Chapter 391
Chapter 391: Things Went Smoothly (1)
Ghislaine tilted his head, looking down at Raviere’s head, which had fallen to the ground.
“What’s up with this guy? Out of nowhere.”
He activated up to level three to kill him as quickly as possible, but Raviere must have had some strength left to resist a few times.
Yet, he was struck as if he had suddenly lost all will to fight. There was no way a master like Ghislaine wouldn’t notice that.
“Did you want to leave a last word?”
Ghislaine thought for a moment, then shook his head. If there’s one thing he’s learned through all his battles since his past life, it’s that there’s no need to listen to the words of an enemy on the defensive.
He had almost lost his head from foolishly listening in the past.
And right now, there was something more important than pondering over an answer he didn’t know.
As the battle concluded, the knights rushed forward, shouting.
“Wow! We got this guy!”
“See? It’s best when we all gang up on them!”
“I knew we’d win!”
The knights laughed freely. With the lord leading the charge, they believed they were bound to win this time as well.
Kaor, who had taken quite a beating, slumped down. Panting to the point of drooling, he shouted.
“That guy fights like a total loser! Hey, did you all see that!”
“……”
The knights had nothing to say. They didn’t know how to respond to someone who looked so hurt yet shamelessly boasted like that.
Belinda sighed and sat down on the ground. Standing was too much of a chore now.
“Phew, it’s no easy task dealing with someone completely lacking in skills.”
On the surface, it seemed like an easy win, but the reality was quite different. Each of those attacks packed a serious punch.
Had he taken a proper hit, he could have really died.
That’s why Ghislaine had to deflect as many strikes as he could.
If someone with that kind of strength had learned proper combat techniques, winning wouldn’t have been this easy at all.
“Maybe because I fought him last time? How did I know he’d use techniques like that?”
Especially the technique Raviere used at the end was impressive. Had Vanessa not been gathering and focusing her mana in advance, it would have been hard to block it with just the three of them.
“Ugh, the Young Master hides so many things… If I asked, he’d just brush it off again.”
Belinda grumbled a bit.
Just as she suspected, Ghislaine was convinced Raviere would use that technique when pushed into a corner. In his previous life, he had suffered quite a bit because of it.
That’s why he had made sure Vanessa was prepared with defensive magic in advance.
Now that they had taken down the mayor and Raviere, there was no one left to stop Ghislaine’s group.
“Smash everything to check for suspicious stuff.”
At Ghislaine’s command, the knights began tearing apart the village, digging into the ground to investigate.
The soldiers, who had been dazed by the fight, decided to follow the knights in their search for the time being.
Down in the mayor’s basement, Ghislaine furrowed his brow.
“This wasn’t made in a short time.”
As Dark had said, a massive magic circle was oozing with blood. An unbearable stench wafted up from the corpses around.
The knights who had followed behind gasped at the sight.
“Ugh! What is this?!”
“What the hell were these crazy bastards doing here?”
“Ugh!”
Even those who had seen their fair share of horrors couldn’t help but feel nauseated by the brutal and grotesque sight.
“Check if there are any survivors.”
At Ghislaine’s order, the knights smashed their way through nearby devices to pull out people.
After a thorough investigation, they shook their heads.
“Everyone is dead.”
“They don’t seem to have died long ago.”
“It looks like they were bled dry while alive.”
Ghislaine clicked his tongue. There were nearly thousands of bones piled up. There was no way to guess how many years they had been doing this.
And the aura emanating from this massive magic circle felt familiar.
“It’s certain now. They opened a rift with this magic circle.”
The rift looked like space had been split apart. It emitted a bright light, so they couldn’t see what was inside.
Many tried to enter, but couldn’t. Only monsters from another realm poured out through the split.
The energy leaking from that rift and the one emitted by this magic circle felt quite similar.
“Vanessa, can you decipher this magic circle?”
At Ghislaine’s statement, Vanessa shook her head with a stern expression. She was already analyzing the magic circle.
“I can’t say for sure. There’s evidence of coordinate magic and magic convergence circles that seem to absorb the surrounding energy, but… it’s a different approach from existing spells. It looks like a uniquely developed method.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Even the best wizards in his past life couldn’t uncover the true nature of the rift. It wasn’t surprising that she hadn’t figured it out.
Vanessa carefully said to Ghislaine, “It’s clear that they are accumulating power using the life force of people and the mana from the surroundings, so how about we take our time to analyze it in reverse?”
“No, we destroy it right away.”
“This?”
“Yes. The longer we leave it, the more negative effects it will have on the surroundings. Even setting up a barrier to block it wouldn’t work. It’s a shame, but it can’t be helped.”
As Vanessa pointed out, the magic worked in such a different way that even setting a barrier wouldn’t stop the rift’s aura.
Once opened, the area would gradually be eroded by that aura. That’s why humanity ended up losing so much land.
And to close an opened rift again, they would have to endure tremendous loss. How many had sacrificed themselves in his past life just to close a single rift?
Even while only emanating energy, they had to destroy this magic circle.
Ghislaine looked around at Vanessa and the knights and said, “An even stronger energy will try to invade our bodies soon. If we keep absorbing that energy, we’ll become mutants.”
Those who lived near a rift in his past life had all turned into mutants.
Right now it wasn’t fully open, so only the villagers had mutated, but if the rift opened, the area of influence would expand much more significantly.
The knights nodded in agreement. Indeed, as they got closer to the magic circle, they felt much more energy flooding into their bodies than when they were in the village.
The idea that if they continued accepting this energy, they’d become mutants felt quite unsettling. He wanted to smash the magic circle right away, just like smashing Cliffoy’s head.
Ghislaine unsheathed his aura blade and immediately sliced through the magic circle.
Kwaaang!
The magic circle, which had been emitting ominous energy, seemed to scream. It didn’t actually make a sound, but everyone felt that way.
Kwang! Kwaaang! Kwaaang!
Knowing the horrors of the rift, Ghislaine made sure to reduce the magic circle to absolute powder, leaving not a trace behind.
He only stopped after confirming several times that he no longer felt any leaking energy.
“Call the soldiers and show them this scene. Clean up the corpses and bones.”
The commander and soldiers from the Kingdom Army, whom Ghislaine had called upon, were taken aback at what was displayed underground. Some of them even collapsed right there.
The commander from the Third Legion, trembling, looked at Ghislaine. He was acquainted with him from the past war against Desmond.
“Count… What is the meaning of this?”
“This is the doing of the Salvation Society. I don’t know the exact reason, but those bastards are trying to do something using people as sacrifices.”
Ghislaine did not mention the existence of the rift. After all, there was no evidence. As long as he showed the people something they could clearly see, that was enough.
The commander from the Third Legion spat out intolerant words.
“Those crazy bastards… What the hell are they doing?”
The name Salvation Society had become well-known in the kingdom as a threat and a cult. While they became infamous because of the monsters, ordinary people shrugged it off, thinking it was just a fight between nobles.
After all, their daily lives weren’t affected at all, and they just thought of it as another excuse for the nobles to bicker.
But if the Salvation Society was truly killing people indiscriminately and conducting experiments, the narrative would change.
“This means they have been abducting people for a very long time.”
“Right, it’s not something that can be done in a short span.”
It might be easy to kidnap a few vagabonds or impoverished people, but to abduct thousands from this tiny village was no small feat.
If several dozen had gone missing from the area, there would have been a ruckus. The fact that it had stayed quiet until now meant they had gradually kidnapped people for a long time.
“Make sure to clean everything properly and report back. I’ll talk separately with Marquis Branford. I’ve found several other locations.”
“Is there really another place like this?”
“It looks like they set up quite a few of these facilities across the continent. We need to find them all and smash them.”
“How did you know?”
“The dead told me everything.”
Actually, it was a lie, but there was no way for these men to verify whether Ghislaine’s words were true. He continued in a calm voice.
“Anyway, it’s a serious situation, so spread the rumors firmly. People need to be alert. Don’t you think?”
“Y-yes, understood. Since many soldiers saw it as well, it will be harder to hide.”
Rumors need to spread like wildfire. That way, they could gather more enemies against the Salvation Society, and the nobles would cooperate with him.
While the soldiers cleaned up the area, Ghislaine plunged into thought.
“I have a general idea of the locations, which means I can close many rifts in advance.”
While they might not be precise locations, he still remembered the general areas. While searching around, they would surely show up.
“If I had known this, I should have investigated a bit more thoroughly.”
Unfortunately, the rifts that Ghislaine encountered during his rookie mercenary days, especially those that sprouted very far away, remained unclear. His role was combat, not investigation.
The only saving grace was that when he had matured as a mercenary, he roamed all throughout the continent.
He remembered almost all the rifts he had fought back then.
“As expected, the north being devoid of rifts was also intentional.”
Curiously enough, there were areas where no rifts existed at all. One of those places was the northern part of the Ruthania Kingdom.
To be more specific, there was one at the boundary leading north, but you could say there were none within the northern lands.
“Could it be because of the Forest of Monsters?”
They must also be targeting the Forest of Monsters, which meant they deliberately avoided this kind of operation.
In his past life, everyone was unaware of that fact, so they could only assume rifts appeared randomly.
Had a rift opened up in the north, he would have investigated that place in advance. But since there weren’t any, he had never considered it and had been preparing for the Age of Turmoil instead.
“This is quite fortunate.”
For some reason, he now had insight into what the enemies were up to. And he knew quite a bit about where they were planning their schemes.
He had prepared extensively for the potentiality of the entire rift opening up. If he could close a few rifts beforehand, he could lead the situation more favorably.
“I need to move quickly.”
Marquis Roderick would soon mobilize his troops. And the Duke Faction would surely act out now that the existence of the rift had been discovered.
He needed to quickly inform Marquis Branford and other kingdoms of the facts he had learned. Doing that would allow him to apply more pressure on the Salvation Society and the Duke Faction.
“Let’s head to the capital.”
Ghislaine left only a few soldiers behind to keep watch and directly moved towards the capital.
Since his return, it was rare to be this busy.
Not long after Ghislaine had turned away, Marquis Branford looked a bit suspicious when Ghislaine came back so soon.
“What is going on this time? You just returned not long ago.”
“I came to inform you of something.”
Then Marquis Branford spoke very seriously and firmly.
“There’s nothing more.”
“……What do you mean?”
“I said there’s nothing.”
“No, what is it that’s not there?”
“Don’t you think that’s too much? I’ve already given you all the pieces of the Dragon Heart. What else are you here to take?”
“……”
It seemed there was some misunderstanding. This time he really wasn’t here to take anything.
“I’m not here to take anything.”
At that, Marquis Branford regarded Ghislaine with a very suspicious gaze.
“I’ve been tricked by this guy too many times to count.”
Although things had turned out well, it couldn’t be helped that he felt a bit displeased as someone who had been taken advantage of.
And no matter how he thought about it, it didn’t seem like that guy needed anything more.
In response to Marquis Branford’s demeanor, Ghislaine sighed in frustration and said, “I found out about one of the schemes the Salvation Society is planning. And I brought back a witness.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
Realizing he had misunderstood, Marquis Branford finally showed interest. The commander from the Kingdom Army who had followed Ghislaine explained what he had seen.
He explained so vividly that those listening could picture everything as if they were right there.
Marquis Branford, startled, turned to Ghislaine and asked, “Is it true? They were kidnapping and killing people?”
“Yes, they seem to be plotting dirty deeds fitting for a cult. They’re using people as sacrifices, just like the dark sorcerers.”
“Those bastards…”
“And I’ve confirmed that there isn’t just one location.”
Ghislaine vaguely spun a tale that he knew about it due to Raviere, just as he had in the village.
The expression on Marquis Branford’s face grew grave as Ghislaine spoke.
“Are you saying this is happening not just in our kingdom but others as well?”
“Yes.”
“It’s possible that he fed you false information. If he didn’t, we’ll be humiliated and our words will lose their power.”
At that, Ghislaine smirked and said, “So, won’t it be fine to verify immediately starting from the nearest locations? Once confirmed, we need to strike simultaneously. We should inform the other kingdoms as well.”
Marquis Branford nodded. Although they couldn’t confirm the southern area where the Duke Faction was, there were plenty of places to investigate nearby, such as the capital, east, and west.
And if what Ghislaine found out was indeed true, they needed to move before the Duke Faction and the Salvation Society could act.
Marquis Branford raised his hand and said, “Butler, prepare to mobilize the Kingdom Army immediately.”
“Understood.”
Marquis Branford stood up from his seat. This time, he intended to check with his own eyes.
“This might turn out to be a greater opportunity than I thought.”
It was a serious matter for him, a man who usually wouldn’t leave the capital.
And if this all turned out to be true…
The Salvation Society and the Duke Faction would need to turn every kingdom in the continent against them.
