Episode 166
Chapter 56: The Sculptor of Chaos (Part 1)
Splash!
A bucket of cold water was dumped onto the face of the fake Otern, who was fast asleep. Bound to a chair, the imposter jolted awake, shivering.
“Ugh…”
In front of him sat Alisa, meticulously filing her nails with a nail file. The Seven-Colored Bird operative who had thrown the water saluted crisply and left, locking the door behind him.
As the door shut, cutting off the light from the hallway, the underground interrogation room where Alisa and the fake Otern faced each other was swallowed by darkness.
“Dealing with scum like you always brings back memories I’d rather forget.”
Scritch, scratch.
The sound of the nail file scraping against her nails echoed sharply in the silence. Every time the file caught the light, Alisa’s expressionless face briefly appeared in the dimness.
She had taken over the interrogation herself, opposing Latrig’s use of Yuria’s power for ‘resonance.’ She worried that if Latrig made a mistake during the resonance, this bleak scene and the villain’s face might be imprinted into her daughter’s absolute vision.
Now, she was the strong, capable, bright, and righteous captain of Tikan’s guard.
But in her past life, she had been the second squad’s deputy leader of the Biment Special Forces. Their main duty was protecting the royal family, but ‘protection’ entailed far more than just standing guard.
They investigated the backgrounds of captured assassins, conducted interrogations, and if necessary, resorted to torture.
Among Tikan’s comrades, Alisa was the one most familiar with screams. And there were few in the world more accustomed to them than she was.
“Damn it, what the hell is this…”
She stopped filing and gently blew on her nails.
“Let me write a letter. If you want a ransom, I’ll make the request to the council. Who are you people? You claim to be disciples of Kidard Hall, but attacking us must be some kind of mistake.”
The fake Otern still believed he was a disciple of Jin Kidard. Like the deceased Rolt, he had never been told otherwise by Jin himself.
“There’s no mistake. The chair you’re sitting in now is all that remains of your world.”
“Hah, are you planning to torture me? What do you want?”
“Information about the Dark Magic Council. Everything you know.”
“You don’t seem to know much for a disciple of Kidard Hall. Even if you dig into us, it won’t do you any good. Kidard himself maintained a cautious relationship with us. If the council finds out I was tortured—”
“You’re curious about how many ways this nail file can be used, aren’t you? Mato Becker, the killer of Hasum.”
“How… do you know my name?”
The fake Otern—no, Mato Becker’s eyes widened.
During the four days Mato had been unconscious from reflux, Alisa had used the Seven-Colored Bird operatives to gather information on him.
By confirming when the real Otern Melson, a vegetarian, disappeared and tracking Mato’s movements while disguised as Otern, she had easily uncovered his true identity.
Mato was infamous for his love of murder, a notorious mage who had long been a thorn in the side of the small kingdom of Hasum.
Scritch, scratch…
The nail file resumed its relentless scraping.
“I’m the deputy leader of the Special Forces’ second squad. And the one you’re messing with isn’t a disciple of Kidard Hall—it’s the eighth prince of Biment.”
“W-what did you say…?”
“Hard to believe, isn’t it? Even I couldn’t believe it when I saw how that rotten old scoundrel from Hasum transformed into the academy-trained senior mage Otern Melson. Let’s take some time to build trust between us, shall we?”
“The eighth prince? No way… Could it be that the Biment royal family was behind Kidard’s death during the reflux…?”
“Shh. If you want to die a little more comfortably, that’s not the story you should be telling.”
Aaaaargh!
Before Alisa could even begin, Mato Becker screamed. There was no way out—no chance of surviving this.
An hour later, Alisa emerged from the underground interrogation room.
“Thank you for your hard work, Lady Alisa.”
“Prince Jin, Enya.”
The two waited for her in the first-floor lounge of the mansion.
“Did you get anything?”
“Of course. He spilled some pretty shocking information. We learned the location of the Dark Magic Council’s main headquarters, some of their affiliated mages, and details about their shapeshifters.”
“Shapeshifters?”
“We should all go upstairs and discuss it in detail, Prince Jin.”
In just one hour, she had brought back the cream of the crop. Jin was quietly impressed, while Enya’s face turned pale as she imagined what had happened in the interrogation room.
Alisa smiled gently as she looked at Enya.
“Don’t let your imagination run wild, Enya. The interrogation was conducted in a very humane manner. Once Prince Jin revealed he was the eighth prince of Biment and I said I was from the Special Forces’ second squad, he started talking smoothly. It was kind of strange, pretending to be from the organization I used to belong to.”
“Oh, I was just worried you might have had a hard time because of that man…”
“Ha. Mato Becker was a trash who enjoyed killing innocent civilians. He talked too easily, actually. When I looked into the atrocities he committed in Hasum, it was horrifying.”
“Without torture?” Jin and Enya exchanged a look, wondering if that was true or not. If asked to pick the scariest among their comrades, they would both choose Alisa without hesitation.
“So, what happens to Mato now?”
“That’s not something you need to worry about, Enya. Ha ha.”
“Y-yes.”
They headed to Kashmir’s office, where all their comrades had gathered.
“Alright, now that everyone’s here, let’s get organized. Prince Jin really brought in someone valuable. The Dark Magic Council’s main base is, surprisingly, in Oterium.”
“Oterium?”
“Oterium? That’s the old capital of Vankela, isn’t it?”
Murakan and Quikantel answered simultaneously, and Alisa nodded.
“That’s right. It was the capital when Vankela was located in the southwestern corner of the Eastern Continent. That was over five hundred years ago, so Quikantel must have lived through that time.”
Murakan had been asleep then, but Quikantel clearly remembered when Vankela was on the brink of destruction.
“I wasn’t there, but it was such a big event that I remember it well.”
Over five centuries ago, Vankela was invaded by demons. The attack aimed to reclaim the demon relic ‘Eye of Zito,’ which Vankela had safeguarded since its founding.
At that time, Runkandel and Ziphl sent knights and mages to aid neutral Vankela.
The ‘Holy Kingdom Defense War,’ the only war where Runkandel and Ziphl joined forces, ended with Vankela’s victory. But the land was so devastated it was impossible to rebuild.
So Vankela relocated to the continent’s center and was effectively re-founded. The old capital became an unprotected zone, now a habitat for monsters.
As Quikantel explained, Murakan yawned, surprised such events had occurred.
Jin tried to hide his unease.
‘Oterium is where the final form of the annihilation flame magic tome, the legacy of Rio Ziphl, is kept. Why the hell would those bastards set up base there?’
The Dark Magic Council wouldn’t have chosen that place without reason. After all, the old council was wiped out by Rio Ziphl.
They had planned a minor villain cleanup, but the deeper they dug, the more unexpected big fish kept surfacing.
“When did they establish themselves there?”
“About fifty years ago, I think. Anyway, as Prince Jin said, the Dark Magic Council is far from just a remnant. As expected, Rolt’s older brother, Chagoon, was also part of the council. And that’s not all.”
Alisa listed the names of the council’s mages she had extracted from Mato, and the comrades let out short sighs.
“Fegiron Hensark, senior member of Biment Academy; Susan Lilista, head of the Lilista family; Chukon Tolderer, grand mage of Anz. These three are confirmed among the nine-star mages. Mato didn’t know anyone beyond them.”
“Rolt told me before he died that he was ranked within the top ten in the council. So he was tenth. What the hell are these people? If the Dark Magic Council is this powerful, then Kinzello himself must be even worse.”
Even Jin was stunned this time. He couldn’t even imagine why such powerful figures would gather in the Dark Magic Council.
‘I’d never heard that Kinzello and the Dark Magic Council were this formidable before my reincarnation. I just found out by chance, but the main family and Ziphl probably already knew.’
That had to be the case.
With such powerful people involved, there was no way Runkandel, Ziphl, and Biment were unaware.
Why?
That was the question they now had to investigate. But with so many heavyweights involved, acting rashly was out of the question.
‘The main family, Ziphl, and Biment must have their reasons for watching from the sidelines. Either they want something from this, or they judge that stirring things up would do more harm than good. All the major powers.’
Remembering that even when Kinzello was at his peak, the great powers didn’t intervene, Jin’s speculation turned into certainty.
Just getting a rough sense of Kinzello’s scale was already a major breakthrough.
“There’s another shocking piece of news,” Alisa continued, revealing more information. “It seems Kinzello has shapeshifters in their ranks. The perfect transformation of Mato Baker into Orton Melson was actually the work of a man named Bubar Gaston.”
Kasimir’s eyes widened as Alisa spoke.
For Jin, this was the story he had been waiting for.
“Wait a minute—Bubar Gaston? That’s the name that came up when Lord Jin asked me to investigate Vishkel Ibliano, isn’t it?”
“Well, it’s not confirmed, but there’s a possibility that Vishkel is affiliated with Kinzello. He visits the Duchy of Kurano once a week, and each time, he goes to a certain sculpture workshop.”
“The workshop is called ‘Art is Explosion’—a bizarre name, I know—and its owner is Bubar Gaston. From what I’ve found out, Bubar is an executive within Kinzello. Since Vishkel meets with him every week, it definitely raises suspicions.”
As Kasimir recalled his past conversations with Jin, he couldn’t help but be impressed. Meanwhile, the dragons all zeroed in on the word “shapeshifting.”
“How on earth does a human manage to transform like that? And to transform someone else, no less? This isn’t just a disguise?”
“That’s the first I’ve heard of it, too. Shapeshifting is a blessing granted only to us dragons…”
“Hmm, Mato himself didn’t seem to know the exact method. Apparently, he swallowed some kind of anesthetic, passed out, and when he woke up, Bubar had already completed the transformation.”
“I’ve actually encountered assassins who had already transformed before Mato. On the day I left Stormhold, zealots disguised as paladins tried to kill me.”
When Jin brought up that incident, all eyes turned to him.
“…And there was that time at the banquet when I nearly killed Bubar myself. I’ll go meet him in person and see what I can find out.”