Chapter 183 – Renewal Plan (4)

“This place is the headquarters of the Anywhere company.”

“You really are a great merchant!”

Maetel was letting out a bright laughter as she raised her thumb towards Mycenae.  She was sure that Maetel had learned that gesture from Artpe.  Mycenae had an odd expression on her face.  She wondered if she really should be doing this.  She mumbled to herself as she looked at her surrounding.

“Hoo-ooh.  I really wonder if we are doing this for humanity….”

“We are doing it for Artpe.  Isn’t that enough?”

“Customer, you really haven’t changed from the first time I met you.”

“My chest became larger than ajumma’s chest during that time?”

“Shut up!”

They were in a medium-sized territory within Diaz.  There was in a shabby building located on the Serata boulevard.  The headquarters of the Anywhere company was located beneath this building.

“Wow.  I sense people hiding beneath this place.  What are they all doing here?  Shouldn’t they be fighting the Demon King’s army?”

“The fight against the Demon King’s army is another business opportunity to the companies.  This why the companies never go all in on a venture.”

Silpennon snorted at Mycenae’s slick explanation.  The young king of Diaz had been invited as a special guest to the hero’s party.  The Anywhere company had shamelessly built a secret base within his country.  Instead of feeling anger, he felt a bit dejected.

These bastard were all traitors.  It wouldn’t be enough to annihilate their entire family and relatives.

“I want to loot them, and I really want to put it all back into my kingdom’s coffers…..”

“However, Artpe said to bring it all to him.”

She was short and clear with her words as she unsheathed her sword.  There was a violent air around Maetel.  Diaz’s coffers had been looted by Artpe, so he thought taking a little bit of the loot would be ok.  However, he quietly gave up on that idea when he saw Maetel’s savage smile.  She didn’t look like the girl hero.  She looked liked a notorious killer.

‘I’m pretty sure Maetel remembers her past life….’

She continued to grind her teeth for no reason when she looked at Silpennon.  Moreover, she was unusually obsessed with Artpe.  It was quite scary.

Of course, he had mostly given up on his affections towards her after awakening to his past memories.  He didn’t plan on pursuing Maetel for her affections.  However, they had shared camaraderie and friendship in their past lives  They had shared joys and sorrows for many years.  He still wanted to be friendly with her.  He still wanted to be her comrade and friend.

“Maetel.”

“Why are you asking for me, Red?”

“No.  It is nothing.”

It seemed she was tired of calling him redhead, so she had shortened it to Red!  Silpennon became resigned as he stepped forward.

“You taking action is a good plan.  However, my Innate ability is quite helpful in these types of situation.  Artpe probably sent you guys along with me thinking this task can’t be done with just my ability….  Just wait here.  I’ll steal everything within this headquarters.”

“Hmm.  You are overflowing with confidence.  It suits you.”

“Ah ah.  Anywhere is cooked now…..”

Mycenae had some knowledge about the ability that had awakened within Silpennon.  This was why she had a complicated expression on her face as she mumbled to herself.  It didn’t take long.  It goes without saying that Silpennon backed up his big talk by stealing everything from the Anywhere company.

Silpennon’s group finished their work without running into much difficulty.  The Anywhere company placed all their high priced items in the storehouse within the headquarters.  They didn’t need to visit multiple locations.  They just had to loot one place.

Above all else, Silpennon’s Innate ability allowed them to smoothly finish their work from beginning to end.

The problem was looting Might and Seros.  Unlike the Anywhere company, the location of their headquarters was common knowledge.  That is why their wealth was stored in multiple locations.

“These companies possess a spell that can transport their wealth.”

As Regina spoke those words, the party went through the building, which was considered to be at the heart of the Might merchant company.  It wasn’t as if they were alone.  They weren’t being bothered, because everyone in the building had been knocked out by Sienna and Elrick’s shield charge.

“There is a reason why it is risky to use Spatial magic.  It leaves behind a Record.  It allows others to track you down.”

“That sounds very complicated, but I think I get the gist of it.  You are saying that Records have been left behind if the items passed through the headquarters?”

“Right.  The items that are considered to be extremely valuable are brought to the headquarters first,.  They measure the value of the items.  Afterwards, the items are transferred to various branches depending on their worth, volume and type of items.”

Regina’s knowledge was very thorough.  The Might company previously had their headquarters located in a city within the former magic kingdom of Aedia.  Regina was the secret weapon developed by Aedia, so she had investigated about the Might company over the long years.

“That means we can use these Records to go to the other branches!”

“Nope.”

Sienna had used her head to come up with an answer, but Regina firmly shook her head in disagreement.  Sienna tilted her head in confusion.  Regina raised her staff as she emitted magical energy.  If other magicians heard her words, they would have let out a shout of disbelief.

“I’m not going to them.  I’ll activate the Record to call them back.”

“······call back the Artifacts and Magic Stones?”

“Yes. I’m not just using Spatial magic.  I’m reading the Mana pattern of the Artifacts.  I can read their current location, and I’ll rewind their Record.”

“Ok.  I have no idea what you are saying!”

Sienna replied with a bright smile.  Regina lightly tapped Sienna’s head with her staff.  Instead of elaborating further, Regina activated her magic.  She had acquired the Record of the Winter Queen.  She used a magic that only she could yse.  She was able to see the Records related to Mana with her strengthened eyes.  She used a summoning spell.

A frightening wave of Mana immediately arose from her.  It broke apart the building’s roof.  As the light of the stars illuminated her, Regina started to summon the items by ones and twos!

“Wow!  It is still coming out!”

“Sienna, what are you doing?  You should gather the items.”

“However, I sense living beings…..   Ah!  I see!  It isn’t just Artifacts and Magic Stones.  I think people are being summoned too?”

A merchant had appeared alongside an Artifact.  The merchant had a death-grip on the Artifact.  Sienna lightly bashed the merchant with her shield.  The merchant was sent flying over the roof.

Regina calmly spoke about what was going on.

“If one wants to interfere with a summon magic, one needs to be in direct contact with the subject being summoned.  Mana can be injected into the subject to stop the summoning.  If one fails, one gets summoned alongside the subject.”

“Ah!  Over there!”

Sienna let out an innocent laughter as she ruthlessly swung her shield.  The merchants fainted when they were hit with the shield.  It wasn’t just the custodians of each branches being summoned.  Dungeon Merchants that possessed Artifacts and Magic Stones started to appear by ones and twos.

“T…this place is…!?”

“This makes no sense.  I couldn’t even put up a fight with my Mana before being summoned….  Kah-hoohk!?”

The merchants tried to put up a decent fight, but Regina’s summon magic was too powerful.  One had to be at least level 300 to be able to interfere with the Mana pattern she wove.  Aside from Artpe’s party and Silpennon’s party, there were no other humans that had exceeded level 300.

“It is endless.  Tsk.  These dirty bastards are trying to make money while humans are currently dying on the front-line.  They squirreled away all these items….”

“It is understandable.  They just think differently from us.”

Sienna quietly spoke her words as she swung her shield.  The Dungeon Merchants, who had just been summoned, were starting to unsheathe their weapons.  However, they all fainted when their heads were bashed in by the corner of Sienna’s shield.

“However, oppa’s will was just stronger than theirs.”

“It becomes complicated when you start talking about might makes right….  However, Artpe is  absolute in your eyes, so I won’t waste time arguing with you.”

In this venture, Elrick also thought Artpe was in the right.  The human realm was in danger of falling, yet the companies were squirreling away so much resources.  This meant they were preparing for the human realm’s loss.  They were preparing for the day when the Demon King  conquers the whole world.

The humans were already at a clear disadvantage.  It might have been understandable if the companies had pulled back their resources later on, so they could fund a resistance.  However, they were keeping these resources back while the battle between the two sides were close.  It was obvious as to what they were trying to pull.

“Rei, how much more do you have to summon?”

“The Might company has a lot of stuff.  I’m also going to summon all their Dungeon Merchants, so I think it’ll take 5 more hours.”

“Five hours······ Yes, let’s finish this quickly, so we can return.”

“Agreed.”

While Regina was maintaining her summon magic, she extended her Mana towards a different direction.  There was a communication system used by the Might company, and it extended across the territory of Aedia.  She made it so that the merchants couldn’t communicate with each other.  She had activated a wide scale communication interference magic.

“I don’t have enough energy to be surprised any more.”

“I wonder what’s happening on Etna unni’s side.  Do you think everything is going smoothly?”

“I have no idea why she insisted on going with the holy priestess, but….   She should be doing well.”

Sienna and Elrick looked at each other, and they titled their head in puzzlement.  Of course, Sienna didn’t realize that such a small gesture made Elrick’s heart beat faster.  Her thoughts were solely on Etna.

‘From what I heard from oppa, unni insisted on going to Seros.  It was as if she knew the location of the headquarters….   She picked out Roa and Vadinet unni for her party.  Does that mean…..’

She knew it was mere speculation, but Sienna was worried.  She hoped that Etna wouldn’t suffer a wounded heart.

At that moment, Etna was on the move with Roa and Vadinet.  They were walking in the streets of Paladia’s capital.  They were in Lihazeta..

“Nyaa nyaa.  I don’t like places without corrupted energy.  Nyaa.  I want to see master.  Nyaa-ah.”

“Are you implying that Artpe-nim is corrupted, kitty?”

“Nyaa.  I like master, because he is cozy.  Nyaa-ah.  I also like that he is adequately rotten, nyaa!”

“Ho-oh.  In my opinion, I think your eyes are rotten.”

“Nyaa-ahhh······.”

The holy priestess was able to eliminate Demonic energy, and the Demonic beast was able to eat the Demonic energy.  The fight of the century was about to start between the two, but Etna had extended her fire.  She separated the two.  She had burned away all the Mana the two had been using.  Her skill was frightening.

“We are almost there.”

“That······ Ms Etna?  I can confirm that the headquarter of the Seros company is within Paladia.  However, it is as I’ve said earlier.  It isn’t in Lihazeta.  It is located in one of the outer cities….”

“That place is empty now.”

“Ughh.”

Since Lihazeta was the capital of Paladia, it was covered with countless spells.  A good number of those spells had been destroyed in the last commotion, but new replacement spells had been placed.  Since temples were located all over Lihazeta, there was a great amount of ambient holy energy.  Even Artpe, who possessed the Read All Creation ability, would have a hard time finding what he wanted in this place.

“It happened when Jeriet was slowly subverting Paladia as he masqueraded as the fake pope.  You were at the heart of that situation, so you probably are well informed about it, right?”

“Yes.  Of course.  Artpe-nim appeared like a shooting star, and his actions….”

“In truth, master didn’t do much.  Nyaa-ah.”

“Shut your mouth. ”

Etna ignored the two girls, who were growling at each other.

“At the time, Artpe had come up with the best course of action.  He checked all the priests, and he filtered out the corrupted ones.  He killed them before they could give excuses.  He was bold.  Afterwards, he made sure the priests wouldn’t be led astray….”

At that moment, Etna came to a stop, and she poked the ground.  At one point, a magic circle containing an enormous amount of Mana had been placed there.  There was a faint trace of another magic circle being made there.

After receiving Etna’s Mana, the magic circle started to power up.  Vadinet’s eyes widened.

“This is the vestige of a teleportation magic….?”

“Artpe always commits fully to his actions.  That is why he missed one possibility.”

Vadinet could somewhat guess at what this possibility was.  As the magic circle expanded, it surrounded the whole party.  In the next moment, they were in an underground corridor within a large building.

“Nyaa?”

Roa sniffed the air.  She tilted her head as she spoke.

“I sense Demonic energy, nyaa-ahhh.”

“No way.  Is it the Four Heavenly King Jeriet······!”

“You are correct.”

He admitted it with a truly depressed voice.  The former Four Heavenly King took a step forward.

“He was the first one to defect to the previous Demon King’s faction.  He infiltrated the human realm to support them.  The first thing he did was to acquire the Seros company for them.”

Demons that were easily over level 300 started to appear in the corridor by ones and twos.  It seemed they had hastily come to the corridor after they sensed the teleportation magic.  Roa bared her teeth at them.  Vadinet was taken aback by what she saw.

It was Jeriet.  He was supposed to the weakest amongst the Four Heavenly King, and he had been the first to die.

Arpte hadn’t known that Jeriet had acquired the Seros company.  He had gone on without knowing about Jeriet’s machination.