Chapter 74 – Empire of Twilight (2)

Sun-woo’s party looked back and forth between the flame ability user and Hayden.

“Hey, Lieutenant? Seems like quite a bit of explanation is needed?”

Everyone felt the same as Michael’s question.

“It seems I take after my mother’s side of the family rather than my father’s.”

It was about his maternal family that had been exterminated for rebellion, but the party who didn’t know the details could only be dumbfounded.

“Um, as you know, this person is the flame sorceress we met before. Her name is Clara.”

At Hayden’s introduction, the woman smiled and waved her hand. Though not much time had passed, her appearance seemed to have brightened considerably.

“I happened to meet her on the street during leave a while ago. Well, thinking about it now, it doesn’t seem like a coincidence… Anyway, I didn’t report her, and after that we became contacts who occasionally keep in touch.”

“Did you fall for her?”

Michael suddenly interrupted Hayden’s words. Because in his view, it was somewhat out of the blue.

“No. You can just think of us as something like friends.”

Hayden answered firmly to Michael’s words. Thanks to that, Michael ended up with an awkward expression.

But an officer having rebel forces as friends… The party who didn’t know Hayden’s background couldn’t understand him.

“It’s not like Mata Hari or anything, but I’m watching a spy story in an absurd world.”

Michael shook his head while looking at the two people.

“Anyway, after I became an officer and learned about this operation, I found out that an additional attack on scavengers would happen, so I was able to get detailed information through various sources.”

The various sources meant using the intelligence network of his father’s ducal house. Though he was an illegitimate child, some thin thread remained, so he could obtain information.

“What I heard from him wasn’t just about dealing a blow. I don’t know what method it is, but the story was to completely sweep away the people living underground.”

Hearing that story, Hayden immediately requested his deployment to this city and volunteered for a support mission.

And he informed Clara of this content, and she requested him to let her meet the party she had encountered before the operation day again.

“The prophet said you are the only ones who can help us. Please help us.”

At Clara’s request, the party made troubled expressions.

‘Could there be someone with the ability to see the future?’

Sun-woo briefly felt greedy at the unexpected ability. But soon he realized reality.

Strong abilities required that many points. If it was prophecy, even pouring all points into it, properly seeing the future definitely wouldn’t be easy.

To Clara’s request, Daniel answered as representative.

“As we said before, it’s difficult because of the mission.”

“The mission to eliminate the gang?”

Hayden seemed not to have properly explained about the mission due to secrecy maintenance either.

For Clara who didn’t know if Sun-woo’s party were summoners or what the mission was, she couldn’t understand why hitting the slum gang spreading drugs was so important.

She had simply come to ask the party for help following the prophet’s instructions.

“Tsk, can’t explain separately either.”

“Still, how about thinking about it once? This operation is strange anyway. It’s strange that the scale of the operation supposedly held formally because of the mission secretly changed, and including matters about me, there are many things that don’t add up.”

At Hayden’s supporting fire, the other party members made regretful expressions, but Sun-woo seemed to have something in mind.

“Can you tell me what content doesn’t add up?”

“Ah, first the Intelligence Bureau has never moved openly like this. They always move while hiding. No matter how large-scale the operation is, this is strange.”

“And also?”

“I have personal flaws, so I wouldn’t know if I didn’t know, but there’s no way I could be commissioned like this if they knew. Honestly, I thought I’d be kicked out of the academy, but early graduation and commission? The Intelligence Bureau, no, the Intelligence Bureau director wouldn’t do that.”

It was suspicion that continued from the moment the director threw the officer’s notebook. Taking in the child of a family exterminated for rebellion as an Intelligence Bureau unit member, no matter how much the duke’s illegitimate child, it made no sense.

“Continuously doing things that make no sense…”

The Divine Cult’s branch leader came to Sun-woo’s mind.

“Could it be brainwashing?”

“Brainwashing?”

At Sun-woo’s words, Nan-seol and Michael’s eyes widened. For the two of them, it was a story they had directly seen and heard.

Sun-woo explained to the others who still didn’t understand. He was a bit worried about Clara listening beside them, but it seemed he could leave it to the post-processing team after the mission ended.

After Sun-woo’s explanation ended, Daniel opened his mouth with a serious expression.

“If what you say is true, there may be some hidden circumstances in this mission.”

“It’s all hypothetical anyway. Moreover, it’s difficult to move because of the mission.”

At Sun-woo’s words, the party sighed.

As they had felt before, missions were really big shackles for summoners. Though the rewards were great, there was no guarantee they were better than restriction of freedom.

That was when. A voice began being heard in the party’s ears.

[Adding mission. Protect scavengers and collect additional information. Additional points will be paid according to information quantity.]

[The additional mission is an independent mission given to this team. Please choose between existing mission and additional mission.]

The party who heard the voice looked at each other with deflated expressions. Because the agonizing until now had been blown away in one shot.

“It seems the summoners also think something went wrong.”

As Daniel said.

“I’ll choose the additional mission.”

“Me too for the additional mission.”

“I also decide on the additional quest side.”

“Tsk, no wonder I kept feeling uneasy… Me too, additional mission.”

Following Michael’s words, lastly Sun-woo decided.

“I choose the additional mission.”

When everyone finished choosing, the voice was heard in the party’s ears once again.

[All team members chose the additional mission. Basic mission was automatically discarded. Additional mission was converted to basic mission.]

“Shall we go then?”

At Daniel’s words, Clara had a joyful yet bewildered expression.

She was grateful they accepted the request, but understanding what happened in between was impossible.

Meanwhile, Hayden had a relieved expression. Both guiding the party wearing the lieutenant position and introducing Clara were all quite troublesome matters.

Only now did he feel he could comfortably follow the party.

The place the woman guided the party to was unexpectedly close. It was on the opposite side of the wall she had crossed. There was a small sewer hole leading to the sewers there.

It wasn’t the big entrance they had entered before, but there was no problem entering inside.

Nan-seol, Sun-woo, and Hayden easily crossed the wall with martial arts and superpowers, and Michael and Daniel crossed the wall receiving help from Sun-woo’s sorcery.

“Ha, I thought the last time was the end.”

Leaving Michael’s complaint, the party all entered inside the sewer.

Though they entered through a different entrance, the inside appearance of the sewer was no different from before.

Musty smell and full humidity. Perhaps because it was a slum, the smell seemed more terrible.

When they entered a bit more inside, the outside light could no longer illuminate inside.

Michael raised the flashlight switch, and Sun-woo infused internal energy into the sword he was holding. Sun-woo’s sword blazed red, brightly illuminating the surroundings.

Fortunately, this time they had a guide, so the party had no worry of losing their way.

“But where are we going?”

“After hearing Hayden’s story, we moved the people who were in the sewers to deep underground. And only a few agile people remained to monitor the ability user unit entering the sewers. We’re going to that monitor. We can find out the unit’s position from him.”

Clara’s words were sufficient explanation. But her explanation raised other questions.

“With your skills, can’t you solve it yourselves? When I saw before, there seemed to be many strong superpower users…”

Sun-woo recalled the scavenger ability users he had briefly seen in the previous mission.

“I don’t know that well either. I’m just doing as the prophet told me, I don’t know the details well.”

Sun-woo shrugged at her words. She seemed not to know much about this operation.

It was already decided content. Questions could gradually be solved.

While walking through the sewer, Sun-woo gradually began spreading sorcery in all directions. Now using sorcery was no different from breathing.

Detection power seemed to have increased more than twice compared to when he came before. Well, both martial arts and internal energy had increased a lot, and sorcery power had also risen considerably. Only now did he feel somewhat confident.

When the party walked at fast speed for about 30 minutes, Sun-woo raised his hand to stop the party.

“There’s a place nearby where people are gathered. If they evacuated all people from here, it’s probably highly likely the ability user unit.”

“Let’s go that way first. We might be able to obtain information on how things are progressing.”

The party agreed with Daniel’s words. Since Clara also didn’t oppose, the party moved their steps toward where the ability user unit was under Sun-woo’s guidance.

The party carefully approached the target. Sun-woo’s sword that had been infusing internal energy as a guide also turned off its light again, and Michael’s flashlight also darkened.

Unlike the party approaching as carefully as possible, the opponents were extremely noisy.

A total of ten people, about one squad’s worth of personnel were doing some work with fires blazing high.

“No matter how I look at it, they seem to be installing explosives.”

At Michael’s words, Hayden tilted his head.

“Explosives? You mean those used for fireworks?”

This world was a place where superpowers existed and science technology hadn’t developed. It was a place where gunpowder utilization was extremely low.

Things seemed to be going strangely.

“We’ll have to catch and check.”

At Sun-woo’s words, the party agreed, and rushed at the opponents matching the numbers Michael counted in a small voice.

The fight ended disappointingly short.

The superpower users monitoring surroundings were bound by Hayden’s telekinesis before doing anything, and other people were instantly knocked out by Sun-woo and Nan-seol rushing in.

“Now even in fights of this level, we don’t have a turn.”

At Michael’s words, Daniel chuckled.

“They’re definitely the ability user unit under the Intelligence Bureau.”

When everyone fainted, Hayden approached and confirmed their unit.

The clothes they were wearing were the same uniform Hayden wore.

“Who should we wake to ask?”

While Daniel was pondering looking at the fainted unit members, Sun-woo and Michael were looking at the wall with serious expressions.

“My eyes aren’t wrong, right?”

“If so, then my eyes also became strange at the same time.”

“Then that means my eyes are normal.”

Sun-woo and Michael were having a conversation like a comedy routine while looking at objects hanging on the wall.

That’s how much the objects visible before their eyes were incomprehensible.

“This object being here makes no sense.”

“On top of that, them handling this also makes no sense.”

Before their eyes, a set of explosives with a stopwatch attached was properly hanging on the wall. No matter how they looked, this time bomb was an object from their world.