## Chapter 876 – Illegal Slave Trader
I waited a moment before descending into the corpse disposal chute.
Another worker might come. And someone would be down there cleaning up the bodies.
If I got caught, everything would be for naught. No matter who I am, acting boldly while infiltrating would lead to exposure.
Of course, if I were caught, I could kill them all and wipe out their entire lineage.
But then I wouldn’t know if the guys I killed were innocent people in a slightly rough profession or complete bastards. Plus, if there were corpses, my intrusion would eventually be discovered. It would be troublesome if the guys who realized a secret investigator was here started trying to destroy evidence. And if, by any chance, they were innocent guys living according to the law, I would become a murderer.
Anyway, I figured out how to get in.
No need to rush.
If I wasn’t caught, it was my time.
I immediately went to the corner by the window, leaned my back against the wall, and focused my senses in all directions. After holding my breath for about twenty minutes, I judged that no one was coming and returned to the disposal chute.
“…”
Good.
Let’s go in.
I immediately entered the corpse disposal chute.
ㅡCreak, creak.
The hole wasn’t that wide, so I supported myself by placing my hands and feet on each wall and crawled down like a spider. It wasn’t that difficult. Going up through this hole was super easy, and going down was even easier.
Still, I couldn’t get caught, so I went down very slowly, suppressing any noise. Checking up and down busily.
ㅡCreak, creak.
As I descended underground like this, I felt like I was becoming Santa Claus. No, to be exact, Murder Claus. Murder Claus is an inhuman monster who sneaks down chimneys in the middle of the night while everyone is asleep, massacres entire families, sweeps all the jewelry and cash into a red sack, and then escapes back up the chimney.
It is said that Murder Claus, after finishing his work, laughs maniacally under the blood-stained, ominous full moon and flies away to the other side of the human world.
Perhaps it was because of the strong smell of blood, but I felt that way strongly.
ㅡThump.
As suspicion amplified, an uncontrollable desire for judgment spread throughout my body. My heart beat rapidly, and hot breath leaked from my mouth.
I felt like praying that this place was a legitimate business. If this was an illegal business, it meant that the most terrible things in the world were being done.
I reached the bottom.
No one noticed, and no one checked this way.
The space was empty.
There was a container for corpses below. It was stained with black blood, and the recently thrown female corpse was sprawled out with her hair tangled. In addition, another corpse was already lying there.
ㅡPeek.
I carefully poked out only my head and examined the underground scene. Fortunately, I was wearing a mask, so my hair didn’t fall down.
“…”
This was a basement made up of a circular space.
There was a container for corpses here, and passages were on either side of it. And there were various beds and restraints, and a strong smell of blood was felt throughout the room.
It seemed that fresh corpses had been handled in this facility for a long time.
Was there a place to hide?
Unexpectedly, there were many supplies and tools, and things similar to tarpaulin, so hiding didn’t seem difficult.
ㅡWhoosh!
I immediately came down and hid among the supplies.
Whatever else, a corpse had been thrown down. Judging from the fact that the container wasn’t extremely full of corpses, it meant that they were regularly cleaned out, and it was likely done in shifts. They would come.
ㅡRattle.
Not long after, as I expected, two workers pulling a cart appeared.
“…”
“…”
Just looking at them, they looked like they could literally steamroll ordinary murderers and then stick their dicks into the remaining debris. It seemed impossible for those guys to live normal lives.
They were crazy bastards who seemed to be able to live only by engaging in criminal professions. The guys had the typical physiognomy of serial killers.
ㅡRustle.
As if proving it, they indifferently put the corpses on the cart. See? They were trying to move the corpses.
If they were heretics… If they were heretics who manufactured the undead, they were likely to use not only living people but also corpses. Let’s keep that in mind.
ㅡ…
I was holding my breath and watching the scene when…
“The corpses?”
Another man appeared.
“There are two.”
“Is that so?”
It was a very cold voice. The man checked the number of corpses, then sprinkled some kind of powder on them, chanted an incantation, and cast a spell.
ㅡBuzz.
It was an ominous blue light, but I couldn’t identify it.
“Take them away.”
“Yes.”
As the man instructed, the workers began to move the cart.
Based on the direction I was looking, it was the left passage.
The wizard disappeared in the opposite direction.
The right path.
“…”
What the hell is that guy doing?
A wizard is engaged in corpse management?
How much is the pay for doing this?
I was going to track him… but I didn’t know his identity yet. It wouldn’t mean anything. I waited quietly. As I did, the workers, as if they had finished their work, took the empty cart and returned in the direction the man had disappeared.
ㅡWhoosh!
After waiting a while and observing the situation, I immediately moved. I suppressed the sound of my footsteps as much as possible and sprinted down the left path.
The left path was long. But if I checked here, I would definitely find something…! As I was running, a fork appeared next to the straight path.
A fork in the road, is it?
Then I’ll go down the new path first.
As I went down the new path, a dead end soon appeared, and next to it, stairs leading down appeared.
Underground.
What could I do?
I immediately went down the stairs.
ㅡ…
No sound was heard.
The bottom was empty, but a bizarre smell wafted up.
More than anything, the temperature was dropping as if I had entered a refrigerator.
ㅡThud.
When the stairs finally ended, I witnessed a terrible sight.
“…!”
This was a corpse storage room.
About twenty corpses that hadn’t rotted were lying neatly arranged. Looking at them, they all had severe injuries. It was clear that they had been beaten to death… Were they beaten to death like that female slave from before?
Why were they keeping the corpses?
I investigated as quickly as possible and came out, returning to the fork. There was nothing special. Just cool, neatly stored corpses. They must have been keeping them for some use. There was no point in guessing the purpose now.
I immediately ran down the straight path.
ㅡWhoosh.
How long had it been?
After running for quite a while, I was able to get outside.
ㅡSplash.
ㅡSplash.
Waves were crashing.
This was the sea.
The passage was connected to the sea.
But it wasn’t an ordinary sea… The bottom was made of rock, and it was surrounded by cliffs on all sides. It felt like the end of something.
ㅡSecret harbor.
Yes, it was a secret harbor.
They stored the corpses and used this place to move them somewhere.
Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I could understand killing slaves who were criminals for entertainment. But the fact that the wizard processed the corpses and stored them, and then transported them through this secret harbor?
It was becoming increasingly heretical.
There was no way a legitimate company would do this.
Perhaps they were actually buying slaves from prisons and selling them as a facade, while secretly doing such evil deeds behind the scenes. It was literally just a normal appearance. The legally purchased slaves were just the tip of the iceberg.
I was convinced that they were illegally procuring a much larger number of slaves.
Slave hunting or illegal human trafficking.
Good.
I found out everything I needed to know.
It would be strange to return to the passage as it was, so I immediately climbed up the cliff.
ㅡPow pow pow!
I ran straight in the direction I had come.
As I ran, normal harbors appeared. As I ran further, the downtown of Reitas appeared, and then Sangulla.
These bastards were so thorough.
The length of the underground passage was considerable.
I immediately climbed up the wall of Sangulla and infiltrated the 4th floor. I found out what kind of facilities were on the 5th floor. Looking at it earlier, there were offices concentrated on the 4th floor.
Then there was a high probability that the heretic I was looking for was here.
He was said to be an executive.
Everyone was still working, and judging from the fact that there were customers, they probably hadn’t left work yet. They must work at night and rest during the day.
I searched the 4th floor, using the windows like before, or sticking to the ceiling like a spider to hide.
* * *
ㅡFound him.
After searching for about an hour, I was finally able to find him.
His name was Terton. And he had the same face as the one the paladin had drawn in the montage.
A heretic who had been active in a religious group with doctrines similar to Paradise Ascension in another region, and suddenly came to Reitas and became an executive of Sangulla.
It had been a little over a year since he became an executive here.
A paladin was investigating in that region, and the information was compared in this Death Knight case and flowed to me.
The reliability of the information was high.
“…”
Anyway, he was now in his room, working. I couldn’t check through the window, so I rummaged through the 4th floor and eventually found him in the hallway. He had gone to the bathroom and was entering his office.
The room next to his was empty, so I went inside, put my ear to the wall, and observed his movements.
After several tens of minutes of doing so.
ㅡCreak.
The sound of a door opening and footsteps were heard.
He had come out of the office.
The slave trade had started ten minutes before midnight, so after doing various investigations, it was late dawn. It was the time when the sun would rise soon. Was he leaving work? Fortunately, it was still dark, so I was able to act.
So I came out, keeping a distance, and started tailing him, following the sound of his footsteps.
Tracking footsteps was nothing.
ㅡThud thud.
ㅡThud thud.
But as I followed the sound down to the 3rd floor, I began to hear other footsteps. It seemed that other employees were also leaving work now. I had no choice but to return to the 4th floor and use the window to go up to the roof.
ㅡ…
After going out, I monitored the ground from the roof.
After waiting in that state for about ten minutes, the heretic bastard was walking out of the main gate with confidence. He seemed to be leaving work after all.
I immediately went down to the ground and tailed him.
His vigilance wasn’t high.
He was walking in a way that he couldn’t even imagine that he was being followed.
ㅡDusky sky.
The sun hadn’t risen yet, and the complex alleyways were quite dark. I tailed him for a long time. It seemed that his residence was a bit far from downtown.
ㅡCaw, caw.
Seagulls began to cry.
It was around sunrise when he stood in front of what appeared to be his lodging, took out a key, and put it in the doorknob. At that timing, I checked the surroundings and kicked off the ground. And as if possessed, when the guy who had opened the door and entered was about to close the door again.
ㅡThud!
I strongly grabbed the doorknob.
“What…?!”
The guy who noticed the intruder was surprised and tried to close the door, but it was already too late.
“Merry Christmas.”
“Cough!”
I immediately opened the door violently, reached out, grabbed his neck tightly, blocked the blood flow, knocked him unconscious, went inside as it was, and closed and locked the door.
ㅡThump.
The body of the unconscious guy collapsed.
It wasn’t a very big house.
But it was located in a quiet place where there didn’t seem to be any neighbors nearby. Indeed, there was something to do while avoiding the eyes of others.
I had already witnessed extremely suspicious clues underground. As this bastard was suspected of being a heretic and involved in illegal human trafficking, he would have to endure my harsh investigation.
I immediately checked the heart rate and breathing of the unconscious guy to confirm that there were no problems, and quickly searched the house. Then I found rope and rags, tied his limbs tightly, and stuffed the rags into his mouth.
That heretic preacher from last time committed suicide at an unexpected timing.
I will never let that happen this time.
First, torture, no.
Let’s do some interrogation.
