Chapter 15. Monster Hunt (1)
The Academy’s Artifact Repository was enormous.
Despite how it appeared from the outside, Space Expansion Magic had been cast upon it, making the interior nearly as vast as the Academy’s library.
Artifacts that looked individually valuable were displayed inside transparent glass cases throughout the space.
After slowly looking them over, Shane turned to Benjamin.
“May I choose anything I want?”
“You may. Of course, you are allowed to take only one, so I imagine you will want to consider your choice carefully.”
“Yes.”
For the benefit of cadets who came here, descriptions explaining the uses of each Artifact had been thoughtfully placed beneath the displays.
Of course, none of the Artifacts here possessed particularly extraordinary abilities.
They were certainly more than ordinary cadets deserved to wield, but they were still far inferior to what one might find in the Repository of the Empire or a kingdom.
They were just valuable enough for the Academy to make an impressive show of rewarding its cadets.
Shane had not expected anything more in the first place, so he showed no disappointment as he slowly examined the collection.
‘I suppose I do not necessarily have to choose an Artifact.’
There were various weapons and pieces of armor, as well as talismans and wearable accessories.
But among them, something else caught Shane’s eye.
“Surely you are not thinking of choosing that?”
Benjamin’s expression turned ambiguous, as though he had never expected Shane to select such a thing.
Shane paid little attention to his reaction.
“Yes. I believe it will help with the research I am currently conducting.”
It was the violet stone he had seen several days earlier.
The stone known as a source of mana.
To monsters, it was regarded as a supreme elixir.
But monsters were not the only beings that could benefit from it.
For example, to a spirit, a source of mana was likewise nothing short of a miraculous elixir.
Shane’s eyes grew cold as he stared at the source of mana.
‘It should prove useful for dealing with those vermin.’
At the very least, it would serve him far more reliably than most of the Artifacts stored here.
—
Every time Delilah looked at the elegant old-fashioned door before her, she found herself shrinking back slightly.
‘This is rather intimidating.’
Since the house stood in a city at the heart of the Allied Nations, the people who owned residences in the area generally belonged to families of considerable renown.
Still, this particular house was used as a villa, so it was not especially large.
It was only three stories tall.
Delilah slowly entered the building and smiled awkwardly.
Inside, a boy who looked no older than ten greeted her with an innocent smile.
“Teacher!”
“Ah, hello.”
The boy was the child of a certain noble family whom Delilah had been tutoring since the previous month.
He had clearly been raised with immense care and affection, and even at a glance, the boy carried himself with the unmistakable air of nobility.
Having someone like him come out personally to greet her still felt rather strange to Delilah.
Most people looked at her with prejudice, but perhaps because he was still young, his eyes were filled only with curiosity when he looked at her.
That curiosity came with its own difficulties.
His talkative personality often slowed their lessons considerably.
“Oh, you are here, Miss Delilah. Welcome.”
A man appeared behind the boy.
“Yes. I hope you have been well, Head of the House.”
“Come now. There is no need to be so stiff with me. Haha. I leave my son in your care again today.”
“Ah, of course.”
This was not merely the child of a noble family, but the Head of the House himself.
Having witnessed more than enough of humanity’s obsession with authority, Delilah found his presence uncomfortable.
Still, she did not show it.
She needed money if she wanted to secure this month’s research expenses.
The Academy covered her living expenses and tuition, but Delilah had no connections whatsoever.
And with the label of Demi-Human attached to her, the number of jobs available to her was extremely limited.
“Come to think of it, I recently acquired some excellent tea. Would you care to try some later?”
“Pardon? Oh, no, I am quite all right.”
“Haha. Then let us dispense with the polite refusals.”
The Head of the House left with a genial smile.
Afterward, the lesson proceeded smoothly.
“Teacher, Teacher. You know~ The toy I was playing with last week broke…… and Father scolded me a lot.”
“Ahaha, I see…….”
Of course, the boy continued chatting throughout it.
“But he told me to look forward to it because I’ll be getting a new toy soon! Hehe.”
An innocent child’s smile.
Normally, it was the sort of adorable smile that might have stirred maternal affection.
So why did Delilah suddenly feel something unsettling about it?
She quickly dismissed the strange feeling and forced an awkward smile.
Even now, she found it difficult to let other people see her teeth.
—
Late at night at the Academy.
Shane sat quietly atop a tree on a hill, looking down at the scenery below.
Argentia, the capital at the heart of the Allied Nations, was always bright.
It was the capital of a nation created by the leading figures of five countries, and its pace of development far surpassed that of ordinary cities.
Deep beneath the night sky—
Someone else might have found the view beautiful.
But Shane knew better.
Beneath this city crawled vermin so filthy that words could scarcely describe them.
Those vermin were gnawing away at the Allied Nations from its very foundations, and before long, they would sink their filthy teeth into the alliance of the five countries itself.
All without realizing what kind of poison their actions would eventually become for them.
‘Vermin who will all die eventually anyway.’
In that case, would it not be better to dispose of them in advance?
Shane had no intention whatsoever of becoming complacent in this peaceful era and spending his days laughing merrily at the Academy.
His life at the Academy existed solely to establish an identity for himself in the light.
In the shadows, he intended to move under another identity entirely.
An aura far darker than the night itself surrounded Shane, as though responding to his thoughts.
Soon, a darkness that carried not even the slightest trace of a human presence descended the hill.
It moved toward a certain mansion below.
—
The middle-aged nobleman sat in his study and took a sip of tea.
True to its reputation as an expensive variety, the aroma wrapped pleasantly around his tongue, much to his satisfaction.
“What a shame. I cannot drink very much of it.”
“……It is harmful to your health.”
The knight standing directly before the middle-aged nobleman answered in a loyal voice.
“Things that are bad for the body always seem to taste the best. I have little patience, so I need to indulge myself with a taste from time to time.”
“…….”
The knight silently closed his mouth.
The tea the nobleman was drinking had been brewed from the leaves of a plant known as Demonflower Herb.
As its name suggested, the plant infused mana with positive energy, but its toxicity was so potent that it could cause the drinker’s mana to become twisted.
Its fragrance was exquisite, however, so it was occasionally sold among nobles as a luxury indulgence.
“More importantly, what happened to the toy?”
“Yes. We subdued it and moved it to the basement.”
“I see. We were truly fortunate, were we not? A Demi-Human that durable is difficult to find.”
“Even so, might this not be somewhat dangerous? She is an Academy cadet, and behind her there is also…….”
The knight did not finish his sentence, but the middle-aged nobleman already understood what concerned him.
“There is nothing to worry about. The Academy merely provides her with assistance. It has no justification to protect her as well. Especially not outside the Academy grounds. If anything, perhaps they would be happier if she disappeared. They may even celebrate the fact that an irritating drain on their money is gone.”
“Is that so?”
“Indeed. In any case, even the backing that toy once possessed…… is already considered dead in this world.”
“I spoke out of turn.”
“Haha. Your problem is that you are always so serious. Still, this is fortunate. I cannot tell you how startled I was last time. My son was bored, so I gave him something to play with. Who could have known he would break it so quickly?”
“It was my failure for not properly attending to the Young Master.”
“Come now. How could that possibly be your fault? It was not even a task I entrusted to you. Besides, this toy seems considerably sturdier. My son should not break it as easily as the last one.”
The nobleman smoothly changed the subject.
“More importantly, what of the guests who were supposed to arrive?”
“Yes. They said they would be somewhat delayed.”
“They truly are busy people. Still, they are valuable customers. We can hardly object to waiting, can we?”
“…….”
“For now, we will simply show them the merchandise. The training can be handled separately. I am afraid you will be rather busy.”
“I exist only to follow the Head of the House’s commands. Please give me your orders whenever you wish.”
“Haha, very well. How many knights could I possibly trust as much as you? Let us begin preparing to receive our guests.”
“Yes, understood.”
—
What was Shane most wary of?
His own Corruption?
The Organization’s military strength?
Neither.
Shane now understood Corruption better than anyone, and having once occupied the position of a Legion Commander, he also knew enough about the Organization’s military power to prepare against it.
But there was one thing even Shane could not easily overcome.
Humanity’s Corruption.
In his previous life, the Organization’s overwhelming military strength had certainly played an enormous role in humanity’s collapse.
But that had not been the whole story.
It had taken less than five years for all five nations, including the Empire, to fall.
The first kingdom destroyed by the Organization’s invasion had not even lasted a week before its king’s severed head was hung from the city walls.
The second and third kingdoms fell within only half a year.
The Empire and the final remaining nation managed to resist the Organization for another four and a half years.
But by then, it was already too late.
Countless humans died.
Every nation fell.
Until the First Imperial Princess gathered what remained of humanity and proclaimed a new nation, not even the slightest hope remained.
Under ordinary circumstances, even the Organization’s military strength would have required far more time to destroy every country.
The existence of the Allied Nations should have been the Organization’s greatest obstacle.
But the Organization had understood that from the beginning.
Over many years, it had carefully spread cancer throughout the Allied Nations.
By the time the Organization finally revealed itself, the very purpose of the Allied Nations had become meaningless.
That had been one of the reasons humanity’s extinction approached so quickly.
Even Shane could do little about all those cancerous cells at the moment.
They had already spread far too extensively by this point in time.
‘Then I will have to start exterminating them one by one from now on.’
Of course, Shane had no time to hunt down every last one personally.
Nor did he currently possess enough strength to burn them all away at once.
But if he could sever some of the nerve cells connecting them to one another—
That much might be possible.
Shane stared at the elegant mansion before him.
‘Keep concealing me.’
[Yes, Master.]
No sound actually emerged around Shane.
Yet a faint voice existed that only his soul could hear.
A Dark Spirit.
The remnants of the Rotten Tree Spirit Shane had annihilated before arriving at the Academy.
Its presence had been so insignificant that even Shane had needed considerable time to realize something remained inside him.
He had discovered it by chance several days earlier while examining his Inner World in his room after finishing the Practical Exam.
At the time, it had been nothing more than residue.
It could do nothing and had no possibility of growing.
But after Shane fed it the source of mana he had acquired, it once again became a Dark Spirit.
However, because Shane had already annihilated it once, it retained none of its former memories.
Even its species had become something far removed from the Rotten Tree Spirit it had once been.
It was merely a mass of darkness.
Shane had not even given it a name.
People might grandly call it a spirit, but strictly speaking, it was nothing more than a conduit.
A conduit that allowed the darkness dwelling within Shane to manifest physically.
Concealing himself within that darkness, Shane entered the mansion and let out a quiet sigh.
“What a disgusting stench.”
He had entered through a storage room.
The mansion had remarkably few guards for the residence of a noble, making infiltration easy.
Shane understood why.
This was one of the ways nobles with filthy tastes indulged themselves without attracting attention.
To Shane’s ordinary sense of smell, there was nothing here but dust and the scent of wooden crates.
But farther below, deep underground, he could sense the residue of dark and oppressive emotions.
There were many kinds.
Death.
Despair.
Curses.
Hatred.
Resignation…….
But the most conspicuous among them was delight.
Someone’s delight.
Those emotions alone told Shane enough to understand what was happening underground.
“A fitting hobby for a cancerous growth.”
What was humanity’s greatest enemy in the current era?
Demi-Humans.
Most Demi-Humans had been sealed away by Akasha in the distant past and could now be encountered only within dungeons.
Before Akasha’s Great Seal was completed, however, humanity had lived beneath the Demi-Humans in conditions worse than those of vermin.
That was why humanity, now beginning to acquire strength of its own, despised them.
There was a reason Delilah had joined the Organization in Shane’s previous life.
Occasionally, Demi-Humans who had somehow escaped the Great Seal appeared in the world.
In the past, humans had often enslaved them.
The Empire’s position had since changed. It now recognized independent Demi-Human nations and had abolished ‘Demi-Human Slavery.’
But humans were creatures who often derived even greater pleasure from doing precisely what they had been forbidden to do.
Not everyone was like that, of course.
But there would always be a small minority who lived only in pursuit of such pleasures.
And the scenes created by such people were painfully predictable.
Once again enveloping himself in darkness, Shane headed toward the entrance leading underground.
There, he found the bronze-skinned girl he had seen earlier that day.
She was chained in place, resignation etched across her face.
“Fuck. I swear, I thought I’d seen everything there was to see in this miserable life.”
A thick curse.
Yet her voice held neither the prideful tone Shane remembered from the past nor the lively energy she possessed in the present.
It sounded fragile.
Like the voice of someone standing on the verge of giving up entirely.
Shane felt as though he had heard that kind of voice before.
[‘Traitor to Humanity,’ my ass. It’s not as if they ever treated me like a human in the first place…….]
One night atop his ancient castle, a woman had lamented her life while pouring an entire bottle of liquor strong enough to send even an orc straight into oblivion down her throat.
The voice he heard now sounded painfully similar.
“Delilah.”
From behind a perfectly round, featureless mask, Shane emotionlessly called the name of a girl whom his former self had known—
And who had despised him with equal intensity.
