BXBX NOVEL Chapter 83 – Worshippers of the Abomination (4)
Chapter 83 – Worshippers of the Abomination (4)
“It was quite fun.”
Ketal said cheerfully amidst the scene of destruction.
How do assassins fight?
How do they handle aura?
It was plenty enjoyable to check each one of those.
‘I’ve even faced something similar to Myriad Flowers Rain.’
Ketal was very satisfied.
Watching him laugh joyfully, the head of the family spoke in a resigned tone.
“Kill me, monster.”
There was never any hope of winning from the start.
The sight was so dark that even with the help of moonlight, it was barely possible to see ahead.
Even concentrating his mystical energy didn’t make the sight perfect in such darkness.
Yet, Ketal had perfectly seen the hundreds of flying weapons, understood how to deflect them off each other, and executed it flawlessly.
His barbarian attire didn’t have a single tiny hole.
It was as clean as when he first arrived.
His spatial awareness, responsiveness, and agility were all beyond comprehension.
This barbarian was a monster, a superhuman-level strongman.
Such a creature would be hard to find even if you searched an entire country.
‘Why is someone like this in the Akasha family?’
There was no reason for such a powerful being to stay in a mere merchant family.
“You can’t die that easily.”
He still had many questions about the assassins—how long they had been here and how they made their money.
It wasn’t an opportunity to miss, hearing firsthand about the assassins in this fantasy world.
After a moment of thought, Ketal asked the first thing that came to his mind.
“What is this abomination you serve?”
In this world, gods exist and bestow divine power and authority upon their followers.
These assassins worship an abomination, a god of assassins.
It was quite unique, and he was curious about it.
“The abomination?”
The head of the family hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.
He had already given up his life and planned to explain briefly and ask for a swift death.
“That being is….”
As he began to speak, the head’s voice gradually weakened.
Ketal looked at him with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“A-Ah.”
The head’s pupils trembled, filled with indescribable fear.
“W-Wah.”
His brain was melting.
It wasn’t a metaphor, but literal.
His brain overloaded and started to melt as it couldn’t process the incoming information.
“My….”
The head’s body collapsed.
Ketal was surprised.
“What the?”
He had been about to say something, but suddenly he died.
After pondering for a moment, Ketal muttered.
“Is there something like the ‘solitary worm’ here too?”
If certain information was about to be spoken, a worm implanted in the brain would activate and melt the brain.
It was a method often found in martial arts novels.
‘Does it exist in fantasy as well? They have everything.’
It made sense if the assassins implanted such things to prevent information from being leaked to others.
‘What a pity.’
Ketal clicked his tongue.
He had wanted to gather more information about the assassins.
However, there was no way to get answers from a brain-melted assassin.
No one else was moving except for Ketal.
He took out a notebook.
[Assassins establish their base in the center of the capital. This is likely to allow easy access for nobles. They implant solitary worms in their brains. This applies even to the leader of the assassins, suggesting a fairly horizontal structure…]
“It’s over.”
Having summarized the contents, Ketal stretched.
The rest could be verified later by Milena.
He launched himself into the air, leaving the scene of destruction behind.
* * *
A place adorned so extravagantly that it seemed to gather all the treasures of the world.
The treasures were so numerous and valuable that even a king of a nation couldn’t dream of affording them, yet here they were scattered like trinkets.
In the center of this opulent room, a man lay on a sofa.
Before him, a subordinate, bowing, spoke.
“Those who were probing Denian Kingdom have been crushed.”
“Really?”
“Yes. The oath activated.”
The man chuckled.
“It seems they tried to spill information foolishly. Was it the kingdom that moved?”
“That’s what we surmise.”
“They acted faster than I expected.”
The man spoke absentmindedly, staring into space.
“But were they even attempting to infiltrate Denian Kingdom? This is the first I’ve heard of it.”
The bowing subordinate replied calmly.
“Previously, it hadn’t been confirmed, but… it’s been detected for the past year. It definitely exists in this world.”
“Really?”
The man smirked.
“Find it. By any means necessary.”
“Yes, sir.”
The bowing subordinate responded.
* * *
Ketal had destroyed the Haibolka family and was living a life not much different from before.
He continued studying alchemy as usual and conversed with Milena late into the night.
And on that day, Milena spoke with a perplexed expression.
“Ketal, you mentioned that assassin family before, right?”
“Have the investigation results come out?”
Ketal had informed Milena the day after he destroyed the Haibolka family, explaining that an assassin group had targeted him and that he had annihilated them.
Naturally, Milena had looked at Ketal as if he were speaking nonsense.
The idea that an assassin group was based in the center of the capital was hard to believe, especially since their base was supposedly the main house of the Haibolka family.
At first, she couldn’t understand what Ketal was saying.
However, there was no reason for Ketal to lie to her.
So, despite her skepticism, she had dispatched investigators.
The results were quite peculiar.
“The building was empty.”
“Hmm?”
Ketal made a puzzled face.
“Empty?”
“Yes. There were no traces, no furniture. It was literally empty.”
“No traces?”
He had fought assassins there.
While it wasn’t a battle so loud as to cause a big commotion, it wasn’t a minor skirmish either.
Hundreds of throwing weapons had embedded into the ceiling and walls, assassins punched by him had dented the walls, and blood had splattered everywhere.
One room had been completely destroyed.
Yet there were no traces?
Milena nodded.
“Absolutely nothing. And that wasn’t the only strange thing. All traces of the Haibolka family have disappeared as well.”
It wasn’t that the evidence of their presence in the Denian Kingdom had vanished completely—an entire group couldn’t disappear so perfectly.
People still remembered them, victims of their actions existed, and they had trading partners. However, all physical evidence of their existence had vanished.
Documents proving their transactions and the goods they handled were gone.
It was as if ghosts had spirited them away.
Ketal’s expression turned intrigued.
“Is such a thing even possible?”
“It shouldn’t be, right? The Haibolka family was quite large. For them to disappear without a trace….”
Milena’s eyes reflected her bewilderment.
It was beyond her understanding.
“I’ll continue investigating, but honestly, it’s frustrating.”
She felt as though this was beyond what she could handle.
After a moment of lamenting, she remembered something and spoke.
“Oh, by the way, I looked into the symbol on the axe you have.”
“Oh? Did you find anything?”
“No.”
Milena shook her head.
“Nothing at all. Literally nothing.”
Although she hadn’t delved as deeply as she could have in her personal investigation, Milena thought she would at least find some information.
Surely, there would be records in some document somewhere.
But nothing came up.
It was as if someone had intentionally erased all traces of information.
“You said you picked up that axe from the snow, right?”
“Yes.”
He had found it abandoned in the snow and, finding it surprisingly useful, had been using it for a long time.
That was all Ketal knew about it.
“Ugh.”
Milena groaned.
She had been confident.
Her family had become the largest merchant family in the Denian Kingdom, amassing an immeasurable fortune.
She thought there was no information she couldn’t uncover.
But she had failed to find anything on both the Haibolka family and the symbol on the axe.
Her pride had taken a hit.
Ketal laughed heartily, trying to console her.
“It happens. If you couldn’t find anything, it must be quite a unique axe.”
“At the very least, it’s not ordinary. It’s not even something from the former emperor who ventured into the White Snowfield. Besides them, there’s no one else who could have made such a weapon.”
She grumbled, resting her chin on the table.
“Oh, and about the catalyst you wanted.”
Ketal needed to attain mystic power by breaking through the path to mystery.
He had asked Milena to procure a catalyst for that purpose.
“I’ve almost got all the catalysts. Only one more to go.”
“Oh, really?”
The thoughts of the axe and the Haibolka family vanished from Ketal’s mind instantly.
The excitement of soon obtaining mystic power made his heart race.
Milena smiled at his reaction.
“It won’t take long. It’s very close by.”
“Close by?”
“Did you know that catalysts can also be found in dungeons?”
Ketal nodded.
He had found a catalyst in a dungeon in the Barkan territory before, so he knew.
“There’s a dungeon that appeared near the capital. It’s been confirmed that the catalyst is inside. Mercenaries are being assembled, so it won’t take more than a few days.”
“A dungeon, huh.”
Ketal’s face lit up with interest.
Dungeons appeared near populated areas, and the more people there were, the higher the difficulty of the dungeon.
This was the capital, with far more people than the Barkan territory.
“What kind of dungeon is it?”
In response to Ketal’s question, Milena answered.
“An A-rank dungeon. A raid dungeon.”