Chapter 166. Undercover (2)
‘Javiel?’
Lloyd almost stabbed his own eyeball with the finger he was rubbing around his eye.
It had to be.
Because it was so crazy.
‘what? You say you don’t like it because you’re not proud of someone’s back? Are you feeling skeptical because it doesn’t seem to fit your duties?’
It reminded me of an incident a few days ago around midnight.
The guy who came back to the dorm under the faint moonlight.
He had a face full of embarrassment and skepticism.
They said they rebelled against this side’s order to investigate Cannavaro behind the scenes.
I calmed him down and sent him back.
After that, I thought there was no news for a few days.
‘…Did you actually enjoy it?’
plain dress.
A silver wig with flowing straight hair.
Seeing the lightly powdered Xaviel there, a sigh and admiration flowed out at the same time.
It was so sweet.
Because the original version is a handsome guy.
Even his impression is pretty and he is a bright guy.
Just wearing a bit of makeup like that gave off the feeling of a classy beauty.
‘Besides being skinny. The inside is full of muscles, but there is no flab, so I look very slim when I put on clothes. It’s a bit of a burden to be tall, though. Still, to the people here, I feel like a complete supermodel.’
In any case, it seemed to be thanks to that (?).
Xaviel’s popularity at the distribution center seemed to skyrocket.
It was to the point where I felt as if I was at the concert hall of Kwice, the world’s strongest female idol, or at a fan signing event.
It was then.
“hey? Show me.”
Someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind.
I turned around and saw a man who looked like a refugee giving me a perverse look.
“If you’re standing in line, let’s move quickly. Why are people so slow?”
“ah?”
“I’m going to go away and not be blank?”
“What?”
The man pushed his back with his whole body.
No, it wasn’t just him.
Dozens of people lined up behind him all put their weight on and moved forward.
It was a familiar feeling that was somehow not unfamiliar.
‘This is subway line 2 during rush hour in the morning?’
Sindorim Station came to mind.
Sindorim Station during rush hour.
It was no ordinary train station.
It was a melting pot and a battlefield where all kinds of human groups were pushing each other.
It was also a mysterious space where things happened every day where I could move only with the pressure of the people around me, even if I didn’t have to move.
But it was just like that now.
Lloyd broke through the crowd to check on Xaviel. Suddenly, he was swept away by the crowds of people lined up at the distribution center.
I tried to get out, but it was too late.
I had to stand in line together in the middle of the day.
Oh Sun-do-soon experienced forced bubi-bubi.
In the meantime, I was forced to come.
In front of Xaviel, who is revered as the goddess (?) of the distribution center.
“….”
“….”
Xaviel blinked as he looked this way.
This side gave him a half-rotten smile.
A moment of silence like that.
The guy said it as if he was making excuses.
“Give me the bowl.”
“ah.”
I picked up a wooden bowl.
I leaned towards the guy.
A question came out of my mouth without my knowledge.
“Excuse me, but what is the lady’s name?”
“ah…I am Ella.”
“Are you Ella?”
“yes. ‘L’ when saying Ella, and ‘La’ when saying Ella.”
“….”
Seeing that he gave an uncharacteristically stupid answer, he seemed to be just as puzzled inside as this one.
‘boy.’
It must have infiltrated the distribution center like this in order to make the background investigation ordered by this side more clear.
Lloyd backed away at that point to avoid embarrassing Xaviel.
“Thank you Miss Ella. Enough then.’
got the soup
After one-shotting it, I managed to get out of the line.
I barely managed to catch my breath when Count Namaran’s administrator approached me.
“Heh, Prince Frontera, I haven’t seen you like that, have you?”
“yes?”
Lloyd tilted his head.
What are you talking about, this man?
Besides, why are you running around like that?
As if the administrator was pretending not to know something, he sent a frowning smile.
“When I told you about that beauty earlier, you said you weren’t very interested. But I didn’t know that you would be more active than me after seeing you.”
“….”
“How was it to talk to you in person? What about your voice? How do you talk?”
“That’s true. If you’re curious, go and check it out for yourself. Let’s work or work. Hmmmm!”
Lloyd swallowed a cough, feigning resentment.
My mouth itched.
You all are being fooled.
If you get to know that Elaine or Allie lady, it’s a man you won’t find anywhere to be kind. Besides, even his sleeping habits are so nasty that he’s a eunuch who can’t even close his eyes without a lullaby.
I thought I wanted to talk to everyone in the neighborhood.
It was because I felt sorry for the people who didn’t know his true identity and reacted as if he had a love affair.
But he zipped up his lips for a cause.
‘For now, Xaviel is undercover.’
He’s not the kind of guy who would do something like that for a joke.
He must have a reason for doing that.
It must have smelled something certain, so he was trying to infiltrate by doing something like that.
‘Let’s believe for now.’
Let him do what he does for the time being.
Thinking so, Lloyd hurried his steps.
As much as Xaviel was working hard to carry out this side’s orders, I thought that this side should also do their part.
So, guided by the magistrate, I went to the smithy.
A forge was commissioned to make an anchor.
At first, it was the blacksmith who tilted his head.
It was only natural that the anchor itself was unfamiliar.
However, when he handed over the blueprint he had drawn in advance and explained it in detail, he finally nodded as if he understood.
‘thank god. He’s the most trustworthy blacksmith in the city. It’s nothing compared to the terrifying skills of the elder Cogidus, but I can entrust him with being an anchor.’
Thanks for alleviating one concern.
Lloyd then went out of the castle alone.
I walked along the slope of the cliff around the castle wall.
Use surveying skill.
Activated the skill option ‘Underground Scanning’.
‘From now on, I have to drive in stakes and anchors here and there, so let’s take a closer look.’
How to actually drive a stake.
How to set the angle and depth of the anchor.
I actually looked closely at the place to be built.
‘Hmm, it would be advantageous to insert a compulsive stake in the flat spot that forms the highway to increase overall structural stability and install an anchor on the slope to catch the flow. It should be done repeatedly from the top of the castle wall to the bottom of the cliff.’
With that in mind, I meticulously collected the data of the actual topography.
Information on bedrock was also thoroughly grasped.
But it was in the middle of that.
‘hmm?’
While examining the ground with underground scanning, a strange object was detected.
‘What is that?’
The depth is about 50 cm from the surface.
At first I thought it was just an ordinary boulder.
but it wasn’t
The top is pure white and round.
The underside is angular and bumpy.
that’s right….
‘Is it a skull? Why is something like that over there?’
Lloyd frowned.
Literally, the whole human skull was buried in the ground.
However, no matter how you look at it, it was not a place to make a tomb.
Besides, only the skull is lumpy.
The bones on the body side were not even visible nearby.
‘Are the heads of the executed only buried here?’
Lloyd shrugged.
What about a big city?
It’s a place with a lot of history.
For a long time, all sorts of things must have happened.
No wonder it was buried around a single skull of an executed person. Thinking so, Lloyd passed the ownerless skull that he could detect in the ground.
I stayed focused on what I was doing.
Activate surveying skill.
Concentrating on underground scanning.
I moved my steps while grasping the construction site.
But how long did it take?
Another skull was detected in his subterranean scan.
‘What is that?’
A wrinkle formed between Lloyd’s brows.
It was very similar to before.
The depth is about 50 cm from the ground surface.
There was no torso, only the skull was buried in the ground.
He tilted his head again and passed the spot.
‘I’m embarrassed for nothing. Or is your luck special today? If it was Korea, this would be today’s lottery ticket.’
I unknowingly feed on the thought that comes to my mind.
He let go of the awkward feeling.
He was immersed in his work again.
But after 10 minutes.
He could no longer chuckle and laugh.
‘what. Are you there again?’
The skull was visible again.
50 cm deep from the same surface as before.
Besides, looking closely, the skull was buried upright in the ground, facing the city, just like the previous two times.
“….”
He looked back with hard eyes.
I checked the spot where the first and second skulls were found in the distance.
Then, he checked the distance from where he was now with his surveying skill.
Surprisingly, the spacing between the three points was exactly the same.
‘Does this look like something?’
Just the skull of an executed man buried haphazardly?
I thought it would never be.
Three skulls were buried to the same depth and orientation.
Moreover, the spacing between the buried points was nearly identical.
As for how similar they were, the error was only about 10 cm.
‘At this level, it’s almost as if you decided on a place and buried it while going to bed. So, this isn’t just an accidental burial. There must be something in this.’
Before he knew it, Lloyd was rummaging through his backpack.
He took out a folding hand shovel.
I dug hard at the place where the skull was buried.
Soon after, he was able to excavate the skull.
But the moment you reach out to get the skull out of the pit.
Parts Zuck!
“…Awesome!”
A pain like an electric shock hit his fingertips.
Lloyd hurriedly shrunk his hands and examined the skull.
‘Magic?’
I didn’t feel it when I was buried in the ground.
I felt it when I dug it up and saw it.
It was seen through an astounding simbeop.
High-density mana was gathered.
It was an extremely gloomy, dark, evil kind of mana.
It was from the moment I noticed it.
‘wait for a sec. I hope this….’
Lloyd’s brain started spinning.
Skulls buried at regular intervals.
Dark mana condensed in that skull.
I was scratching my head based on that.
inference and reasoning.
guesses and predictions.
facts and opinions.
reality and falsehood.
Clearly sorted, classified, and put together.
Predictions and inferences were made based on the evidence and phenomena revealed in front of the eyes.
At the end of the matched puzzle, the conclusion was carefully revealed.
‘Namaran’s barrier. It was made with this.’
I got goosebumps at the end of the realization.
Suddenly, I remembered the episode of Namaran’s Barrier in the novel Iron Blooded Knight.
In the novel, Xaviel faced hardships and setbacks in front of the barrier.
He overcame that and achieved dramatic growth.
Most of the focus of the story was focused on the process of breaking down the barriers of Namaran and achieving heroic achievements.
Thanks to this, the detailed principle of the barrier was not revealed.
‘That was it. A skull containing black magic. By burying it around the city.’
He looked at the skull with new eyes.
thought at the same time.
What if I could scatter the condensed mana here?
Then the black magic might disappear.
That we can stop the building of the Namaran Wall.
‘Shall we try it?’
He examined the amount of mana condensed in his skull.
And he checked his ashamed mind.
‘Triple Circle Level 2.’
How about using all of these?
Can I dismantle that condensed mana?
Calmly and objectively measured the angle.
‘It’s possible.’
The answer came.
Then there is no reason to hesitate.
Kiyiing!
There were no eyes around at the time.
He stretched out his hand, activating a shimmering simbeop.
Demonstrated maximum mana absorption ability.
The moment your fingertips touch the crown of your skull.
‘Suck.’
Extremely gloomy mana rushed through his fingertips like a tidal wave.
‘You can’t eat this. I have an upset stomach.’
The three-pronged circle was rotated to its maximum.
I sent the gloomy mana that came into my body to the other hand. like unwinding a ball of thread. meticulously. discharged blown away into the air. like smoke. Step by step. Surely.
how long was that
By the time a few minutes had passed.
“…Whoa!”
Lloyd let out a deep breath.
His face was slightly pale.
But a proud smile crept across his lips.
‘I did it.’
Is this how the bomb squad feels?
Fortunately, the three circles held up well against the mana absorption and dissolution discharge.
The gloomy mana condensed in the skull in the pit completely disappeared.
He took the skull out of the pit.
It was for a look.
But that was then.
Dalgrak.
Something sounded from inside the skull.
The sound of something small and hard rolling around.
“uh?”
Lloyd’s eyes widened as he examined the inside of the skull.
“jewel?”
A gem as black as obsidian lay inside the skull.
About the size of a thumb nail.
Even at a glance, it was smooth and shiny.
In short, it was a very expensive jewel.
‘for a moment. So this skull was the packaging box that contained this jewel. Condensed mana was stored in jewels. Anyway, since I dismantled Mana, this jewel also became common….’
From now on, this jewel belongs to me.
Seed profit.
A smile of capitalistic greed formed on the corners of Lloyd’s mouth. His heart naturally beat to the 16-beat Jajinmori rhythm.
It was from then.
‘Start the treasure hunt.’
Lloyd started running up the cliff slopes around Namaran until his soles were sweaty.
Like a puppy panting for a bone.
It’s like skipping the meat in the curry without Mom’s knowledge.
I searched the underground until my eyes were red.
That’s how you stop the evil plans of the black magicians.
Feed the enemy a giant candy.
At the same time, I packed a lot of expensive jewelry.
To fill my wallet richly and breadth.
It was a long drive of desire willing to venture in the name of justice.
