“That’s a convenient ability.”

“…”

Isaac complimented the old man as the end of the shaft opened up to reveal a secret passage. The old man maintained silence, however, and moved on to lead the way.

Fascinated, Isaac ran his hands against the walls of the passage before asking his question.

“Hey old man, how do you become a warlock? Is it difficult?”

“…”

The old man was at a loss for words. It was the first time in his life that a human asked him about how to become a warlock. It was a life of secrecy and exile avoiding the eyes of Central. Yet Isaac pestered at the old man with trivial questions such as ‘Is the work difficult? How’s the pay? Do you get to flex around much once you become a warlock?’ as if it was just another job opportunity. The old man began to doubt his decision of forming a contract with someone who’d ask such silly questions.

“I’m not sure if I did the right thing making a deal with you.”

Isaac shrugged at the old man’s comment.

“So what? Now that we’ve left the mana crystal veins, you won’t be able to attack me anymore.”

“Ha! Central will never leave you alone if I hand over the evidence.”

“I know.”

Isaac responded at the old man’s continuous reminder with an apathetic, even annoyed tone. The old man wasn’t very happy to hear Isaac respond like that. He turned for a moment to look at him with doubtful eyes before looking forward again.

The old man couldn’t understand Isaac. Isaac had provided him with a crucial exploit. With this, Isaac had no choice but to bow down to any demands the old man were to make, whether it be the Queen’s Artefacts and more. The old man believed that Isaac was smart enough to know that, but he wasn’t so sure anymore. Isaac was just too crazy.

The old man shook his head and approached the end of the secret passage. When he placed his hand on the wall, the earth sunk into the ground as if it were melting, and light rushed into the passage.

“Hooh? This coat protects me against this too? It really was worth its price.”

Despite his eyes having been adjusted to the darkness of the mines, the sudden influx of light didn’t cause Isaac’s eyes any discomfort. Satisfied with his coat, Isaac followed the old man out of the mine with a smile.

It seemed the passage ended halfway up the Minolen Mountain, as New Port City and the lake could be seen from afar. As Isaac admired the view ahead of him, the old man approached.

“Don’t forget. If the Queen’s Artefact isn’t in my hands, I will hand over the contract to Central.”

“Don’t you think it’s rather pathetic that you’re relying on Central to get the job done as a warlock?”

“What?”

As the old man’s expression stiffened in response to Isaac’s ridicule, Isaac shrugged and stretched his hand out as if offering a handshake.

“Now, why don’t we say our goodbyes? Nothing good will come if anyone were to see us together like this.”

Although annoying, what Isaac said was true. The old man glared at Isaac, doubting whether he could trust him. But in the end he grabbed Isaac’s hand for a handshake, which was one of the requirements for the contract ritual.

“But how are you going to explain all this? You better come up with a good excuse as to how you got out alone.”

Isaac smiled broadly at the old man’s question, as if the answer was simple.

“That’s obvious. I’ll just tell them I was captured by a warlock.”

“What?”

Before the old man could even react to his words, Isaac had already firmly grabbed at the old man’s hand while Isaac’s other hand also grabbed onto the back of the old man’s hand.

“What! T, this is!”

Realising what the hard sensation on the back of his hand was, the old man tried to pull his hand out in disbelief. He used his shadow to attack at Isaac, but Isaac was quicker.

Bang!

The shockwave from the explosion knocked Isaac onto the ground with his hands flailing, while the old man screamed in pain as he witnessed what his arm had turned into.

“Kuaaack! My arm!”

“Hm. I was prepared to lose one of my arms too, but they’re fine. I knew this coat was worth its price. It was a nice purchase, no matter how I see it.”

“Kuuk! Isaac! You bastard!”

The old man grabbed at his arm, which was so tattered that the white of the bones could be seen. He shouted out with eyes filled with hatred, but Isaac simply remarked at how unscathed his own arm was. He pulled out a cigarette.

“I think I’ll need this to convince the people.”

“… What?”

“I’m not that good at lying you see. And I’m too stupid to come up with good excuses. But now I can say that with my quick thinking, I managed to escape the warlock who tried to kidnap me.”

“… Kuuk! You’re saying this attack was for that excuse?”

“You need to be injured somewhat for my excuse to have any weight. Or do you think people will believe that I managed to escape a warlock unscathed?”

“Bullshit!”

Isaac smirked at the old man’s cry.

“Yea. I just wanted to say some bullshit.”

“Kuuk! With the contract in my hands, Central will interrogate you!”

“Man, you speak a lot. Are you going to stay here? I’m sure everyone has heard the explosion by now. Shouldn’t you make haste and get out of here?”

Isaac flicked his hand as if chasing away a fly. The old man looked at Isaac as he grit his teeth in anger.

“You will regret this.”

“I look forward to it.”

Crack!

With the bone-chilling crack, Isaac threw another eggbomb at the old man. The old man screamed and jumped back. A shadow emerged from the ground and carried the old man’s body through the mountain unhindered, despite the dense foliage all around.

Bang!

With a great explosion, a wave of dust and dirt showered Isaac, only to be deflected by a blue barrier.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen this.”

Seeing the crater the eggbomb made reminded Isaac of the many craters he saw from artillery shells. Isaac smirked and focused on his smoking. By the time he finished his second smoke and went for a third, Isaac could hear footsteps and voices.

“Over here!”

Rivelia and a group of elves forced their way through the dense trees to find the origin of the explosion, only to be dumbfounded by Isaac’s presence.

“Sir Isaac? How are you here?”

“Waah! Sir Isaac is alive!”

While Rivelia asked incredulously, the elves, who had thought that Isaac was buried under the mines, seemed ecstatic at Isaac’s safety and quickly descended the mountain to tell the news, racing one another to be the bearer of good news.

“Wait! Stop!”

Rivelia shouted out, but the elves didn’t seem interested as to why there was an explosion. They ignored Rivelia’s orders, too preoccupied with the thought of spreading the news. Their employer was Isaac after all, not Rivelia.

“Sir Isaac, explain yourself!”

Isaac dropped the cigarette onto the ground and stepped on it as Rivelia questioned him.

“Let’s get down the mountain first. I’ll tell you the details later.”

Rivelia was tempted to grab Isaac and demand the explanation now, but she contained herself. Now that Isaac was safe, she needed to withdraw the rescue team, which was busy trying to rebuild shafts in the mine. Plus, the news of Isaac being caught in an incident had sent the city into chaos. She needed to spread the news of his safe return before the situation turned for the worse.

“Fine. But you better tell me every detail from start to finish.”

“How tiring.”

Isaac yielded his body to the soft and cushiony sofa on the rooftop, staring blankly into the sky. His tired body felt as if it was being pulled by a mysterious force, pushing him deeper and deeper into the cushions by the minute.

“I didn’t think I was at a level to be looked down upon…”

He did expect some of it. No matter how insane he acted, it would only prevent the annoying flies and insignificants from pestering him. Those who truly desired something from him wouldn’t be hindered by the act, no matter what happened to the city or how many died.

That was why he at least tried to show that anyone who carelessly approached him would leave worse off than they had at first; it should have made them more careful in their approach at the very least.

“No. Perhaps I was careful enough.”

He never expected a mana crystal vein to reveal itself, and he didn’t think a warlock would prepare his trap within that place. Who could he fault when it was due to the lack of information?

“But this was still very uncoordinated…”

Isaac sighed and took out a cigarette. Although it was just a theory, it was still a bad idea to jump to conclusions so soon. He had to investigate every possibility.

“I hope the old man died from that, but I doubt that would ever be the case…”

What was the best way to stop the warlock? The best answer was to give him what he wants and tell him to fuck off. Isaac also wanted to do that if he could. But now that he’d stabbed the warlock square in the back, it was more likely that the warlock was sharpening his blades for vengeance.

“No matter how I think of it, I get the feeling this pen and lens are the Queen’s Artefacts…”

The only items Isaac could imagine a warlock drooling over were those two. But where did he get the confidence that Isaac had the Queen’s Artefacts?

“Do they have some tracking device on this?”

Isaac took out the pen for a careful examination, but it looked like an ordinary pen in Isaac’s eyes. He would have been happy to hand over the items to the warlock if they were ordinary in nature, but it was obvious that the warlock would use it to send the Empire into chaos, which would also ruin Isaac’s dream of a peaceful existence.

“But that’d screw up the timeline of everything…”

The warlock, who didn’t even know what the Queen’s Artefacts looked like, was so sure that Isaac had the Artefacts. That meant that the warlock had a way to find out who possessed the Queen’s Artefacts, but Isaac found the artefacts in the room of the apprentice warlock after his murder. This was after Rivelia had been delegated onto this city.

If Rivelia hadn’t come to the city, Isaac would have never bothered with an incident such as a single murder, which meant that there wouldn’t have been any reason for a monster with demonic powers to suddenly spawn, which meant that Isaac wouldn’t have found the Queen’s Artefact in the victim’s room that had already been ransacked by Central, who somehow missed the artefacts, and that’d mean Isaac would have never fallen into the trap of a warlock who’d demanded the Queen’s Artefact.

This was the most inconceivable part. If the warlock had some special talent in tracking the Queen’s Artefacts, then the warlock should have acquired it well before Isaac did when it was still in the hands of the original possessor.

Yet the warlock overlooked the opportunity to acquire the artefacts without notice, only to decide that it was the perfect time to move after the artefacts had fallen into Isaac’s hands. If what the warlock had said about controlling Axlon for a long time was true, then the warlock had been lurking inside the city for a very long time. Even if the warlock’s personality was very cautious, it still didn’t make sense that he’d move now when there was so much attention on the city because of the wyvern’s summoning and Central’s subsequent investigation.

“There’s something I’m not aware of… but that also means there’s something I can’t understand about Central. How could they not find the artefacts in that small room?”

Isaac frowned as complex thoughts tangled in his mind.

“I’d bet that old man would pester me continuously…”

The warlock’s presence was like a big red target painted on the back of Isaac’s head. But it seemed the coat was still making it worth the price, so Isaac could avoid such dangerous situations as long as he didn’t walk willingly into a trap like the mana crystal mine.

“I’d hoped Central would stop him on their own, but it feels as if I’m asking for too much from them.”

No matter how the situation turned, it was obvious that Central would send their men to both protect and watch Isaac, since a warlock was targeting his life. You could say that Isaac now had the best security guards around him at all times, for free no less. Or it could be the opposite.

“What did you say about Central?”

“Hm?”

Rivelia had shown herself onto the rooftop; she seemed to have taken a shower to rid herself of the dirt and dust which had covered her before. The sight of her shining, wet hair and her face’s glistening skin was enough to make anyone’s heart pound.

Isaac silently admired the beauty of Rivelia, which only presented itself while she had her mouth closed, and Rivelia marched on through without hesitation against Isaac’s blatant attitude and sat on a chair opposite to Isaac.

“What were you doing there, Sir Isaac? You better explain to me in full what you were doing in that place.”

“It wasn’t much. Pickaxe, he led me into the mine whilst being controlled by an old warlock.”

“Warlock!”

Surprised, Rivelia stood up from her chair. Warlocks were one of the major enemies of the Empire. But there was a different reason why Rivelia was so surprised.

“Why did a warlock show himself in front of you, Sir Isaac?”

Isaac glimpsed at the pen that was stuck in between his fingers. Seeing that there was no point in hiding anymore, he spoke on apathetically. Rivelia’s eyes also followed Isaac’s and looked at his hand, only to have her face stiffen when she heard his explanation.

“That old man suddenly told me to hand over the Queen’s Artefact.”

“… Do you have the Queen’s Artefact?”

“I’d have handed it over to him if I did. What’s funny is that the guy who was demanding it didn’t even know what it looked like.”

“So, you don’t know what the Queen’s Artefact is, Sir Isaac?”

“You think I’d possess something a warlock would want? I would have thrown it away well in advance. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have managed to pull off this incident.”

Isaac shamelessly responded while still sending a look at his pen, but Rivelia seemed too occupied to notice. Her head was full of speculations at this point.

‘Where did the information leak? No. Central only suspects that Sir Isaac has the queen’s artefact, and that fact hasn’t been confirmed yet. But a demonic turncoat acting in advance? Was the turncoat confident? Or was it just an act to test our response? In this place so full of Central’s agents? What’s happening? Is there something I don’t know?’

Rivelia found a need to reassess all of her intel again. Until now, she had the odd feeling that the situation wasn’t turning out as she had expected, and now this incident had occurred. Isaac was a target that was being closely monitored by the most elite agents of Central. Normally, it should have been impossible for Isaac to be trapped in a mine.

When Rivelia investigated how it happened, she found out that the situation occurred in the small gap when the agents monitoring Isaac were absent due to circumstances. This meant there was something that even she, the leader of New Port City, didn’t know. This was why she was so active in trying to rescue Isaac. She didn’t know the enemy’s identity or their motives, but the fact that the enemy had destroyed the mine meant that the enemy was trying to buy time.

“Sigh, fine. I’ll let only the agents of Central know about the warlock. It’d only spread chaos if the civilians found out.”

“That’s unexpected. I thought you’d just go by the manual.”

“Incidents involving warlocks are much more complicated than you think, Sir Isaac. Don’t think it’s so simple. But why did you go to the mines in the first place?”

Isaac shrugged as he answered Rivelia’s question.

“Because I hit it big this time.”

“What?”

“There are mana crystals forming veins in the mine.”

“Ha! What a joke.”

Rivelia snorted in response to Isaac’s answer, only to have her face realise the gravity of the situation when Isaac remained silent.

“Seriously?”

Rivelia asked again to confirm, and Isaac answered as he touched the coat he was wearing.

“Why do you think I was caught by the warlock? When this expensive gear I bought wasn’t doing its job, there was nothing I could do.”

“… Did the warlock do something to you?”

“Well, a few things. He did shout at me to hand over the Queen’s Artefact. I have a question. Just what is the Queen’s Artefact?”

“That… I don’t know much about it either. All I know is that each and every artefact of the Queen’s collection are objects that would shift or completely change the common understanding of the world.”

Rivelia wondered how much information she should share with Isaac regarding the Queen’s Artefact. She decided to only share information that someone at the level of a common agent of Central would know to Isaac. Since she’d already shown signs of knowing about it, she couldn’t act oblivious. Isaac nodded at Rivelia’s explanation.

“So what do they look like?”

“… What are you going to do when you find out?”

“I’ll need to know what it looks like to hand it over, right?”

“We don’t know the shape of the artefact. It could look like an ordinary object or very foreign. We don’t even know what function they have.”

‘Or it could be both.’

The artefact had the shape of something that used to be so common but simultaneously something so foreign in this world. The fact that it was an object from the past world he was in was special enough, but it also possessed properties which couldn’t be explained.

Isaac placed his chin on his left hand while he looked at his right, spinning the pen in his hand. Rivelia stood up from her chair.

“Anyhow, don’t bother yourself with the Queen’s Artefact anymore. Any curiosity you have about it will only bring bad news.”

“Sure thing.”

Isaac responded detachedly while keeping his eyes on the pen. Rivelia frowned, looked at where Isaac was looking. She saw his hand and spoke.

“Central will begin an investigation regarding the warlock soon. Please don’t make a scene and comply with the investigation. And make sure you don’t act so rude, since incidents involving warlocks are sensitive even within Central. Got it?”

“Yes, yes.”

“And, why do you keep flicking your hand like that? If it’s some form of PTSD from something in the past, you better have it checked out at a hospital quickly.”

Tap!

Isaac looked up at Rivelia after hearing those words. The pen escaped from his hand, fell from the table and rolled near Rivelia’s foot. Yet Rivelia didn’t show any signs of noticing the pen; she was only at odds with