Infiltration
At the same time, in Leje's room.
"Hmm..."
Thinking that the ticking of the clock seemed unusually loud today, Leje let out a low groan.
Two hours had already passed since she closed her eyes to sleep...
However, strangely, sleep wouldn't come.
Come to think of it, it wasn't unusual.
There were so many things on her mind.
The Thorn Carpenter, the Death Eater Cult, and...
"He definitely seemed like he knew something..."
When reporting last night's events to Cayley.
She hadn't shown it, but Leje was conscious of Rudell's demeanor.
Unlike his usual self, he seemed restless, unable to fix his gaze on one spot.
It was a subtle difference that others wouldn't notice, but having spent so much time together, Leje could sense an inexplicable unease in his behavior.
It felt like he was hiding something.
"Ha..."
After tossing and turning in bed for a while, she finally sat up with a short sigh.
The time had already passed midnight.
She walked to the window and opened it, hoping the cool breeze would clear her throbbing head.
A cool breeze drifted in from outside, and perched on the windowsill, she looked down at the Royal Capital, where hardly any lights were visible.
"It's really bothering me..."
Muttering to herself, she shifted her gaze to Rudell's room window on the floor below.
"I wonder if he's still awake..."
Perhaps it was the nagging feeling that he was hiding something from her.
Leje carefully climbed out the window.
Bracing herself against a small crevice in the wall, she hung upside down, as she always did, and peered into Rudell's room.
Considering his usual bedtime, he might still be awake.
If he was hiding something from her, she intended to make him confess.
"Huh...?"
However, what she saw inside the room was a sight she hadn't expected at all.
"Rudell?"
His room was empty.
With curfew in place after 10 PM, there was no way he could have left.
"..."
What was going on?
Confusion momentarily filled her mind...
"Don't tell me...!!"
Shaking her head vigorously, she shifted her gaze towards a particular area of the Royal Capital.
A place that looked like a gaping hole, significantly darker than other districts.
The Old Royal Palace district, now a lawless wasteland.
The slums.
* * *
"..."
The ruins of the abandoned Old Royal Palace.
Two figures walked through the place, where the only source of light was the moonlight filtering through the broken ceiling.
"There doesn't seem to be anything here."
All that was visible to his faintly glowing eyes were abandoned furniture and miscellaneous tools.
Nothing seemed to be moving.
"But the scent is definitely coming from here."
"Hmm..."
If his words were true, it meant the Thorn Carpenter had been here at least until recently.
Had they just missed each other by a hair's breadth?
"Let's search a little further."
"Let's do that."
Ignoring it wasn't an option.
Rudell and Kurt cautiously began to examine their surroundings, staying alert.
However...
"Hmm..."
No matter how much time passed...
"Hrmmm..."
They couldn't find anything unusual.
After nearly thirty minutes of searching.
"Is there really nothing here...?"
Rudell let out a short sigh beneath a half-destroyed statue in the center of the ruins.
They had searched the area thoroughly, but to no avail.
"Strange... the scent is stronger than before..."
Kurt felt the same.
He, too, seemed perplexed by the situation, avoiding Rudell's gaze.
"Sigh..."
What had they missed?
Lifting his head in frustration, Rudell looked at the broken statue behind him.
The statue was so damaged that it was impossible to tell which deity it depicted.
"Hmm..."
A low groan escaped Rudell's lips as he observed the statue.
Since deities actually existed in this world, statues were considered quite important.
Damaging a statue could strain relations with the temple and even lead to an inquisition from the cult's headquarters.
Therefore, most people treated statues with reverence, as if they were the deities themselves.
But why was such a statue abandoned here...?
"Huh?"
As Rudell examined the statue with a frown, he noticed something glittering beneath it.
"A button?"
There, he saw a small stone slab that looked like nothing other than a button.
The moment he saw it, a faint smile appeared on Rudell's lips.
"Did you find something?"
"I think I found something."
Nodding, Rudell reached out and carefully pressed the stone slab.
-Rumble...
With a click, the slab slid inwards, and the floor beneath the statue opened, revealing a staircase leading underground.
"Bingo."
"What does that mean?"
"It's something you say when things go well."
Looking at the dark passage ahead, Rudell smiled.
After a moment of observing the passage, Rudell and Kurt stepped inside...
-Rumble!!
As soon as they disappeared into the passage, the entrance closed behind them.
And, as if nothing had happened, silence returned to the area around the statue.
* * *
"What was this place used for?"
"Since it was a royal palace, maybe it's an escape route for emergencies?"
He hadn't actually seen them, but he knew there were quite a few secret passages in the current Royal Palace as well.
If his memory served him correctly, some areas might have already been occupied by the Cult.
"An escape route? That's ridiculous."
For the Nord tribe, running away was an admission of weakness.
Therefore, the idea of creating a separate escape route was incomprehensible to Kurt.
"By the way... just how far does this go?"
They had been walking for over thirty minutes, but there was still no end in sight.
The passage just continued deeper and deeper.
"Watch your step."
As Rudell and Kurt continued down the long passage...
"Wait."
"What is it?"
Rudell looked at Kurt, who had suddenly stopped, with a puzzled voice.
"There's someone around the corner."
"...Someone?"
At those words, Rudell pressed himself against the wall and peeked around the corner.
The dark corridor came into view within his mana-enhanced vision...
"That's..."
A group clad in black robes was approaching from afar.
Rudell was certain they were Death Eaters.
"Shall we take them out?"
"No, let's follow them for now."
Stopping Kurt from drawing his axe, Rudell channeled his mana.
Shadows surged from beneath his feet, enveloping them both, and they began to follow the group, hidden in the darkness.
"Did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"I heard the research is almost complete. They say they'll have significant results soon."
"It was worth hiding in this cold, dark underground all this time."
The cultists continued down the passage, chattering amongst themselves.
"..."
Hidden in the darkness, Rudell eavesdropped on their conversation.
Research? Significant results?
Whatever it was, he was certain it wasn't anything good.
Meanwhile, the cultists arrived at a door.
"Kurt. Hold your breath."
As torches on either side of the door flickered, casting long shadows, Kurt nodded at Rudell's words and inhaled deeply.
Confirming they were ready, Rudell channeled his mana once more, and their bodies, shrouded in shadow, transformed into mist and seeped into the shadows cast by the torches in the passage.
-Rumble!!
With a low rumble, the door opened, and the cultists, after checking their surroundings, stepped inside.
A large space that appeared to be some kind of facility.
With a considerable number of cultists coming and going, Rudell emerged from the shadows and deactivated his magic in a spot out of their sight.
"Let's skip that magic next time..."
"Ahahaha... Sorry."
Rudell let out an awkward laugh at Kurt's serious tone.
He knew that being trapped in a void without light or air, even for a short time, wasn't a pleasant experience.
"So? What's the plan?"
"We need to investigate this place first."
The space was much larger than he had expected.
With a distinct laboratory feel, it was clearly an important facility for the Cult.
That meant there would be a lot of information related to the Cult here as well.
He needed to gather as much data as possible, as he didn't know when another opportunity like this would arise.
"And then?"
"Why ask the obvious?"
Rudell grinned at Kurt's question.
"We tear it all down."
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