Chapter 202
The Saints of Sierra
Late at night, inside the Hestia Merchants’ Guild.
Garnet, who was posing as the guild master, was there with Zed.
She opened a book to a particular page and held it out to him.
“This is the list of Doppel agents the Regent brought back this time. Take a look.”
“Let’s see... Wow. This is packed with names I’ve heard before.”
Some were infamous, while others were known for supposedly virtuous deeds.
Among them were even nobles who had been praised as “true lords” after claiming to have turned over a new leaf and spending their fortunes to feed the people of their territories.
“I knew there couldn’t be smoke without fire. So what does our hopelessly devoted Regent want us to do?”
“It seems he wants the intelligence division to deal with all of them.”
“Now, now. The Bunny Swallows are not a group of assassins.”
The Bunny Swallows.
They were a group of phantom thieves who had begun operating and building their reputation long before the intelligence division was formed.
Using the Black Bandana’s influence, they traveled across the continent, exposing the true faces of corrupt nobles and redistributing their wealth.
To commoners, they were saviors.
To nobles, they were a group that deserved every calamity imaginable.
They were wanted criminals, yet no one dared pursue them too aggressively because they operated according to a strict principle of never taking lives.
To preserve that reputation, the Bunny Swallows also dealt harshly with every bandit group and impostor that claimed to work under their name.
“Exposing them like we normally do would probably be dangerous, wouldn’t it?”
“It would be like setting a fire beside a pile of straw.”
The Bunny Swallows normally exposed contemptible people and let public outrage tear them apart.
But demon worshippers had nothing to lose.
Revealing them would undoubtedly create even greater chaos and, in the worst case, casualties beyond anyone’s ability to contain.
“Killing them would certainly be cleaner... It would be nice if they had some strange trait like the doppelgängers, but these things retain the appearance of the person they copied even after death, right? If the other nobles seize on that as an excuse, the Bunny Swallows will never be able to operate again.”
“That is true...”
Garnet understood how important credibility was.
She could not simply throw away the Bunny Swallows’ name and order them to kill everyone.
“We may have no choice but to eliminate them one by one without anyone noticing, using unrelated incidents as cover...”
Was there another method?
As she considered the problem—
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
Zed instinctively reached for his dagger.
“Did you invite someone?”
“There is one other person besides you. Come in.”
At Garnet’s invitation, Penelope opened the door and entered.
“My, my. You two enjoying a secret rendezvous—may a sexy demon barge in?”
“I told you to come thirty minutes ago. Why are you only arriving now?”
“But nighttime belongs to demons! What if some demonic minions ambushed me? What do you think they would have done to this fragile body?”
Penelope struck a pose that emphasized her figure.
Garnet stared at her in contempt before asking Zed,
“How long are you planning to keep traveling with something like that?”
“She may look like this, but she gets things done when it matters...”
“Affection truly is terrifying. You cannot even abandon an idiot like her.”
“Hehehe. Ze-Ze, you refused to admit that I am a femme fatale with irresistible feminine charms, but your body is honest after all. Come to your big sister.”
“Maybe slitting your throat and going our separate ways really would be the cleanest solution.”
“I was joking! It was only a joke! What were you talking about? Let me see! What is a ‘Doppel’? Did someone misspell ‘doppelgänger’?”
Garnet quietly sighed before answering.
“They are demons that disguise themselves as humans.”
“Huh? Something like that exists?”
“They were being experimented on in the place where you and I first met.”
“Oh, that place... Ugh, even imagining it makes me shiver.”
Penelope trembled dramatically.
A question suddenly occurred to Zed.
“Why were you imprisoned there in the first place?”
“That? It was nothing. The woman who captured me was a dark elf. She had an incredibly pretty face, beautifully tanned skin, and it seemed like we had wonderful chemistry, but she turned out to be a complete honey trap.”
“...According to the records, the moment she summoned you, you said you would do anything and started acting like a dog.”
Penelope had been wearing an aggrieved expression, but she immediately changed her story.
“No! I had no choice! It was a chance to have fun with an elf! Wouldn’t you have done the same? Tell me you wouldn’t!”
“Please do not lump me together with you. I am begging you.”
Zed glared at her with a look of utter contempt.
Garnet stared at him for a moment before speaking.
“You are exactly the same.”
“What are you talking about? How am I like her?”
“I heard you tried to seduce the newly arrived high elf.”
“I didn’t risk my life over it. And I didn’t know he was a man.”
“So you would have kept trying if he had been a woman?”
“Oh dear, what does this list say? My eyesight has grown so poor that I cannot read it properly!”
When Garnet glared at him disapprovingly, Zed pretended to read the list and used it to hide his face.
‘Why do I keep this idiot around...?’
She could feel it with absolute certainty.
Affection truly was terrifying.
Knock, knock.
Silence fell again at the sound of another knock.
Zed asked cautiously,
“Did you invite anyone else?”
“No. There is no one else.”
This time, Zed drew his dagger.
Garnet quietly prepared herself as well.
The door opened.
“Oh?”
A narrow-eyed woman appeared in the doorway.
“Whoa, a beauty...!”
“Keep your mouth shut. How did you get in here?”
At Garnet’s question, the woman smiled innocently.
“I’m sorry. It is late at night, and the road was frightening, so I needed a light.”
Her mannerisms appeared no different from those of an ordinary woman.
But their wariness did not lessen.
“I have never seen you in this village before.”
“I only arrived yesterday, together with my older brother.”
“Five people entered the village yesterday. None of them were women. And do you truly expect us to believe that an ordinary woman would wander around this late at night?”
“Hmm... This is troublesome. I heard the merchants’ guild master was exceptionally meticulous, but I did not expect you to be this thorough.”
Even though her identity had been exposed, her movements remained perfectly relaxed.
“If you insist on being like that...”
She raised both hands.
Then she made a grasping motion and said,
“The beast of the night will come and carry you all away.”
Whoosh!
A sudden gust of wind blew the window open.
No.
Something had moved as swiftly as the wind itself.
The force of its arrival extinguished the candles as it flew inside.
Clang!
Sparks erupted in front of Garnet.
They came from Zed’s dagger as he sprang forward the instant the window opened.
His blade collided with the weapon of the figure that had tried to attack her.
The two weapons locked together, and a contest of strength began.
‘Strong.’
His opponent held a slight advantage.
Before she could overpower him, Zed twisted his blade.
He broke the deadlock, disrupted his opponent’s balance, and immediately counterattacked.
But his opponent was no ordinary fighter.
Instead of resisting as her balance collapsed, she twisted her body even further and slipped completely beyond the path of his dagger.
The attacker swept in like a summer storm, ragged cloth and loose hair whipping wildly around her.
The only thing clearly visible was a pair of blue eyes.
Their vivid glow resembled something Zed had seen many times before.
Before he could recall what it was, the figure flew farther into the room and landed beside the intruding woman.
“Are you all right?”
Zed asked as he caught Garnet before she fell.
“I’m fine.”
Garnet raised her loaded crossbow and aimed it at the two intruders.
As always, Penelope panicked and began rattling off words at tremendous speed.
“W-What is happening? Who are you? Did Mother send you as a spy?! Damn it, I should’ve stayed locked up in the castle instead of following this pretty-faced Swallow brat out here and getting myself dragged into—Mmph!”
“Who are you?”
Zed stuffed a rolled-up cloth into Penelope’s mouth to silence her before asking.
The mysterious attacker gave no answer.
The woman beside her spoke instead.
“My name is Angrem, and this child here is Yubel. She can only answer with two words: ‘full’ and ‘waning.’”
“...Waning.”
“All right. I won’t say anything unnecessary.”
Garnet recognized the names immediately.
“Yubel and Angrem... You are the saints of the Sierra Order.”
The Wolf of Sierra and the Dancer of Sierra.
Both were first-class criminals with long and spectacular lists of offenses throughout the Empire.
However, they had vanished three years ago, and rumors claimed that someone had already killed them.
“That’s right. As expected of the leader of the Black Bandana, you are well informed. Or should I call you the head of the intelligence division now?”
Garnet frowned.
They had not only launched a surprise attack but also knew about her past.
That meant she could never allow them to leave alive.
She carefully aimed the crossbow at Angrem’s chest.
She intended to pierce her heart and kill her on the spot.
Then it happened.
Garnet met two eyes glowing with blue light.
Those eyes showed her something with terrifying clarity.
They showed Garnet her own death.
They warned her that the instant she pulled the trigger, the fear she felt while standing on the threshold of death would become far more than mere fear.
“Our meeting was admittedly sudden and rather violent, but I would like to end things here. There is only one object we need.”
“What is it?”
“The item in your hands.”
It was a copy of Research Director Rinne’s journal.
“Give it to us. If you do, we will disappear quietly.”
“...”
“It is not even the original, merely a translated copy. Why not think of it as the Black Bandana selling information in exchange for your lives?”
“I refuse.”
Conviction was more important than life.
That was the will inherited from the ancestors who had led the Black Bandana, and it remained the principle of Valdrova’s intelligence division.
“Valdrova’s intelligence division... Not bad. You need at least this much resolve to earn a passing mark.”
“Waning.”
“I admit you still dislike them. Under normal circumstances, you would probably want to kill every last one of them, wouldn’t you?”
“Full!”
Yubel’s eyes shone like those of a wild beast.
Angrem, however, continued smiling.
“But what can we do? Tonight is a full moon.”
“...Full.”
“Unfortunate, isn’t it?”
Yubel glared sourly at Angrem, who was grinning from ear to ear.
“So let us merely rough them up a little.”
The moment she finished speaking, killing intent flooded the room.
Zed sensed that the battle was beginning again and pulled the cloth from Penelope’s mouth.
“Pepe!”
“H-Haste!”
Red light wrapped around Zed’s body, accelerating him.
Two streaks of light moved across the dark room like brushstrokes on black canvas, leaving afterimages behind them.
They were fast, but still within a range he could respond to.
‘No.’
Zed’s instincts told him otherwise.
By the time he followed the light with his eyes, it would already be too late.
He swung his blade to the left.
Clang!
Sparks scattered beside him.
Just as he had expected.
The streaks of light had been a feint.
The real body was moving even faster through the darkness.
They had exchanged only a single blow, yet Zed could not suppress his astonishment.
‘She’s difficult to keep up with even while I’m under an acceleration spell.’
Her physical speed was enough to match the movements with which he had once outrun even swift wolf monsters.
Recognizing her strength, Zed responded with equal boldness.
He hooked the woman’s sword with the guard of his locked dagger.
Then he twisted his entire body in a powerful spin.
The sudden force knocked the sword from Yubel’s hand.
‘I’ll subdue her now.’
Her hand was empty.
He intended to injure her just enough to restrain her.
But that thought was arrogant.
“Zed, watch out!”
Another sword had appeared in the hand that should have been empty.
‘How?!’
That question nearly became his final thought.
The razor-sharp point came flying toward his throat.
“Ghk!”
He barely avoided the blade by bending backward, but the movement destroyed his balance.
Yubel seized the opening and aimed the sword at his chest.
There was nothing he could do.
Fwish!
“!”
Yubel abruptly halted her attack and forcibly twisted her body.
A small crossbow bolt flew through the space she had just occupied before vanishing into the darkness.
Both fighters, caught in awkward stances, widened the distance between them again.
Zed retreated toward Garnet, while Yubel performed a midair somersault and landed neatly on top of the desk.
‘She’s a complete monster.’
Zed used that brief instant to continue analyzing his opponent.
Her body could keep pace with his even while he was supported by Haste.
Her swords appeared from nowhere.
And those blue eyes repeatedly tried to paralyze his body.
‘There is definitely magic involved.’
This was no time to leisurely compete through swordsmanship alone.
‘I have no choice.’
If she intended to use her eyes, then he would use his as well.
Zed was the sole survivor of the Red-Eyed Tribe.
That tribe had been known by another name:
Mage Killers.
The reason was their unique eyes, which could destroy magical formations.
Zed’s eyes began glowing red.
“Oh?”
It was the first sound Angrem had made while watching with her hands clasped behind her back.
Zed saw something wrapped around Yubel’s head.
He directed the power of his gaze toward it.
“Ugh?!”
It worked.
A layer of magic surrounding Yubel’s head shattered, and her body twitched unnaturally.
She dropped the sword in her hand and clutched her head.
“Uuuugh...”
A pained groan escaped her.
Zed believed he had found the answer.
But he soon realized that he had been mistaken.
“AAAAAAARGH!”
What erupted from her in the end was a thunderous roar.
The sound shook the entire building.
“Ghk!”
“Hyaaah?!”
Garnet and Penelope lost their footing and collapsed.
It felt as though an enormous invisible weight were crushing their bodies.
Even Zed could do no more than remain upright on one knee.
Only then did he finally understand.
What he had believed to be the source of Yubel’s power had actually been the chain suppressing it.
Yubel’s frenzied movements grew increasingly violent.
She brought her head forward from where it had been thrown back and glared directly at Zed.
The instant he met her gaze, Zed shuddered.
Her eyes, once blue, were now glowing red.