A Regressor's Bucket List

Chapter 178 : Beastkin Faction (5)

Meanwhile, at the same time Valencia and Jerry were catching up in their own way.

U-jin was in the basement of the mansion.

The mansion's basement.

The very fact that he was visiting it was ironic.

As the image conjured by the name 'mansion' would suggest, this mansion, now a guild house, had numerous rooms without needing to bother crawling down to the basement.

Ostensibly, there was no reason to visit this place, leaving behind his private room on the top floor.

Indeed, while it was cleaned during the initial overhaul, it had no particular use afterward and was a space no one ever entered.

But ironically, right after returning with Valencia, U-jin sought out the mansion's basement.

And as is often the case with basements.

The reason he had specifically come here, bypassing the many other rooms, was because there was something that had to be kept in the basement, away from prying eyes.

And that 'something' was.

“Mmph- Mmph-!”

…not an object.

“…Is this really okay, Hero?”

“What is?”

Eliya asked U-jin with a worried look.

“Well, obviously the illegal kidnapping, confinement, assault…”

As soon as U-jin asked back, she listed off the crimes he had committed as if she had been waiting.

But U-jin didn't bat an eye, shrugging as he replied.

“It's self-defense. They were the ones who tailed us first.”

“…”

“And when did I assault him?”

Ssk-

U-jin turned his head again and looked down at the man who was tied tightly to a chair.

“Isn't that right?”

“Mmph-!”

The man, unable to make a proper sound with his eyes and mouth bound by cloth, screamed as if terrified.

U-jin slowly untied the hood covering his face.

And the face revealed…

was quite familiar.

“Mr. Tan.”

* * *

A mustached face with strong features.

‘Aileen Village has killer barley beer.’

‘Once we arrive, let's… huh?’

‘My name is Tan.’

‘…’

‘That Aileen Village you're talking about is my hometown.’

He was definitely the man named ‘Tan’ who had been with us since the airship and had looked after us in Aileen Village.

“…You. What… what is this, you did this to me…”

As if all the information in his head was pouring out at once, the moment the hood was removed, he sputtered incomprehensible words.

He shook his head once and, coming to his senses, spoke.

“…Why are you doing this to me?”

“Are you really asking because you don't know?”

“…I am.”

“Even now?”

“…”

He seemed to be feigning ignorance, but the very tone of his voice was different from the one he had used with us before.

No, it was useless to deny it in the first place.

I wouldn't have gone this far if I wasn't certain.

I had already thought it over several times, secured circumstantial evidence, and even found clear physical proof, which was why I had forcibly brought this man here from so far away.

If it had been just a suspicion, I wouldn't have gone through such a troublesome process; I would have roughly finished it by investigating on my own on-site.

“Still, your security is thorough…”

“…!”

“You don't have to worry. You're not one of the Demon King's lackeys or anything. If you were, I wouldn't be having a conversation like this; I would've cracked open your head and scanned it by now. Right?”

Of course, that's not to say that my kidnapping him was based on hostile feelings.

Rather, it was rooted in a need for help.

“Connecting to the agency. Is it possible?”

“…!!!”

His eyes widened.

Then.

“How did you…”

His exclamation, which burst out like a confession, proved that my prediction was not wrong.

‘…The Executive Agency UMC.’

An acronym for Unidentified Management Creature, it was a secret group within the Order that primarily managed mutants that deviated from the normal course, or unidentified lifeforms whose identities could not be precisely determined.

One might think of the Exorcists managed by Louis as a similar example, but that organization, which mainly dealt with Demonic Species, and this ‘Executive Agency UMC’ had quite a few differences in their origins and nature, making it difficult to lump them together.

First of all, their very existence was different.

Although the Exorcists were called a secret group, every priest working for the Order knew of them, and they were such an open secret that even some ordinary people knew of the Order's separate group that caught Demonic Species.

However, even the priests of the Order were not properly aware of the existence of the ‘Executive Agency UMC’.

“…Huh? What does that mean, Hero?”

…Even Eliya, right next to me, didn't know of the ‘Executive Agency UMC’s’ existence.

Moreover.

The Exorcists were a type of extermination group whose purpose was to root out Demonic Species hiding within the Order's territories and seal or annihilate them.

As one could tell from its name, the UMC was not a group for extermination.

It was, through and through, a group for ‘management’.

“It exists. A secret organization of the Order.”

“…What?”

“A low-ranking priest probably wouldn't know at all. You'd likely have to be at least Louis's level to find out.”

Eliya's brow furrowed in incomprehension.

“Then how do you know about it, Hero?”

“I was lucky.”

Eliya's already crumpled expression became even more bizarre.

“…Is that something that can be explained with words like that?”

“Just let it slide. It's not a very important part, Tempest.”

“It's the most important part!!! Besides, this time, you didn't even get a single letter right!!!”

The reason the Exorcists and the Executive Agency UMC had different natures was because their origins, their roots, were different.

While they were both groups that had been operated by the Order for a very long time, the Exorcists were an extermination group planned from the outset to hunt the particularly troublesome entities known as Demonic Species, whereas the Executive Agency UMC had its origins in the ‘Explorers’.

The Explorers.

As their significance and role were not small, a great deal of explanation would be needed to truly describe the ‘Explorers’, but to somehow summarize it in one phrase, they were an ‘Artifact Exploration Team’.

In the past, when the Demon King's Army's power had not yet reached its current level, and the Order had also failed to establish this degree of solidarity.

The Order was facing two major problems.

One was the incidents related to Demonic Species that erupted at every opportunity, hindering the Order's unity, and the other was the shortage of armaments for fighting Magical Beasts.

Of course, human resources were also lacking, but at the time, that could be managed somehow by absorbing nations in the neutral zone or using refugees as military strength. However, the shortage of armaments was a problem that couldn't be solved with just their own resources.

This was because there had never been a war on the continent as long and vast as the War against Demons.

At first, the Order maintained a cycle by helping various nations and receiving Artifacts in return, which they would then supply to other places in need.

But such a simplistic method eventually reached its limits.

After all, armaments were nothing more than consumables.

And to solve these problems, the Order decided to establish new groups.

These were the Exorcists, a group dedicated to dealing with Demonic Species, and the ‘Explorers’, an exploration team formed to gather Artifacts and holy relics scattered across the continent.

The two groups, created with the Order's utmost effort, began to successfully solve the problems, and eventually, the Explorers completely resolved the Artifact shortage, to the point of being able to create a treasury called the Seventh Door.

But time passed.

A group created out of necessity is bound to disappear when it is no longer needed.

Naturally, once there were enough Artifacts to fill the treasury, the Explorers lost their purpose, and the Order began to pull surplus personnel from them to use elsewhere.

Thus, the once-great ‘Explorers’ were dismantled one by one, with departments being abolished and disappearing according to their importance.

From the Explorers that were being dismantled one piece at a time, the last one to survive was the ‘UMC Executive Department’, which was in charge of one of the Explorer's departments.

Although the Order had abolished and withdrawn all other departments, they had no choice but to keep the UMC Executive Department until the very end.

The reason was simple.

While the other departments lost their roles as enough Artifacts were secured, the UMC Executive Department, separate from Artifacts, was still performing its function.

‘Management of unidentified subjects.’

The UMC Executive Department was responsible for the special management of unidentified lifeforms or subjects discovered during the process of exploring for Artifacts.

It was their role to protect and observe things that were too unsettling to simply classify as ‘Unidentified Artifacts’ and store in the treasury, but even more unsettling to just leave them where they were found.

Naturally, this was a problem of a slightly different nature than having enough armaments.

The abolishment of the Explorers, created due to the Artifact shortage, and the abolishment of the UMC were considered on somewhat separate levels.

And.

Before my Regression, it was this very group that had informed the old man in the bamboo hat and me of Valencia's existence.

==

[UMC-44]

Alias, Villain Hunter.

『An unidentified creature controlled by the protection target, ‘Valencia La Bael Tigris’. Its origin and identity are unconfirmed, possessing the characteristic of only hunting Villains and rarely leaving a trace. It has a form, but it is more of a mana-manifested Thought Form than a physical body…….』

==

Naturally, the Order, which bore some responsibility for the fall of the Beastkin Nation, issued the UMC Executive Agency a mission to protect and observe Valencia in order to keep their promise to them.

That mission had continued to this day, watching over Valencia and the Thought Form of Allen Tigris III.

…The reason I thought ‘Tan’ was a UMC agent was ultimately because of this context.

The fact that the UMC had passed on information before my Regression meant that Valencia was still a subject of their protection and observation even then.

If so, then at this point in time, at least one person had to be lingering around Aileen Village, observing the subject.

I, who had known this from the beginning and was constantly mindful of it, had been searching the village for traces or clues of an agent.

Through a few clues and traces, I was able to figure out the agent's identity without much difficulty.

The man who had approached us on the airship and provided us with various conveniences.

‘Tan’ was that agent.