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IBHJ Chapter 727
🕑 Added 2024-02-26 03:59:30 +0000 UTCShirou saw Sigurd hand the child Vali over to a family in the village temporarily. He quickly walked over, smiling.
"You've really become that kid's father."
"Don't speak nonsense," Sigurd replied sternly. "A massacre is about to happen. I don't want him seeing that..."
Shirou smiled wryly. "You sure don't seem like an Alter."
"Neither do you," Sigurd said evenly.
"Speaking of which, did your era have eyeglasses?" Shirou asked, glancing at Sigurd's frames.
"Of course. Where else would these come from? Don't underestimate the Age of Gods too much. Although the systems differed, we had more advanced technology in some ways than you have now..." Sigurd trailed off, as if recalling something unpleasant.
"Why'd you stop?" Shirou asked, puzzled. "I'm pretty interested in those times, actually."
Sigurd shook his head. "The Age of Gods is long over. There's nothing more to say."
At that moment, A-46 walked out of the chief's house. Having confirmed Chaldea's location, she had no reason to linger in the run-down village.
She gathered Shirou and Sigurd and led them out of the village, heading for Chaldea's base. The chief saw them off at the entrance, urging them again and again to stay and accept his hospitality. But A-46 was intent on completing Hel's mission as swiftly as possible, so she naturally wouldn't stay.
The chief could only give them several bushels of blue fruits as a parting gift. But the emotionless A-46 clearly didn't understand human courtesy and directly refused.
Shirou, on the other hand, stuffed some of the fruits into his pocket - not to eat, since these were divine products of Skadi's that would likely put him into another deep, strange sleep. But there was a big eater on their team who would need the extra rations.
After leaving the village behind, Shirou's group rejoined his army. From afar, he saw Salter and the soldiers gathered, listening to boastful stories.
Led by A-46, they walked towards Chaldea's base. The village chief had said it was in a cave inside a snow-capped mountain near the city wall that never melted throughout the year. When they got to the mountain, they headed into the cave the chief had told them about.
From the outside it looked like any old snowy peak, but who would have thought there was a whole world inside! They squeezed into the snow cave and came out in a huge workshop, with winding paths and tunnels going every which way - like a labyrinth. And despite being inside a snowy mountain, it wasn't cold at all thanks to geothermal heating. The strange thing was, they saw many alchemical objects everywhere, but didn't see a single person.
"Friends from Chaldea!" A-46 called out, her voice echoing through the interior of the workshop. "Please, come out and see us!"
She shouted for a long while, but there was no reply. It was as if there were no people at all in this workshop. But that couldn't be - without people, how could there be a workshop inside the peak, filled with alchemical objects? Seeing A-46's expression, Shirou signaled to his soldiers to search the area.
Sigurd's expression remained impassive. To him this was merely another mission, another target to eliminate.
Shirou also searched around the room. It seemed clear that some of the Chaldea members who had come through this Connection Point were female, though he was uncertain of the exact number. He could tell there had been women here because he had stumbled into some delicate, lacy female undergarments! Ah, what bad luck to walk straight into the ladies' changing area.
The revealing nature of the underwear also hinted that at least one of those ladies had been rather adventurous. Most of it was black, quite sexy and lacey... Shirou felt he should leave; this was more than his eyes could handle. That was only natural - he was no deviant panty-fetish pervert.
Just then, Salter frowned slightly. Noticing this, he couldn't resist asking: "What's wrong?"
"The layout and design of this workshop seem familiar somehow," she remarked.
He studied their surroundings more closely. He too was suddenly struck by an overwhelming sense of familiarity, as if he had been here before. Could the Chaldea members they were pursuing actually be acquaintances?
Just then, agonized screams erupted from some of the soldiers outside.
Shirou and Salter exchanged a brief glance before rushing over to the source of the screams. A group of soldiers had already gathered around the spot. As he approached, Shirou demanded: "What happened here?"
In response, one of the men held up a corpse emitting spiritual particle light. The soldier was undoubtedly dead - his head brutally torn from his body by savage bite marks.
"It's the work of magical beasts!" one of the soldiers concluded angrily. As experts on such creatures, the King's men could recognize the attack pattern instantly.
"Ah-!!"
Then, more agonized wails erupted from another room.
He frowned and just as after walking out of this room, Shirou discovered that all the people beside him had suddenly disappeared. He found himself standing in the same changing room he had entered before.
Looking at those frilly black panties, he rubbed his temples with a groan. "Spatial displacement, huh?"
It seemed one of the magi in the workshop was highly skilled in spatial manipulation magecraft. Shirou looked around with a frown. This room was in the complete opposite direction from the changing room, yet he had still ended up here. Clearly there was some kind of magecraft distorting the space.
Shirou sighed again. Breaking through this spatial displacement would require mastery of advanced magical theory - theory he simply didn't have. And since he lacked that level of knowledge, he took out Rhongomyniad and with a loud "boom"—
Blew open the wall and walked through. No matter how the walls were changed, as long as he smashed through each obstruction in his path, he could keep walking forward.
Shirou arrived at the scene of the second scream - a headless male corpse lay on the ground. Many soldiers had gathered around the gruesome sight. Additionally, A-46 and Salter were there investigating.
"My king, his head was eaten by a magical beast!" one soldier cried out angrily, face full of grief. The other soldiers also showed signs of sorrow at losing their comrade, but this one soldier alone shed tears.
"How could a magical beast get into this workshop?" A-46 asked, puzzled by the strange occurrence.
"Instead of questioning my soldiers, you should question your own foolishness, Valkyrie," Shirou said sharply. "Isn't it obvious what's going on here? I'm afraid that village chief who told you about this location—no, that entire village—is in league with Chaldea. You've been deceived by everyone."
He sneered, "Chaldea's people are probably watching this whole farce right now, laughing at how stupid you are. If you don't believe me, then use your Valkyrie Network to scan this workshop. See if you can..."
Hearing this, A-46 did as he suggested. She stretched out her finger and pressed it to her temple, accessing the Valkyrie Network to scan their surroundings. But the result—
"Unable to identify. Unable to identify current architecture. Unable to identify internal thaumaturgical systems..." A-46 reported tonelessly, like a robot.
Without a doubt, what he said was right - from the very start, this workshop had been a trap laid by Chaldea!
It was clear that the moment they entered that village, they had already fallen into Chaldea's trap. That village chief and all the villagers must surely be working with Chaldea!
...
Meanwhile in Village 6, after sending off Shirou's group, the village chief patrolled around the village a few times before sneaking back to his own house. He stealthily returned to his bedroom, squatted down halfway, and lifted open the third floorboard under his bed, revealing a hidden staircase leading down into the basement.
The chief climbed down into the dank, moldy-smelling darkness. An oil lamp burned on a table, barely illuminating the underground room. Seated at the table was a woman. The chief came to stand before her respectfully.
"Madam Envoy," he reported, "Hel's lackeys have entered the trap."
Comments
JeanMartin Freites
Well, this is not good.
