episode_0054

Let me be honest with you.

I had a naive idea that if I just scattered hundreds of one-eyed bugs, things would just work out.

No matter what anyone says, loyalty is a fraud skill, and the one-eyed bug’s mobility and stealth are also at a considerable level.

I thought the puppets of the puppet company would soon reveal their true colors and be caught. But that wasn’t the case.

I’ve never caught a one-eyed bug before, but the guy was more thorough than I thought.

It’s been five days since I arrived in Cloud City.

I’ve been searching the city diligently for a while now, but I haven’t found any trace of him.

Of course, I found it. After all, there were 190 scouts who went to that village. No matter how excellent the guy’s piloting skills are, it was bound to be noticeable.

For example, not eating for several days in a row, or just blankly staring like a doll with a cut string when at home, etc.

Based on that, we were able to infer that there were a whopping 60 people who were almost certainly brainwashed.

That’s a whopping 60 people in 5 days. At this rate, it’s safe to say that practically the entire scout corps was affected.

In fact, there was sufficient circumstantial evidence, but we did not step forward.

Why?

‘He’ll be watching us too.’

Just as I use the cyclops as my eyes and ears, he must be using the puppets as his eyes and ears.

In short, the moment we move, the guy also notices the change.

You may not know, right?

If you set out to catch 60 people, the remaining 130 might start wielding knives. If that happens, there will be significant civilian casualties.

So, if you’re going to act, do it when you’re as certain as possible.

It had to hit all at once, like a typhoon.

To begin with, we haven’t even found the whereabouts of the 190 people that the lord mentioned.

‘Where on earth did it go···.’

Even with thousands of swarms, it wasn’t enough to perfectly monitor a city. It wasn’t like CCTV, where constant surveillance was possible, but the swarms came to me on foot.

There are temporal and spatial differences. As a result, there are many cases where even if you find it once, you quickly miss it.

Especially in the case of Rigby, Nelby, and Kelvin, who had gone out to scout for the first time, you can’t even see their noses… This causes problems in many ways.

And that’s not all. It’s been five whole days since I came to this city.

And in about five days, it would be enough time for word to spread that a warrior party was in the city.

And the fact that the warrior has a bit of a problem.

“No, this time the warrior is… ”

As a result, the video played by the one-eyed bug contained various ‘noises’.

I already had a headache from having to play hundreds of videos a day, and the stress was unbearable with all the noise.

“Okay, let’s rest for a bit.”

After watching the video for a while, I finally gave up.

I have a headache because there’s too much information coming in.

I needed to take a break.

Of course, I didn’t plan on just sitting still just because I was resting.

There were things I could do while resting.

Inject magical power into the magic circle floating in the air.

Almost all of the magical power was put into the magic circle, except for the magical power that resonated with the one-eyed bug.

Not only that, but he also offers the bugs in the bottle as sacrifices, and uses his own wealth to recover his missing magic power.

Surprisingly, the power of sacrifice also accepted material things like jewels and money as trade items. Fortunately, since I had earned a lot of money the last time, I had the money to spare to make this sacrifice.

He then slams the magic power he’s gathered into the magic circle that appears in front of him. It’s a truly enormous amount.

Even though the amount of magical power dropped by the meteor was enough to drop once or twice, nothing happened in the magic circle in front.

But I didn’t question it.

‘Of course.’

In the first place, it is not a magic circle that is activated with this much magical power.

The status window flashes in your field of vision, showing the completion of your magic circle.

[Completion: 3.7%]

Lonely Summoning Circle.

It was a magic circle that summoned a disaster that once filled the continent with despair. A guy like a dishtowel.

Since it’s a magic circle that summons something like that, it won’t even be able to send a message with this much magic power.

Still, is it because I’ve been stuck here for the past few days and have been pumping magic into me?

It was fortunate that it was even 3.7%.

King Chung had to prepare for a long time and barely managed to summon him after sacrificing almost all the bugs in Chunghoe Castle.

At this point, it’s right to drive quickly.

After putting in so much magic, take a few minutes to catch your breath.

Thinking I had a little rest, I went back to my research work.

To be honest, I’m mentally tired, and the stress from working long hours is beyond my capabilities. On top of that, I’m feeling extremely weak due to using up a lot of magical power.

But I couldn’t give up.

‘I have to find it.’

We have to find him. Before he does something. We have to strike him.

Fortunately, the search for the mafia is going relatively smoothly.

It’s just that the confirmation is delayed due to the time difference, but at this rate, all 190 people can be arrested within a few days. Then, all we have to do is storm them all at once······.

dripping.

As I was thinking that, there was a knock on the door.

After some time, the one who came in was Yulis von Jugracia.

She spots me crouching down and resonating with the bugs, and immediately frowns.

“Are you doing this again?”

It seemed like he was dissatisfied with something.

“I told you yesterday. If you keep doing this, you’ll really get into trouble. It’s good to be passionate about your work, but don’t you have to take care of your body?”

“Haha······.”

I just smiled awkwardly.

For the past few days, she has been coming to me like this every now and then to scold me.

I don’t know what she was thinking, but it didn’t feel too bad since it was the first time in a while that I heard my mom nagging me.

And as a result, her coming was also a sign that my workload was decreasing.

“No way. Please send one-eyed bugs to our inn too. It would be faster if several people saw it than one.”

“Don’t you hate bugs······.”

“I’ve been through that in Chunghoeseong, do you think this is too much? Just let me go without saying anything. Otherwise, I’ll come here and whine again. I’ll tell other people to watch it too, so hurry up.”

“Haha, yeah···.”

Eventually I had no choice but to send some of the bugs her way. To be honest, it felt good.

I was hesitant to make the first offer, but you came to me and offered to take the work.

Thanks to that, I was able to rest a little more·········.

*

“Oh my, people are so foolish···.”

After some time, Yuris returned to my inn and grumbled for a long time. Thousands of replays.

I knew it was too much for one person to handle alone, but I was still a foolish person.

Of course, it’s not that I don’t understand his feelings.

If he had asked first, there was a high chance that he would have been rejected, even if it was because of the curse. He would have just tried to finish it on his own, even if it meant pushing himself a bit. It’s obvious.

And the saint did not like that idea.

‘If you had asked me, I would have listened to you…’

Haven’t you built up that level of trust yet?

Even though he had approached her quite a few times, his heart still seemed closed.

That fact bitterly hurt her heart.

“······.”

Well, this will open someday too.

Thinking so, she started doing the same thing as him.

I even gave some of the bugs to my party members. I don’t know if it’s the warrior’s words, but I’ll listen to her words.

The party members accepted the task reluctantly.

After completing such a simple task, the saint went straight to work.

He held the one-eyed bug in his hand and resonated with its magical power. Then, images began to flow into his head.

『It seems even the goddess has great insight. She chose someone like that as a warrior.』

『It’s not because of the Goddess’s eyes, it’s because there are no talented people on the continent.』

『Even so, that’s still the case. How can you pick someone like that? They say his personality is a total mess. Who knows if he’ll run away when he fights the Demon King’s army later?』

『Kekekekeke, that’s true. Maybe the previous warrior would be better.』

······ Finding the brainwashed scouts was like finding a needle in a haystack.

There are too many people in one video, and there is too much unnecessary information.

That kind of conversation was always there, and it didn’t help the investigation at all.

It’s been five days since the warrior party arrived here.

The rumor spread to the local residents, and there was a lot of talk about it.

Perhaps because of the influence of the curse, most of the content was gossip.

Even that conversation just now was over the top. It was clear that other one-eyed bugs would have more in common.

······ Everyone thinks that the saint is only worshipped throughout her life.

Absolutely not.

There are bound to be twisted people in this world, and she had heard people gossiping about her a few times.

A nun who was disqualified from being a candidate for sainthood, a corrupt nobleman who tried to undermine the prestige of the Church, or even a homeless person living in the back alleys.

Whenever she overheard the gossip of such people, her heart ached. Even though she tried not to pay attention, the words kept playing in her head.

That’s what gossip is.

He felt bad just hearing a few of those words, but the warrior had heard them dozens or even hundreds of times more.

I’m talking about thousands of videos.

It is something that cannot be done with the mental strength of an ordinary person.

It was clear that stress was building up, whether I knew it or not.

But I can’t stop until this is resolved…

Ultimately, there is only one thing you can do here: help him and finish the investigation as quickly as possible.

After thinking that, she returned to focusing on her work.

*

So on the 8th day.

The warrior party was finally able to capture all the puppets. They cooperated with the lord and attacked them all at once as they were scattered throughout the territory.

The puppets captured in this way were 190 scouts including Rigby, Nelby, and Kelvin······.

And six civilians.

There are 196 people in total.

‘Fuck.’

I felt something was seriously wrong.

Why are civilians involved?