‘Plus, there’s a high possibility that those guys aren’t just ordinary robed figures.’ The robed figures were scattered all over the world to fulfill their mission of corrupting people. Did that mean there were guys conveniently nearby that Glen could immediately use in his plan?
‘It’s not like there’s no possibility for that since Til is here, but the Wolf’s Canine coming to Pialu must have been a sudden surprise for them.’ Overall, Zich thought that the trap currently hanging over Til’s head was the one Glen had managed to come up with only recently, and the robed figures had moved immediately for his hasty plan.
‘That means there’s a high chance there are robed figures who normally follow Glen around.’ Of course, they wouldn’t move right next to Glen; otherwise, Zich would’ve found out about their existence a long time ago.
‘It seems like they are waiting on standby at a suitable distance for his calls whenever he needs them.’ If that was the case, those guys would be pretty high-up even among the robed figures, and Zich didn’t reach this conclusion simply because Glen controlled the robed figures..
The seriously annoying bastard, Zich Brave, had told him this: ‘There’s a mastermind behind Glen Zenard.’ If there was really a mastermind controlling Glen, then there was a possibility that there would be spies near Glen watching his movements. The best spies were those close and trusted by the observer, not knowing they were spies. The most dangerous foes were the friendly ones.
‘If my guesses are correct, I will be able to sever both Glen’s and the mastermind’s arm simultaneously.’ Of course, this wasn’t Zich’s main purpose. ‘Even if that’s not the case, this is a chance for me to screw that bastard over again! That’s enough for me!’
And that was by far the most important thing.
* * *
Ever since Til blackmailed him with circumstances that he couldn’t understand at all, Nick tried his best to piece together the ongoing events. Yet, nothing connected them. He tried to kidnap the children, but someone else—the one he tried to blame the crime on— had ended up doing the deed instead. It was an ironic situation where the attacker had become the victim while the victim had become the attacker, and it made Nick’s head hurt. Yet, one thing seemed to be clear.
‘Til currently has Ellie.’ This was an absolute nightmare.
As usual, Nick was outside the city to patrol his assigned post, not caring about actually patrolling. All he did right now was fret about the situation he had been thrust into and burst out in anger from time to time.
Thump! Thump!
From a distance, he saw Til coming toward him. Even though he was the wanted man everyone in the city was ardently searching for, Til walked with complete ease. Nick seethed, thinking that Til could show such ease because he knew Nick’s weakness. He wanted to shake Til by his collar and immediately ask him where Ellie was. Yet, he couldn’t do that. He didn’t have the skills to do so, and the fact that Til had Ellie weighed too heavily upon him. In the end, Nick couldn’t help but do what he had been doing until now, which was just glaring menacingly at Til.
Yet, Til didn’t spare even a glance at Nick and treated him as if he was invisible; this made Nick even angrier. It was because Til’s expression seemed to say, ‘No matter how angry you are, you can’t do anything to me.’
‘I can’t just let things be like this!’ Nick had to do something. Yet, although he had come up with many plans before, he couldn’t think of a logical method now.
‘If I could at least know what that guy is planning, I bet I could think of something…’ Til was going into the Denest Mountain Range once every couple of days. Nick didn’t know why, but Nick thought that if he knew, there would be a way to get him out of his current situation.
‘The problem is that I can’t trail that guy.’
Til never officially learned how to control his mana. He had outstanding talent that allowed him to stomp over most knight groups head-on, but beyond that, his skills in other areas besides fighting weren’t that high. Accordingly, his sensing and surveilling abilities were subpar. Thus, if Nick just had some infiltrating ability, he would have been able to easily trail Til. However, the problem was that Nick had also never gone through official training in anything, and his skills were also significantly worse than Til’s.
‘If I secretly chase behind him, he’s definitely going to find me.’ Yet, all Nick could think of was trying to trail behind Til somehow without getting caught. While these thoughts swirled around in his head, a voice asked him, “How is your patrol going, Mr. Nick?”
Nick returned to Pialu every couple of days. Patrollers who oversaw posts outside the city went back to the city to exchange information. There, Nick attended another meeting in the city hall that ended smoothly with little updates. However, it wasn’t as if he gained nothing from this meeting; although Nick thought he would be exempt from patrolling after he left his post abruptly once he heard about Ellie’s kidnapping, the commander surprisingly kept Nick in patrol duties. Nick was relieved to hear this since he had to meet Til’s demands. Of course, this just meant that Nick could maintain the current situation, but he still had no clue about what was going to happen.
While Nick was forcefully pushing himself to eat in a store near the city hall trying to make a breakthrough, Zich approached him. Although he couldn’t have been more annoyed that Zich was bothering him during this chaotic time, he managed to reply curtly.
“Not much happened, sir.”
“You don’t sound too energetic, sir. Well, it’s understandable since you don’t know your daughter’s whereabouts,” Zich said and sat in front of Nick.
Nick wanted to tell Zich to fuck off, but he racked his head for a socially acceptable way to chase this young man away as fast as possible.
“Hm, as expected, I think it will be better to give this to you.” Zich took out something from his belongings and Nick’s eyes darted toward it.
“That’s…”
“It’s an artifact.” The item that Zich took out was the artifact that pointed toward the One-Sided Pyramid of Lamentations and the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls. The complicated patterns drawn on the metal plate drew his eyes toward the item.
“Why are you giving me this?” Nick already had the same artifact as well. In the first place, everyone looking for Til had an artifact and a One-Sided Pyramid of Lamentations.
“Mr. Nick, this one is different from the one that you have.”
“…It’s different?”
“Yes. This is an upgraded version of the artifact with more advanced functions than the one that people currently have.”
Nick’s eyes widened. “You were able to upgrade the artifact’s function in this short amount of time?”
“The mage in my group is a genius, so she’s fully capable of such a feat.” There was pride mixed in with Zich’s voice. Compared to him, Nick looked at the artifact in front of him with concern. Even though Nick couldn’t do anything right now because of Til’s unexpected actions, he was the one who instigated the monster ambushes in Pialu. He couldn’t grasp how this unexpected artifact would influence his plans.
Nick needed more information first, so he asked, “She’s really amazing. May I ask which functions have been upgraded?”
“Its detection ability has significantly increased.”
“By how much?”
“The range it can detect is at least two times bigger than this city.”
“That’s amazing.” Nick was truly amazed. He didn’t think that it was possible to upgrade the artifact’s function so significantly.
“However, there aren’t only advantages.” Zich’s confident expression slightly changed into a frown. “The price of making the artifact is higher since it required more rare ingredients to make this. Moreover, the number of magic circles inscribed into the metal plate is significantly greater, so we can’t quickly mass produce it like the last artifact.”
“Yes, that makes sense.” Was this fortunate or unfortunate for him?
While Nick persistently tried to weigh the upgraded artifact’s utility, Zich continued, “At least with this, we will be able to find the person with the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls from further away. Moreover, there’s a lower possibility that we’ll get caught while secretly tailing them.”
A light bulb lit up in Nick’s head. ‘If I have this, won’t I be able to track down Til?’ Even though Nick couldn’t tail Til with his current skills, it might be possible with this artifact. If he chased after Til while maintaining a long distance, even Til wouldn’t be able to discover him easily. Nick began to desperately want the upgraded artifact, but then he recalled what Zich had previously told him.
“D-did you say that you were going to give this to me?”
“Yes, I did.” Zich smiled and nodded, and to Nick, it looked like a gracious smile of a god to one of their followers. It was a chilling thought that would make any of Zich’s comrades tightly shut their eyes in horror.
Zich continued, “Mr. Nick, it’s because you seemed to be looking most desperately for Til. I hope you take this and find Til as soon as possible so that Ellie can also safely return.”
“T-thank you so much!” Nick bowed his head so deeply that it looked as if his head would slam the table. His attitude differed completely from when he first met Zich. With a smile that looked gracious to Nick, Zich said, “I really hope you succeed.”
* * *
Nick bowed a couple of more times to show his gratitude and went on his way. Zich didn’t move his gaze away from Nick’s back, and it was only when Nick fully disappeared did he finally turn his head. He erased the smile off his face, leaned his back against a wall, and crossed his legs. His attitude returned to its original rough manners, and Zich stared at the area where Nick disappeared again.
‘Yeah, I really hope you’re successful.’ If Nick saw the smile that Zich made at the moment, he might have wanted to pluck out his eyes and split his head for falsely thinking that Zich’s smile had looked gracious.
* * *
When Nick returned to his assigned post, the first thing he did was activate the artifact. After placing the One-Sided Pyramid of Lamentations on top of the artifact and burying the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls in a location far away, he increased his distance. Even though he had gone very far, the One-Sided Pyramid of Lamentation was clearly pointing towards the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls. When the One-sided Pyramid of Lamentations lost its target and began spinning around, Nick couldn’t even see the area where he had buried the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls.
“Great!” Nick loudly shouted; he forgot his age and began jumping up and down like a kid. He was delighted by the upgraded artifact’s ability. However, he couldn’t just be happy; he needed to retrieve the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls. Nick went back to the original location and retrieved the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls.
‘If I just have this, I’ll be able to tail Til without getting caught.’ However, he suddenly thought of a new concern. ‘If I have the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls, I won’t be able to properly use the artifact. Regardless of the range that the artifact could detect, the artifact worked by pointing towards the nearest One-Sided Pyramid of Lamentations or the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls. Thus, it will always point towards his Pyramid of Vengeful Souls. Since he hadn’t been trying to find the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls unlike the others, this had never been a concern so far, but the situation had now changed.
‘I need to leave one of them.’ Of course, he should leave behind the One-Sided Pyramid of Lamentations, but there was a problem. ‘As expected…’ When Nick placed the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls on top of the artifact, it didn’t move. Nick strongly bit his lip.