“Ugh… I’m gonna die. A patrol at this hour?”
“Just hang in there a little longer. At least tonight’s watch is on the easier side.”
“That’s true, but still… Caron is way too strict.”
“We don’t have a choice. I heard we barely managed to capture any rats.”
“Even so, using elite personnel like us for something like this… I mean, what kind of idiot would try a kidnapping in a situation like this? It’s just a waste of manpower.”
The two instructors grumbled as they disappeared into the darkness.
A moment later, three small boulders began whispering among themselves.
“Looks like Instructor Caron went somewhere.”
“Keke, this is the perfect opportunity for us.”
“No, no, it’s the exact opposite! Our guardian left us alone! W-we’re going to dieee!”One of the “boulders” started shaking wildly from side to side—it was actually a disguised box containing Rezé.
Just moments ago, the instructors had passed right by us, but they didn’t notice a thing.
‘Well, if even the great Caron couldn’t see through it, that’s to be expected.’
Rezé’s camouflage box—it never fails to impress me.
Except for the fact that we have to waddle around like ducks to move.
“Can’t you make the box a little bigger?”
“I-if we’re just staying still, sure, but… when we move, it’s impossible. T-there are too many light reflection angles to account for…”
“But at least one of them—”
“N-no way! It’d be too risky!”
Rezé shouted with absolute conviction—completely unwavering.
I really wanted to smack her on the head, but when it came to the box, Rezé was the expert.
I had no choice but to listen to the stubborn little rabbit.
Waddle, waddle, waddle—
And so, we waddled forward in our little boxes, inching ahead.
For an organization called the “Dark Beast Squad,” our actions were surprisingly cautious.
Then again, anyone who knew about the monsters lurking around here would do the same.
Caron, the Empire’s Rat.
Adonis, the Kingdom’s Hero.
And Lowell, the Mad Lion.
‘There are way too many monsters around.’
Wearing a cloak marked with blood-red clouds and an animal mask, we looked suspicious no matter how you sliced it.
If we ran into any of them, the outcome was obvious.
You might think we could just ditch the masks and cloaks, but that wasn’t an option.
The reason this Hidden Piece activated in the first place was because we had founded the secret organization known as the “Dark Beast Squad.”
‘And now we’re supposed to take off our masks and cloaks? That’d be the same as giving up on the Hidden Piece.’
Since we were already doing this, we might as well see it through.
Fortunately, getting caught by Caron or Adonis wouldn’t be the worst thing.
Caron’s the type who captures suspicious people and interrogates them for information—he doesn’t kill on sight.
Adonis is the same. He’s so strong that he has the luxury of showing mercy. That so-called “grace of the strong.”
‘I’ve built up some favor with them, so we should at least be able to talk.’
Plus, Caron likes Luna, so our lives should be relatively safe.
Of course, it wasn’t a 100% guarantee. There was still one person we absolutely had to avoid.
‘The Mad Lion.’
Given her aggressive nature, she’d probably cut us down the moment she found us suspicious.
Not that we were completely unprepared for that.
‘I’m not weak enough to die in one hit.’
I had the [Absolute Defense] skill from the Carpathia Defense Battle.
I didn’t have enough mana to use it multiple times, but once? No problem.
And after that?
‘Well… I guess I’ll just take off my mask and beg for my life.’
We were students, so she wouldn’t kill us.
Of course, that’d mean the “Dark Beast Squad” would never be able to operate again…
Originally, I wouldn’t have minded, since it all started as a joke.
But now…
‘I have a feeling.’
Something told me that even after this episode, we’d end up wearing these masks again.
It was the intuition of a veteran player.
So, avoiding Lowell was definitely the right move.
Luckily, avoiding her wasn’t too difficult.
“How is Lady Lowell’s condition?”
“S-same as before. She… she seems to be sleeping.”
“And Instructor Caron?”
“He’s f-far away. His position hasn’t changed much.”
Rezé had learned [Mana Tracking] from Lucia.
Thanks to that, we could detect Caron and Lowell’s locations in real time.
“M-moving now.”
Following Rezé’s lead, we moved slowly, and sometimes quickly, depending on the situation.
By the time we had passed three patrols—
“W-we’re out of the instructors’ surveillance range.”
“Keke, excellent work. A superb performance.”
“L-let’s go back now! I-I don’t see anything here anyway!”
Rezé was right. There was nothing but a faint mist around us.
Not a single demon. Not even a strand of human hair.
However—
“Keke, it’s fine. We’ll just find them ourselves.”
“W-what?”
“If nothing’s here, we’ll go to them. We’ll go straight to the demons.”
“Eeeek!”
Was she thrilled at the idea of providing a “delivery service”?
Rezé let out a scream of joy(?).
Her box wobbled violently side to side—
And just then, voices echoed from a distance.
We immediately ducked inside our boxes.
A few moments later, two figures emerged from the mist.
They were soldiers guarding Trash Village.
“…But are we really allowed to do this?”
“Agh, come on. Didn’t the knights order us to rest at night? Who would come to this backwater village at this hour anyway?”
“Well, yeah… but haven’t there been cases lately that seem like kidnappings?”
“They weren’t kidnappings. Those kids ran away. It’s not like this is the first time we’ve dealt with something like this.”
“Even Dolores? You know as well as I do—she’s not the kind of child who would abandon her parents and just leave.”
“…We can’t pretend to understand what goes on in every kid’s mind. Let’s just go inside and have a drink. I smuggled in a few bottles.”
“But…”
“Ah, leave it to the higher-ups. They’ll handle it just fine. We should just focus on taking care of ourselves.”
With that, he gave the worried soldier a firm push on the back.
Jingle—
The sound of clinking coins echoed several times from his uniform.
It wasn’t hard to guess why the soldier’s pockets were so full.
He had been paid—to slack off on his patrol. By “someone.”
A moment later, Luna lifted the box above her head and slipped out.
“Who bribed them?”
“Keke, who knows? But our destination is clear now.”
Luna nodded.
Trash Village had only one entrance—the culprit would have to come through there.
Fortunately, it wasn’t far.
Tap, tap—
As we arrived at the village entrance, a bonfire greeted us.
There was no sign of any people.
As if lonely from being left alone, the fire crackled and sent embers dancing in the air, holding a tiny welcome ceremony for us.
We huddled inside our boxes, warming ourselves by the fire.
That was when—
“S-someone’s coming this wayyy!”
About three minutes after Rezé’s warning—
Three figures emerged from the mist.
They wore hoods, but as they passed near the bonfire, I caught a glimpse of their faces.
Middle-aged men.
One of them, a man with a patchy white beard, clicked his tongue in annoyance.
“Ugh, what a pain in the ass.”
“We don’t have a choice. If we want to avoid the instructors’ eyes, this is the only way.”
I didn’t recognize the other two, but I knew that grumbling man.
He was the knight who had been standing behind Baron Kelven the day we arrived in the village.
He raised his arm and sniffed himself.
“But seriously, a pigsty? A knight like me, crawling around in filth?”
“We had no choice. The village is packed with people, and the instructors patrol the inner area every evening. There was no way to slip out.”
“Then just cut them down. Their sword skills must be as rusty as the grease coating their bellies.”
“You shouldn’t underestimate them. They may be young, but they’ve been recognized for their skills.”
“There’s no way they’re on our level. We’ve been through hundreds of real battles. What, are you scared?”
“…Of course not. If this were our time, those brats wouldn’t even dare look us in the eye.”
That response must have satisfied him, because the grumbling knight smirked.
“Let’s move before he starts barking at us.”
“Cheh, fine.”
Creak—
A door opened slightly, and the three men slipped through.
Luna immediately threw off her box.
“Who the hell are they? They’re knights, aren’t they?”
“Keke, indeed. Something smells fishy.”
“W-well, of course it smells! They came from a pigsty!”
Rezé, that’s not what I meant.
Our conversation was brief.
Luna and I exchanged a glance before silently tailing them.
A rabbit’s sorrowful whimper followed in our wake.
The knights came to a stop at an abandoned mine deep in the forest.
Two of them stood guard while the third manipulated something on the mineshaft wall.
Rumble—
The ground shifted, revealing a hidden staircase.
One by one, the knights descended, disappearing from view.
Rumble—
“…!”
The ground started to close again.
Luna dashed forward, but it was too late. The entrance had already sealed itself.
“Damn it!”
“Keke, calm yourself. We can use the same method to go down.”
“Right! They must’ve—”
We turned to the mineshaft wall.
There, embedded into the rock, was a puzzle.
‘Sudoku, huh.’
A classic 9×9 number puzzle.
Some Sudoku puzzles were notoriously difficult, but this one? A full 50 squares were already filled in.
Even a child could solve it.
“Keke, would you like to try solving it?”
“I do not follow the rules of demons!”
Yeah… so you don’t know how to solve it.
Not that I had any expectations for Luna in the first place.
I turned to Rezé.
“A-a demon’s trick! W-we must destroy it immediatelyyy!”
Rezé raised her magic gun.
…Fine, I’ll do it myself. Just put that thing down.
One section at a time, I swiftly filled in the missing numbers.
It was nothing more than a basic arithmetic exercise, so it didn’t take long.
Rumble—!
“Mmm! Just as I taught you—excellent work.”
“T-to solve a demon’s trick so easily…! Y-you must be a demon yourselfhh!”
…At this point, I was too tired to even react.
The staircase stretched endlessly downward.
We relied on glowing crystals embedded in the walls to light our way.
At last, we reached the chamber where the knights had gone.
Tall rock formations scattered throughout the area provided plenty of hiding spots.
“Agh! I’m exhausted. No matter how many times we do this, I never get used to it.”
“Just a little longer. It’ll all be over in three days.”
Completely unaware that they were being followed, the knights lounged around, taking a well-earned break.
One of them had even sprawled out on the ground, completely at ease.
“The next step… Place the red mana stone here…”
Only one person was actually working.
He was reading from a sheet of paper, carefully placing materials onto a magic circle one by one.
Tap, tap!
Luna frantically tapped my shoulder. It wasn’t hard to figure out why.
I was seeing the same thing she was.
“Mmph! Mm! Mmmph!”
The last missing child from Trash Village—the one I had never once seen alive in the game.
Dolores was there, gasping for breath, her breathing rough and unsteady.
–TL Notes–
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