Chapter 229 - Discovery (2)

Chapter 229 - Discovery (2)

Hector answered the man’s question.

"I am... For now, let’s just say I’m a lost traveler. Who are you then? No, before that, what’s wrong with this place? What exactly happened here?”

His answer was a mix of anger and curiosity. However, instead of feeling scared, the man felt strangely relieved at Hector’s irritated attitude.

The man stayed silent as he contemplated. After a while, he finally made up his mind. He had been at crossroads on whether to trust Hector or not. He ended up giving Hector the benefit of the doubt and answered his question.

“First, first of all... My name is Baeb... And this is a special city called Killive where all the criminals of the empire are gathered.”

“Killive? I’ve never heard of Killive before.”

“What...? How does someone from the continent not know about Killive?”

“You said I was a ghost before, but now you suddenly treat me like a human? Hey man, just decide on it so I don't get confused as well.”

The joke was a bit on the harsh side, but luckily, it seemed like Baeb took it positively. Thanks to this, he let out a small laugh, which allowed Hector to speak more casually.

With that, the two talked for a while. Once Hector got most of the information he wanted, he slowly summarized everything they had talked about.

“So you’re telling me that you’re not a felon, but you were just sleeping at home, got kidnapped, and ended up here?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re sixteen?”

“Yes.”

“You sure? What’s up with the beard then? Are you sure you’re sixteen?”

“I’m going through puberty...”

“Alright, I guess that makes sense... Okay then, let me go over this one more time. You said that this place is some crazy wizard’s laboratory?”

“At least from what I saw.”

Surprisingly, Baeb was just a teenager. He explained that he had always had long hair and that he had grown a beard because he thought the beards of the elders in his village looked cool.

As for the laboratory, it seemed that Hector’s assumptions had been right: this was indeed the laboratory of some crazy black magician.

Unfortunately, Baeb didn’t know the wizard's name, but on the bright side, he did know what the wizard did. He knew that the wizard frequently created monsters from living humans and did bizarre, horrible things on a regular basis, which normal people couldn’t even comprehend, such as ripping out people’s hearts and eating them.

‘Just listening to these atrocities makes me sick.’

Baeb should’ve been among the victims of those atrocities, but fortunately, he had managed to escape from his cell and survived by taking advantage of the loopholes scattered around the prison, just like a rat.

His life was as miserable as it could be.

Baeb also mentioned that he would stay close to the walls all day to avoid being noticed by the Chimeras or wizards wandering around the prison, and that he would drink dew and eat bugs in order to survive. He then shared that just when he was on the verge of despair, Hector had shown up.

Hearing this, Hector asked, “Have you ever thought about running away?”

“I constantly think about running away, but I’m on the seventh underground floor. How on earth could I run away from here?”

Baeb’s reply made Hector realize that he had asked a stupid question, so he immediately apologized and took a moment to recollect his thoughts.

‘Baeb did say there are Chimeras... But does he actually know what Chimeras are? Never mind, I think he does know, and whatever he saw are most definitely Chimeras. On this note, Arthus is the only one currently dealing with Chimeras on the continent.’

Hector was a little doubtful, but he had some sort of gut feeling.

‘I guess there’s a lot more I need to tell Henry than I thought.’

With all this information he obtained from Baeb, Hector felt an even more intense sense of duty. He also wanted to somehow help this poor boy. He looked at Baeb with eyes full of sympathy.

After pondering on it for a while, Hector finally said, “Baeb, you might find this hard to believe, but with a bit more time, I might just be able to take down that sadistic wizard.”

The reason for this was rather simple: the people of the new Aenia Empire believed that Arthus would not fail with his conquest of the continent. On top of that, Arthus had lowered the tax rate by twenty percent and was keeping the prices from skyrocketing due to the war.

Arthus was the best emperor they could ask for.

Of course, that didn’t mean that Arthus was able to completely eliminate the fear of war from people. That was why Arthus had taken advantage of the artists from the Art City of Musereal, which had recently sided with the Aenia Empire.

Under the orders of the imperial palace, the artists spread throughout the continent and sang songs wishing for peace on the continent and victory of the imperial army.

Furthermore, Arthus had requested the sculptors from Musereal to carve stone statues depicting him as one of the greatest kings the empire had ever seen. He had also asked them to carve statues of the corps commanders, who were destined to become heroes. These statues were then strategically placed in various locations across the continent.

Arthus had done all of that in order to have the people of the continent believe that the war wasn’t a serious issue.

The same thing was happening in a town called Bellatie, not too far from the capital. Bellatie was renowned for its exceptional bread, to the extent that almost all the celebrated bakers in the major cities had come from Bellatie. The reputation of this town extended far and beyond, particularly for its confectionery and baking.

Presently, the scent of fresh bread and cookies flooded the streets of Bellatie, just like it always had. In the middle of the city, Musereal sculptors were working on the stone statue of Emperor Arthus the Great to honor him.

Many people in the town had gathered to watch the sculptors go about their craft. Not a single person was against the idea of Arthus’ statue being in their town. In fact, they were happy for it to go up.

The statue would be finished that day.

After the sculptors finished carving the statue, Nailri, a high priest from the Church of Peace, offered a prayer for the well-being of the townsfolk in front of the newly erected monument. More and more people heard this and came to the center of the town. This was because, unlike the attendant priests and low priests who appeared pretty often in villages and towns, high priests were only seen in larger cities.

“A stone statue of the great leader, the sage, Arthus Highlander, has been erected. Therefore, I pray to you, Irene, the Goddess of Peace, for the well-being and peace of Bellatie...”

People generally liked it when priests delivered longer congratulatory messages because they believed that the duration of their prayer was directly proportional to the amount of grace the god would bestow on them.

The high priest, who was well aware of this mentality, happened to be a kind-hearted one. Thus, he ended up delivering a much longer prayer than usual.

But at that moment...

Whoosh!

It sounded like something was making its way toward the village, but nobody seemed to notice.

Whoosh!

There was another one.

However, someone finally noticed it and turned to where the sound was coming from. It was Kamuel who had noticed the sound. He was a new baker whom all the people of Bellatie held in high regard.

Even though he knew in which direction the sound had come from, Kamuel couldn’t see anything unusual.

‘Am I hearing things?’

Kamuel scratched his head once, then closed his eyes and sagged his head, thinking that he just wasted time when he should’ve concentrated on the prayer the high priest was giving.

But at that moment...

Crack!

A long, skewer-looking pole went through his head.

“Ka-Kamuel!” screamed one person who had been praying next to him. However, their scream didn’t last long. In a few seconds, they were pierced by the same thing that killed Kamuel.

“Everyone, take cover!”

“AHHH!!!”

-Keruk, keruk, keruk!

In a matter of seconds, Bellatie was plunged into chaos, and the eerie laughter that had taken over Nosco now permeated the streets of Bellatie as well.

Thud! Thud!

Every step it took made the earth rumble. The gigantic monster from Nosco had appeared again.

“Go, Grumpy!”

-Roooooooar!

The monstrosity was almost as big as a mountain. It was called Grumpy.