Chapter 305 – Shadow of the Holy Land (4)
I read the letter that detective Ah-jae took out.
It was a letter from a man named Electra Montgomery to Tyrsi. When Tyrsi was a nobleman, he seemed to be a lady-in-waiting.
There was a lot of gossip about their personal circumstances, whether or not they exchanged letters often.
Even the main topic was the last one or two lines.
“… ‘I’ll meet you and tell you the details?’.”
“It must have been the same reason we chatted like this.”
Was she wary of leaking information? I put the letter in my bosom and asked a question.
“You got the letter, you must have met?”
“Exactly. What would she do if she was murdered in her heart, but she was a middle-aged woman with a lively figure. The content of the story——”
The detective paused a little and said.
“——Probably about ‘how to return to the nobility’. I couldn’t find out more. I couldn’t have threatened and snapped the fingers of His Majesty’s faithful subjects.”
“Do you think he is innocent of this?”
“When I told him the story, he seemed genuinely surprised and concerned. If it hadn’t been for the stabbing or whatever happened to Miss Tyrsi, she wouldn’t have handed me the letter.”
I nodded and took out a small notebook.
“Do you know where you live?”
“… I don’t want to be an accomplice.”
“Heh. Do I look like I’m going to be so short-circuited?”
I also plan to investigate this Lucregens first. Visiting an ajumma who knows whether it is Montgomery or Mongolia is a last resort when her progress is so blocked that neither her real hands nor her feet can come out.
And, of course, I had no intention of torturing or interrogating him.
“It is a choice that turns both the Romania Enforcer and our client into enemies at the same time. Why would you do something you can’t get paid for?
“Right. My thoughts were too short.”
The detective nodded her head and pulled a wad of paper out of something like a briefcase.
“Let’s see… Here you are. Building 2, Building 3, 13 Fifth Avenue, Quillaire, Free Imperial City. A middle-aged couple with a house there.”
I wrote the address down on a notebook, and detective Ah-jae pulled out a note that looked similar to mine.
“Fortunately, you seem to know the text well, don’t you? Good for you. Here, I have written down my investigations in Britannia. If you have any questions, I would be grateful if you could read them here.”
“Are you taking your hands off the investigation?”
When asked while reading her report, the detective, who didn’t even say a word, shrugged her shoulders.
“I’ve been all over the place, but I can’t get any information from this city. It is no longer pay-as-you-go.”
Didn’t get any info?
I was impressed by the words I heard while reading the admirably detailed report. Does this detective, who is so good at investigating, get no information at all in this city?
‘… It’s a pay-off.’
It is an expression that has a bad feeling. I stopped reading the report and looked at the detective.
“Someone erased her tracks. Are you a ruler of power? Or in the dark?”
“… This is a lot of head rotation. It would be more appropriate to set up an agency rather than an adventurer.”
The detective replied that she moaned as if she had been beaten in the stomach.
“Well, you saw it correctly. Strangely, there were no traces. I’m sure she came to Luke Regens, but she couldn’t find any information anywhere. Oh. The innkeepers said they had never seen such a guest, so I said everything.”
“Can’t you even tell who it is?”
“… There is no doubt that it was a person from the shadows who executed it.”
The middle-aged detective lowered her voice as if she couldn’t even believe her own magic item.
“It’s just that even a noble with superficial power would have used a human of the shadows when commanding people. She doesn’t seem to have shed any blood, but the fact that no one knows the news despite her efforts means that those who saw Miss Tyrsi were threatened.”
“Is it famous enough to be scared to cooperate just by hearing the name?”
Then it would be an aristocrat or a vicious criminal group in the shadows.
She deserved to say that detective father-in-law was out of balance. She must have thought that Lady Hennessis was the price of her life while setting the cost for her request.
If you can’t complete her request, the money you receive will decrease a little, but if you miss the timing to let go of her hand, you can cross the rainbow bridge for a small amount.
I skimmed through the report and took care of it.
“I have one or two questions for you.”
“Are you asking me to tell you who your expected opponent is?”
“If you can tell me.”
The detective smiled bitterly at her and said.
“I dare not speak of nobles with my own mouth. It’s partly because I’m afraid of contempt of nobles, but it’s because I didn’t actually move on the surface.”
“What about the executive group?”
“There are three types of 〈 Clientem Tenebris〉… In Lucregens. … Well, in the vulgar language, you have a family.”
Shit, family. What other world mafia are you?
A-jae, a detective who continues to explain things even when he sees me dumbfounded.
“The characteristic of 〈 Amhoe 〉 is that it is a criminal group with a sponsor. There are small families of various sects and weak independent groups that are not worth counting on your hands.”
“Have you looked into that too?”
“Did you think I was crazy? I don’t want to see a knife by my pillow in the morning. This is common sense, common sense.”
Is it common sense that a mafia sponsored by aristocrats exists in a religious country? This world always surprises me in such a wonderful way.
“Lucregens has had more conflicts in recent months. Due to the new family that came from outside, not only did the existing faction conflict change, but the family that was friendly with the citizens also changed their policy.”
That’s how detective Ah-jae left a warning message before parting with me.
“If you intend to investigate, be sure to remember my words and heed them. Did you handle it with certainty so that you won’t retaliate… You should keep your identity hidden from them.”
***
I left the bar after drinking the remaining alcohol after the detective father was gone.
‘I need to do some activities before I go back to the inn.’
There was no follower, but it was for the sake of the odds.
Also, since it came out, I had to know how the power distribution map that detective Ajae would say is currently rolling. Because there was nothing like that in the report.
Detective Ajae, an outsider, would not have been able to ask the citizens, ‘How are the Mafia doing here these days?’.
Then, what if one of the citizens snitches on the mafia? He’ll be taken to the cellar and snorted jambalaya.
‘If there is a recent dispute between the mafia…’
Even the dead would come out. I entered a nearby alley, made sure no one was looking at me, and carved runes into my giant-hide armor.
“ᛒ(Berkanan).”
Whirly Ririk—!
Transformation magic rune floated a mandala.
Then my outfit changed in the blink of an eye. It was an eye-opening, bloodless application.
It was deliberately made to stand out. If it leaves a clear impression, it would be hard to associate the crazy Ding-Ho with the foreigner and the Sargadis slippery spearman.
‘I wanted to disguise myself as a person from a country that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Kitai, like Azteca, but… I can’t help it.’
Dressing up as a cannibal heretic in a religious country was too risky.
Sssss-.
I also changed the color of my skin, turning it brown as if it had been tanned. I was going to make my hair blonde, but I didn’t know what Kitai’s hair color was, so I made it long and tied it up.
As for the face or body, changes that can be changed without magic, such as hair length or skin, can also transform me.
“Hmm.”
Looking at the hand mirror like that, a shaggy foreign worker with dark skin appeared.
It looks like it’s going to be called a fucking great deal. I smiled and even put on a mask. Now, after coming out to kill the main character in Martial Arts Field, he was ‘freaked out’ and looked like he was going to rummage through information.
“The greatest satisfaction to you.”
I self-praise my disguise and hit the alley.
─Tong, Tong, Tong, Tong!
Zigzag up the wall and jump to a high place. Then, using runes and mana together, he searched for a place that smelled like blood.
It was true that the conflict had intensified.
It wasn’t long after I started searching, I was able to get down to the alley where the smell of blood remained.
– Arrive! After coming down the alley, I inspected the bloodstains that the mafia had run away without wiping them. It’s dark red, but not that long.
‘Looks like blood from a day or two ago.’
Not great guys. 〈 Clean〉 Not being able to use magic means they are low level idiots.
‘I’d rather do that now.’
I raised the rune’s mana and carved the rune with my feet.
It’s a thought I often think about, but as expected, this rune magic is as convenient as the all-around MacGyver if it can bring out its true performance.
“ᚨ(Ansuz).”
It is a rune that I use for interrogation, to communicate with the soul.
Of course, this rune has no meaning in a place where no soul remains. However, will a bastard who has no regrets in life become a mafia after two days of falling behind?
─Poem, what the fuck? What? Where are you?!
The answer was NO.
You idiot who found me with a stupid face. Just looking at it, it looks like I know how to kill people.
Even if this bastard goes somewhere and gets arrested for looking like her face, he won’t have anything to say, even if he feels unfair.
—You bastard over there! I came from the Huyo family…
“Shh. The interrogation is quiet.”
I fine tuned the rune of ᚦ(Thurisaz). As several rune mandalas repeatedly emerged, the mafia jester’s consciousness was put to rest.
‘When interrogating ogres in the past, my skills weren’t good enough, so I couldn’t make this adjustment.’
But now it is possible. It is ᚦ (Thurisaz) who has found and improved the points of improvement in the operation of mana and the use of runes with the eyes of Odin. It is possible to cover this level of ugliness.
“Name.”
—… Joseph. Joseph the shovel head.
“Your nickname sounds like a fucking idiot.”
Still, the confession seems to have worked well, seeing as he answered well.
To subdue the soul’s consciousness and turn it into an information ATM that answers questions!
It is a high-level interrogation method that allows you to dig out what you want to hear without going through intense torture or interrogation, although the opponent needs to be dead or asleep.
─Rumble.
Clean the trash can with 〈 cleanse 〉 and sit there.
There are no celebrities around. If you approach it, erase your soul and run away. I said with a pleasant smile under my mask.
“Hey. I’m bored, but don’t you have something fun to say?”
It only hurts to talk about it, but it’s best to hear local stories from the people involved.
***
Compared to what he was lamely behind, he was bigger than I thought.
That’s not to say he doesn’t belong to the 3rd family, but he’s the mid-boss of the moderately large family below it.
‘It’s not particularly surprising.’
If the conflict was intensifying enough for ordinary people to know, the middle boss would have gone somewhere. It’s luck that I picked it as my first match, but if you want to find it, you can find it.
‘It’s a benefit to have less time wasted.’
The information I dug up with the Magical☆Lyrical Confession Agent was quite substantial.
I could hear everything from the names of the three largest families in the city and stories about the boss to all sorts of trivial things. I made a note of the family’s name, but it was too much trouble to remember her.
However, it is easy to categorize because it has a distinctive feature.
If they were all similar babies, I would have had to memorize them.
‘The ones from Gorgalia 40 years ago, the natives of Lucregens, and the ones from Kitai.’
These are 3 types
‘It’s a fucking venue for racial dialogue.’
Criminals from all over the world play well in religious countries. Whether the soul of the man I interrogated was a member of the Lucregens native family, it was kind of funny to see them arguing about their tradition.
“Are you proud of being a criminal group with a long history, you bastard?”
─Geugge.
Having attained the man’s soul, I changed my clothes into Nord mode and left the alley.
‘The mafia from Kitai.’
That’s great. Now, even if I mess around openly, for the first few days, they’ll think I’m a ninja sent by them.
It was a good thing for me, because I don’t think the Mafia will create a place to clear up misunderstandings instead of fighting. The Kitai mafia would also misunderstand, thinking that they were the ones who followed them.
‘A master who crossed the sea to take revenge? Ah, martial arts are national rules.’
It didn’t seem like a bad thing to be active in this sect hero mode.
It’s okay to tinker with the settings a little more, and to cooperate with our party members to work secretly.
‘Should I name Jesus this much?’
I walked down the street thinking so.
‘The mafia is mostly in the entertainment districts of the city.’
The right half of Lucregens is a street for pleasure.
At the beginning, it feels like a circus or tourist attraction. But when you go inside, go through the maze of alleys, or get late at night, the story is a little different.
‘I heard that prostitute villages, gambling halls, and other illegal establishments are also full.’
This is the main source of money for the mafia.
There are also those who lure healthy pilgrims and gamble or prostitute them for money, and then forcefully entrust them with usury. It’s all in one piece.
Shall we get information about Tirshi from them? It’s easy to listen to what you’ve just done if you do footsteps.
‘It’s not good to act alone.’
Now that I’ve figured out the situation, it’s time to choose a party member who will cooperate with my investigation. If I go out alone and the news is cut off, I’ll be damned.
As much as I was doing dangerous work in a dangerous area, I thought of a few ways to get out of danger.
In particular, Veronica’s 〈 space movement 〉 will be your trump card.
〈 Space Movement 〉 A Kitai Murim master running away, who would have imagined? Of course, when a faction hero like me uses it, even enchantment becomes a mystical sorcery.
‘I have already decided on a candidate to move with.’
The inn where our party is staying is approaching. I talked to the party member who was there.
“I’m back.”
“It’s late, senior. You would have been worried if it was later~?”
The pink-haired self-proclaimed junior, who was bobbing on the bench at the entrance as if he was bored of waiting, smiled happily as he said that.
