Zich almost instinctively spat out, ‘No!’ and he resisted the urge to swing Windur at Glen’s neck with all his might. In reality, only his hands wiggled on Windur and even as his instincts stirred up a rebellion inside him, Zich continued to assess the situation. ‘Should I help this guy here and suppress Til?’ However, was that part of Glen’s plan? If it was, he needed to hinder it at all costs somehow.
‘Would this guy want to share the credit of finding the culprit with me?’ There was no way. A sly guy like Glen would certainly not do something that would force him to divide the merit and fame of solving a huge case like this. Then, there was only one reason why Glen was behaving this way.
‘He must have prepared something up his sleeves so that Til wouldn’t get caught.’ By the time Zich thought to this point, he caught a swarm of other presences with his senses.
Wuahhhhhhh! He heard a rough monstrous cry, and when Zich turned in the direction of the noise, he saw a cluster of monsters rushing toward his direction.
‘They are quite strong monsters.’ He didn’t see weak monsters like kobolds or goblins—he only saw large monsters like ogres. The one running at the front was a behemoth. These monsters didn’t pose such a great threat to Zich or Glen, but they were enough to affect the progress of their battle with Til.
“Tch! Why of all times!” Glen shouted angrily. Yet, Zich had deduced that this entire scenario and he knew that Glen was simply playing his usual theatrics after setting it all up. Although the monsters were dangerously approaching, they were still quite a distance away. Thus, Zich quickly approached Til and asked, “What happened, Mr. Til?”
Til didn’t answer. He simply stared at Zich with an eerily stiff face. Zich raised Windur and said, “If you don’t answer, I will have no choice but to think of you as the culprit we’ve been looking for.”
Yet, Til still didn’t answer.
“I understand. Then, let’s talk after I render you immobile.” Zich rushed at Til, and Til swung his sword resolutely.
Clash! ‘As expected, he is strong.’ From that single clash, Zich felt pain in his hands as if his palms were ripping apart. Zich saw many openings in Til’s movements, but he couldn’t easily aim for them. As soon as he aimed for a weak spot, the entirety of Til’s immense sword swing would thrash at him and drag forth death. Zich and Til clashed a couple of more times until the cluster of monsters reached Zich’s companions.
“Tch!” Zich clicked his tongue and backed away from Til. An ogre’s thick muscled arms passed through the place he had been standing, and Zich swung Windur again.
Kyaaaaah! After he was inflicted with a long wound, the ogre screamed painfully. Zich grimaced at the yelling and sliced the ogre’s neck off. The ogre’s nasty scream was cut short, and Zich searched for Til. Til was standing a distance away from the center of the battle, and the monsters didn’t attack him—they only aimed for Zich and Glen.
Zich and Glen immediately began their work, exterminating all the monsters in their surroundings. The behemoth jumped around wildly while shrieking, but even a high-level monster couldn’t endure long against Zich and Glen’s combined attacks. With countless injuries covering its body, the behemoth let out its final cry and breathed its last breath. Soon, all monsters collapsed to the ground, but Til was nowhere to be seen.
“Damn it! We lost him!” Glen kicked the floor and yelled in an outburst. Zich snorted at this sight inside his mind and hung Windur on his back.
* * *
The case of the escape of the Wolf’s Canine’s captain stirred up a huge commotion inside Pialu. Not only had the Wolf’s Canine contributed significantly to the fight against monsters, but Til was one of the strongest people in the city, which was evident from the fact he had escaped from Zich and Glen’s tracking even if they had been occupied by monsters. Whatever the truth was, people were stunned by what had happened.
The next day after Til’s escape, people gathered at the city hall’s meeting room once again. Unlike yesterday when the mood had been quite favorable because they found out the cause of their problem, the mood was absolutely miserable today. Particularly Nick, who now represented the Wolf’s Canine in Til’s place, looked like he had come to his close friend’s funeral.
The commander said, “Mr. Zenard.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Please explain to us what exactly happened.”
“I understand,” Glen said and got up from his spot. All eyes shot towards him. “After the meeting ended yesterday, I surveyed the city because I thought our culprit could be somewhere inside the city.”
People nodded in comprehension.
“When I went near the castle walls, I saw that Captain Til about to go outside. At first, I thought Captain Til was leaving to patrol the area.” In the Wolf’s Canine, even the captain and the vice-captain went outside to patrol from time to time. Of course, to maintain leadership within the group, either the captain or the vice-captain always stayed behind the camp.
“However, I thought it was odd that even if the captain was strong, the Wolf’s Canine members always patrolled in groups. The captain was alone. Thus, I thought it was strange and thinking that he might need help with something, I approached Captain Til. Of course, the artifact was still activating the whole time.”
“Was it then…it reacted?” Nick’s solemn voice rang inside the meeting place.
“Yes, it did.”
“Could it actually be the One-sided Pyramid of Lamentations? Doesn’t the artifact also react to that item too?” one person asked, but Glen shook his head.
“I handed over all the One-sided Pyramids of Lamentations to the magicians. The mages told me that one never went missing, and I checked the numbers.”
“Then, does Captain Til really possess the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls?”
“There’s a high possibility.”
The commander said to Glen, “Please continue.”
“There’s not much to say after that. I asked Captain Til to explain, and he suddenly tried to run away. Then, I chased after him but missed him. That’s all.”
“I’ve heard that the monsters tried to protect Captain Til. Is that true?”
“That’s not exactly true. However, it’s true that I missed the captain because of the monsters’ attacks, and it’s also true that the monsters did not attack Captain Til. Mr. Zich also witnessed this.”
“Yes, it’s true.” Zich nodded in agreement as people stared at him.
“Then, is it really true…”
“Hmm.” All the evidence was pointing towards Til as the mastermind behind the city’s ambush.
“If the captain was really the mastermind who possessed the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls, why couldn’t we find it in the last meeting?” Nick asked. He looked desperate, as if he didn’t want to believe that their captain was the culprit. “Isn’t it unlikely that he would leave such a valuable item in a different place? Since you even activated the artifact last time, if he really possessed the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls, we should have caught him then.”
People began murmuring amongst themselves as Nick’s words made sense. However, Glen calmly explained, “The artifact points towards the nearest One-Sided Pyramid of Lamentations or the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls. When I activated the artifact last time to show how it works, I put a One-Sided Pyramid of Lamentations right next to the artifact. Thus, even if Captain Til had the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls on him, the artifact would have pointed towards the closest pyramid next to it. So, he wouldn’t have been caught.”
“…Damn it,” Nick muttered a swear word under his breath. It was only natural that the mercenaries in the Wolf’s Canine would feel very conflicted since their captain was under suspicion as the main culprit behind the city’s current situation. Regardless of the betrayal they felt towards the captain, the future of their mercenary group was at stake, and other people would also look at them with suspicion. Nick’s swearing sounded like a compilation of all their conflicted thoughts.
‘Fucking bastard.’ However, Zich knew the truth, and he only saw it as an unpleasant act from a hypocrite.
“Perhaps, was there a reason why Captain Til would betray us?”
“There’s no way! He’s a guy too kind for his own good! There’s no way he’d suddenly become…”
Silence fell on the meeting for a short moment, and then the commander said, “Whatever it is, we have work to do. Mr. Zenard, have you finished preparing all the artifacts?”
“Yes, it’s all thanks to the mages.” Glen took out the artifacts. “I’ll be passing this out to all of you here and to other skilled people. Please use this artifact to search the city and the mountain range to find the mastermind who attacked the city.”
One mercenary sarcastically remarked, “Isn’t the Wolf’s Canine’s captain the mastermind?”
“It’s not certain yet. If we find the specific reason, everything will be solved. Since Mr. Zenard said the artifact reacted to what Captain Til had, we might be able to find him as well.”
Another mercenary asked, “Are you perhaps also going to let the Wolf’s Canine handle this?” It seemed as if people were uncomfortable with including the Wolf Canine’s mercenaries in the search group when their captain was under strong suspicion as the culprit.
The commander didn’t say anything for a minute and also stared at Nick with slightly suspicious eyes. But then, he seemed to have reached a decision as he quietly said, “I’ll trust them.”
There was a small commotion on one side but it soon died down. “We’ll return your trust.” Nick bowed.
The commander looked around at everyone and said, “We don’t know when the monsters will attack us again, so please decide on an area to search and look for the person controlling the monsters. I’ll give a generous reward to everyone and give a special reward to the person who finds the culprit and captures them.”
* * *
“What happened, Vice-Captain!”
“Is our contract still valid?”
“Will we still get our money?”
“Do we still not know where the Captain is?”
As soon as Nick returned to the camp, the mercenaries surrounded him. Every single one of them looked worried. It was natural since their captain had stabbed them in the back. After telling everyone what happened in the meeting room, he passed the artifact he received to skilled people in the camp and ordered them to search for the culprit. No one expressed their complaints at Nick’s orders. Since Til was gone, Nick had no choice but to lead the Wolf’s Canine. Even though there was also Vice-Captain Max, Nick created the mercenary group with Til, so Max was pushed behind Nick for the next line in command. Like this, the Wolf Canine’s mercenaries scattered throughout the city to find the culprit.
Most of the mercenaries really tried their best to retrieve the lost trust in their group. The best way to erase people’s suspicion of their group was to find the mastermind behind the monster’s attacks. However, it was completely different for Nick and the other mercenaries. They moved quite half-heartedly. Since they had planned this incident in the first place, it didn’t make sense that they would try their best to find the culprit.
‘Everything’s going pretty much according to plan.’ Contrary to the other mercenaries who felt nervous, Nick felt a deep sense of satisfaction. ‘Let’s go around like this for a while.’ It was an extremely easy task. He leisurely moved around his set area as if he was on vacation. However, his leisure didn’t last long.
“W-what is this…!” He began shaking as he looked at the letter in his hand.
The letter contained the following words: [I have your daughter.]