Chapter 394: 142: Winding Down – Part 1

Once our eyes recover from the blinding light, the first thing we notice is that everything is now dark, and though we see stars above us, there's no psychedelic sun or even clouds. Then we cast our [Spirit Light]s and discover that our environment has changed.

We're now on top of a very wide cement platform in the middle of an idyllic little grove. There's a stream of crystal-clear water nearby, which a group of mossy not-deers are drinking from, but they quickly scatter when they notice our lights. The sky is actually a black ceiling and the stars are actually powered-down crystal lights. This is a "rest room" kindly given to us by the Dungeon Master so that we may recharge our energies.

Unfortunately, finding riches is quite rare inside a dungeon, so there's no loot for us. Not even the corpses would be worth selling, and the Symbols of Might were fakes, so they were likely mana solidifications.

Maybe we could've stored the piles of bone dust from the Liches, but that ingredient's a bit too exotic for Roxanne, and I don't know if Petra would use it with her [Alchemicism]. If we were alone, we could've explored more and probably found something valuable, but I don't regret how things went.

The adventurers immediately go for the stream to sully it with their bloodied and sweaty weapons and armor while Bell-end gathers his men and we ours. And now that we're safe again, Gify pops into existence on my shoulder.

"This would be a nice place to rest," Alissa hums in wonder.

I'm inclined to agree because of how fresh and peaceful this place feels. I even see a nice bed of fragrant flowers that seems like it'd be nice to lay down on, but there are a few considerations we have to keep in mind. "We'd have to set up security, and I just want to let our men rest, which they can do back at the embassy."

Alissa softly hums in agreement, her tail rather limp in disappointment, "True. A shame we can't have this place all to ourselves."

"Well, we could, but forcing everyone else to leave isn't something we should attempt to do," Yunia remarks, and I think she's saying it more to convince herself that it's a bad thing than us because she's a High Elf, and they fucking love groves.

I turn around to the pair of little thieves who are currently tied up by a nature-Yunia, then I notice that the three stooges and Bell-end are paying attention to us.

"Let's deal with the thieves first," I state.

We walk up to the still unconscious little kitten and her weredog accomplice, and the fearful man pales again as we approach to give him his sentence. Yunia has our men surround us to give us some privacy, and that actually manages to make the weredog even more afraid, so I start to hope that he doesn't piss himself.

The girl's limbs have already been healed, though her HP isn't at max, so she should feel a bit of pain when she wakes up. And so, Ciel casts [Purify Body] on the cat to neutralize the sleeping potion we gave her.

The spindly mage is a freckled ginger weredog while the slender catgirl thief has black hair and the usual olive skin tone of an imperial. Neither look particularly noteworthy or have exceptionally high levels, which is the perfect background for sneaky thieves that want to blend in.

The girl slowly wakes up, and the first sound she makes is a groan of pain, then she shifts around in her viny bindings so that her bruises don't hurt as much. Stanley, the weredog, continues to stare at me in silence, which I'm thankful for since I don't want him to start begging for mercy.

"Harriet," I sternly call for the girl's attention, and she tenses up, the fogginess of her gaze quickly clearing up. "Do you remember the last thing you were doing before you passed out?"

"I-I was…" She mumbles, then she clamps up and searches for the source of the voice. It takes her a couple of seconds before her eyes find mine, and her jaw starts shivering once she realizes who's speaking to her.

"Harriet, answer my question," I insist, adding a hint of [Godly Language] to my voice.

"W-what was the q-question?" She tries to stall.

"Do you remember the last thing you were doing before you passed out?" I press with an even sterner tone.

The catgirl glances at Stanley, and he subtly nods at her, making me regret not isolating them. That signal kind of ruined the intimidation attempt.

She lowers her eyes, and her ears go flat as she begins her play. "I tried to steal your golem, but please have mercy! I'm only a tool for my boss!" Then she raises her ears again as she begs, staring intently while making a pained face to try to make me sympathize with her.

I'm far too tired to deal with this shit, so Alissa presents them with their options, "You two will be sent to the Enforcers and judged for your crimes. If you give us something, we'll give them a recommendation to lower your sentences."

They both gasp in horror, and Stanley looks like he's about to cry. Then he opens his mouth to beg, but Yunia sternly interjects, "Don't even try to ask for mercy." And he closes his mouth again.

Harriet is stronger-willed than Stanley, and she tries really hard to hide her indignation as she explains, "We don't know any names. The Guild only works through intermediaries, so there's no point in trying to interrogate us."

"Which Guild?" I blurt out.

"The Thieves Guild," she answers as she gives me an odd look, but then the realization strikes her. "Ah, you're from the High Forest, and the Guild doesn't operate there because the elves are stingy."

The fucking what?! What's next? The Dark Brotherhood and Sithis…? Wait, that one could be Katasko or some other heretic group…

Then Stanley suddenly exclaims excitedly, "The Receptor must still be waiting on the other side of my [Gate]!"

But the catgirl immediately chastises him, "Are you crazy? The Guild will fucking murder us!"

He hisses back as he grows a pair of balls, "He has a honeyed voice; we can just say that he forced us to confess!"

She freezes for a second in confusion, but then she exclaims in resignation, "Then they might kill us no matter what we do!"

"Exactly! So I'd rather take my chances with the one with a Blessing!" He desperately insists.

And I calmly give them a way out, "We can protect you and give you two a new life in the High Forest or somewhere else nearby."

Harriet becomes hopeful for just a second, but then she flatly states, "I… don't believe you."

It's a bit annoying to do this, but this really is the best tool to quickly get someone's trust. "I, Crown Lord Wolf Ryder, promise to the Gods."

"Fucking told you the Blessed one is better!" Stanely excitedly shouts in her ear, making her wince at the loudness.

But Harriet is still resisting and nervously warns us, "The Receptor might just be a servant or someone unimportant. Or there might even be men hiding nearby to protect the Receptor. I don't know if there'd be anything good there."

And Stanley becomes flabbergasted at her attitude. "Do you want to become a criminal slave?!"

"Do you want to make a Lord feel like they've been duped?!" She shouts in his ear, making him wince at the loudness too, but then she also winces in pain from her bruises.

I'm starting to like them.

Yunia points out through [Bind], "We might be justified in 'interrogating' this Receptor to discover who they work for. Just to find out who's interested in [Golemancy]."

"This makes me uncomfortable. They aren't assured to be evil like those from Katasko," Ciel retorts. Even if the Sin is called Sadistic Torture, we can't just "interrogate" everyone who gets in our way.

Balance in all things.

But to me, the balance in this matter is clearly tipped in a certain direction. "Ted could be very dangerous in the wrong hands," I reply determinedly.

Ciel also understands this fact, so she begins to back down but leaves a condition, "We can't kill them."

"I'm fine with that," I accept, then I turn to Stanley. "Open the [Gate] to the Receptor."

"W-will y-you protect us?!" He frantically replies as hope quickly blooms within him.

I slowly nod. "I will give you two a new life in the High Forest if that's what you want."

"I'll take it!" He immediately shouts.

But she gives him a death glare, making him wince in guilt.

So he tries to explain himself, "Look, Harriet, fuck the Guild. We got screwed over on this job! It was just a matter of time before we'd fail, but we actually have a way out! That's the God of Luck giving us mercy!"

And her eyes lose focus as she begins to look completely lost. "I've worked for the Guild for my whole life; I don't know how to do anything else!"

"We'll be fine! Any place will be better than here!" He desperately tries to convince her.

"Why is a Porter working for thieves? You're supposed to be paid a lot," Hana concernedly points out.

And the two thieves suddenly become quite meek.

"We… had some problems," Stanley ashamedly answers.

"You're not a certified [Gate] Master," Yunia states, and his crestfallen reaction is all the confirmation we need.

"Do you want Harriet for yourself?" Alissa curiously asks me through [Bind].

And I almost frown in distaste. "She's cute, but no. I really don't."

"The temple can take them on as penance for their crimes," Ciel soberly states, and the duo seem to perk up (with heads and ears) at her idea.

"That is very merciful of you," Harriet respectfully replies as she gives our chocolate angel a thankful look.

"Open the [Gate] before your Receptor notices that something is off," I calmly order.

And Stanley tenses up. "Y-yes!"

The nature elemental loosens the bindings, and Stanley immediately begins to chant, then Jarn turns off her Scrubber. Ciel [Heal]s Harriet, earning herself another earnest thanks, then she hands the catgirl a [Regeneration] tool for her to deal with any lingering pains.

I start summoning a variety of elementals, and I feel my mana organ start to strain a bit. Having to keep elementals up to watch our "allies" was a bit taxing on me. The duo slowly stand up and warily stare at the elementals, but Stanly quickly averts his eyes away when Harriet gives him a stern glance.

"Where does it go?" I question him.

"A dead-end street in the abandoned section of the underground city, so there should be hardly anyone around."

"I heard about that area. There should be a lot of spirits there," Hana comments curiously.

Of course, a city as large as Mac Gantus would have a ghost town.

We call for our High Officers and have them quickly organize a strike force. Stanley can send about a dozen men there, but that'll be enough. Once I'm through, I can bring in the rest and flood the area.

Then the thief stops chanting and hesitantly announces, "I'm ready…"

"Put it down," I order.

The familiar black hole appears before me, and the elementals pour in. The first one to cross through is an earth-Lina, and she sees a middle-aged Sebastian just a couple of meters ahead of her.

The imperial butler opens his eyes wide at the large being of stone with black bangs, and he reflexively begins to speak, "What are y-…"

But the earth-Lina punches him in the face, then immediately grapples his body and keeps him immobile.

Oops, a bit too violent, I think.

The following elementals notice movement, though. A good dozen cloaked men stir up from the alleys and draw their swords, then an arrow pierces a fire-Hana's forehead, but it does absolutely nothing to her.

"Hammers and water!" A gruff man shouts.

"And the water one?!" A young voice replies.

"Fuck if I know!"

Then a battle breaks out, but I simply cross Stanley's [Gate] and open my own, which our men pour through in an orderly fashion, almost immediately overwhelming our enemies. I'm always impressed with how disciplined our Lordsguard are.

"Ambush! Scram!" Someone shouts, and I'm actually taken by surprise as they throw smoke bombs at their feet and run away, but our men are ruthless motherfuckers and manage to tackle three of them before they can escape.

"Don't chase!" I order. I don't want my men getting lost and ambushed in these abandoned streets.

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The four captives are easily subdued, and things almost instantly calm down. All we need is the Receptor; anyone else is just another annoyance we have to deal with.

Then I stop to observe the environment. The ceiling is pretty low, at most four stories high, and it's full of powered-down crystal lights, just like a dungeon. The houses are all square boxes of bricks, with a few going up to the ceiling, but none of them look particularly wealthy. The illumination is pretty bad, but we wouldn't be able to see much anyway due to the low ceiling.

Dusty, dark, ugly, drab, and decaying. Aside from the prospect of meeting with spirits of the dead, this would be the most uninteresting place I've ever been to.

Then I notice the sound of running water and realize that there are quite a lot of wet spots everywhere. Like the cherry on the cake, the whole section is being infiltrated by water from the surface, which makes me wonder about the danger of collapse.

Alcander comes through my [Gate], and I casually order, "Send them to the embassy. We'll speak with them tomorrow morning."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Someone takes not-Sebastian from earth-Lina, and I unsummon all of the elementals, then I sigh tiredly. The [Gate] took another burst of mana from me, and I'm starting to get irritated by the strain on my mana organ.

I [Gate] myself back, then I start to mentally prepare myself to talk to the three stooges and Armaa Bro.

"I can talk for you," Yunia suggests through [Bind], and I silently thank her.

We also invite Léonne to participate, and she brings Allura to watch. Then we move towards the anxious group waiting for us, but just to assert dominance, I stop midway and have our men tell them that we want to speak.

They all come at the same time, their gaits very distinct from each other. Bell-end is tense, his XO looks like he's doing his best to not run away, Fran is confused, Gandalf is terrified, and Armaa Bro seems very meek. I want to reassure Armaa, so I'll take it easy with him.

Everyone gets some distance from us to give us some privacy, but many eyes keep a close watch in case shit goes down.

When they stop, Yunia abruptly begins, her tone clinical and tinted with elven arrogance, "To begin, we've just dealt with a duo of thieves who attempted to kidnap one of our golems."

And Gandalf preemptively defends himself, "I have no idea who ordered that. I believe they stole the one with me because I was in the backline and distracted by the battle."

She gives him a measuring look, and even the proud and mature dragonkin seems to wither under her gaze. After "taming" him, he's no more ferocious than a dog wanting approval.

But she doesn't find sufficient reason to press him further, so she declares out loud with a stern and deliberate tone, "If any of you has any information to share, now's the time. We'll interrogate the ones who were involved and find out who ordered this theft, but we'll show mercy if confessions are given to us."

"I have no involvement in this matter," Bell-end states matter-of-factly, and the other three remain awkwardly mute.

She lets the silence linger for a long moment, then calmly moves on, but now she lets her smugness and contempt become very apparent on her gorgeous elven face, "Very well. The second topic is that I am going to explicitly gloat about how your fears about using [Monster Repellent] arrays were entirely unfounded…" And her tone becomes increasingly more harsh, then she pauses for a moment to let it sink in. The three subtly tense up, expecting an execution, but we're not the petty kind. "Considering how you three, with the exception of Armaars'r, were very close to being killed for your insolence, I emphatically advise you to reconsider your future choices of masters. You were stooges, dupes, sacrificial cattle whose only purpose was to hinder us, and you almost died for it, but the next Lords you meet might not be so merciful.

"We, on the other hand, aren't the kind that throws away the lives of those who serve us. In the future, if you ever change your minds and desire to give us information on those who hired you three, know that we reward our allies very well."

Gandalf and Fran share a nervous look, and then the guilt starts to appear on their faces as their facade crumbles. They're not sworn servants, so they have no loyalty to the one who fucked them over with this job, but the person who sent them here to die is obviously dangerous, and anyone would be hesitant to betray them.

The dragon wants me to "interrogate" them and wring out the truth, but I don't think we'd find out that much. Considering that someone in the Monster Hunter's Guild ordered them to come here, there should be a few levels of people who we'd need to "interrogate" before we'd get to something interesting, and that doesn't seem worth it as a response to someone wanting to just "hinder" our power-leveling.

I want to send a different message, so I interject to reassure the one innocent person in this pile of shit, "Armaars'r, it was unfortunate that you were involved in this farce as you're just an innocent foreigner that the Guild could use, but you have nothing to fear from us. We hope you find more luck in your next assignments."

The horsefolk raises his non-existent eyebrows in surprise, then softly nods and flashes a kind smile. "Thank you, Lord Wolf. The one who gave us this task was Director Gabe, but he's not the kind of man who would willingly do something like this, so he may have been forced."

And I nod in thanks for this information.

Then something dawns upon Gandalf, and he makes a small attempt to salvage the bridge before it completely burns down, "We received our orders from Directors Luka and Elias. Whatever it is they intended by having us come here, only they can explain."

Mac Gantus' Guild is a big organization, and there could be an annoying level of politics at play. We might send someone and try to negotiate something for information, but Yunia bets those two Directors have already fled from the guild and burned any incriminating evidence.

"They only told us what we had to do for this job, nothing more," Fran hesitantly adds, and Gandalf nods repeatedly in agreement.

These confessions aren't anything significant, but we still both smile politely and acknowledge their attempt.

"You three are dismissed," Yunia announces to the representatives, and they silently leave, with the two stooges still looking so scared that it seems that the only thing they want now is to get the fuck away from here as fast as possible.

Then we turn to Bell-end. The Viking-looking man is tense, but his posture is as straight as ever, and he's still pridefully wearing his mask of composure. I don't think he'll ever admit to being ordered to hinder us, but it might still be worth it to leave an olive branch on his desk.

Yunia begins another verbal beatdown, "Senior Major Belligax, we also give you the same advice. You and your men are just disposable pieces in a bigger game of schemes. I don't know what you wanted to accomplish, but if your intention was to endanger youself or your men, then I congratulate you on your stupidity."

He doesn't even react, but his XO shows a mix of anger and shame for a brief moment before he puts his mask back on.

Then Léonne sternly piles on as she seems to really have something against the Army, "Most officers of the Imperial Army know their place, but you seem like you don't, so let me remind you that the Army serves the Empire… and the Lords are the Empire. Don't test our authority again."

I really like this woman.

And Belligax again takes it all without flinching. He's a man who's proud of his accomplishments and the position he's been awarded for them, he's a diligent and loyal soldier, and he won't break so easily. I respect his composure, and I would rather make allies than enemies.

So I gently add, "I have no ill-will against you, Major Belligax, and I hope that the next time we meet, it'll be under better circumstances."

The tense stillness of his stance is broken by small movements as if he were just about to reply, but he remains loyal to his master to the very end, and lets the humiliation set in. Then he nods and softly replies, "So do I."

"This is where we separate," Yunia immediately announces.

"Lords…" He hums and lowers his head respectfully.

Then we separate, and our men prepare to leave the dungeon, but there's one last thing that I must do.

I stop by the river and spot my three groupies washing the sweat away in just their underclothes. They wear sashes to prevent painful breast jiggle during combat (something that Ciel knows very well) and comfortable pantaloons that don't chafe, so even with their clothes wet, there's nothing particularly lewd to look at, but there are few things that can compare to the beauty of energetic young women playing by the river.

I observe them for a long, pleasant moment before they finally notice me, then I smile and let [Sexual Charm] guide me.

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Manasong

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