[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]
Chapter 64
"Welcome, Zeke."
President Flaubert greeted Zeke warmly.
The president personally poured tea and placed it in front of Zeke.
"I heard you like tea, but I'm not sure if it will suit your taste."
Zeke wondered how far the fact that he liked tea had spread.
While Zeke was thinking about this, the president smiled and said to him, "The reason I called you here separately is none other than because of this mission."
Zeke tensed up slightly at Flaubert 's words.
As someone with battlefield experience, Zeke actually thought that his actions in this mission wouldn't be evaluated very favorably.
Because once you're on the battlefield, no matter what happens, it's right to follow the orders of your superiors.
Individual actions that disregard the orders of superiors could harm the entire unit, so they were strictly prohibited.
Zeke waited for Flaubert's next words.
"You were excellent."
"Yes?"
Zeke reflexively asked back at the unexpected answer.
Flaubert held his teacup with a satisfied expression.
"Professor Andrei kept very good records. The Delfoa Inspection Unit also sent a separate thank you note and situational data."
Zeke breathed a sigh of relief at Flaubert's words.
'It seems that the scope of command for Draker knights is wide enough to allow for this.'
In his previous life, the North where he stayed had such a harsh environment that even a small mistake could cost him his life.
Therefore, military discipline was stricter, and the scope of command was very narrow.
Flaubert looked at Zeke and said,
"It's a shame that the Black Yaksha died during the transfer."
Zeke felt a slight pang of guilt at Flaubert's words.
This was because the Black Yaksha wasn't actually dead.
As he had planned during the initial capture, he had the Syndicate make it look like the Black Yaksha died during the transfer and smuggled him to the South.
He intended to give him a new identity there and bring him back to the Central Continent.
Currently, the only person who knew that the Black Yaksha was an agent of the Empire's Intelligence Agency was Paynun.
But he had also become Zeke's man, so there was no way the secret would leak out.
Since he had intended to bring the Black Yaksha in the first place, he had Paynun exclude any documents related to the Empire from the Black Yaksha-related documents in Delfoa and hand over only those related to corruption to the Inspection Unit.
Along with the data on the Empire's human experiments found in the South, the stimulant experiment discovered this time and the Black Yaksha as a witness could be enough to pressure the Empire.
While Zeke was thinking about the Black Yaksha, Flaubert said,
"Zeke, considering the various qualities you showed in this mission, the professors' council has proposed a different kind of test."
"What kind of test is it, President?"
"A beast hunt."
Zeke was a bit doubtful at the president's words.
He thought it was a bit easy for a Valhalla special graduation exam.
Hunting beasts wasn't easy, but Valhalla's graduation missions were famous for their high difficulty, so it felt relatively easy for a special exam for early graduation to be a beast hunt.
Just then, the president added,
"It's not a simple hunt, it's an unsolved case. And you have to do it alone."
Zeke finally nodded at those words.
Unlike monsters, beasts had no set species or types.
Therefore, it was difficult to identify their characteristics or understand their movements through their habits.
Ordinary beasts were highly aggressive and attacked indiscriminately, but there were also beasts that didn't.
The unsolved cases that President Flaubert just mentioned were mostly problems caused by intelligent beasts.
Occasionally, humans caused problems and then blamed them on beasts, but there was a clear difference between what humans did and what beasts did.
"In which region did the incident occur?"
"In the Duchy of Troy."
The Duchy of Troy was directly under Draker's control and was also where the Draker Clan's main house was located.
But if there was an unsolved case in such a place, it was likely no ordinary beast.
Flaubert continued to Zeke,
"If you pass this test, you will be exempted from all other types of exams required for graduation. In effect, this test alone fulfills the graduation requirements."
In fact, one of the things Zeke did in his previous life was to investigate and track down unsolved cases caused by these kinds of beasts.
It was practically his specialty, and with the condition that he could graduate quickly, there was no reason to refuse.
"I swear on my honor as a knight that I will solve the case as soon as possible so that the people of the duchy who are living in fear can rest assured."
Flaubert looked pleased with Zeke's answer.
After scoring points with the president, he returned to his mansion.
'Departure is tomorrow.'
Recalling the schedule he received from the president, Zeke packed his bags lightly and intended to depart for the Duchy of Troy immediately.
As he was organizing his plans and entering the mansion, someone was waiting for him.
A slender young man with narrow eyes, wearing light armor.
He greeted Zeke.
"Sir Zeke Draker. It is an honor to meet you. I am Felix, dispatched as a guide for this mission."
Zeke looked at Felix and said,
"No surname?"
"Valencia."
He slowly went over the name Felix Valencia, but it was a name he had never heard of in either his past or present life.
Zeke tilted his head at the energy he felt from Felix.
Unlike other knights, Zeke could sense mana because his dantian was open, making his senses much more acute.
Felix's energy felt different to him.
'I feel an unusual energy within his body, but it doesn't seem quite right. It's subtle.'
For a young knight who wasn't a Draker blood relative to have this level of energy meant there was something special about him.
'I'll need to look into this separately.'
Zeke asked Felix,
"If you're a guide, are you from the Duchy of Troy?"
"Yes. I'm a native of that place. I learned family swordsmanship from a young age, then completed the Swordsmanship Guild course, and now I work for the Atlas Guard."
"I see."
If he was from the Duchy of Troy and a member of the Atlas Guard, he would certainly be of great help in solving the unsolved case.
The reason for Felix being sent as an assistant made perfect sense.
Zeke said to him,
"We'll depart for the Duchy of Troy early tomorrow morning, so I'll see you at the central station."
"Understood, Sir Zeke."
***
The next day, Zeke boarded the train to the Duchy of Troy with Felix.
Once again, he was able to use the special compartment thanks to his authority as a Valhalla student.
Felix said to Zeke with an excited expression,
"Wow. I didn't even know there was such a place on the train."
His expression and gestures seemed innocent, but Zeke wasn't fooled by appearances.
'Even the information the Syndicate sent didn't reveal anything special.'
If even the Syndicate couldn't find any information, it meant one of two things.
Either he was an Atlas guard who hadn't awakened his talent yet, or his identity was created by an intelligence organization superior to the Syndicate.
'The latter is more likely than the former.'
Zeke thought that as long as he was with Felix, whose background was currently unknown, this mission wouldn't be as easy as the last one.
When the train arrived at the Duchy of Troy, Zeke and Felix immediately took a carriage from the station and headed to the northern part of the duchy where the incident occurred.
It was close to where the Giant Mountains began.
Although smaller than Atlas, the Duchy of Troy, where the Draker clan's main house was located, was safer than any other city.
For an unsolved case to occur in such a place was a blow to Draker's pride.
As soon as they arrived in the northern part of the duchy, Zeke and Felix went to the sheriff's office.
The sheriff in charge welcomed Zeke with a bright smile as soon as he saw him.
"Sir Zeke! I was informed that you were coming. Oh my, it's truly an honor to have a pure-blooded awakened personally visit this remote place!"
In the Duchy of Troy, the bloodline of the Dragon Slayer was no different from the bloodline of God.
With the arrival of a direct descendant, a rare and precious pure-blooded awakened among the Dragon Slayer bloodline, the gloomy atmosphere of the village seemed to come alive with his presence alone.
Zeke realized that this was also part of Flaubert's plan.
'He's not an easy old man to deal with.'
Zeke listened to the sheriff explain the circumstances of the case.
"It started happening a few weeks ago. At first, livestock started disappearing little by little, and now people who go into the mountains don't come back."
Livestock, children, women, adult men.
As time passed, it was targeting bigger prey.
"I'd like to see the scene of the incident."
The sheriff nodded and brought horses, leading Zeke and Felix to the farm that was first attacked.
Currently, the farm was under access control, with the surviving livestock moved to other locations.
Zeke skillfully examined the surroundings of the farm.
Then he found bloodstains on the fence leading to the mountain.
Zeke used his Dragon Eyes to look around.
Something caught his more refined eye.
'Footprints?'
Traces of marks larger than human footprints were left on the ground.
Zeke crouched down and carefully examined the traces left on the ground.
He tried to figure out the identity of the beast through his memories of his past life.
'The footprints are deep. It seems to be quite heavy. It didn't break through the fence but climbed over it. The bloodstains must have come from the livestock it was carrying as it climbed over.'
Zeke imagined the scene based on the traces of the footprints.
It secretly climbed over the fence of this farm, snapped the sheep's neck, slung it over its shoulder, and climbed back over the fence to return to the mountain.
Zeke tilted his head.
'This isn't the usual pattern of a beast.'
No matter how intelligent it was, the beasts Zeke knew wouldn't move this stealthily, nor would they bother to jump over a fence.
Just then, the sheriff approached Zeke.
"Did you find anything?"
Zeke stood up and said,
"Is there a continuous mountain range up there?"
The sheriff nodded.
"Yes, that's right. If you climb the mountain in that direction, the terrain is quite rough. Sometimes wild monsters appear, so even the villagers don't go up that far."
Zeke nodded and said to Felix, who was standing next to him,
"Felix, lead the way. I need to take a look up there."
Felix hesitated and said,
"Sir Zeke, are you sure it's alright to climb the mountain right away? As far as I know, the northern mountains are quite treacherous, so I think it would be better to prepare before going."
"I have everything I need for camping in this bag with subspace magic, so it's fine."
Actually, he had everything in his inventory, but he couldn't explain that, so he vaguely deceived him.
Felix was surprised by Zeke's words.
"Oh my. You're more thorough than I am, even though I'm the guide."
The two sent the sheriff back first and started climbing up the mountain, following the traces.
Felix was quite skilled at navigating the mountain paths, so his claim of being a Duchy of Troy native wasn't a lie.
It was then.
"Felix."
Zeke called out to Felix.
"Yes?"
He raised his hand to stop Felix and slowly entered the forest.
Zeke, holding his dagger, slowly approached a large tree that was blocking his view.
There was something behind the tree.
'Oh my...'
That something was a corpse, shriveled like a mummy with its bodily fluids sucked dry.
Zeke looked around for the beast, but he couldn't sense any presence.
He gestured to Felix.
Felix, following Zeke's gesture, frowned at the sight of the corpse.
Zeke slowly approached the corpse.
The first place he checked was the nape of the neck.
If it was done by a vampire, all the blood in the body would be drained, and if one was unlucky, they would become a mummy like this.
However, there were no marks on the corpse's neck.
Zeke examined the corpse's skin, but there were no bite marks anywhere that indicated the bodily fluids had been sucked out.
His expression distorted.
'I thought it wouldn't be a vampire since most of them don't come down from the north... But could this beast be...?'
Felix, standing behind Zeke, shook his head and said,
"Oh my god, I've never seen a corpse like this before."
Zeke stood up and said,
"It seems we'll have to camp here today. We'll resume tracking when the sun rises."
[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]