Terlo first examined the broken desk near the leader.
He remembered the man taking the spheres from one of its drawers.
But the desk, shattered beyond recognition, contained nothing of note.
The same was true of the surrounding area he checked just in case.
‘There must’ve been only two spheres.’
Still, finding even one was fortunate.
Now that he had confirmed there were no more spheres—the first thing he had wanted to find—his second priority was information that might prove useful.
But searching the entire room himself would take far too long.
“You two, search every corner for anything that looks like a book, parchment, bottles, money, communicators, or anything like that.”
CLACK! CLACK!
At the command, the two skeletons that had been standing still began to move.
“Now then….”
Terlo’s gaze shifted toward the leader.
There was something he wanted to ask him directly.
Before that, Terlo moved to the large window and checked Hook’s location.
Bloodied corpses lay scattered outside the building, proof of the fierce battle.
Among them, he could see two people kneeling before Hook and the others.
‘They’re in the middle of an interrogation.’
That meant he had little time.
The more readily those two answered, the less time he would have.
It would be best to rejoin Hook before the interrogation ended.
<Vitalize.>
HSSSS—
At Terlo’s spell, the leader’s corpse rose, shedding its flesh.
Despite the thickness of the body it had possessed in life, the resulting skeleton had thin bones.
The leader’s skeleton stared at Terlo with empty eye sockets.
<Connect.>
Terlo linked himself to the black form beside the leader.
Then he attempted a conversation.
‘What was the name of the organization you led?’
Even as he asked, Terlo was not certain the skeleton would answer properly.
It might possess intelligence as low as the skeletons he normally summoned.
But then,
[More. I chose the name because I wanted to earn more money.]
The leader’s skeleton answered in the dull voice it had possessed in life.
Terlo’s eyes widened at the fact that they could communicate as he had hoped.
The skeleton also appeared to harbor no feelings toward the person who had killed it.
Even if it had risen under Terlo’s command, was it not being far too obedient?
Still, he had no time to marvel.
He needed to finish here and leave as quickly as possible.
‘The sphere you used before you died. Where did you get it?’
[The man who commissioned the lucrative job gave it to me and told me to use it if anything went wrong.]
‘Who commissioned that lucrative job? Did he request anything besides the abduction of the merchants?’
[His name is Ben. That is all I know. We still had to provide support in the shopping district and procure personnel for him later.]
‘What kind of support in the shopping district?’
[I do not know. He only said to send them when he requested assistance with control.]
‘Then how did you normally manage the commissions you received?’
[There is a ledger where they were recorded.]
‘A ledger….’
Having learned roughly everything he could, Terlo dismissed the leader’s skeleton.
He was about to search for the ledger when he noticed that the two skeletons he had ordered to search the room were standing still.
Looking beside them, he saw the items they had arranged neatly.
‘…I told them to find bottles, and they even gathered all the broken liquor bottles.’
Aside from those, there were several intact bottles of liquor, communicators of various designs, and a few books.
Thinking the ledger might be among them, Terlo placed every book into his subspace.
When he pressed the communicators, not a single one worked properly.
‘I can hand these over.’
Terlo intended to take everything except the books to Hook.
He ordered the two skeletons to carry the items, then checked the situation outside.
One of the two kneeling members of More had collapsed.
The other was prostrating himself on the ground and begging.
The first had probably been killed after refusing to speak easily.
“It’ll be over soon. Let’s go.”
Pleased with the timing, Terlo nodded and teleported outside the building with the skeletons.
***
The situation outside the building was grim.
Some of the fallen dead were their allies.
A few were members of Hook’s organization, but most were mercenaries.
Even if mercenaries made their living risking their lives, the sight was still regrettable.
The battle that had claimed so many lives ended with—
“S-Spare me… Ghk!”
The last remaining member of More.
After killing him, Hook irritably pulled back his hood.
“Of all people, the last two survivors had to be new recruits who knew nothing…! Had I known this would happen, I would have kept the black mages inside the building alive.”
Deep lines cut across his brow, making his expression particularly vicious.
The two dead members had pretended to know about More.
They had probably expected to be killed immediately if their ignorance was discovered.
In the end, Hook had merely wasted his time.
‘No wonder he’s angry.’
Terlo understood completely, but he had no intention of telling Hook anything.
Hook would have done the same in his position, and information grew more valuable the less widely it spread.
Still, there was something he wanted to ask.
“So you were the one who dealt with the black mages inside? I wondered why they suddenly disappeared.”
“Yes. They tried to lure me into the room at the end. I dragged them in with me, and they died on their own.”
‘The wolf magic beast must’ve torn them all apart.’
Several people had entered an already narrow room, so the outcome was obvious.
The room had been cramped even for one person.
Terlo himself might have been in danger without Connect.
As he recalled the wolf magic beast’s vicious claws, Hook looked at the items carried by the skeletons and asked,
“Did you find those in the room?”
“Yes. There was nothing else of note.”
Ina stepped forward, picked up a communicator, and examined it.
“Boss Hook, these are all broken. Not one of them works! But don’t these communicators belong to the other gangs? I remember taking some from them before.”
‘She says “taking” them so innocently.’
Since she mentioned other gangs, there must have been some dispute over territory between the organizations.
Hook looked over the communicators again, then raised the corners of his mouth in a cold smile.
“I wondered why they had disappeared lately. It seems they joined forces with this organization…. Ina, take the others and locate those gangs first.”
“Yes! You heard him, everyone. Let’s go.”
Several injured organization members followed Ina.
They were all walking toward the door they had broken through at the beginning when—
A crowd surged inside ahead of them.
Behind the knight at the front came fully armed knights and soldiers.
A laurel emblem was engraved on every suit of armor.
Watching them flood inside, Hook muttered,
“Why are the Royal Knights here…?”
Once they had all entered and taken their positions, the leading knight approached Hook and Terlo and offered a respectful salute.
“Greetings. I am Jelov, Deputy Commander of the Royal Knights.”
“Hello. This ended a little earlier than expected.”
At Terlo’s words, Jelov looked around.
“Has the situation already been resolved? Are either of you injured?”
“As you can see, we’re fine. A variable arose, so we couldn’t capture them alive.”
“I am relieved that you are unharmed. Then we will search the area thoroughly once more, just in case.”
“Yes. Please do.”
Jelov saluted respectfully again, then moved away to command the knights.
As Terlo watched him, he turned his head toward the piercing gaze he had felt for some time.
Hook narrowed his eyes and asked,
“Were you the one who informed the royal court, Young Master?”
“Yes. This organization has caused quite a great deal of harm to the Doiten Kingdom.”
“Even so, I do not believe there was any need to inform them.”
“It was dangerous, so I thought we might need reinforcements. It’s always better to be safe. And I heard the royal court was deeply concerned about this matter. The sooner they could put their minds at ease, the better.”
As Terlo listed his reasons, Hook thought of Doristen Krauber.
Baron Krauber pretended otherwise, yet always made certain to secure his own benefit.
Now that Hook saw it, the son truly took after the father.
This could have been reported later at a royal council meeting, yet Terlo had deliberately summoned the knights on the very day of the operation and made the matter larger.
His intention could only have been to display the direct traces of the battle and have his contribution recognized more highly.
“Young Master, I now see that you truly are Baron Krauber’s son.”
“Am I? Thank you.”
“…….”
Hook stared at Terlo for a moment, then released a deep sigh at the troublesome situation.
***
After the situation in the ruined district was resolved, late that night,
Terlo returned to the castle and informed Doristen and Lydia, who had waited for him without sleeping, that everything had been settled safely.
He also told them that he would visit the royal court once morning came.
Doristen and Lydia embraced him tightly in relief.
“Well done, Terlo. I am truly proud of you.”
“I was so worried…. I’m so glad you came back safely.”
After the emotional embrace, Terlo went to his room.
He immediately opened his subspace and took out the books he had brought back.
‘Let’s see. The ledger should be among these….’
Terlo opened the books one after another, searching for the ledger the leader of More had mentioned.
The books he examined generally concerned secret methods.
Various kinds of power needed to lead a group, secrets to expanding a business, ways to advance onto the continent, and so on.
The leader had looked like someone who would never go near a book, but apparently that had not been the case.
His sincerity showed in the pages he had folded down to read later.
‘He should’ve poured this effort into something legitimate.’
Instead, he had devoted it to accepting vicious work in the shadows.
Terlo could not help clicking his tongue.
Then he found a thick book that looked slightly different from the others.
‘Huh? Is this it?’
Terlo opened it and became certain.
From the very first page, the date, name, details of the commission, and payment had all been recorded meticulously.
It included events from long ago, making it practically a book containing the history of More.
‘What a magnificent record of achievement.’
Marveling sarcastically at the endless crimes, Terlo turned to the most recent dates.
The name he sought should be there.
‘It was Ben.’
The man who had given the mysterious sphere to More’s leader.
The man who had commissioned the large-scale abduction in the shopping district, along with several additional tasks.
Terlo had first become interested in the shopping district out of simple curiosity.
While interfering with More’s work, he had discovered several suspiciously tangled connections.
That made him wonder what the person who commissioned the mass abduction was after.
But now, the client’s identity mattered more than his objective.
The sphere he had provided could not possibly be unrelated to the demon-worshiping cult.
‘…Ben. …Ben. Found it!’
Terlo’s finger, which had been tracing the names downward, stopped.
He immediately began reading through Ben’s commissions.
Before long, his gaze froze.
‘Ben commissioned this job too?’
It was something Terlo had discovered when he went to support Ina on the first day they began interfering with More’s operations in earnest.
The transaction involves the lives of roughly a hundred cheap black mages.
He remembered it clearly because he had wondered why anyone needed a hundred people.
But that transaction had not been the only one.
Afterward, groups of dozens had been traded several more times.
Seeing that, Terlo suddenly thought of the demon-worshiping cult.
‘Could they be using them as sacrifices?’
Ben was undoubtedly connected to the demon-worshiping cult in some way.
And yet he had procured this many black mages….
The stench of suspicion could hardly have been stronger.
Terlo decided he would visit the shopping district after stopping at the royal court the next day.
‘It looks like the time has finally come to use the bastard locked in the basement.’
Having made his decision, Terlo continued reading the ledger.
He carefully traced everyone connected to Ben, and everyone connected to them, without missing a single person.