Chapter 144 – Resistance
To catch a fox, you must first put it in danger.
In accordance with those basic rules, I destroyed the part of the royalist faction that had been left unattended until now.
When the pillars of a house collapse, the people living under the roof the pillars were supporting react to in one way or another.
Some will try to move to another house, some will try to repair the pillars, or some will dig a tunnel so that they can live even if the roof collapses.
It was the third case that I was wary of, and in order to prevent the royalists from going undercover, I had allowed them to run wild in their former powers for nearly two years.
While the aristocrats of the Kingdom of Oz were divided into pro-mafia and monarchist factions and continued the political battle, the Ozma Government-General, which had solidified the foundations of colonial rule, was finally ready to strike.
And at this point, the royalist nobles, whose uses had been exhausted, were like stumbling blocks.
Of course, I was able to proceed with this task because I had prepared it in advance so that it could be destroyed at any time when its use was over.
The fourth day of the special appreciation period.
Most of the nobles of the Marquis of Cologne were arrested yesterday for treason, so the morning in the capital was deadly quiet.
Some people obtained information in advance and escaped in time, while others fled with their families and were caught by surprise inspections and brought to the Government General’s Office.
Even now, there will still be people who can’t get out of Oz and are hiding themselves.
As a result, Oz was halfway under martial law.
This was because large and small battles were still taking place all over the capital.
Master had earlier declared the neutrality of the Emerald Tower, but he asked for any number of aristocratic wizards who wanted to excommunicate them.
As a result, nearly one-fifth of the list of wizards belonging to the Emerald Tower evaporated in an instant, but Master remained calm.
Anyway, in a few years it will be full again.
After all, the person who lived a long time had something different.
“Loyalty!”
“Yes.”
I was currently carrying out a search and seizure of the clubhouse where the Marquis of Cologne’s subordinates frequented.
The clubhouse is a kind of building dedicated to small gatherings where only a few people are invited and enjoyed.
Of course, not everyone could come in, and it was common to be accepted as a member of the club through a difficult joining process in its own way.
Moreover, this place was directly run by the Marquis of Cologne, one of the most influential nobles in the capital.
No one could have predicted what treasure might be hidden.
As I stepped into the building, one of the busy cops approached and said,
“Chief Treasurer, as you ordered, all the servants and servants in the clubhouse have been arrested and the physical examination has been completed.
“Yes?”
I looked around the inside of the clubhouse decorated with various expensive items.
At first glance, this place with lots of play tools such as billiards, bowling, darts, and chess feels like an adult’s playground.
However, it was unlikely that noblemen aged 50 or 60 would gather here for hobbies, and it was most likely used as a place where the protagonists of the Marquis of Cologne gathered and conspired.
The Marquis’ mansion had already been searched until there was no dust left, so here was the only place left.
I looked up the stairs to the second floor and told the police who had been talking to me.
“Continue to interrogate the staff, and if there is anything suspicious, do not judge it by yourself and report it to me.”
“Yes!”
Received a military salute, I made a rough gesture and went upstairs with my hands in my Burberry coat.
***
Rich people don’t necessarily like big and flashy things.
Perhaps the Marquis of Cologne has modest tastes for an aristocrat, and only decorates the clubhouse, which only his henchmen call for, with antique-looking wooden furniture.
Of course, each one of these items is a price that ordinary people can’t even imagine, but once you see it on the outside, it doesn’t feel like a luxury item.
Walking along the long hallway with stuffed animals hanging there, I saw a room that the Marquis of Cologne used as a study.
When I went inside, all the books on the bookshelf had been taken out and piled on the floor, as if the police had already swept through them once.
According to the clichés we usually see in movies or mystery novels, there is a secret space behind the bookshelf, but in reality, there are very few such cases.
This is because experts can immediately tell that something is wrong just by looking at the blueprints of the mansion.
It was clear that the investigators would have tipped me off if there was such a thing, so I walked towards the desk in the study, not even looking at the books and bookshelves.
Polished wood desk.
As usual, aftercare seems to have been well done.
I opened the tightly closed desk drawer.
Ink or feather pen, envelopes and seals, etc.
There were only things that would normally be in a study.
I pressed the bottom of the drawer just in case, but it’s not a double bottom structure.
Feeling drained of steam, I threw myself into the black chairman’s chair.
“Oh. Jesus.”
I didn’t know it from the outside, but it’s very soft.
It was a demonic chair that made you feel like you wouldn’t want to get up again once you sat down.
Later, when interrogating the Marquis of Cologne, I looked around the room, thinking that I must ask where the maker was, and suddenly my eyes landed on the fireplace.
“Well?”
Something is strange.
I felt like I was missing something that should have been there.
And it didn’t take long to realize what that sense of incongruity was.
‘Aren’t there any tan marks?’
It makes no sense unless you’ve never used this library in the winter.
This is because in this world where boiler technology does not exist like in modern times, the only heating equipment available is a fireplace or an oil stove.
However, there was a fireplace, but there was no need to use an oil stove, and there was nothing that looked like a stove anywhere in the room in the first place.
I don’t use it in the spring, so I might have put it away somewhere, but basically I tend to trust my intuition.
Rattle-
‘Where…’
I bent over and looked into the fireplace.
It has a structure that is no different from a regular fireplace.
A hole leading to the chimney is open on the top, and the places that are not easily visible are finished with plaster.
Just in case, I made a magic light, and I found something strange while looking inside the chimney.
“…”
It was a button no matter where you looked.
Used to make something special engine move.
“Chief Treasurer? What are you doing there?”
There were several policemen who entered the study just in time, so I made a gesture to be quiet with my index finger to my mouth.
Then the police kept their mouths shut even though they didn’t know why.
I put my ear to the plastered wall in the fireplace.
I can’t hear anything.
Even after waiting for a long time, I couldn’t hear any sound, so I wanted to check it myself by pressing the button, but I felt a slight vibration through the wall.
Thump- thump- thump-
Short, regular tremors.
I realized that these were someone’s footsteps.
Then there is nothing more to see.
Click!
When I press the button, that’s it! With the sound of something moving, the entire fireplace I was sitting in turned.
When I pulled myself out of the fireplace immediately after, three or four men who seemed to be members of the Oz Independent Association were looking at me with a shocked expression.
“They say it’s dark under the lamp.”
It was not the club house of the aristocrats, but the shape house of the Resistance.
The first man I met eyes said.
“Kill!”
Upon hearing that, the two men in front hurriedly raised their swords and charged.
However, for me, who had passed through many battlefields, it was no different from a clumsy rebellion.
Immediately, I jumped up and slashed the blade with a whirlwind, and when I saw the wizard trying to use fire magic to destroy evidence, I fired a feng shui bomb.
“Aagh!”
A wizard who fell to the ground after being hit by a bullet of wind.
Seeing that, the other person tried to knock down the candle that was being used as a light, but all the wind in this space had long since come under my control.
When I gestured, the room instantly became a vacuum, the candles were extinguished, and the four members of the Resistance collapsed on the floor clutching their necks with a thud.
I glanced down at them as they looked up at me with bloodshot eyes, then took all the papers and letters they were reading just before.
Eventually, the resistance begins to faint one by one, perhaps because of the lack of oxygen.
Right!
I released the vacuum at the right time to the point where I wouldn’t die, tied the fallen Resistance’s body with a bind and smashed the fireplace, the entrance to the secret space, with a roundabout wheel.
Quaang!
Then the police outside came inside with awkward expressions, found the resistance collapsed on the floor, and arrested them in a hurry.
I’m an important reference person, so I said to take good care of it so that I don’t commit suicide, and came out with a letter and a map that the Resistance had been reading in a secret space just before.
I think I found something quite useful.
