Volume 2 - CH 311

Chapter 0311 Late-Night Visitor

Translator: Jay_Forestieri

Editor: Tseirp

Midnight.

A silhouette descended on the balcony of Commander Hugh McGrath’s bedroom in the Kingdom delegation quarters.

In perfect silence, it opened the window and entered the room.

Then, looking toward the bed… it froze.

Hugh McGrath was still lying on the bed, head turned toward it, eyes wide open.

“I-I mean no harm…”

The silhouette finally spoke, in a woman’s voice.

“Sure, I remember you. As I recall, you’re Maurice of the Hero Party, right?”

Hugh said in a low voice.

He had previously joined forces with the Hero Roman’s party to defeat the vampire Count Haskill Kalinikos on the outskirts of Kona Village in the Kingdom.

The scout of that party was Maurice, who just entered the room.

So, it was Maurice all right, but….

What he didn’t understand was why they were trying to make contact at this time.

And why in that manner….

As Hugh got up, Maurice approached.

Then she pulled an envelope from her pocket and handed it to Hugh, saying:

“It’s a letter from Graham.”

“From Graham?”

Graham was the priest of the Hero Party.

His position in the Western Church was archbishop.

Which could be said to be a fairly high position.

Moreover, according to the words uttered by Count Haskill Kalinikos just before he was put to death, he was the head of the Inquisition and a vampire hunter….

Hugh wasn’t sure what it meant, but it certainly didn’t sound like some cosy position.

Maurice, the scout who brought the letter from Graham, deliberately kept it out of the sight of others.

The situation must be that serious.

After Hugh received Graham’s letter, he turned on the lantern alchemy tool, dimming the light as low as possible, and read the letter.

“…You mean to tell me that that red light waterfall back in QC Duchy happened in another place too? And there’s a good chance it’s happening in conjunction with our mission?”

Hugh looked at Maurice, the scout in front of him, as questioning her.

But Maurice, seeing that, shook her head hurriedly.

“I don’t know much either. Just that the Holy City, Marlomar is becoming more and more sketchy as of late. Or, more precisely, the priests of the Holy City.”

“Hmmm… Is Graham in the Holy City?”

“No, Graham is in the Eastern Kingdom of Lasha, where he is assigned. Since he is ranked first among the archbishops, he’ll attend the Pope’s inauguration… so he’ll probably be in the Holy City in a couple of months or so.”

“Hah. He’s ranked first, wow, that’s friggin amazing.”

“Yes. At his age, yeah, it’s certainly remarkable. He’s the leading candidate to fill the vacant slot of the twelve cardinals.”

The hierarchical ranks of the Western Church in descending order are:

Pope, cardinals, archbishops, bishops and abbots, priests, and deacons.

One pope, twelve cardinals, twenty-four archbishops, forty-eight bishops, forty-eight abbots, and many priests and deacons….

That was the structure, but in recent years the number of bishops and below had increased considerably.

“…And to top it all off, the mission is under close surveillance. That explains why you chose to sneak in in the middle of the night.”

“Yeah. Though I have to say that I didn’t expect to be caught by Master McGrath, despite erasing my presence and moving quietly.”

“I’m a former A-rank adventurer, after all.”

Saying that, Hugh shrugged his shoulders.

Nevertheless, as a foreign delegation, they could not act arbitrarily.

Having been sent to the Pope’s inauguration ceremony as a representative of the country, of course, not attending wasn’t an option.

Since their attendance was already a foregone conclusion. They’d best conduct themselves in a way that wouldn’t strain relations between the two countries….

The Pope’s inauguration was about three months away.

“I heard that the whole of the Western Countries has been informed of the arrival of the mission from the Central Nations, so I doubt they’d make any move in particular until the inauguration…”

“Yeah, Graham said the same thing. And, that you should spend the next three months cautiously.”

“What’s with that…”

He was trying to imply that they should be careful as they went about their daily routines.

The problem was the day of the inauguration… or the days leading to it.

“Well, got it. Thanks for the letter. Give Graham my regards. Oh, by the way, where are the rest of the Hero Party?”

Hugh asked, only superficially, but….

“The four magicians are fine. But Roman…”

Maurice continued with a sad look on her face.

“Roman is missing…”

The morning after Hugh received a late-night visit.

The delegation, of course, had an uneventful and peaceful morning.

After breakfast in the lodging dining hall, Hugh had called Ryo.

“Ryo, just to let you know, we, as in the mission, are being watched.”

“Okay.”

“Although there’s nothing we can do about it. And…I’m not saying that it’s okay, but I understand that this is the situation we find ourselves in, so try not to meddle with the guys monitoring us.”

“Got it.”

Hugh felt a little uneasy when Ryo nodded his head in a surprisingly straightforward manner.

“O-Oh no, please don’t tell me that you already did?”

“Geez~ of course not~. What do you take me for~? A-ha-ha-ha-ha~”

Ryo replied with a fresh smile.

“Oh good. In that case, it’s fine.”

“Just so you know, there were ten of them watching this lodging last night.”

“What?”

“But not to worry. I didn’t do anything.”

“I-I see…”

In fact, Hugh, of course, didn’t know that the following conversation took place between Ryo and Abel last night.

((Abel, suspicious people are surrounding our quarters. I’ll attack first.))

((No, wait, Ryo.))

((Abel, don’t stop me!))

((No, stop. Those guys are lookout dispatched by the Theocracy. Along with surveillance, they also serve as security, I suppose. As in, say some agitator was to attack the mission’s quarters, the Theocracy will be completely disgraced.))

((Man…))

((Just be careful, and if they do attack, you can go ahead and intercept them.))

((Taking such a passive stance, are you sure about this!?))

((What do you mean passive…. It’s okay, just trust me.))

((Is that so? Sure why not… I trust you.))

Thanks to that exchange, Ryo didn’t launch a preemptive attack.

World peace may be maintained by people whom no one knows….

With all that going on, it was now the fourth day since the mission left the northern border town of Valpegara.

“We’ll be in the Holy City of Marlomar by midday today, right?”

“Before that, I hear that you can even see the dungeon north of Marlomar from the road.”

Amon asked for confirmation, and Etho added some information that could not be ignored.

“Dungeon!?”

And naturally, Ryo latched on to it.

“That’s right. There are four dungeons around the Holy City of Marlomar. One in the east, west, north, and south. This road passes near the northern dungeon, so we could see it.”

Etho explained while looking at the ‘Travel Guide’.

What an extraordinary encyclopedia of information, the ‘Travel Guide’.

Ryo then remembered the dungeon beginner’s course he once attended in Rune City.

As he recalled, the guild official who served as the instructor had said…

“I heard that some dungeons in the Western Countries have a transfer function to a floor once cleared, does it say whether the dungeons around the Holy City have that function…?”

Ryo asked, trembling slightly.

If they do, he would love to explore them all the way to the bottom…

After Etho flipped through the ‘Travel Guide’….

“Got it, yeah it does. It says that the dungeon to the west of the Holy City of Marlomar has that function.”

“Ooohhh!”

Ryo rejoiced.

He had not explored many dungeons back in Rune City, but he was by no means uninterested.

To clear it to the lowest floor! Wasn’t exactly his objective, however….

“It says here that the lowest floor reached so far is the 150th floor.”

“150…”

“That’s pretty deep…”

“Monsters on the 150th floor would likely be very strong!”

Etho provided the information, Amon exclaimed, Niels was astounded, and Ryo was all riled up thinking about the monsters of the 150th floor that he had yet to see…

Zeke and Gowan from Room 11 looked on in stunned amazement.

Except one of them who was absent-minded.

“Harold, are you okay?”

Noticing this, Ryo called out.

“Uh, oh, yeah…”

Harold, the swordsman, finally came back to his senses.

Harold was initially included in the delegation so he could be liberated from the Fiend’s ‘Rupture Spirit Curse’.

And the way to break the curse was to put, ‘A drop of the Demon Lord’s blood on his forehead’.

And it’s said that the blood of the Demon Lord is kept in the Western Church.

“Don’t you worry. Mr. Hugh should be able to negotiate and work something out. If not, I’ll freeze the whole of the Holy City and go get it!”

“Ughh, this blockhead, would you cut it out.”

Ryo, being the senior adventurer that he is, tried to reassure his junior, but was denied by Niels.

“I guess Niels is someone who would say such a terrible thing even when his junior is in need.”

“No, I didn’t mean that. I’m only saying that you don’t have to freeze the Holy City, we can figure out another way…”

“Like what, exactly?”

“Well, uh..okay, like sneaking into where it’s being kept…”

“That’s a crime!”

“Like you’re one to talk!”

Listening to their conversation, Harold smiled a little.

Zeke and Gowan then put their hands on Harold’s shoulders from behind.