“The Sky Castle Lord had nothing to lose with this plan.”
Seojin set down the report confirming the infected drug had been detected in the teacup and let out a small sigh.
“Even if you hadn’t drunk the tea, he would have lost nothing. But if you had, he would have gained the power to control the hunter who posed the greatest threat to his plans.”
“Exactly.”
From his perspective, it was a gamble with no downside, since I couldn’t imdiately analyze the drug’s components.
However, he probably never imagined I would swipe the cup right from under his nose.
I stretched, my arms reaching high.
“Ugh, anyway, that does clear up one question.”
“What question is that, sir?”
“The reason Albert dumped the Malta calamity on .”
Back at the Alliance headquarters, Albert had checked the list of the two hundred demonkins I had eliminated. On that list, he must have seen the nas of the demonkins working at GreenCare.
He realized he needed to tie my hands so I couldn’t investigate them, and he used the World Guild approval vote as bait to saddle with one of the calamities.
If I hadn’t learned from the Great Library that this calamity was manageable, I might still be scrambling to figure out how to resolve it.
Albert. The more I thought about him, the more he struck as an extrely calculating man.
“I see two possibilities.”
Raising two fingers, Seojin laid out his thoughts.
“First, the Sky Castle Lord is a demon.”
A heavy silence hung in the air.
Samia and I both swallowed hard.
“Second, the Sky Castle Lord is human, but for so reason, he is cooperating with the demonkins. Either way, he has committed an unforgivable cri, and humanity has just made an enemy of one of its strongest allies.”
“This is the worst-case scenario,” Samia said with a weary sigh.
“Tower Master.”
At that mont, a cluster of light shimred in midair as Ea appeared.
“We have received coordinates from the Lion Fleet. It is ti to go.”
“Yeah, got it.”
As I rose to my feet, I turned to Samia.
“I’m counting on you, Samia.”
“Of course. I’ll prepare the warp right away.”
She started toward the fifth floor, then paused and looked back at my torso, which was still wrapped in bandages.
“I truly hope you return safely from this World Guild visit.”
“Ha ha! Nothing is going to happen this ti, I swear.”
’Well, probably.’
* * *
I stepped through the portal and erged in a new location.
The mont I arrived, a group of hunters had their guns trained on .
“Stand down. This is the guest we were expecting.”
At the signal from a hunter in a crisp navy uniform, the others smartly lowered their weapons. Then, with their right hands over their chests, they bowed at the waist.
“Welco to the mobile fortress, Shelter, hunter Kim Yusin. I am Chief Engineer Benjamin.”
Benjamin greeted with the sa formal gesture. I dipped my head in return.
“Thank you for the welco.”
“Please, this way. The Admiral is waiting for you.”
Following him, I walked along and took in my surroundings.
’This is wild. I’m really inside that conch monster, aren’t I?’
The outer shell of the conch was transparent, offering a clear view of the outside world.
Striped fish glided lazily through the water. On the seafloor, otherworldly seaweed swayed back and forth with the current.
While I was briefly distracted by the unusual scenery, Benjamin had picked up a radio and was reporting to soone.
“This is Benjamin. The Tower Master has arrived safely.”
“Copy.”
The instant Benjamin finished his report, the mobile fortress Shelter began to move.
It cut through the water at an impressive speed, the scenery outside whipping past in a blur.
“This is amazing.”
When I voiced my impression, Benjamin bead.
“Everyone who visits Shelter for the first ti has about the sa reaction.”
“This monster... I an, this creature... I an, this ship—is it really an artifact from another world too?”
“Ha ha ha! To be precise, we implanted the artifact that controls this monster inside Shelter’s body.”
’So they just call it a monster too.’
“When you say implanted... does that an you could transplant that artifact into another crustacean-type monster?”
“Of course. This is already our third vessel. Personally, I hope this Shelter lasts a long ti. It’s not easy to find a monster this big and this docile.”
As we walked through Shelter’s interior, I peppered Benjamin with questions.
I had assud it was just a big conch shell, but it had laundromats, gyms, billiard rooms—every kind of convenience facility you could think of. It was no different from a proper warship.
The only downsides were that it shook during movent and had many sloped or uneven areas. The shell was so hard that my legs started to ache after only a little walking.
’There really is no place like the Magic Tower.’
Still, how often would I get the chance to visit sowhere like this? I made sure to look around carefully.
Shelter was ho to a great many people.
“Did you catch the ga today?”
“...If you want to live, don’t talk to .”
“Pfft! I told you to stop blowing all your money on bets.”
“It’s an addiction, man. A real addiction.”
People chatted and joked as they passed by. Now that I looked closely, their backgrounds and ethnicities were all over the place.
The Gravekeeper forces were 100% Egyptian, the Sky Castle and the Holy Knights were mostly European, but the Lion Fleet had people from all over the world, East and West alike.
“This is it. Please, go on in.”
Benjamin opened a door and bowed. I thanked him and stepped into the captain’s room.
’Whoa.’
The walls here were even more transparent than elsewhere, giving the impression that the space was completely open.
The ocean stretched out in every direction. Curious whether it was glass, I reached out and touched the wall, only to feel the rough, ridged texture of the shell.
Navigators were busy at their stations, tapping away at holographic consoles, and in the center of the room sat a woman listening to their reports.
Her hair was white with age, and the years had etched a weighty charisma into her features.
This was the hunter known as the Admiral Sham. She turned and spoke.
“Our guest has arrived.”
I quickly bowed my head.
“Good to see you again, Admiral.”
“Have a seat.”
We sat across from each other at a small table. As I swept my gaze over the view outside, I comnted, “The view is incredible.”
“Are you certain the Sky Castle Lord has the antidote?”
I had been trying to ease into the conversation, but she went straight for the heart of the matter.
She clearly had no ti for small talk.
“Yes. Based on my intel, I found a drug in the Sky Castle that’s a perfect visual match for the antidote. They were even mass-producing it.”
Strictly speaking, unless soone drank it, I couldn’t be one hundred percent sure it was the antidote.
However, her expression was so grave that I couldn’t bring myself to hedge my words. I had the feeling that if I did, I might not make it out of the Lion Fleet alive.
“More importantly, when I ntioned that the Sky Castle was manufacturing an antidote, Albert tried to kill . The situation seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it?”
“This is unbelievable.”
She pressed her clenched fist to her forehead.
“To think the Sky Castle Lord was the mastermind behind this incident...”
“All the circumstantial evidence is pointing straight at him.”
She grimaced and let out a long breath.
She looked like she was under a trendous amount of stress...
I asked carefully, “Admiral, did you also take the cold dicine?”
“I’m fine, but so of my crew did. And...”
She pulled out the pendant hanging around her neck and pressed it. A photo of a little girl appeared.
“My niece took the cold dicine.”
“...Ah.”
Clutching the pendant, she squeezed her eyes shut.
’Most people don’t wear their niece’s photo in a locket. She must be very dear to her.’
“Do you find it strange too?”
“Pardon? Ah, no, that’s not what I ant...”
“The truth is, I cannot have children.”
Still holding the pendant, she spoke matter-of-factly about her infertility.
“I have ovarian agenesis, so even in vitro fertilization is impossible. Once that ca out, my husband divorced .”
“I—I’m sorry to hear that.”
“For soone like , this child is my only light. Heaven took her parents from her... yet no matter what hardships she faces, she never loses her smile. I took her in as her only remaining relative, and she’s studying in Singapore now.”
Her voice overflowed with affection as she spoke about her niece.
“So, Tower Master.”
Her eyes shifted to lock onto mine.
“Please be very careful with your actions and your words. I am not your chess piece, and this incident is not sothing I’m undertaking for fun. I am deadly serious. For that child’s sake, I would gladly put this old life on the line as many tis as it takes.”
“If I have been disrespectful in any way, I apologize.”
I bowed my head to her with all due formality.
“However, I am just as serious. One of my comrades took the cold dicine, and no matter what it takes, I have to seize that antidote.”
“It seems our interests are aligned.”
Her expression eased a little as she continued.
“The Sky Castle has used transference twice. Once to co to Malta, and once to escape. To use it again, they will need at least three more weeks.”
“Then we need to find the Sky Castle and smash it within those three weeks.”
“Exactly. Every ship and fleet under the Lion Fleet’s banner is scouring the world for it. It won’t take that long.”
“The Magic Tower is also running its own information network. Whoever finds it first will notify the other, and then we’ll set a joint date for the assault.”
“Let’s do that.”
We shook hands.
At that mont, the alliance between the Magic Tower and the Lion Fleet beca official.
“Have you contacted the Gravekeeper, the Holy Knights, and the Ghost Corps?” Sham asked.
“I was planning to reach out to them as well.”
“It would be best to bring in every last one of them if possible. We’re up against a certified rank 1. No amount of preparation will be too much.”
“Yes.”
The primary purpose of the World Guilds is to exterminate demonkind.
Of course, there were bound to be victims of GreenCare among their ranks as well, so I was sure they would gladly support our cause.
Sham crossed her legs and folded her arms.
“The World Guilds are one thing, but what I’m worried about is how we’re going to mobilize the Alliance.”
“In my opinion, it’s too soon to bring in the Alliance.”
We were talking about striking a guild that was not only at the core of the World Guilds but also ho to a certified rank 1 hunter. We still didn’t have enough evidence to mobilize the entire Alliance just to oust Albert.
“For now, I think the best we can do is present what we’ve uncovered and push to have the Sky Castle expelled from the World Guilds.”
“Hmm, even that alone would be more than enough.”
The biggest reason the French governnt had so generously secured an M10 rating was because they were ho to the outstanding World Guild known as the Sky Castle.
If the master of the Sky Castle defected over this incident, France would suffer an irreparable, devastating blow.
If they were driven into a corner, it would be a major problem if they dispatched their national hunters to support the Sky Castle. Mobilizing the Alliance would allow us to prevent that situation from the start.
We were in the middle of mapping out our plans when it happened.
“Admiral!”
Benjamin, the sailor who had guided earlier, burst into the captain’s quarters.
“It’s terrible! The Alliance is...!”
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