Chapter 73 – Empire of Twilight (1)

Three days later, Dimension Beta.

Imperial Second City, Stuttgart.

The first thing summoned Sun-woo saw was candle holders piled with dust and a half-broken praying statue.

“Welcome.”

And the second thing he saw was Hayden wearing a crisply pressed uniform.

Sun-woo couldn’t help but ask at the unexpected appearance.

“What happened with your outfit?”

But Hayden postponed Sun-woo’s question with a stiff expression.

“The summoning isn’t completely finished yet. I’ll explain the situation once everyone gathers.”

At Hayden’s cold voice, Sun-woo made a troubled expression. Even the usual Hayden was on the cold side, but now he seemed like a completely different person.

But Hayden’s expression was too stiff to ask more.

Sun-woo had no choice but to wait while looking around.

The place where he and Hayden stood looked like an old abandoned religious facility. In appearance it was very similar to a cathedral, but seeing no cross or Virgin Mary statue, the object of faith seemed to be different.

Besides Hayden, there were several men wearing the same clothes, and other summoner teams were being summoned in front of them too.

‘A joint mission? With more than two teams?’

For Sun-woo who had heard that many summoners lost their lives in the fight with the Blood Cult and Syria mission, continuous large-scale operations were only worrying.

Following Sun-woo, Michael, Nan-seol, and Daniel were summoned in order. Everyone was summoned for the first time in a while. The summoned people all widened their eyes seeing Hayden’s clothes.

“Now that everyone is gathered, I’ll explain.”

When everyone was summoned, Hayden calmly explained the situation.

“Before this operation, I graduated early and was commissioned to a special operations team under the Intelligence Bureau. The special operations team is a summoner unit under the Intelligence Bureau, and I’ve been put in charge of you all.”

At Hayden’s words, the party all blinked. They didn’t understand the information suddenly poured out.

When the party didn’t understand, Hayden explained in more detail.

He laid out stories about meeting the Intelligence Bureau director, early graduation, and how the Empire’s Intelligence Bureau manages summoners, and only then did people begin understanding his story.

“Then, you were specially recruited after your abilities were recognized. That’s great.”

Michael and the party congratulated Hayden who became a second lieutenant, but Hayden didn’t seem very happy.

While Hayden was explaining, other summoner teams were all summoned too. Including Sun-woo’s team, there were three teams total.

When everyone was summoned, a voice was heard in the summoners’ heads.

[Please handle all organizations manufacturing and distributing contamination spreading agents in this city. For details, please inquire with the summoner of Dimension Beta.]

The voice’s content wasn’t very different from the Blood Cult time. The summoners who heard the voice all looked at the uniformed summoners.

A blonde man in his thirties who had been standing alone came out to the center where the summoners stood.

“Nice to meet you. I’m from the summoner unit under the Intelligence Bureau, officially named the Special Ability User Unit. Captain Elke.”

He seemed to be the highest-ranking person.

“After receiving the mission to track the drug called contamination spreading agents, our Empire’s Intelligence Bureau focused all its power on finding the drug and the organization distributing it, and recently caught a tail among the urban poor.”

The captain’s voice grew with pride in the Intelligence Bureau.

“The organization distributing drugs among the poor was a considerably large gang organization with branches in every major city. We immediately caught evidence to complete the mission, and soon after received a large-scale subjugation mission.”

The result was the summoners gathered here now.

“The unit members in front of you are the summoners who will convey our instructions and guide you. As conveyed by the mission, you will follow the instructions of the unit members in front and attack the gang’s hideout deep in Stuttgart’s slums.”

Though receiving instructions from others to handle missions was new, there was no one who didn’t understand what the captain said.

“First, I’ll tell you what to do by team. First, the team under Lieutenant Otto and the team under Lieutenant Joachim will take the role of frontal assault, and Lieutenant Hayden’s team please guard the expected escape area just in case.”

While speaking, he looked at Hayden with a slightly mocking expression, and the party seeing that all frowned. Even without the expression, they felt disadvantaged by the deployment.

“Hmm, back door duty?”

But surprisingly, Michael didn’t seem to feel bad.

“This operation is officially an operation to subjugate rebels. So along with the mission, operations against scavengers hiding underground will proceed together. There may be explosions or combat in unexpected places. Please take this into consideration.”

At the captain’s words, other summoner teams seemed unconcerned, but Sun-woo’s party all had to frown. But it was unrelated to the mission. The party had no choice but to keep their complaints to themselves.

“Then Hayden’s team please move quietly and take position. And the remaining teams will receive more detailed briefing.”

The captain finished speaking and gestured to Hayden with his eyes, and Hayden led Sun-woo’s party outside the chapel.

It was just the time dawn was beginning. The black sky was receding and the blue sky was gradually expanding.

Outside the chapel were abandoned graves. And beyond them, a slum spread out with shabby shacks and half-broken brick houses.

This seemed to be an abandoned chapel adjacent to the slum.

Thanks to the chapel on the hill, beyond the slum, the city view buried in dawn fog was visible.

Endless neat brick buildings of 4-5 stories high contrasted even more with the slum’s old buildings.

“This place looks like somewhere we’ve been before.”

“That’s right. It’s that city where we did the underground mission.”

At Daniel’s question, Hayden answered. After leaving the chapel, Hayden’s stiff answers seemed to soften a bit.

“But aren’t you being ostracized because of something like special recruitment? This mission also feels almost excluded.”

At Sun-woo’s question, the party all looked at Hayden. Because everyone had the same feeling as Sun-woo.

When everyone looked, Hayden made a slightly troubled expression.

“There is something like ostracism, but coming to this city and taking on this mission were both things I volunteered for.”

At Hayden’s words, the party made puzzled expressions. The Hayden they had seen wasn’t the personality to look for safe places.

“Let’s move first. If we keep staying here, the captain will dislike it.”

At Hayden’s words, the party began moving toward the target area.

The slum was extremely quiet. The road where light hadn’t fully entered yet, together with the low-lying morning fog, made the streets extremely bleak.

“There really are no people.”

As Sun-woo’s senses confirmed, no people moving outside houses were caught. Thanks to that, moving was easy for the party, but they couldn’t help but feel puzzled.

“Thanks to the night curfew.”

As the Empire declined and public order became chaotic, the alternative they eventually found was a night curfew.

The night curfew was conducted extremely forcibly. Those who broke curfew were dragged away and conscripted for labor or as soldiers.

Thanks to that, the Empire’s nights looked peaceful on the surface, and the one who made the curfew occupied a high position.

But policies made with such brute force inevitably had numerous side effects.

Hayden shook off the tens of thousands of incidents rising in his head. Now wasn’t the time to talk about such things.

After that, Sun-woo occasionally felt signs of people, but all were people wearing uniforms.

They probably deployed troops for this operation.

The party running through wide streets eventually arrived at an open lot after passing several alleys under Hayden’s guidance.

It was an open lot behind a long wall that seemed to be the slum’s boundary, and behind the lot, a desolate field and low hills in the distance spread out.

“This seems to be the place.”

Daniel who looked around summoned his greatsword, and other summoners also took out their weapons.

According to Hayden, the operation was when the sun rose. There was still some time left.

Sun-woo’s party could finally ask each other how they were.

“All villages near the eastern mountains relocated inland, and the eastern mountains became off-limits. There’s probably a summoner in the kingdom’s upper echelons.”

Though his armor had changed from before, Daniel’s appearance didn’t seem very different from before. But Sun-woo who escaped the mountains with Daniel thought Daniel wouldn’t be the same as before.

Sun-woo knew the martial arts world story better than Nan-seol. The association side that compiled stories of summoners who returned from the Blood Cult mission had faster and more detailed information than the martial arts world whose contact was late.

There seemed to be quite many failed missions among missions attacking Blood Cult branches. And some branches had already withdrawn, leaving some summoners empty-handed.

While everyone was asking how each other was, one person was silently frowning. It was Michael.

Sun-woo asked Michael who was lost in thought the question he’d been wanting to ask.

“I thought unlike others, Michael would complain about coming here.”

“The feeling is very unsettling.”

At Sun-woo’s question, Michael gave an ambiguous answer.

“It feels like I’m completely caught in a spider web, but that feeling is also ambiguous… At times like this, I should avoid it first and see.”

His survival instinct seemed to have caused confusion. At Michael’s words, worried expressions crossed the party’s faces.

During a brief pause in conversation, Nan-seol brought up another topic.

“Um, but shouldn’t we inform the people living underground? They’re all poor people.”

It was what the captain had said earlier. The story of attacking scavengers living underground along with the mission. The party who had met the people living underground agreed with Nan-seol’s sympathy.

“But with the mission, it will be difficult to move carelessly.”

As Daniel said, even with sympathetic feelings, it was difficult for the party to move.

That was when. Hayden opened his mouth with a stiff expression.

“Regarding what we just talked about, there’s someone I’d like you to meet briefly.”

“What?”

The party made bewildered expressions at Hayden’s words, but Hayden whistled lowly toward the wall.

Whoosh!

Before Hayden’s whistle sound stopped, one figure jumped over the wall with light movement and landed in front of the party.

“Long time no see.”

The woman who landed softly on the ground smiled toward the party.

Sun-woo’s party all recognized her.

She was the flame ability user they had met in this city’s underground.