REAPER SCANS
Necromancer Academy's Genius Summoner
[Translator - Ramen]
[Proofreader - Artethrax]
Chapter 283
"Pant! Pant!"
In a dark, abandoned house.
A man in his twenties, his skin covered in old scars and fresh tattoos, was tied to a chair.
The wad of cloth that had been pushed into his mouth was preventing him from speaking, but he was kicking the floor in a frenzy, glaring at his captor.
Meilyn stood in front of him with her arms crossed.
She was trying to outlast the man by keeping her eyes closed and ignoring him, but she couldn't hold it anymore and ended up yelling,
"Ah, you're so noisy! Just stay still!!"
Despite her effort to silence him, the man's struggle only intensified.
"Over here!"
Just as the mood was about to turn ugly, Camibarez brought in Simon. Meilyn turned around and said,
"You're here?"
"What happened? Who's he?"
At Simon's question, Meilyn began explaining.
She had been walking around the village, asking people about Sasha—the candidate for the Saintess. Most of the villagers had ignored her outright, either telling her they didn't know or just walking away from her, but one person…
"What? Why are you looking for her? Who are you?"
There was a man who acted with caution the moment she asked.
When Meilyn didn't respond, the man drew a dagger from his pocket and jumped her.
He must've thought he could easily subdue her, judging from her looks, but within seconds he was knocked out cold and was soon tied to the chair for questioning.
'Could he be related to the people who took Sasha?'
It seemed that Meilyn really made some progress. Simon approached the man with a satisfied grin.
"B-Be careful, Simon!"
"Don't worry."
Then, he untied the cloth that muzzled the man's mouth.
"You %$@&@!!!"
Profanities streamed from the man's mouth.
"How dare you, you stupid kids! Do you know who I am? I'm going to suck your eyes ou—!!"
"Who are you, then?"
Asked Simon.
He asked so brazenly and so casually that the man stopped screaming immediately and almost answered without realizing it.
"Like hell I'd tell you!"
Simon stared at the man, then looked back.
Villagers were stopping to take a look, wondering what was going on.
"Excuse me."
Simon left the man and walked quickly toward the villagers.
The onlooking villagers flinched and walked away with their heads down. However, Simon caught up with a group of them in an instant.
"Do you know that person?"
Asked Simon as he walked alongside them, but they didn't respond.
Simon quickly changed his question.
"We're looking for a girl named Sasha. If you know anything, even a little detail about her—"
"Sasha?"
One villager's face stiffened.
"Who cares if a monster like her disappears or not."
'Monster'.
It was a very frank description.
Simon stored away that bit of insight into how Sasha was viewed, then asked,
"Do you not know why Sasha disappeared?"
"Ugh, why do you keep bothering us? Who are you?!"
So they're turning the question back on us…
It would be problematic to have rumors spread around that Kizen was here. Above all, this is a neutral area, so it's beyond Kizen's influence. They had no authority to investigate anything here.
[Kuhehe! You seem to be in trouble, boy.]
'In times like these, I just have to use the tricks for grown-ups I learned from Rick.'
[Tricks for grown-ups?]
Simon searched his pocket.
"Oh, I didn't know I had this in my pocket."
Then, he opened his palm and showed them the gold coin.
The villagers immediately reacted to the trick. Simon smiled inwardly as he watched their eyes fill with greed.
He was lucky that the Dark Territory's currency—silver and gold coins—were accepted in the neutral zone.
"Please tell me about that man."
Simon pulled out another gold coin. Then, an old man looked around before whispering,
"Don't tell anyone I told you. He's a member of a gang. A pretty big one around here."
"Aha. What gang?"
Another man joined in, also whispering.
"They're called the Sentinels. They're big enough to have necromancers with awakened cores fighting under them. Our village is also part of their territory."
Simon placed another coin on top of the two other coins.
"May I assume that this gang called the 'Sentinels' took Sasha? I'm not asking for a lot. Please just nod if that is right."
The man nodded with extreme caution.
Simon gladly paid the two men 3 gold, and returned to where Meilyn was keeping the captive.
"How was it?"
Asked Meilyn. Perhaps the man said something funny again, because Meilyn was pulling him up by the collar.
"I don't know. They didn't tell me till the end."
The gang member chuckled.
"Of course! This territory belongs to us, so the villagers are on our side as well! Now, if you got that—"
"Huh, did you just say this territory belongs to you people?"
Simon nonchalantly commented,
"To think you'd reveal it yourself… There are several gangs in this area, but everyone knows that the Sentinels has this neighborhood under tight watch."
The man's face stiffened.
"Now then, can you tell us why the Sentinels took Sasha and where they took her to?"
"I don't know!"
"You little piece of shit! Tell us right now!"
Unable to bear it anymore, Meilyn interrupted, and the two began to fight again.
Simon secretly took a step back and looked back.
He could see Rick coming toward them. Simon held an open palm behind his back to tell Rick to stop, then signaled to him with his eyes.
The two of them had been together for most of their time in Kizen, so Rick immediately caught Simon's message and disappeared with a thumbs up.
And after a while…
"Hoho, sorry I'm late."
* * *
Reaper Scans
Translator - Ramen
Proofreader - Artethrax
Join our discord for updates on releases!
* * *
Rick had reappeared, looking decades older and wearing a weird piece of a straw mat as a tattered cape.
'…He looks like an actual old man.'
Rick was wearing a biological face filled with only wrinkles. It showed his real face, but he still looked completely different.
The straw mat he wore and the skulls strapped to his waist only added to that. He looked far from the smart and trendy elite necromancer of today.
He looked like a very traditional necromancer.
"Who is this old m-m-m-m—!"
Rick abruptly stepped forward, gripping the man's eyelid and forcibly opening and closing it.
Overwhelmed, the man stuttered to a halt.
"What was it you needed me for, again?"
At Rick's question, Simon took the cue and chimed in,
"He just won't spill a single drop of information."
"I can't believe you brought a torturer! But it's no use! No matter what torture I face—!"
"Silence!"
Shouted Rick.
"You insult me. A torturer? No, my child, I am a necromancer. You will be wishing I was a mere 'torturer' by the end of this."
Imitating an old-man voice, Rick picked up a pair of scissors.
Clack clack!
Without hesitation, he cut off the man's fringe. The man's face paled further and further with each chop.
Rick then pulled a blood potion from his subspace, dipped his fingertips in it, and began to spread it across the man's forehead.
"Do you like it?"
Said Rick, pointing to the window.
The gang member looked at his reflection in the window and saw a dotted line of blood on his forehead.
It was a mark.
The man visibly trembled in fear.
However, Rick took it no notice.
"You can never be assured that the information given by a tortured human's mouth is truthful. The best way is…"
Rick pulled a surgical knife from a case and held it in his hand.
"…to crack open the head, take out the brain, and examine the information directly."
"!!"
Rick was really acting like a true necromancer, to the point that not only the gang member but also Meilyn and Camibarez were stunned.
Rick pulled out a long, sharp needle and began to stab it into the man's forehead. The man began to cry out in genuine fear and scream as the needle stuck more than halfway into his head.
"H-Hey, you crazy bastards! You think you guys will get away with this in the neutral area?"
"Don't worry. After I take your brain out, I shall feed your body to the wild dogs."
Rick held the surgical knife to the man's forehead. Blood dribbled down, getting into the victim's eyes and turning his vision red.
Eventually, unable to overcome the primal fear, the man screamed,
"I'll speak! I'll speak!!"
However, Rick didn't stop working with his surgical knife and cut down through the skin.
"Please! I'll tell you anything I know! Please, stop this madman!!"
Finally, Simon grabbed Rick's hand and said,
"Let's hear what he has to say first, then decide whether to continue afterward."
In the end, the gang member ended up spilling all he knew.
Apparently, the Sentinels had gotten a high-value mission to kidnap Sasha and bring her to a set location.
He didn't know who the client was, being only a low-rank member, but he said that the client knew that Sasha lives in this town, what her home address is, and that this village is under the Sentinels' influence.
He said that the destination is the 'Halldun mountain range'.
"I guess we don't have to crack his skull open."
Said Simon, stretching his back.
"You'd better keep quiet about us. Well, if the gang found out you gave away the group's information, they'd probably kill you first."
The gang member nodded with a face full of snot and tears.
And so, the four of them left the building. Rick took off the biological face and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Wahaha! Wasn't my acting great?"
Simon lightly flicked Rick on the forehead for a job well done.
On the other hand, Meilyn and Camibarez stayed some distance away from Rick.
"Hey, commoner? Don't talk to me today. You're freaking me out."
"…Rick, you're scary."
"Hey now, it was an act! An act!"
Said Rick, shoving his straw mat into the subspace.
Just then, Seiwirr appeared in front of the four of them as if falling from the sky.
"H-How did it go?!"
His voice was filled with urgency and impatience.
"What happened to the priest?"
Simon asked first.
"They all scattered and ran as I threatened them. I don't think they had Sasha with them."
"Exactly! Agent Seiwirr!"
Rick butted in,
"I was skeptical at first when you told us not to go after the priests but to investigate the residents. But then, just like what you said, a gang had kidnapped her, not the priests! You anticipated this, didn't you, agent?"
Seiwirr took a second to process what had been said, but then flashed his confident smile and flicked back his bangs.
"Of course! I suspected so from the beginning."
"As expected!!"
Simon just scoffed while the two kept on buttering each other up.
'Well, I bet those priests must've been fake.'
After all, the traces of divinity explosions and the shattered floors were all gone.
"Okay! So we just have to go after the gang that took Sasha. What should we do?"
Meilyn looked confused at Seiwirr's words.
"Shouldn't you be the one to instruct us on that, Agent?"
"Ha…! Haha! G-Giving the answer right away isn't the right way to educate, you see. Now, please put your heads together and figure out how we should act!"
He was smiling, but the corners of his mouth were twitching. It felt like he was saying, 'Come on, you guys. Figure something out!'
Simon gave a small sigh and said,
"We acquired a map from the gang member we captured earlier."
He unfolded the map and pointed to a part.
"The gang wouldn't have the capital or skill to prepare a teleportation magic circle. They probably took a carriage to climb up the mountains. Their destination is the Halldun mountain range, and we heard that the area has no other notable landmarks. The gang and their client would trade Sasha here, and that 'client' is probably—"
"…from Efnel, right?"
Simon nodded at Meilyn's addition.
With their information strength, they were likely aware that Kizen was already on the move. This was probably why they moved the mercenaries to secure Sasha first and then trade for her in the Halldun mountain range.
"The best option is for us to go to the Halldun mountain range with the support of a teleportation magic circle, defeat the gang, and rescue Sasha."
Simon left it at that and stared at Seiwirr's face.
Seiwirr quickly waved his hand.
"Like I said a while ago, teleportation isn't a good plan. The coordinates might be revealed to Efnel, and…"
Seiwirr tried his best to make excuses, but he probably didn't have the authority to set up a teleport. Even if he did, a teleportation magic circle would be too much, even in Vengeance.
In the Dark Territory, it was only possible for Kizen, the Ivory Tower, and giant corporations like Vanilla, who all have literal tons of money.
"…"
Doubt also flickered in Meilyn and Camibarez' eyes as they looked at Seiwirr, potentially also catching on at this point.
"Then, a different method."
Feigning ignorance, Simon pointed to a river on the map.
"Let's go up this river and cut them off in the middle. The gang probably hasn't gotten up the mountain yet."
"Go up the river? Wh-Where do we get the boat…"
Simon looked at Rick. Rick raised the corners of his mouth and smirked.
"Looks like I'll have to check the boat's mana engine!"
——
Join our discord for updates on releases!