Chapter 122

The scholar guy, in other words, Alec Siles, said that he had worked as a scholar affiliated with the imperial palace for about 10 years and was driven out roughly 6 years ago.

And regarding the reason for being driven out, he briefly mentioned that it was because he had researched things the imperial family didn't like, and didn't go into further detail.

Leonardo was slightly wary of his claim of being affiliated with the imperial palace, but since there was a gap of 6 years and he himself had a similar experience, he likewise didn't probe deeply.

He had many strange things befitting a nutcase. Things like a sleeping incense that could put people to sleep in a short time, shoes that reduced the load when stepping on the ground to leave almost no footprints, and gloves that nullified magic to allow touching Armsilver's ring with resistance magic on it for a very brief moment.

Among them, there were even items that had never existed in the world before.

Those were Alec Siles's own inventions that he had made over several years, and while listening to stories like how the gloves he had developed for 10 years thanks to that ring had been torn to shreds and completely burned, rendering them unusable, Leonardo was moving with him to a location where etaide was said to be piled up.

Around the time when he couldn't properly judge which was the better choice between silencing the guy who knew about Nero and his contact by killing him or blocking it with a contract, Alec brought up a piece of information that made him think the latter was slightly better.

"A few months ago, flyers started circulating in the slums near Fidele Territory, recruiting people to enter the Elder Millie Peninsula for mining. You know, it's a place where illegal activities happen every day, so no one found it strange."

He began the story from the time he had stayed in the vicinity for information gathering before entering the peninsula himself.

"But at that time, the damage from monster appearances was getting worse and worse, so the eyes of the territory's guards, knights, and institutions under the Council's Southern Branch were all focused on the peninsula. So the guys who saw the flyers all sneered. Who in their right mind would go there at this time?"

"..."

"Moreover, because the issues regarding the peninsula made surprise inspections and patrols around the slums less frequent, there were people who caused accidents in that area, but no one wanted to go to the peninsula."

At Alec's words, Leonardo, who had been walking ahead while checking the surroundings, looked back.

"But after a few weeks like that, the previous flyers completely disappeared and new flyers were posted. Flyers stating that if you mine minerals on the Elder Millie Peninsula for a certain period of time, you will be paid 30% of the amount mined by the individual and 1 million bells. It basically means you'll get 1 million bells just by mining a few rocks, right? Guys short on money applied in droves. Including me."

"You don't look like you're that short on money though."

"If I'm going to the peninsula anyway, isn't it better to get paid to enter? Besides, it was also my first time entering during this period, so I thought a group would be safer than being alone, and usually, the guys who post such flyers are business people backed by a fairly large merchant group or noble family. I thought it would be better than the ragtag bunch gathered by just anyone trying to make some money."

According to Alec, the number of unauthorized outsiders who had currently entered the peninsula illegally was quite large. And he said there had been people who had been sneaking in steadily before, not just now, including himself.

The reason their existence was only now becoming prominent was probably because security had become stricter than before as the peninsula subjugation progressed.

Not all of them moved under the same affiliation, and they used to enter through various methods and routes, but most of them lacked the know-how and were soon caught by the Council. However, some were able to move in secret because they knew of the existence of these tunnels.

And that some was precisely the mining team Alec belonged to.

The mining team was divided into several groups and moved in an organized manner. However, the group Alec belonged to was the last to arrive, and it was quite difficult for them to enter the peninsula as the timing overlapped with the Central Branch of the Council's dispatch, he said.

These tunnels were only distributed around the large peaks within the peninsula, so from the border zone to the 4th peak of the central route, they also had to use the paths the Council took.

In the meantime, Alec said he had experience entering and leaving the peninsula several times before, so he acted as a guide at the very front of that team, but the moment he heard that, the strange sense of unease Leonardo had felt while entering the entrance of the 4th peak flashed through his mind.

The sense of unease that felt like someone had been following him all along.

And seeing Alec's face, it soon turned into a sense of déjà vu.

"...The one who had been tagging along behind me, was it you?"

"Correct."

Seeing him drawing a circle with his finger as if he had solved a quiz while saying that with a smiling face, a displeased hollow laugh naturally came out.

In other words, this guy had been following behind him at a distance, from the entrance of the peninsula to the cave that was the entrance of the 4th peak, right before the procession split into three.

He had wondered who the crazy bastard following Kazad's procession was, but thinking about it, it was rather the opposite. It was like the saying, it's dark behind the lamp. He had stuck to the very back of the procession to avoid surveillance, as Kazad was at the very front.

Leonardo abruptly stopped in his tracks. Then, he spoke in a cold voice.

"Then what about the other guys you said entered with you? How can I trust that the place you're taking me to now isn't a trap?"

"Hey, we even made a contract. Listen a bit more. It's because I came out of there now."

Alec continued with a grin.

* * *

Torches were fixed at regular intervals on the wall of the dark cave. The shadows of the torches stretched long, guiding the way into the deep and secretive interior. In the following passage, there were about six or seven burly men guarding the entrance, but they were all unconscious and collapsed.

The last remaining one had his neck strangled by someone's forearm without being able to let out a single scream. The one strangling the man's neck from behind had the face of the outsider Leonardo and Kenis had met.

However, he was taller and had a larger build than the outsider, his expression was cold, and he was wearing the clothes of Tergio, who had worked as a low-ranking member of a merchant group in Frost Territory.

Crack—!

The neck of the man, whose eyes had rolled back and was flailing, twisted halfway in an instant. Then, his stiffened arms and legs loosened, and his body slumped lifelessly like a cold corpse.

As the heavy body slid down from his arm and collapsed to the floor, the one with the outsider's face stared at the man's pale face for a moment, then placed his hand on the thickly fleshed neck. Then, he pulled the head to tilt it back and fumbled under the chin a few times to find the carotid artery.

Fortunately, when a faint pulse was beating, he let out a sigh of relief. It was because he was worried that this guy might have died as his arm had exerted more strength than he thought due to his exceptionally large size.

"It's nothing much."

He had thought it might take some time since they said they were mercenaries formally hired by the mining team, but contrary to his concern, they were just at the level of typical slum delinquents.

The number of necks he had knocked unconscious like this while following the path was already about 20. He lightly dusted off his hands and surveyed the collapsed men, then moved his silent steps again, following the torches.

Alec Siles said that when he led the latecomers and entered the interior of the 4th peak's cave, a mining team associate appeared and guided them to the path leading to the tunnels. He also added that the route to their hideout was quite complex, so if they hadn't followed the associate, they wouldn't have been able to find it easily.

And as he said, this area was complicated like an ant tunnel, and if it weren't for the structural diagram the scholar guy had drawn, it seemed like he would have wandered quite a bit.

Afterwards, the latecomers moved day and night inside the cave and relocated to a certain base, and there, minerals that were already being mined were classified and piled up in huge wooden boxes with wheels, and among them was etaide, he said.

And the huge wooden boxes he mentioned seemed to refer to the ones visible in front of his eyes now.

Leonardo, who had the face of the outsider, pressed close to the bent cave wall and examined the movement in the back. The wooden boxes, which appeared to be about 3m in height and in the shape of a cube, had iron plates attached and nailed to withstand the weight, and on top of that, a single type of mineral seemed to be piled up in abundance at a glance.

The path was narrow, and the box in the middle was so huge that he couldn't see well beyond it, but for now, there were two men standing guard right in front. Rather than guarding, they seemed to be chatting, but anyway, it seemed true that the reason they were standing there was to guard and monitor the minerals.

According to the scholar, there was a strict hierarchy within the mining team. First, there were the general miners who mined the minerals and the middle managers who supervised them, and above them were the senior managers, who only managed and monitored the minerals mined by the miners and could rarely be seen during work hours, he said.

And the mercenaries were hired to block the approach of those who were not associates, including monsters, and to control the desertion of general miners, and they only followed the orders of the senior managers. It was a kind of pyramid structure.

From what he told him, Leonardo got the impression that the mining team was moving quite systematically and meticulously. At the same time, he speculated that the reason it was possible was because there was some existence that kept watching their back to maintain the system.

However, Alec said that recently, a big problem had occurred in the mining team. The managers had brought the mercenaries and threatened the miners, not letting them out even after a certain period of time had passed, and they had excluded all types of valuable minerals from the promised 30%.

The reason they had recruited workers from the slums in the first place was probably to exploit the socially disadvantaged class who had few people looking for them or criminals who couldn't openly request help from the outside.

Far from receiving 1 million bells, they were doing even more arduous labor, so the number of those harboring complaints kept increasing, and because of that, a riot broke out some time ago, and several people attempted to escape. Alec had also slipped out during the chaotic gap, and the outsider he said he had briefly accompanied was also one of those escapees.

Because of that, he heard that the vigilance had become strict, but looking at those two chatting now, it didn't seem quite like that.

Alec did say that he had used an alias and had been in a slight disguise while on the mining team, but he didn't have the ability to completely change his face like someone else, so he said he would keep watch nearby, not wanting to get beaten up for wandering around carelessly.

It was unsettling, but Leonardo also thought it would be more convenient to move alone inside here, so he instructed him to give only the structural diagram and stand by nearby.

Leonardo's face, which had taken on the appearance of the outsider, contorted, and this time, it changed to the face of one of the mercenaries who had been standing outside. It was a man whose build was relatively similar.

Those guarding the minerals were highly likely to be senior managers, and if so, it seemed it would be much more natural to approach in the appearance of a mercenary.

After clearing his throat for a moment, he held his breath for a long time and then exhaled roughly while panting. Then, he raised his body temperature to squeeze out sweat that didn't even come out well, tousled his hair a bit, and then ran out in front of them as if he had run urgently while jumping in place to make footsteps.

"Huff, huff—. Brothers!"

As the mercenary who was supposed to be guarding the entrance approached with a hasty air while panting, the two men who had been making trivial jokes flinched in surprise, then soon looked at him with puzzled faces.

"Ah, you startled me."

"What is it, did something happen?"

"Haa, outside, some strange guy came and is causing a ruckus."

"...What?"

"The kids are blocking him for now, but I think you should come quickly!"

At his words, the two men frowned, then soon stared intently at each other's faces. It seemed they were gauging who would go to check the situation. In the meantime, the man on the left, whose impression was a bit dirtier, tapped the shoulder of the man next to him and spoke first.

"Hey, you go with him."

"What? Why me?"

"Why, you bastard, because you came in later than me. Martin will get a headache if he finds out, so go and resolve it quickly."

The man with the dirty impression had a considerably rough way of speaking, just like his impression. At those words, the man on the right made a dumbfounded face, but perhaps because he had nothing to retort, he began walking towards the entrance while scratching his head as if it was bothersome.

'Martin?'

Leonardo, who had the face of a mercenary and had been panting, focused on the name the senior managers had dropped as if reading the mood. He remembered the scholar guy briefly mentioning that there was a hierarchy even among the senior managers.

The man on the left strongly pushed the shoulder of the mercenary who wasn't following and just standing still, and said,

"Why are you standing there blankly? Aren't you going?"

Although it wasn't the left shoulder, when a hand touched his body, Leonardo felt quite displeased and looked back at the man who had pushed his shoulder with slightly fierce eyes. But then, four or five more humans crawled out from behind the huge box and asked the man with the dirty impression what was going on.

If there had been no one, he had intended to strike his head here, but since he still couldn't know how many more were on the other side, Leonardo bowed his head for now and pretended as if he had been standing there because he was out of breath.

"Ah, yes. I'll go and see as well."

"Seriously, these days, the things they've brought in as mercenaries all have their screws loose, they can't resolve that one guy among themselves."

The mercenary followed behind the man who had gone ahead with quick steps, pretending not to have heard. The man watching them added a few more rebukes to their retreating figures and waved his hand at the others as if it was no big deal.

He said it must be the guys who had escaped some time ago crawling back in because they couldn't leave the peninsula, or they had come to cause a ruckus, saying they should at least receive as much as they had worked. It was because such guys had been constantly making a fuss these days.

Eventually, when the two people disappeared around the curve of the cave, suddenly, the man with the dirty impression muttered with a look as if something was strange.

"But was that guy's way of speaking always like that?"