152. Strange atmosphere
“If you hand it over to the adventurer’s guild, it will take care of itself.”
“To the Adventurers Guild?”
Kang Seung-hyeon looked down at the group of masks he had captured.
These guys are the culprits of the attempted murder in Tracotti, so if you bring them to the Tracotti Adventurers’ Guild, they will use all means to uncover their identity.
“Even if it’s temporary, it’s an order from the branch manager of the Adventurers’ Guild… We’ll have to shake it to the core.”
“The branch manager uses his power sparingly!”
Kang Seung-hyun and his party returned to the Adventurer’s Guild.
The group of masks resisted at first not to be dragged away, but after being beaten several times, they calmly followed.
“What happened? What are those guys?”
Masen, who was working at the Adventurer’s Guild, asked with a surprised face when Kang Seung-hyun and his party dragged people away.
The union workers next to them were quite surprised.
“It is an attempted murder case.”
“Attempted murder?”
Kang Seung-hyeon pointed to the injured person Kim Ho-jung was carrying and said.
“I’ll give you a detailed explanation later, so please keep an eye on them.”
“I get it.”
The Masen branch manager took off the masks they were wearing. The bright red hair that was hidden under the mask was revealed.
“Was it a tracotti?”
“First of all, he’s the first person to see his face.”
“It could be dyeing or it could be disguise magic.”
“I will investigate the details. Take everyone.”
The Masen branch manager called his subordinates and put the masked group in jail.
“Keep close watch. It is an order from the branch manager.”
“yes!”
Kang Seung-hyun treated the injured while the union employees imprisoned and monitored the group of masked men.
“Is that friend a victim? Judging by his clothes, he must be from the town hall.”
“I’m in charge of your hall.”
“How are you?”
“The first aid was successful and fortunately his life was saved, but he would have died if it was a little too late.”
“If it wasn’t for you, it would have been in big trouble.”
Branch Manager Masen sighed deeply and said thanks.
The town hall does not have as much power as the adventurer’s guild, but as it is an institution representing Tracotti, if it is not properly maintained, the guild’s reputation will fall.
“How dare you attack our villagers…!”
Aside from that, the Masen branch manager was also from Tracotti, so he was genuinely angry about this incident.
“Thank you for catching them. Let the adventurer’s guild take care of it from now on.”
“you’re welcome.”
“yes. I would like to hear a detailed explanation of this matter, is that okay?”
“Hmm…”
Kang Seung-hyun was lost in thought for a moment.
To explain this incident, we cannot leave out the story of Wismel.
‘I don’t know if you believe it, but I’ll have to explain it first. Maybe the Masen branch manager knows something about Wismel.’
Kang Seung-hyun briefly explained what had happened earlier.
Not only about the group of masks, but also about Wismel.
“God of Tracotti, Wismel?”
“It’s hard to believe, but it’s all true.”
“…is it.”
Branch manager Masen agreed surprisingly easily.
Judging by his attitude, he seemed to know something that Kang Seung-hyun did not know.
“I’ve heard that there’s a strange atmosphere among the villagers these days.”
“A strange atmosphere?”
“Actually, it’s not something I would tell outsiders, but it would be okay if I told you. Even if it’s temporary, he’s the head of the Tracotti Adventurers’ Guild.”
Branch Manager Masen sighed deeply and continued talking with a hard face.
“At some point, among the Tracotti people, people who insisted on keeping away from Camar began to appear.”
“Should I stay away from Camar?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Tracotti has to stand on her own. We must escape from the shadow of Kamar. Camar will soon fall. We need to find a new breakthrough. He said something like this.”
At first, everyone didn’t care too much.
Camar is a prosperous metropolis, and Tracotti is a little town that depends on Camar for everything.
“I just treated it as nonsense and no one listened.”
Branch manager Masen touched his forehead with a confused face.
“But things have changed since the Mage Tower collapsed a few days ago.”
As the guys were talking about, when there really was a problem with Camar, rumors quickly spread that Camar would fall.
“already? How long has it been since the incident happened!”
“Rather than that, the Kamar situation was resolved neatly.”
Before Camar activated the closed barrier, the Adventurer’s Guild of each village spread the information that Camar was safe and prevented the invasion of monsters all over Pitsta Lake.
The Tracotti Adventurers Guild also heard the news and tried to reassure the residents.
“Uri, since we received the information about Kamar, we tried our best to explain it, but since most of the people in Trakoti depend on Kamar for their livelihood, we couldn’t stop the rumors.”
“…fear paralyzed reason.”
Some people were relieved to hear the words of the Adventurer’s Guild, but many did not believe them.
If you don’t, you might die of starvation overnight.
“Kamar is really in a state of ruin, and the adventurer’s guild is working with the high-ranking Kamar to hide it or something…
”
Some of the Adventurers Guild staff said with a blunt face. It seems that he received all sorts of curses while explaining to the residents.
“That happened while I was away from Tracotti…”
Rebecca muttered blankly.
She, too, was an adventurer outside of Tracotti, so she was unable to know what was going on inside the village.
“Until a few days ago, they were trash that were treated as nonsense, but now they are treated as prophets. It’s ridiculous.”
It wasn’t long after the Mage Tower collapsed, but
the number of people claiming the fall of Kamar had multiplied several times.
“Roughly speaking, 1/3 of the people who don’t care are 1/3 of the people who don’t believe, and 1/3 of the people who seriously believe in nonsense.”
“The problem is that the number of pranksters continues to grow.”
“If we leave it as it is, it will increase to half of the residents of Tracotti.”
As the number of people supporting them increased significantly, they began to make new claims.
“They claim that their identity is ‘an apostle sent down by God to prophesy the downfall of Camar and save Tracotti.’”
“An apostle?”
Now, the era of Camar is over.
In order for Tracotti to survive, they must establish a church and serve the gods, just like other regions.
The guys started to deceive the villagers by claiming this.
“I thought they were a group of terrible swindlers, but I really thought there was an old forgotten god in Tracotti.”
Branch manager Masen opened the old book with a stiff face.
In the old book, there was still a picture that seemed to worship something.
‘That’s why the atmosphere in the village was uncomfortable.’
Now, the people of Tracotti were divided into two: the faction that served the new god who would save Tracotti, and the faction that followed Kamar and the wizards as before.
Apparently, the strange atmosphere of Tracotti that Le Peni was talking about was referring to this situation.
“Then, the identity of the Masked Order is the Wismel Church.”
“That’s right, the apostles didn’t know the name of the god they worshiped.”
They always only called the existence they worshiped ‘God of Tracotti’.
I never once mentioned the name ‘Wizmel’.
“Is that really cool? The Masked Party must have known Wismel’s name.”
“Yes. He said he followed us after hearing us talking about Wismel.”
“When I first investigated the ones who were referred to as apostles, they were all commoners.”
Ordinary commoners of Tracotti who neither come from great families nor possess special abilities.
There is no way that such commoners would know information about an old god that disappeared hundreds of years ago.
“That means there is a force behind it.”
“i think so too.”
In other words, those who refer to apostles now are just scarecrows, and the real Wismel Church is separate.
“It seems that the adventurer’s guild expected a background investigation and put up a stand-in.”
“They’re meticulous.”
“And the masked group must have been sent by the real Church of Wismel.”
If you rob them, you will be able to find out the true identity of the Wismel Church.
“Damn it… I still have a lot of trouble with it. Are pseudo-religious organizations going wild now?”
Masen put on his arrogance and touched his forehead.
Kang Seung-hyun, who was watching this, opened his mouth.
“I see something else going on with this.”
“Actually, this isn’t something to talk about, but… you’ll be fine.”
After thinking for a while, Masen opened his mouth as if he had made up his mind.
“I’m still keeping it a secret from the villagers, but there are people missing in the Red Forest right now.”
“Isn’t the original red forest an area where outsiders wander?”
“As it was until now, the recent disappearances are not outsiders, but all Trakoti villagers.”
Surprisingly, there was an incident in which the villagers of Tracotti went missing in the Red Forest.
Aside from simply getting lost, you can’t find a trace.
“It is strange. Can’t the people of Tracotti ignore the curse of the Red Forest?”
“that’s right. So no more.”
Originally, Tracotti people have a unique constitution that prevents them from getting lost in the Red Forest and is not attacked by monsters.
However, the number of people suddenly disappearing without a trace or being attacked by monsters increased.
“Actually, our party was secretly searching for a missing person in the Red Forest at the request of Branch Manager Masen.”
“That’s why you were being chased by monsters yesterday.”
“I thought he was missing, so I approached him, but he turned out to be a rock man.”
The reason Rebecca visited Tracotti was because of Masen’s request.
He said that he had to go on a mission secretly, so he invited him through his personal connections.
“I’ll have to investigate the details, but for now, I’m assuming that the forest is in trouble because of the magic leaked from Camar.”
“Tracotti is uncomfortable living, too.”
Pseudo-religion is rampant in the village, and disappearance cases occur outside the village.
In many ways, there is no mess.
“So be careful too. The Red Forest is not normal right now.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
“Shall we go back to our room for now?”
It was the moment Kang Seung-hyun and his party were about to leave after the conversation.
“Chief Masen! Kang Seung-hyun, branch manager!”
An Adventurers Guild employee came running with a very urgent face.
“I ran into a problem while interrogating them!”
“what?”
