episode_0070

After enjoying a good post-battle kiss, Laura and I entered the mobile headquarters.

I didn’t have to worry about being ambushed because I confirmed through the map window that there was no one inside.

However, Laura said there might be a trap set up, so she went into the headquarters first and looked around very carefully.

As Laura said, there was a real booby trap, but she simply dismantled the trap and ensured safety.

However, he added that the impact of these types of traps is large enough to inflict fatal damage even on lightweight magic armor.

Thanks to Laura, I reached the deepest part of the headquarters without falling into any traps.

At first glance, the room that looked like the mercenary leader’s office was piled high with all kinds of documents and had five safes.

Documents can be viewed freely, but the problem is that there is no proper way to open the safe.

If what we want is in one of the safes, we’re going to be in quite a bit of trouble.

“If I had known this would happen, I would have at least found out who the leader is.”

“When Iris joins us later, we will search for the corpse together. Let’s focus on the documents now.”

“Okay.”

Following Laura’s suggestion, I took off my blood-stained magic armor and changed into regular clothes before going through the documents scattered everywhere.

Now that Laura has removed all the traps, there is no longer a need to rely on magic armor or contaminate important evidence.

“There are so many clients. Most of them have left headquarters to carry out requests. For some reason, there were too few people.”

“A mercenary group this large would have a force equivalent to that of a knight corps belonging to the county. If the main force had been here, it would have been a really tough fight.”

“If that were the case, I would have started a fire right from the beginning. You become an arsonist.”

“They must have done really well since they were trash that tried to take Rebecca’s life.”

Laura said with a cruel smile.

I remembered the time when she stabbed an enemy like a crazy person in front of Franca’s special store.

Since Laura hasn’t expressed much since then, it seems like her hatred for Darius’ mercenaries is stronger than mine.

“Rebecca, please take a look at this ledger.”

“Let’s see… Mosley paid the commission for collecting information for the gang suppression operation, and Larissa paid for hiring a mercenary group to protect her family.”

“Just looking at this ledger, neither of them were behind the attack on Rebecca and Veronica.

“That’s right. This could be a trick, so let’s keep searching.”

“Yes, Rebecca.”

I couldn’t quickly conclude that the suspects were innocent with just one ledger, so I continued to look through the documents.

As I look at the records of people I don’t even know who hired mercenaries, I think they must have made a lot of money.

Anyway, I don’t see any convincing evidence.

There are still a ton of documents left to look at, but I don’t think looking at them all will mean much.

“Rebecca? Laura?”

From somewhere, we can hear Iris’ cute voice calling us in a timid voice.

Laura and I exchanged a look, then hid on either side of the office door and waited for Iris to come inside.

And the moment Iris stepped into the office, we simultaneously startled her.

“Aaagh!”

I tried to enjoy Iris’s reaction as she screamed cutely, but I lost consciousness momentarily when the butt of the gun flew at my face.

And when I opened my eyes not long after, I saw Iris sniffling while looking at me and Laura making a confused expression.

“Rebecca, I’m so sorry!”

“Oh, no. I just did what I deserved. Iris, you did nothing wrong. So don’t cry.”

I wiped the tears from Iris’s cheeks and reassured her.

It was my fault for surprising them in the enemy camp, not the fault of the person who moved to protect themselves.

In any case, I became acutely aware of the fact that you should never mess around with someone holding a weapon.

“Is this the infirmary?”

“Yes, we had no way to use Rebecca’s bag, so we moved it here and took care of it.”

“I see.”

I took a quick recovery capsule out of my bag and swallowed it with water.

After a while, the pain started to go away, and when I looked in the mirror, I saw my beauty coming back in real time.

Whew, I can’t tell you how fortunate I am that there is a way to get my face back to normal even if I hurt it.

“Someone who knew everything ended up acting so foolishly. I should have stopped Rebecca…”

“Laura, it’s my fault for encouraging you in the first place. There’s no need to blame yourself like that.”

“Still, I’m so heartbroken that Rebecca hurt her face.”

“It’s okay. Look, you’re already healed.”

I took turns showing my pretty face to Laura and Iris.

Then their cheeks turned red and they kissed my cheek at the same time.

“Now, let’s go back and look for more evidence.”

I took Laura and Iris back to the mercenary leader’s office.

And I decided to open the safe before fighting the papers again.

Rather than rummaging around in a cold, unpleasant corpse, I think it would be better to use another method.

At first, I shot the safe’s lock with a magic shotgun, but it did not open.

So I tried shooting the magic rifle, but it didn’t work. I put on the magic armor and tried to force it open, but it wouldn’t budge.

I was about to give up, but Iris shot the other safe with a magical sniper rifle, completely shattering the lock.

“Good job, Iris!”

“Heehee, please praise me more.”

At Iris’ request, I hugged her, spun her around, and kissed her forehead, cheek, and lips.

If it weren’t for Iris, I wouldn’t have been able to open any of the safes and would have been searching for corpses.

“Rebecca! It’s full of gold bars!”

“Gold bars…?”

As soon as Laura mentioned gold bars, I quickly walked over to the safe and checked inside.

There was no evidence needed, but it was great to be able to take a safe full of gold bars as loot.

With this much gold, you could spend your whole life playing around.

However, it is dangerous to immediately use gold bars that clearly show where they were made, so we need to find a way to use them safely.

In games where you steal cars and break safes, you wash the stolen gold by melting it down and then making it again, but I don’t know if I can find a place where that’s possible.

“With this amount of gold bars, you can go beyond just buying nobility, you can even buy a title.”

“Could you become a nobleman with money?”

“Yes, according to the law made by His Majesty the Emperor, who came to power around the time I was born, if you donate a very large amount of money to the treasury, you can be given the title of Baron or Viscount by His Majesty. Receiving recognition in aristocratic society is a separate matter.”

“I have no intention of joining the social world anyway, so I don’t think I will regret buying status with money. Let’s think about it slowly later. For now, just being an honorary knight is enough.”

I had no idea that salesmanship was possible even in a society with such a strict caste system.

I don’t know if the emperor wants to change the world or if he is crazy about money and wants to destroy the country, but it would be easy to create nobles who are loyal to him.

As Lucius mentioned last time, if you plan to abolish the lordship system, you will need a large number of loyalists to stand against the rebellious nobles.

Since it seems like there will be a lot of bloodshed in the political world in the near future, I think it would be better to wait until you really desperately need it, rather than rushing to become a nobleman just because you have money.

My purpose is to enjoy my new life, not to be stressed while pursuing fame and power.

Anyway, while I was taking all the gold bars, Iris opened all the locks on the other safes with a gun.

The second safe was, as expected, full of gold bars, and with quick movements I put them all into my bag.

Unfortunately, the third safe was empty, and the fourth contained various deeds related to various properties that someone had purchased, as well as transaction deeds with Baron Maxian’s seal.

I ignored the real estate deeds and first looked at the transaction deed.

Looking at the date written on the certificate and the briefly summarized contents and results of the request, it became clear that Maxian was behind the attack on us.

But why on earth did they attack us?

Since coming to this world, I have never met Maxian in person, nor have I ever quarreled or harmed anyone related to him.

If I were to find a connection, it would be Iris’s past, but it’s so strange that she held a grudge against me, the purchaser, after selling her as a slave.

If you want Iris herself, it would be safer and more likely to succeed to attempt to kidnap her when the three of us are out of the city, rather than making a big deal out of it by attacking Veronica and I.

In that case, it is difficult to rule out the possibility that I may have made Maxian angry without my knowledge.

The gangs may be closely related to Marxian, or if I were to exaggerate a bit, Charles’ gang may be.

‘If not, it would have been an attack aimed at Veronica. I’ll have to go back to Franca and ask my sister what her relationship is with Maxian.’

After the transaction deed, I looked at the real estate deeds. Most of them were place names I had never seen before, but only one had an address in Rizerca.

“The address is…”

“Do you know this place?”

“This is the house where my family lived before entering Maxian’s mansion.”

“What?”

After hearing Iris’ words, Laura and I both froze on the spot.

No, why is Iris’ hometown document sticking out of the mercenary group’s safe?

Could it be that the real maskers are behind it like Lucius said, and Maxian is also one of them?

I suddenly have a headache.

If the attack that day was the result of the maskers trying to kill me and Maxian trying to kill Veronica joining hands, then at least the Maxian who is certain who it is must be killed.

However, since killing a noble is not normal, neither Veronica, Alon, nor Alicia will be able to protect me.

This is a time when a perfect assassination is needed where the suspect cannot be identified.

“Was the reason my father chose to kill himself a plan to bring me to this point? Then it would have been better if I had just said it…”

“It could be a coincidence, so I don’t think there’s a need to conclude in advance. But if that was the case, there must have been a reason for it. Turning away from such a fearsome group would normally not be dangerous or difficult.”

“Of course. Rebecca, that’s… I’m sorry, but can I go to the house where my family lived?”

“Then, of course. Instead, let’s go once the aftermath of this incident subsides.”

“Yes, Rebecca. Thank you.”

I bowed my head and patted Iris’ grateful head.

I feel uneasy because I keep discovering bad things about Iris while I’m walking around saying I’m going to get revenge.

And then I opened the fifth and final safe.

“This… is definitely the larva from back then, right?”

I was impressed when I saw the glass tube containing the larvae that I had seen in the fort.

If the involvement of the maskers was just a guess just a moment ago, it now seems certain.

And it is clear that Maxian has joined hands with the Maskers, whether he knows their identity or not.

We need more information about Maxian.

“It seems like things are more serious than I thought. I think it would be better to tell this to Veronica first rather than Alicia.”

“I think so too. However, I need Alicia’s help to easily obtain information about Maxian, so I’ll have to find a suitable method.”

“How about using gold bars?”

“Of course, there are not many effective means as money, but since we might get caught and have to spit everything out, let’s think of it as a last resort and trade with the information we have obtained.”

“Yes, Rebecca. But is it alive?”

“Really? It’s true.”

Surprisingly, I immediately used my analysis skills on the living larvae.

Level: 1

Species: Mutant devil

Growth stage: 3rd instar

Suitable host: human female

Mutation inducing agent: Beast tribe

Mutation success probability: 12.73%

It has become clear that larvae, that is, these mutant demon creatures, are mutating people like demons.

I have no idea about the process or the principles by which mutations occur.

However, this alone provides insufficient information about the mutant devil.

It’s extremely frustrating to have to rely on such fragmentary and insufficient information because I haven’t found a way to level up my analysis skills yet.

And since it means that there are also common devil bugs, it would be a good idea to get information about devil bugs from the library or from other people.

“Rebecca, the knights are approaching this way. It would be better to withdraw quickly.”

“Then. Alicia said she would protect us, but we can’t just trust her. I will secure the escape route”

I put back on my magic armor, which I couldn’t put in my bag because it was stained with blood, and checked the surrounding movement through the map window.

Then, he rushed towards the side where no one was around and made a hole in the wall. He carried Laura and Iris, who followed behind him, on his shoulders and ran away from the scene at full speed.

Although I couldn’t bring all the documents, I made sure to bring the transaction deed to prove Mosley and Larissa’s innocence, the gold bars and certificates found in the safe, and the live mutant insects.

I ran for a while and was able to put my mind at ease only after entering a forest quite far away from Rizerca, and I laughed and celebrated the success of the mission with Laura and Iris.