novelraw Chapter 107 : Infiltration Preparations (4)
Chapter 107 : Infiltration Preparations (4)
Chapter 107: Infiltration Preparations (4)
Late Friday evening, at a large tavern in Naivea.
Enjoying the free meal elegantly—something offered to those staying at the inn—Pierna Torquemada emptied his glass once more.
“Keuh.”
Nothing beats a drink after a long day of work.
“…Haven’t you been drinking quite heavily these days, sir?”
His secretary cautiously tried to restrain him, but Torquemada didn’t listen one bit.
“If it weren’t for benefits like this, I’d never survive this damn parish schedule. Hmph.”
Clicking his tongue, he turned toward the direction that had been noisy for a while.
In the spacious hall, a group of thugs had taken over a table, chattering away loudly.
Tsk.
Even in a trash-filled place like Naivea, did they really have to lack manners that badly?
“Can’t someone kick those guys out? I can’t even enjoy my meal with all that racket.”
At Torquemada’s chin gesture, the attendants on either side of him stood up at once.
“We’ll take care of it.”
“I’ll go lodge a complaint to the owner.”
While the two attendants left their seats—
Filling his glass with more of the red liquid, Torquemada grumbled again.
“Damn it, how many emergency summons are they gonna give me?”
Seriously, if there’s anyone who loves to bother me, it’s Archbishop Dominico.
“…Perhaps His Excellency the Archbishop has his own reasons for doing so?”
“Reasons, my ass! That guy’s just shoving his responsibilities onto us because he can’t handle them himself.”
It had already been fifteen years since Archbishop Dominico and Torquemada of Velut had taken different stances.
He had no objection to the great cause of maintaining the Orthodox Faith and building up the forces against evil, but in the process, Dellowell had been forced to sacrifice itself for far too long.
There were now over five thousand inquisitors who weren’t even allowed to have names.
Dellowell was the Orthodox Faith’s strongest military force—and the Archbishop’s sharpest blade.
And that was precisely what Torquemada had always been dissatisfied with.
The role of a judge who punished the sins of the Ribenia Empire, including those within the Faith, had faded away, and instead, they had become more and more like obedient hounds.
“Huu…”
Of course, Torquemada was fully aware.
He didn’t have any sharp means of overturning the situation.
Since its foundation, Dellowell had been gradually moving away from the Faith’s direct influence.
If their independence were acknowledged any further, the very foundation of the Orthodox Faith could be shaken.
He understood perfectly well that Archbishop Dominico would never allow that…
But understanding something with his head didn’t mean his heart accepted it.
The disappointment and distrust toward the archbishop he was supposed to serve had led Torquemada into repeated negligence of duty.
On the surface, he seemed to be performing his role faithfully, but in truth, it was the complete opposite.
Dominico knew this as well, but he respected Torquemada’s influence and capabilities, and thus refrained from interfering as much as possible.
Until recently, that is.
“If he’s that displeased, he should just dismiss me outright. Instead, he keeps trying to needle me in roundabout ways.”
“Why not take this opportunity to have a proper discussion with him, sir? Perhaps the Archbishop will understand your intentions then.”
“Intentions? Discussion? Hah, I’ll say this again—there’s no point expecting anything from that bastard—”
It was then.
As Torquemada continued grumbling irritably, and his secretary tried to soothe him—
A massive brute suddenly stepped between the two.
“You the one who told us to shut up?”
From the most secluded corner of the tavern, Gustav and I silently watched the scene unfold.
A rather amusing commotion sparked by a single gold coin.
“We merely asked that you quiet down a little. You were disturbing other customers.”
“Fuck off. I’m just having a chat with my friends with my own money—what’s your problem?”
“…I see words won’t work, then.”
“What are you gonna do, huh? You pansy bastard. You even know who I—!”
Kwaaang!
A skinny man—presumably the secretary—used magic to blast the brute away, and the tavern immediately erupted into chaos.
“Boss!”
“They hit the boss!”
“Get up, you bastards!”
“You know you picked the fight first, right? Don’t regret it when you get your asses kicked!”
“…So they want a full-on brawl, huh?”
The secretary bowed his head apologetically.
“My apologies, Master. Please wait a moment. I’ll take care of this quickly.”
“Forget it.”
Torquemada, sipping wine nearby, stood up with an irritated sigh.
“I’m going to bed. Wake me up in the morning.”
“…Understood.”
As the tavern turned into complete mayhem, many patrons began to rush out the door.
We slipped away amidst the confusion, heading for the staircase leading to the lodging area.
It didn’t take long to ambush the man from behind as he entered his room—and capture him without issue.
“Ggh…!”
“Keep your mouth shut. Unless you want to lose your head next. Open the door.”
“Y-You think I’ll give in to such crude threats? Albus! Save me at once!”
“Looks like you don’t understand words.”
Still holding him with one hand, I grabbed his lower jaw sharply.
“Uuph?!”
“Don’t move. You’ll only hurt more if you struggle.”
What I was gripping was his lower front teeth.
“Ggh, ghhkk…!”
Creak, crack!
After a few seconds of grinding noise, the teeth snapped clean off.
Torquemada’s scream of pain filled the room as I held up the two front teeth before his eyes.
“Y-You fucking bastard…!”
“Next are the upper teeth. Then the canines. Then the molars.”
“Hhh—haah—haah…!”
“After I pull them all out, I’ll start breaking your nails. Then I’ll grind your bones into powder. It might take fifteen minutes or so, but your capable secretary won’t have the time to clean up this mess before then.”
“W-What do you want?!”
“You keep wasting time, don’t you?”
Without hesitation, I grabbed his upper front teeth.
“I said open the door already.”
With two men capable of such violence threatening to pull out his teeth, he didn’t stand a chance.
We forced the key from him, unlocked the door, and stepped inside.
Kkiiiik—Bang!
Once inside, I immediately cast both a Locking Magic and a Soundproof Magic spell in succession.
Everything after that went smoothly.
“Gg, ggeuehk….”
I watched indifferently as the man writhed on the floor in pain, then gestured toward Gustav.
“Potion.”
“Hey, am I your assistant or something? Stop barking orders, damn it.”
“You sure get mad at weird things.”
After forcing down a recovery potion, the bloodied man’s body rapidly began to heal back to its original state.
As his fading consciousness returned, he drooled and shouted weakly.
“Hh, haah… What… what the hell do you want…!”
“Well. Nothing in particular? I just wanted to see you suffer, that’s all.”
Though I said that, there was no actual malice behind it.
My real goal was acquiring the Reincarnation Stone.
He was just an unlucky victim caught up in that objective.
Of course, that only applied for this operation.
For his past sins alone, he deserved every bit of this.
Pierna Torquemada of Velut.
The number of innocent people he’d taken the lives of easily reached the thousands.
He often made accusations purely on suspicion, without any concrete evidence—dragging people to trial and prison.
Over ten percent of those cases had even ended in executions.
Not that that was why I was beating him like this.
Thwack!
At this point, his mind would be starting to blur.
With all the sins he’d committed, just wondering who might be behind this would probably make his head ache like it was splitting open.
That confusion was exactly what I was after.
‘Because in moments of total bewilderment like this, memory alteration shines the most.’
Gustav understood that perfectly, which was why he didn’t interfere with my methods.
After nearly two hours of torture, we finally reduced him to a limp, exhausted mess.
“…Just kill me. Kill me already….”
“That’s not happening.”
I tilted my eyes toward Gustav.
“Show me what you can do, Master.”
“God, I told you to stop calling me that.”
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Gustav strode over to the man.
Holding his wand above the bowed man’s head, he began chanting.
And before long—
Torquemada slumped to the floor.
“The manipulation’ll take about ten minutes, and he’ll wake up in two hours. Enough time for you?”
“Yeah.”
Answering briefly, I checked through every single item I needed for the mission—
Grimoire, artifacts, weapons, armor, even my outfit.
Then I closed my eyes and carefully ran through the entire plan in my head.
Gustav finished the memory manipulation around that time.
“It’s done.”
“How’d you tweak it?”
He nudged Torquemada’s body with his foot as he replied,
“I linked it to the tavern brawl earlier. He’ll think the black magicians approached him because they knew he had knowledge of the Reincarnation Stone—and wanted to exploit it.”
“And then?”
“He realized it’d be dangerous if he didn’t relocate the Stone quickly. Since he couldn’t trust anyone inside Dellowell, he decided to handle it himself—and headed for Marthus Land.”
“…That sounds flimsy. Is that really the best you can do?”
“When you alter memories, you have to leave gaps here and there. If everything’s too clean, it actually makes people suspicious.”
Because in the process of mentally filling those blanks, the fabricated parts dilute naturally, and the truth gets distorted with ease.
Watching Gustav explain so confidently, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
‘He looks like a thief bragging about his breaking-and-entering techniques.’
Still, since his peculiar talent worked to our advantage this time, I didn’t complain.
Instead, I took out the grimoire Book of Bright Shadows and the artifact Blood Mirror.
As I infused both with mana, Gustav looked at me curiously.
“Didn’t know grimoires had to be tamed, too.”
“Guess you’re completely clueless when it comes to black magic, huh?”
“Well… yeah, pretty much.”
“Not all of them need it. This one’s just special.”
When I was about done preparing, I scraped a tiny bit of flesh from Torquemada’s fingertip and placed it on the Blood Mirror.
The mirror glowed for a while, then absorbed the flesh entirely.
“I’m finished too. You said it’d take about two hours for him to wake up, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Heal him properly and get out before time’s up. I’ll see you at the Magic Tower.”
I handed him the two teeth I’d pulled earlier.
“…You’re already heading in?”
“Shadow Intrusion takes time to adjust. If I rush it, he might sense something off.”
Not that he’d have the mental strength to notice such subtle things right now.
I tucked the Blood Mirror back into my chest pocket and raised the grimoire with both hands.
“See you soon, Master.”
“Haa… You’re gonna milk that nickname for a while, huh.”
Watching Gustav shake his head with a bitter smile, I began to slowly sink into Torquemada’s shadow.
My consciousness completely faded about five minutes after the intrusion began.