Ch.30Secret – 3

I took a moment to gather my thoughts. I had a rough understanding of what had happened here.

So, some deranged heretics had completely lost their minds and, with whatever confidence they possessed, sacrificed an entire city’s worth of people.

‘They’re seriously insane?’

The more I thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. Did they really think they could get away with such an act? I didn’t know what they were trying to summon, but it wouldn’t stand a chance against Charlotte or Serena.

If Christine were here, she wouldn’t have stood idle either.

For now, the urgent task was figuring out how such an atrocity was even possible. They hadn’t just selected a few people to build a tower of sacrifice; they’d used an entire city’s population.

Using that many humans as living sacrifices shouldn’t have been feasible. Especially not in just one night.

An action like this couldn’t possibly be a momentary impulse—it must have been planned for a very long time. But I couldn’t even begin to guess how deep this corruption ran.

Cartina… right, didn’t Cartina suddenly disappear through teleportation?

“Serena, you said Cartina disappeared through teleportation, right?”

“Yes. It wasn’t an ordinary teleportation spell, but seemed to be some kind of modified formula.”

“How so?”

“A red magic circle appeared on her forehead, and her entire body transformed into red powder that scattered away. I considered interfering, but it would have required destroying this entire building, so I refrained.”

“Good call. We’ll need to investigate more here later.”

Considering they activated the sacrificial formula from underground, they were clearly up to something.

Later, I’d formally notify the royal palace and have this city thoroughly searched. Something would turn up—who did this, what their purpose was, how powerful their forces were, and so on.

Just their use of the code word “civil war” was enough to raise my blood pressure, and now these heretics were committing such atrocities. There was no need to rush their disposal.

“…Wait.”

What did Serena just say? I replayed her words in my mind. A red magic circle appeared on her forehead, and her entire body turned to powder and scattered away.

“Serena.”

“Yes, my lord?”

“To the lord’s mansion. Right now.”

“Understood.”

Serena swiftly picked me up and tucked me against her side. She enveloped her body with mana and, with a loud bang, leaped out of the Adventurers’ Guild building.

A frivolous thought crossed my mind—what if she had completely shattered the wall? Maybe I should have suggested going outside the building first before heading to the mansion.

While being carried by Serena, the surroundings changed so rapidly that I could only see afterimages. The first time this happened, I wasn’t accustomed to the speed and felt dizzy, but now I was perfectly fine.

Is this what combat looks like for those with ultimate physical enhancement abilities? It’s a realm I’ll never reach in my lifetime, so I wouldn’t know.

“We’ve arrived.”

Though it felt like only seconds had passed, Serena and I were already at the main gate of the lord’s mansion. She carefully set me down and adjusted my clothes.

She delicately smoothed my disheveled hair, then gently cupped my cheeks with her palms.

When I lightly tapped her hands to signal her to stop, she instantly reverted to her solemn self—the dignified First Knight Commander of the Royal Order—as if nothing had happened.

The transformation was so swift that I wondered if I had imagined it all.

I approached the iron gate separating the mansion from the main road. The gate was firmly locked. Taller than me and made of solid iron, it didn’t budge at all when I tried to move it.

I stepped back and gave Serena a nod. She promptly stepped forward, drawing World Eater.

“Shall I break it down?”

“Yes. We don’t know what’s inside, so try to minimize the fragments.”

“Understood.”

Serena took her stance. In truth, someone of Serena’s caliber could easily tear apart an iron gate like this with her bare hands, without needing to wield World Eater.

I don’t know why she doesn’t just do that. Perhaps tearing things apart with raw strength is more Christine’s style.

World Eater, overcharged with mana, began to vibrate. The blade trembled, and its tip quivered.

An ordinary sword would have shattered under even a tenth of that mana load. Serena, having filled World Eater with mana, lightly poked the center of the gate.

And the gate disintegrated into dust.

Where the large iron gate had stood, now only the connecting walls remained on either side, the gate itself having been reduced to fragments too small to see.

What did I just witness? As I stood there dumbfounded, Serena approached and bowed respectfully.

“It’s done, my lord.”

“What was that? I’ve never seen that technique before.”

“It’s nothing special. Just a small trick based on Falling Leaves technique.”

“…”

I walked past Serena, who maintained a nonchalant expression as if there was nothing unusual about what she’d done. Well, it’s not like this was the first time Charlotte or Serena had done something like this.

For them, such feats are ordinary. I shouldn’t judge them by normal human standards.

As I stepped into the garden, an ominous aura enveloped me like a sticky film. My brow furrowed involuntarily. The suffocating feeling suggested that something serious had already happened.

Serena also frowned as she followed me into the garden, though she seemed merely slightly discomforted rather than suffocated like me.

Given that a red magic circle—signifying the final sacrifice to complete the ritual—had been drawn, the final ceremony must have already begun inside.

So Cartina wasn’t the culprit after all.

While there were fanatics among heretics who would sacrifice themselves, I’d never seen one who would mark themselves with a red magic circle as a sacrifice.

There’s no special reason for this—they’d need to leave someone alive to control whatever they summoned.

“Sigh, I knew it would come to this.”

My suspicion that something would be in the mansion was correct. The remaining question was: if Cartina wasn’t the culprit, then who was?

Elliot was mentally broken and destined to be a sacrifice, Scarface transformed into a monster before our eyes, and even Lord Cartina became a sacrifice—there didn’t seem to be anyone left.

Well, I’d probably find out once we went inside.

The strange aura grew stronger as we approached the mansion. It felt like walking into the mouth of a giant insect waiting for its prey.

The grass and trees in the garden had withered and died. The sound of our footsteps on the marble path to the mansion seemed unusually muted, as if something was blocking the sound.

Suddenly, the mansion door opened.

I stopped at the sound of heavy footsteps coming from inside. Serena naturally moved to shield me.

I placed my hand on her shoulder, signaling her not to attack yet, and stared intently at the entrance. The footsteps grew louder, and a monster with glossy black skin emerged.

It was a monster nearly identical to Scarface.

Eight eyeballs on its head stared at Serena and me, its hands bore thick, long claws, and a thick tail dragged on the ground.

Its tongue slithered out between its widely split mouth and densely packed teeth, licking its lips.

There wasn’t just one monster. Behind the first one, similar creatures filed out of the mansion.

Some even burst through the walls. Their number exceeded twenty, and there might be more inside.

“How do they look, Serena?”

I casually asked Serena as the monsters gathered around us. After surveying them, she replied dismissively.

“Their appearance is similar to the first monster I cut down, but their mana is significantly weaker. What would you like to do?”

Scarface’s arm and head were still at the Adventurers’ Guild building. Considering that, there was no need to spare these creatures blocking our path.

Since Serena said Scarface was much stronger than these, we only needed to take one as a sample.

And if they were truly similar to Scarface, they probably wouldn’t die just from being dismembered.

If they survived being cut apart, we’d have more samples; if they died, we’d lose nothing.

“Kill them all.”

“As you command.”

As soon as I spoke, Serena enveloped herself with mana. Seeing this, the monsters roared as if preparing to charge.

Unlike Scarface, who had retreated in fear upon seeing Serena even after becoming a monster, these creatures seemed to have lost all sense of fear in their transformation.

Serena, filled with mana, returned World Eater to its sheath. She positioned her right foot slightly ahead of her left, legs shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent.

Seeing her slightly lowered waist and her hand still gripping World Eater’s handle, I could guess what she was preparing.

‘Ah, that technique.’

Though Serena dismissed it as an ordinary iaido technique not even worth naming, no one else in the Royal Knights could perfectly replicate it.

According to its creator, it was just a simple motion of drawing the sword and quickly slashing in all directions, not worth explaining.

But even the Royal Knights could only slash forward, not in all directions like Serena, leading to much cursing and gossip behind her back when she wondered why they couldn’t do it.

For reference, I don’t understand the principle behind this technique either. Not that I could use it even if I did.

With a short exhale, Serena stepped forward with her left foot. Then, she drew World Eater about a third of the way out of its sheath before returning it.

Simultaneously, all the monsters fell to pieces across the garden.

Blood erupted like fountains from the cleanly cut surfaces after a brief delay, soaking the withered grass. The sound of meat chunks collapsing and tangling with each other echoed throughout.

When a severed head rolled toward Serena from the momentum of its charge, she casually crushed it underfoot.

“Shall we enter, my lord?”

“Yes, let’s go in.”

Thinking absently that the technique wasn’t particularly impressive since I’d seen it several times before, I approached the mansion door.

Serena kicked aside the particularly large monster carcass blocking the entrance—it must have been caught in the attack range just as it was exiting—and stayed by my side.

It was time to discover the culprit.