Chapter 27 - The Succession Match (2)
"The new line, that would be the Northern Academy, right? It was Iterus and Baldinger, correct?"
"That's right."
"Were they discovered by the enemy?"
"The exact circumstances are unknown. This is the first time the cult has penetrated the Academy. It's a difficult place for other lines to intervene, so it requires time."
"Any signs that the enemy has figured out about the poison organ?"
"Not confirmed. All other lines are operating normally."
"Hmm..."
The Vice-Leader stroked his white beard.
Even at that moment, countless people lined the path where the boy walked, shouting cheers and slogans.
"Long live the Poison King!"
"Long live the Poison King!"
"...What was the last report?"
"It remains unchanged. The last report stated that there has been no change in target 'Di's' condition since the start of the semester."
"Is that so. It's not time yet, I suppose."
"Vice-Leader. It seems to be true that the target's potential danger is very high." Pawel expressed his concern in a voice barely audible.
"However, looking at the entire Sword King family, there are far more dangerous individuals."
"Hmm. Continue."
"Even just in the Northern Academy, there are several key individuals among the senior students. Yet, I don't understand why you are focusing on a freshman who just enrolled, and someone far removed from combat at that. Wouldn't it be better to focus on the Granvelle, who is in the same class and a thorn in our side?"
"Pawel."
"Yes, Vice-Leader."
"Do not doubt."
The old man's eyes froze coldly.
Pawel closed his eyes for a moment and bowed.
"Look. That beautiful sight."
The old man smiled, looking at the surging crowd in the distance.
"The time is approaching. The First One's resurrection is just the signal."
"My apologies, Vice-Leader. My thoughts were shallow."
"The surviving Granvelle? I saw nothing about it. Then just leave him alone. Didn't you say he was a brat with almost no aura to begin with?"
"That's right. However, as I reported, his swordsmanship seems quite unusual..."
"Even that is useless without aura. The core of this operation is aura. More precisely, it could be called ley line sensitivity. From now on is truly important. Is the adjustment of the two Guardian Protectors proceeding without a hitch?"
"Yes. The adjustment will be completed in one month."
"Tighten it up without any gaps. If they go berserk midway, all our efforts until now will be for naught."
"I will bear that in mind. The problem is the Hundred-Year Poison..."
Pawel trailed off, looking at the boy who appeared as a dot in the distance.
The old man was silent for a moment, then shook his head.
"He's sensitive. If we rush, he'll notice something."
"To carry out the operation as planned, a large amount of Hundred-Year Poison is needed. More than what was used in the Granvelle annihilation."
"That's right. Given the location, much more will be needed."
"According to legend, or rather, lore... only the first Poison King possesses the secret method to artificially create Hundred-Year Poison. When will you bring up this matter?"
"The schedule will proceed as planned." The old man slowly shook his head and smiled.
"Don't worry. We will secure the necessary Hundred-Year Poison within a month at the latest. You, in the remaining time, do your best to secure internal information about the Academy."
"I obey your command, Vice-Leader."
Pawel withdrew his clasped hands and disappeared to the back.
The Vice-Leader muttered to himself, listening to the increasingly distant cheers of the people.
"Everything according to plan... There's no need to rush. It's almost within reach. For the future I saw, for the future I desire..."
***
Back at the Dormitory
It turned out there was something after all.
Crawling around for a bit paid off.
I discovered that the end of the first-floor corridor in the dorm was different from other places.
Only here did the smell differ.
"Hmph..." I put my nose to the wooden floor and took a deep breath.
A faint smell of sawdust.
An itchy smell of dust.
And a subtle hint of poison.
An unknown source of poison existed somewhere below.
Poison liquid?
Poisonous insects?
Poisonous herbs?
Mineral poison?
Rotting poison?
I wasn't sure.
It felt like I'd smelled it somewhere before, but it wasn't exact.
The smell was too faint.
Anyway, the orb was right.
The dorm had a basement.
But I couldn't find the entrance to go down to the basement.
"That's strange..."
If there was a basement, there should naturally be stairs leading down to it.
But even after meticulously searching every inch of the first floor's floor and walls, I couldn't find a stair entrance.
Should I just break it open and go down to the basement?
Since the floor is wood, it doesn't seem too difficult.
However, breaking is easy, but fixing is hard.
If I did that and an outsider visited the dorm, the secret of the basement would be revealed to the whole world.
I'm not a carpenter, so I wouldn't be able to perfectly restore a broken floor, and of course, the dorm would be closed.
That would be troublesome.
I liked it here.
Then, a thought suddenly struck me.
This was the right end of the first-floor corridor.
Directly above this spot was Spy No. 1's room.
The dorm's first resident and the Poison King Cult spy, Eric.
His real name was Baldinger.
"So..." I smelled something.
A smell in a different sense than poison.
I immediately went up to the second floor and began searching the spy's room.
This wasn't my first time doing this.
I had searched this room on the day Spy No. 1 vanished from the world.
At the time, I was desperate for money.
Of course, that's still the case now.
Anyway, I remember being disappointed after searching the entire room and only finding two coins, a mere 2 Sill.
Spy No. 1 was a pauper.
Still, he was richer than me.
At least he had three sets of school uniforms.
Clean, crisp new uniforms.
I wanted to take them all and sell them to a used clothes shop.
But I left them alone, thinking it would be dangerous if the missing uniforms were discovered when the missing persons investigator came...
"...Gone."
Nothing had changed this time either.
There was nothing particularly noteworthy in the spy's room to begin with.
One bag containing a swordsmanship textbook and two practice wooden swords.
Several sets of neatly folded casual clothes and three school uniforms hanging in the built-in wardrobe.
That was all the spy's possessions.
There was no bed, no desk, no cupboard.
There was no space to hide anything behind them to begin with.
Like, say, a secret passage entrance leading down to a basement.
"Phew..."
Come to think of it, half a month had passed since the new semester began.
During that time, no one had come looking for the missing spy.
Had they just given up on the investigation?
Were they treating him like an abandoned adopted child?
If so, then perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to sell off the uniform the spy left behind?
Then I could finally buy some pumpkin pie or fresh fruit after a long time...
"...Huh?"
Tiber?
Tiber, is that you?
Are you there?
"..."
He was there.
I turned my head and saw the red orb floating outside the window.
Tiber wanted to eat something delicious through me.
Hunger washed over me.
Then this was an adventure for a friend. I opened the spy's built-in wardrobe and pulled out all three school uniforms hanging inside.
"The size is similar, so I could wear one... Huh?"
Then something caught my eye.
The space beyond the hanging uniforms.
A bulging curve was visible on the inner wall of the built-in wardrobe.
It was a curve shaped like a handle.
As if possessed, I gripped it and began to move it.
Left-right.
It didn't move.
Up-down. It didn't move.
Push. It didn't push.
Pull.
Kkik!
It pulled.
The entire inner wooden wall of the built-in wardrobe pulled open.
To think there was an entrance here.
A faint scent of poison, which I had smelled on the first floor, wafted up from beyond the dark passage.
"Hmm..."
What was this?
Despite finding it after such difficulty, I felt a strange sensation looking at it.
It was confusing.
Why would such a secret passage be in a place like this?
Wasn't this a dorm built by the Academy?
Of course, the graveyard mountain itself wasn't ordinary, but the fact that the dorm had such a device built in meant the problem was much bigger.
The Poison King Cult's spies weren't just students.
There were clearly spies among the Academy staff.
And people high enough in rank to be involved in the dorm's construction.
Could it be among the professors?
For now, none of the professors I'd met were spies.
But I couldn't be sure until I met professors from other grades.
Anyway, if it were a professor, they'd be openly powerful.
Could I even catch them?
No, wait.
Perhaps there was a spy in the architectural firm commissioned to build it.
It makes sense if they took the commission and then secretly built this hidden place to provide information to other spies.
I really hope that's the case.
This hypothesis is much more hopeful than a professor being a spy.
I could quickly confirm it by finding the architects.
However.
There was something to do before that.
I first returned to my room.
Then I lit a candle I'd bought from my meager savings and returned to the spy's room.
The basement would be pitch black.
From now on, I had to explore beyond that secret passage.
As I shined the candlelight into the passage, I saw a long, extended rod beyond the empty darkness.
A rod.
A metal rod.
Was I supposed to grab that and go down?
I had a feeling it would be incredibly difficult to climb back up later.
Shwoosh!
It took about 10 seconds to reach the bottom.
It was much deeper than I expected.
On the wall illuminated by the candlelight as I descended, strange patterns were carved.
I'd have to check them out slowly later.
I arrived in a humid space.
It was about the size of four dorm rooms combined.
Inside, there was a drawer unit as tall as me and a small jar.
This jar was the source of the poison scent I smelled on the first floor.
Although it was tightly sealed with thick cloth, an unmistakable aura leaked out.
A scent that I felt like I knew, yet somehow wished I didn't.
To find the answer, I would have to open the lid.
Chik!
As soon as I tore it open, memories flooded back. I knew this.
It was the worst poison, Hundred-Year Poison, the one that had completely destroyed the Granvelle mansion and village a few months ago.
"Ugh..."
My head swam.
My body felt like it was tearing apart.
Everything felt powerless.
I was afraid and miserable.
The Granvelle mansion, my room.
I was back in that time.
So, this wasn't a real sensation.
It was just memories from that time surfacing in real-time.
It's scary.
Memories are a terrifying thing.
I held my breath and put the lid back on the jar again.
The Poison King Cult is insane.
To keep such maddening poison in the dorm basement.
What on earth are they planning to do with this? Are they perhaps thinking of destroying another family, like the Granvelles?
No, that's impossible.
Even if Bryce is a large city, it's not a stronghold for the Eight Great Main Families.
The closest one from here was Granvelle Village.
So, their target must be... I don't know.
Jumping to conclusions based on imagination is pointless.
Anyway, leaving this as is would be dangerous.
I need to ask my family to purify it.
I should take it out with me when I leave later.
Next was the drawer.
A drawer as tall as me stood alone against one wall of the basement.
I pulled out the top drawer first and placed it on the floor.
That way, I could see its contents.
But all that came out was a sigh.
"Haa."
The drawer contained tree roots.
What is this, medicinal herbs?
It's definitely not a poisonous herb.
If it were, I'd immediately recognize it through the memories left by the Poison King.
The smell itself is far from that of poison.
"It smells like dirt..."
Even sniffing it directly, I couldn't tell.
It was a smell not present in the Poison King's memories.
"Phew..."
It was disappointing.
If he's a spy, he should hide operational funds or something, not these.
Why was he cherishing this?
By the way, smelling it made me hungry.
Can I even eat this?
The root looks sturdy; it seems like it could fill me up if I ate it all.
...No, Tiber, please.
I wouldn't put tree roots hidden in a Poison King Cult secret base into my mouth unless I was insane.
So this must be the desire left by Tiber.
"No. This is probably a medicinal herb. It might fetch a good price at a herb shop. If I exchange it for money, I can buy something much tastier to eat."
So, I had to be patient for now.
I picked up the pulled-out drawer and slid it back into the top slot of the drawer unit.
Now, three compartments remained.
The second compartment contained a bundle of papers.
"..."
I was greatly disappointed.
Is this really the best you've got?
Nothing else?
Like, a glittering pile of small coins cast from metal?
Anyway, the papers had mysterious characters sparsely written on them.
"Special line directive... observe the actions of target 'Di'..."
The papers were directives sent from the Poison King Cult's higher-ups.
Even though I could read the unfamiliar, coded script, I felt no joy.
"Observe Di's lifestyle... measure Di's usual aura amount... if a rapid change in aura amount is detected..."
Most of the directives were orders to investigate the target.
So, who exactly is Di?