Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 712
Chapter 712: Special Force (3)
I picked up one of the pictures pasted on the table to study. It was thin and had no frame for display. However, judging by the light coating across it, it seemed to have been treated with some kind of magic, almost like modern-day photographs.
Well, that wasn’t the important part.
Who is this?
Inside the photorealistic image, a woman was wearing an expensive-looking dress. She wasn’t necessarily a generational beauty, but her bright smile made her immediately attractive. One peculiar thing to note, though, was her black hair and black eyes—a rare find in this world.
More importantly, she looks familiar…
It felt like I had seen this face somewhere before. I stared curiously at the photo, wondering why, until I spied another picture of her wearing clothes that accentuated her figure.
She looks exactly like Ragna.
Excluding her two standout features—black hair and black eyes—her facial structure and other features looked incredibly very similar to Ragna’s.
Then, is this Ragna’s mother?
Although the pictures themselves weren’t clear proof, I couldn’t help but hold that theory in my mind. There was also the fact that Litnaiel, Ragna’s middle name, wasn’t the name of her birth mother but the name of her nanny.
“Then what about your mother? Do you know what happened to her?”
“I heard she died the day she gave birth to me.”
Ragna was Marquess Tercerion’s lovechild, and in the marquess’s secret office was a woman who looked exactly like her.
If he loved her so much that he’d make a room like this, then I guess he really did love Ragna’s mother…
My eyes brushed over all the pictures in the room one more time, and then I pulled my attention away and searched the other sections. There wasn’t anything except for some writing instruments on the table, so I focused on the bookshelves.
Palatial Meeting Record 17–18, Adventurer State of Report Year 02, 11th Races Summit Record, Year 117 Labyrinth Progress Plan Draft IV, 217th Dimensional Collapse…
What were these books? It was obvious that these weren’t anything simple.
I opened one to read, and immediately, I could tell that it was closer to a public record than something to be published. The meeting records, for example, were entire books about who said what, and the reports and plans were formatted like documents that a worker would submit to a superior.
Then why has the marquess gathered all these here?
There was no telling. However, as I skimmed through the pages, I noticed that a few lines were underlined. One example was in the 11th Races Summit Record.
Faced with the might of the Immortal, the heads of all the races fell face down onto the ground and made a declaration.
Another section was underlined in the Year 117 Labyrinth Progress Plan Draft IV.
The current growth rate for the adventurers is much more extreme than anticipated, so the labyrinth administration must prepare additional options.
“Hmm…”
As I flipped through the pages, looking only for the underlined parts, I noticed small books in a small compartment at the bottom of the bookshelf connected to the table.
Are these…diaries?
Unlike the books I had seen so far, they were much smaller and there were many more of them. Most importantly, each book had a year written on it.
If they really are diaries, this is a jackpot…
Heart pounding hard with excitement, I opened up the diary with the earliest year written on it. However, unfortunately for me, even though the first page was filled with letters, I couldn’t read it at all, and not because of poor penmanship.
This isn’t Rafdonian or the ancient language…?
They were letters I had never seen before in my life, not even Korean or English. Just what language was this?
The question swam around in my mind, and then something occurred to me.
Ah, is it a cipher?
Just as I’d heard that even modern nations had their own codes and ciphers back during World War II, there was apparently a possibility that select individuals within the Rafdonian Army knew of a secret “code” of their own.
Let’s keep these for now.
I put them into my sub-space bag. They would be worth deciphering.
I don’t think there’s anything else to see here.
After confirming that there was nothing more I needed to take, I approached the one picture in the room that was framed. There across its image, the name of a woman was written.
Meirin Huinveina—
For some reason, the surname was scratched out with something sharp, and under the name were numbers that I suspected denoted her birthday and the day of her death.
What’s this symbol?
On the lower left corner of the picture, there was a symbol that looked similar to the Taegeuk featured front and center on the South Korean flag: a circle with red and blue halves.
There’s no way that the marquess is also an evil spirit… Right?
I shook my head. The possibility of that was extremely low. Besides, while the symbol here had similar colors, the structure of the circle itself wasn’t quite that quintessential yin-yang motif.
I sighed. Whatever the case, it seemed that I had looked through everything I needed to, so I turned around to leave.
Boom!
What? What was that noise?
Did the marquess already send troops after hearing the news?
“Aaagh!”
A scream.
There was trouble above.
I dashed up the stairs and out of the secret room. As I crossed the threshold of the last step, I could see the special unit members with their backs toward the secret entrance facing off against a dozen people. Surprisingly enough, there were quite a few familiar faces among them.
“I was wondering where it went wrong.” The man looked at me with uninterested eyes as he spoke with a dry voice. “But it’s Bjorn Yandel again.”
The vice-captain of Orcules. Demon Eyes, Roland Banozant.
“This is really interesting. How did you know that we were hiding here, mister?”
Standing next to him was another member of Orcules. Wailing Witch, Lyranne Vivian.
“This is a problem.”
Last came someone standing awkwardly above them. They too were a member of Orcules and were once a member of the Round Table…
“Pshehe.”
Corpse Collector, Abed Necrapeto.
From what I can tell, it looks like the rest of them are also members of Orcules…
Despite being the one to give the order to demolish the marquess’s mansion under the pretense of looking for Noarkans in hiding, I couldn’t help but be surprised.
No, why are these bastards even here?
It actually worked?
We entered a standoff when I burst onto the scene.
“Aaargh…”
I had barged down the stairs and stomped my way back up, yet excluding the screaming of the one member on our side who had lost his arm, it was far too quiet.
“Raven,” I mumbled so quietly it was practically a whisper.
“While you were down there, we investigated the room and found a hidden divot in the floor,” she explained, quickly catching me up on the situation. “When we opened it, they came out from their hiding place there.”
So that was what happened.
I finished mentally constructing the timeline of events that had transpired in my absence, but I still couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it. I thought the most I’d get out of this was a “legal” raid of the marquess’s mansion. I never expected that I’d actually find them here.
In all fairness, they seemed equally surprised by the development.
“Randolf, didn’t you say that the marquess’s mansion would be exempt from the search?” the vice-captain asked accusingly.
The man wearing glasses next to him smiled awkwardly while scratching the back of his head. “Yes, that should’ve been the case. By my calculations, the probability of a situation like this occurring was zero percent…”
What do you mean, zero? Shouldn’t you be old enough to know odds like that don’t exist?
The vice-captain didn’t look at us. Instead, he turned his gaze to the rest of his allies and let loose his killing intent as he growled, “This only makes sense if information leaked from within.”
Uh… I guess that made sense?
“Only death awaits the traitors.”
I was dumbfounded by the turn of events, sure. However, I had also survived multiple brushes with death by adapting quickly. I could see an angle, and so, before I even finished collecting my thoughts, the words were tumbling out of me.
“What are you doing, Necrapeto?”
“Pshe?”
“Come over here. We’ll protect you now.”
He still didn’t seem to realize what I was doing.
“You really gave us the correct information. We were able to find them thanks to you. With this contribution, you can start a new life in the city—”
Only then did he seem to understand.
“Wh-wh-what are you saying?!” He quickly shook his hands in a panic to deny the claims. “N-no! I—! Vice-captain! That guy is lying! Y-you don’t believe him, do you? The Demon Eye, which can see through all truth and lies?”
When the vice-captain continued to remain silent, Necrapeto tried to explain himself more and more.
“Th-that guy is someone I want to rip apart over and over again! You know that, right? Y-you don’t really b-believe what he’s saying, do you…?”
The vice-captain took a moment to respond. “Of course, I don’t believe him.”
“Phew…”
“But seeing how flustered you became, along with that nonsense you’re spouting, I am starting to think maybe I should.”
The strand of truth in that statement was too thick with meaning for it to be called empty words.
“Yes, the situation we’re in really doesn’t make sense unless the information was leaked,” Glasses, the one standing next to the vice-captain, added.
Necrapeto’s eyes went wide at the comment, and when even Vivian, who usually addressed him politely, drew the line, he looked as if he was going to explode.
“I’ll say this now, but Mr. Necrapeto and I have no ties.”
It looked like he would die from frustration.
Not that that was something I needed to care about.
Yeah, you should’ve lived an honest life.
This would never happen to me. I mean, really. If the Noarkans said the same things I had, would any of my allies even blink?
“What are you doing?” I coaxed. “Come over already.”
“Wh-why would I come over to you?”
“What is it? You don’t have to hide it anymore.”
“And I’m telling you to cut it out!”
“Oh, do you feel guilty for betraying your allies right in front of their eyes?” I hounded.
“But that’s not— You—!”
Enraged, he stepped toward me, looking like an angry bull ready to charge.
However, there was no need for me to lift a finger. Someone was here to step up first.
Slide.
It was Glasses standing next to the vice-captain. He moved quickly and stopped Necrapeto from approaching me. The latter looked befuddled to see his ally block him.
“Huh?”
Glasses eyed Necrapeto as he responded in a formal tone, “Please stop acting on your own. It might seem like you’re trying to make an excuse to go over to their side.”
“Oh, I… No, th-that wasn’t… I was trying to…”
“If it was to fight them, you have even less reason to approach the enemy.”
“I… I wasn’t trying to fight them…”
“Aha. So you have no intention whatsoever of opposing them?”
“No, that’s not what I meant…”
“Vice-captain?”
When Glasses called over to ask for his opinion, the vice-captain gave a serious nod.
“I think it best we leave the suspect in the back and fight it out afterward. Bind Abed Necrapeto. Don’t let him do anything.”
“You heard that, right? So please comply and come over here.”
“N-no, what did I do wrong?!”
“Yes, yes. You can tell us about that later, so come here. It’s not like we’ll encounter any issues just because you can’t fight, right?”
Alright, then. That was one down already.
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