Chapter sponsored by J. Thank you for your support.
"How the hell did you just do that? Were you also a knight?"
Arpa tilted his head slightly to the side to Hans who asked in surprise.
"A knight? Ah! Are you talking about superhumans who are far superior to others? If that's the question, the answer would be 'no'. I am not a knight."
Arpa shook his head and Hans stared at him with a look of disbelief.
Not a knight? But considering the incredible punching power he showed just a moment ago, he couldn't help but think he was a knight.
Was he a knight cadet, or was he even discharged from the military academy in the middle?
"Well done. Let's tie him up properly and hide him nearby. We can put him in the garbage here."
"Yes."
Arpa grabbed the fallen man with one hand and dragged him along. Hans tied the body of the guard, who fainted with a rope he had prepared, and muzzled his mouth with a torn cloth.
Even if he wakes up in the middle, they'll be fine until someone helps him.
It was that moment.
"Hey, Deckard, where'd you go?"
Hans' hair stood on end. Over the entrance of the alley, the colleague of the guard that Arpa knocked out came to find him.
"Are you playing hooky? Hey! Deckard! Where are you?"
The voice was getting closer and Hans was so frozen didn't know what to do but at that moment, Arpa opened his mouth.
[Uh! Wait! I'm here!]
"Huh? What? Were you there? What are you doing in the alley?"
[Hey! Don't come! I'm in a hurry, so I'm doing my business!]
"What? You punk, you were doing business in that dirty place? Why didn't you go inside?"
[It was urgent! I didn't have time to go inside!]
A tampered voice was coming from Arpa's mouth and it was just like the voice of the security guard, Deckard, who he knocked out a while ago.
It is not at the level of mimicking the voice by altering his own but the tone and the sound of the voice are identical to Deckard's.
Hans was surprised by Arpa's hidden ability but regardless of whether Hans stared with astonishment or not, Arpa continued to talk.
[Are you going to watch me do business?]
"Ugh! Who wants to watch you! Anyway when you're done go back to your post quickly otherwise I'll get caught and get yelled at!"
[Okay, go ahead.]
The guard steps were getting further away and Hans, who was relieved, drooped his shoulders.
"Did you have that kind of talent?"
"How was it? Was it the same?"
"……I was really surprised."
Hans, who was replying in a despondent way, smirked.
"But it was the best."
"Thank you."
"Anyway, I'm over the edge. Now let's wait a little while and then we'll go inside."
* * *
'Ah really. How many keys do you have that look alike?'
Violetta checked all of the hundreds of keys. However, no matter how much she looked, she could not find the key to the basement storage room.
'A golden key. Besides, he said it had jewels in it.'
She couldn't find it in the pile of keys so that would mean that it was hidden somewhere other than this shelf.
'We're running out of time. I need to find it right now.'
Violetta took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"Be calm in moments of crisis" it's something Rudger told her when he was teaching her magic.
'There's no way that key would be in a place that's so obvious. It should be in a more secretive place.'
Violetta unleashed her magical powers and a gentle breeze began to blow in the quiet room.
A gentle stream of air swept through the interior of the room, therefore the flow of air was disturbed and a gap beyond human reach appeared.
'I found it.'
Violetta touched the floor everywhere with her hands and a slight gap was caught in her fingertips. When she pulled it with force, a hidden space emerged.
'Here you are.'
Violetta, who identified the golden key hidden in the secret space, took it right away.
'What's this?'
There were other things besides the key there like whips, candles, biting gags, etc. They were obviously the favorite items of the owner of this room, the key master.
'Anyway.'
Violetta glanced scornfully at the fainted key master, and took out all the objects in the hidden space and scattered them all over the place.
She made sure that no one else was walking around in the hallway and got out carefully. As she got out of the wide hall, there were still many people busily wandering there.
At that moment, she found Rudger, who was accompanied by two big men. Rudger also glanced at her, perhaps feeling Violetta's gaze, and with a slight curl of her head she disappeared from his sight.
'What's left is to hand over the key, but the security of the black guards is too fierce.'
Some of the Black Guards stood tall like stone statues in black armor, and there were even guards who periodically patrol the inside.
Violetta slowly descended the stairs of the main hall and just in time, Alex appeared on the first floor through the emergency stairs.
Alex descended as quickly as possible from the top of the 31st floor and found Violetta coming down the marble railing.
Their eyes clashed in the air and Violetta signaled that she had taken the key with a slight nod.
Alex approached her, answering with his eyes that he knew and the two met in the center of the hall.
"Oh, my!"
Violetta leaned against Alex, pretending to fall on purpose.
"Oh, my. Miss, are you all right?"
"Yes, thank you for your support."
Alex naturally helped Violetta and picked up the key, it was a covert delivery that no one noticed. The black guards glanced at the two and soon turned their eyes since there was no problem.
The two who fell back walked in opposite directions.
"This is {Victor Hugo}. I will take the key and go to the elevator."
[This is {Melville}. I will wait until you come.]
Pantos, who was waiting nearby while reducing his presence, answered immediately. It was possible because Rudger instructed him in advance to speak when they carried out the operation.
Pantos was standing on one side of the hall. Due to his massive size he could see everyone in the hall but people would occasionally glance at him too.
He was now assimilated with the surrounding landscape since the Suin people who deal with the spirit of Mother Nature are great warriors and outstanding hunters. They knew how to hide their signs and use natural assimilation techniques to hunt their prey.
The spirit of Mother Nature enveloped his body and made him be perceived by others similar to the surrounding landscape. Usually, this spirit ability does not work against a sharp opponent, but Pantos, which has ridiculous potential compared to other Suins, was not even noticed by the Black Guards.
However this ability was not perfect because although he could not be seen by people the magic alarms in the building could still detect him.
Therefore, Pantos alone did not enter the interior and was waiting outside.
Just in time, Alex appeared across the hall. Pantos, who confirmed that there was no tail around, released his Spirit.
"Oh, you scared me. I'm surprised."
Alex didn't look too surprised to say so. Pantos didn't bother to ask why and brought up another subject.
"What's the key?"
"Here."
Alex smiled mischievously and shook the key. The two, who secured the key, headed to the place where the elevator entrance was located.
"……Well, there are a lot of people."
There were Black Guards guarding the entrance. Unlike when he checked before, it was the day of the auction, so there were more people than then.
There are six guards and all of them are at the knight-level. Besides, the corridor leading over is in a straight line, so a surprise attack wouldn't work.
Alex immediately sent a signal over the communicator.
"This is {Hugo} and {Melville}. We have reached the entrance."
[Okay, I'll move]
The dwarf girl Seridan replied.
Seridan, who was mixed with the crowd, was wearing a cute and luxurious dress like a child of a noble family. Because she was young, she was able to be relatively free from other people's gaze.
Naturally passing people by the people she spilled pure white powder on the floor and no one was aware of that.
As people passed by, trampled on the powder and kicked it, it spread like dust until it was seen with the naked eye and then…
"What? Acho! Acho! Acho!"
"Cough cough! What the hell is this?"
Screaming, coughing, and sneezing rang out everywhere. Seridan, who covered her mouth and nose with her handkerchief, checked the mess from far away.
The white powder she used was tear gas and the effect of the special tear gas powder made by Belaruna under Rudger's direction was more than expected.
The people who were dressed up pretty and stylishly and talking only with arrogant and pretentious words were struggling in an ugly way with tears and runny noses.
It evoked in her a strange pleasure and euphoria.
'Honestly, I wanted to use gunpowder but there's nothing I can do because there's a magic defense against explosives here.'
Some of the black guards inside the Kunst auction house were wizards, so the magic of [Silence of Fire] was always maintained. So, instead of her specialty, she borrowed the power of Belarus, who mainly made chemicals and she was satisfied seeing such a spectacle.
"What? Suddenly?"
"Is it a terrorist? Where is it?"
The Blackguards were at a loss at the sudden chemical attack. It was not embarrassing because no one attacked, and many suddenly complained of coughing and sneezing.
First, people should be evacuated to a safe place, but there were too many people.
"Guests! Calm down!"
"We're short of numbers! Ask for help!"
The uproar reached Alex in the distance.
"It started."
As soon as the words were said, four of the six black guards guarding the elevator hurriedly headed somewhere.
The attention-grabbing operation was successful.
"Even so, there are two left. It doesn't matter, right? Let's go, big guy."
"Hmm."
Alex led Pantos out of the hallway and the Black guards, who found Alex in the distance, shouted at him.
"Who is it? This is off limits!"
"Hey! Don't you know who I am?"
"What?"
Alex came closer to them so that they could recognize his face.
"It's me, my friend, Ivan Luke, is in charge here! You really don't know me?"
"What?"
There's no way you wouldn't know since they were the ones who stood guard the last time Alex came. The reason why they chose to come five days ago is that the rotation of the security guards at the entrance happened today.
"Hey, do you know where my friend Ivan is? I wandered about and found myself lost!"
"Uh, well, it's……."
His opponent was the son of a Southern aristocrat who was also friends with Ivan Luke so the Blackguard also had no choice but to respond carefully.
Alex led Pantos and slowly approached and as soon as the Blackguards were about to feel something strange about Alex's continuing to narrow the distance, Pantos moved.
"Whoo!"
Behind Alex, a huge shadow moved and ran like the wind towards the two Blackguards. Pantos' move was stealthy and swift, unbecoming of a giant.
He stretched out a huge fist and shoved it right into the Blackguard's abdomen.
If a bare fist hits the armor made of special alloys it will break but the result was the opposite. The armor crumpled and couldn't stop the impact of Pantos fist. The two guards guarding the entrance fell to the floor, vomiting blood.
Alex asked, looking at Pantos, who overpowered both Blackguards in an instant.
"You didn't kill them, did you?"
"I did it with my hands."
"……To beat a knight-class man in armor with your bare hands. What a ridiculous physical ability."
Pantos' physical ability was unbelievable and even knights with bodies that transcend regular humans were easily defeated by him with his bare hands.
How the hell did leader win against this guy?
'He took care of the guys at the entrance, so I'll ask my questions later.'
Alex immediately sent a signal over the communicator.
"This is {Hugo} and {Melville}. The entrance has been cleared."
[This is {Kafka} and {Dumas}. Okay.]
Hans, who answered, beckoned Arpa and Arpa immediately started the machine.
After confirming that the lights were on properly, the two immediately started changing their clothes.
In an instant, the two changed into work clothes and packed a cart of pre-prepared food ingredients and headed to the back door connected to the restaurant. The restaurant clerk skimmed through the two and sent them inside.
* * *
'It's going well.'
Rudger, who came to the bathroom, looked in the mirror and washed his hands, confirmed that the operation was progressing step by step through the conversations of his subordinates heard through the communicator.
Rudger, who wiped his wet hand with a towel, came out of the bathroom and on either side of the bathroom entrance were the two giants Ivan had attached waiting for Rudger.
"Did you finish your business?"
Rudger nodded.
"Where are you going now?"
"Let's see the auction."
The big men accompanied Rudger for surveillance under the guise of guidance. As he entered the spacious hall where the auction was held, people were enthusiastically competing for a jewel.
Rudger took a moderately empty seat and sat down. The guards even checked Rudger's seat and stepped to the back of the auction house.
'Now that you've come this far, you think it's appropriate.'
He knew that as soon as he got out of his seat they would stick to him again. Rudger, who was peeking through the auction house, wriggled his eyebrows when he saw a special seat on the second floor.
'That's…'
He could see the face of a familiar person with colorful blond hair, it was the 3rd Princess Erendir von Exilion but Rudger's eyes were not on her.
What really surprised Rudger to see was the person sitting next to Erendir. The familiar clothes and hair color he has seen years ago but still remembers vividly.
'Casey Selmore?'
The bad relationship he encountered in the past when he was James Moriarty. She is the most troublesome kind of human being who never misses a prey she decides to hunt.
'Why is she here?'
She was now in Leathervelk and at that moment, Casey looked his way, perhaps feeling his gaze.