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Chapter 342. Request and Inference

Well then, it’s Hero Alexander here, who has barely managed to save Isabella and Nina from the foul clutches of the stinky Night Elves.

Officia met a gruesome demise, her skull cracked and her back and waist shredded. And there lay Isabella, blood-soaked and collapsed, with Nina looking utterly done in. The air was thick with the stench of blood—

That was close. There’s no way I can say I “protected” them. I nearly arrived too late. It’s a miracle they’re both alive right now…!

——It was entirely thanks to Edgar that my intervention was timely.

After subduing Outluke.

“I really got fooled. Who would have thought he was a Night Elf…?”

The high priest Iyas was nursing my burned and poisoned eye with a face that looked like he’d bitten into a bitter pill.

Despite the poison injected into his neck, he was still vibrant. Though he wasn’t entirely unscathed. Recognizing the cold numbness spreading on his neck as a potent nerve toxin, Iyas had apparently instinctively cast a neutralization spell.

Thanks to that, he minimized the spread of the poison and avoided a fatal outcome. After Edgar’s healing allowed him to regain movement, it seems he invoked a miracle himself to completely detoxify.

Still, this poison—I figured it was something the Night Elves used for suicides or something… I can’t believe they managed to deal with it in time.

“Iyas-dono is being considered for promotion to bishop, after all,” Edgar had mentioned while treating Leila earlier. Since Iyas had been healing using the enhancement of holy attributes, he probably took care to keep Leila’s identity hidden. Much appreciated.

Still, a bishop, huh? The wall from high priest to bishop is quite thick. If he breaks through it, he’d definitely be a candidate for the future archbishop of Todomarl.

It’s a good thing that such an elite wasn’t taken out by some petty spy’s poison.

“This guy had been hiding for quite a long time, huh?” I said while hog-tying the unconscious Outluke.

“Yeah. I also knew him. He was introduced to me as a trustworthy merchant, and I was completely duped into believing he was human…”

Iyas wore an expression of vexation.

“But how did you realize this guy was suspicious, Alexander?”

“Because he was a member of the Cortera Trading Company.”

In response to Edgar’s question, I answered casually.

“I told you, right? When I visited Officia’s house, there were Paulo and another spy. Officia seemed suspicious, and he’s a trading company member, plus I just got this evil vibe from him… If I was wrong, I’d just apologize and move on, so I showered him with holy attributes.”

“I see.”

“What!? Is the Cortera Trading Company a den of spies!?”

Edgar nodded slightly while Iyas’s eyes widened.

“And you mentioned Officia? That vice branch manager? …Who on earth are you?”

“I’m late to introduce myself. I am Hero Alexander, a high priest. As I’m on vacation, I would prefer to withhold my affiliation. This is my partner, the White Dragon, Leilaine.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Leila gave a polite bow. “White…!?” Iyas’s eyes went wide.

“Seems he has a rather complicated situation,” Edgar gently interjected.

“I’m not fully informed either. It might be best if you don’t pry too much…”

“Well then… I suppose so.”

If my words are true, I’m a high priest of equal rank. Though Iyas is older, he couldn’t force me to disclose any information. After observing my battle style against Outluke, my magic, and my gear, it seems Iyas decided to trust me for now and backed off. What a relief.

Edgar and I carried the unconscious Outluke and Paulo’s corpse and headed towards the nearest Holy Church—the Todomarl Cathedral.

“So, is it true you’re here for a treatment request?” Edgar asked Iyas again along the way.

“Yeah. Earlier, the spy mentioned something about a medical emergency. …Though whether that was true now seems suspicious. I wonder if they intended to lead me out into the night and poison me…”

Iyas glared at Outluke with keen eyes.

Got it, that’s why they needed a treatment request at this late hour… While Officia and the others were preparing to escape the capital, they probably intended to dispose of a powerful priest from Todomarl right before leaving.

Even though Iyas managed to stop the deadly poison by himself, without Edgar’s help, he likely would have been killed right away…

“Hmm…”

Edgar stroked his chin in thought.

“Were you informed in advance about where this ’emergency patient’ lived, Iyas-dono?”

“It was said to be a charitable facility of the Cortera Trading Company a bit outside the city center. They didn’t provide a specific address, just told me to follow…”

Edgar’s eyes glimmered.

“That’s odd.”

“Oh? Odd? Are you implying there might have been another target?”

“Forgive me, but if the intent was your life, I think you would have already been killed. …There’s a well on that street. If that spy had been hiding in this town for years, he wouldn’t be unaware of it. If he poisoned you, then tossed your body in, it might have gone unnoticed until morning—or maybe for several days.”

“Hmph.”

Iyas grunted at the rather merciless observation.

“Another thought crossed my mind: They might have intended to take you further away and dispose of you; however, the request was suspicious. You mentioned it was an ’emergency,’ but if my memory serves, Outluke said something along the lines of, ‘There are a few people among the refugees supported by the trading company who are in poor condition and urgently need treatment.'”

…And with Edgar’s words, I too sensed something was off.

“That’s rather laid-back.”

“Exactly, that’s the issue,” Edgar stated with a knowing grin.

“If I intended to take out you, Iyas-dono, or any capable priest, I would have issued a much more urgent request. For instance, ‘The vice branch manager Officia has collapsed!’ That way, you could quickly be lured to a desolate location. Yet, they only said the condition was poor and seemed in no rush at all, which doesn’t add up.”

“That indeed—now that you mention it, it feels right…”

Even Iyas nodded in agreement.

‘When we crossed paths, they were walking around rather leisurely too.’

Antendeixis seemed to be pondering as well.

‘But what was their goal, these Night Elves…’

“In my opinion, Outluke’s goal was to actually ‘have someone treated.'”

Edgar continued, almost as if he’d heard Antendeixis’s muttering.

“Why is that?”

“Thinking from the reverse angle, if anything seems strange, there must have been some intention behind it. Outluke led you away and it wasn’t to kill you. The reason they made the request at night might have been because it would have been too late the next morning. So, what did they want to do so urgently? Was there someone they particularly wanted to treat?”

An important figure to the Night Elves…?

“Like a dying informant, perhaps?”

“Hmm… That’s a possibility, but…”

At my words, Edgar tilted his head.

“If there were collaborators or informants, they would likely have sought treatment much earlier.”

“That does make sense…”

“While I can see why they were in a hurry…”

Then, Iyas opened his mouth as if something clicked in his mind.

“With the recent leaflet incident, Todomarl was preparing to conduct holy inspections for all residents. If there were Night Elves hidden among the upper ranks of the Cortera Trading Company, it would have been easy for them to gather information. It’s not hard to imagine they were trying to escape before their identities were revealed…”

As we discussed this, we arrived at the Todomarl Cathedral.

The monks at the gates saluted us as we entered. As expected of the capital’s cathedral, it was splendid. Just look at that stained glass! The ritual magic is vividly visible.

That grand structure looks somewhat familiar… but I couldn’t recall right now. Perhaps from the Holy Kingdom’s cathedral? Where was that again…

“Iyas-dono! What on earth happened?”

Seeing us carrying the tightly constrained Cortera merchant and the corpse with an arrow stuck in its head, the priests’ eyes bulged wide.

“This guy was a spy from the Night Elves! Look!”

Iyas opened the eyes of the unconscious Outluke. Those pupils were—crimson, something that couldn’t belong to a human.

The special lenses made from a crustacean’s shell and corn dye had been removed, revealing his true color.

“That’s…!!”

Seeing the undeniable evidence of his Night Elf nature, the priests were left speechless.

“Notify the guard squad. At least one more individual who seems to be a Night Elf is still at large: Officia, the vice branch manager of the Cortera Trading Company. There’s reportedly a body lying around her apartment. We need to dispatch personnel to the scene immediately.”

“What about this one?”

“Secure him tightly, and lock him in the basement! We must not allow him to take his own life… There’s too much we need to ask him…”

Iyas’s disgust was palpable.

Alas, Outluke was handed over to the heroes and taken straight down to the basement. As for seeing the light of day again—well, he’d likely face that fate plenty more times. After all, unprotected sunlight is a highly effective interrogation tool against Night Elves…

“This should do. There are still plenty of questions left, but we can ask him directly for those details.”

Iyas looked at us as if to ask, “Isn’t that right?”

Seeing the heavy door of the dimly-lit basement close with a creak—Boom!—I still felt a lingering unease inside me.

When I glanced beside me, Edgar wore an equally baffled expression. Our eyes met, and we sensed that we both shared the same sentiment.

“…I’m concerned about Officia’s movements.”

Edgar spoke aloud, as though to himself.

“When you visited her house, she wasn’t there, right?”

“Yeah.”

“What will Officia do once she realizes the situation?”

“With a lone exposed spy, there are limits to what she can do. She might try to escape to bring back information, or in a fit of desperation, resort to sabotage, or perhaps hide until the heat dies down…”

While hiding seemed rather unlikely. In her situation, having lost the title of vice branch manager at the Cortera Trading Company and becoming a wanted person, it wouldn’t be easy to ride out a thorough holy inspection…

“———”

Ride it out?

“I have a feeling…”

Edgar stroked his chin, deep in thought.

“I can’t shake the idea that the treatment request might be somehow related…”

…Think. I was on the cusp of a realization.

The full-scale holy inspection. The treatment of humans.

What were they trying to accomplish?

Based on the forged documents from Officia’s house, they were clearly preparing for an escape—

Hold on. The letter I sent hinting at Zilbagias’s arrival… what kind of influence did that have?

The fact that they gathered together in one place means they must have discussed it.

“Um…”

Leila’s hesitant voice broke through.

“Yes? Did something come to mind?”

“When priests treat someone, they usually use holy attributes, right?”

…Earlier, Edgar had treated Leila with pure light attributes to keep her identity hidden. In the end, I ended up spilling the beans to Iyas when I introduced myself.

“That’s right. Miracles work exponentially better that way—for humans, at least.”

Iyas, now one of the few who knew Leila’s identity, said it with a somewhat loaded expression.

“So, if the Night Elves are trying to conceal their identities, they would need a collaborator or a decoy to impersonate them. And wouldn’t a person who has received treatment be confirmed as ‘human’?”

——If they received treatment laced with holy attributes.

That’s right. That would indeed confirm their humanity—

“……….”

Leila was staring at me. Her lips moved, “disguise.”

——Hantos.

I recalled the grotesque scene of a face mask being ripped off, feeling my entire body bristle.

 

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