Vol 4: Chapter 19
「The person inside… are you awake? Are you a Lev?」I called out to the person inside the first door.
「!」
Luckily, it seems that the person was still awake, and was approaching the door.
I looked through the small gap in the door used to provide food. A dirty combat suit and military uniform pants approached me.
「You are?」
「I’m an adventurer who was active in the Lev Magic Empire. And you are?」
「I am the Master Sergeant of the 4th Flight Force of the Imperial Air Force.」
What luck! To encounter a high-ranking person from the start.
「I am one of the people who was sucked into the sky. I am currently trying to look for survivors.」
「Where is this place?」
「It’s another world. The so-called “Back World”.」
「What does that mean?」
「Sorry, I don’t have time to explain. Can you tell me about your situation?」
「Do you have the power to save us?」
「There is a good chance of it.」
「All right.」
This sergeant was a smart person. He made his decision immediately and talked to me.
13 survived, 45 dead—the number of dead matches the number of corpses I saw.
The airship was operating without any problems, but they crashed into a gigantic goat which reached the sky. The Forest Eater.
After that, many Levs died due to the impact of the crash, and then they were surrounded by the underground humans when they were engaged in rescuing the survivors.
「They threatened to mercilessly attack us if we resisted. We had a lot of “Magic Gear” and would have been able to defend ourselves… but the deputy captain, fearing for his life, announced our surrender.」
「Deputy captain?」
「The captain died in the crash, and so the deputy captain was in command. He’s an idiot who joined the army through personal connections.」
「Oh……」
Since the Lev Magic Empire is a small country, there must often be times when someone is enlisted because their father is a big shot…
「But there was also a clearly strong individual among the enemy, so if we had fought, there would have been casualties on our side too.」
「A strong individual?」
「The problem is our Magic Gears have been taken away by that woman. Even if we jailbreak, it would not be easy to get past her.」
「What are the characteristics of that person?」
「She is a young woman with purple hair tied behind. She was smoking a cigarette from a long smoking pipe, but her eyes were dead. Eyes which have lost life from killing too many people.」
「Okay. I will be careful. So, is everyone here?」
「All 12 are here, probably.」
「12? You said 13 survived a while ago.」
「The deputy captain was the first to beg for life and buttered up to the enemy. He must be currying favor with the enemy in some other place.」
I heard the sound of teeth gnashing from the other side of the door. He must be insanely angry. I understand that feeling well.
「Is there any problem with your treatment? It would be difficult to escape right away, so I’d like to do it tomorrow after preparations if possible… If it is too tough, I think it’s better to do it today.」
「Food is bad, but I can tolerate it because it is mica mushroom.」
「…I-Is that so?」
For me, I guess it would be something like “Food is bad, but I can tolerate it because it’s white rice”?
I remembered the traces of my breaking in.
I destroyed the lock to the entrance of the Armed Patrol office. And I destroyed the latch on the roof of this building.
For the former, the lock can be repaired and hidden somewhere to make the underground people think it was misplaced. And I left no other traces in that building.
The latter can be managed by making it look like it deteriorated over time.
「I will be back tomorrow night.」
「Oh… if possible, if you find the deputy captain, would you please hit him for me? No, bring him to me, I’d like to do it with my own hands.」
I’ll get caught if I do that.
「!」
At that moment, my nose caught the smell of cigarettes. I heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
「……Go now.」
The master sergeant also heard the footsteps.
「Okay.」
I silenced my footsteps with【Sprinting】and returned to the stairs. By going up the stairs, I would reach the rooftop – but I gave in to the urge. I wanted to find out who was coming up.
If it is the “strong individual” that the master sergeant mentioned, there is no loss in looking at them through【World Ruler】.
I held my breath at the landing stairs.
There was no light here, so my body was completely hidden in the darkness. I wasn’t sure if even【Night Vision】can look through this darkness.
The footsteps approached closer.
There was light coming from the stairs at the bottom.
The light kept a constant luminosity—a magic lamp.
The footsteps approached even closer.
Purple smoke appeared in my view.
Then a hooded person appeared on the stairs, with a long smoking pipe in their mouth.
They came to a stop.
The ember in the smoking pipe glowed red, then they exhaled without a sound. Smoke poured out from their mouth and nose.
Did that person stop for a puff…?
That person climbed the remaining two steps and headed for the corridor where the cells were lined up.
「!」
All of a sudden, they turned around and looked in my direction.
「…………」
…That was close.
I carelessly stretched my neck to look at their face.
I withdrew my neck as fast as I could. It was probably faster than a turtle trying to protect itself.
Silence descended.
The smell of cigarettes reached my nose.
(This is…)
Then I heard footsteps moving away. Apparently that person entered the passage.
Should I check why that person is coming to the cells so late at night?
(The answer is no.)
They’re most likely not here to kill the prisoners. The movement of that person walking down the hallway was quiet, like that of a sleepwalker.
I stealthily returned to the rooftop, crushed the broken latch, and then went outside.
I understood the reason why the master sergeant called the underground human a “strong individual”. She probably possesses some kind of skill orb. The underground man who tried to snipe me from atop a tree also used magic. So, as opposed to Dragonewt City, there are probably a lot more skill orbs in use here.
Among them, the hooded underground human I saw a moment ago… Most likely the “strong individual” that the master sergeant mentioned, she has a skill orb with many stars. A 5 or 6-star skill orb of special characteristic.
(That cigarette smell…)
According to【World Ruler】, that cigarette has a strong analgesic effect.
I recalled the pain from using【Shadow King ★★★★★★】. Perhaps that cigarette softens the pain that comes from using that kind of skill orb.
