Chapter 159
“What a gloomy place you’ve called me out to.”
Late at night.
I came to the location Serma had written on the note.
“Are we doing something illegal or… hmm, wait. It is illegal, right?”
“Yes. Technically, it is. Did you forget that our black market—Tazera—is an illegal organization?”
“Ah, yes. Must’ve slipped my mind for a moment.”
I chuckled lightly and glanced around.
It was a rather secluded alley in one of the far corners of Lysquare, quite a distance away from the Benetic Stadium.
Dark, damp, and deserted enough that even vagrants wouldn’t come here.
Aside from the rats, nothing else moved. It was a perfect spot for a secret exchange.
“So then, what exactly did you want to give me that you called me out here?”
“I wrote it in the note, didn’t I? It’s something my father sent.”
As she spoke, Serma pointed to a small wooden box placed beside her.
“I haven’t checked the contents myself yet. You can open it here if you’d like, or take it with you and look later.”
“I’ll check it later.”
Smiling, I picked up the small wooden box.
At the same time, I handed Serma five silver coins.
“This is for your trouble. Don’t bother refusing—”
“Do I look like the kind of person who would refuse money?”
“Heh, right. I keep forgetting. You’re not the type to turn down silver.”
With a grin, I handed her the coins and turned to leave.
But then, Serma spoke up.
“By the way… honestly, I’m surprised.”
“Hmm? About what?”
“According to Father’s informants, the Hawkbat Family has recently taken an interest in you, Sir Gideon. So I assumed you’d have someone tailing you tonight… but when we checked, there was no sign of it.”
“And when exactly did you check?”
“Father has quite a few people stationed around this area,” she explained with a dry laugh.
“If there had been a tail from the Hawkbat Family, Father would’ve told me to postpone this meeting. Because if I ever drew their attention, well… things would get complicated. Especially for Tazera.”
“True enough. If the Hawkbat Family’s tracking me, they’d probably start investigating you too—and then… things would get messy.”
I nodded, then asked the question that had been nagging me.
“But can you be sure there really isn’t anyone tailing me? We’re talking about the Hawkbat Family. They’re experts at surveillance. If they wanted to, they could tail someone without that person—or anyone else—ever knowing.”
“Don’t worry. Our people aren’t exactly pushovers either. As a little tip, we actually have a few former members of the Hawkbat Family working with us.”
“I see.”
“…You’re not very surprised. That’s actually a pretty big secret.”
“Well, I kind of expected as much.”
After all, I used to study every bit of in-game lore and even posted summaries online.
And Tazera was once the organization I’d led to the top with my character.
It would take far more than that to surprise me.
“So, to confirm—there really wasn’t anyone tailing me?”
“Right. If there had been, I wouldn’t have shown up tonight.”
“Got it. Thanks for letting me know. Anything else you wanted to say?”
“Be careful.”
Her sudden tone made me glance at her.
She looked… genuinely concerned for me.
“I don’t know why the Hawkbat Family has taken an interest in you, but trust me—nothing good comes from drawing their attention. Even if you’ve got the Balmuth Family behind you, the Hawkbats are far more persistent than you think.”
“You’re absolutely right. I’ll be careful. I have no intention of getting kidnapped and tortured by them, after all.”
I nodded, chuckling.
“But still, it’s nice to know you care about me this much. Glad to see you’re warming up to me, Serma.”
“I—I’m not! It’s just that it’d be a shame to lose someone who occasionally gives me spending money, that’s all.”
“Heh, sure, sure. Whatever you say.”
“What’s with that reaction? I’m not—”
“Here.”
“…Thank you. Sir Gideon is always right.”
The moment I handed her a gold coin, Serma immediately bowed her head.
I couldn’t help but smile faintly at the sight before turning to leave for real this time.
“Take care on your way back. If I ever need Tazera’s help again, I’ll be in touch.”
“Got it. Oh—one last thing.”
“What is it?”
“Tomorrow’s tournament. I hope you win.”
“Yeah, well… I have to win.”
I replied with a wry smile.
Back at my lodging—
“Siri, come out for a sec.”
“Woof!”
I immediately called Siri out from my shadow.
“So, was anyone secretly following me?”
“Woof? Woof!”
“Meaning no, right?”
“Woof!”
“Hmm, I see.”
Honestly, even if Serma hadn’t mentioned it, I’d already considered the possibility of a tail from the Hawkbat Family.
That’s why I’d asked Siri, before meeting Serma, to move through the shadows and check if anyone was trailing me.
If there was, she was to notify me immediately.
If someone really was tailing me, I would’ve postponed meeting Serma.
Just as she’d said, if the Hawkbat Family started looking into her, things would become troublesome.
With someone like the Hawkbat Family, even one clue like “Serma” could lead them to uproot all of Tazera.
Still, this is unexpected. I was sure they’d tail me.
Both Serma’s people and Siri had confirmed there was no one.
That meant the Hawkbat Family probably hadn’t placed a tail on me at all.
Considering Andrew’s personality, I thought he’d have someone following me. If he doesn’t… then maybe his focus really is on the Isrinbloom side.
Thinking back to how Eisen had behaved today…
If Andrew was as sharp as Jason claimed, he would’ve immediately noticed that something was off with Dilug.
Andrew had always been the intuitive type—he’d surely realized that something was happening within the Isrinbloom Family.
He was probably pouring all of the family’s resources into investigating them right now.
‘Well, there’s nothing bad about this from my point of view. But still… I should at least send Jason a message about it.’
As I roughly grasped the situation, I stroked Siri’s head.
Then, I took out a piece of dried jerky and tossed it to her.
“Good work. Take a rest now.”
“Woof!”
“Hey, if you get on the bed—ah, whatever. Fine, I’ll sleep on the sofa tonight. You take the bed.”
“Woof? Woof woof! Woof!”
“Whoa?”
Siri bit into my sleeve and tugged me onto the bed, pulling me down.
Then she started licking my face all over, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“So you’re saying we should just sleep together on the bed?”
“Woof!”
“Alright, alright, buddy. But just for tonight. Next time, you’re either back on the floor or on the sofa. You’ve grown so much, there’s barely any space left.”
“Whine…”
“Here, eat this.”
“Woof! Woof woof woof!”
When I threw her a few more pieces of jerky, Siri happily caught and devoured them.
Smiling at the sight, I sat back up on the bed.
There was something I needed to check before sleeping.
“Now then, what did the master of Tazera send me?”
A few months ago, I had sent a large amount of Elixir to Clergy through Serma.
I’d asked him to investigate anything he could about the ancient Evil God that once dwelled in Muktaba— the one once worshipped by nomads.
‘But the box is small and light. Doesn’t seem like there’s anything special inside.’
With that thought, I opened the box to check.
As expected, there wasn’t much inside.
There was a letter, seemingly written by Clergy, and… a small stone tablet.
It was a round stone tablet, about the size of my palm, covered in letters and drawings.
They were so tangled and chaotic that I couldn’t make sense of them.
“…What is this supposed to be?”
After briefly examining the tablet, I picked up the letter inside the box.
[I looked into everything I could about the ancient being you requested—the Evil God that once resided in Muktaba and was worshipped by the nomads. Surprisingly, I found absolutely no records of it. There were said to be plenty of relics in the past, but it seems that, at some point, all of them vanished. The tablet I’ve sent you might very well be the only remaining relic in the entire Empire related to that Evil God.]
“So this is a relic related to Bedir, huh? Hmm…”
After studying the tablet for a moment, I continued reading the letter.
[It’s an artifact I found among my great-grandfather’s old junk. According to his notes, that tablet is said to be a key related to Muktaba’s Evil God. I’m not sure what kind of key it is, but it’s definitely connected to the god you asked me to research.]
“…A key, huh?”
I looked over the tablet again.
Honestly, there wasn’t anything about it that looked like a key.
[You also asked me to find out if there are any remaining Apostles of that god within the Empire, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything. Even after deploying every skilled informant in the organization, we came up empty-handed. So this tablet is the only thing I can give you. I feel as though I didn’t quite repay the Elixirs you sent me, but please believe me—I did my best as a merchant to fulfill your request, and this is truly all that resulted from it.]
After finishing the letter, I nodded slowly.
Clergy wasn’t the type of man to make jokes about such things.
In other words, even he hadn’t been able to uncover anything about Bedir.
‘I was sure Clergy would find something. But if even Tazera’s network couldn’t discover a single clue… then just what kind of god is Bedir?’
I stared at the tablet, lost in thought.
A mysterious stone tablet… and a key.
A key.
What on earth could it open?
“…Hey, Siri.”
“Woof?”
“You got any idea what this is?”
“Woof? Woof, woof? Woof! Woof?”
“Yeah, didn’t think so.”
I let out a small laugh and placed the tablet back into the box.
It seemed I wouldn’t be able to learn anything about it for now.
So I decided to focus on tomorrow’s important event first—
the Grand Representative Tournament.
The next morning.
Inside the Lysquare Academy waiting room at Benetic Stadium.
“The match starts in an hour. You’re all set? How’s your condition?”
“My condition’s perfect, and I’m fully prepared.”
“Good, very good.”
Luke smiled at me.
But there was a hint of unease in his eyes.
I chuckled lightly and asked,
“Did you meet Lord Dilug yesterday?”
“I did. I asked about Eisen, but… he didn’t say much—just that he was against disqualifying him.”
“What did you think of Lord Dilug?”
“…He seemed strange. Not like the Dilug I know. Sure, it was definitely him, but… somehow, it felt like he was someone else.”
“I see.”
Luke’s words deepened my suspicions.
Almost everyone around had started noticing that something was off about Dilug.
If that was the case, then sooner or later, the real mastermind—Rage—would have his tail caught.
But whether he had already accounted for that possibility, or had some other plan in mind… I couldn’t tell.
“By the way, Instructor, the match brackets came out this morning, right?”
“Ah, right. I almost forgot to show you. Here, take a look.”
Luke pulled out a folded sheet of paper from his inner pocket.
It was the official tournament bracket for the Grand Representative Tournament.
When I checked—
“I’ll be meeting Sir Eisen… in the finals, it seems.”
“Yeah. They said the brackets were randomized, but it still turned out like this.”
Eisen and I were placed on opposite ends of the chart.
If I made it to the finals…
then the last match of the tournament would be between him and me.