Chapter 7
AFTER MIRA EXPLAINED EVERYTHING, Solomon paused for a moment. “I had no idea things were so dire,” he finally replied. “And the investigation team…? But…okay. I think I get the situation.”
Surprise and confusion tinged his voice; even he seemed taken aback by the scale of it all.
His shock didn’t last long, though. “We’ll have to handle the corpse thing first. Now that we know something so dangerous is out there, we can’t leave it be.” Solomon decided his next priorities in his usual manner; such instant decision-making was a skill he’d cultivated during his time as king.
“Should I head back after all?” Mira offered. “Tracking the corpse down will likely mean running into a dark demon again.”
Even a dark demon of the lowest rank, with no title, could defeat an intermediate adventurer. The dark demon seemingly working behind the scenes this time was probably less tough than a third-rank count. Still, with so little information on the enemy, there was much room for uncertainty. In the worst case, they might be forced to fight an enemy as strong as a first-rank viscount.
To battle such a foe, several skilled veteran adventurers would have to join forces. Sending in an investigation team carelessly could cause a great loss of life. Since pursuing the corpse part would require enough firepower to deal with whatever situation arose, Mira offered to take on that duty.
Solomon assured her that wouldn’t be necessary. “Relax. Go look for the orphanage as planned. After all, I’d rather have you find everyone quickly. I think we can manage without you.” He sounded almost unworried, and it was no bluff either. He was confident that he could fight off a dark demon.
“I hope you’re right. Are you sure…?” Mira asked again. Not because she doubted him but because she loved her friend and homeland.
“Heh. Guess I should tell you something.” Solomon cleared his throat smugly. Then, as if unveiling some great truth to a waiting audience, he declared, “The elite unit I’ve trained for so long is finally ready for action!”
Even more excited than usual, he explained his announcement—the reason for his confidence. Ten years ago, on the day the treaty was signed, he’d set a plan into motion. He handpicked talented youth from the army, screened them rigorously, and put them through harsh training. This elite squadron was the result. He’d named it “Goetia.”
The unit’s objective was simple. They’d serve as a backup in case the Nine Wise Men, Luminara excepted, failed to return. Mira was running all over in search of the others, and she had promises from Wallenstein, Kagura, and Soul Howl; those three planned to return home sooner or later. Her progress had been pure luck, however—the results of stumbling into the Wise Men in the nick of time.
Back at the end of the war, Solomon had hoped that Mira would come, but he couldn’t be certain of that, let alone rely on it. He’d had to devise a backup strategy. He’d begun that strategy with the Accord Cannon he’d once shown Mira, developed it with Protean Dolls made for combat, and concluded it with the Goetia team of elites.
Goetia comprised five pairs of soldiers working as a team—five front liners and five back liners. Solomon had trained the former, and Luminaria the latter. Furthermore, Felena—aide of the Tower of the Holy—was always there for their training. In fact, it would’ve gone nowhere without her. That training was as intense as possible; serious injuries occurred daily.
“Even if I can’t get Goetia as strong as you guys, I still need to be able to control a battlefield to some degree. And I’m honestly impressed that they came so far in just ten years.”
The Nine Wise Men were reputedly the strongest people on the continent. Replacing them in a mere decade would’ve been a ridiculous proposition. Still, while Goetia’s members weren’t perfect stand-ins, Solomon was more than happy with their progress.
“The real clincher was the vault of treasure I told you about recently!” he continued. “It contained tons of strong weapons, so Goetia got high-quality equipment ahead of schedule. That equipment happened to synergize well with them too. Now their fighting power’s about 30 percent greater than I expected!”
The vault he mentioned had lain dormant beneath Nebrapolis. Realizing that it held not just gold and silver but treasure-class weapons, Solomon had seemingly prioritized arming Goetia. You couldn’t underestimate the offensive boost new weapons granted, especially if those weapons had mysterious powers. As a result, each of Goetia’s soldier pairs had become reliably strong.
“I see. And you plan to assign that squadron to pursue the demon…?”
“Exactly. Giving them real combat experience is all that remains, and I say this is the perfect opportunity.”
That was why Solomon didn’t need to wait for Mira to come back. He was among the strongest of paladins, and Luminaria was the strongest sorcerer on the continent. Elites trained by that pair and armed with first-rate weaponry could certainly hold their own against a dark demon.
From what Solomon told Mira, they could fight a viscount or even a count. If they couldn’t hold their own against one of those, they’d never be able to substitute for the Nine Wise Men. This assignment, Solomon added, would be a final exam of sorts for them.
“In other words, I’ll soon give this mission to a mix of Goetia members and investigators. Anyway, he’s here to deal with the demon stuff. I’ll talk to him later, so don’t worry about that side of things. Focus on your search.” After so much bragging, Solomon finished with that final decisive statement.
So, he was present—Wallenstein, the man working to return the mankind-hating dark demons to their original light-demon state.
“Hrmm. Right, fine. I think I’ll do just that.”
When it came to demons, Wallenstein’s information network was as vast as any nation’s. If his people would be working with Goetia, there really was no reason to worry.
Solomon returned the topic of conversation to Mira’s mission. “By the way, you said that orphanage was in a nameless village in the mountains of northeastern Grimdart, right? Do you have any idea where?”
Artesia, the Elder of Holy Arts, was seemingly connected to the orphanage. The first round of information Mira gathered about it had pointed to the mountains of Grimdart, and Solomon had sent personnel to investigate the lead. Unfortunately, either the information wasn’t common knowledge or someone was suppressing it; he was unable to track down such a village.
“I do happen to have an idea about that…” Mira replied. The king of a whole nation hadn’t found this village, yet she claimed—with no shortage of smugness—that she’d had the ability to get results.
Solomon’s tone of voice rose slightly, his interest piqued. “Wow, nice. And what is that idea?”
“You want to know, do you?” Mira asked, growing even more excited to explain.
“I do, I do!”
When she heard Solomon’s enthusiasm, Mira replied pompously, “Then I suppose I must share it.”
She told him proudly about her strategy—despite not knowing whether it would work at all. The plan was to apprehend the phantom thief Fuzzy Dice. Mira had heard rumors that he donated to various orphanages. If that was true, he might know something about the one in the nameless village.
“Ooh, makes sense. Not bad.” Mira’s hypothesis was certainly simple, but surprisingly, Solomon responded well to it. After all, his investigation hadn’t found anything.
The Church of the Trinity managed the majority of orphanages. Noble-run charity projects were the next most common. And then—very rarely—there were orphanages funded by investment from organizations like local governments.
The government knew of almost all these orphanages. And there were lots of benefits to officially operating an orphanage in the Grimdart area, whether the church, nobility, or local bureaucracy ran it. In other words, in the course of following Mira’s lead, one of Solomon’s agents should’ve been able to get information on all the orphanages in the area. Yet they’d failed to find the one in the nameless village. There was one simple reason for that: It hadn’t been registered.
Orphanages cost money, requiring investors to keep them afloat. Upon reporting their involvement, investors received preferential treatment from the government, and it was hard to imagine someone eschewing that benefit. Thus, if the orphanage existed, then either someone with shady motives was involved or there was some reason to hide investments in it.
Shady motives seemed nearly impossible if Artesia was connected to the organization. She loved children—she’d never do anything to endanger them. The only questionable thing about her was whether she could ever bear to let them go.
In that case, where had Artesia gotten the funds for the nameless village’s orphanage? It supposedly housed over a hundred orphans, so it surely cost a small fortune to run. Even if Artesia was there, she couldn’t simply make unlimited money off killing monsters. And if she made that much money through her Holy Arts, people would spread rumors about her skill. Yet Solomon said that no such rumors existed.
“Even if the orphanage is under church control, they have limited funds,” he mused. “And really, I’d be surprised if a nameless mountain village has a church to begin with. Normal donations wouldn’t be enough either. Frankly, even I don’t see a way to cover over a hundred kids’ expenses through normal channels. But if a phantom thief funded the orphanage, that’d explain why it isn’t registered with the state or the church. Not a bad hypothesis, especially for you. It’s totally plausible.”
Mira had just had a hunch that Fuzzy Dice would be familiar with the nameless village’s orphanage, but with the additional context Solomon provided, that was starting to seem surprisingly realistic.
“Right? Right?!” Getting even cockier than usual, she ignored Solomon’s backhanded compliment, acting as if he’d simply praised her. When Solomon complimented her further, she added elatedly, “I just had to think about it a little, and it came to me!”
Having buttered her up, Solomon finally asked, “Now, you say you want to catch that phantom thief. Any idea where he is?” Fuzzy Dice was elusive. His identity and his hideout’s location were equally unknown. How could Mira apprehend such a person?
Fortunately, she had hot gossip. “Indeed. I heard he sent his calling card to a certain company in Haxthausen. If he plans to show up himself, there’s no need for us to search for his hideout, is there?” she explained, still cocky.
There were other approaches, such as exposing his identity or finding his hideout. The calling card gave the exact time and place he’d appear, though, so why not just meet him there?
“Wow—his calling card! In that case, it’ll definitely be fastest for you to go there in person. Then you can duel the phantom thief himself… I’ve heard of pretty famous adventurers being hired to catch him, but nobody’s gotten their hands on him yet. Good luck. I wonder whether you can cuff him…” Solomon sounded elated. He was really looking forward to the big confrontation between Mira and Fuzzy Dice.
“Of course I can,” Mira replied matter-of-factly. She was confident.
“You’ve got a strategy worked out already?” the king asked searchingly.
“Naturally. It’s a guaranteed victory, I assure you,” she replied, growing smugger by the second.
“Oh, awesome. Tell me more!”
“It’s a secret, I’m afraid. Before long, the news of the day will be Fuzzy Dice’s capture at my hands. Then I’ll spill the beans!” She smirked fearlessly, declaring her victory ahead of time.
Mira’s ultimate strategy was linked to the person who stood next to her even now. There’d be plenty of ways to learn the orphanage’s location—from just talking it out to bribery or tailing Fuzzy Dice—but Mira had her heart set on capturing the thief.
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