Chapter Sixteen "Plans and Capture"

The Valencia Palace was roughly divided into three wings, and he had just entered one of them. This was the largest of the three, where the Royal Family resided. The Palace was very well-lit, collecting light from the outside in a brilliant display that seemed to make the interior sparkle. The polished hallways were free of litter; practically spotless, in fact. The reason why Climb's full plate armor made no sound as he walked upon it was because it had mithril and orichalcum in its construction, and it was additionally enchanted on top of that.

Along the clean and spacious hallways were the elite soldiers assigned to guard duty in the palace. They stood resplendent in their full plate armor, they were knights. It was not just knights, but also servants. Climb nodded slightly to them. Almost all of them returned the gesture. Only a few of them did so reluctantly; the vast majority were sincere in their courtesy.

Climb soon arrived at his most frequently-visited room in the palace.

After checking several times to make sure nobody was around, he reached out and turned the doorknob. Entering without knocking was an exceedingly impolite course of action. However, the owner of this room had asked him to do so. His mistress had refused to listen to his protests, no matter what he said. In the end, Climb had given in. There was no way he could win when women's tears flowed. Still, his mistress had permitted him several exceptions to that. For instance, there was no way he could barge in unannounced if the King was present.

That said, entering without knocking was very stressful on Climb. People who do that ought to be punished. It was only natural for him to feel stressed out when he thought about that as he opened the door.

Just as Climb was about to push it open, he heard the sounds of a heated discussion through the half-opened door. There were two voices, both female. One of them belonged to his mistress. Climb was still standing outside the door but she had not noticed him. That was probably because she was too excited about the discussion. That being the case, Climb did not wish to dampen her ardor. Climb stood still, listening to the discussion within the room. He felt guilty about eavesdropping, but he would feel worse if he interrupted their conversation. Soon the room fell silent, which told Climb that the discussion was over.

"Ah, you can come in. Can't he, Renner?"

"Hm?"

Climb's heart lurched as he heard those words. He was surprised that she had sensed his presence, but at the same time, he had been somewhat expecting that. He slowly opened the door.

"Pardon me," said Climb as he entered the room.

A familiar sight filled Climb's eyes. The room was luxurious but not tacky, and there were two blonde-haired maidens seated at a window-side table. Both of them were beautiful young ladies in complementary dresses. One was the owner of this room, Renner.

The other one sat opposite her. Her eyes were green and her lips were pink, and she was in radiant health. While her looks fell short of Renner, she exuded a charm of her own. If Renner sparkled like a gemstone, then she glowed with vitality. Her name was Lakyus Alvein Dale Aindra. It was hard to tell given the sheer pink dress she wore, but this woman was the leader of one of the two admantium-ranked adventurer teams in the Kingdom, and Lakyus' closest friend. She had racked up a considerable tally of accomplishments at the tender age of 19, and the fact that she had attained the coveted rank of admantium must be due to her astounding talent. Climb felt the stirring of jealousy in the depths of his soul.

"Good morning, Renner-sama, Aindra-sama." Climb greeted the two blonde maidens.

"Good morning, Climb." The two women replied.

Climb quickly took a seat next to his mistress.

"As I was saying. We attacked the Eight Fingers. Three of their drug-producing villages and burned their fields to ash. I would love to say that they can recover from that, but that is far from the truth. We know very well the Eight Fingers have many more places where they grow their drugs."

The Eight Fingers. It was after all the criminal syndicate writhing about in the darkness of the Kingdom. The royal family controlled the kingdom. That was what was official ruling. In actual truth, it could be said that the Eight Fingers controlled the Re-Estize Kingdom from the shadow. Just hearing about the Eight Fingers made Climb worry for his mistress as she had taken action to suppress them. That act of trying to battle the Eight Fingers for the betterment of her people made her enemies with a very powerful organization.

"We found this scroll while burning the drug villages." Lakyus opened up a bag and took out a scroll. "It looked like some kind of written order, so we brought it back… can you understand it?"

They opened the scroll, and saw an expanse of symbols. They did not look like letters from any country's language. Renner glanced at them, and casually replied: "...It's a substitution cipher, no?"

Substitution ciphers were a form of code made by substituting a letter or several letters for another letter or symbol. For instance, "a" might become "△" and "b" might become "□". Thus, the symbols "△△□□△" would mean "aabba".

"I thought so too. I tried swapping symbols around for hours, but I couldn't make any sense of it. We took a man prisoner who looked like he was in charge because we suspected that he might have memorized the cipher key, and we were planning to use charm magic on him to make him decode the message for us. However… you should know that when the same caster uses the same spell on the same subject multiple times, you get poorer results. Therefore, I wanted to make good use of our first casting. So I decided to discuss it with you before using the spell."

"I see… and the reason this was left there was because… a trap? Or something more? If that's the case, they wouldn't use a code that was too hard to break. Hm, I don't think this will be very difficult."

Renner's words left Lakyus' eyes wide. She could not help but exchange glances with Tina, who was seated beside her. Unbelievable. But at the same time, they thought, "I knew she could do it."

"Let me think… in the Kingdom's language, the first word of any document is either a masculine, feminine or neuter pronoun… give me a moment…" As she muttered to herself, Renner rose with the scroll and went to fetch paper and pen. Then, she began writing out blocks of text on the paper. "This is a simple substitution cipher of one character for one symbol, so breaking it is easy. And fortunately, they were using the Kingdom's language. If they had used the Empire's literature or something like that as a cipher, it'd be almost unbreakable. But this… well, once you know what one of the words means, you can just fill them in one by one. Anyone could break this if they were willing to work hard."

"No no… well, you make it sound easy. But wouldn't that mean you'd need to know tens of thousands of words to break the code?"

"Well, these are encoded literary references. Those usually won't be too flowery and they can't use words that are too complex either. So they'd have to make it simple enough that even a child could understand it. That narrows things down a lot."

Inside her heart, Lakyus broke out in a cold sweat. Her friend made it sound so simple, but it was hardly as simple as she said. Renner had brushed it off every time they met or talked, but Lakyus had never met anyone else like Renner who deserved to be called a genius.

"It's done. Just a bunch of book references," Renner replied as she handed the paper to her. "There were many locations within the Kingdom written upon it, and seven of them were within the Royal Capital."

"Are these drug storehouses or other important bases?"

"I doubt they'd put such an important document in an ordinary production area… this is probably bait, don't you think?"

"Bait? As in for a trap?"

"Hm… I don't think so. Think of it this way. Eight Fingers is one organization, but they're more like eight separate groups working together, right?" Lakyus nodded. "So, this should be information about the other seven groups… or should I say divisions? In any case, this is a way to deliberately leak information on everyone besides the drugs division to outside enemies, in order to briefly take the heat off themselves."

"In other words, they already gathered information on the other divisions for this… I didn't expect them to be totally united, but this is just ridiculous…" As an adventurer, the notion of betraying one's comrades frustrated Lakyus. "While we were already going to do that, we'd better not act too hastily, or else it might turn out badly for us." After seeing her friend (Renner) nod, Lakyus asked again. "So, what should we do about that brothel? I've heard it's a really vile place where one can experience anything they desire." Lakyus felt her anger build just by mentioning it. Bastards. Those scum who can only think with their dicks ought to be killed!

When she recalled what she had learned about the brothel in question, she was no longer a noble heiress, but a bold adventuress, and the curses welled up from inside her heart. The meaning of the phrase "anything they desire" went without saying. It was certain that many men and women had been murdered for entertainment.

In the past, when slavery had not yet been criminalized, there were quite a few such bordellos operating in the underworld. However, thanks to the friend before her, the slave trade was now illegal, and those establishments had faded like dust on the wind. Yet the less places that provided highly illegal goods and services became more precious as demand hadn't disappeared, but only the supply had dwindled. The criminal organisations would fortify their locations with more guards and defenses. For that reason, they would not shut down easily. One could imagine what sort of determined resistance awaited them. After all, it was a tainted paradise for those people with crude, unspeakable desires.

"Say, Renner. Since we can't deal with them through the law, why not have us force our way in and expose their crimes? It'll be okay as long as we find evidence, right? If the slave-trading division really is running that brothel, then breaking them will be a huge blow. Plus, depending on where the evidence points, we'll be able to teach a painful lesson to the nobles who are in league with them."

"You might be right, Lakyus. But if you do that, won't it inconvenience your family… the Alvein family? I find it very hard to act because of that. The same thing goes for the other members of Blue Rose… but having Climb barge in there alone seems almost impossible…"

"Your servant deeply regrets his lack of strength." Climb aplogizued as he bowed to his mistress.

As she saw Climb bow in apology, Renner reached out a hand to take Climb's own, and smiled.

"Forgive me, Climb. That wasn't what I meant. It's the only underworld brothel in the Royal Capital, so nobody could take it down by themselves. See, I trust you most of all, Climb. I know how hard you work for me. However, don't do anything which might get yourself involved. This isn't a request, but an order, okay? If anything happened to you…"

Even Lakyus, as a woman watching from the side, was moved by the tears of the ravishing beauty before her eyes. Then how about Climb? He tried his best to put on an emotionless front, but he could not. Those flushed cheeks said everything for him. Were a bard to give a title to this moving scene, said bard would surely name it "The Princess and Her Knight". Yet, Lakyus felt a twinge of fear. She thought that it ought to be impossible, but if Renner were doing this on purpose, then she would be a vixen of truly unimaginable proportions…

What am I thinking? Why am I doubting my good friend? Besides, hasn't everything that's happened up till now proven that she's not a petty little schemer? If I can't even trust someone like her — someone with the title of "Golden", who crusades for justice — then who can I trust? Lakyus shook her head, and spoke. That was also to dispel the frightening notion in her head. "Ah, yes. Tina's investigations have uncovered several leaders in the slave trades. Several nobles with links to Cocco Doll. However, we haven't verified their guilt yet, so it's too early to take action right now."

Renner and Climb reacted to one particular name among the list Lakyus recited.

"That man's daughter is one of my lady-in-waiting," said Renner in a surprised tone.

"Hm? Well, I don't think she was sent there as a spy because they're on guard against you… but still, I can't be sure that she's just a lady-in-waiting looking to promote herself." Renner concluded.

"Indeed. Looks like we've policed the information quite well. Climb, you also have to keep that in mind," said Renner in a doting tone to her knight.

"Then, let's discuss what to do about the locations we've learned from the coded orders."

- O -

Hilma, head of the Drug Trafficking Division operating in the Royal Capital of the Re-Eztise Kingdom, squirmed slowly on her king-sized double bed and reached out for the pitcher of water by the bed, but the fingers only found air. It was then that she remembered that she had not set out a jug of water, and she clicked her tongue. She could not stifle her yawn. She slept like an old person, early to bed and early to rise, but she had only gone to bed just over an hour ago. She had not yet slept her fill.

The woman swallowed and placed a hand on her throat. There was a dry, sticky sensation there, and she got off the bed to get a drink of water. She threw on a long, thick robe to cover her nude body, slid her feet into a pair of slippers, and exited the room.

She walked along the quiet hallway, looking for water to drink.

The silence was soothing for Hilma. It was something she always desired for during this time of the night. She loved peace and quiet, but the silence disturbed her. This level of silence was something that shouldn't be happening as her home also served as the base of Eight Finger's Drug Trafficiking Division inside the Royal Capital. Logically speaking, there should be soon noise such as human movement and taking, but the interior was now dead silent, like it was empty.

Instead of having a calming effect, the silence made her hair stand on end, and it even made her feel that she was the only person in this mansion.

"...What's going on?" Hilma thought in confusion. She raked her mind for any possible explanation. Hilma didn't recall ever giving the order for her servants and guards to a vacate the area. Even if such order was given, she still had a dozen servants and an equal number of guards nearby at all times. It was so that she didn't have to do any menial tasks and to ensure her safety at all times.

A chilling thought came to her. Something that counted amongst her worst fears. She wanted to shout for someone to confirm that her worst fears hadn't manifested, but it would be a very bad idea to let the enemy know where she was. She also considered just going back to her room and burrowing under her covers, but she might simply be awaiting her execution. People who don't move when they have to become food for others. This was a belief she subscribed to, and by adhering to that principle, she had risen from a high-class hooker to where she was now.

She checked both sides of the empty corridor several times and only moved ahead after verifying that there really was nobody there. Trusting in her sixth sense, she headed towards a secret room which only she and a few others knew. There were several magic items and gems there that could help her, as well as an escape tunnel.

As she tiptoed along the hallway, Hilma realised something was off.

"What… is this?" The whisper escaped her mouth unbidden.

Hilma discovered an oddity outside the window. The window, made of sheets of thin glass, were covered in several layers of vines. As a result, almost no light could get in. She tried to open the window but it would not budge. She hurriedly studied the other windows along the hallways. Each of them was choked with vines.

"What happened? Who could have…"

The windows were most definitely not like this before she had gone to bed. This could not have happened naturally in the space of an night. That being the case, it was probably the work of magic.

Who could have done this, and what was their aim? She had no idea about those points. Even so, she understood that her situation was very dire. "Dammit!" She cursed, and then she jogged ahead. She no longer cared about how her robe swayed here and there. All she wanted was to get into her secret room. She reached the staircase and looked down. It was still silent. Navigating by what little light managed to filter through the vines, she carefully descended the stairs. At the same time, she was grateful to the thick carpeting for masking her footsteps.

When she reached the first floor, she was so shocked that she suddenly sucked in a lungful of cold air. There was a person in the hallway staring at her. That person seemed to blend into the shadows as it stood there, but it was not because they had shadow-melding abilities like thieves or other related jobs. Rather it felt that way because of their dark-skin, which gave the wrong impression. That was a Dark Elf, and their mismatched eyes seemed to sparkle against the black cloth wrapping them. The Dark Elf let the black cloth wrapping them fall to the ground. Below it was girls' clothing. She held a black-colored magic staff, and she looked up to Hilma.

The secret room was behind this mysterious girl.

As she recalled the inner layout of the mansion, Hilma steeled herself and nervously approached her. If only she were a playmate brought along by some noble. However, Hilma immediately discarded her naive conjecture. Her home was completely and utterly silent like all life had been removed. Something that was impossible as even if she liked silence, there was always the noise of her handpicked and chosen servants and guards. The fact that none of her guards and servants made it clear that she should be on guard.

"Say, little girl…" After calling out, Hilma wrinkled her brows in suspicion. She had seen all sorts of people in her past profession as a high-class prostitute. Her experience told her that this was not a girl, but a boy. His clothes were exquisite and not the sort which ordinary people could afford. For all Hilma knew, even she might not have something of that quality.

The Dark Elves had once lived in the Great Forest of Tob, and they were practically nonexistent in the Kingdom. Yet here was one now, wearing expensive clothes intended for another gender. If not for the sinister atmosphere, Hilma would have concluded that this child was a slave to satisfy some noble's degenerate lust.

"...Hey boy, what're you doing here?" Hilma asked as she approached slowly and carefully, trying not to arouse his suspicion.

"A-auntie, are you the most important person in this place?"

"No—" She stopped halfway. She had a bad feeling about this. To date, she had relied on her instincts more than anything else. She had always believed that her instincts were superior than common sense. Where common sense might have betrayed her, only her intuition had never failed her. "Yes! That's right! I'm the most important person in this mansion."

"Is, is that so, that's good then." The boy smiled. His smile was so pure that even under the present circumstances, it almost managed to ignite the desire to defile his purity within Hilma's heart. "Ah, well, er, I asked those people, and they told me that too."

As if in response to the boy, a nearby door opened. A girl slowly stepped out from within. She looked like a girl wearing some kind of bizarre maid uniform, but what surrounded her was not the scent of perfume but the stink of blood and gore.

Hilma covered her mouth and swallowed a scream.

The maid's lovely little hand clutched a man's arm. It looked like she had ripped it from his shoulder socket, given the torn fibers of muscle.

"What, what's she…"

"Er, um, ah, it seems someone wanted to attack this mansion, so we decided to finish up some things before those people came. Therefore, er, I asked her to come along."

"Please pay me no heed. It has been so long since I ate my fill, and I am very satisfied."

She was able to address Hilma without moving her mouth. That was quite strange, but there were more pressing questions than that. What made Hilma shudder was the question of what exactly she had eaten to fill herself up. She could guess, but she did not want to believe. With those thoughts in her heart, she asked them.

"Then, then what, what about me? Are, are you going to eat me too?"

"Eh? Ah, er, no. You have other uses, auntie."

She could not relax. That was because her intuition told her that a more horrific fate awaited her.

"—Then, then how about this, my boy. Want to have some fun with me?"

She let the clothes draped over her body slide from her shoulder. This was her body, her pride and joy. When she had still been a courtesan, it would have cost a fortune just to spend the night with her. After that, she had kept any excess fat off her frame and maintained her sensuous figure. Hilma was confident that she could fill anyone with all-consuming lust for her, even if her target was a child.

However, there did not seem to be any unusual emotions in the boy's eyes.

Hilma could admit that her charms were inferior to that maid over there. Even so, she had been a pro, despite the fact that she was retired. Even if he did not swing that way, she could still arouse him. She elegantly worked her body in a serpentine fashion and slowly drew close, careful not to alarm him. She could not sense anything like desire from the boy, Therefore, she chose another course of action.

She slowly extended a hand and put it around the boy's neck and activated a magic item. It was the Viper Tattoo. The tattooed snakes on both her hands came to life, raised their heads, and sprang out to bite the boy's body. Anyone bitten by the serpents and their powerful neurotoxic venom would die in spastic twitches. This was the ace in the hole for Hilma, one did not otherwise have a way to fight.

However, the boy nimbly extended a hand and seized the whip-like snake as it struck, then proceeded to crush the life out of it without hesitation. The Viper Tattoo whooshed back onto Hilma's arms. Since the summoned snake had been killed, the tattoo could not be reactivated for a full day until it recovered.

Hilma was now in the worst-case scenario of having initiated hostilities and having nothing to show for it, and so she stumbled back unsteadily. However, what most frightened her was the fact that the boy's expression had not changed at all during this string of events. He was not worried at being attacked, and neither did he show any hostility.

"Th-then, so, er, let's go."

Go where? Just as Hilma began to wonder about his words, intense pain shot through her kneecap at that very same moment. The unbearable pain left her unable to stand and she collapsed to the ground. "Abbbbaahhhhh!" She wailed in anguish, breaking out in a cold sweat because of the pain, and then she looked down at her knee. She then regretted doing so."My, my, my leeeeeeeg!"

The kneecap of her left leg was twisted in the other direction, and bone protruded from her blood-red — from her flesh. Hilma wept and made to squeeze her leg, which was in unbelievable agony. However, she hesitated. She did not dare touch it.

The boy grabbed Hilma by the hair and then walked out. Hilma was dragged away by an arm-strength that she could never have guessed at from the way he looked. Dozens of hairstrands were wrenched out with a quiet snapping sound, but the boy did not seem to care.

"It hurts! It hurts so much! Don't do this!"

In response to Hilma's wailing, the boy merely glanced at her, but did not halt his pace.

"I, I have to hurry up and get there!"

- O -

Shirou Emiya soared through the midnight sky as he jumped from roof to roof or just about anything he could use as a platform to jump off to propel himself into the air. His movement was so fast that he would seem to be a blur that made any observer blink and rub their eyes in confusion. The only real thing sign that remained behind for more than a moment after he disappeared from the sight of his observer was the whistling of the passing wind he left in his wake.

A smile of pleasure grew on Shirou's face at news of his plans bearing fruition. Cocco Doll, who was in charge of the Eight Finger's Slave Trafficking Division and his spy inside the Eight Fingers, had reported that all contact with a fellow Division Head of the Eight Finger's home had been lost. Whatever had caused the loss of contact was something that was an opportunity for him to exploit. An opportunity that he would seize with Operation Purge. Hilma, the Division Head of the Eight Finger's Drug Trade, would be just another influential player and spy that would help him seize the Eight Fingers for his own purposes.

Prepare yourself, Hilma Cygneaus, for tonight will be the night when the justice will be dealt. Shirou thought as he made his way to Hilma's mansion.

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