C258: The Shadow of Dartans (1)
Arriving in the big city of Dartans, Rudger and Hans came out a reasonable distance from the factory area.
"Let's rest here for a while."
Hans was holding a large suitcase, and while listening to Rudger, he said, "I'm glad," and put it on the floor with a thud.
"Argh!"
Then a scream was heard in the suitcase, as the lid opened and a little girl popped out.
"Hey! You put me down on purpose so I can get sick!"
The dwarf girl with sturdy copper skin and long waist-length white hair tied in pigtails looked angrily at Hans.
"No, what do you mean? Do you know how hard it was for me to move you? We barely hid you in your bag because you didn't even have an ID."
"I'm heavy? There's no lighter dwarf like me!"
"Do you think you're the only one in the bag? It's because I put all kinds of junk in it."
"Are you done talking?"
"Argh! Did you bite me?"
Rudger sighed as he saw the two squabbling with each other. It didn't seem like it would end like this, so he intervened in the middle and separated the two.
"Stop. It doesn't matter if you get closer, but we're not in a situation like that right now."
"What do you mean getting closer Nari?"
"That's right, brother. Do I look so close to this little boy? Ouch. You really bit it with all your might."
"You're lucky because I don't see blood."
"I agree. It would have been annoying if I became a dwarf after getting bitten by a dwarf."
"What?"
Sheridan's two pigtails soared with anger.
Rudger rubbed his brows and suppressed a subtle headache, then smacked Hans in the back of his head.
"Brother, why are you hitting me?"
"Hans, you're not a child, how long are you going to do that? This is not the time for fooling around. We have to find the hidden factory."
"That's true, but… Do you have any leads?"
"There must be something about them because they're making firearms."
At that time, Seridan raised her hand to the two agonizing people.
"Wait! If it's gunpowder, I think I know a little bit."
Rudger and Hans looked at Seridan.
"Ah."
"Come to think of it."
Seridan Iron Feet is a rare dwarf who was caught as a mine slave and suffered from heavy labor every day, but knew how to make bombs in that environment.
"If it's related to gunpowder, leave it to me. I'm really good at smelling it."
The two decided to take Seridan's word for a moment.
* * *
Surprisingly, Seridan kept her words. No, beyond keeping, even Rudger and Hans were amazed and made speechless.
"I can smell it from this side. It's a rare scent of white powder. It's still odorless, but it can't fool the unique scent of salt mixed with the smell of Dwarf sweat."
"What's that smell again…….?"
Hans asked in a ridiculous way.
"I don't know! It just smells like that."
"Are you sure about that.….?"
"Look at this."
Seridan touched the floor near the alleyway of the factory. There was something like white powder there, and Seridan smoothed it with her fingertips then blew it with her mouth.
"It's mixed magnesium powder with white powder. Such an unusual object cannot be seen in many places."
"Really?"
"Factories don't usually use gunpowder, unless it's for military purposes. If they do, they use black powder. White powder is trickier to handle and not as common."
As Seridan words flowed out of her mouth like a rapid-fire cannon, Hans wracked his brain to understand her.
Then Rudger stepped up and said.
"Whatever it may be, it seems certain that suspicious things will happen at that factory. Now I'll have to sneak a look and go through the confirmation process."
"If that's really the right place, what will you do then?"
"What do you mean?"
Rudger replied as if it was an insignificant matter.
"I'm going to destroy everything."
"Nari, that's a very good answer!"
Seridan said so and took a small bomb out of her pocket and flashed it up.
"Let's start!"
"What do you mean, start? Besides, when did you make it?!"
"I was so frustrated while I was stuck in the bag that I just made it."
"No, when in the world did you have time to do that……?"
Hans muttered vainly with a stunned face.
'You built a bomb in a tight suit case that wasn't even light up properly? No, don't you mean that the bag in my hand might have exploded if you did something wrong?'
He didn't know how powerful it would be, but considering the power of the explosives that collapsed the mine that day, it won't be weak.
A cold sweat ran down Hans' back.
"Wait a minute. Let me check how many enemies might be inside first."
At the moment when Hans tried to stop her in the distance, several cars were seen racing down the street in a row.
Rudger, Hans, and Seridan naturally hid themselves inside the alley.
"Brother, that car……."
"Yeah. It's not an ordinary car at first glance."
The black-painted vehicles were military vehicles, not regular vehicles.
"It's a new vehicle made by Garteng. People with a lot of money and high social status usually ride it."
"The car window is colored black, so those inside won't stand out."
"The surrounding vehicles are probably escorts. Looking at the dump truck behind it, it's clear that it's a separate model for the military."
"That means it's clear that the person in that vehicle is at least a military general."
"That's right. Someone with that status could send war mages to guard the underground mine."
Seridan opened his eyes wide looking at Hans and Rudger, who were in perfect harmony with each other.
Meanwhile, their reasoning continued.
"Hans, what do you think is the reason why a general would come to this remote factory area where there are few people?"
"No matter how much I think about it, I can't think of anything with this humble head. The only thing you can think about……that there may be secret weapons inside that the general is interested in."
"It's a secret weapon. How secretive do you think it should be?"
"Well, at least gunpowder that's not affected by the [silence of fire]."
The car stopped just in time, and people came down from it.
It was clear that there were mostly soldiers, given that they had weapons. Among them, there was a particularly prominent person, a white-haired old man with plenty of flesh.
"That man is…."
Hans glowed at him.
"What's wrong, Hans? Do you know him?"
"Lieutenant General Ghetto Davigne."
"I didn't know you would remember his name."
"I have no choice but to remember. It's not normal for him to do that."
Hans gave an additional explanation because they couldn't understand what he said.
"Lieutenant General Ghetto Davigne is the third son of an aristocratic family and served as a military officer because he could not succeed the family. With the support of his family, he quickly climbed to a high position but that man had too many issues."
"What issues?"
"First of all, the noble family's unique ideas and arrogance caused big and small accidents, and above all, he is a terrible imperialist supporter and a war advocate. He believes that war is right even though he has never fought."
It was certainly worth Hans's remembrance.
"It's also funny that such a human being is a general."
"Besides, it's not just that guy. Looking back now, doesn't the military seem to be full of people who advocate war like Lieutenant General Ghetto?"
Guided by soldiers, Lieutenant General Ghetto entered the factory.
Some soldiers watched the area thoroughly as if they were guarding the factory.
"……I don't think it'll be easy to get in. Brother, what can you do?"
"It certainly looks tough."
The security was so tight that it seemed difficult to penetrate. Most disturbing of all were the officers with swords around the waist.
"They're knights from the military."
"Mages and knights. Considering they're not the kind of guys you'd normally drag around like that, I'm pretty sure this is the right place."
The question was how to enter.
"It's a munitions factory that makes weapons, but I'm sure they're prepared to fight."
Even the Seridan's bombs were likely to be useless.
As long as a mage was present, any explosives outside would be affected by the [Silence of Fire].
"It's virtually impossible to blow up a factory with such tight security."
Hans shook his head.
"I don't suppose the security……could be breached in the first place."
Hans thought they should rather aim for Lieutenant General Ghetto, a major figure, but even that was not possible. Even if they succeed in getting rid of him by breaking through that level of escort, they would not be able to handle the aftermath.
In addition, looking at the scale of this incident, simply killing Lieutenant General Ghetto would not end it.
"Why do you think it's impossible?"
As Rudger asked him, Hans could not erase the question from his face.
"Do you have any good methods? It's hard to break their security."
"Why do you think about breaking it? There's also an option to just blow it away."
"No, how? It would be useless to use bombs from outside."
"What if we do it from inside?"
There was gunpowder unaffected by the [Silence of Fire] in the factory so the supplies were already fully prepared.
"Wait. Wait, wait. Brother. No matter how much I think about it, that's not it."
"What do you mean?"
"Unless they're not fools, they'll keep the gunpowder in an important place. The weapons made will also be strictly managed so that there is no risk of getting stolen."
"That's right."
"Do you think you can get there with tight security, and what else might be inside?"
Hans' point was valid. It couldn't be better if they set fire inside and detonated gunpowder, but the method itself was close to impossible in the first place.
"No, it's possible."
But Rudger said with conviction and Hans struggled how to respond.
"No, even if you say it so confidently……."
"Instead, we do need help. Hans, you must find out where the gunpowder is stored."
"That is…"
"Will it be possible?"
"……I'll try."
Hans eventually raised his hands and immediately closed his eyes and tried to connect with the city's mice. However, it was not so easy, so it didn't work as he wanted.
"Hans."
"Uh-huh. Please wait a moment."
"Hans."
"I can do it. No, I'll try."
"It's tough at the moment."
"……."
Eventually, Hans opened his closed eyes and looked at Rudger. His eyes were trembling with anxiety, and he had already guessed what Rudger would say.
"…do you really have to?"
"Isn't it necessary?"
Rudger said so and reached out to Hans but although Hans disapproved he accepted Rudger's hand.
In his hand were a mouse's sharp incisors. Hans, who saw the piece of teeth, sighed deeply and his face crumpled as if the world had collapsed.
"You acted like you were going to die the first time but what about this time?"
"Aren't you going to do it?"
"…I will, I will."
Hans closed his eyes and stabbed himself with the mouse's teeth as hair began to grow on his body, and soon became a half-human half- mouse with the head of a hideous gutter mouse.
"…..Ugh."
Hans wept while Rudger folded his arms without saying a word, and Seridan, who had been watching the scene from the beginning, muttered admiringly.
"Whoa. Crazy. Absolutely disgusting."
"This is why I don't like it!"
He'd rather use wolf teeth since wolves are cool at least.
Soon after Hans attempted to communicate with them the gutter mice began to appear one by one from the gap in the sewer since his control over mice increased after he transformed.
"Please."
"Squeak! Squeak!"
As soon as Hans spoke, the mice scattered and headed to the factory.
The guards of the factory knew that this area was dirty anyway, so they didn't think it was strange to see the rats. They just thought that there were more today.
The rats entered the inside of the factory, roamed through the complex interior and delivered information to Hans.
Soon Hans discovered a place in the innermost part of the factory that was firmly protected by something.
"Brother, I found it."
"Where is it?"
"There is a warehouse in the center of the factory and wizards are strictly guarding it."
"Well done."
"So what are you going to do now?"
"You'll know when you see it."
Rudger took a look at the factory in the distance.
"Distance 300."
He calculated the distance from the factory, measured the width and area, then located the warehouse in the center of the building.
"Lastly, I ask you to confirm. Is it the center of the factory?"
"I'm sure."
"I see. Hans get all the rats back."
Hans did what Rudger told him to do and after Rudger confirmed it he activated his mana.
"Setting coordinates."
Rudger looked at the factory, rolled some complicated math, and then cast a spell.
"Manifest magic at specified coordinates."
Rudger cast his spell, but nothing happened around him.
Hans was about to ask what the hell he was doing but in the distance, a huge explosion went off inside the factory.