Chapter 357 - Malice Lurking in the Metropolis
Berlyza was the most prosperous nation on the continent, yet the first rainfall I experienced since arriving in its capital, Bertlea, was a dreary affair.
The drizzle that had been falling steadily since morning showed no signs of letting up, even as night fell.
From atop a distant building, I looked down at the cluster of warehouses standing like shadows against the backdrop of the pitch-black sea, as well as the slums adjacent to the harbor district.
Usually, those warehouses would be teeming with workers day and night, but perhaps due to the foul weather, there wasn't a soul or a light in sight. In contrast, the slums were dotted with fires, likely lit by those seeking warmth on this cold, rainy night. It created a hazy contrast of light and shadow, lending the area an atmosphere that was somewhat fantastical, yet undeniably eerie.
Here I was, a fair distance away from St. Esmeralda’s Girls' Academy, working hard at a job that had absolutely nothing to do with being an instructor. I really was quite the diligent worker.
"The tallest building in the eastern part of the slums. The seventh and eighth floors."
Leila, standing beside me, handed over a magic tool that reflected the darkness as if it were midday. I took it and peered at the designated spot.
Beyond the window frames of that dilapidated building was exactly what I’d been told to expect. Through the lens of the magic tool, a scene that would have been invisible in the deep gloom revealed itself as a living hell.
Just looking at it was enough to make one depressed, but unfortunately, this was work. Sometimes you have to look at things you’d rather not.
"Disgusting."
The room was stained dark with splattered blood and viscera. Swarms of insects were breeding on several rotting corpses.
I hate bugs, and the stench of decay is beyond foul. The reek of rotting human flesh, in particular, is so unbearable it feels like your nose might twist right off. Given the hot season, I’d guess they’d been dead for a few days... maybe three or four. I refused, from the bottom of my heart, to set foot in that crime scene.
"That is the hideout of the Badoo Lott Array. Does it tell you anything, Chairman?"
The Badoo Lott Array was the organization said to be backing the Jienko-Nigi thugs who had kidnapped the academy student. It seemed the hideout was already in this state by the time Leila found it.
They were also believed to be closely associated with the idiot son of the former President of the Anastasia Union. What caused this? Who did it?
If this was unrelated to the Academy or us, I’d be more than happy to ignore it. No matter how I looked at it, this smelled like trouble. I had no desire to get deeply involved.
"Hmm. If I probe carefully, I can definitely feel a complex, intertwined mana signature. It’s very faint, yet cleverly hidden."
"I thought as much. I hoped that if we went in, we might find materials to help us deduce what happened."
I didn't even want to think about entering that space, but Leila, as an assistant to the Intelligence Bureau executive, seemed keen to investigate.
"It’s clearly a trap. You were right not to rush in. Good job holding back, Leila-san."
"I was already caught once at the Student Council building. It’s frustrating, but it was a good learning experience."
Leila’s magical affinity allowed her to create clones that shared her perception, but their effective range was short. If the trap was something that could blow up the entire building, neither entering in person nor using a clone was a risk worth taking.
"If it were just an alarm, it wouldn't be an issue, but this might be a parting gift from whoever caused that massacre. We should be cautious. Still, I can’t tell much just by sensing mana from a distance."
"Knowing what kind of trap it is might provide a clue. But as expected, it’s dangerous."
"Don't even get close, let alone rush in. The more I sense it, the worse it feels."
Right now, it was just an impression or a hunch. But in life-or-death situations, intuition is vital. Besides, there was no reason at this stage to risk our lives investigating that place.
"Understood. It’s bothersome, but..."
"By the way, do you think the slum dwellers haven't noticed? Even for a slum, they wouldn't just leave corpses lying around like that."
"They usually have specialized cleaners. Since it’s high up in the building, they might not have noticed the anomaly yet. Besides, those people were feared, so I imagine very few people would even approach that building."
"Then let’s make them notice. It’ll be a help to them too if the bodies are cleared out sooner."
The situation was already bad enough, but it would be better than them discovering it a few days later. Either way, if the slum folk were going to set foot in there eventually, it might as well be now. Let’s just make them go in.
"True. I’ll speak to a suitable dealer. They’ll move easily enough if I toss them a silver coin."
Leila, wearing her black robes and skull mask, leaped from the rooftop using high-level physical reinforcement magic.
I watched her move nimbly from roof to roof in the rain, infiltrating the slums in an instant. After disappearing into the shadows of the buildings for a while, she came running back across the rooftops.
"Someone just entered that building. A very tall, thin man."
"Thin? The one I gave the message to was a fat man. He certainly has a sharp nose for danger."
"He either sensed the risk and used a scapegoat, or he just sent a lackey without thinking. Well, it doesn't matter who it is to us."
I concentrated my mana sensing from a distance, monitoring the thin man’s progress.
The man, heading for the upper floors, used the elevator instead of the stairs. His position stopped as he reached the floor. A moment after he stepped out, I sensed a clear anomaly.
"Chairman, a mana reaction, though weak. Did the trap trigger?"
"Yes. The mana is gradually getting stronger. This feeling of it thinning out and spreading... it’s like a gas. They’re dispersing some kind of magical potion."
I didn't know the exact effect, but it was definitely a dangerous magical drug. The man’s mana signature weakened rapidly and vanished before long.
And that wasn't the end of it.
"A sudden surge of mana... This is... more malicious than I imagined."
Black smoke billowed from that floor, and then, mana reactions flared up in dozens of locations throughout the building in a chain reaction. The structure collapsed all at once.
Unlike an explosion, it looked more like it crumbled and rotted away. I suspected it was a magic tool with an effect similar to Valerya’s collapse magic. Furthermore, due to the magical aftereffects, nearly half of the adjacent building crumbled as well.
First, a dispersal of poisonous gas, followed by a trap powerful enough to bring down the whole building.
It was total overkill. One might expect gas or bombs, but a mechanism to level the entire building was beyond expectation. There was no doubt this wasn't original security, but something set by whoever committed those murders.
"Do you think there was a need to go that far?"
"Who knows? Such thorough preparation doesn't seem like the work of an individual. It’s too large-scale even for a trap to destroy evidence or eliminate survivors. No matter if it’s the slums, a flashy event like that will bring the Blue Coats running."
"On the contrary, if they were worried about the Blue Coats, they wouldn't have done something so flashy. Between reckless amateurs and an organization with significant power, my bet is on the latter."
"If we're talking about an organization that powerful in this city, the primary candidate would be the Anastasia Union... but since the Badoo Lott Array was tied to the Young Master, perhaps it's related to an internal faction struggle?"
If so, did the current President’s faction set this up to wipe out the Young Master’s pawns?
"It’s possible, but it doesn't quite sit right. It could be an enemy of the Anastasia Union, or simply an enemy of the Badoo Lott Array. Well, with a display that flashy, any traces have been wiped clean. That was likely the point of the mechanism."
"If we gather information, we might pick up some rumors about who was responsible, but..."
Obtaining unreliable information wouldn't mean much. There was no point in having Leila push too hard alone. This was probably as far as we could go.
"Reaching the truth would take a lot of effort. Fine. The kidnapping case is over, so let’s leave the dead to themselves."
"Understood. I will return to gathering information centered on the academy students."
"Right. I’ve been putting quite a burden on you lately, Leila-san. You should enjoy your student life a bit. Why not join a club?"
"I’ll consider it."
It was best to forget strange incidents. Now, I’d head back, take a hot shower, and get into bed.
My concerns about the Anastasia Union had deepened, but for now, we could only wait for their next move.
Or so I thought. While scanning the area one last time before leaving, I spotted a suspicious group.
In the harbor district’s warehouse area, a group was moving around without any lights. They hadn't been there a moment ago.
"Leila-san, wait. There’s something suspicious over there."
"Where?"
"Slightly east of the center of the warehouse district. See them?"
"...I see them. You noticed them from this distance? Given the atmosphere, they don't look like honest folk."
"There’s more. Several vehicles are approaching from the harbor. Likely allies."
"At this hour, in this weather... That presence doesn't belong to normal harbor workers. Let’s get closer and observe."
They didn't seem like ordinary people, but we were beyond extraordinary.
Leila, who excelled at stealth, got as close as possible, while I stayed a little further back to maintain a wide-range lookout.
We watched their suspicious activities for about twenty minutes. Once their business seemed finished, they moved toward the city.
Once the presence of people faded from the warehouse district, I regrouped with Leila.
"Find anything?"
"They were all hooded, so I couldn't see their faces. They barely spoke, and what little they did say was drowned out by the rain."
"They’re thorough. They feel like a well-trained group from some organization."
"I can’t be sure, but I believe they were using a language from outside the continent."
Bertlea was home to the continent’s largest port. Considering that many ships from outside the continent arrived every day, it wasn't particularly strange, but...
"People from the outside working away from prying eyes... It’s probably just smuggling. They were carrying something from the harbor side."
"Let’s search the warehouse. If there’s anything useful or valuable, we can put it to good use."
"It’s probably drugs, but let’s take a look anyway."
Since she’d been watching closely, Leila seemed to have figured out the traps and locking methods they’d applied to the warehouse. She opened the door with ease.
Among the countless warehouses, having particularly high security would make one stand out. If someone were dealing in legitimate, expensive goods, they wouldn't use a cheap warehouse like this with no guards. It was the perfect place to hide something shady. It was only by chance that I’d noticed.
The warehouse was roughly the size of an academy classroom. The ceiling wasn't very high either.
Continuing to monitor the surroundings, I closed the door and turned on the lights. The countless stacked wooden crates had no lids, and once the cloths covering them were removed, the contents were revealed.
Whether I checked one, two, or three, the contents were the same: bottles of liquor. There was no sign of anything else hidden at the bottom.
"This pile is just alcohol. What about that side?"
"Also alcohol. The cargo in the front is likely a dummy. I’ll check the back."
"I’ll scan the front side quickly. There’s too much mana interference to find details through sensing alone... how annoying."
The next pile of cargo was also alcohol. Given the sheer quantity, there might be a legitimate company acting as a front. I doubted those people were only doing honest business, so illegal goods like drugs had to be here somewhere.
"Chairman, I found it."
As expected, she’d found something. I headed to the back where Leila was and peered into the crate she was pointing at.
"Bracelet-type magic tools? There are quite a lot of them."
"This entire pile seems to be the same magic tool. The paperwork says they can fire wind magic equivalent to the fifth rank."
"They even come with an instruction manual? Well, you wouldn't know what they were at a glance without it. Still, this amount... are those piles over there the same?"
"Those are also offensive magic tools. There are also crates with armaments featuring engraved magic."
Importing and exporting weapons and magic tools wasn't necessarily illegal, but you couldn't just trade anything without limits. The inspections and procedures were complicated, and the taxes were high. Storing them in a warehouse like this with no guards was impossible. The situation itself reeked of abnormality.
"The security is too lax for a weapons dealer’s warehouse. Normally, they’d use something a bit more professional."
"Yes. Let’s look a bit more."
There were still many piles of cargo. As we went through them, we found more and more.
Most of the cargo in the warehouse consisted of offensive magic tools and weapons. The alcohol was only a small portion, and while the drugs I’d initially expected were there, they didn't seem to be the main focus.
"The alcohol aside, the rest is all smuggled goods. And they seem to be imports, not exports."
"I’m curious about the buyer. This is enough to start a war."
"Indeed. With this much, even a group of idiots could become a significant force."
It was highly likely they were meant for a conflict between underground organizations. There was also the possibility they were being sold to terrorists. In any case, if it wasn't a legitimate trade, it wouldn't be used for anything good.
"What should we do? If this were our territory, we couldn't overlook it, but..."
"We don't need to get deeply involved. I’ll leak this information to the Blue Coats."
I’d give it to Squad Leader Thompson. The harbor district probably wasn't under his precinct’s jurisdiction, but the information should have value. He was the type to use it well to boost his own record.
"Shall we at least mark them?"
"No, let’s not. If we do something unnecessary and get caught, it’ll be for nothing. If I tell Thompson now, they’ll handle it."
"I suppose you're right."
I pulled a slab-like communicator from my pouch and contacted him immediately.
I’m sure he’ll be weeping with gratitude for such a huge lead.