Chapter 97: Batevil royal family (1)
Outskirts of Skya, the capital of the Batevil Kingdom.
The figures of four people who had descended from the sky landed like flying squirrels.
“It’s quiet, perhaps because it’s night.”
Sercia wrapped her arms around herself in the chilly night air.
It wasn’t that she was cold.
It was because the Spero cloak naturally maintained a comfortable temperature depending on the environment.
‘It was just….’
A subtle sensation only a mage could perceive.
The flow of mana drifting around was vibrating with unusual intensity.
As if something ominous had happened.
‘Surely not.’
She thought it must be her imagination.
What could possibly happen?
She didn’t want to diminish Elwin’s trust in her by citing an uncertain feeling.
“Before we set off, everyone take one of these.”
“Lord Elwin, what’s this?”
Elwin swiftly pulled out a few robes from his subspace and distributed them to the Spero members.
“They’re robes.
Use these to cover your attire and cloaks.
It wouldn’t matter in the royal castle, but it would be troublesome if we drew attention on the way.”
“That makes sense.”
“Because the aftermath of the Clover Trade Company incident will still be lingering.”
They had momentarily forgotten, as they had immediately departed for the tunnels and heard the shocking truth.
The Clover Trade Company incident was not a light matter to be forgotten after just a few days.
The four people, having pulled the long robes over themselves, headed towards the Batevil Royal Castle.
Enhancing their bodies with mana and running quickly, they soon entered the capital, Skya.
It wasn’t far to where the Batevil Royal Castle was located.
They only had to go a little further.
“Lord Elwin.
Are we going to the Batevil Royal Castle to… request cooperation?”
Sercia asked.
It was a reasonable question.
Villains called Depicio were aiming for nothing less than overthrowing the nation.
Toppling the foundation of a country and establishing a new nation upon it, while packaging that insane goal as a ‘grand cause’.
“Lady.
Isn’t it obvious?
The parties involved should know about a matter that determines the fate of a nation like this.”
“I agree.
Although the military might of the Batevil Kingdom is said to be the weakest among the northern continent nations… it’s better than nothing.”
“That’s true, I suppose.”
This was an extremely serious problem.
No matter how notorious Depicio was as an assassination guild, even if they were grouped under the imposing name of the ‘Five Great Villain Organizations’.
“To attempt something as truly absurd as overthrowing a nation… No, because they are currently in the process of attempting it.”
Even so, Depicio were vermin that parasitized in the darkness.
Occupying the lowest seat among the five organizations.
“If we consider the other four organizations besides Depicio in order of rank.”
Sercia slowly laid out the information on the organizations she had analyzed.
“The Romantic Pirates… they tend to always drift only on the sea, and their foundation isn’t solid enough to attempt overthrowing a nation either.”
The extremely hierarchical mafia organization, Familia, where members wouldn’t even dare to attempt betrayal.
The secret society, Desire, where everything about the organization was shrouded in secrecy.
“Familia or Desire would likely have a higher chance of success… But if those two organizations were to aim for overthrowing a nation, they would target a powerful country, not a small nation like the Batevil Kingdom.”
And.
“It would be more understandable if the Revolutionary Army of Ruins had committed this act.
Because they hate monarchy and go around causing all sorts of terror.”
The Revolutionary Army of Ruins, a widespread terrorist organization that advocated for the abolition of monarchy and committed terrorism across the globe, would be capable of attempting to overthrow a nation.
But what do you know, the ones who had ironically and desperately dreamed of such a mad act for a long time was the assassination group, Depicio.
“Well, I’m well aware of the discrimination and hatred towards demi-humans.
Their ambition to establish a kingdom of their own… even if I can’t empathize, I can understand it to some extent.”
The Clover Trade Company and the Magpie Merchant Group had constantly been at odds, and perhaps that was the fundamental cause between the two groups.
Sercia, like the other Spero members, was a pure LAMPASian, so she hadn’t been keenly aware of such discrimination and hatred until now, but.
-So that we may know and understand each other more, so that we are no longer afraid of each other.
-So please give us a chance to forgive each other someday.
That day, there was something in the conversation between Aajen Clover and Enaka Magpie that made even Sercia, an unrelated outsider, feel overwhelmed with emotion.
‘……Coexistence and harmony.’
She silently rolled the grains of those words in her mouth.
But unlike the beautiful resonance of the words Aajen had passionately expressed back then.
The words Sercia pronounced, despite having the same meaning, were incredibly rough and dry.
Sercia Edelweiss could not understand such noble values.
-Sercia, promise me.
Because she was an avenger who had sworn to exact desperate retribution for the scar deeply engraved in her heart.
Sercia, burying the bitter memories of the past with a familiar faint smile, opened her mouth.
“Why the Batevil Kingdom?
Why was the Clover Trade Company necessary for their grand cause?”
Sercia tilted her head, raising the question that had been persistently poking at a corner of her mind.
Elwin turned to Sercia and made an ambiguous expression, but she was lost in thought and didn’t notice.
“Is it because Batevil is a weak nation?
Because if the Clover Trade Company disappears, it would quickly falter?”
“Ah~ Come to think of it, when we went to Skya Royal Hospital to save Nonohen Clover, that fellow.”
As she raised her question, Gale suddenly recalled a forgotten memory.
“Weren’t there royal guards wearing the royal crest too?
Ugh…!
This old man doesn’t know what’s what.”
“You’ll find out soon.”
Elwin said with a slight laugh at Gale’s groaning.
“If we go to the Batevil Royal Castle…!!”
It was that moment.
Elwin’s atmosphere, which had held a faint smile, changed completely.
The other Spero members expressed their confusion at his terrifyingly grim expression.
“Wh-what’s wrong?
Brat.
Making such a scary face.”
“……Lord Elwin?”
“Is something wrong?”
As they drew closer to the Batevil Royal Castle, the surrounding houses had disappeared.
Now that they had reached ‘Lenion Boulevard’, the massive road that was the point separating the royal castle and the area where ordinary citizens lived.
Only then could Elwin sense the anomaly.
‘……The smell of blood!’
Elwin’s developed senses caught the faint smell of blood mixed in the ominous wind.
Now that he knew, he wondered why he hadn’t realized it sooner; the acrid smell of blood stinging his nostrils was intense.
“Damn it!”
As Elwin cursed out loud, the three showed surprised expressions.
It was the first time they had seen Elwin swear.
“You, you knew how to swear too?”
From what they had seen of Elwin so far, he had always acted as if proper living habits and dignified speech were ingrained in him.
They had often speculated that Elwin, like other Top Hunters, might be a noble or royalty.
Unlike the three who were still oblivious to the anomaly and calm, Elwin’s voice was subdued.
“……Everyone, step back behind me.”
Sensing the gravity of the situation, the three stopped their chatter and retreated behind Elwin.
Lenion Boulevard was a massive road that separated the two areas where royalty and commoners resided, and it was the pride of the Batevil Kingdom, where commerce and transportation were well-developed.
But at night, Lenion Boulevard’s purpose transformed from a road into that of a castle wall.
The thick, sturdily built road would rise vertically due to some unknown powerful magic, completely sealing off the entrance to the royal castle, defending it so that not even an ant could enter.
Made of Adamas metal, famous as the hardest substance in the world, it boasted ironclad protection, but…….
It didn’t matter.
Because he hadn’t trained so carelessly that he couldn’t cut through something like that.
“……Hoo.”
Elwin, who had drawn his sword at some point, took a deep breath.
With that single breath, mana gathered explosively on the sword’s blade.
A golden slash struck Lenion Boulevard.
A brilliant radiance flashed.
Kukwaaaaaang!
A deafening roar that seemed to tear eardrums resounded, and at the same time, a large hole was pierced through Lenion Boulevard!
“Huh?
Wait a moment.
This is…?”
“……Smell of blood?”
Before they could even be horrified by it, the three’s sense of smell detected the thick, metallic smell of blood coming from afar.
They hadn’t noticed it before due to the powerful magic cast on Lenion Boulevard.
“Brat, what is this now… Hey!
Where are you going alone?!”
Before they could even ask what was going on, Elwin dashed forward with ferocious momentum.
His breath scattered as the scenery changed in a fleeting moment, and the rushing wind struck his face hard.
‘Another variable.’
Elwin bit his lip hard.
Had he perhaps let his guard down because things had been proceeding smoothly internally?
‘To think they’d target the Batevil Royal Castle directly.’
It was an action befitting the madmen who invaded Mediale for their grand cause in the original story, but.
In fact, Elwin hadn’t thought they would attack the royal castle so directly like this.
Because.
‘They probably haven’t secured White Moon, Jana, yet.
And they’re proceeding with the plan?’
Because White Moon was necessary for Depicio’s grand cause, the resurrection of the Beastkin King.
To be precise, it wasn’t Jana’s existence itself, but the ‘life she was currently carrying’.
A fact that Jana herself, the person in question, hadn’t noticed due to anger and despair.
Depicio likely knew more about this than she did.
‘They must have sent Jana, the only female among the ‘Moons’, on an infiltration mission for that purpose in the first place.
To get their hands on Oridion Bartwell’s bloodline.’
In 「LAMPAS」, Jana, like now, flees from Depicio and hides herself in the Batevil tunnels.
Unaware of the relationship between Candela and Depicio, merely to avoid attention for a short while.
Candela captures Jana and tries to negotiate with Depicio, but is instead betrayed and discarded after being used…….
The Batevil tunnels are buried in history.
Afterward, Jana is captured by Depicio and becomes a cornerstone for the Beastkin King’s resurrection.
Candela loses the tunnels and becomes a fugitive, later becoming a wandering informant NPC.
This was the original flow.
-At this point, figuring out where Depicio is. That's the most important thing.
So Elwin had made a decision.
-First, let's check the High Forest.
Because it was the place where Depicio resided before invading the Batevil Kingdom in the original story.
To confirm this, Elwin had waited for Gale’s party to infiltrate the tunnels and instructed Nahrhan, who remained on the surface, to scout the High Forest area.
But the result that came back was.
-There was no one.
Faint traces of many people having stayed remained, but... those too seemed to have been made a long time ago...
Nahrhan Ferdic was a top-tier hunter with excellent detection abilities.
If he had asserted it, it must be true.
“If not the High Forest.”
The only place left is…….
“Is that the only place left?”
Elwin had an intuition about Depicio’s current location.
Their invasion of the Batevil Royal Castle likely meant that their preparations for the Beastkin King’s resurrection were in their final stages.
“……I sincerely hope you are safe.
Your Highnesses.”
Elwin muttered, glancing up at the Batevil Royal Castle, which was now right in front of him.
It was then!
Shhhhhhhk!
As soon as he reached the castle entrance, hidden weapons flew from afar.
Elwin neutralized them just by releasing his mana and looked in the direction they had flown from.
“Intruder-!”
“Who are you, bastard!”
Demi-humans dressed entirely in black.
They were Depicio assassins.
“Good.
I was just in need of a punching bag.”
Elwin let out a laugh like a sigh and then the corners of his mouth lifted.
“I wanted to vent some anger.”
Elwin’s eyes flashed fiercely as he retightened his grip on his sword.
And he swung it wide.