have something I need your help with.”
“Need help? From me?”
“Yes. I plan to ask several others as well.”
Hmm. Sounds like a pretty big deal. Since they went to the trouble of coming to the inn, maybe it’s quite the emergency.
The receptionist showed me a piece of paper. “Do you have any idea what is depicted in this picture? Please let me know if you know anything at all.”
The paper contained a precise drawing of several items, including the nail—the Enchant Shaft—I asked the king to look into yesterday. The drawings were from various angles and showed every detail. Doesn’t look like it’s printed. The drawings don’t look like they were done by an amateur. I wonder if they were done by an artist or something.
So this is what he meant by information spreading. The king chose to look into the item through interviews, not through a secret information network.
The fact that the investigator came to me, the one who requested the investigation, probably means that he ordered them to ask pretty much everyone around. It’s the quickest way to gather information in a short period of time. Considering the number of people living in the royal capital, at least one of them might know something.
Of course, in terms of efficiency, this is the worst possible method, so it would require a tremendous amount of cost and manpower.
“This item has something to do with the founding of this kingdom,” she said. “We’re not privy to the details either, but they say it’s an extremely important investigation.”
“Why would the guild be investigating that?”
“It’s not just the guild. Knights, the garrison, even gardeners, have all been ordered to participate in the investigation. Surely you understand the importance of this inquiry now.”
All hands on deck type of situation, huh? It seems that the king is serious about keeping his promise to do everything possible to help. It’s only the day after and he’s already gone this far.
The purpose of the investigation is also kept a secret, and there are dummy interview subjects. It’s mind-boggling to think about having hundreds of investigators go around with hand-painted pictures, but they may have mobilized painters as well. That’s how far they need to go when it comes to interviews in a world without printing presses.
“I understand the importance of this matter,” I said. “But I’m afraid I’m not familiar with this item.”
“Thank you very much. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
With that, the receptionist left and knocked on the door of the next room. It looked like she was going to ask everyone at this inn.
Well, since they’re going this far, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some information comes up. I’ll be waiting with high hopes.
A few days later.
The king summoned me, so I dropped by the palace again. We were in the reception room.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” the king said. “I wanted to let you know that we have some preliminary results from the investigation of the nail.”
“Did you learn where it was found?”
“Yeah. Just the rough location, though. The nail was most likely excavated from a ruin within the Empire.”
A ruin, huh? That’s a no-brainer place to find an Altar of Bestowal. I guess I was right. It’s highly likely that the place where it was found would be near the Altar.
But the problem is the location. We’re at war with the Empire right now. The last invasion had been settled, so it’s not really an ongoing war, but there’s no doubt that the kingdom has an awful relationship with the Empire, to the point that they see them as enemies.
It would be fine if they were simply on bad terms diplomatically, but there’s a strong possibility that the Empire, which was behind the occupation of the royal palace and Cardinal Georgis, is involved with the Garden of Despair. For the Altar of Bestowal to be in the Empire’s ruins, though… I guess lady luck is not on my side. I hope there’s been some kind of a mistake.
“How can something that came from the Empire be in the kingdom?” I asked.
“Apparently, it was found in an archaeological survey conducted jointly by the Kingdom and the Empire. That was back when the Kingdom and Empire were still on better terms.”
“How long ago was that?”
“About eighty years ago. We got the intel from some of the old adventurers.”
Eighty years. I’m not sure if that’s a long time or not. It’s almost a lifetime for a human being, but for a nation, it doesn’t sound that long.
Normally, there would be some information left about those days. But one thing’s bothering me: the king only talked about testimonies. If the kingdom had credible records, he’d be sharing those to me.
“The kingdom was involved in that survey, right? Is there any documentation or anything left behind?”
“We couldn’t find anything at all.”
“Not even a few?”
“No. I had them search every inch of the kingdom’s archives, but they couldn’t find a single reference to the archaeological survey. There are traces of the budget for the survey, so we definitely did it.”
I see. So there are no records left. It’s highly unlikely that only the documents related to the survey got lost through some mistake. So there must be a good reason why there are no records. One thing that comes to mind is when the royal palace was temporarily occupied by the Empire.
“Maybe the records were stolen?”
When I first came to the palace, it was completely taken over by imperial agents and the king was just a puppet. We took back control of the place, but at that time, the Empire could do whatever it wanted in the palace. The sacrifice of the custodian kept the treasury safe, but they were free to rummage through the archives and other areas.
“I think so too,” the king said. “Right after we reclaimed the royal palace, several books were found in the archives that had nothing to do with the kingdom. I think they replaced documents they deemed important with those.”
“So the Empire believes that information about the investigation of the ruins is important.”
That raises the likelihood of there being an Altar of Bestowal near the ruins. At the same time, the probability that the Garden of Despair is aware of the Enchant Shaft also became higher.
However, if the Empire had been aware of its importance way back then, they would not have conducted a joint investigation on imperial territory. It’s likely that they obtained the information later—from the Garden of Despair, most likely. That’s why the Enchant Shaft was in the kingdom.
So far, there are no holes with this theory. Now the question is how do I do the bestowal? Since the enemy stole the records, it might not be possible for me to go to the ruins pretending to be a tourist or something and then secretly perform the ritual. There’s also the question of how strict the security in the ruins will be… At any rate, I can’t let my guard down.
Plus it’s not only human beings that will get in my way. Ruins where an Altar of Bestowal is located are basically danger zones where special monsters appear. If I’m not careful, it’s quite possible that while I’m on the lookout for humans, I will be attacked by monsters.
[previous_page]
[next_page]
Comment (0)