Chapter 75.1: High-Rank Ghoul
Chapter 75.1: High-Rank Ghoul
◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki
Reiji, Nao, Rino, Decius and I finally arrived at the entrance of Cornes’ mansion.
Upon approaching the gate, two gatekeepers stopped us in our tracks.
They might be Cornes’ private army. They’re armed to a T.
And then, the soldiers finally noticed our identity.
「Who are you people?!! State your business?!!」
The tall and burly soldier asked while glaring at us.
「I’m someone who serves Oudith-sama, Decius, the son of Senator Nacius. Please tell lord Cornes about our arrival.」
Decius introduced himself with impeccable manners. It seems the soldiers had no idea about what to do seeing that the other party was directly related with the senate too.
The gatekeepers then whispered to each other.
「Understood. Please wait for a while.」
One of the gatekeepers went inside.
「It seems your guess is right on the money, Chiyuki.」
Reiji told me so while looking at me.
It seems Reiji has noticed it too.
「Come to think of it, what is the name of that animal? Why did I feel like I’ve seen one on tv a long time ago?」
「It’s a hyena you know, Rino-chan.」
「Yeah. That’s right, Nao-chan. It’s hyena-san.」
Rino and Nao noticed too.
「What are you talking about?」
Decius was the only one amongst us who had yet to notice it.
A while later, the gatekeeper returned. He brought a maid-like woman along with him.
「Please follow me, I’ll guide you inside to meet the Master.」
The girl bowed to us as she spoke.
We followed her from behind.
Upon entering the parlor room, we saw a middle aged man had already been waiting for us inside.
「If it isn’t lord Decius. Is something the matter? What brings you to visit me in person?」
The middle aged man was looking at Decius and us.
It seems this man was the one called Cornes. As expected, whether it was Cornes, the gatekeepers, or the maid, they were the same. It seems that Cornes had no idea about us since he didn’t come to the banquet.
「Thank you very much for giving us the chance to meet face to face like this. That person is the hero, Reiji-dono and the ones accompanying him are Chiyuki-dono, Rino-dono, and lastly, Nao-dono. Cornes-dono, the reason for our visit is because we have some questions that you have to answer no matter what.」
Decius greeted Cornes with his usual impeccable manner.
But, aside from Decius, the rest of us didn’t do anything. Reason being we simply didn’t feel the need to do so.
Cornes seems to be extremely surprised upon hearing Reiji’s introduction. It seems he didn’t expect us to come.
But then, he seemed to pull himself together and urged us to take a seat.
We took a seat in the prepared chairs.
「So, may I ask what kind of questions you have for me, Hero of Light-dono and Decius-dono?」
Cornes, who sat in front of us, asked.
「The truth is that we’re looking for a certain person.」
「A certain person? I see, may I ask who you are looking for?」
「We don’t know that person’s name. The only thing we know is the fact that the person is an extremely beautiful, silver-haired girl. We call her the Moonlight Goddess.」
Cornes’ eyebrows twitched upon hearing Decius’ remark. From his reaction, it seems he knew who we were looking for.
「You’re looking for a silver-haired woman?」
「Yes, Cornes-dono. It seems she is related to the Karkinos’ attack that happened at the previous banquet. Do you know something about her?」
Cornes made a pondering face upon hearing that question. It seems he was having a hard time answering that question.
「Hah? What incident? I don’t know what are you talking about?」
And then, he seemed to feign his ignorance.
「He’s lying.」
「Cornes-dono, you just lied to me.」
Rino and Decius declared so. Both of them could detect lies.
「Lying? Lying about what? I’ve no idea about the woman you’re looking for nor is she in this mansion. If you’re asking for me to allow you to investigate my mansion, I refuse.」
Cornes spoke with a grin.
It seems he was under the impression that we wouldn’t investigate him just because he was a member of the senate.
「Chiyuki, is it okay to do THAT now?」
Reiji was looking at me as he asked such a question as if he was telling me that he had seen enough of this farce.
「Yeah, Reiji-kun. Will you answer one last question for me then, Senator Cornes? When did you come to this country?」
Decius was looking at me with a puzzled look on his face upon hearing my question.
The same went for Cornes.
「Since when did you say? Since the birth of this country, of course.」
The moment Cornes spoke, Decius rose from his chair.
Decius finally noticed too.
「Cornes-dono!! Don’t tell me, you’re?!!」
The moment Cornes saw Decius’ reaction, he made a face as if he just made the biggest blunder of his life.
Cornes’ household has always been the member of the senate for generations. That’s why it was correct to say that his household has always been in Ariadya since its dawn.
But, the old man who took the form of Cornes before us should be a different person, not the real Cornes.
「Will you stop pretending and show your true face? To be honest, we saw through your disguise the moment we meet you.」
Cornes rose up from his chair upon hearing my remark. And then, his face started to change.
Becoming a hyena-like face.
「GUUUUUUUUHHH YOU SAW THROUGH ME HUUUUUUUUUUUUH!!!」
Cornes whose disguise got exposed by us bared his fangs toward us.
「How about you let the other guys come out from their hiding place too? We’ve long since detected their presence.」
Upon hearing Nao speak with a jesting tone, the people who surrounded us while hiding their figures finally showed themselves.
They had the same hyena head like Cornes. Every single one wielded a weapon in their hand, baring their hostility toward us.
「W-W-W WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HAPPENING HERE, CHIYUKI-DONO?!!」
After seeing Cornes’ “transformation” and then seeing us getting surrounded by bunches of monsters, Decius finally snapped.
「A ghoul, huh. This is the first time I’ve seen your kind.」
I spoke lightly while looking at the people who were surrounding us.
Ghouls were a type of monster who lived in the desert and had the ability to change their skin color and appearance. I heard that they had hyena-like faces and ate any meat other than their kindred.
They were also called with other nicknames such as corpse eating demon for their liking to eat rotten corpses, and their female counterpart was called a ghoula.
In addition, their special trait was their extremely powerful ability to disguise themself as someone.
They used that ability to disguise themselves as another race and ate those races in secret.
In the ghoula case, they would disguise themself as beautiful women and eat the men who got charmed by their beauty.
But, the other race, who drink the breast milk of ghoula, seems to be able to befriend the ghouls.
What surprised me the most was the fact that the same ghouls had already infiltrated the Republic of Ariadya which is said to be the capital of humanity.
Decius couldn’t hide his shock upon this finding. Because the member of the senate who governed this country turned out to be a ghoul.
「Well then, time to clean up these guys.」
Reiji stood up calmly as he drew his sword.
The sword blade shone a brilliant golden colour once it was unsheathed.
Naturally, Rino, Nao and I were also preparing for the battle.
「Decius-dono, normally one must need a majority vote to punish a member of the senate, but what about in this situation?」
I turned toward Decius while asking such a question.
「That law is for humans. It isn’t a law for monsters.」
Decius unsheathed his sword as he replied to my question.
It seems we’d got permission to fight.
I spun my sage’s staff with both hands.
「DAMMIT! CURSES! BECOME DOGS!!」
Cornes screamed while firing his magic.
Mimicking the other race’s appearance wasn’t the only prowess of the ghoul. They can also change the appearance of others. And that power might be used on us now.
But such weak magical power was far from enough to beat us.
「KYAUN!!」
Suddenly, I heard a lovely cry from my side.
When I turned to see the situation, I saw a white dog appear from beneath Decius’ clothes that had already fallen on the floor.
I take back what I said just now, it was everyone but Decius.
Well whatever. He should be back once we beat the ghoul who cursed him. If that isn’t working, let’s try dispel on him.
「No way, our chief’s magic isn’t working on them!!!」
The ghouls around us couldn’t hide their shock.
「Now, prepare yourself!!」
Reiji stabbed his sword toward the ghoul who mimicked Cornes.
「Dammit!! Ready for battle!!」
The ghouls readied their weapons.
「Don’t tell me that you plan to beat us with only this much personnel!!」
My voice resounded in the mansion.
===
◆Dark Knight; Kuroki
I finally arrived at the surface part of the labyrinth.
Reason being Runfeld came to this place.
I, who came flying by myself, descended in the middle plaza.
I saw my mount, Glorious, resting in this place. They weren’t alone, there were lizardmen waiting around to serve them.
「Have you been a good child, Glorious?」
I brushed Glorious’ head as I asked that question.
Glorious let out a spoiled growl when I caressed their head.
「Thank you for helping me with taking care of Glorious, everyone.」
The lizardmen bowed their heads when I thanked them.
「Your Excellency, Diehart.」
Suddenly, someone called my name from behind.
It was Runfeld. Following behind him was a dragon whose size was smaller than Glorious and the other dark knights, his subordinates.
The dragon was Runfeld’s mount, a thunder dragon. I heard that it was under medical care after being injured in his fight against Reiji. But it seems they got back to health now.