Volume 8 Chapter 6 Part 1
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Translator: Kell
A little while later.
A soldier led me to the dungeon near where the intruder was detained.
“The intruder is being held in the dungeon up ahead.”
“Did they spill anything?” I asked.
“No. We were told not to hurt them until we received instructions on how to interrogate them, so we only gently asked them questions. But they didn’t utter a single word.”
“Okay. Before we begin the interrogation, can you tell the nearby soldiers to evacuate?”
Many soldiers were stationed around the dungeon. After going through the trouble of preventing their suicide, they wanted to prevent the intruder from being assassinated. But as far as I could tell from my Search Enemy, there were no suspicious people around. There’s probably no need to worry about any assassination.
“An evacuation, sir?”
“Yeah. So you don’t get dragged into any trouble.”
“U-Understood!”
Hearing the word ‘trouble’, the soldier quickly instructed everyone to leave. A few minutes later, I checked the area around the dungeon and found it empty. I then headed into the dungeon to talk to the intruder.
“Now, then. Why don’t you tell me why you came to steal the nail?”
If they mention the word ‘Enchant Shaft’ here, we’ll know that the enemy knows exactly what the nail is. That’s why I avoided calling it Enchant Shaft to see if I could bait them. Instead, I just called it a nail.
It could be that they just came to steal the Enchant Staff without knowing exactly what it was. Anyone who saw that overblown inquiry would know that the object of the investigation was something important.
During the investigation, other items were also looked into as diversion. But if they used the data from the records they stole, they could infer that the most important item of them all was the Enchant Shaft. And if the Empire knew about the other items, they could use the process of elimination.
And that is exactly what’s important. If the Empire does not understand what an Enchant Shaft is, it’s likely that it doesn’t know that the ruins have something to do with bestowal.
In that case, we better thoroughly cover up any trace of our entry into the Empire. The enemy might notice that I have disappeared from the kingdom, but if they don’t know that my destination is the ruins, I can finish the ritual before they even realize what’s going on.
On the other hand, if the Empire is aware, spending time on covering things up would be like giving the enemy time to prepare to intercept me. There is information that can influence the outcome of a battle before it even starts. That’s why I’m making an effort to interrogate the intruder.
“If you don’t answer, you will regret it.” I raised my staff.
The restrained man said nothing. He just observed my face silently.
“You don’t want to talk, huh?”
He opened his mouth. I haven’t done anything yet, but maybe he was no longer willing to remain silent.
“Eld.”
“What?”
“Okay. I’ll talk.”
Suddenly, an enormous amount of mana surged inside the man’s body. The moment I saw it, I immediately cast Magic Veil. The next instant, a shock wave swept through the room.
“A-An explosion?”
“Was that Lord Eld’s magic?!”
“Eld! What happened?!”
I could hear the king’s voice among the soldiers’. I knew this would happen.
What just happened was almost exactly what I expected. Of course, I didn’t use any spell to make the enemy explode. The enemy blew himself up.
His statement was clearly to confirm that the person who came to interrogate him was Eld. He must have been made to remember my face and called my name as a final confirmation.
After I responded, he blew himself up. He must have waited all this time for the right moment. His last words, “Okay. I’ll talk,” must have been some kind of activation command for the self-destruct spell inside him.
His actions suggest he got caught on purpose. He was sent to the royal palace as a bomb, with the intention of killing me this way from the beginning.
All that considered, it makes sense that he went to rob a heavily-guarded place by himself and was easily caught. There was no guarantee that I would show myself, but if some special magic was needed for interrogation, there was a good chance that I would. The Empire should already know that I’m a Sage; there’s nothing strange about them sending an interrogation subject to lure me out.
Incidentally, the explosion just now was too weak to kill me. My Magic Veil took the brunt of it, but not even ten percent of my mana was consumed. If it were possible to instantly kill a human being who was using defensive magic, self-destruction would have become a much more popular means of attack.
The problem is… the explosion was just the aftereffect.
“Everyone, get away from here!” I shouted as I watched the spot where the man was. “Or you’re going to get caught up in the battle!”
The one in front of me was not a male human, but a dragon. It was only a few times bigger than a man, but it was no doubt a dragon.
“A Dwarf Dragon through Corrupted Fusion, huh? Really went all out to kill me,” I muttered to myself as I regarded the dragon that had appeared, the one that was human just moments before.
There are many ways to gain power at the cost of human life. Most of them were not available to players and were only used by organizations such as the Garden of Despair.
An example is the Artificial Devil Drug, which was used by a high-ranking member of the Garden of Despair when I had just become a Sage and had him cornered. That drug made people lose their mind. In exchange for never becoming a normal human being again, it gave an immense power boost. There are several other types of similar drugs. The procedure that created the monster in front of me, Corrupted Fusion, is fundamentally different from such enhancement magic.
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