Saint Mallory Underground Passage (1)

“Even if the sides have split, they were still your clan, and yet you torment them quite a bit.”

“That is the sort of thing people would misunderstand if they heard it. I was not tormenting them.”

“They must be in a complicated state of mind when they see you. You are too big a figure for them to attack alone, and there must already be many who attacked and failed. But you were hovering right in front of them and slyly rubbing their tempers the wrong way, were you not?”

“That is the sort of thing Scott would be good at. The fact that I did not bring Scott inside with me should tell you how much consideration I showed them.”

“Well, that is true enough.”

“So when you were doing infiltration training, which route did you use to infiltrate?”

Azadine asked Zebec.

Saint Mallory Fortress was divided into the fortress itself, said to have been built long ago by giants and angels working together; the upscale residential district and commercial district around the fortress, where knights and merchant traders lived; and the slums, which had expanded by building illegal shacks on the sediment banks piling up along the river.

It had begun with the fortress, but as befitted the headquarters of the Rescue Knights Order, people kept pouring in and the population continued to grow, so the city expanded again and again. The population of the entire urban area was said to be 150,000 by legal census, and if one included those who came and went secretly without paying taxes, the real population was estimated to reach 250,000.

Where in this place, then, had the King’s Church established a special training ground far from home to train agents for infiltration?

“There is an underground passage called the Giants’ Sewer. If one passes through that route, one can reach the heart of Saint Mallory Fortress. But Sir Ject and his subordinates will already be there. Did you not even send a carrier pigeon?”

“It is better for the two of us to settle it calmly than to wage street warfare in the city. Innocent people should not suffer for nothing, should they?”

“Was that why you sent a letter to Sir Ject?”

“And because I am confident I can win.”

“…….”

“But, hmm, Sir Zebec. You are not in very good condition, are you? And I too have accumulated some fatigue from the long journey. Let us rest today.”

“Rest?”

“We came to Saint Mallory, so we should go sightseeing. I have wanted to see Saint Mallory for a long time anyway.”

Since childhood, Azadine had lived reading Rescue Knights Order pamphlets until they were worn ragged. In other words, to him, Saint Mallory, the headquarters of the Rescue Knights Order, was truly a dream place he had longed for.

Having finally come here, it would have been absurd to start with business without seeing the sights first.

Saint Mallory was one of the greatest cities in the world.

Vthuma was famous for its sugar plantations, but the reason Vthuma could devote itself to cultivating sugarcane was that Saint Mallory grew the enormous quantities of southern wheat and barley that fed people all over the world.

Thanks to this tremendous capacity to support population, Saint Mallory was able to become one of the world’s great cities, and because it was also the sacred site of the Rescue Knights Order faith, it also had many pilgrims.

There were even tour guides who worked as guides for such pilgrims.

“Now then, this is the Gate of Ascension. What do you think? Is it not amazing? Amazingly, the walls on both sides of this gate are coated with plaster so that, as you can see, they look like a single stone… and yet even after hundreds of years, not a single crack has formed, and it has been maintained without anything falling away.”

“Ohh.”

Azadine kept exclaiming in admiration as he toured the Gate of Ascension.

Scott gave a snort.

“It is concrete, chief. It looks like a single stone, but inside it is made by combining various aggregates and hardening them into concrete. As for the surface not cracking, judging by the look of it, they probably maintain it like mad every single time.”

“Still, is it not impressive? People who do not understand complain that it has no decorations, but even without decoration, just being this large makes it grand and magnificent.”

“You are harsh about other things most of the time, chief, but anything related to the Rescue Knights Order and angelic faith gets a generous score from you no matter what. I wish you would give my genius such generous marks too.”

At that moment, Zebec warned Azadine.

“It seems guests have arrived, Sir Azadine.”

“Ah.”

Monks wearing black veils that covered their faces were staring intently at Azadine from ahead.

“It seems to be the Benevolence Order.”

People from the Benevolence Order approached Azadine’s group. At the front was a nun with a black veil over her face.

“Are you in peace? Sir Azadine. I am Haine. I am a Hospitaller of the Benevolence Order, and a Guide to Rest. After hearing that the recently renowned Sir Azadine had arrived in Saint Mallory, I wished to meet you once, and sent messengers several times, but was told each time that you were absent, so I have taken the liberty of coming to see you in person despite the discourtesy.”

A rich fragrance wafted from the woman in the black veil. Each time she opened her mouth, the provocative scent emanating from her was so alluring that one had to steady one’s mind, and though she wore a nun’s habit rather than armor, a dangerous magic power surrounded her.

But even stronger than that was the subdued anger radiating from her.

‘You bastard, where had you been roaming around after being away from your quarters… sightseeing? Sightseeing? You ignored my summons just to go sightseeing?’

A woman of fairly high rank in the Order had sent messengers to Azadine’s lodging, yet Azadine had left his inn empty and was touring the city like an ordinary pilgrim.

Under such circumstances, it would have taken considerable mental discipline not to become angry. The fact that she had not erupted into savage abuse showed considerable self-cultivation, but she could not completely hide her subdued anger.

“Hmm, so you belong to the Holy Knights, I see. It is an honor to meet you, Sir Haine. For what matter has one such as you come in person to seek out this humble apprentice knight?”

“Sir Azadine. The person beside you is the wanted man Sir Zebec, is he not? The one from the King’s Church?”

“…….”

Hearing that, Zebec let out a low sigh.

It seemed that disguising himself and entering Saint Mallory without incident had been useless after all.

“How did you know?”

“In truth, we contacted the Chadra Plateau to find out which of your members had joined up with you. We also retraced what sort of things you had done before joining the Order, and followed your movements back. In that process, the conclusion emerged naturally. That orc is Scott McGreen, and the swordsman with him would be Sir Zebec, who had been with the Northern Mountain Army of Vthuma when Scott McGreen last participated as a mercenary.”

“You investigated that far?”

“Sir Azadine. You are the person who has become famous in the shortest time in this region of late. Naturally, we had to look into your background.”

“Hm. Though it feels improper to say it myself, it could not have been an easy investigation.”

“For our Benevolence Order, it was not so difficult.”

Haine subtly boasted of their organizational power.

No matter how famous Azadine had become, the fact that he had been acting together with Zebec was not widely known. The King’s Church would have wanted to hide that fact because it was shameful to them, so it would not have been easy for the Rescue Knights Order to acquire that information.

However, the Benevolence Order, being also a spy organization, had acquired and analyzed such information and, through elimination, classified the one now traveling with Azadine as likely being Zebec.

‘As expected, they are not called the most frightening sect in the Rescue Knights Order for nothing. This is troublesome. Becoming famous for no good reason creates problems like this.’

Azadine nodded at Haine’s words.

“Then you must also know that he has been falsely accused. He was not the one who killed Darhan-Jadek.”

“We think so as well. But if we could determine it through elimination, then the King’s Church will also be able to determine it, and naturally this will become an issue between sects. The King’s Church wants custody of the traitor Sir Zebec, and we cannot simply ignore that without grounds.”

Her tone was polite, but what she was saying was clear. She was threatening Azadine by using Zebec as leverage.

“U-um, excuse me, customers?”

The tour guide looked at Azadine awkwardly.

“Ah, you may ignore us and go. Thank you for the fine guide service.”

Azadine tossed the tour guide a silver coin as a tip and turned back to Haine.

“So then, Sir Haine. What is it that you want from me?”

It seemed Azadine had decided there was no meaning in continuing to circle around the point, so he moved straight to the main issue.

‘This bastard?’

The members of the Benevolence Order were dumbfounded by Azadine’s attitude. But Haine began her explanation in a calm manner.

“Sir Azadine. By any chance, do you know that Saint Mallory contains a labyrinth called the Giants’ Underground Passage?”

“This is the first I have heard of it. What sort of place is it?”

“The first you have heard of it? That should not be possible. But very well, I shall explain from the beginning. Saint Mallory Fortress was originally a city of giants. The Giants’ Underground Passage was the sewer system of the city built in those days. But no matter how well maintained and safe a city may be, sewers inevitably become dreadful places filled with seawater and poisonous gases, where immoral men and cultists hide. And the underground passage of Saint Mallory is beyond even that.”

“Beyond even that?”

“The Wisdom Order is dumping the residue of all sorts of magic into the sewers. They prefer to dump it without authorization, saying they cannot show the byproducts of their research to other sects. Even when the other sects tried to regulate them and ask why they were doing such things, the matter only grew worse after the Wisdom Order took control of the deeper parts of the Order.”

The magical research of the Wisdom Order of the Rescue Knights Order, and its byproducts, had been discarded into the sewers, filling them with magical power and causing all kinds of grotesque events to occur there.

The Rescue Knights Order had several times formed sewer exploration parties and sent them inside directly, but the sewers, already severely contaminated by magical power, had changed into a labyrinth where one could not find the way even with the maps left by the giants who had originally built them.

Moreover, because the Wisdom Order was passive about the matter, the Rescue Knights Order as a whole had been able to achieve no more than preventing slimes and other monsters from emerging from within.

“So what is it that you want from me?”

“Break through the underground passage and uncover the Wisdom Order’s secrets. Is that not what you came here for anyway?”