The New Gate (LN)

(Is it here?)

The arrow pointed to the room furthest from the stairs. There was a lot of space between the rooms, so it couldn’t be mistaken for the next room.

Just to be sure, Shin used his 【Through Sight】 to look inside. Inside were Jayf and three other people.

Shin waited until Jayf was alone, then snuck into the room.

He deactivated 【Hiding】 when he was close. Jayf was surprised and said something, but Shin couldn’t hear him because he had activated 【Area Silence】.

After realizing that it was difficult to convey his intentions with just gestures when he was with Kluck, Shin showed him a piece of paper about A4 size that he had prepared beforehand. He wrote that he had come here at Kluck’s request, and that he had been entrusted with the metal plate. Jayf nodded after reading it, so Shin deactivated 【Area Silence】.

“You really surprised me.”

“I apologize for surprising you. It seemed like it would take a while to meet you officially.”

It was still unclear who Jayf was. But it seemed unlikely that an adventurer like Shin, who had just arrived in Kurikara a few days ago, would be able to invite someone who’s staying at the royal castle. It wasn’t a praiseworthy method, but Shin decided that it was urgent.

“To think that you would slip through this security. I knew you were no ordinary person, but I never thought you were the Slashing Hammer’s Shin”

Jayf was impressed, so Shin came to the point.

“I’m not hiding anything. It’s just not something I need to advertise. More importantly, I heard from Kluck that Tekkosai, a defector from the Black Faction, is probably involved. You’re also Kluck’s ally, right, Jayf? Have you found out anything?”

“Kluck gave me the metal plate, but I’m not just a blacksmith now. I only spent a short time with you, Sir Shin. So I’m a little hesitant to talk about this matter just because of Kluck’s metal plate.”

It was no wonder that Jayf said that. Rather, it’s because Kluck believed him too much.

Shin also regretted that he hadn’t thought it through well, and took out a piece of paper from his item box, saying that he was not sure if it would work.

“Hmm, that can’t be…”

“I’m glad that it works. It’s a letter of introduction to the Moon Shrine.”

It was more effective than a cheap ID in many countries. Jayf seemed to know about it, and agreed to talk about it.

“Without the other one, I can’t prove it’s real.”

“Who do you think I am… Oh, come to think of it, I haven’t revealed my identity. It shouldn’t be a problem if I have a letter of introduction. I am Jayf Calgan. I’m the leader of the Dwarven Association. You may know me as the Cave King.”

“So Kluck knew, huh?”

You wouldn’t expect someone who calls himself a king to participate in an event held by another country, even if it was a major event, from the preliminary round onward. No matter how you look at it, he should be one of the judges.

“Sorry for testing you, but the content is what it is. You can’t just talk about it.”

“I know. I should have thought about that more.”

They both nodded at that. That was the end of the story. From now on they would talk about Tekkosai.

“I’ve heard about Kluck. I didn’t expect Tekkosai to be so direct. Do you know how Elamella is?”

“She’s been locked up, but as far as I can see, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with her. I think she’ll recover after a night’s rest.”

The tournament has been temporarily suspended, but it hasn’t caused any major problems. It was a big tournament, so some kind of trouble seemed to be common.

“That wasn’t just a problem.”

“Some Chosen Ones who aren’t aware of their own strength can lose control of their power. Deaths at the tournament are rare, but they’re not uncommon. The organizers of the tournament are used to such problems, so they don’t seem to think it’s a big deal.”

There have been cases where a Chosen One who had been buried in the field entered the tournament, thinking that he could withstand it, but the blow he unleashed turned out to be fatal.

Kurikara’s “Wrought Iron Battle Festival” was a famous tournament in the area, so many skilled people tended to participate. For this reason, the accidents caused by the Chosen Ones seem to be more frequent than at tournaments in other countries.

“The fact that we couldn’t find any abnormalities in the weapons is probably one of the reasons why the investigation isn’t progressing. Sir Shin, do you know why Elamella transformed?”

“I saw the curse move from the weapon to Elamella just before she transformed. I think it was probably placed on the weapon. Kluck said that it was probably placed when he left the weapon with the organizer.”

“I see, so the curse itself moved to Elamella, which is why we couldn’t find any abnormalities in the weapon. If that’s the case, then he’s the one to suspect.”

It seemed that the department headed by Tekkosai was in charge of inspecting weapons that were loaned or brought in.

“Who is he?”

“He is a man who is a technical advisor to Kurikara, due to his talent for developing magical tools. He holed himself up in a laboratory in a part of the royal castle that only certain people could enter. I’ve only seen him once, in the central mansion. He calls himself Tekkosai now, but I heard that he used to go by the name Eisen in the Black Faction. He looks like an old man, but he seems to be a Pixie. I don’t know how old he really is.”

Tekkosai and Eisen. Shin searched his memory, but neither of them were names he’d heard before. He wondered if he could associate the names with something, but he didn’t know much about Tekkosai, and all he knew about Eisen was that it meant iron in German.

All he could say for sure was that they seemed to be doing some nefarious research in the laboratory.

“Is it difficult to sneak into the laboratory?”

“The number of traps in the laboratory is extraordinary. I tried to check them myself, but the security is too tight. Chosen One personnel have been mobilized.”

It seemed that some of Jayf’s followers had been trained in investigation and infiltration, but he noted that even such people would not be able to sneak in.

If Tekkosai was plotting something, he could not stay in the laboratory all the time, so Jayf and his men were keeping an eye on people entering and leaving the laboratory and investigating them. Jayf says that since there was no sign of items being taken in or out, they must be using item boxes to transport them. If items were stored in item boxes, they were inaccessible from the outside. It was the perfect method of secret transportation.

“I’ll check it out myself. May I ask where the laboratory is?”

“Be very careful. But that is probably useless advice for you who can sneak in this far.”

Jayf and his men did not know who might be watching or listening to them, so they always carried items to prevent snooping and eavesdropping. Despite this, Shin appeared in front of him as if nothing had happened. At this point, they seemed convinced that his infiltration skills were superior to theirs.

After exchanging information, Shin disappeared again and headed towards the route to the laboratory.

The laboratory was located in one of the four towers surrounding the central mansion, separate from the one where Jayf was.

The laboratory was set back from the entrance, but just as Jayf had said, it was heavily guarded.

The traps set there were several levels more powerful, more secretive, and more difficult to disarm than the traps set up on the walls.

Shin continued on his path without being detected by them.

He had seen many traps for humans and monsters when he was hunting PK players. When it came to the knowledge of traps, he was not inferior to the scouting classes of thieves and ninjas.

However, there was a place where even Shin was forced to stop.

(They’re disguised as tamers, but they were both monsters.)

The last path led to the laboratory. On either side of them stood a woman with a dog-type monster, Blood Dog, and a man with a bird-type monster, Wonder Feather, on his shoulder. Both wore soldier’s uniforms. From the outside, they looked no different from the soldiers on guard duty.

Of course, they were no ordinary soldiers. With their lifeless expressions and eyes that didn’t seem to look in any direction, it didn’t take anyone but Shin to realize that something was clearly wrong. Shin noticed it immediately because he had fought the same type of monster before. Although it was a corpse, it was one of the few monsters that looked the same as a human.

Its true form was a parasitic plant monster, and the one standing was a corpse that had been parasitized by a monster called Hihiganula. The monsters they were carrying were also parasitized. They must have been the Chosen Ones that Jayf was talking about, who were on guard duty. Even though they were corpses, if they were originally of a high level, they still had some fighting power.

(I guess I’ll have to retreat.)

It was easy to avoid the soldiers. However, the roots of the Hihiganula had spread into the building itself.

From the outside, they look like creeping vines creeping up the walls of the building, but they are natural intruder detection devices.

Even Shin had to touch somewhere in the building to get into the laboratory. 【Hiding】 couldn’t fool their antennae, and since it wasn’t the same as the type of trap that was triggered by touch, he couldn’t disarm it either. They would definitely find out.

Shin tried to peek inside, but it seemed that there were measures in place to prevent see-through vision, and he could only see vague things as if looking through frosted glass. However, he could make out what looked like a cauldron about two mels in diameter at the back of the laboratory.

The figure was making movements as if it was stirring after throwing something in.

He couldn’t see clearly, but it was probably boiling something.

(All I could tell was that it was something bad.)

Even though he was outside the laboratory, Shin felt a sickening sensation. It was like the sensation you get when faced with miasma or a strong curse. 

(Chimney?)

Suddenly, when he looked up, he noticed a structure extending from the ceiling above the laboratory’s boiler into the sky.

It didn’t seem so strange if he thought of it as a ventilation system, but Shin thought that if they had the technological ability to make the traps set around the laboratory, they could make something more efficient.

As he looked towards the tip of the chimney, he noticed that his 【Through Sight】 worked from a certain point. Just as Shin had imagined, the cylindrical structure extended to the outside of the building. The smoke of a poisonous color was rising from within it.

He combined his farsightedness to observe the smoke’s direction. The smoke that left the building was not carried away by the wind, but spread evenly in all directions, eventually fading into the atmosphere. Shin was disturbed by this obviously unnatural movement, so he tried to see if he could 【Appraisal】 or 【Analyze】 the smoke.

(…Poisonous smoke mixed with a curse, perhaps?)

The main ingredient in the smoke was a poison that caused excitement and hallucinations.

However, the results showed that it contained elements that could not be analyzed. Shin deduced that this was either the source of the curse, or a weakened version of the curse.

The ingredients were probably contained in what was being boiled in the cauldron.

The smoke rising from here was tiny compared to the rest of the country. Once it was diluted by the atmosphere, it would have no noticeable effect. But it would undoubtedly spread.

For some reason, the smoke did not seem to be affected by the wind.

The poisonous smoke spreading in all directions from the castle in the center of the country was slowly spreading throughout the land, unnoticed by the residents.

A thought crossed Shin’s mind about the little curses that had been in the weapons and tools. Maybe it was a curse that had spread little by little and then gathered for some reason.

Shin suspected that the purpose of this chimney was to spread the curse.

Shin left the place and went out of the castle. From there, he followed the wall to the tip of the chimney.

Just to be sure, he checked to see if the roots of the Hihiganula had grown, but they didn’t seem to have reached the ceiling of the building.

After switching to his anti-poison and anti-curse equipment, he absorbed the smoke into a small bottle-shaped item.

Shin quietly left the place after storing the sample in his item box.

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