Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 466

Chapter 466

“After that process, even the most formidable can’t withstand it. They forget who they were and don’t even bother to wonder. Only a submissive slave remains, gazing solely at their master. Here, they call it ‘engraving.’”

“You’re really doing that kind of thing? You guys are completely insane?”

“We’re doing it because we’re not insane. Do you think we could do something this dangerous without such safety measures?”

“Are you even hearing yourself?”

“Yeah, it’s bullshit, right? I think so too. But you can’t understand this kind of thing with logic. They’re trash, after all. Don’t expect too much.”

His nonchalant reply left me speechless. The face looking at me, as I gaped in disbelief, seemed very pleased. He was definitely out of his mind.

“When are you doing that? You haven’t already touched my companions, have you?”

“Hmm, did you put honey on your companions? Or are you getting paid to protect them?”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“I’m just curious why you keep worrying about others. You must still have some *yoyuu* [余裕, leeway/composure], huh? Well, since you’re curious, I’ll answer. Originally, we start the work right after capturing them, but this time the schedule is delayed. The artisan happens to be away right now. The only downside to engraving is that there are too few technicians. Their work is quite backed up, so we have to wait a few days.”

That was fortunate news, at least. It wasn’t too late yet. I sighed deeply in relief, and the man stared at me. The way he frowned slightly, looking a bit uncomfortable, made me feel that he wasn’t completely without conscience. It seemed he had some.

“Anyway, the artisan will start with the top-quality ones when they return. So, enjoy this time while you can. It’ll be the last time you can be yourself.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but that won’t happen, so don’t get your hopes up.”

“Haha, do you really think you can escape from here? Didn’t I just warn you? About why they ended up like that.”

The man chuckled lightly and gestured towards the sleeping people.

“You think they’re just ordinary humans? But they weren’t the kind of people who would be caught like this. Their natural physical abilities are probably better than yours.”

“What?”

“This place only takes the highest quality. Surprisingly, humans don’t often meet that criteria. You’re a very rare case.”

“Does that mean…”

…that those companions aren’t human? I hadn’t intended to examine them closely, but my gaze involuntarily turned back to them. One of the two men had bright orange hair, and the other had dark black hair. The only woman had a splendid silver hair mixed with pink. All of them had round ears and fair skin.

I certainly admit that all three have outstanding appearances. But their appearances were unmistakably human, which made me a little embarrassed. Other races have distinct differences from humans, such as skin color, ear shape, or even body type. The only races that look so similar that it’s hard to distinguish them are demons or dragons, but neither of them are races that would be caught like that.

Other minor details aside, hallucinogens and anesthetics wouldn’t work on them in the first place, so there’s no way three of them would be caught by mere slave hunters. Moreover, there’s even less chance that they were forcibly put to sleep while resisting. Of course, they could have deliberately let it happen, but I didn’t want to think that there was another being with such peculiar tastes besides Lapis. If there was any other race that was difficult to distinguish…

“Merfolk?”

“Nah, merfolk are monsters. They’re high-quality, but not good enough to be here.”

“If not merfolk…”

“Unicorns.”

A familiar voice overlapped with a slight offbeat rhythm. The man tilted his head as if wondering why I paused.

“Why are you making that face?”

“…What did you just say?”

“I said they’re unicorns.”

I swallowed hard, my throat parched.

When was it? The image of a man standing in a past scene came to mind. He was looking in the mirror, his face filled with mixed emotions. He muttered that he never thought he would do this again and gave me an awkward smile. He had black hair, white skin, and round ears, but his original appearance was not like that. The man I knew had pearl-like silver hair and bluish skin. But even that wasn’t his complete original form.

It must have been shortly after we drew a clear line for the first time, a time when we were walking on a precarious tightrope. On the surface, we were doing well, but I was secretly bitter about the unbridgeable distance. He casually brought up an old story and suddenly gave me a strange look. His deep blue eyes trembled, revealing a myriad of emotions.

Ah, I see. So that was now.

My heart pounded violently. Almost reflexively, I grabbed the fabric of my chest. I wasn’t even cold, but my whole body seemed to be trembling. I couldn’t figure out if I wanted to cry or laugh; I couldn’t grasp my feelings right now. I had been waiting all along, I think I had been expecting it, but my mind was numb as if I was realizing everything for the first time now.

But I seemed to know one thing for sure. That the reason I came here was for this moment. My dreams had been unsettling, but maybe it was a good omen after all. I’m still doing well, right?

The lingering anxiety receded, and the emptiness it left behind began to fill with excitement. I felt like I was breathing after a long time.

Finally, I’m meeting Cielbe.

* * *

“Are you crying right now?”

“I am not.”

The moment of emotion didn’t last long. Even if I only wanted to feel good, a question that shattered the joy brought me back to reality. I retorted bluntly, and the man stared at me with a disbelieving face. “Your eyes are red,” he said casually, and my body flinched involuntarily, but since there was no mirror, there was no way to confirm whether he was simply testing me or if it was true. Instead, I scowled, and his expression became even stranger.

“The guy who was so calm is suddenly showing emotion about those guys’ identities, so it’s suspicious. You’re not a unicorn hybrid, are you?”

“No, I’m not. But are those people really unicorns? Are you sure?”

“I told you they are.”

“How do you know? They just look like humans.”

“There’s a unicorn identification method.”

“Identification method?”

The man nodded and rummaged through a box nearby, then took out a bag. Inside was an unidentified yellow powder. I watched, wondering what he was going to do, and the man suddenly blew it towards me. I was caught off guard and covered in powder, so I had to keep sneezing.

“What are you doing?”

“Hmm, no reaction after all.”

“What?”

“This is the identification method. Here, when we find people with outstanding appearances, we try this first. We already tried it on you. Seeing that there’s still no reaction, you’re definitely human.”

“That strange method is the identification method?”

“Want to see?”

The man filled his palm with new powder and this time blew it towards the faces of the three sleeping people. I was dumbfounded, wondering what kind of bizarre thing he was going to do next, but I stopped breathing at the sight that followed. A blue light seemed to appear on the foreheads of the three people, and then long, golden horns sprouted!

“Wow…”

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

The man smiled triumphantly at me, who was so surprised that I was clinging to the bars.

“What did you do?”

“Unicorns are sensitive to scents. Among them, there’s a particularly vulnerable scent. If they’re covered in it, they become defenseless for a while, and horns appear on their foreheads. It’s a method that uses a simple principle.”

I’ve heard that unicorns are sensitive to scents. But that’s not a real scent, but rather perceiving unique auras as scents. Besides, I’ve never heard of a scent that makes them reveal their horns. If their identities were revealed so easily, Cielbe would have been careful, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him pay attention to that. But the horns that sprouted on the foreheads of the three people were also a clear fact.

“What is that scent? What is that powder made of?”

“Are you curious about how to make it? It’s not that difficult if you have the ingredients. First, soak purified forget-me-nots in holy water blessed by Lusef for a week. Then, just dry them well and grind them.”

“…Lusef?”

“Lusef, the god of justice. The creator god of unicorns.”

Indeed, it was an answer that made it impossible not to understand why unicorns are vulnerable to that scent. Since the power of the creator god is imbued in it, it’s only natural that they’re weak to it. Thanks to that, I was dumbfounded and my head throbbed. The fact that a power that I’m more familiar with than anyone else is being used to capture them made me feel so miserable that I didn’t know what to say or how to say it. Furthermore, I understood why Cielbe had never mentioned this. In modern times, the Temple of Lusef doesn’t even exist. There was no need to be careful because it was a method that couldn’t be used even if you knew it.

“You can’t just use holy water. You can’t use other flowers either. It only works when mixed with forget-me-nots. This is because of the effect that Prawas, the god of flowers, gave to forget-me-nots…”

“No, that’s enough explanation. I wasn’t that curious about the details.”

“Okay, then. Do you have anything else to ask?”

“It’s like you’re going to answer everything if I ask.”

“I have so far, haven’t I? I don’t think I’ve ever been unkind.”

Come to think of it, he had. Why is he being so cooperative? I looked at him with a suspicious feeling, but the man was just smiling nonchalantly. Is it because I’m going to lose my memory anyway, so it doesn’t matter if he tells me? As for me, there was no need to refuse.

“Then I’ll ask more.”

“Okay, what is it?”

“How did you know I was a high-level spirit mage?”

At that, the man blinked and made a slightly embarrassed expression for the first time.

“I clearly heard you guys calling me a high-level spirit mage. You stopped me before I could even summon another spirit. But how did you know that?”

“Um, honestly, I didn’t think you’d ask that. I thought you wouldn’t notice because you were out of it.”

“Just answer. You said you’d answer.”

The man scratched his cheek with an awkward face. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be thinking of playing dumb and soon opened his mouth. Although the explanation that followed was hard to believe.

“This side knew from the beginning that you were a high-level spirit mage.”

“…You knew from the beginning?”

“Where would that be all? We also knew that there were two Axis-class hunters in your guild. That there were a total of five people. We knew the timing of entering the forest, too.”

“What is…”

“For reference, the illusions induced when releasing the hallucinogen are all different, too? The ghost costumes were also tailored to you guys.”

In other words, they also knew that Chris was severely afraid of ghosts. The confusion in my head quickly subsided. There was only one way for these complete strangers to know all this.

“The Jinon Guild?”

The man smiled. Just looking at the gaze filled with many meanings, there was no need to hear another answer. I took a deep breath, which had been briefly stopped. The muscles around my eyes became stiff enough to make my eyes feel tight.

Behind this slave gang, is the Jinon Guild?

“Lil! Hey, has anyone seen Lil? It’s this guy’s shift change, where is he right now?”

At that time, it became noisy outside. It seemed that the man’s colleagues were looking for him.

“Ah, this is a disaster. I can’t get caught coming in here without permission.”

The man clicked his tongue slightly and muttered lowly. He came in here without permission? He had been sitting here so confidently and spending time that I thought he was in charge of solo surveillance, but that wasn’t the case. I blinked in bewilderment, and the man moved his body. But unlike my expectation that he would go outside, he opened the barred door and stepped inside where I was. Surprised by the unexpected action, I unconsciously stepped back, and he bent down in front of me.

“Wh-what is it?”

“Just stay still for a second.”

With villainous words, the man reached out his hand. I was contemplating whether to kick him away, but a clanging sound rang out, and the sensation that had been surrounding my ankle disappeared. When I looked down, I saw a dangling lump of iron. The chain that had been on my ankle a moment ago was unlocked.

“Huh?”

While I was blinking, this time the thing that had been on my wrist fell off. It was the mana sealing bracelet that the man had put on me directly. As I stared blankly, he twirled the key he was holding on his finger.

“Your sword is in the warehouse right next door. Take care of that yourself.”

“…What are you doing right now?”

What does this even mean? I didn’t understand the situation. No matter how much I thought about it, I was just embarrassed, so I couldn’t even think of an appropriate reaction to show at this time. The man shrugged at me, who was just trying to figure out his intentions.

“I’m not actually on this side.”

“Huh?”

“I’m just pretending to be on one side because I have something to do. I haven’t been here long, and I don’t want to be involved in this dirty work. I can’t just stay still, it’s against my conscience.”