Chapter 1091

After repelling the invasion from Shallus, Fran and the others returned to Bulbora.

Since they already sent an envoy to Shallus, they were waiting for their response. The summoning tool we recovered was already broken apart, but Gamudo held on to what was left. He’ll transfer that to the capital when things settle down a bit.

Meanwhile, Fran was helping with the reconstruction of Bulbora.

Though she was still concerned about Alessa, she could not leave Bulbora in this state. Also, we heard that Alessa’s defense was going well. It seems the ex-Rank A adventurers on the front lines managed to push Raydoss back considerably.

Since we had no urgent reason to visit Alessa, Fran helped in Bulbora with things like soup kitchens and rubble removal. Also, eliminating all the spies from Raydoss.

Perhaps getting a bit overeager in their infiltration attempts, Derrick’s subordinates tried to enter Bulbora on several occasions. Well, not like they could hide from Fran and Urushi when we knew they were coming. Besides, we had Felmus and Diaz here with us. The spies were caught almost instantaneously.

Especially useful were the skills I obtained from the magicite golems: Owl Eye and Sound Recognition. Owl Eye gave us the ability to see clearly even at night. Compared to normal Night Vision, it also seemed to boost dynamic vision too.

Sound Recognition, like the name implies, allowed us to distinguish noises in the vicinity more easily. A very useful tool for finding spies.

Now that I think about it, I only got three new skills after defeating so many magicite golems. I guess that can’t be helped since most of them had weapon and magic skills.

In other words, I already had most of those.

The final one was a skill called Metal Softening. This seems to have many different uses, but currently, I’m applying it to fix a bent metal door.

Thanks to the efforts of Fran and the others, Bulbora managed to return to normal for the most part.

We went back to Rokkars a few times to check on them too, but they didn’t see any major invasions there either. I guess Raydoss can’t invade so easily with their navy annihilated.

Now that we didn’t have to move around the entire day, I wanted to try something.

『Okay, let’s give it a try.』

「Nn.」

We were inside Fran’s room at the guild. Under the light of a lantern hanging from the ceiling, Fran stared intently at the small sacks on the table.

These were the item bags we obtained in various locations throughout our adventurers. Some we took from goblins, others we looted from the bases of slavers.

I’ve heard it’s possible to force them open with covenant magic, so I wanted to check the contents today.

First, let’s try the one with the weakest enchantment. How did we get this one again? To be honest, it’s pretty much impossible to remember where I got each of these based on appearance alone.

『Hrh! Nrrgh…』

「Master, are you okay?」

『Yeah, it’s much easier than removing a slave collar. Just a bit more…』

I have no clue what will happen if I pour in my mana too fast. That’s why I carefully and gradually increased the mana. Then, the item bag started glowing, signaling a noticeable change.

『Will it open?』

「Is it working?」

『Whoa! It opened!』

「What’s inside?」

Fran looked pretty excited too, probably a similar feeling to opening a treasure chest. However, the smile quickly disappeared from her face.

『Guess this was a bad one.』

「Nn.」

There was only an iron knife, a pittance of money, and some rations. The bag probably carried someone’s emergency provisions or something like that.

The next bag I opened was packed with a bunch of weapons. While none of them were really high quality, they were still usable. Maybe some bandits had used the bag as a makeshift weapon box?

『Guess this one was bad too.』

「…Nn.」

I continued opening the bags, and nothing worthwhile came out. The most valuable item was an ordinary silver ring without any enchantment.

Even if we sold everything, it’d fetch less than 300,000 gold. A decent sum, but far from the kind of treasure Fran was hoping for.

『This is the last one.』

「…Nn.」

Fran gave a really half-assed nod! This one looked a little promising to me though. After all, the enchantment seemed pretty strong. Breaking the spell won’t be easy.

『Haaaah!』

I focused up my own mana to break through the item bag’s restriction, and there was a considerable amount of recoil. This might be as powerful as Princess Serimea’s slave collar.

I wouldn’t be surprised if a human attempting to do this had blood gushing out of their orifices. Well, not like that’s a problem for me!

『Yes! It opened!』

「Nn.」

Fran opened the bag and took out the contents with a tiny bit of expectation. She tilted her head when she saw what came out.

It was a stack of papers.

「These are… slave contracts!」

『And this is a client list!』

Everything was written, from where the slaves came from, to who bought them. I sensed a faint mana response from the papers, so they seemed to be enchanted with contract magic or something similar.

While skimming through the contract details, I noticed that the slaves were not promised even the bare minimum rights. Though these were clearly illegal slave contracts, none of the them had been signed yet.

So these contracts must have been prepared in advance for enslaving others.

『And this list… I see a lot of noble-like names, but none of them are ringing a bell. Could they be from Kranzel?』

「Master, here.」

『Ashtner!』

But that wasn’t all. The names of Alsand, Olmes, and other nobles under Ashtner were also listed.

Like I suspected, the customers included many Kranzel nobles. In addition to buying illegal slaves, they might even be connected to Raydoss behind the scenes.

Marquis Ashtner and his subordinates may have already been taken down, but it’s possible some other traitors managed to escape punishment. Perhaps we can utilize this list to sniff out anyone else working for Raydoss.

『We can’t leave this list with just anyone.』

「What about Gamudo and his friends?」

『Yeah, he’s probably our best option.』

Setting Eiworth aside, the other three have plenty of connections. We should consult them first.