Volume 3, Chapter 28: Gentleman of Death, Tony Lair④
Lambert and Kreuz infiltrated the large-scale underground research facility in Tetomburgh.
Tetomburgh City, which was only a small-sized city in Viscount Le Gael’s territory, had actually housed a giant underground research facility.
The few citizens aboveground were nothing more than camouflage to hide the underground facilities.
After gaining the cooperation from Viscount Le Gael and securing a base, the basement of Tetomburgh, a ghost town due to Viscount Le Gael’s mismanagement, had turned into the nest of 『Devil’s Piper』.
The large-scale underground research facility had many puzzling passages.
The wall and floor were made from stone. The passage wasn’t that wide. It was just enough for three people to walk side by side, which also gave a sense of oppression.
Before the branching passage was another branching passage.
「To think that there was such a giant labyrinth beneath the town…」
Kreuz muttered this.
「It is just as that red-haired youth said.」
Lambert replied.
The red-haired youth was referring to Alante, the young sorcerer who tried to escape from Tetomburgh along with the girl in a wheelchair.
『『Angel of Death』, one of the subdivisions of 『Devil’s Piper』 …has been using Tetomburgh as the base of their operation to gather the children in the territory, advancing their research on sorcery. You’ll find an “X” mark on the floor beneath a long table in the abandoned church. That’s one of the entrances to the research facility.』
Alante gave the information about the research facility before Lambert and Co. departed.
Lambert had guessed that there was still some of 『Angel of Death』’s sorcerers left in the underground research facility, following Alante’s guidance to enter the underground research facility.
But then Alante added.
『…But you might regret it if you come. That place is Hell. Even I never dared to step into the third floor or the deeper levels of the facility. The scene over there might be too much for you… I know this from the bigshots in 『Angel of Death』. Even I, who never went there, know that no sane person would go down there.』
Color drained from the faces of the members of 『Phoenix’s Eyes』 upon hearing that, but Lambert was the only one who calmly replied with 『Thanks for the precious information』 even after hearing that.
Although Kreuz’s subordinates were losing their willpower upon hearing Alante’s story, they instantly recovered upon seeing Lambert’s composed state.
Seeing that, Kreuz wondered, ‘Just how much carnage has this person seen for him to stay this calm after hearing such an unbearable story?’
WIth his character, there was no way that the armored swordsman before him was a mere nameless person.
Although he somewhat understood the other party as someone who also trained in swordcraft that surpassed that of most and someone who bore certain responsibilities, the man before him had a much bigger vessel.
The passage continued on as he wondered about such things.
Kreuz turned around and walked backward as he realized that the structure of the passage was prone to a pincer attack.
If strong sorcerers attacked them from both sides, he wouldn’t show them any mercy.
「…I wish we had another one following us in this place. I mean, another one might not be a problem rather than having all 『Phoenix’s Eyes』 members in this place. Our main duty is to inspect various places by using a group of small but elite members. I never expected that we’d enter right into our enemy’s base.」
There was six members of 『Phoenix’s Eyes』’s second division, including Kreuz who following Lambert.
The reason why he brought almost half of the squad was to guard the safety of the children and bring them out of the research facility.
Thus, there were a total of seven people who infiltrated the underground research facility.
In that way, they could fully explore one of the research facilities of the revolutionary organization 『Devil’s Piper』.
It wasn’t his true intention.
Although the other party was composed of medium- to high-rank sorcerers, he wouldn’t find it strange even if their number reached the three digits.
「Are you dissatisfied with this method?」
Kreuz revealed a smile upon hearing Lambert’s question.
「Not at all. Although even I know that this sounds unbelievable, I don’t think we’re going to lose. And it might be because of an extremely reliable helper we found during our mission.」
When Lambert advanced as the vanguard and arrived right before the corner, the figure of five old men sitting on the floor entered his line of sight.
The old men were bizarrely short, had black skin, and were unmoving.
Their strange appearance made them look more like goblins than humans.
Kreuz, who followed behind, stopped his gait and unsheathed his sword.
「Are they sorcerers? Be careful.」
Since they were not children, the other party was most likely a sorcerer of 『Angel of Death』.
「Just corpses…」
As an undead, Lambert could sense the flow of mana in their bodies. It was closer to that of a monster than a human.
The five people who sat on the floor didn’t have mana in their bodies.
It was obvious evidence of their deaths.
「…Upon closer inspection, they might be the children who were brought to this city.」
「W-what?! T-that’s…」
Kreuz and Co. looked at those corpses with disbelieving looks on their faces.
Upon coming closer, they understood precisely.
On their wrinkled faces, a mysterious green-colored liquid oozed from their yellow, fallen teeth.
The flecks on their faces were clearly caused by a huge hit to their immune system. Their faces and eyes were distorted by fear and pain.
Their faces were filled with the pained wails of a hellish scene.
「Their skeletal structures are that of children. The cause of their rapid aging is most likely some sort of sorcery.」
「I-I never knew that such a spell existed.」
One of Kreuz’s subordinates, the swordswoman Fleur, said this with a look of disbelief on her face.
That kind of spell did exist in myths and legends.
「No, I heard that there was research for that kind of spell during the Eight Countries Unification War Era…」
Kreuz muttered with a helpless voice as he looked at the corpses in front of him.
Lambert was also looking at the corpses in silence.
He stood still for a while with that posture.
Kreuz and Co. were following his example. They also stopped in their tracks.
Kreuz pondered whether Lambert was silently praying for the corpses or simply shocked upon seeing this scene.
Lambert suddenly went ahead after a brief silence.
He unsheathed his greatsword, cutting several lumps of lights that came from the stagnated darkness of the passage ahead of them with seemingly nothing in it.
The light was sliced apart by the greatsword, vanishing into the air.
But from a third-person perspective, Lambert’s swordcraft that had already reached the transcendent realm looked like he simply sliced the light as soon as it appeared.
「And here I was wondering why the cheeky kingdom soldiers dared to go in with a small number of people. It turns out you have appropriate strength to back that confidence.」
A woman suddenly appeared from the passage, landing on the floor with a beautiful somersault.
The red-and-black-colored robe which had become the symbol of the members of 『Angel of Death』 was fluttering in the air. freewebn(o)vel
Her long, black-and-white hair draped on the floor.
The right half of her figure was that of a young woman.
The gloss of her hair and skin and her bright eyes were full of vitality.
As long as one excluded her lack of manners and expressionless face, she was a beauty.
But her left side was that of an old woman.
Her eyes were sunken, and her skin was filled with deep wrinkles.
Contrary to her almost wicked right side with plump, red lips, the left side was pale and withered.
And as if to symbolize that, in her right hand was a bright yellow apple filled with vitality, and there was a blackened skull in her left hand.
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