Chapter 10
“Please present your pass.”
Alium took out a wooden piece from his pocket and submitted it.
“A temporary pass will not allow you to pass through.”
“Why not? I passed with it last time.”
“It’s because a report has been filed from the Kingdom of Tholis.”
“Hm. It can’t be helped then. How long does it take to issue a formal pass?”
“You’ll need to wait about a day.”
Next to the checkpoint, there was a building.
In front of it, several other carriages were parked, in addition to ours.
As we entered the building, quite a few people were resting inside.
It seemed everyone was waiting to pass through the checkpoint.
We also settled down in a corner to take a break.
“By the way, the fact that a report was filed means…”
“They’ve begun their tracking too.”
“Why are they chasing us?”
The Headmaster wouldn’t be too disappointed that we had disappeared. After all, we were expendable.
The problem was Den.
It seemed he was obsessively targeting us.
“Perhaps you’re not the target.”
“If it’s not us….”
“It would be us.”
The two had infiltrated the Kingdom of Tholis for a mission.
Their target was the assassination of the next heir to the mercenary guild of the Kingdom of Tholis.
“This situation has taken a turn for the worse. When we go back, we’ll be in for it.”
“Why didn’t you go for Juan right after infiltrating?”
“I didn’t expect the Headmaster to assign you.”
Solche shared with us the original plan he had created.
It involved raising his rapport with Juan before discreetly handling him.
“That sounds quite reckless.”
“Since it’s a transformed face, it won’t matter if I get found out.”
Speaking of transformations, I asked Solche how long the current state of me and Jema would last.
“I manufactured it using a special method. It will last at least a week. In other words, we won’t get found out until we pass through tomorrow.”
As late night came, people inside the building began to fall asleep one by one.
We took turns on watch in pairs to be prepared for any unexpected situations.
The first watch was between Alium and me.
On the surface, Alium appeared taciturn, but he was quite talkative.
He incessantly shared stories from when he took the information broker exam and various experiences.
“That must have been when I just became an information broker…”
Alium’s stories were quite interesting.
From dramatic escapes from dangerous enemy hideouts to treasure hunts and how an assassination target ended up being a woman he became close with during the mission.
While it must have been troubling for him, there couldn’t be a more entertaining story for the listener.
Listening to his tales made me lose track of time.
“It’s time for a shift change.”
As the watch changed, I lay down with my head on the floor and quickly fell asleep.
I woke up to the sound of people murmuring.
“Everyone, please line up and state your affiliation and name one by one!”
They were checking countless individuals to pass through the checkpoint.
“Name and occupation.”
“Sebastian Lucas. Affiliation is here.”
Jema handed over a business card with a fake name.
The agent, not highly suspicious, checked the card and returned it.
During the long wait, we each came up with aliases and matched our stories.
“What about that child over there?”
“He’s my child, but there’s no one at home, so I couldn’t leave him alone.”
“It must be tough working and watching over him.”
The checkpoint staff seemed convinced that I was Jema’s child.
We registered as employees from a certain company on business in the area.
Getting back into the carriage, we slowly exited the checkpoint alongside other carriages.
“By the way, what if they find out the company is fake?”
“Don’t worry, it’s a real company.”
Solche seemed to have some confidence in the company name written on the fake business card.
It didn’t seem to be just a makeshift name created to get through this situation.
The Kingdom of Adleren was completely different from the Kingdom of Tholis right from the entrance.
Welcoming signs and grand sculptures made it feel like a highway.
The Kingdom of Adleren had neatly maintained roads stretching on.
Even though the carriage was moving at quite a fast speed, there wasn’t a single sound of rattling.
“Let’s race to Simon!”
“Slow down. You’ll have to drive all day.”
I caught a brief glimpse of a city passing by outside the moving carriage.
The tall buildings reminded me of where I used to live.
We stopped at a rest area to take a break.
What was different from the rest areas I knew was that this one just had a large dining area. There wasn’t a variety of snacks or food.
Deciding to take a break and have a meal, a variety of dishes were placed on the table and we began to eat.
“Ugh!”
“What’s wrong?”
During the meal, Alium held his head and groaned.
“No, I got a contact.”
“Wow. It seems like the reception here is great.”
Alium, while in contact with someone, was bowing and keeping a subservient posture.
“Is the person providing support your superior? They must be quite high up.”
Otherwise, I couldn’t understand such an odd demeanor.
“They’re from another department, and their rank is even higher than ours.”
“That explains the atmosphere.”
Alium was answering with a bowed posture even though the other party couldn’t see him.
“And what did they say?”
“They said the situation in Simon isn’t bad. But it seems the rumors have spread.”
Alium conveyed the information he received from the support team to us.
Currently, a detective unit was dispatched from the Kingdom of Tholis.
“Detective unit?”
“Students recruited from the Royal Academy.”
At that, I stood up in surprise.
“No way, why students?”
“Because they’re skilled from the Academy and especially because they know your faces. It wouldn’t be hard to track you down.”
Behind the detective unit, the Headmaster would certainly be there.
Recalling what he had said, it would make perfect sense.
He likely wanted to capture us in order to provide the students with battle experience.
“So the interests of those two aligned.”
The Headmaster sought me and Jema, while Den collaborated with Solche and Alium to find them.
“When did they figure it out? The transformation was flawless.”
“I don’t know, but it’s certain that it’s possible they suspected us before I infiltrated.”
If that was true, it would mean the Headmaster accepted Solche as a teacher while knowing his identity.
“But Den came after taking care of his predecessor, right?”
“What if that predecessor was bait?”
“Were we led into the enemy’s plans…?”
After finishing our meal and getting back into the carriage, we encountered a strange sight.
Carriages were lined up long, and each one was having their windows checked.
“Could that be the detective unit?”
“No, none of the faces I saw at the Academy are there.”
The checkpoint was just a bit stricter since it was a pathway through the city center of the Kingdom of Adleren.
Just in case, Alium handed the driver’s seat over to Jema.
Thanks to the transformation potion, my appearance had slightly altered to look more like a man, making it harder to recognize me.
In contrast, Solche was known, so he urgently attempted to disguise himself.
“Can’t you just change to another face with the potion?”
“I have to conserve it as much as possible. I’ll have to figure something out with a disguise.”
Although I could revert to my original form and take on my demon appearance, that would ruin the plan.
We passed through a total of three more checkpoints until we exited the city area.
“Why is the Kingdom of Adleren checking so thoroughly?”
“The Kingdom of Adleren shares a border with the Latnia Empire.”
They say a major road connecting the Kingdom of Adleren and the Latnia Empire was just completed recently.
It seems they are concerned about us heading into the Empire.
Though Simon is on the outskirts for Adleren, it’s quite close to the Empire.
I wonder why we decided to meet at such a dangerous location.
By the time we arrived in Simon, it was already midnight.
The carriage quietly moved through the alley of Simon and parked in a corner.
Before getting out of the carriage, Alium informed us of the meeting location.
“If we happen to be chased by them, let’s meet there.”
“Okay. But we’re still moving together, right?”
“In case of an emergency, we may have to scatter.”
After getting off the carriage, we donned different cloaks than the ones we wore when leaving Tholis.
In the streets, many people wearing similar cloaks to ours were visible.
Simon was a city bringing to mind extravagant neon signs.
Drunken people were scattered throughout the streets.
In front of a tavern, fights were occasionally visible.
In this city, we headed towards a quite old building.
The sign of JS Building caught my eye, feeling oddly familiar.
JS Group.
Originally, it was a company founded by three friends that sold construction materials.
Before I died, they had become quite a large corporation domestically. Of course, all the original members had passed away, and their successors took over.
One of the first executives was particularly close with a friend of mine, so I had met him two or three times.
Anyway, seeing the company name in a place like this brought back memories.
“You can’t wear hoods inside.”
A well-dressed attendant politely instructed us at the counter.
As I removed my hood and revealed my face, the attendant’s expression slightly distorted.
“This friend suffered burns.”
“I see. What brings you here?”
“There’s someone who’s supposed to receive flower delivery, right?”
Checking some documents, the attendant soon attempted to make a call.
While I had never seen a phone in the Kingdom of Tholis, it was used here as if it were completely normal.
“Please go up to the 13th floor.”
We followed the directions and all entered the elevator together.
Ding!
With a clear sound, the elevator quickly reached the 13th floor.
As the doors opened, there was a reception desk similar to the one on the first floor.
“We received contact. They are waiting inside.”
As Alium opened and pushed the handle of the large wooden door, it swung open smoothly.
The room was completely dark, but it wasn’t dark inside.
The city lights filtered through the floor-to-ceiling windows into the room.
“They must have been pretty urgent to request support.”
“A knight has been dispatched.”
In the inner room, someone was sitting in a large chair facing the window in front of a desk.
The backrest of the chair obscured their overall appearance, but it seemed to be a woman.
As the chair slowly turned from the window towards us, silvery white hair fluttered.
When she opened her eyes, they shone with a bright yellow light.
“It was a good decision.”