The guy who had just shown up and made a fuss was someone he had found distasteful before for being particularly fidgety and never greeting properly. He was even less likely to call him Brother in a friendly way, but strangely, it felt different this time.
The man tilted his head and glanced back behind the box once. Since there were other guys there, it seemed fine to leave his spot for a bit.
He stepped toward the entrance, following the ones who had gone ahead. Since the faces were the same, he couldn’t convince himself it was a different person, and he grew a little curious about what kind of serious matter had made that usually sloppy guy run all the way here and desperately call him Brother.
Taking long strides, the man turned the bend in the cave that curved right. Then, he abruptly froze at the sight before him.
“Wh–what the fu—. What is this—.”
The sight was shocking. His colleague who had gone ahead was lying on the floor as if he’d fainted in that brief moment. The problem was his shirt had been stripped off and tossed aside, and his pants were halfway down, as though someone had started removing them but stopped midway.
The sprawled, exposed body stirred his disgust, but more than that, fear gripped him. There had to be a culprit behind this, yet the mercenary who had followed after him was nowhere to be seen.
His complexion shifting from red to pale blue in real time as he spat curses, the man instinctively stepped back. Just then, he felt a sharp push against his shoulder from behind. Startled, he instantly swung his fist backward, but it only cut through empty air.
Without even seeing who had pushed him, his vision went black—the hand reaching toward his eyes the last thing he saw.
****
Meanwhile, Alec, pacing near the entrance of the mining team’s hideout, was waiting for Leonardo while keeping watch with unexpected diligence. From time to time, he whistled in rhythm with the thudding noises echoing from inside.
“He said he’d go quietly, but it sounds like he’s about to wake the whole place.”
Alec pulled a uniquely designed pocket watch from his coat to check the time and clicked his tongue. He’d planned to leave before dawn, but time had dragged on more than expected, and daybreak was nearly upon them.
Still, since they had made a contract, he had no choice but to wait for its fulfillment, so he planned his next moves while humming idly.
At that moment, he sensed a faint presence at the end of the passage. Alec stopped humming at once and stared in that direction. Since the cave stretched in a straight line, there was nowhere to hide, so he fumbled behind his back pocket for anything that could serve as a weapon.
The presence drew closer, footsteps growing louder. The pace felt cautious, yet bold—no attempt to conceal the sound, which only raised the tension.
A silhouette emerged from the darkness, becoming clearer with each step. When the figure drew close enough for the face to be made out, Alec’s expression flickered in mild surprise, as though he hadn’t expected it.
He pushed up his silver-rimmed glasses to see properly. Then, masking his bewilderment with a grin, he said,
“How did you... get here?”
****
Leonardo, disguised as a senior manager in his forties with chestnut hair and a long scar at the corner of his mouth, blankly stared at the tall metal box before him. Piled atop it, the etaide gleamed a brilliant blue in the torchlight. A smile curved his lips.
“Found it.”
Around him, bodies of the defeated lay strewn about. He hadn’t killed them—only knocked them out.
Oddly, the storage area for etaide had been set apart, making him lose his way several times. Guarding it were a dozen or so well-trained mercenaries, which made holding back his strength harder than usual. He had tried to go easy on them, but they charged at him in earnest.
Since they were just men earning a living, he made sure to knock them out painlessly. And for the one he had nearly sent straight to heaven or hell with a poorly aimed strike, he even propped him against the wall, wishing him a swift recovery.
After shoving the unconscious to the side, Leonardo vaulted onto the box in one leap, like clearing a high fence. There, an overwhelming heap of etaide dazzled his eyes.
He crouched down atop the minerals, scooping handfuls of the blue crystals. He wanted to savor the thrill of treasure found, but pressed for time, he only confirmed their authenticity.
The shape, the color, and the energy that spread when he let a faint stream of mana flow into them—it was exactly what he had sought.
Once satisfied, he touched the red gem on the ring worn on his left index finger and twisted it slightly. With a pop, the gem detached and floated, spinning as it gradually expanded in midair.
It was a type of concealment artifact. When the Council had confiscated his belongings, they hadn’t thoroughly checked the locked interior, so the contents remained intact.
Inside the floating artifact, another blue mana stone shimmered.
It was the mana stone of the Quamare he had caught on the Perion coast three months earlier. Its color and shape closely resembled etaide, making it a perfect substitute. The water attribute of the Quamare stone also amplified expansion when exposed to heat with etaide.
Though he hadn’t brought it intending substitution, it was better no one realized he had taken etaide. Leonardo poured about half of the mana stone onto the box, then filled the artifact with etaide.
After mixing the stones together, their similar density made them almost indistinguishable unless examined closely by an expert.
Up until Alec’s story, he had assumed the etaide was mined simply to be sold.
But after checking nearby minerals, he saw its treatment was different.
Etaide was excluded from the miners’ promised shares, guarded by unusually well-trained mercenaries in great numbers, and hidden in an inaccessible spot.
It was clear etaide was given special treatment.
Compressing the artifact back into the ring, Leonardo hopped lightly from the massive box.
If his suspicion was right—if etaide was the mining team’s true purpose—
He might uncover the reason for its skyrocketing auction price, or even encounter another force with the same purpose as his own. His next step was to find the top senior member who kept this system alive.
Straightening the clothes he had stolen, Leonardo left the cavern and followed the tunnels toward the nearest presence of people.
Since it was still before dawn, the mine was quiet, but after a few turns he encountered someone—burly, with a sour look as well.
Just as he was about to approach and probe for information about Martin, the man, who he thought would pass by, instead glanced around and walked up to him furtively.
It seemed he had business with him. Leonardo stopped and put on a puzzled expression. The man leaned close and whispered,
“Isaac, Martin is calling for you.”
Leonardo stared blankly for a moment, then gave a small nod.
For some reason, it looked like things would go smoother than expected.
****
The owner of this face—Isaac—was a manager guarding a mineral even more precious than etaide. Leonardo assumed the higher the mineral’s value, the higher the manager’s rank, so borrowing this face should make reaching Martin easier.
But he hadn’t expected it to be this perfect.
The burly man led Leonardo, saying only, that person has come.
Of course, Leonardo didn’t know who that person was, so he spoke little, listening instead. From hints that Martin would be reprimanded over the miners’ escape, Leonardo sensed it was a backer sustaining this system.
The sort Alec had mentioned—leaders of powerful merchant groups or businessmen backed by nobles.
Now, disguised as Isaac, Leonardo knelt with one knee bent, swearing fealty to that person. Next to him, the man who had led him here knelt in the same posture, both of them fixing their eyes on the ground.
In this secret chamber reached by winding detours, they dared not lift their heads. They only listened closely to the voices ahead.
There, Martin—whom they had been searching for—was being harshly scolded by what seemed to be that person’s confidant. Sweat poured down his face as he repeatedly stammered that there would be no problem.
From the conversation, it seemed only these three knew of that person’s existence or had the right to meet him.
Such was the secrecy of this meeting. And in it, Leonardo heard answers to his questions in real time.
“For now, at least get the etaide out. We can’t waste time chasing each escapee one by one.”
“Y–yes. Understood.”
The confidant ordered the mining team’s managers to prepare to move out soon. If the Council caught an escapee and interrogated him, this operation could be exposed. He even gave Martin hints about the Council’s current troop movements and missing-person searches, outlining an escape route.
Leonardo swallowed hard. Outsiders should never know this. Such information could only come from wiretapping Council communications or from an insider.
Meanwhile, that person stood silently in the back, watching without speaking, never addressing Martin directly. His reluctance to step forward suggested he was someone whose existence must remain hidden.
But earlier, when Leonardo had followed Martin into the cave, their eyes had met briefly—and since then, Leonardo had been shaken.
Though half his face was hidden by shadow and [N O V E L I G H T] a hood, Leonardo recognized him.
He longed to raise his head and look again, but with five confidants watching, he couldn’t so much as twitch.
As the exchange dragged on, pale dawn seeped in from behind that person, shadows stretching across the floor.
That person turned toward the incoming light. Then he said, as if to call an end,
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, understood.”
The confidant gave final orders to Martin, then went to stand beside that person. Martin bowed. The other kneeling man rose and bowed as well, and Leonardo copied them.
That person and his confidants quickly departed toward the light at the cave’s end. As their footsteps faded, Leonardo lifted his head slightly, watching them leave, then let out a hollow, soundless laugh.
What did I just see?
At the sound of his voice, Leonardo was certain.
When the hood came off, he caught a glimpse of deep green hair.
He had seen it before: at his arrest in the capital’s grand plaza, while smoking on the Council annex terrace, and again at the commanders’ meeting on the peninsula.
The backer who enabled this mining team to thrive unseen by the Council.
The heir of the Clinder family, one of the most powerful noble factions in Raina Logia.
The 3rd Battalion Commander of the Council’s Central Branch. Meterion Clinder.
