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137. Tailing and Tailing and More Tailing

「Oh, that’s our guy.」

「Just like Altora said.」

Late morning the next day, as we were staking out the area near the tavern, a conspicuous green-haired youth showed up. He didn’t seem to be a beastman—looked more like a regular human like me—but he was apparently working for the Elves.

「Doesn’t seem like a customer. What’s he doing here?」

「Altora said he had some errands to run… Maybe he’s here to collect payment or something.」

The green-haired man exchanged a few words with Altora, who had just come out of the tavern, then handed him a pouch in exchange for money. Altora opened the pouch to reveal dark green pills.

A painkiller with addictive properties—the very drug currently wreaking havoc on the far side of the mountains.

「That drug…! Right, Altora uses it too.」

「He took it when chasing after Gelli, and again when fighting with Skill Lender-san. No wonder he’s hooked.」

「Master, we’ve now unintentionally obtained solid proof that the drug is linked to the Elves. What are your orders?」

We could capture that green-haired man and extract information from him using my suggestion skill, but he was clearly just a low-level goon—not likely to know much.

「Angelina, follow him and find out where their base is. Use the dog-type golem to keep your distance. Koe-san, stay with her.」

「Understood.」

「What about you, Skill Lender-san?」

「I’ve got something else to take care of.」

「Aye aye, captain.」

With that, we split into two groups, though with all my detection skills active, I could easily keep track of them both.

Angelina took the lead, tailing the man as he made his rounds through several locations, including Fancy Mina, before heading steadily toward the outskirts of town.

Eventually, he entered a dilapidated building in an abandoned sector of Fathie. After observing for a while, we saw him sneaking in and out like he didn’t want to be seen.

「That’s their base, right?」

「Most likely.」

「Should we head inside, then?」

Koe-san stretched up to peek inside the building, but barging in now wouldn’t be wise.

「Skill Lender-san’s objective is to identify the source of the drug and make it public. Charging in might reveal something, but it won’t be easy.」

「What do you mean?」

「If Gelli messes this up, they might destroy all the evidence. Even if Gelli wins the fight, it’s useless if they’ve already burned everything.」

「Good point…」

「So instead, Gelli’ll take the fast route. Might get in a little trouble for it, but worrying about that is a waste of energy.」

Angelina placed her hand on the ground.

「[Mud Infant], activate! Reference, citation, standardization, process complete.」

Angelina’s unique skill, [Radiant Millenium Tree], was a skill passed down through the Emesmes family to preserve the wisdom of alchemy through the generations.

As the fiftieth head of the family, Angelina could summon golems imbued with the power and knowledge of the past forty-nine heads. The one she chose now was, to put it plainly, the brute-force specialist.

「[Millia the Fortress-Breaker]!」

From the soil emerged a golem with a porcelain-white body, taking the form of a graceful goddess. With power that belied her delicate figure, she approached the target building, clenched her right fist—

「And—boom!」

BOOM. The golem’s punch landed, accompanied by a thunderous roar, and the building exploded into rubble.

「Uwaaaah!?」

Screams erupted as a group of green-haired men scrambled out. There were quite a few of them, but no Elves.

「Hmm, if any Elves had been here, we could’ve learned a lot more. I guess they don’t show up at the scene.」

「Angelina-san, won’t the evidence get buried in the rubble?」

「That’s the point. This way, they can’t burn or eat it. We’ll dig it out later. Much safer.」

「I see.」

「Alright then, let’s have the golems round up the green-haired guys, and while we’re at it, dig up the evidence.」

She summoned several standard golems to start unearthing the wreckage. Since the area was abandoned, there were no residents to worry about, and we could take our time examining everything.

As long as we had the people involved, their tools, and their documents, that was plenty for evidence.

「If we find ledgers or something, it could prove smuggling into our country.」

「Is there a ledger-san in there? Answer Gelli if you’re still alive—hello?」

With enough evidence, we could demonstrate that Narshe had orchestrated this whole operation. That would be all Duke Avik needs to bring the matter to the capital and denounce Narshe.

「The problem is, this information is probably top-secret even for the Elves.」

「Right. They probably think it must never fall into anyone else’s hands.」

「Which means they’ll try to stop us.」

That said, with someone like Angelina around, stopping us won’t be easy. Sending in a bunch of nobodies won’t make a difference.

So then… what will they do?

「If it were Geli, she’d go for a shadow strike.」

The very next moment, a skill activated just behind Angelina’s neck.

「Wh-what is this…!?」

It was [Space Jump]. Combined with the duration-extending effect of [Star Years], it allowed us to leave a teleport trigger in place—normally used during camping to redirect approaching monsters into the air or underground.

But now, the one launched far overhead above Angelina and Koe was a hooded, masked woman.

「This move is called the Sky Drop—or ‘Airspace Formation,’ depending on who you ask. I’ve been waiting, assassin.」

「Marge Siu…! Where did you come from!?」

「I figured this would happen and followed from a distance, masking my presence.」

I’d been tailing Angelina with the stealth skill [Idle Shadow]. Now I activated [Space Jump] and jumped high above her to confront the assassin.

Green hair, clouded eyes—matched the assassin who killed the Duke’s guards back in Kinui.

「I figured if we stirred up a storm with golems, they’d send someone to assassinate us. Glad I was right.」

This assassin’s stealth was enough to evade even my detection. We’d never have found her by searching. So we lured her out instead.

With Angelina rampaging using golems, I placed Spatial Leaps around her to bait the attacker. Even if they tried a ranged snipe, I could trace the shot and find the source. That was our plan.

And it worked. The assassin was now falling through the sky with no means to recover. We’d capture her the moment she hit the ground and get all the info we needed.

「Don’t underestimate me.」

Crunch. A sharp noise—she bit into something. In an instant, steam burst from her body.

「…[Leg Strength Boost], activate!」

「Tch—[Asura’s Six Arms], activate!」

She’d activated leg enhancement mid-air, with no foothold. Caught off guard, I hesitated. Before I could react, she was already right in front of me—her dagger’s tip nearly touching my face.

「She kicked off something midair to leap at me!?」

「Don’t they teach you to carry a handkerchief in your country?」

「A cloth…!?」

She’d spread a cloth midair and used it as a foothold with her enhanced legs to jump toward me—unbelievable, but clearly real.

We clashed several times in midair. The wind howled. Blades clashed. Our breathing mingled.

She slipped into my guard and went for vital strikes without giving me a chance to activate another skill. I parried her with all six invisible arms, barely keeping up.

And so, both of us plunged toward the ground, locked in combat with no clear winner.