The shadow that rains down moves by its own will and engulfs anything near it, be it the monster or humans.
"S-Stay away from me!" The cameraman shouts before tripping on something.
"Argh!"
He drops the camera and his entire body can be seen, he seems to be a journalist. The shadow merciless consumes him before the video goes into static and ends.
...
Wait...
I replay the video and stop at the frame before it goes to static. At the corner right, is a very tiny boy with a green hoodie. It's Akira!
I look in the direction of the hallway behind me. The video shows signs of Akira there, I walk to the end and sense a trace of demonic mana but most of it is concealed and gotten rid of... That guy knows how to sneak away.
Coincidentally, a room beside labelled "Management, Top secrets." Is seen. The door is enhanced with hard titanium that only opens using special magic learnt but the royalty.
"Uz" I mumble with my right hand touching the door.
I will confess, that I have robbed several treasuries of nobles after forcing another noble to teach me this magic in the past. But most of the things I robbed are used for my mother and to repay my family's debt and it isn't even enough.
The door vibrates before sliding into the ground, allowing me to enter the area.
I walk in to find a fully armoured room. There are several noise-cancelling barriers and anti-spy scrolls pasted on the ceiling. The room is lit with only two candles on either side of the table in the middle of the room. The walls of the room are filled with shelves of books or documents.
There's a map on the table and some other documents that are records of slavery exchange between the nobles and a notorious slave agency that operates illegally, Fenx.
Upon inspection, the map features the country I am in and has a cross on one area.
Hmm...
There's a conversation log on a slip of paper below the map. Why are they leaving all this important information lying around? Do they trust that door so much?
!
Oh?
The conversation log involves the Igniz family discussing terms and conditions with the Fenx. Looks like they made some sort of contract for the Igniz family to provide slaves for the Fenx and spilt the money 50:50.
On the next page, it involves documents of slaves exchanged. Ranging from combat slaves to sex slaves, Elves, in particular, were captured and sold for the highest price. Kobolds were captured and sold mostly for combat and physical labour.
And the last one, humans. It seems that children are the most commonly captured for slavery.
!!
Vincent?! Vincent is involved in the capture of several female Elves. There's a report here saying that he "messed" with his captured product before selling them off.
This is crucial information, the Calesta family will take a huge hit because of this.
I tear this page off and keep it in my mana storage.
Hm...
Tch, that's all.
I can't find anything else except some miscellaneous descriptions and logs, there is no information about Fenx. I store the rest in my storage ring.
I sense a group of people approaching the kingdom, I've stayed too long here.
The group of people are travelling in the air, those are core formation experts who are using their mana to levitate their sword and fly on it.
I smell a trace of demonic aura coming from a bookshelf beside the table.
?
I pull the bookshelf aside to reveal a small cave with a barrier that prevents entry but allows escape, it seemed that Akira escaped through here.
...
Did Akira lay those pieces of information on the table...? I find it suspicious that the nobles are that stupid to just lay it out here...
...
I crawl into the cave and the bookshelf shifts back into position behind me. Light a small flame on my fingertip, I crawl my way out until I can see a small stream of light.
Nudging my way out, I push the dirt to enlarge the hole.
"Hah! Huff huff..."
My upper torso pops out of the hole as I grasp for air. I push myself out to find that I'm in the forest near Celturus.
...
Only 3 days have passed since my departure.
I pull out the map and take a closer look. The cross is on the cliff of Molville. Molville is at the west of Celturus, close to where the elves lived. It is a forested wetland that exists at the edge of a block mountain.
...
I have an idea...
I spend at least 4 days travelling to Molville. On the way, I hunted monsters to eat and set up small little camps using nothing but wild materials like leaves or logs which I obtained from trees.
I bathed in the waterfall and regularly washed my clothes using only water from streams from the top of mountains.
I wipe my sweat when I finally see water with small little vegetation floating on them. I finally reached Molville.
A giant fish with sharp fangs jumps out of the water at me.
I draw my sword to block the ram from the fish. I was pushed back a metre.
The monster attacks again, this time with its mouth wide open. I grip my sword and thrust from below, shoving my sword into the upper part of the mouth tissue.
!!
From there, I push the sword deeper and slash outwards, instantly killing it.
Phew...
I cut the head of the fish off and store the body of the fish. It is delicious as a meal and can be sold for a nice price.
I venture deeper into the swamp.
I stop at what seems to be a giant rock protruding out of the water.
Hmmm...
I check the map again, I am at the right spot.
What? I see nothing-
I duck to dodge an arrow.
The arrow pierces through the rock and several trees before exploding at the last tree.
I take my feet out of the water and stomp into it.
*PSSSH!*
My strength created a tall splash that concealed my location.
"He's behind-" The archer shouts
But it was too late, I grab the one shouting and place a dagger at his neck.
!!!
Several archers appear and pull back their bowstrings.
"Wait! I sense no killing intent from him!" My hostage shouts.
He raises his hand as he drops his bow.
"What do you need?" He asks. "Why are you here?"
"... I'm here to make a deal, do you belong to Fenx?" I say.
My hostage glanced at something before nodding.
There are at least 8 archers here, 2 at the core formation realm. Each of them is masked.
I release my hostage. "Follow us."
...
I follow them deeper into Molville. We come across a pile of small rocks. The archer pulls a piece of rock and it glows.
Soon, vibration can be heard and space revealed itself beside the pile of rocks, stairs deeper down. The surrounding water was shifted aside by magic.
...
The rock that he pulled, there's mana emitting from it.
I walk down the stairs to reach a large basement. There are at least 5 levels. Each level has cages and jail cells laid everywhere. The huge stairs lead to the fifth level. Some guards stop the archers when they see me. The guy mutters something to the guard and they let us pass.
...
The sex slaves are chained up and locked in a large cell, painful moans are echoing from there. Most of the slaves visible are mining ore or transporting something on their backs.
"Follow me," says the guy I took hostage.
I follow him to a metal door on the fourth level and enter. A small room with stone walls. A small candle is hung on the top to illuminate the surrounding. There are only two chairs and a table resting in this room. A man wearing a brown coat and hat seems to be sleeping here. His legs are crossed and rested on the table with his hat over his face.
"Ahem...sir."
"Oh?"
He sits upright and takes off the hat, revealing a man with one scar over his left eye. He seems to be around the age of my father with his brown beard and messy, long, shoulder-length hair.
"Hm? Who is this?" Says the man.
"Potential...business partner."
...
He smiles. "I see. I'm Kennedy, take a seat."
I sat down and the guy left, leaving Kennedy and me alone.
"So... What business are we talking about here?" He asks.
"Imperial army," I reply.
!