◈ Episode 259: The Shadow of d’Artense (2)
Kwaaang———!!!
A huge explosion shook the world and completely blew the factory away.
The shock wave of the explosion along with the terrifying flames scattered the wreckage of the factory in all directions.
The scarlet flame spread, and the aftermath spread intact to the surroundings.
Hans, who was watching the scene from a distance, was also bewildered by the sudden strong wind pressure hitting his face.
Sheridan didn’t prepare for it, so he was hit backwards and even fell.
“Ako.”
“What, what?”
Hans doubted his eyes in such a strange situation.
I know that Rudger did something. Up to this point, he blatantly showed off, but if he didn’t know, he would be an asshole or a person.
But the factory exploding out of nowhere, it was as if a few steps in the middle had been skipped.
To that extent, what had happened was beyond Hans’ common sense.
Hans muttered blankly as he looked at the entire factory that quickly turned into a sea of fire.
“older brother. What did you do?”
“It’s my first time, but it works.”
“Yes, yes? No, what did I do, it went well… … .”
“It is magic. It’s a magic I accidentally developed while researching as James Moriarty.”
Rudger was a professor at the University of Ordo where he studied topology.
From there, he further developed and continued to explore the singularity of space, coordinates, and solids.
Based on that, Rudger came up with a new magic.
The first is space movement through shadows.
It was to move there through the medium of shadows everywhere.
Of course, since I’m not used to it, it consumes a lot of magic power and makes my head dizzy.
Once adapted, this would bring about a major revolution in the world of magic.
And what the second made magic showed me just now.
It was coordinate designation magic that applied spatial movement to magic.
If only the coordinates of that space were known, it was a technique that could manifest magic there.
“I calculated the coordinates of the place where the gunpowder was stored inside, and scattered a wide range of flames in the vicinity.”
“Mi, was that crazy possible?”
“What are you doing in a new way now? Isn’t that why the factory over there was blown up?”
“Oh no, I know that when I see it. Isn’t that a total scam?”
“It’s not as convenient as it looks.”
If the defense against magic was thorough, it would be rather useless.
If the defensive magic had been deployed, there was a high possibility that the coordinate designation itself using magical power would be twisted and the magic would explode in the wrong direction.
Perhaps the mana flowed backwards, and the person who used it might have suffered.
“But since they only paid attention to normal firearms, they were completely unprepared for magic.”
“… … That’s right, I usually don’t think about defending against such things. I don’t even know if it exists.”
Who could have predicted that magic would be manifested in the distant air?
“In the first place, if the target is moving in real time, it is highly likely to miss. If the purpose was to steal it, it would not have been possible to use it.”
Saying so, Rudger took out a potion from his inside pocket and poured it into his mouth.
“Besides, this one uses too much mana to use.”
Space movement through the shadows also consumed a lot of mana, but the coordinate designation technique was also not easy.
In addition, I had to calculate the spatial coordinates directly in my head, and even though it was just a moment, my head was pounding and painful.
“There is a lot of magic power consumption depending on the distance, but the power is remarkably low. It’s fortunate that it’s gunpowder that can be set off with just a little spark, otherwise there wouldn’t have been a way.”
“that… … .”
“Nothing too great.”
Ludger replied as if it was nothing special, but Hans and Sheridan, who were listening to him, couldn’t accept Ludger’s words straight away.
‘Isn’t that great?’
‘It’s not something anyone else can do. Then it’s great.’
At that moment, Hans hardened his expression as he heard a mouse approaching him with news.
“… … older brother. I got some unexpected news.”
“what?”
“The ghetto lieutenant general is alive.”
Rudger’s eyebrows twitched at those words.
“You didn’t die in that explosion?”
“yes. Suppose there are more facilities in the basement of the factory. It seems to have gone down quite deep, but since it was there, it seems to have survived the explosion.”
“Is it a secret passage? Lucky for you. So what is the ghetto lieutenant general doing now?”
“Wait a minute.”
Hans said that and closed his eyes.
About 10 seconds later, Hans opened his closed eyes and said,
“I can’t get up because of the explosion above, and I’m moving to another exit. With escorts.”
“There must have been a separate exit.”
Rudger threw the neutralizer at Hans.
widely. Taking the neutralizing agent in one hand, Hans casually injected it into his forearm.
“What are you going to do?”
“What?”
Rudger left the burning factory behind.
——————
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“I have to chase you.”
* * *
A huge explosion in the factory area.
At the site, firefighters and wizards were still struggling to extinguish the residual fire.
Casey Selmore, who arrived at the scene, searched the surroundings with a heavier expression.
‘After James Moriarty asked me to come to this city, the factory exploded. Besides, the factory was said to be an ordinary vehicle parts factory from what was known to the outside world.’
And yet, an explosion of this magnitude occurred.
It was not destroyed by external magic.
Debris thrown out.
Inside a factory that has been completely burned down.
Even if you look at it, the explosion occurred inside.
‘The power of the explosion is enormous. Traces of rubble and the acrid smell of gunpowder. This is definitely a fire caused by explosives.’
If it was an explosion enough to blow up the entire factory, how much gunpowder would be needed in it?
Casey Selmore shook her head, trying to roughly guess the amount.
‘Did it be a munitions factory that stocked up on weapons?’
As Casey looked around the factory, where the fire had been extinguished, he noticed something strange.
It was a very small gap, but when she saw it, she sneaked up to it without the people around her noticing, and touched it with her tiptoe.
‘Secret Passage. It’s collapsed in rubble, so you can’t see it, but there’s a road going down.’
An explosion that happened out of nowhere and a secret passage hidden under the factory.
No matter how you look at it, it was full of suspicious things.
“Detective. Did you find anything strange?”
Casey wasn’t the only one who came to investigate the scene.
City cops approached and asked Casey if he had found any clues.
Casey looked at them and then shook his head.
“no. Not at all.”
“Is that so. Was it also an accidental explosion caused by carelessness?”
“Oh. Rather, is there anyone who visits this area often?”
“Are you a frequent visitor?”
The police were puzzled by the question, which did not know Casey’s intentions.
“We don’t know. In the first place, this is not a patrol area.”
“Isn’t it a patrol area?”
“That, that is an order that has been handed down from the top for a long time. There was nothing to see here anyway, so there was no need to patrol. It’s convenient because we have less work.”
Casey felt something strange about that.
There wasn’t much suspicion that it wasn’t a patrol area, but the problem was because of the incident that happened in this place today.
‘A secret factory with gunpowder piled up inside to make car parts. And areas where the police don’t patrol.’
Casey Selmore recalled what she had seen on her way here.
The inside of the factory is also inside, but there were also suspicious things outside the exploded factory.
‘Vehicle swept away by the explosion and crushed. It wasn’t something that deserved to be in a place like this.’
The car body collapsed after being burned, but Casey found out what the car model was based on its rough shape.
‘Military Model Truck. Does that mean that this incident has something to do with the military?’
Is James Moriarty connected to the military?
Or, is there something else she doesn’t know about?
James Moriarty told Casey to come to this city.
And the day I arrived, an incident happened.
Is all this really a coincidence?
‘James Moriarty. What are you planning to do?’
Casey clenched his fists as he remembered the man hiding somewhere in this city of the city.
* * *
A dark night, a social hall with special gatherings.
In a secret place no one knows, a man burst into anger and banged his fist on the desk.
“Damn it! How can an alternative management cause an explosion!”
The ghetto lieutenant general distorted his face after safely escaping from the factory explosion.
It was hard for him to cool down his rising anger at the thought that he might have done something wrong and got caught up in it.
“I’m sure it’s going to be noisy these days because of the rare metal mining thing.”
“To think that the place where they made special gunpowder that was not affected by the silence of fire would disappear like that. The damage is great.”
In addition to the ghetto lieutenant general, there were several other people in military uniforms.
All generals with many decorations.
Like the ghetto lieutenant general, they were pro-colonial and supporters of war.
“The problem is serious. As the subhuman slaves are freed, international sanctions may come in.”
“Even excellent soldiers lost their lives because of the factory explosion. damn.”
“Even the gunpowder I finally made flew away.”
“The recipe is still there, but at this rate, the target schedule will inevitably be delayed even further.”
People who speak with sad faces.
They weren’t usually bothered by recent events.
“By the way, what happened to the Steel Choir project?”
“The last report from three days ago hasn’t been uploaded yet.”
“I wonder if something happened there too?”
“no way.”
At that time, the ghetto lieutenant general, who was suffocating, opened his mouth.
“This may not be an ordinary accident.”
“Ghetto Lieutenant General. what does that mean?”
“At first I thought it was a coincidence, but the moment I saw this, I changed my mind.”
Saying that, the ghetto lieutenant general threw down a newspaper he had been handed to him by a subordinate.
“Dean Gord… … dead?”
An article in the newspaper dealt with the death of Dean Gordes of Ordo University.
Dean Gordes Himbel.
A member of Ordo University, he was known to the world as a very outstanding scholar and philosopher.
In reality, he was an old man with a mad desire to secretly help with experiments.
“The murderer is said to be the work of James Moriarty, a professor who has recently risen to fame.”
“The motive for the murder is unknown, but… … Don’t you think something is strange?”
Everyone was silent at the words of the ghetto lieutenant general.
When I heard it, I felt something.
“Someone is after us. That’s for sure.”
“Someone. Could it be that the Empire’s intelligence department?”
“Black ops. You mean they moved?”
Those gathered at the table trembled.
Black Ops are those raised by the Exilion Empire to carry out secret requests from other countries.
If the affairs inside the Empire were handled by the Intelligence Agency’s Nightcrawler Knights.
Outside of that, Black Ops was in charge of detecting dangers across the continent.
It is said that Team Alpha of Black Ops, which was notorious in the past, has disappeared, and its activities have decreased a little.
It was no surprise that he had recently come back to life.
“Then do you mean we have to move quietly for a while?”
“Still, because of what happened these days, the momentum of the pacifists has risen too high.”
“Tsk. I didn’t want to see something like this, so I tried to move on quickly.”
Everyone is saddened by the current situation, but no one has taken the initiative to push forward with this.
They say they act for a cause.
It is said that sacrifices are inevitable for that, and he did not blink an eye no matter how many people died.
However, he was never involved in that sacrifice.
Even the sacrifices they cried out for, in the end, were nothing more than deception to use the lives of others as fuel.
“Anyway, I think we’ll have to keep quiet for a while.”
“Okay. If you want to calm down, then you can move again.”
“Then let’s go. As everyone always said, we never met here.”
It was then that everyone nodded and tried to stand up.
The door to the meeting place opened wide and a strong wind blew.
“Who are you!”
There was no way the escort from outside opened the door and entered.
That means at least being an outsider, and there was no way an outsider could just come to a place like this.
Another escort waiting in the corner of the room glared at the open door.
But nothing could be seen through the wide open door.
It was just silent.
so it was weird
“Where are the guys guarding the hallway… … ?”
The moment I was embarrassed because I couldn’t even see the person who should be there.
The shadows under their feet moved.
Shadows soaring like countless thorns pierced the bodies of the guards mercilessly.
In an instant, deaths were rampant, and the generals who were about to leave had no choice but to freeze.
“This, this… … .”
“What the hell!”
At that time when everyone was confused, darkness shook the air and someone appeared like a mirage.
It was a pretty young man in a black Inverness coat.
A golden monocle worn over one eye with all-back hair.
He wore a hat on his head and held a cane in one hand.
A person who does not fit in this place and this devastation.
Nevertheless, the generals were overwhelmed by his atmosphere and could not move hastily.
The man who appeared took an empty chair from the round table and sat down.
“You, who are you?”
The ghetto lieutenant general broke into a cold sweat and opened his mouth.
Seeing that, the man stared at the ghetto lieutenant general with a cold gaze beyond the monocle and said.
“James Moriarty.”
“… … !”
There was no way I didn’t know its name.
Because he was the culprit who killed Dean Gordes, who was related to the people gathered here.
