Chapter 9
THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE of Uzume left Matti, the branch manager of this office, in a tizzy. Uzume gently pried her off and managed to focus on the interrogation, which went astoundingly well.
Kagura used her independently developed Celestial Arts to put the target in a hypnotic state. She was the pinnacle of all mediums, after all; her power was too great for the captives to defy. They were forced to spill everything they knew. Their information extended even to national secrets and dark truths, surprising Aaron, Matti, Mira, and Uzume alike.
Isaac was unable to offer any more information than he’d given Mira—he’d already confessed everything he knew. That made his story all the more convincing: he had been quite honest, indeed.
As for the outcast hunter, his name was Jamal. Though he’d used a bow to attack Isaac, he was actually a demonologist. He’d developed poison through his magic and performed assassinations with it. Jamal seemed quite close to the core of Chimera, and knew lots of useful information. All of the national secrets and dark truths had come from him.
Out of everything, though, the most significant prize was the location of Chimera Clausen’s headquarters. Uzume genuinely rejoiced, offering Mira her greatest show of affection: she hugged her as if doting on a beloved cat.
But unfortunately, Jamal was still just an assassin; he didn’t know who Johan was, let alone where the alchemist might be confined. The interrogation yielded no information whatsoever on his whereabouts.
***
“They certainly aren’t making it easy…” Mira muttered.
“I figured it wouldn’t be; we could never find it in aerial searches, after all,” Uzume agreed. “Ugh… Guess I can’t do an air raid like this.” Uzume sounded especially disappointed that she wouldn’t get to use outright force. It went to show just how much she loathed this particular enemy.
Though they had found the enemy’s stronghold, the location itself was problematic. They had learned that the Chimera HQ was deep underground, below a great mountain to the east of Sentopoli. Even the Nine Wise Men would find it a tough nut to crack. Moreover, according to the assassin, there were no accessible entrances; the only way in was a passage connecting the HQ to Chimera’s various other facilities. All of the entrances were hidden, so only a handful of people knew where to find them. Although apparently, once one was inside, there was no chance of getting lost; it was a single passage.
One of the facilities was very close to where Isaac and the Skyfolk man had fought. Many members knew of its existence, but only a select few, including Jamal, knew that a hidden entrance was concealed in the deepest part of the facility. Yet according to the assassin, the three entrances that he knew of were probably already sealed by now.
Unsurprisingly for such a cautious organization, even the bigshots with access to headquarters were only permitted to know three of the nearly one hundred hidden entrances. The reason was simple: that way, Chimera could quickly seal the passages that person knew about should they be captured by the enemy.
When Mira and Kagura had asked about the other two entrances, the man had answered that one was in a remote part of the wasteland, while another was right in Sentopoli’s State Department. Even if they were sealed off by now, this was still useful information.
“The State Department, huh? That must mean there’s more than just one in this city.” Aaron grinned confidently. He’d only been here a few days, but he had already explored nearly all of the city’s main facilities. Sentopoli was supposedly created by Chimera itself. If the State Department building held an entrance to the secret passage, then it was very likely that other government buildings would as well.
The assassin had corroborated this: though he didn’t know exactly where they were, he was certain that they were there. That was another useful clue. If they could find even one entrance, they should be able to waltz right into headquarters.
“Now we just need to figure out how to find one,” Mira said.
“Yep… The fastest way would be for us to kidnap some government bigwigs, but, y’know.” Kagura shrugged. The entrances were hidden by special magical tools, making it difficult to find them if one did not know their location already. It was clear that the most effective method would be to interrogate someone as fast as possible and charge in before Chimera had time to seal the entrance.
“Hrmm. It’s not a bad idea,” Mira agreed.
Wasranvel’s optical camouflage was sufficient concealment, Mira’s summoning magic could handle most situations, and Kagura’s own magic was perfect for interrogation. On top of that, now that they knew that most of Sentopoli’s government was Chimera Clausen, marks were plentiful. After all, anyone could tell you where to find a government official. Locating a Chimera member in and of itself would not be a difficult task.
Anyone involved in the nation’s government would naturally be well-guarded. But the two strongest mages in the country would have no difficulty dispatching any bodyguards—Mira and Kagura almost felt bad when they thought about how feeble this security would be when faced with them. Uzume’s proposal may have seemed extreme, but for these two, it would be relatively simple and feasible.
Normally, one would call it reckless. But oddly, Aaron saw nothing but success when those two were involved. He chuckled to himself. “Man, you two say the craziest things like it’s nothing.”
It was then that Isaac cut in. “Nah. That isn’t gonna work. I know I said all of Sentopoli’s government executives are Chimera Clausen, but I didn’t mean the ones in this city.” He then shared what he knew about the executives. The information was surprisingly unsurprising for an organization like Chimera.
First, the officials known to the common folk of Sentopoli—such as the prime minister and cabinet ministers—were all figureheads. Chimera’s executives pulled their strings from the shadows, and none of the string-pullers had ever shown themselves to the public. As such, nobody knew the faces of the true puppet masters. In other words, abducting cabinet ministers would yield nothing but a puppet who would know nothing about the locations of the hidden passages—they might not even know that they were receiving orders from Chimera Clausen.
Furthermore, these representatives had been told that they were being managed by nobles from another country who merely wanted to improve the circulation of goods around the continent. They saw these Chimera Clausen elites not as cowards in hiding but as heroes helping to develop the inhospitable wasteland. Trying to win them over to get information on the people behind the curtain would be a fool’s errand—they wouldn’t believe the truth about their benefactors even if Mira’s group told them.
“This is all stuff I’ve heard from the higher-ups. Basically, I don’t think it’s gonna work. There might be others like me in town…but at best, you’ll find more middle management. They won’t know where those entrances are.” After obediently coughing up all these national secrets, he gazed at Mira and Uzume like a dog waiting to be rewarded for doing a trick.
Uzume slapped a talisman onto Isaac’s brow and recited an incantation. Nothing happened.
“Hmm, so you’re being honest. That’s twice now that you’ve told the whole truth and nothing but the truth. For Chimera scum, you’re not bad.” It seemed she’d used magic to discern whether he was lying. Kagura’s hypnotism only forced them to answer questions honestly; since he’d volunteered this information without being questioned, she had to confirm he was sincere. Her magic proved that he wasn’t a liar. She coldly added, “Not that anyone’s forgiving you for all the damage you’ve done.”
It seemed Kagura’s magic could discern one’s intent as well. Indeed, Isaac had offered this information in hopes of getting a lighter sentence. As for Isaac, he grinned in surrender—the medium had seen through him.
“Well,” Mira cut in, “perhaps I could put in a good word for you…if you answer one more question for me.” After getting what info they could about Chimera’s headquarters, Mira decided to ask for details on the individual the Skyfolk man had asked about.
When they’d met in the Citadel of Scales, Mira had assumed that the Skyfolk man simply hated Chimera Clausen because he was a priest from an Animist village. But she now believed that he had some other goal in mind. Perhaps all of his hatred for Chimera was related to one man in particular.
Although Isaac was a little sulky at being shut down by Kagura, he was still happy to answer that question. Perhaps Mira’s offer had returned hope to his heart. His answer turned out to be unexpectedly useful.
First, the man’s name was Zell Schedal. He was abnormally knowledgeable about spirits, and he used this knowledge and Chimera’s vast pool of spirit power to create various magical tools and weapons. As for where he was, Zell Schedal used a small and inconspicuous village as the base for his grand laboratory. He spent most of his time holed up there, toiling away on his next creation.
That was everything Isaac knew about the man named Zell Schedal.
However, someone else found Mira’s offer enticing as well—the assassin, who was still listening in. Indeed, the unexpectedly useful information was Jamal’s knowledge of Zell Schedal’s other role. Jamal shot an icy glare at Kagura and Aaron and said, “The spirit power tuner. That’s his biggest accomplishment.”
The development of the spirit power tuner was what had earned Zell Schedal his position among the elite members of Chimera. It was the catalyst for their dramatic growth. This device had myriad uses, but one of them was that it constantly maintained many of HQ’s functions.
For some reason—something about ley lines, though he didn’t know the details—the device itself was set up not at headquarters, but in an underground control room below Zell Schedal’s laboratory.
One thing was clear: destroying it would nullify all of the defenses at Chimera’s headquarters, making the place a cinch to infiltrate. In fact, if they didn’t deal with the device first, the spirit arsenal there would blow them away the moment they arrived. It would be the same as fighting thousands of spirits’ power head-on. If they wanted to topple Chimera HQ, they would first need to go destroy this command room.
“Hrmm, I see… This guy sounds more important than I thought. If we want our victory to be certain, we’d better send personnel to aid that Skyfolk man.” Mira had seen the man fight, so she knew he was quite strong. However, such an important location was sure to be protected by strict security and strong foes.
The Skyfolk man might fall before accomplishing his goal. If it was only a battle for personal revenge, Mira would understand that it was fate and simply pray for him. But now that Isuzu’s plans also depended on the fate of Zell Schedal’s base, that was no longer an option; they couldn’t give Chimera time to redouble their defenses.
“By the way, Isaac here might have said it was a small village, but that’s only on the outside,” Jamal continued. “It’s actually a stronghold disguised as a village. Everything there—from the buildings to the villagers—is all for the sake of protecting his control room. Don’t get too close unless you know what you’re doing.” He then fell silent once more. That was the last of the information he had to offer.
“Is there anything else you two want to share?” Kagura demanded, glowering at Isaac and Jamal. Her voice was cold; she might as well be asking if they had any last words.
“Uh, well, what do you want us to talk about?” Isaac replied. “Names of people involved in shady deals, or something? What kind of info do you want? We’ll answer any questions you have.”
“Yeah. We’d appreciate it if you could give us some questions to answer,” Jamal chimed in.
Of course they were only being forthright because they wanted to get off easy. But thanks to Kagura’s magic, it didn’t matter if they intended to be forthright or not—though she did claim that it was easier if they spoke of their own accord.
“Then answer me this: how strong are the forces stationed at HQ?” Aaron asked them. Knowing the enemy’s strength was a vital piece of developing a strategy.
Isaac shook his head bitterly. He didn’t know the location of HQ, or even where the entrances were. One could hardly blame him for not knowing about its defenses. As for Jamal, though, he’d supposedly been there many times. He should have known the interior structure of the place like the back of his hand.
But Jamal said he didn’t know for sure. Apart from five people—made up of chiefs and top executives—he’d never seen any fighting personnel there. He only knew of the stalwart dolls that had been modified to do battle.
“Stalwart dolls… They’re those weird dolls that move with mana, right?” Aaron asked.
“That’s right. A whole lot of them armed with different weapons were lined up in the plaza. I would’ve said there were more than two thousand. But I’ve never seen them move, so I don’t know how strong they might be. They’re all spirit weapons, though, so they must be stronger than middling monsters.”
Stalwart dolls were strong enough that nations often used them for border security and monster exterminations. Jamal claimed Chimera had more than two thousand; if all of them were mobilized at once, they could rival a nation’s military.
Aaron was confident that he would win against such dolls in a one-on-one battle—but not if he was surrounded by thousands of them. “More than two thousand spirit weapons, huh? That’s rough…” He grinned weakly. Yet when he glanced at Mira and Kagura, they looked to be unshaken. He had to marvel at how reliable they were.
Jamal spoke again. “Oh, and one more thing: an engineer told me they all think and act on their own, which means they can still move even if you shut down the control room. And…that’s about all I know.” With that, he fell silent.
Kagura slapped another talisman onto his forehead and confirmed that he was being honest. So it looked like, if they wanted to conquer HQ, they had no choice but to fight those dolls. Aaron quickly began racking his brain to devise a strategy.
Mira, however, looked relieved. Hrmm. Two thousand fighting dolls? Then there’s no need to hold back. This sounds ideal. Even if they were Chimera Clausen, Mira didn’t want to massacre a bunch of people. But if her foes were confirmed to be inorganic weapons rather than humans… This sounded far easier than taking down a base full of flesh and blood people.
The look on Kagura’s face remained unchanged from start to finish; she simply listened to Jamal’s words in silence.
As for Isaac, he just muttered, “Ooh, really?” as if it had nothing to do with him at all.
Thus, having obtained at least enough information to work with, Mira and the gang left the captives with Matti and exited the Sentopoli branch of Isuzu. The three headed to the inn where Cyril’s party waited in order to share this information.
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