Ch.31Marcy (3)

All of this was purely a gamble.

The shapeshifter before me was physically stronger than I was and, from what I could guess, a madman who could kill people for sport.

There weren’t many convincing excuses I could use against such a being. I wasn’t skilled enough at deception to think flexibly and smoothly in this situation.

So I had to play with the cards in my hand, and all circumstances and information were leading me in this direction.

So much so that I wondered if I was being deliberately led.

But I had no choice but to use it. If I had any strength, it was in this.

Not hesitating when it was time to act, and immediately putting a plan into action.

That was my strength.

‘Ah, well… who sent you?’

The shapeshifter had said.

“Some person.” Clearly referring to someone of higher rank than himself.

And the flavor text written on that ring that transformed into a woman I had seen before.

The Three Clans were clearly divided into factions within themselves.

If there were factions, this seemingly low-ranking shapeshifter wouldn’t know all the superiors of other factions.

Plus, the low hierarchy of this shapeshifter, judging by his reference to “some person.”

It gave me chills to think that such a powerful being was merely a “subordinate” or “soldier,” but that wasn’t my concern right now.

I could worry about it before bed. That’s why I thought I should seize this opportunity fully.

This deception wouldn’t last forever, so I needed to extract maximum benefit while I could.

The result wasn’t bad.

“That’s… difficult.”

The shapeshifter bowed with a troubled expression. I tried my best to act without being discovered.

I was playing the role of an arrogant, haughty Blood Knight.

“Whose orders are you refusing to follow?”

I demanded, but no answer came. That itself suggested the orders were somewhat confidential. I tried to add irritation to my voice.

“Do you want to taste the wrath of the Blood Clan?”

That’s why I was recycling lines I’d seen in the game. Fortunately, it worked.

“Well, that… the Empress commanded it.”

The shapeshifter finally answered, bowing in a way that didn’t suit his massive frame.

But there was a hidden attitude in his demeanor.

As if to say, “Let’s see if you can still act so high and mighty after hearing the Empress’s name.”

I had to close my mouth for a moment at that.

Not because the name “Empress” shocked me.

Rather, the opposite.

Because I had never heard the name “Empress” in all my time playing Grim Darker.

But contrary to that, his challenging attitude was telling me something.

That while I might not have heard the name, she must be an extremely important figure to them.

As I froze, the shapeshifter added with a slightly puzzled look:

“If you don’t believe me, you’re welcome to verify it yourself.”

Was he saying I would have no choice but to accept it if I checked directly? I deduced that the Empress was at least higher-ranked than Blood Knight Lorian.

“That won’t be necessary. Someone like you wouldn’t dare use that person’s name to speak nonsense.”

“Thank you.”

He didn’t seem particularly relieved. The shapeshifter’s expression was more like he had expected this response.

Is that so? I added “Empress” to my list of persons of interest while gesturing arrogantly with my chin.

“Then report the mission you’ve been carrying out in this area. I’ll see and judge for myself.”

*

Of course, I couldn’t receive a mission report right there in that back alley.

The shapeshifter offered to guide me to their base, and Isla and I followed him back toward the harbor.

The harbor still displayed horrific deaths. As night gradually approached, scattering brilliant crimson light, most of the scattered corpses were stained with the same color.

I didn’t find it beautiful. Quite the opposite.

I couldn’t erase that ugliness from my mind. As I tried to avert my eyes, I noticed the shapeshifter guiding us was smiling.

“…What?”

“It seems the young blood also appreciates my work.”

He called those deaths his “work.” It was disgusting behavior even to someone like me who wasn’t particularly moral.

“It takes quite a bit of effort. If you fail, it looks ugly, so I had to practice a lot. But it’s perfect as a pastime.”

I was actually curious about what these creatures were thinking.

I had been curious even when I first bought and played the new DLC.

What did these so-called Three Clans want, and what were they aiming for?

To cause such insane chaos in the world.

I had been curious about that.

I was curious during my year of imprisonment, and even right before I jumped and crashed to the ground.

But I had no way to get answers, so I had been pushing it out of my mind…

I never imagined this was what they were thinking.

I still don’t know about the upper echelons, but you can usually guess what the top is like by looking at the bottom. I walked while suppressing the rising sense of disillusionment within me.

Meanwhile, the shapeshifter, having found his voice, continued to talk.

The topics were varied.

How long it took to master that spear technique.

How annoying it was to infiltrate those ships.

How troublesome it was that the captain was quite capable.

These were stories I neither wanted to know nor cared about—they only irritated me.

I needed something to distract my attention, but that wasn’t easy either. The outlaws, mercenaries, and killers at the harbor fled like mice before a predator when this shapeshifter passed by.

As we walked through the cleared path, the shapeshifter soon turned his gaze toward me.

“By the way, who is this kinsman accompanying you?”

More precisely, he looked past me toward Isla.

“Is she… your concubine?”

It seemed the setting that shapeshifters could recognize each other remained intact.

He immediately saw through that Isla was not a beastkin but a shapeshifter.

What was unexpected was that he naturally assumed Isla’s status was lower than mine.

I couldn’t understand why. Was the shapeshifter clan’s status itself lower than vampires?

Then what about necromancers? Was the Empress a necromancer?

As I hesitated to answer due to my limited knowledge, the shapeshifter’s eyes turned to me. Despite his face being hidden by a helmet, he seemed to be trying to read my emotions.

In the meantime, there was no reason for me to upset Isla.

Being treated like a slave would naturally be unpleasant, and even though we hadn’t been together long, I didn’t want to treat a comrade who had been good to me like a slave.

“…That’s not…”

Just as I was about to say “not the case,” I suddenly froze at the killing intent that pricked my spine.

The killing intent was coming from right behind me. A cold killing intent with a pair of cool gray-blue eyes floating in my mind. I stopped speaking, feeling an almost chilling sensation.

When I turned my head, I saw Isla. She was looking at me as if waiting to see what my answer would be.

Her expression was as emotionless as usual, but I could sense the subtle meaning hidden within it.

“…Ah.”

But what did he sense from that? The middle-aged shapeshifter smiled as if he understood and patted my shoulder.

“One bed will be enough for you then.”

The shapeshifter continued his guidance after saying that.

It was a misunderstanding, but not a bad one.

I needed to be close to Isla to discuss and plan our next moves.

If we shared the same bed, our privacy would increase.

There would be less chance of being overheard too.

By the time I was mentally justifying this, we had entered a building that looked like a shipwreck.

“Please, make yourself comfortable.”

“No need. Let’s get straight to the point.”

The shapeshifter sprawled in what was clearly a stolen comfortable seat. When I refused his offer of alcohol, he guzzled from the bottle.

The spilled liquor wet his beard, and only after emptying more than half the bottle did he speak.

“What was the point again?”

His attitude had become much more relaxed. The caution and tension he had shown at first were completely gone.

Perhaps it was because he saw Isla as my wife or concubine.

Or maybe it was because I had shown deference to Isla. Either way, it was a perception worth exploiting.

So I thought about warning him but gave up.

I wasn’t particularly trying to protect the dignity of Blood Knights; I just wanted to maximize the information I could extract from this opportunity.

I tried my best to fake an irritated voice.

“Your mission. What’s happening with it, what you’re doing. Everything.”

“Ah, right. That. But before that…”

The large figure sitting comfortably in the chair leaned toward me. The pressure was so intense that I almost stiffened, but I managed to hold myself together.

Because what this shapeshifter was aiming for was obvious.

His golden eyes stared at me intently.

“I’d like to hear about the young blood’s mission first.”

He was suspicious of me. Well, killing an informant wouldn’t be enough to avoid suspicion.

But fortunately, I had an appropriate answer.

An answer that a mere pawn of the shapeshifter clan from a different department wouldn’t know.

“A homunculus has escaped.”

“…A homunculus?”

The shapeshifter’s eyes widened as if this was news to him. I leaned toward him in return.

“It killed the Star Blade, the Cannibal Baron, and the remnants of the Research Faction. You must know about that?”

The middle-aged man flinched. This was information that must have reached his network.

Considering that all three were victims of the Three Clans, that information would be shared in real-time.

I exploited that point.

“Blood Knight Lord Lorian believes the homunculus is connected to Lucilla and ordered me to investigate.”

I used my name and my sister’s name to perpetrate this fraud.

“…You mean that Lucilla?”

“Is there another Lucilla on the continent?”

“This is a bigger matter than I thought.”

The shapeshifter’s tone became respectful again. He nodded with a serious expression.

And like a well-crafted voice phishing scam, it’s impossible to verify the truth unless one specifically tries to check.

I returned to my chair and gestured with my chin.

“Now tell me. What is your mission?”

The shapeshifter fell silent. He was looking at me and Isla behind me.

“I won’t go spreading it around. Report.”

“…Melody.”

Melody? When my haughty posture momentarily wavered, the shapeshifter concluded tensely:

“The mission is to lure out and kill Melody, the Golden Nightingale.”

That was something I hadn’t expected at all.