Hell Mode: Volume 11, page 4
As Allen was lost in his thoughts, a woman sat beside him and placed an arm around his shoulders.
“Aww, that sounds nice!” Rosetta said in an overly familiar tone. The midriff-baring Thief in Helmios’s party had recently received a class promotion and become a Phantom Thief King. “Can we drop by for a visit?”
“I don’t mind,” Allen replied. “Shall we all go tomorrow?”
I probably can’t sneak hundreds of people in, but ten or twenty can blend in with the crowd no problem. He could use Fish A’s Awakened Ability, Mimic, to change everyone into merfolk and easily sneak them into the contest venue.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Helmios agreed. “We’ve been training nonstop lately, so I think it’ll be a nice change of pace. Let’s all go.”
The rest of his party nodded along excitedly. I guess all women have their fantasies about Macris.
“I won’t be able to get you VIP seats, though, and you’ll have to be ready to run at a moment’s notice if anything happens,” Allen warned.
“That second part scares me a little,” Helmios replied as he tilted his head and flashed a forced smile.
Allen had forged an entry pass for Rosalina, but if someone were to notice that it was fake, he would have to temporarily hide himself away. At the very least, he would have to leave the venue. Princess Rapsonil had explained that the entry passes for the Songstress Contest were managed by a special magic tool, which he assumed hinged on the same system as the adventurer cards managed by the Adventurer’s Guild. If he could fiddle with that magic tool and get the forged entry pass registered into the system, he believed that Rosalina would be allowed to enter.
To make that happen, Allen had created a fake entry pass management magic tool. He had then waited for the opportune moment—when the real tool was not in use and the person in charge of operating it was changing shifts—and snuck inside to switch the real tool for the fake. He had taken the real one to Hardcore User Island, asked Captain Rarappa to fiddle with it so that his fake pass could be used, and then returned it before the contest.
Now, Rosalina was able to proudly flaunt her entry pass so that she could buy accessories and outfits for the contest, but only because her forged pass was registered in the system. If someone with a keen eye noticed that it was fake and declared as much, the whole plan would fall apart. Hence, both Helmios’s and Allen’s parties needed to be prepared to run if needed.
At the Songstress Contest, Holy Fish Macris himself would personally give the winners his Tears. Were Rosalina to receive the precious item, she planned to flee the venue before she was caught. Needless to say, there was no end to the people who employed illegal methods to enter the contest, and security measures had become stricter in recent years. It would be best for Allen and Rosalina to quit while they were ahead.
As for Pelomas, who had ample reason for wanting to obtain one of Macris’s Tears, whether it was enough was not for him to decide. He planned to present it to Fiona, the daughter of Chester, a wealthy Ratashian merchant, as that was one of her conditions to marry him, but only she could decide if he had kept his word. If she refused to accept the Tear, Allen needed to consider potentially negotiating with the Holy Fish himself.
As Allen mapped out his future, a rhinokin, General Rudo, approached him. The beastkin had been the captain of the Beast King Corps before being assigned the role of Shia’s caretaker and becoming a captain directly under her. He had visited Hardcore User Island, the island in the sky, with her.
“Sir Allen,” Rudo said.
Hmm? Does he have news from his investigation? When Allen had been snooping around the Prostian palace with his Fish D, he had spotted Father Shinorom, a man who had seemed awfully chummy with Ignomasu. Allen had tasked Rudo with looking into the man.
Half a month ago, Princess Rapsonil had made a passing mention of Shinorom and his origins. He was a researcher who excelled at making magic tools and other facets of sorcery, and he had made numerous discoveries that had contributed greatly to the empire’s advancements. Apparently, he was a bit of a fanatic, known to hole himself up in his lab for weeks at a time, often muttering cryptic nonsense to himself. At times, it was difficult to even hold a coherent conversation with him, and he thought only about his own interests. He was a difficult man to decipher, which implied that he was shady in his own right.
Shinorom and Ignomasu had hit it off when they had bonded over a discussion about bolstering the strength of Prostia’s knights, and even Princess Rapsonil did not know just how far along research into that goal was. In fact, she was not even sure what exactly they were researching.
Allen knew that the more mysterious a person was, the more suspicious they seemed. Perhaps Shinorom had some sort of connection to Beast Crown Prince Beku. The crown prince had instigated a riot within Albahal, and just when it was about to be suppressed, he stole the Symbol of the Beast King and fled the country. Rumors had spread that merfolk had been waiting at the port to assist his escape, and there was a good chance that Shinorom, a merfolk, had been involved in some way, perhaps having coaxed the Albahalan royal into starting his revolt. Allen just needed proof to back up his hypothesis. After all, the Summoner had only reached that conclusion thanks to his years as Kenichi, when he had learned that games often had a different evil mastermind operating in the background like a puppeteer controlling their puppets. He had no concrete evidence that proved any of his assumptions just yet.
The best course of action, Allen thought, would be to consult someone who had known Beku since well before the revolt, but not even General Rudo knew of any such person. Nearly a decade ago, Rudo had been assigned to take care of Shia and become a captain directly under her control; his intel regarding the affairs of Albahal’s castle was outdated, and for the past two or three years, Shia had been off in Galiat working to defeat Gushara. Rudo had been dispatched from Albahal during that time and thus had received no information about Beku and his faction.
However, as the former captain of the Beast King Corps, Rudo was well-connected and knew quite a few people who worked in the castle. He had done his best to snoop around and even interrogate Beku’s former subordinates, who had been captured by the Albahalan army during the riot, to gather any information about Shinorom. Allen could not help but turn all his attention toward the rhinokin.
“How did it go, General Rudo?” he asked. “Did you find anything about Shinorom?”
“No. No one knew anything about the merfolk you’re searching for, Sir Allen,” Rudo reported.
“Is that so...”
Swing and a miss. I thought we were following a pretty good lead, but I guess not. Wait... The Summoner noticed that Rudo had not completely finished his report, and Allen patiently waited for the general to continue.
“However, I’ve received reports that there was a suspicious old man...at Beku’s side,” Rudo said.
“Not a merfolk, though?” Allen asked.
“No, not a merfolk... A beastkin. A very shady and old one, at that. He called himself Romu, and he was very close with Beku. But truth be told, I’m quite troubled to hear of this man.”
“What do you mean?”
“Yes, there was indeed a Romu, an elderly beastkin, who served Prince Beku in the past. Many years ago, after the prince faced a crushing defeat in the Beast King Martial Arts Tournament to then-Prince Giru of Brysen, a man named Romu suddenly appeared before us. He had a letter of recommendation embossed with the crest of the Lehmciel royal family, a kingdom of birdkin. Romu claimed that he could heal any wound, both physical and mental, and Princess Shia and I... Well, we introduced him to the royal castle.”
“Romu was then employed as a physician under Prince Beku,” Romu continued, his face darkening with confusion and regret. “The elderly man researched various medicines and helped the crown prince in many ways. Thanks to his efforts, Prince Beku was able to finally triumph over his archnemesis, Beast King Giru. But that’s all Princess Shia and I know. While Romu was indeed a bit peculiar, he didn’t seem like the type to goad Prince Beku into starting a rebellion. I’ll admit that he muttered to himself a lot and that it was hard to hold a coherent conversation with him, but otherwise, he seemed more or less harmless.”
While the general was struggling to get his story out, Allen realized that Romu’s characteristics fit Princess Rapsonil’s description of Shinorom very well. The two elderly men were avid researchers who often mumbled to themselves, and it was sometimes hard to have a coherent conversation with them. What if they’re the same person?
“But several of the imprisoned rioters claimed that Romu was the very man who advised Prince Beku and his closest confidant, Captain Kei, on various political policies,” Rudo explained. “I cannot deny that Beast Crown Prince Beku enacted several revolutionary—or perhaps severe, in many people’s eyes—policies, most notably for taxes. He claimed that he wanted to create a defensive measure in case the hegemonic Empire of Giamut ever tried to lay a hand on Albahal. And the one who worked behind the scenes to ensure those laws passed was apparently Romu. Or that’s what many suggest.”
“In other words, this Romu may have been manipulating Beku,” Allen said, summarizing his thoughts.
General Rudo grimaced and nodded. “I believe that that’s what many people suspect... But if so, how in the world did the poison that encouraged Prince Beku to commit such atrocities slip past my eyes? I should have noticed before it ever reached him...”
Allen stared at the rhinokin, whose face was twisted with regret. I guess we finally found our guy. And a beastkin, huh... Shinorom was a merfolk in Prostia, but in Albahal, Romu had, by all accounts, been a beastkin. Did he possess the ability to Mimic or shape-shift like Allen? Maybe his role is to change forms, sneak into nations, and slip into the role of confidante to powerful people. If so, he sounds like a pawn of the Demon Lord Army... He might even be a Demonic Deity. Allen turned to Helmios, the Hero who had fought countless battles against the Demon Lord Army. Perhaps he and his party had more information.
“Um, do you know of any high-ranking officers in the Demon Lord Army who can shape-shift and infiltrate other places?” Allen asked. “A Demonic Deity, perhaps? Or maybe even just a regular demon.”
During the Daemonism debacle on the Galiatan Continent, it had been made clear that the Demon Lord Army was not just an army of muscleheads that utilized its numbers to overpower others. Gushara’s plot had been elaborate and executed on an extremely large scale, implying that there were some intelligent people on the enemy’s side.
“Unfortunately, I really haven’t heard that name among the Demonic Deities or demons,” Helmios answered. “But I ask that you don’t lose heart, General Rudo. I’m not sure if my words are appropriate, but the enemy is far more cunning than we give them credit for. Even I’ve been backed into a corner and forced to grit my teeth several times because of their ploys.”
As Helmios tried to find sympathetic words for the frustrated Rudo, it became clear to Allen that they had next to no information about the higher-ranking officers of the Demon Lord Army. It had been over five decades since the current Demon Lord first launched countless strikes against humanity, but the enemy’s internal affairs were still veiled in secrecy.
Over the past fifty years, the Five Continent Alliance had indeed gathered very little in terms of intelligence. In fact, Allen had single-handedly learned more in the fifteen years during which he was born with the unprecedented Summoner class, graduated from the Academy, fought the Demon Lord Army, and gained First Angel Merus as a Summon following an invasion of the Heavenly Realm by the Demon Lord Army.
Even Merus knew very little about the inner workings of the Demon Lord Army. All he knew was that Kyubel and other officers had spearheaded the Heavenly Realm invasion—information that Allen shared with Helmios and the Hero Army. The Hero seems to have some sort of vendetta against Demonic Deity Ardoe, but he doesn’t know about Shinorom, huh?
During the Rank S dungeon excursion, Helmios had told Allen stories of his encounters with Demonic Deities. He had mentioned Demonic Deities he had killed, some of whom had forced him to retreat, and others who had slipped right out of his grasp before he could land the finishing blow. Not once had the name Shinorom been mentioned. However, when Merus had spoken of the invasion of the Heavenly Realm and of Ardoe, the Supreme Commander of the Demon Lord Army who had led the battle, Helmios had glared with wrath unlike anything Allen had seen before. The Summoner had then dug around a little and discovered that one of the two Demonic Deities the Hero had once defeated was called Ardoe.
Helmios had been fighting the Demon Lord Army for over a decade; perhaps his clash with Ardoe had resulted in the loss of the Hero’s precious comrades. Allen could not find it in him to ask, put off by the Hero’s furious expression. I thought we were following a decent lead, but maybe we’re back to square one...
“Shinorom?” the one-eyed Sword King, Dverg, muttered. He had also received a class promotion as a part of Helmios’s party. “I know that name.”
“Wait, you do? Do you know something?” Allen asked hopefully.
Dverg looked down and nodded. “He’s an elderly demon who brings an eyeball monster around with him. He was the one who cast a curse on my eye, one that can never be undone...”
He trailed off as he gently brushed his fingertips over the eye patch that covered his lost eye. Allen stayed silent for a while, but unable to hide his impatience, he broke the silence and egged Dverg to continue.
“When? When was that?” he inquired.
But the Summoner quickly fell silent and gulped nervously. Dverg was still facing the ground, his remaining eye filled with pure, unadulterated, limitless rage as he gazed into the ether. For a moment, Allen thought that his expression closely resembled the one he had worn the first time they had met, when he had visited the Academy and almost crushed Krena’s spirit because she had still been so weak, but the Summoner quickly realized that his current look of fury and indignation was unlike anything he had ever seen.
“An eyeball monster... I haven’t heard this story before,” Helmios said gingerly. “Dverg, could this be before you met me? When...you lost Lady Clasys?”
Dverg, who was still glaring into the distance, nodded slowly.
“I haven’t lost her yet,” he said bitterly. “My wife is still very much alive. I will find her. Without fail. And I’ll kill him with my very hands.”
Wait, and that’s related to Shinorom? Clasys is Dverg’s wife... I remember him mentioning that he didn’t mind if he only had a year left to live if he received a class promotion, but is he searching for his wife? Allen recalled a few things that he had been told before. The old swordsman’s wife, Clasys, had been born with the Talent of Saintess, but she had been killed in action during a clash with the Demon Lord Army.
It was Helmios who had told the tale, but even he did not know the specifics, as it had occurred before Dverg had joined the Hero’s party. Judging from Dverg’s words, it was clear that he believed Clasys had merely been taken prisoner by the Demon Lord Army and was still alive somewhere. While it was unclear if Clasys was actually alive, it was that belief that had propelled Dverg to battle the Demon Lord Army for the past fifty years. Even as he rounded the age of seventy, he continued to stand on the front lines. That reminds me of the time when Dverg desperately asked Rohzen for a class promotion at the Rank S dungeon.
“Dverg, that means that you met with the demon called Shinorom, right? Was he the one who whisked Lady Clasys away?” Helmios asked. He had far more life experience than Allen, and had fought alongside Dverg as well. The Hero could question the Sword King and choose his words wisely, making sure to keep Dverg’s feelings in mind.
“Yes... I remember it like it was yesterday,” Dverg said. “That demon muttered about experiments and whatnot, something about space-time. Whatever plan he has, I’ll crush it without fail.” He bared his teeth, wrath in his eye as he again brushed his eye patch with his fingertips. “My eye was taken by him as well. I was cursed. It’s a curse that negates healing spells on it.”
That’s a terrible debuff. One that restricts healing?
“I had no idea...” Allen murmured, thinking that he wanted to learn more about the curse.
“When that demon’s eyeball monster hit me with its tentacle, I was afflicted with the curse, it seems,” Dverg continued, not bothering to turn toward the Summoner.
“Even the Church of Elmea couldn’t undo the curse,” Helmios added. “I see... So this Shinorom is the demon trying to develop curses.”
When Allen had been traveling from battlefield to battlefield fighting the Demon Lord Army, he had seen an eyeball monster several times. The creature, having seemingly been gathering information, had resembled a giant eyeball with a pair of bat wings sprouting from it; perhaps the monster Dverg had mentioned was a subspecies of the one Allen had seen, or even a variant species bred for fighting. I see, so there is someone in the Demon Lord Army in charge of creating weapons. And that guy’s Shinorom. Wait, that means my friends in Patlanta are in danger!
Allen immediately used Bird F to check on his friends and was relieved to see Cecil, Sophie, and Shia all safe and sound. However, Pelomas did not have a Bird F, so the Summoner hastily steered his Fish D to head to the reference room, where he had been left. No one’s here... I’ve got a bad feeling about this... And are Luke and the others in danger too?! Allen sent his Fish D to the residence that they were staying in, where he found that Luke, Volmaar, and Faable, the Sovereign of Spirits, were safe and sound. The Summoner pivoted and had his Fish D head back to the palace to search for Pelomas.
