CH 505

As soon as they opened the door, a smell pricked Rei’s senses.

It was a similar odour to the room where magic plants were being raised, but different. The odour here was mixed with the smell of blood.

There were several prison cells inside the room.

That alone was enough for people to realise what kind of place it was.

「-!?」

Naturally, Nakuto was the first to enter the room.

He was in a rush to see if there was anyone in any of the cells……or more precisely, if Tivia was in any of the cells. However, fortunately or unfortunately, Tivia wasn’t in any of the cell.s

No, rather, there wasn’t anyone in the room at all.

Nakuto seemed to be relieved by this. He let out a small sigh of relief as he started searching for any potential clues.

「There’s a smell of blood, but it doesn’t feel like fresh blood that was recently spilled. It’s probably the smell of blood that has seeped into this prison over many years.」

Rei murmured unpleasantly at the identity of the odour, which he picked up with his keener sense of smell.

「In other words, the Marschel family must have been doing this kind of thing for a while.」

「Probably.」

Nakuto agreed with Vihera’s words.

It hadn’t been that long since the Church of Holy Light had appeared in Exil and started spreading their teachings. That had only happened in the last few years.

However, the smell of blood from the prison……or the smell of death, which wasn’t really a physical smell, wasn’t something that would permeate this prison in just a few years.

「However, how did they kidnap people before the Church of Holy Light came along?」

Vihera asked that casually, but her beautiful face was frowning with disgust.

Vihera liked to fight, but she also took risks. It was against her belief to fight someone who couldn’t resist and beat them down onesidedly.

「Perhaps they were slaves or convicted people. Sometimes prisoners would disappear without anyone knowing……is what I’ve heard from the rumors.」

「I see. As the head of the Marschel family, she would have been able to sneak out prisoners easily.」

At Nakuto’s words, Rei frowned and muttered in disgust.

Rei wouldn’t hesitate to torture his enemies if necessary, but even so, the scene before him didn’t make him feel good.

「Anyhow, if there are no clues here, there’s no point staying. Let’s go to the next room.」

Everyone nodded at his words, closed the door, and moved to the next room.

When he opened the next door, what came into Nakuto’s vision were a number of distorted tools that he couldn’t understand their use at first glance.

However, most of the tools had knives attached to them and there was a strong rusty smell that permeated the room to an incomparable extent compared to the prison from before. What kind of room was this? It was clear without even needing to think.

「A torture chamber? ……What a hobby to have.」

Nakuto muttered while suppressing his emotions.

Tivia might have been tortured here as well, which made him want to shout out, but there was no way he could do that with their current situation.

He glanced over at Vihera and Rei behind him, but they didn’t seem to see anything of note, so he closed the door.

Like that, they opened door after door, but most of them were prisons, torture chambers, warehouses of some kind, or rooms for growing plants. There was absolutely no evidence related to the people creating abnormal species or connections with the Church of Holy Light.

If they had gone through each room in more detail, they might have been able to find some evidence. But, with so many rooms, they had no choice but to only briefly scan each one.

Eventually……

「Is this the last door, aside from the one at the end?」

Nakuto muttered as he reached for the door.

After entering the passage, they had checked over 10 doors on each side, reaching the final door.

If they excluded the door at the very end of the passage, this was the last one.

Their tension had already faded considerably.

As for Nakuto, he had started to think that Tivia was probably past the door at the very end of the passage, but after having found so many prisons, as long as they existed, he couldn’t deny the possibility that Tivia was trapped in one of them.

「……I’m opening it.」

Maybe this is the room where Tivia is being held. Thinking like that, he opened the door. What was inside was another prison, just like the ones he had seen before.

However, there was one difference.

A thick smell of blood drifted from inside the room.

It wasn’t blood that had dried long ago. It was the smell of fresh blood.

「Tivia!?」

There was fresh blood here. In other words, blood spilled by someone who had been held here until recently, which meant that there was a high chance it was Tivia.

Nakuto rushed to the innermost prison, but there were only traces of blood inside the cell. Tivia, the person they were looking for, was nowhere to be seen.

「The blood……it’s still wet. So it can’t have been long ago. I don’t know if it was Tivia though.」

Clenching his teeth, Nakuto spoke to hold himself back.

This was his main difference compared to Essetus, who’s emotions and actions were closely tied together.

Rei placed his hand on Nakuto’s shoulder as he spoke.

「Don’t worry……is not something I can say, but if she’s still here, even if she was moved to another location, there’s only one other place left.」

Now that they had searched all the rooms, unless they searched the underground rooms on the other half of the U shaped mansion, there was only one more door to check.

If someone asked Rei if he would take a kidnapped person, who had been trapped underground, back to the surface, he wouldn’t be able to give a good reason to do so.

「That’s right. Essetus will get mad at me for hesitating like this and he might get mad at me for taking too long to rescue Tivia as well.」

Nakuto nodded, as if to encourage himself, and stood up.

His eyes were just as sharp as a few seconds before, but he was a lot calmer.

「Now that Nakuto has calmed down, let’s check the last door. I’m sure it will be fun.」

She was very much looking forward to a fight. Vihera gave a seductive smile towards the last door as she spoke.

Everyone nodded at those words and left the prison room……reaching the final door, they opened it.

The first thing that caught everyone’s eyes was a magic circle drawn on the ground. In the center of it lay an unconscious woman.

There was no need to guess who the woman missing an arm was.

「Tivia!」

Nakuto shouted out, but Rei stopped him on reflex.

The moment Nakuto took a step forward, he heard a whistling sound.

Rei, who had fought one earlier, knew what kind of enemy they were facing, as they didn’t give off any murderous intent.

A long sword with a 1m blade passed right in front of Nakuto.

If Rei hadn’t stopped Nakuto, the attack would have cut him in half.

「Huh? It missed?」

The dolled landed on the ground and did a flip as it swung its long sword.

The doll was only 30cm tall, but the sword it held was over 1m long.

Even so, the fact that it could wield it without any issues showed just how strange the doll was.

Clap, clap, clap.

The moment their attention turned to the doll holding the long sword, the sound of clapping echoed through the room.

While remaining wary of the doll, Rei and the others turned towards the direction the clapping, where they a man leading 20 robed figures come through the door on the other side of the magic circle.

The man seemed to be in his twenties had had green hair that extended down to his shoulders.

His features were well proportioned and, at first glance, he might even have been mistaken as a woman.

He was wearing leather armour made from some kind of monster skin and had a sword sheathed at his left waist.

As if to hid it, it was also wearing a black cloak.

He gave off a presence that overwhelmed those in the surroundings, giving off a sort of charisma.

「No, no, I didn’t think you’d get this far. ……Hm? The General Princess doesn’t seem to be here?」

The man spoke with an expression that could be called smiling before eventually nodding in understanding.

「Ah, I see. Certainly, there is no justification for you to deal with the Marschell family. You probably tried to bring out the Silva family to do that, but……that might have been a bit of a mistake.」

「……What?」

Rei couldn’t help but question the words the man said, which seemed to imply something.

At the same time, Rei judged that there wouldn’t be an issue in a room this size and took the Death Scythe out from the Misty Ring.

「Heh? Is that an item bod? There really are a lot of useful magic items. What do you think? If you guys surrender here meekly and hand over the item box, I’ll even let you go.」

「Don’t joke around. What did you mean by those words just now?」

「Just now? Ah, the Silva family. Well, if I go out of my way to give you that information, that would only benefit you. Rather than that……you should worry about yourself.」

The man pulled out a rapier from the sheath at his waist as he gave a small smile.

However, Rei just smiled back mockingly as he spoke.

「Worry? Against someone like you?」

「……I see. It’s true that if you and I fought, I wouldn’t stand a chance of winning. To be honest, it’s amazing that someone as young as you has that level of ability. ……Maybe, are you actually an undead like a Vampire?」

「Unfortunately, I usually walk under the sun.」

「There are races among the undead that are fine with sunlight, aren’t there?」

Holding the rapier in his right hand, the man waved it around, sweeping the blade through the air.

「Heh, you know quite a bit. ……By the way, even though you understand your own level of skill and said that you can’t defeat me, you’re still quite motivated, aren’t you?」

「What, it’s true that I can’t defeat you. I’ll admit that.」

「Then you’re going to take a hostage?」

Rei said that as he looked over at Tivia, who had collapsed inside the magic circle. But, the man shook his head slightly.

「Unfortunately I can’t do that. In the first place, once you’re in the center of that magic circle, I don’t know what will happen if I touch it carelessly. ……And even if I could, it would be ineffective to hold a hostage against you, wouldn’t it?」

「Who knows.」

At the man’s words, Rei replied without a change in his expression.

「Even without a hostage, if I focus on defense, I can’t lose even if I can’t win.」

At the man’s words, the 20 figures behind him stepped forward.

All of them were wearing robes, but a few of them could be identified as women from the slight protrusions under their robes and the bottom half of their faces peeking out from under their hoods.

They held weapons such as swords, spears, daggers, and axes in their hands, approaching Vihera and Nakuto while not getting in the way of the fight between the man and Rei.

In terms of numbers, it was three, Vihera, Nakuto, and Byune, against 20 people. However, one of the three spoke as if they didn’t feel any threat.

「I wanted to fight that good looking man over there, but……he seems to be crazy for Rei, so I guess I’ll put up with you lot.」

While muttering with a disappointed expression on her face, Vihera still had a premonition of an upcoming struggle as a smile appeared on her face.

Magic power flowed through her hands and feet and claws and blades came out from her magic weapons at her wrist and under her heel.

「Mm.」

Byune held several needles between the fingers on her right hand as he wielded a dagger in her left.

「Honestly, I’m a thief and not that good at fighting……but I can’t just abandon Tivia here.」

Nakuto muttered as he held a dagger in both his hands and looked at his unconscious party member in the center of the magic circled as the robed people approached.

「Hey, hey, don’t just forget about me.」

At that moment, the voice of the doll that Nakuto had barely managed to dodge sounded out.

For some reason it now had more than 30 more dolls behind it.

Furthermore, one of the dolls was a 2m tall bear.

「Well then, it looks like all the actors are set, so let’s get started.」

The man announced lightly as he swept his rapier to the side.

In response Rei spoke as he readied the Death Scythe.

「Before that……you seem to know my name, but I don’t know yours.」

The man seemed surprised, but he replied shortly after with a smile.

「That’s true. I can’t tell you the details, but I should at least introduce myself. Oricule. That’s my name.」

「Don’t you have any affiliations?」

They exchanged words as they searched the other for openings.

Contrary to their conversation, the tension started to build around them.

「As expected, I’m not that……good natured!」

With those words, Oricule closed the distance to Rei in a single step as he thrust out his rapier.