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HELHEIM SCANS
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Chapter 151
* * *
Woo-woong! Woo-woong!!
Melissa was calling.
“What is it?”
—Is it going well?
“I found her. She seems to be alive.”
—Really?! Are you sure she’s alive?!
“Not yet. I haven’t confirmed it. But if she’s not completely dead, I’ll make sure to bring her back alive.”
—Alright! I trust you, brother! Please, you have to bring our youngest back!
Was she calling just to check on the situation?
“No matter what, I’ll bring her back, so wait for me, you overdramatic paradise bird.”
—Just don’t get hurt…
She sounded like she was making a fuss, but her voice was strained.
That meant she was too anxious for jokes.
“I’m busy right now, so I’ll hang up.”
—Ah… wait a moment.
She hesitated for a bit, then her voice came through again.
—Nabel sent a message. Things are getting serious, so we need to move immediately.
“What?”
I didn’t have the luxury to move right now.
My promise with the saintess was important, but finding Arsha was more urgent than anything else.
—I already passed along our situation. She said she’s arranged a meeting with the Hael Tribe. She’ll try to handle it alone for now and asked you to join her as soon as possible.
“She’s doing it alone?”
—I think she’s taking a bit of a risk… but we don’t have much choice either.
“Understood.”
I needed to rescue Arsha as quickly as possible and then join the saintess.
But why did I have such a bad feeling about this?
No, it wasn’t something I should worry about now.
Nabel was the saintess.
Who could possibly harm her?
I forced myself to push those thoughts aside and refocus on the situation.
“You’re heading to the Remilish family estate, right? I know a shortcut.”
“Why would we walk?”
At the same time, another spatial transfer spell was activated.
“How can you keep using large-scale teleportation without resting…?”
If Arsha hadn’t moved from there, I should be able to find her.
* * *
The Remilish Family
The Remilish family ruled over Remilish Island, one of the islands in the Pinas Archipelago, for over 300 years.
Having governed the island for so long, the Remilish family was practically its royalty, much like the rulers of other archipelago islands.
Rumors said that, compared to other noble families, the Remilish family was relatively moderate and diplomatic.
The mansion, guarded by numerous knights and soldiers, was practically a palace, the most heavily fortified place on the island and a symbol of its authority.
“A mansion? That’s more like a royal palace.”
“That’s how influential the Remilish family is on this island. They are the de facto rulers.”
Hearing Meryl’s response, Leon slightly turned his head.
“I have a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“If I hadn’t known whether Arsha was alive and you guys managed to rescue her safely—”
“……”
Meeting Leon’s cold gaze, Meryl flinched and lowered her eyes.
“What would you have done?”
“I… don’t know for sure. But if Lady Arsha Cascadia were unharmed, I would have sent her to you.”
“You’d better hope that’s true.”
“We have no reason to be hostile to you right now.”
Leon fell silent, deep in thought, his gaze fixed on the fortress walls surrounding the Remilish estate.
“Senior… is this really okay?”
“We already got approval. In this situation, there’s no other choice but to cooperate.”
“I mean… yeah, it does seem that way…”
The Moon Watchers made their decision quickly.
Now that Leon had learned the truth, they concluded that the best course of action was to work with him to ensure Arsha’s safe rescue.
Of course, in reality, Meryl and Rebecca couldn’t do much.
“But how do you plan to get in? That fortress is not only heavily guarded, but it also houses highly skilled fighters, including a Sword Master. Remilish is one of the most militarily powerful islands in the archipelago.”
“No need to break in. They’ll invite us in.”
“…What?”
At that moment—
A large number of soldiers suddenly appeared and surrounded the four of us.
“There they are! Capture them!”
As they pointed their spears at us in a threatening manner, I quickly understood the situation.
The slave trader Baron, whom we had taken down, had claimed to have powerful backers.
It seemed that his backer was none other than the Remilish family.
Baron’s records described in detail the horrors they inflicted on their slaves.
Among those who engaged in slavery, this family was one of the worst.
They were rumored to be reasonable and humane, but in the end, they were no different from the rest.
Of course, while the records stated this, I couldn’t be completely certain yet.
I needed to be cautious.
One wrong move could put my fragile youngest sibling in danger.
Spreading the fact that I was looking for Arsha any further would only make things worse.
“The Remilish family?”
“That’s right! You have some nerve causing trouble on Remilish Island!”
As they shouted sternly, Leon smirked coldly.
“We’ve secured our reason to enter. Now we just have to confirm the truth.”
Since we couldn’t just break in, we would have to go in willingly and find out for ourselves.
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HELHEIM SCANS
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* * *
Remilish Island was essentially synonymous with the Remilish family.
And the one who ruled the island in practice, Vania Remilish, stood before a massive ritual circle with a cold smile.
“This is it. This is all we need.”
The enormous magic circle, ominous at a glance, was already surrounded by dozens of mages.
To protect those mages, a Sword Master-level knight and over a dozen Expert-level knights stood guard without leaving a single gap.
She had secretly harbored hatred for the Central Continent ever since losing her parents in the war, all while cultivating the power of the island.
Despite being only in her late teens, with only a few years since coming of age, she had more ruthlessly built up the island’s forces than any ruler of the archipelago.
"Miss, we lack sufficient sacrifices."
"Then bring more. What about the other brats?"
"They have little value as sacrifices. Unless they are at least rich in mana or aura, or were blessed from birth…"
In that regard, the girl currently lying unconscious inside the coffin at the center of the ritual circle was the optimal sacrifice.
For some reason, the cultists had told her that this girl’s body was innately suited for such a ritual.
Of course, Vania had no intention of aligning herself with lunatics who wished for the end of the world—but she was pragmatic enough to use whatever she could.
By using the sacrifice to perform the ritual, she could forge a contract with some unknown entity of immense power.
A being so great that it had rarely ever revealed itself in this world.
A being that could drive people mad just by looking at it.
The Forbidden Monster.
That was what the mermaids called it.
It was a power worth coveting.
Vania bit her nails anxiously.
"Contact Baron. Tell him to bring in more usable ones, even if they’re not as good as that filthy thing."
"That is…"
Ropal, the Sword Master who protected Remilish Island, bowed his head in silence.
"Just now, slave trader Baron was attacked by an unknown force. We sent troops to the site, but… there were no survivors."
"You useless bastards!!! And you call yourselves the knights of Remilish?!"
Despite her hysterical outburst, the knights and mages merely bowed their heads in silence.
"It’s because you fools failed to protect my mother and father that things turned out like this!! Do whatever it takes to bring me sacrifices!!"
"We have no excuse… Miss."
Even as she raged, none of her vassals showed any sign of displeasure.
"Miss."
Just then, a knight cautiously approached and bowed to her.
"What? Can’t you see I’m busy?!"
"We have captured the ones responsible for attacking slave trader Baron. Only four of them wiped out the entire site. Judging by the traces they left behind, they seem to be highly trained individuals."
At those words, Vania Remilish tilted her head slightly.
"Bring them in."
At her command, four men and women were led in, surrounded by soldiers.
One of them had a deep hood pulled over their face, but that was of no concern to her.
"So it was you? You dared to kill people on Remilish?"
Vania coldly stared at the gray-haired boy standing at the front.
He looked to be around the same age as her.
But his gray hair and sky-blue eyes reminded her of that disgusting Central Continent girl in the coffin, making her feel sick.
The boy said nothing and merely gazed at the ritual circle.
"Miss, these individuals would make excellent sacrifices. What should we do with them?"
"Why even ask? They’re criminals anyway. No need to be picky. This ritual must not fail."
At those words, the boy began walking forward.
Sword Master Ropal stepped in front of him to block his path, but the boy didn’t even acknowledge Ropal’s overwhelming aura and simply took another step.
"Stop—"
Ropal tried to halt him by force.
But in that instant, the boy’s figure seemingly vanished, and before anyone realized it, he was already standing in front of the coffin at the center of the ritual circle.
The ropes that had bound him were long since cut.
And now, he was trying to open it.
What a fool.
Hundreds of lock spells were cast upon that coffin.
Even an Archmage would need days to unravel them.
"Luna, Master Key."
Then, the boy quietly muttered.
At that moment, the hooded girl, who had somehow moved unnoticed, raised a hand.
A black glove covered her fingers.
CRACK!
Instantly, the hundreds of layered spells flickered and twisted.
* * *
When encrypting something to make it difficult to decode, there are two main approaches.
One is to create a high-level cipher that is nearly impossible to crack.
The other is to implement a system that is easy to break but takes an extremely long time to do so.
The former is hard to crack but collapses all at once once a weakness is found, while the latter is easy to break but requires an impractical amount of time.
However, what use are hundreds of locks on a vault when you can simply blow the entire door away?
Shattering the remnants of the broken magic, I reached for the coffin.
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HELHEIM SCANS
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