Chapter 483 – Trackers and Drugs

000

“Sure. I’ll go, Father.”

When the teacup and plate were completely emptied, Hertie got up from her seat with the help of Cleon and stood in front of Lionel with his hands folded neatly.

Lionel was reading her book in her in front of her counter, and when she heard Hertie’s voice in her, she raised her head slightly, looked at her, and replied.

“Yes. It’s the Five Elements Festival soon, so the streets will be buzzing. Don’t get too excited and make a mistake.”

“Really… This is the 10th year. A mistake in the Five Elements system is not a child anymore.”

Herti, who puffed up her cheeks as if she was deliberately angry, laughed for a while and went outside holding Cleon’s hand her.

“Wait, Hertie.”

Cleon tries to catch her like that, but Hertie says ‘talk outside her’and takes her Cleon out of her once-

“…About not paying for it?”

When Cleon nods her head at her words her, Hertty also smiles bitterly as if she is a little troubled, and she talks to Cleon.

“I know. But every time I take out the money, he gets very angry… Even if I try to force him to leave it, please come to the store and give it back.”

“…I think it was something like that. I’m sorry. I almost interfered in a family relationship.”

When Cleon apologizes for doing so, Hertie shakes her head and smiles.

“No. I, too, agree with Cleon-sama’s opinion. I want to give back what I received even a little bit, but my father says ‘I just gave snacks to my family’.”

From her words her, Cleon could feel how much Lionel was treating her and how much she cherished her.

“I see. He’s a good person.”

“Whoops. Thank you.”

Herti shows pure joy at being praised by her father her.

Looking at her like that, Cleon thought that it was thanks to her, Lionel, that Hertie was able to grow into such a good person.

“Okay. Well, since we’ve had enough rest, let’s go to the next store. This time we’re going to-“

“…”

In her next second, Cleon held her hand her tightly as she spoke and pulled her towards her own her.

“Oh…! Hey, Mr. Cleon?”

Herti blushes in surprise at Cleon’s sudden action on her, but she refuses or pushes Cleon away.

“In a place like this… If you do this suddenly, your father might see you…!”

“Shh…”

However, Cleon speaks quietly while breaking into a cold sweat at Hertie’s carefree voice in her.

“…Someone is trying to follow me. I just hid in the shadows at the back of the store…”

“…!”

Hearing Cleon’s words, Hertie too becomes quiet as her expression her becomes a little more serious.

Then, she slipped down her own parasol, obscuring herself and Cleon.

“This way… It’s okay to stop for a while. …Can you guess who it is?”

“No. It’s unfortunate, but that’s it. The only thing is that he’s quite good at hiding his presence. I didn’t even notice it with his presence.”

Of Cleon saying that, Schrödinger sneakily rides on her shoulder her.

“Phew~ You did a good job watching it from the sky, just like you said. I don’t think the enemy would ever think that it had eyes on its head.”

“Excellent achievement, Schrödinger.”

When Cleon said that and gave Schrödinger a thumbs up, Schrödinger wiped the bridge of his nose with his wings and smiled generously and proudly.

“Oh… This is the homunculus.”

Then, Herti says that Schrödinger, who had heard the story from Cleon the day before but had not seen the real thing, is cute, and touches his face with her with her finger.

However, Bahamut, who saw that, said ‘Ya-ong!’ And made a slightly louder noise than usual.

Are you even jealous?

“Ah, sorry Bahamut. Whoa.”

“Look at me. I’m a doll, so if a real cat raises its claws, I won’t win…”

While being able to fly and use magic, Cleon looked at him with a questioning expression.

Schrödinger muttered, ‘It’s a joke, it’s a joke’ and tells Cleon.

“But, before I knew it, I was preparing for this… “

“Because it’s an escort of factors. …There’s a big difference between having information and not having it.”

As Cleon said, it was something she would normally ask of her Layla her, but she felt a little sorry for bringing her out to this kind of work, so she asked Schrödinger.

As expected, Schrödinger did an excellent job.

“Whoops. You seem used to being watched and tracked, Cleon-sama.”

“I never thought I’d like to get used to it, but I mean.”

While saying that, Cleon thought that if he didn’t move slowly, the other person would notice something wrong, so he grabbed Herty’s hand once more and started walking forward.

“I think it’s better to listen to information about the pursuer while walking.”

When Hertie nodded at Cleon’s words, Schrödinger spoke with a slightly troubled expression.

“Ah- I mean the chasing guy. I think I’ve been chasing him ever since I left the store. However, he was hiding in the crowd and was like a shadow, so I was just late to catch him…”

“In that case, it would be better to assume that at least the company’s mansion was being watched…”

“Perhaps so… But, it’s unusual. I can react sensitively to hostility towards me…”

Cleon seemed a little taken aback by her words, but it was hard to believe that she was joking about the situation.

“Maybe it’s someone from the company? I’m worried about me and Cleon-sama going out…”

“No. I didn’t see him like that. How should I say… A little, twisted?”

At Schrödinger’s denial of Hertie’s words, both Cleon and Hertie automatically tilted their heads.

I couldn’t stop listening to it now.

“…If that’s the case, I’m even more curious. I don’t want to be chased like this. Whoops. Merchants follow profit, not risk.”

“In that case, I’d better shake it off.”

When Cleon said that, Hertie shook her head.

“No. Let’s catch it.”

Cleon widens his eyes at Herti’s words her.

Of course, Cleon would have done that if she had been alone.

But her problem is that Herti is by her side her now.

Even if an enemy pursued her, if it was a dangerous enemy to rush into battle itself, it would be a dangerous act to hold her together.

I don’t know if it’s not an enemy, but if it’s an enemy, of course I’ll run away or be hostile.

“Please don’t worry about me. For me, the ‘distorted’ part that Homunculus-san said is a concern. …If it’s literally a twisted being. That being is what Asteris is inside. I can’t accept that .”

Her face her is a little different from Herti, who used to have a relaxed, somewhat kind, mysterious atmosphere on her face her.

There was a determination as the top lord of a large trading company in charge of the foundation of this city.

“I hear… What are you going to do? Brother.”

“Meow.”

When she talks as if they both leave the choice to Cleon, Cleon is silent for a moment – and then nods her head as if he understands.

“—I understand. I’ll try my best. There’s a way to think of it, so it’s just—”

As Cleon said, he held her hand her tighter.

“Don’t get away from me, Hertie.”

“…Whoops. It’s my specialty.”

001

Cleon and Herti continued down the street without stopping.

It was the pursuer who moved from shadow to shadow, from object to object behind, chasing him from behind as he made his way through the alley even as he passed several shops he should have stopped by.

Earlier, when Cleon and Herti stopped for a moment after leaving the store, he was worried that he might have been caught following them.

It seemed that it was a misfortune.

‘By the way. I can’t imagine the two of them had a relationship like that.’

It is not difficult to imagine what is going on behind the scenes of the tryst with a parasol covering their faces.

One side is an adventurer who ran away as if being kicked out of the kingdom, and the other side is the head of the largest trading company in the East.

It was a combination that could not be said to be suitable even with lies.

Of course, her own purpose was not to watch such a spectacle, but to carry out orders from the superiors.

‘Anyway, how far are you going? Damn, it’s too hot here…’

While complaining in his heart her, he could n’t help but be surprised when he headed towards the alley where Cleon and Hertie had turned.

“What? It’s a dead end? Why…”

Even though he clearly saw him going inside, he looks around, confused by the dead end, but there is no way to escape this space anywhere.

“I was worried because he said he was twisted, but he seemed to be able to speak properly.”

Then, when the pursuer turns round and round at the voice coming from behind-

There, Cleon, who had already settled down, stood glaring at him, blocking the alley.

Herti’s figure was nowhere to be seen, but more than that, he knew that his tailing her had been discovered, and that his retreat her had been blocked.

When the pursuers on both sides hesitate and try to step back, Cleon takes a step forward as if to push him.

“It’s better not to think of running away. The barrier has already been activated. The moment you enter this alley.”

The pursuer cannot see his face properly, but after confirming that the tip of his mouth his is twisted in embarrassment, Cleon takes out his master’s sword hanging from his waist her and aims at him.

“Sure. It’s time to decide. Whether to be cut here. Or to reveal one’s identity and state one’s purpose.”

“Ki, wait! I-I’m just doing what I’m ordered to do…!”

Cleon twitched his eyebrows in response to the fairly normal voice coming from below.

“…Take off your robe.”

“Nice…”

At Cleon’s words, otherwise black sparks popped out of Cleon’s fingertips, as if to show his intention to subdue them with magic right now.

The man took off the hood of the robe he was wearing on his head as if he had no choice.

Then what appeared in it was-

It was a pale-skinned man with a pair of blue horns sprouting from his forehead.

And when the skin, which turned blue as if spreading from the right horn, covered the right half of the face his—from the eye to the top of the mouth.

As much as the eye part changed to a red iris on a black background, it felt like an alien existence.

But, except for that part, he is a man in his late 20s who could be anywhere.

Neither the clothes he was wearing nor the bottom of his robes his were much different from those of ordinary citizens of the Orient.

From his appearance his, Cleon remembered the ‘demon girl’ he had previously subdued.

Perhaps, he is a nobleman just like her.

“Schrödinger. Is this guy really the ‘twisted being’ you said?”

“Ah, that’s right. This guy’s soul is tangled in many ways. It’s like several beings merged into one.”

Schrödinger nodding his head at Cleon’s question.

“Hey, hey. Won’t you take care of me? I, I really, just did it because I could get more medicine this way.”

“…Approximately?”

Hearing his words of her as if they were negotiating, Cleon could not help but frown.

First of all, the word ‘command’ I just talked about. It was the fact that he had a boss or an employer.

In return for carrying out the order, it becomes a story that he was supposed to receive something called “Medicine”.

Cleon’s vigilance grew stronger at the man’s increasingly suspicious words and actions of his.

“Yes, yes! Medicine, medicine… Without medicine, I…!”

He spoke with an expression that seemed urgent, but it was still difficult to understand.

But then. When Herti, who had been hiding next to Cleon, appeared, the man once again showed a puzzled look.

“Hey, Herti-sama… “

“I can’t believe it was a ‘nobleman’ who was following me. And that’s why people speak so fluently.”

Herti also had a serious expression on his face of her, but he could n’t hide his surprised expression of her because it was rare for a nobleman to speak without losing his self-confidence.

However, what worried me more than that was the attitude of the pursuer nobleman who saw Hertie.

As if talking in front of him was awkward, he shrank his body.

Then, Herti also kept her mouth shut as if she was recalling the voice she had been listening to for a while, as if she was concerned about that part, and then covered her mouth again as if she was surprised.

“Couldn’t you be… You were working at Dark Dragon Firm until three years ago…!”

“Gee, you remembered. No, if it’s Herti-nim, it’s natural…”

The man puts on an apologetic expression as he lowers his head as if he can’t help it.

Herti didn’t feel any hostility – maybe this is what it was.

Actually, Cleon didn’t feel any hostility towards Hertie from him either.

“Are you a former employee?”

“Yes. He worked at our firm for several years, but he suddenly retired three years ago … I heard only that he was going back to his hometown.”

Herti didn’t dare to repeat the words after that, but the words after that were probably ‘I couldn’t believe he had become a nobleman’.

She, too, did not seem to know that he had become a ‘noble man’.

“Why didn’t you go to the temple and stay in Asteris?

“It’s a bunch. The ghosts that cling to me are the kind that don’t come off with the rituals of the temple.”

“No way.”

Herti shakes his head in disbelief, but the man smiles as if he is greatly discouraged and self-deprecating.

“That’s right. Even Herti-sama won’t believe me easily. …No, that’s natural, so I’m lost…”

“…”

Herti realizes that her actions her have wounded him and bites his lip her.

If so, Cleon came forward as if to embrace Hertie.

Naturally, the man backed away and looked for a place to escape, but Cleon was talking to him.

“…I’ve seen noble women like you. Maintaining one’s self is originally impossible for nobles. When a ghost possesses a body, it can’t control itself and goes on a rampage.”

“…”

At Cleon’s words, the man looked at him a little suspiciously, then nodded his head.

“But, you don’t seem to be like that. Does that have something to do with the ‘medicine’ you mentioned?”

“…That’s right. It’s a drug that controls the demon inside the body that even shrine maidens and priests can’t make…”

“Something like that…!?”

Herti looked at him with his eyes wide open, as if that was the most surprising fact, but the man’s expression her grew even more tense.

“Uh, people like us who can’t purify the demons have no choice but to use that drug’s help… Er, so we have no choice but to listen to them—”

The man who had said that far stopped talking abruptly, grabbed his head his, and crouched down.

“—!? Hey, what’s wrong!? What the hell are they—”

“Kuh, Geek!? Why!? Ah, the medicinal effect is still there! No, I didn’t want to tell you!

And in the next moment, Cleon couldn’t help but see a terrible sight.

In front of him, the man’s body, which had been relatively intact until a moment ago, swells up with a scream of pain.

It was really, to the extent that it could be called transformation or transformation.

The horns sprouting from his head he grew larger, and the skeleton and muscles of his body he appeared to be rebuilt.

The pale skin of his turned to the same blue color as the horns, and the face of his was distorted horrily, with sharp teeth and vicious projections growing all over the body.

“Kaaaaa!”

It was an ogre, one of the most feared monsters by adventurers.

Ogres are one of the large humanoid monsters often compared to trolls.

However, compared to trolls, it is one step smaller in body size, but even compared to trolls in ferocity, it never lags behind, rather it goes even higher.

In addition, unlike trolls who do not leave their designated territory, ogres do not have the concept of such a territory, and of course they use weapons and tools.

It was called ‘Sura’ in the East because it never accepted peace or truth.

“A noble man, an ogre…!?”

When Herti also has a strong hostility and intent to kill that he hadn’t felt before, he strongly grips his hand her.

As if to protect Herti, when Bahamut stands in front of her and threatens the man whose shape she has changed, Cleon holds up his master’s sword and blocks the nobleman.

“Hey hey, isn’t it dangerous bro…!? That guy’s mana is getting bigger and bigger!”

“…Anyway, I guess I’ll have to do something about him now.”

‘A person turns into a monster in an instant… What the hell is this?’

“Herti. Behind me. Never… Come forward.”

“…Sir…! Yes…!”

Herti nods her head and backs away from her.

And with her fists clenched, her head she moved quickly in the given situation.

‘He obviously said at the end, ‘I didn’t want to talk’. …If that’s the case, this is a phenomenon that someone artificially caused. If you look at the flow, those who provided him with ‘medicine’. …That the organization or the employer caused? How, by whom, in what way…’

If there were a few more nobles like him right now, and if they had entered Asteris while maintaining their egos.

That’s a big problem.

Anytime, anywhere, the monsters that transformed and popped out like this were laid like land mines.

However, she soon shakes her head.

Right now, rather than rolling his head about such a ‘big thing’, it was right to pray for Cleon’s safety her right in front of him, who drew his sword her to protect him.

“Sacred tree… Please, protect Cleon…”

And- the next moment.

As Cleon’s sword collided with the nobleman’s fist, intense wind pressure erupted.

“…”

And it was an old woman watching the scene remotely from a distance.

“This is just a proof. It’s a proof of my long-term experimental results.”

The old man’s eyes glowed red as he watched the liquid slithering inside the reagent bottle he was holding.

“You can think of it as the enemy of the enemy. The dark horse’s magic swordsman. My father’s antagonist. But I also have the right to ‘revenge’. This evolutionary ‘Darwin’. I’ll test your performance.”

He muttered that, alone in the mansion where no one was left.