The Master of the Brave - Chapter 84.2
The Master of the Brave
Chapter 84.2. What lurks in the darkness of the Imperial City (IX)
Note: Actually this should be chapter 85 (which by my mistake I didn’t see it at the time and therefore I didn’t translate it), but in order not to change everything in the index of the novel, it remains as 84.2.
Late at night, the time when even the bars with late opening hours were closing their doors. A cart rattled along an out-of-the-way alley off the main thoroughfare of the imperial capital, its wheels clattering as it went.
“There are some jobs in this world that are so easy they can pay you so much just to sit like this.” Kelvin, who was sitting in the driver’s seat of a carriage for two, was talking to the coachman sitting next to him. “I wonder what they’re carrying so late and in secret, instead of in daylight.”
“…………”
“Even at the city gates, the bureaucrats didn’t seem to be inspecting the cargo, suggesting that it must belong to some very important man like a…”
“How noisy, shut the hell up!” The man sitting next to Kelvin interrupted him as he spoke, and said, in a surly tone.
“But don’t you care in the least? What are they doing sneaking around, hiring people like us, with less ethics than a rat, for such high salaries?”
“We’re supposed to shut up and take what they tell us where they tell us to take it.”
“Your job is to take it, and my job is to be prepared for any emergency… But if we have to be so careful, doesn’t that mean the cargo is actually quite a treasure? What do you say, how about we take this wagon and its cargo with us?”
The man glared at Kelvin, who said in a flippant tone.
“Oops… that was a joke… just a little joke. You don’t have to look so scary, it’s an easy job that pays very well. I wouldn’t want to screw it up and lose it.”
“…There are also two pretty handy men riding in the back. If you do anything, you’re a dead man.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Kelvin shrugged jokingly. The man stared at Kelvin’s profile for a while, but he didn’t care and let out a big sigh. “I’m going to take a nap, so please wake me up when we get there.”
“Hey!” The man shouted at Kelvin, who was leaning against the back of the wagon seat and had started to get into a sleeping position, but Kelvin closed his eyes without giving it a thought.
“It’ll be fine. If anything happens, I’ll be sure to earn my pay.”
Kelvin waved his hand in the air. The man clicked his tongue, annoyed by that attitude, but then sighed resignedly and grabbed the reins again.
Kelvin had fallen silent, and the only sounds in the alleys at dusk were the clatter of horses’ hooves and the rattle of wheels. Occasionally, the barking of stray dogs and the sound of insects could also be heard.
Because of the hour, there were no pedestrians in the area. There was nothing blocking the passage of the cart, but the man was leading the horse with careful control of the reins, concerned about the cargo inside.
Therefore, he did not notice him. Kelvin’s eyes were closed and he seemed to have fallen asleep, but there was a strange tension in his body.
Just as the carriage approached the corner of the street, an intense flash of light pierced the darkness and burned the eyes of the coachman.
“Gaaaaahhhh!”
The horse, startled by the flash of light, bolted, and the carriage swung sideways down the alley and crashed into a building with a loud clatter. The man was thrown from his seat and crashed into the alley from the impact.
“Ga… uugh…”
Kelvin, who had jumped out of the carriage just before the collision, adopted a passive stance and stood up on the spot, then shouted loudly to be heard inside the carriage, which had stopped after crashing into the building.
“Enemies!” Kelvin’s voice was loud and high, but otherwise he waved his hand in the air. From the source of the strong flash of light, two figures came running towards Kelvin.
“Sh?i?t?… what now?”
“…An attack?”
The wagon door opened, and two men stumbled out from inside. Their faces were hidden by black masks, and their clothes were dark, as if to blend in with the night. In their hands they carried swords which they had not yet drawn.
“Looks like two of them.”
As Kelvin pointed to the figures running toward them, the men unsheathed their swords, threw down their scabbards, and readied themselves. Seeing this, the figures running towards them also stopped dead in their tracks.
“Damn… I still feel dizzy.”
Kelvin sneaked up behind the two black masked men without making a sound. When his hands touched their shoulders, a flash of light shone. The two men jerked for an instant, their bodies shuddered, then collapsed on the spot.
“…Phew.” As Kelvin caught his breath, the figures that had been running toward them approached him with an uneasy feeling.
“Th-thank you for your hard work. Vice-captain~.”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Lino looked fearfully at the two masked figures lying on the ground and asked her superior, who was still smiling smugly.
“What was that?”
“It’s magic. It’s used for torture.”
“…To-Torture?”
Kelvin nodded smiling at Lino, who was slightly on the verge of recoiling.
“The most important thing to remember is that this is grant magic that applies an electric shock. If you use it with the wrong power, it can kill, but depending on how, it can also knock you unconscious like that and keep you in a fair amount of pain.”
With a twitching expression, Lino stared at the masked man in black that Wedge was about to tie up, foaming at the mouth. At that moment…
“Fu?c?k?i?n?g… b?a?s?t?a?r?d?… you… betrayed us…” The other masked man in black just raised his face and glared hatefully at Kelvin.
“Oh?”
“…Don’t think… you’ll be able to get away… scot-free…”
Kelvin approached the man with an expressionless face. Gon! A muffled sound. The man fell silent.
“Hm… he was a pretty tough guy, wasn’t he?” Kelvin muttered in an admiring tone of voice as he swung his right leg down and slammed the man’s head against the cobblestone pavement. “You see, it takes great skill to use this magic effectively, as some individuals may be able to resist it.”
Not that it takes that much skill.
Lino and Wedge thought at the same time as they listened to Kelvin talk about it as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
?????
“I wonder if I should take this one… and this one too…” Lino ducked into a box on the cart and rummaged through the cargo inside.
“Please hurry up. You must be out of here before the coachman regains consciousness.” Kelvin, who was looking around, hurried Lino.
“Roger that! Oh, Wedge, let’s get this book out of here too.”
The surrounding buildings were supposed to be residential, but no one appeared. The carriage had crashed very violently. No matter how soundly the neighbors were asleep, they would have awakened startled, but were probably afraid to get involved.
Arrangements had been made for the guards to be backstage and arrive late. Soon after, Lino jumped out of the carriage.
“Vice-Captain~, I think I got the most important thing out.” Lino informed Kelvin, tapping the bag Wedge was holding.
“Understood. Alright then, I’ll call you guys if there’s anything else, so please both of you come back carefully.” Kelvin waved to them as they ran off, then picked up the unconscious coachman and gave him a paddling.
“…guh.”
“Are you okay!?” He addressed the coachman with a tone that sounded concerned for him.
“What…what the hell…?”
“We’ve been attacked.”
“R-Really?”
“But don’t worry. The attackers have fled, and now the other two went to chase away them.”
“I see…” The coachman let out a sigh of relief. Indeed, the two masked men lay in the shadows of the building, out of sight of the carriage. The guards would retrieve them later. “So, what happened to the cargo?”
“It’s all right. But I think the impact of the collision with the building broke off part of it.”
This would also help disguise the traces of Lino’s search.
“Okay… that was inevitable. Is the horse safe?”
“Yes, and from the looks of it, no legs are broken either.”
“Can you move the wagon? Let’s get out of here before the guards arrive.”
“…What about the men who went out chasing the ones who attacked us?”
“If we move, they will return to the rendezvous point.”
“Got it. Where were you headed?”
Although he had escorted him like this three times before, Kelvin was always left behind when they approached the noble part of the city. It seemed that only trusted servants were allowed to go beyond that point to where their employer was. It was probably out of precaution. But the coachman’s eyes were still burning and he did not know when the guards would hear the commotion and come running. He then made the decision to have Kelvin deliver the package.
“I’ll tell you where to go. Get in the wagon.”
“Understood.” Kelvin smiled as he lent him his shoulder for support and helped him sit in the wagon.
?????
“It’s not right at all! What do you want me to do with material of this quality?”
Jade’s expression was as if he had swallowed a sour bug as the mage in front of him yelled at him and threw a tantrum. He was as irreverent as ever to the heir of the marquis’ family. Jade restrained his subordinates, who were annoyed by the mage’s disrespectful attitude toward their master, with one hand and diverted their attention to a pile of hemp sacks in the corner of the room. The sacks were large enough to fit an adult in. These, illuminated by the light from the chandeliers, were stained a reddish black, and black stains stretched across the floor. Jade pointed to the sacks with his chin, and his men quickly followed his instructions and made their way to one of the sacks. After carrying them over their shoulders, they set them down on the floor of the room. With Jade standing at the entrance to the room, his men carrying the sacks walked past him.
“Ugh…” The terrible smell that wafted past his nose and into his brain caused him to involuntarily let out a groan and put his hand to his nose.
“Kukuku…”
A mocking laugh. The mage’s mouth twisted into a smile and his body trembled. Hearing the laughter, one of Jade’s subordinates outside the room turned around. He glared angrily at the mage, but suppressed his emotions when he saw Jade waving his hand in the air as if to say, “Get the hell out of here”. But he continued to stare at the man. But as soon as his eyes met the mage’s, who was looking at him from under his hood, the minion’s face paled. Then he ran out of the room. As if to say, “If you stay here any longer, you may become one of those abominable specimens, as would happen to the contents of the hemp sacks”.
“They are of poor quality.” The mage, who had been watching the men leaving the room with a grimace on his face, muttered. “All that comes in these days is useless junk. I’ll never be able to complete my research.”
The mage’s complaint was silently heard by Jade, who opened his mouth.
“I’m sure the number of them is right.”
“Damn it, it’s not just a matter of getting the numbers, don’t you see, we’re so close… so close!”
“How long have you been saying that? We’ve prepared everything we can. I risked everything to get Conrad Heisenberg’s legacy from Lyon, and I showed it to you. We’re waiting to see what you can do. Don’t forget that.”
“Then do as I tell you and prepare subjects of better quality. If possible I want a young one… like that nobleman’s daughter you brought in earlier. And make it fast.”
“Damn, that’s easy for you to say.”
“If it’s for experimentation, I don’t care if the material is of poor quality. But to verify if we succeeded, they have to be better quality. So far I’ve only had two bodies that I could be satisfied with. That doesn’t tell me if I’ve really succeeded or not. To be sure, I have to repeat the experiment and verify it. First of all, if we succeed, your camp will be greatly strengthened, won’t it? Why don’t you eliminate the nobles of your faction as you see fit? It wouldn’t be hard to accomplish if your house ordered it, would it?”
“Nonsense… they’re our supporters too, you know?” Jade’s eyes widened involuntarily. There was a hint of disappointment in his voice.
It was true that the Cliffdorfs had once executed a captain named Feil, who belonged to their own faction, to take the blame for a lost battle. But on that occasion, they were only getting rid of a person who was not beneficial to their faction. There was also a clear reason for this, although in reality it was an artifice created by Jade to hold him responsible for the defeat. However, if he sent a missing person from his own faction to use as a test subject for the mage, and things did not go well, suspicions would be raised against the Cliffdorf family, and the faction would collapse. Who, of all people, would do something that would undermine their own faction?
“The completion of your investigation is our top priority, but I will not turn in those compatriots who support our faction. They too are paying a tremendous amount of money for your research.”
“Tch.”
He heard the wizard click his tongue a little.
“Then why don’t you find a suitable person among the nobles who are against you? They don’t have to be nobles, they could be knights. Your father is the Commander of the Central Order. He can trick them into bringing them here, can’t he?”
“And what do we do with the knights who disappear on the order of the Knight Commander? The same thing would happen. Besides, the Knights have already noticed our movements and are already on the move. There’s no need to show off, even if it’s as we planned.”
“Tch… that’s not what I’m worried about. If they’re in the way, why don’t you get rid of them?”
Jade glared at the mage, but he didn’t even look at him. He poured some chemicals into a pot on the stove and began stirring. An acrid smoke came out of the pot and the room filled with a strong odor. Jade took out a handkerchief and covered his nose and mouth. He also felt pain in his eyes. The mage kept stirring the pot while humming a tune.
“But those two you say you’ve been successful with, they must really come in handy, right?”
“No idea.”
At Jade’s question, the mage stirring the pot immediately replied without looking at him.
“I won’t know until I try them out to see how well they work.”
“Hmm…”
The mage prodded further at Jade, who put his hand to his chin and thought about it.
“If the Knights are in the way, why not take it out on them? It’s a good opportunity to test their performance and collect specimens, right?”
“I told you, I don’t want to draw too much attention to myself.”
“Well, then there’s no way to verify their effectiveness.”
Jade heard the answer and exhaled heavily, annoyed.
“…I have an idea of a material with great magical power.”
“Oh yeah?”
“I’m sure it has the strong magical power you require.”
“Tch, then bring it to me quickly! Now! Immediately!”
“It’s not something that can be transported so easily.” Jade said with a curt tone.
“So what about that, can’t you make it work just by giving the name of your house?”
“I want to take every precaution, just in case something should come up.”
“Hmm… you mean it’s difficult to bring it to the imperial capital? If that’s the case, you can have them taken to the location from before and I can go there.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to investigate it here?”
“If I can get something of good quality, I don’t mind going to look for it. Besides, it would be better for you later if we have a few more near your territory, wouldn’t it?” The mage smiled twisting his mouth and looked Jade up and down.
“I agree. And even though it was in the slums, I think we may have hunted too much in too short a time. As I said before, Knights are getting really annoying. It might be time for you to do something about them too.”
“Tch… well, sure. It seems there are others besides the Knights who are snooping about my business.”
“Others besides the Knights?”
“It’s a private matter. You don’t need to worry about it.”
Jade raised an eyebrow at these words, but the mage said nothing more and turned back to the pot. As it was, he slowly stirred the contents again.
“But I’m going to order my men to be prepared for any eventuality. I don’t want your presence to come to light until something happens.”
“When?”
“In less than a month there will be a goodwill visit to Lyon. But the goodwill visit is in name only, no one is buying it. Petersia is also irritated.”
“Tch, as far as country-to-country matters are concerned, I’m not interested. But…”
“When the envoys leave the imperial capital, that is the day we will make our move. I want results by then. I want to show that you have been a good investment so far.”
“A good investment so far…” The mage laughed. “Tch, well, I’ve been thinking I’d like to use them in a real battle soon too. No problem. You can use them at your leisure.”
“Then so be it.” Jade said, spun on his heels and quickly exited the basement of the building. Inside the imperial palace grounds, near the outer wall of the section where several research buildings for court mages were located. It was the most secluded place. Although it was already dark, a noise was heard. A carriage stopped, and men who had just left loaded with hemp sacks were unloading the luggage inside. Apparently, after unloading the luggage, they were going to pack the sacks they had taken out of the cellar. Jade wrinkled her nose at the smell wafting through the air, though it was better than that of the mage’s lab, despite having gone all the way outside.
“Good job.”
“Klaus?” Jade, who had been observing the work without taking much notice of anything else, was accosted by Klaus, his trusted subordinate.
“I have received reports that we have been attacked by what appear to be knights.”
“I see.”
“The escort fought them off, but two of the men have disappeared.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“According to those who were there, they chased the ones who attacked them, and it’s possible they were captured instead. So, just to be on the safe side, I’d like to put an escort alongside you, may I?”
“Permission granted.”
“Understood, sir.”
With these words, Klaus’ presence disappeared. When he turned around, there was no one there anymore. Jade walked away with the men who were packing the hemp sacks into the cart. He did not realize until the last moment that a man was watching his back.
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The house of Lino von Halen was located in the compound southeast of the imperial capital. Lino’s family was “von”, minor nobles, but was a legitimate aristocratic family. The family’s history as nobles was short, and the family lineage traced back to her great-grandfather, who was a pharmacist. However, her grandfather, who became a knight rather than a pharmacist, achieved notable accomplishments on the battlefield, and the Halens became one of the last noble families. Lino’s father, however, did not become a knight like his grandfather, but chose the pharmacist’s path, which had been passed down from generation to generation. If no one in the family had been knighted or held office in the empire, they would have had to renounce their nobility, but her grandfather, regretting this, enrolled Lino in the Knight School, where she became a knight after some twists and turns, and the Halens remained among the youngest members of the noble families.
The Halen family house was an ordinary private house, like the houses of the commoners in the city. The front part was used as a storehouse where various medicines were displayed. Lino, who had returned to her parents’ house accompanied by Wedge, jumped through the entrance of the store and called out to her mother, who was tending the store.
“Mom, I’m home.”
“Oh, Lino, you’re back already? Oh, and Wedge, you’re here too.”
Wedge’s house was also nearby, and they had known each other since they were children. They were both trained by Lino’s grandfather and entered knight school. Wedge also bowed his head by way of greeting as they entered the tent, ducking his portly frame.
“My goodness, if you were both going to come, why don’t you write and let us know?”
“I didn’t come home on vacation, you know. Hey, where’s Dad?”
“I think he’s in the workshop.”
Following her mother’s directions, she walked through the living room facing the picture window and peeked into the workshop at the other end of the house, where she found her father doing some kind of distilling in front of the fireplace.
“Father, I’m home.”
“Welcome back, Lino. And Wedge, you’ve grown up again.” Lino’s father stopped working and stood up, squinting at his daughter’s energetic face, then looked up in surprise at Wedge, who by a miracle still fit in the workshop.
“Your grandfather is upstairs on the second floor. Go say hello to him.”
“Okay. I’ll drop by later. I came by first to ask you this, Dad, because I know I’m in for a long talk if I go to Grandpa first.” Lino then took out some baggies and a little bottle of some kind of liquid from the bag Wedge had given her.
“What is this?”
“I came home today for you to see what this infusion of chemicals and herbs is, Dad.” From the bag she took out several vials filled with liquid, a powder infused with medicinal herbs, and several other powdered and solid items, and spread them out on a table in the room. When her father saw the items spread out, he first took the jar with a careful hand and opened the lid, sniffing for a few moments and checking the texture of the infused herbs, but gradually his face became stern.
“I have some idea what this is… is it for an Order mission?”
“Yes. Do you know what it is?”
“I can’t take anything for granted without making sure first, but none of these appear to be run-of-the-mill chemicals. If you need to find out how they work, that’s going to take some time.”
“Yeah. Yes, please. But make it as soon as possible.”
“Tell your mother I’m going to be in the workshop for a while, so please bring me some food. Also, you are forbidden to enter the room for a while. It seems that some of these drugs are forbidden. These medicines are difficult to handle. Tell that to your mother and grandfather as well.”
“Understood.” Lino nodded. Her father’s skill as a pharmacist was top-notch. Without trying to exaggerate, he was probably one of the top five in the imperial capital. He had opened a store on the street because he hated official positions, but the imperial court had asked him on numerous occasions to become court apothecary. Lino had never seen her father as serious as he was now. After ushering her and Wedge out of the room, Lino watched her father’s back as he re-entered the room, and urged Wedge to return to her mother to convey her father’s words to her.
Later that day, Lino’s father delivered the results of his investigation. The results that came back indicated that all of the medicines were potent drugs, and that, if certain preparations were made and taken, they could have the potential to cause a strong reaction with magical power. The effect was used to suppress it.