Volume 3 Chapter 11: The Last Days of the Criminals

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Author: 夜州 (Yashu)

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Darmeshia was quite the excellent butler. He had gathered all the information in a few hours.

Cain didn’t know how many servants Darmeshia had, but information from throughout the royal capital had made its way to Darmeshia. And from within all of that, Darmeshia selected the important information and relayed it to Cain.

“Is that so… Got it. Then, let’s head over there right away.”

Darmeshia signalled Cain, who had stood up from his chair and was about to go to where the criminals were.

“We won’t be able to catch all of the culprits like that. Going at night would be better. That would be because– –”

Cain’s eyes widened at Darmeshia’s explanation, then he nodded.

“Yeah. That’s true. Then let’s do that. I’ll go to the royal castle and explain.”

Cain went to the royal castle, where he asked for an audience with the king.

He was often summoned to the royal castle, but this was his first time actually asking for an audience himself, but even then, it was quickly approved.

He was shown to the usual reception room, where he waited for the king to arrive. The maid who had shown him there was a little surprised at his serious expression when he usually had an easygoing attitude, but she made him black tea nonetheless.

A little while later, the king, Magna, and Eric entered the room.

After the three of them had sat down, Cain did the same, and began explaining.

“Actually, I have a good idea as to who the culprits are. I’m planning to capture them tonight. So, I came to ask you to dispatch some knights.”

They had asked Cain to capture the criminals at noon, so the king and the other two couldn’t not be surprised that he had a good idea as to who had done it by the evening.

Then, they discussed what would happen next.

Cain left, having received permission for anything he would do. Then, only three people were left in the room.

“To think he would gather the intel that fast… Cain’s information network… Well, if he can get it done by the end of the day, I guess it’s okay…”

“And then, Your Majesty…”

Magna grinned, and the three of them began a secret meeting.

Needless to say, all three of them had satisfied expressions when the secret talks were over.

“Damn it! Thanks to him, our plan was ruined… What’s the next plan…”

A frustrated man wearing a hood ran through the slums, staying out of view as much as he could, then entered a building.

Five people were sitting around a table in a gloomy room, and the man wearing the hood sat down amongst them angrily. Frustrated by their failure, he struck the table.

“Hey! How did this happen? The Saint recovered!”

“That poison shouldn’t be able to be cured that easily though…”

The leaders of the Dark guild had also thought that using the Poison of Delpone would definitely kill her. They had not expected her to be cured.

The Poison of Delpone was something that was extracted from a monster/plant called the Delpone, which lived in the depths of the Forest of Monsters. Usually, the Delpone didn’t move around, but it grabbed any monsters that came close to it with its tentacles and injected poison into them, killing them, then eating them, which made it an S-Rank monster according to the adventurers’ guild.

“We’ve already disposed of the kid that attacked her. It won’t be traced back to us. We need to think about our next move…”

“I’ll be returning to the Holy Country in a couple of days. I want to have the Saint finished off within this country no matter what before then.”

The leaders of the Dark guild had received a lot of money for this request, and if they failed, their reputation would be on the line as well.

“Then, tell us about what the Saint’s going to do tomorrow.”

The man sitting in the middle said to the client.

In order to construct a new plan, there was a need to hear the plans for what would happen next from the client.

“Tomorrow– –”

“Tomorrow won’t be happening though?”

A voice came from somewhere in the room, interrupting the client.

In an instant, the people in the room were ready for battle.

Some drew their daggers and held them ready, while others had hidden weapons appear in their hands. The room wasn’t all that large, and no matter how much they looked, they couldn’t find any outsiders in the room.

“Where are they!? Where are they hiding!?”

The client also pulled out his sword in a hurry.

At that moment, two shadows grew out of the previously empty floor, from which a young boy and a middle-aged man wearing a butler’s outfit appeared.

“How did you get in…”

The leaders of the Dark guild didn’t think this room was that easy to break into, as to do so, one would have to make their way through countless other rooms.

“Si-Sir Silford…!?”

“““!?”””

“– – Captain… why are you here? Well… I do know everything though.”

The man who was wearing the hood so his face couldn’t be seen – – the captain of the Saint’s Marinefordean bodyguards, couldn’t hide his surprise.¹

And the leaders of the Dark guild also all changed their stances at once. The name of Viscount Silford had also become known in the Dark guild. In the past, he had destroyed Drintor’s whole Dark guild, including the guild master there.

Cain looked at the six people in the room without being particularly worried.

“So then, I wonder who the ringleader here is… well, I’ll capture all of you anyway.”

Cain smiled, then cast magic.

[Dark Bind]

The shadows of the men in the room began moving and clung to all of them.

“What’s up with this!? I can’t move!”

Then, the shadows gathered the five people from the Dark guild in one place.

Without even glancing at the captain, Cain stepped in front of the five of them.

“Who made that child attack the Saint-sama – – and who killed that kid afterwards?”

They all shrank back at Cain’s now particularly cold gaze. But even then, they were the leaders of the Dark guild that was rooted in the royal capital. They had quite a lot of guts and bravery. And, as they couldn’t afford losing to a kid still in his teens, they didn’t go down without a fight.

“I-I don’t know. Where’s your proof anyway? Just because you’re a noble, that doesn’t mean you can go around– –”

“Will you shut up? I heard everything you said earlier too, okay?”

“I have no recollection of such things… it must be your lordship’s mistake?”

Not feeling scared at all, the leaders of the Dark guild answered calmly while smirking.

Cain turned and glanced at Darmeshia, who had been standing behind him with a blank face.

Darmeshia bowed, then cast [Earth Wall], upon which a three-meter large, igloo-like² wall rose up from the ground, surrounding the five members of the Dark guild.

The earth wall that surrounded them didn’t allow light to pass through, and something pitch-black started forming inside.

“Why’s it pitch-black!?”

“Isn’t this darkness too dark though?”

From within the wall, the men started shouting angrily.

And then, Darmeshia said: [Summon: My cute servants] and thousands, no, tens of thousands of Darmeshia’s summoned insects started moving around inside.

– – rustle-rustle

– – rustle-rustle

– – pitter-patter

– – buzz-buzz

“Something’s moving around here!? I can’t see anything.”

As if he had been waiting for those exact words, Cain replied.

“You can’t see anything? Then, I’ll make it so you can.”

[Light Ball]

Cain illuminated the pitch-black space inside the walls with magic.

At that moment, what the five men inside the walls saw – – were insects, surrounding them, covering the walls completely.

Large ants, moths, centipedes, flies, cockroa– –

Any and all kinds of insects flocked to the men, who were trying to move.

Screams resounded from within the walls.

The five people inside were screaming, but restrained by the shadows, they couldn’t move a muscle.

They were only allowed to scream.

Cain and Darmeshia listened to their voices without saying anything.

Also listening to the screams, the captain was shaking uncontrollably from fear.

However, after ten minutes or so, the screams seemed to have died down, and it was now quiet.

Then, Cain turned to the still restrained captain.

Seeing Cain look at him, the captain trembled even more.

“I-it w-wasn’t m-me. I had nothing to do with the attack on the Saint-sama. There must be a mistake here!”

“Uh. You’re still saying that, are you? Darmeshia, release the other five, please.”

Darmeshia bowed, then cancelled his magic.

His servants disappeared into the shadow, and the walls disappeared as well.

Out of the five of them there, most of them had soiled themselves, some of them were drooling, and some of them had fainted.

Cain cast [Heal] on one of them.

“Oy, get up. I’ll ask once more. Who requested this, who carried it out, and who laid their hands on that child?”

Having regained his consciousness due to Cain’s healing magic, the man answered, frightened.

“The client is that man over there! The guild master arranged for everything, and the one who gave the order to kill that brat was also the guild master!”

Trembling from fear from what happened to him earlier, the man confessed in dismay.

Cain, hearing those words, nodded, and turned back to the captain once again.

“– – and that’s how it is. You might not be someone from this country, but you will be punished according to the laws of this kingdom.”

“…I know nothing…”

“– – right then, I have no choice… Darmeshia, please do the sam– –”

“Wait! It’s not ‘that’ from earlier, is it!?”

“Yes, that’s right, it is. See, this guy became quite obedient too.”

Cain smiled evilly.

“If something were to happen to me, the pope-sama won’t stay silent! Do you still– –”

Cain’s gaze froze in an instant. The captain felt the temperature in the room also drop. Then, Cain crouched down in front of the still restrained captain and stared him in the eyes.

“So then, the pope-sama said you should go to a different country and kill the Saint-sama?”

“Ugh… that’s not… true…”

Answered the captain, looking away from Cain, whom up until now, he had simply seen as a somewhat cute child, trembling at the killing intent he was letting out.

“The cases that happen in this country will be judged inside this country. Although, I don’t know what kind of punishment you will receive…”

Keeping the crestfallen captain in the corner of his eye, Cain glanced at Darmeshia.

“The knights have already encircled the surroundings. I think now would be a good time.”

“Yeah, then I’ll leave these six to you. If I don’t give the knights an entrance, nobody will be able to enter here…”

“Indeed, Cain-sama.”

Cain gave the six people there one last glance, then headed outside.

At Cain’s request he had made in the royal castle, around fifty guards and royal knights combined had gone to the place that had been indicated to them.

And everyone there gasped.

The place they were sent to was enclosed by a ten-meter-high wall that resembled a castle’s walls.

And moreover, the space it enclosed was also tens of meters wide.

“Just when did this happen…?”

The residents of the slums stared at the wall that had suddenly appeared, thinking it was strange.

The knights, too, were stunned.

Where during the day there had been houses and such, there was now this wall. There wasn’t anyone who wasn’t surprised.

And one of them, – – only Vice-Commander Dime recognized it as Cain’s doing.

(I didn’t think he would destroy the city, but… this is kinda… What even is this. It resembles a fortress, I think?)

And as the knights and guards surrounded the fortress, they had no choice but to look up.

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¹I can’t tell which is worse, the author using “– –” to add suspense, or the captain being surprised that Cain knew he was trying to kill the Saint

²The raws said kamakura, but I doubt anyone knows what one of those is, so I changed it to igloo, because from what I can tell, they’re basically the same. Here’s the Japanese wikipedia article for them; sorry I couldn’t find one in English

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