Chapter 298: Second (1)

Chapter 298: Second (1)

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At a loss for words, Rudger stares at Belaruna.

“Why did you withhold such an important fact?’

Belaruna avoided Rudger’s gaze.

She’d been hiding things like this all along, even from him, because she knew she wasn’t usually doing anything wrong.

When Rudger’s gaze grew more intense, almost piercing her skin, she suddenly realized she had been wronged so she straightened up and glared at him.

‘You’re in no position to talk to me like that.’

Belaruna had been cast out of the Elven Kingdom for her sins.

All things considered, Rudger did not have a better record, did he?

Jack the Ripper, the shadow of the First Princess and a man known for tearing people apart.

Abraham Van Helsing, the hunter of the century and the man who killed the Beast of Gévaudan.

James Moriarty, the criminal mastermind who terrorized a nation.

Machiavelli, the legendary mercenary who ended the civil war in the Northern Kingdom and many more.

The hunter and the mercenary may not have done anything bad but what about the rest?

Even his current identity, Rudger Chelici, is a false identity, a false employment that violates the laws of the Empire.

What Belaruna did was certainly sinful, but Rudger added to it, not subtracted from it.

Knowing that, Rudger cringed inwardly but he glared at Belaruna even harder.

‘At least I didn’t hide it.’

He was claiming immunity for revealing all of his hands to his companions and Belaruna had nothing to say about that. Her barely scraped-together courage shattered once more.

‘We’ll have to talk about it when this is all over.’

‘That’s.......’

Finally, just as I thought things were getting organized, an unexpected interruption came in.

“Excuse me.”

Chris’s sharp gaze flicked between Rudger and Belaruna.

“You two are exchanging some kind of glance. Have you known each other before?”

His tone is a mixture of insults directed at Rudger and respect for Belaruna.

The way Chris glared at Rudger was particularly disturbing.

Rudger wondered what was wrong with this man, but felt compelled to say something right away.

“I don’t know her, I just can’t believe she kept such an important fact from us.”

“You need to be more empathetic, Mr. Rudger Chelici, because anyone who looks at you like that is going to have a hard time with you.”

Is that what you’re going to say?

Rudger usually let Chris say whatever he wanted, but this time it was hard. Ever since Chris’s involvement with Belaruna, there was a strange irritation that was hard to ignore.

“After all, she’s an elf recommended by the First Princess herself, so there shouldn’t be any problems, right?”

“.......”

Come to think of it, he had said that when introducing Belaruna.

Of course, this was all Belaruna’s fault for hiding the fact that this had happened.

“What matters now is not her past, but the root of the World Tree in front of us.”

Belaruna spoke up, happy to be able to get out of this situation.

“First of all, let’s get this straight: inside that dead World Tree’s root is a demonic power. I don’t know who the hell put it there or when or where, but.......”

“So you’re saying that demonic power is stirring to burst forth from its roots at any moment.”

“Yep. And that’s most likely why the warlocks here are studying the World Tree. They’re trying to harness that power.”

Trying to harness demonic power.

The three of them realized that this was a serious matter but it was still mere speculation. Without hard evidence, no one would believe it if they told anyone else.

At that moment, Rudger spotted a tiny butterfly fluttering by.

‘That one.’

Rudger held out his hand lightly, and the butterfly landed on it. Then the butterfly slowly unraveled and turned into a tiny note.

‘Sedina.’

There was no way Sedina could have gotten the note all the way here on her own, so Hans must have helped.

Rudger quickly scanned the note’s contents. It turned out that Hans had been telling the truth when he said he was watching the situation through the chimeras.

“Chris......!”

Belaruna called out Chris’s name, seemingly impressed. Of course, given Belaruna’s skills, Chris shouldn’t have to protect her, but since she was nominally a non-combatant, he had no choice.

“Is that all right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Even if we know what to do, this is their home base. We can’t just move around, and with the terrain shifting like this it’s hard to pinpoint their positions.”

If you move blindly and the terrain changes again, you’ll be lost again. It would mean that all the progress they had made would be for naught.

They could be stuck in the same place for the rest of their lives but Rudger dismissed Chris’s concerns.

“Chris, do you see those roots over there?”

“The roots of the World Tree that......me and Lady Belaruna were studying?”

“When the structure of the terrain changed a moment ago, paths were created that weren’t there, and old paths disappeared. Perhaps this is a facility where the terrain moves in three dimensions.”

“How does that work?”

“Well, the position of the roots over there just stayed the same, so that means the block with the roots sticking out can’t move.”

“......!”

Chris’s eyes widened at that.

“Indeed. You’re saying that the area where the roots of the World Tree poke through are frozen and can’t be moved.”

“Yes. And if we can trace the direction of these roots, we can find their lair.”

The underground facility was shaped like a giant disk. There was a large cavity in the center, presumably where the core of the dead World Tree resided.

The roots of the World Tree had spread out from the center, breaking through the outer walls, which was probably why the facility was only partially movable.

So if you looked at the direction the roots were coming from and followed them, you’d end up in the center, so at least you wouldn’t get lost.

“But just as we can think like this, they must know that we can find them backwards through the roots.”

“Yes. That’s exactly what they want.”

“So changing the terrain like this is effectively a pointless act?”

“That’s what I thought at first, too, but now that I think about it, it’s not quite that.”

“What?”

“Look ahead.”

As Rudger spoke, Belaruna and Chris looked where he pointed and saw an uninvited visitor staring at them from beyond a long, lighted archway, despite being underground.

The other side has a rough idea of their strength, so they can’t be sending ordinary Liberation troops. If so, the Liberation Army must have been sent the most skilled among them, as well as the warlocks.

Whatever the case, the enemy was not to be trifled with.

“They knew they couldn’t stop us by changing positions, so they came directly to us.”

With that, Rudger gave himself a quick check. His body was in good shape and his mana pool was full.

“You should get comfortable.”

Rudger gripped a long, black staff with the tip decorated in the form of a raven and channeled his mana into it.

“You didn’t have to come to me, I came to you.”

Without speaking to the other party Rudger immediately manifested his magic.

* * *

“This.”

Passius sighed in disbelief at the altered internal structure.

They were not lost because although the terrain had changed the roots that broke the walls were fixed.

As long as they followed the roots, they wouldn’t get lost. However, he was surprised that an underground facility would behave this way.

It’s amazing that something like this could exist beneath the capital city and still be functioning after hundreds of years.

‘What the hell were they doing 500 years ago, in the former Empire?’

He sure it was possible if people tried to create it today, but it’s hard to believe that something like this could have been created so long ago, in a time when science wasn’t as advanced.

Unlike Passius’s comfortable thoughts, his companion, the iron-masked mage Rotheron, simply stared ahead in silence because after the structure of the underground facility had changed an enemy appeared in front of them.

“You said you were Lord Rotheron, right?”

“You can call me Rotheron if you wish, Sir Passius.”

“I’ll do that, then. But there’s an enemy over there, what are you going to do?”

“Is there such a thing as a choice?”

Rotheron immediately prepared himself for combat.

“We’ll fight.”

Passius smirked at the belligerent words.

“I can understand that.”