Chapter 214: Auction House (4)
Late at night, only a heavy silence lingered in a room of a certain high-class inn.
Only faint moonlight seeping in through the window dimly illuminated the room, and beneath that moonlight, liquor bottles lay scattered in disarray.
“…….”
Seated in his place, Urkubar silently tilted his glass.
His face, as he downed strong liquor one after another without even a single side dish, was filled with deep worry and anguish.
“Um, Elder…….”
Junongren, who had been standing by his side to attend to him, cautiously opened her mouth.
Perhaps because she was so tense, her voice trembled slightly.
Instead of answering, Urkubar merely emptied his glass in silence.
The sound of his throat bobbing as he swallowed rang out, cutting through the stillness.
“One thing…… may I speak?”
“……What is it.”
The voice that finally escaped him after a long while was extremely low and rough, whether because of the alcohol or because it was always so.
Gulp.
At his hoarse reply, Junongren swallowed her dry saliva.
Even though she knew his mood was extremely foul, she could not bring herself to let this pass without saying anything.
Menoruka was, to her, like a real younger sister she especially cared about.
“Menoruka, that child…… I wondered if you were not perhaps too harsh with her, so…… I dare to say this…….”
“…….”
Urkubar stopped the hand that had been tilting the glass.
His gaze still rested on the glass.
Yet the air in the room seemed to freeze and sink cold in an instant.
Even so, Junongren mustered her courage and continued.
“To begin with, that child is not so foolish, is she? Would it not be better to properly talk things through first before handling the matter……? Above all, it has not even been concluded yet that we must kill that human…….”
She paused to take a breath.
It was to steady her voice, which was trembling unsightly with fear.
“And besides…… when the culprit who killed our own kin is so obvious, would it not be more urgent to first punish that bastard…… hic!”
At that moment, as she turned her gaze aside, she flinched in shock and her body jolted.
Before she knew it, a hiccup escaped her along with an apology.
“……S-sorry! I spoke out of turn without knowing my place……!”
It was because Urkubar’s murderous gaze was already directed at Junongren.
His stare was so cold it seemed as though he might seize her neck and snap it at any moment.
“……Leave.”
It was the word he spat out after a long silence.
“E-Elder…….”
“Leave.”
“B-but…… when you have been drinking like this, how could I possibly leave my post…….”
At his dismissal, Junongren hesitated and tried somehow to remain, but at Urkubar’s next words, she could only fall silent.
“It is an order. Do not even show the tip of your nose until tomorrow. There is something I need to think about alone.”
“B-but…… if something were to happen to you, Elder…….”
“Can you not hear what I am saying!”
At the thunderous shout that echoed like a storm, Junongren’s shoulders shrank.
In the end, with tears welling in her eyes, she bowed deeply and hurriedly fled the room.
Click.
With the sound of the door closing, only silence once again remained in the room.
“…….”
Urkubar silently lifted the bottle and filled his glass.
The liquor overflowed and spilled, but he did not care and brought it straight to his lips.
The chilled alcohol flowed endlessly, as if burning its way through his body.
Even so, the blazing mass in his chest showed no sign of being extinguished.
It was then.
Swish.
Without a sound, an empty glass was extended toward him.
“…….”
Urkubar slowly raised his head.
In a room where no one should have been present.
The one who calmly appeared and offered the empty glass was none other than the Masked Man.
“Drinking alone lacks refinement, does it not.”
The man whispered softly.
His voice was still gentle, yet like his cracked and shattered mask, it was unpleasant to hear.
“Do not worry. I have perfectly erased my presence, so unless you raise your voice, there will be no chance of being discovered.”
“…….”
Without a word, Urkubar lifted the bottle and poured liquor into the man’s glass.
The sloshing sound rang out unusually loud.
Only after filling the glass to the brim did he properly take in the man’s appearance.
Clothes torn and scorched here and there.
A cracked and broken mask.
And then…….
“You look like a mess.”
Urkubar muttered.
“What happened to your left hand this time.”
The place where the man’s left hand should have been was completely empty.
“Ah, this thing?”
The man casually waved his left arm as if it were nothing.
“Do you remember when we first met?”
“I do.”
Urkubar nodded.
“Just like then, I let my mouth slip a bit. I was in high spirits, and I was curious as well.”
“…….”
“The difference from back then would be that this time, I was caught by someone far more frightening than you.”
“Is that so.”
“Yes.”
Not a trace of regret or pain could be felt in the man’s voice.
As always, to anyone at all, he was merely conveying plain facts.
“…….”
Urkubar once again silently emptied his glass.
“……You will keep your promise, won’t you?”
His voice was lower and heavier than ever.
“Of course.”
The man answered without the slightest hesitation.
“ I enjoy nonsense and jokes, but I do not lie. Lies are something only weak humans resort to, are they not? Beings like us…… beings like ourselves do not casually put falsehoods in our mouths. Because we know all too well that a single lie can cost us an incalculable number of things.”
The man paused briefly.
“When everything is over, I will save your daughter as promised. Completely, exactly as you remember her…… with all of my strength.”
“…….”
Urkubar remained silent.
However, the glass in his hand was trembling ever so slightly.
“However, as I have said before, in order to do that, your daughter’s body and heart must be intact. Other parts I can somehow restore or substitute, but those two things are utterly irreplaceable.”
“……Windy May.”
Urkubar quietly whispered a name.
Windy May.
Windy May Maddown.
“That rip-her-apart bitch must have it.”
After a long while, Urkubar spat out the words with a low growl.
A glossy killing intent flashed in his eyes as he spoke.
“Yes, I think so as well.”
The Masked Man nodded.
“That woman, the Dragon Slayer who was also your daughter’s closest friend…… she would never bring herself to use the corpse of the friend she killed with her own hands for some other purpose. She must be treasuring it carefully somewhere.”
“…….”
“I am certain. It is well known that she never brought out a single byproduct from the dragon she slew. She must be hiding it away and keeping it somewhere.”
He took a short breath, then added,
“I also heard that she only extracted half of the heart. The half that remains intact, and the half flowing within Windy May’s body. With just those, it will be more than enough to revive your daughter.”
“…….”
Tap, tap.
The man drummed his fingers lightly on the table.
“Of course…… for that to happen, we would first need to kill that woman and extract the remaining half of the heart flowing through her body.”
“If I so desired, I could kill that mere mutt anytime.”
Urkubar muttered.
“The one who needs to be finished with preparations isn’t me. It’s you.”
“I regret to say it, but you are correct.”
“……And judging by how things are now, it seems those preparations are complete, aren’t they?”
The man did not answer.
He merely traced his finger across the surface of the brimming glass.
“What exactly…… do you want.”
Unable to endure it any longer, Urkubar asked.
Even though he had asked the same question last time, he wanted to confirm it once more.
“As I have always said since we first met, I wish to make a deal with you.”
The man replied.
There was not the slightest wavering in his voice.
“A fair deal, one from which both you and I benefit.”
“…….”
Urkubar silently stared down at his glass.
The face reflected in it felt utterly unfamiliar.
Gulp.
He lifted the glass and drained it in one go.
Then he roughly set it down.
“……If you’re going to do it, then do it quickly.”
He said with a rough cough.
“I am somehow buying time, but…… before long, my lineage will arrive. Everything must be prepared before they get here.”
“Yes, of course.”
The man answered quietly.
A faint sense of satisfaction seeped into his voice.
“And that is also one of the things I desire. To have them come here at just the right time. And along with that, everything I am doing……”
As if performing a sacred ritual, the Masked Man carefully lifted a glass filled with liquor he himself could not drink.
‘……Arpentia.’
Because it was all for that one’s cherished wish.
His soundless whisper quietly seeped into the deep darkness that seemed ready to swallow even the moonlight.
---
Artemia.
Once renowned as a top-class mercenary, she was gathering information in the black market, just as she had promised Lian.
Stale dust and the smell of mold.
Air mixed with cheap perfume and alcohol stung her nose, yet Artemia blended into it naturally, as if it were familiar.
“You’re here.”
From deep within the alley, a man emerged.
With a greasy, shiny face and beady eyes that blinked incessantly like a rat’s, he was a man known even among mercenaries as a prominent information broker.
Without a word, Artemia approached him and handed over a small pouch of gold coins.
He weighed the pouch with practiced ease, then nodded in satisfaction.
“Looks like there’s been a big spender showing up lately, sweeping up that kind of merchandise.”
“A big spender?”
“Yeah. They say he buys up everything in sight. Intact corpses, sure, but also…… bone fragments, chunks of flesh, anything goes. Human or otherwise, he doesn’t care. There’s even a rampant rumor that he pays extra to buy relics of famous heroes, or even the coffins they were buried in.”
The information broker swallowed and continued,
“Thanks to that, this whole scene’s been in an uproar lately. Everyone’s talking about cashing in big on this chance.”
“Do you know who that person is?”
At Artemia’s question, the broker hesitated for a moment.
Rubbing his fingers together, he gauged her reaction.
Without a word, Artemia took out a few more gold coins and pressed them into his hand.
“Ahem…… well, since I’ve taken the job, I can’t just pretend I don’t know. It’s not like this is our first day or two.”
A satisfied smile spread across the broker’s face as he accepted the coins.
He glanced around, then whispered in an even lower voice.
“It’s someone from the Holy Sun Church.”
“……The Holy Sun Church?”
Artemia’s brow furrowed ever so slightly.
It was a name she had not expected at all.
“Yeah. And apparently someone very high up. With the festival going on, all kinds of people have been gathering, right? Well, someone like me never even got a proper look at his face…… but that’s the rumor going around quietly.”
“A name?”
“That much…… even I don’t know.”
The broker shrugged.
“Do you think he’d move personally? He just has his underlings handle everything.”
“Fair enough.”
“But…… I did hear, in passing, that all the items being bought are being gathered in one place.”
“Where?”
After a brief pause, as if about to reveal some tremendous secret, the broker lowered his voice even further.
“An orphanage.”
An orphanage once managed by the Holy Sun Church, now abandoned.
Hearing that all the items were being gathered there, Artemia let out a small sigh.
‘……I should have at least heard them out.’