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Originally intended to be a military outpost to monitor the borders, Schwarzheim unexpectedly became known as the ‘City of Adventurers’ as adventurers flocked to it, drawn by the scent of money.

Of course, not everyone in the city was an adventurer.

However, with restaurants selling food to adventurers, blacksmiths crafting weapons for them, and merchants buying goods brought by adventurers at inflated prices… with so many adventurers around, a commercial district naturally formed around them.

And where there are many people, there are surely the poor.

Those unable to continue their adventuring due to injuries, children irresponsibly born from a night of fire, families left alone after following their adventurer husbands who perished, or even beggars and whores, all sorts of lower-class inhabitants gathered here.

This area where such underprivileged people lived was to the south of Schwarzheim, commonly referred to as the Poor District.

Most of the kidnapped victims were concentrated around the Poor District. Therefore, even if one’s family was kidnapped, no proper investigation could take place. The city guards were reluctant to approach the Poor District, and adventurers likely had no money to commission help.

Based on the information I heard from Louis, I headed to the home of the most recently kidnapped woman. I judged it would have the highest probability of survival.

“Thank you, thank you! Adventurer, please, you have to find my sister…!”

“…Yes. I’ll do my best.”

As I casually pretended to be here for an investigation as an adventurer, the victim’s sister let me inside without a hint of suspicion. Perhaps she was that desperate.

I lightly scanned the victim’s room and asked,

“Has anyone touched the room?”

“No. I haven’t touched anything since she disappeared. The guards came by briefly, but they didn’t really touch anything…”

Just as Louis said, there were no traces left inside the room.

If she had been kidnapped, there should have been signs of resistance or signs of forced entry, but I found none at all. It was as if she had evaporated into thin air.

“A woman said a monster appeared, have you ever seen such a monster?”

“Oh, that’s… you must have met Aunt Beryl. She witnessed her daughter being abducted herself.”

The woman shook her head.

“But that aunt isn’t someone who saw anything correctly. She said a faint figure appeared in the house, and while she was terrified and hiding, her daughter vanished… My sister too suddenly disappeared in the morning. But the guards merely concluded that she ran off to meet a man… Emma isn’t that kind of girl…!”

I quietly observed the woman who burst into tears while covering her face.

Though she hid it with makeup, there were red welts on her hands and arms. This indicated she had contracted a disease. Perhaps she got infected while working as a whore.

It was a somewhat rude question, but I couldn’t help but ask.

“Did your sister do the same kind of work as you?”

“No, absolutely not! Even though I’m in this line of work, I wanted Emma to meet a decent man and live a good life somehow.”

“……”

Given how sincere the sister was, the likelihood that the sister had no experience with men was high.

Of all things, they abducted a pure maiden… I couldn’t shake off the sense of foreboding.

There were no physical traces found in the victim’s room, but there was one invisible trace.

It was the lingering presence of Dark Magic.

So faint and subtle that even I, particularly sensitive to Dark Magic, could miss it without focusing. If I followed this, surely there would be some clues.

Leaving the victim’s house, I stepped out onto the street. Using all my senses, I sensed the Dark Magic and followed the trail leading to the city’s Underground.

‘To the Sewers.’

As I followed the trail, I felt certain.

Including this Emma, all the victims must have headed here of their own accord. Surely, something must have erased their reasoning and lured them here. Naturally, there wouldn’t be any traces of abduction left.

The absence of any signs of leaving the house implied that perhaps the victims had been commanded to erase their traces themselves. Erasing footprints isn’t too hard if you know how to do it.

Contrary to the general perception of sewers as filthy and dirty, in fact, they are one of the city’s critical facilities, and access isn’t open to just anyone.

Unless it was an abandoned place like the Dark Alley of the Capital City, it was normal for the city to appoint managers to maintain facilities and restrict access to places still in use.

Schwarzheim was no exception. As I approached the entrance leading to the sewer, a city guard blocked my way with a harsh demeanor.

“Stop. No entry without city hall permission.”

I could sense the lingering presence of Dark Magic from this guard as well.

Returning to city hall to get permission from Elizabeth would be simple. If it’s an imperial order, it’s no problem to send a city hall employee to do something like that.

However, it would only waste unnecessary time, and it was questionable whether this brainwashed guard would let me in peacefully even if I did.

So, the method I used was simple.

“Hey! If you don’t have anything to do, get lost now!”

As I stood silently, the guard’s demeanor grew even harsher.

Instead of replying, I grabbed the guard’s head and slammed it hard against the wall.

Bang!!

“Guh!”

A loud noise echoed, and the guard immediately lost consciousness and collapsed.

His helmet got a bit dented, but he wasn’t dead. Instead, he’d probably be out cold for a few hours.

There were also a few other guards inside, but I dealt with them in the same way as the one outside. After putting all the guards to sleep, I entered the sewer.

The sewer was dark and terribly filthy. The air was filled with the stench of rotten water and human waste due to poor ventilation.

For an average person, this alone would have been like poison, but it posed no problem for me. The smell could be endured, and I could see brightly even in this darkness.

But the real issue was the very familiar other smell mixed in with this filthy odor. It was a horrifically thick smell of blood.

To get straight to the point.

None of the kidnapped victims were alive.

“Damn….”

I was glad I came alone without bringing anyone along.

Anyone would have found it unbearable to look at the walls smeared with blood and the grotesque art pieces made from human bodies without retching.

Even for someone like me, who had rolled around on battlefields for decades and seen all manner of horror, this scene was quite shocking.

I carefully checked the bodies of the victims.

‘They screamed while still alive…’

On the floor was a magic circle drawn in blood, and the victims had been alive for quite some time on top of it. Of course, that time must have been horrific for the victims.

Maybe they chose this underground sewer for that reason. No matter how much they screamed, it wouldn’t leak outside.

‘Rudimentary but well-made workshop.’

I inspected the various experimental devices scattered around. Most of them were cheap, but they seemed to have made some effort to prepare something workshop-like even in a lack of resources.

Creating such a workshop while avoiding others’ eyes would indicate a considerable proficiency in Dark Magic.

On the desk lay a book. It wasn’t exactly a grimoire made from human skin, so I immediately checked its contents.

There was a man’s diary written inside.

To summarize, the owner of the diary was an adventurer from this city.

He was an A-rank adventurer, a ranger active in quite a capable party. Their party could explore pretty deep into the lands of the fallen Ionia Kingdom.

That was their poison. Following the party leader’s suggestion, they decided to venture much deeper than usual. They aimed to explore the royal road, Karia.

While exploring the royal road, they were pursued by Higher Undead and stumbled upon a suspicious place where they sought refuge…

Where all party members perished, and only the ranger managed to return to the city alive.

Bringing back nothing but a red gem of unknown function.

‘Red gem?’

That phrase felt like it might trigger a memory. But I wasn’t at a stage to be certain of anything yet.

The diary had more entries after that.

Just at the moment I was about to turn the page.

“Hmm?”

Thud, thud.

I heard footsteps from afar.

Someone was coming this way.

Since I had caused such a commotion at the entrance, someone might have noticed the anomaly and come to check on the situation inside.

But there was no light where it ought to be.

The intruder was walking straight toward me without a torch, just like I was in this dark place.

“…”

I held my breath and gradually heightened my vigilance.

 

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