Ch.99Request Log #011 – Towards Gremory (6)

President Clichy is on his last legs now. It seems even the journalist has started to think that President Clichy might be connected to the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn.

It’s not a big problem yet. Since they only asked him to keep quiet rather than specifically investigate him, they probably haven’t figured things out yet.

It’s time again to weigh whose side is better to take. I have no attachment to President Clichy. I haven’t been denied any money from him, nor do I owe him anything.

However, staying on his side still offered better odds of success. President Clichy was still President Clichy. Convincing the journalist to drop her suspicions wouldn’t be difficult either.

Still, I should prepare to pull out if necessary. If the journalist is close to catching on, someone else might already be preparing to drag President Clichy down by the collar.

On the other hand, taking the journalist’s side would be stupid. With someone as indecisive and soft as her, there’s no chance of winning. I have no intention of stupidly betting on the hope that she might change.

Still, that woman was good at creating justifications. I should watch to see who gets entangled in her reasoning. President Clichy had many enemies. The key would be how many of his enemies she could unite.

I had no interest in staying on a sinking ship and going down with it, nor did I have any desire to abandon a perfectly good ship for a raft. I decided to postpone my judgment and got up. Work is work.

If the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn were behind this, there was only one person I needed to ask. Sitting in my office chair, I picked up the phone. President Clichy wasn’t one to sleep much.

He’d still be working. I dialed the direct line to the president’s office at Clichy Corporation’s American branch. He preferred that even the receptionist didn’t recognize my voice.

The radio news this morning had briefly mentioned yesterday’s train attack. They reported that a Pennsylvania-bound train had been attacked, with no passenger casualties but thirteen Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn killed.

I naturally started the conversation as if I already knew everything.

“This is Husband, President Clichy. Do you need someone to clean up? Those idiots seem to have messed things up again.”

A relieved voice came through the phone line. He trusted my skills, and I trusted his ability to pay. It was just that thin level of trust. Still, thanks to that thin trust, he had always remained safe.

“Ah, yes. I forgot to assign you this job. Damn, nothing but bad news lately. How much do you know?”

“It seems the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn targeted the wrong train. Two escaped, and the rest were shot dead by train passengers. That’s what I know. Is there anything else I should know?”

President Clichy made a pained sound as if he had another headache, then sighed deeply. Though his voice was youthful like an elf’s, he was quite an old elf. This kind of stress couldn’t be helpful.

“Those bastards messed with the train my daughter was on. Damn, I can’t imagine how much she suffered there… Anyway, it was my mistake. I never thought the train would be delayed. So they missed their target, the operation failed, the two surviving followers have gone into hiding… and they put my daughter in danger. The worst. Where should I even start?”

So that’s what happened. From Rose Clichy’s voice, she didn’t seem too shocked, but revealing that I knew this would be a bad move.

“First, check on your daughter’s condition. And since the target has already reached Pennsylvania, it would be better to assign that to your branch there rather than to me. Leave the two escapees to me.”

“Yes, that’s what we should do… Damn, my daughter seems fine. Paulina just contacted me. She said she arrived safely in Pennsylvania and is doing her reporting well.”

The lawyer is still on President Clichy’s side. Does she have loyalty to him? That can’t be it. Rather than loyalty to President Clichy, she simply wants to protect the journalist.

That lawyer is rational. She was someone who could agree to a deal even when I boldly invaded the Divine State Hotel and tried to shoot the journalist. Unlike the journalist, she didn’t easily let down her guard.

However, she’s only rational to a certain extent. Though her relationship with the journalist was merely employer and employee, she protected the journalist as if they were sisters. Because of that, they were obstacles to each other.

“Then I don’t need to worry about that. Do you know where the escapees went?”

“It’s the first time I’ve been annoyed that you don’t offer a single word of empty comfort. Anyway, I don’t know. They haven’t returned home… and I can’t easily move people to deal with them now as it would attract more attention. You’re the only person I can use at times like this. So, can you handle it?”

I’ve already found enough information to give to the journalist. If I find those two escapees, I’d be handing over witnesses to her as well. If I offer to spare the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn, they’ll comply nicely.

They’re just poor people seeking shelter from the rain. They don’t care who provides that shelter. Right now, President Clichy gives them shelter, so they fanatically follow him. That’s all.

“I’ll try to find them. If it doesn’t seem like something that will be resolved in a few days, just wait about ten days and let them return on their own. Then you can quietly deal with them later.”

“Yes, let’s do that… Next time, I should just keep you by Rose’s side. We can’t always count on luck, can we?”

Uncharacteristically, he’s talking about next time. The fact that he endangered his daughter with his own hands must have been quite shocking. Or perhaps President Clichy really was a sinking ship.

“You’re speaking unlike yourself. I should go take care of the job I received today. If I can find them, I’ll call you tomorrow morning. Goodbye.”

After hanging up, I put on the jacket I wear for detective work and tucked a gun into my chest holster. Though I was heading out of town, I still packed a silencer in my pocket. If things went well, I wouldn’t need to use it.

If they were hiding, they would have hidden in the forest. The Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn held their gatherings in forests, and they had warehouses prepared in each forest for gathering supplies.

If they hadn’t been found and hadn’t gone home, they would be staying in one of those warehouses… but not in the one right near where the incident occurred. If they were that stupid, they would have been caught already.

I took out the map of the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn from the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet to locate the warehouses. There was one warehouse prepared in the forest right next to the railway.

They must have prepared for the train attack here. I wouldn’t be able to find the two escapees, but I might find some evidence. Further away… there was another warehouse about 5 miles away.

Five miles is a distance that could be walked in about two hours. There was a high possibility they went there. There were no other warehouses within 10 miles of the area. Being near New York City, there weren’t many forests.

I took the “out of office” sign I had set aside, slipped it under the door number, and immediately drove out of town. I could only hope that angels weren’t still flying around the area.

At least they wouldn’t easily find the warehouse. If nothing else, elves were good at hiding things in forests. If the warehouse had been discovered, I would have no more information to give to the journalist.

Driving along the suburban road, I parked the car at a roadside that met the railway, roughly concealed it with bushes, and took out the map. According to the map, there should be a warehouse nearby. I walked into the forest.

The green was already dense, and the air was already fresh. I wanted to smoke a cigarette, but I didn’t have a habit of leaving traces. On a night like this, a cigarette light would be visible from a quarter mile away.

As I wandered through the forest looking for any markings, I stepped on something hard in the soil. Being a small forest and near the railway and road, it seemed they had buried it in the ground.

I followed that hard sensation, circling around to gauge how large it was. It was about the size of a regular house’s basement, which seemed right. Only now did I gather mana at my fingertips to create light.

Shining the light on the trees one by one, I found the lightning pattern used by the Followers of the Forest’s Firstborn. Beneath it, I cleared away the unevenly covered soil to find a section with a metal ring. A door.

Since I couldn’t sense any presence inside, I immediately grabbed the metal ring and pulled the door open. The smell of soil was strong, but the dust smell wasn’t as bad as expected. Signs of recent use.

Inside, furnished simply with crude wooden furniture, several crates were messily placed. They seemed to have contained guns, but now the crates were almost empty. Only two shotguns, which looked like they had been thrown there, remained.

With gloves on, I broke one open to check inside. It was fully loaded. They had fled without firing a single shot, leaving the guns behind. An army made of fanatics couldn’t be more useful than this.

And on the simple wooden table, there was a map. It wasn’t very detailed, but there was an X mark on the railway nearby with a time written on it, suggesting it was an attack plan.

“You thought to leave the guns behind but not to take the map? Did you think no one would find a warehouse buried underground?”

The time written on the map was 12:30. The train that departed at 6:30 would arrive then, and there was a note not to confuse it with the train that departed at 4:30 and would pass by here around 10:30.

Yet they made a mistake. The train was delayed, as I’d heard. This must be why the journalist suspected President Clichy. If it were President Clichy, he would have gone to meet her, and he would have only seen the 4:30 time.

And I confirmed the target. It seems the target was an orc broadcaster who was planning to go to Pennsylvania on the next train. President Clichy had been paying a lot of attention to radio broadcasts lately.

If things had gone according to the original plan, they would have killed all non-elf races in the passenger car, as well as any elves who opposed this, so it wouldn’t have been clear who the target was.

Still, attacking a train is insane. Do they think this is the Wild West era? I couldn’t understand why President Clichy had made such a judgment. He couldn’t be losing his intelligence with age.

After taking the map with the orc broadcaster’s photo attached, I left the underground warehouse. I closed the upward-opening door, covered it with soil, and returned to the car.

I headed to my next destination. After parking the car in the middle of a road that cut through the forest, I entered a slightly larger forest. A warehouse built in a forest like this would still be a building.

As expected, it didn’t take long to reach a warehouse built with timber and painted brown and red to make it unrecognizable from a distance. I could sense movement inside.

I approached without making a sound, not even stepping on twigs, and leaned against the wall. Through the thin wall, voices were clearly audible. I could hear the voices of elves, choked with anxiety.

“We can’t stay here forever! When it’s time for the gathering, they’ll come here again, and they’ll know why we’re here… But if we go back now…”

“Don’t talk nonsense! I refuse to be struck by lightning! Damn it! How were we supposed to know those kinds of people would be there! Still…”

They must have come here without guns, not wanting to be caught with weapons and masks. Still, this warehouse would have guns prepared too, so I remained cautious.

I lightly knocked on the wooden wall with my fist and immediately moved to a distance where a shotgun couldn’t reach. From inside the building came voices close to screams of surprise, followed by two trembling voices.

“W-who’s there! We’re armed! So! D-damn it! If you’re just taking a forest walk, move along!”

They’re sane enough not to shoot immediately. I kept moving as I spoke. I didn’t trust these wooden walls to stop bullets.

“The Forest’s Firstborn sent me. He wants to find you. I don’t need to tell you how angry he is. But don’t worry. It’s not like you deliberately messed things up, right? You just failed. What the Forest’s Firstborn is worried about now is you getting caught by the police and talking, not that you failed.”

President Clichy didn’t even tell me that Rose Clichy was his daughter. He certainly wouldn’t have told these followers, so this kind of lie should work.

Besides, moving between two warehouses, they wouldn’t have heard even a line of radio news or read a newspaper, so they probably didn’t even know which train they had attacked. If so, they knew nothing.

Even if they knew nothing, they could still serve as witnesses if handed over to the journalist. The method would be the same this time too. Shake them up and strike.

“What? The Forest’s Firstborn sent you? So, that… Who are you? That’s not an elf’s voice! Only elves serve the Forest’s Firstborn!”

“I’m a fixer directly employed by the Forest’s Firstborn. You should have heard about me quite often. The human who took care of the factory guards when you went to set fire to the Maximovitch Chemical Plant last time. Remember?”

Only then did the voices from inside the warehouse show signs of relief.

“Ah, haa… D-damn… The Forest’s Firstborn sent his own fixer to find us? And you, you knew we were here but chose to talk instead of shooting? Is there really a way for us to be forgiven?”

“Yes. So, go back to the New York branch on your own. The Forest’s Firstborn wants to see you.”

A sigh of relief flowed out as the tension seemed to ease. I needed to shake them up here and cloud their judgment.

“You’re not really planning to believe this at face value and prepare to leave, are you? If you go back after hearing this, you’ll just die. I originally came here to deal with you too. Well, normally I would have just finished the job without a word… but today is different. There’s another way. Want to hear it? Or would you rather die by my hand or go back and be electrocuted to death? Choose.”

They would naturally choose life. Humans aren’t animals that can choose the bad option between good and bad.

“W-what? Deal with us… Damn, we’re screwed… You, you… You definitely only worked when the Forest’s Firstborn paid you… W-what’s the other way? Did someone else pay you to bring us in? I mean, other people who won’t kill us…”

They seem properly shaken. The method that worked on Gremory wouldn’t fail on these riffraff.

“Yes, I took a job. From someone who won’t kill you.”

Seeing that the journalist was on the Pennsylvania-bound train, she must be with Gremory. Then, I just need to go to Pennsylvania and hand them over. I’ll leave how to use them up to the journalist.

If she uses these two witnesses well, I might consider taking her side. President Clichy was so shocked that he was talking about tomorrow and the future.

Moreover, the fact that he almost killed his own daughter with his own hands had him gasping for breath, clutching his head with a headache, and unable to capture these guys who were so close for almost a day.

If I’m preparing to pull out, I should make it this definitive. Still, if the journalist fails to use those two properly, I can always contact President Clichy again. That’s all.

“Follow me. I’ll take you to someone who might be able to protect you.”