Chapter 545 – Welcome, this is our house (3)

Cale started to speak.

"…Gold!"

There was gold everywhere he looked.

"Young master Naru, this is your first time here, isn't it?"

There was a halo behind the gently smiling Deputy Chief Priest.
Realistically, it was the gold behind her that was shining.

On a wall where there had been nothing until just a moment ago other than maybe mold and spider webs suddenly had a glass box filled with gold bars.

"You can come this way if you want to look closer."

The Deputy Chief Priest waved her hand with a warm smile on her face.

"Deputy Chief Priest-nim, are you sure you removed the illusion?"

The corners of her smiling lips twitched at Naru's sharp gazes.

"You have quite a sharp gaze, but this is real. There's no need for me to keep up an illusion."

She then observed the slowly approaching Naru with a sharp gaze that was hidden by her smile.

'He really is similar to Duke Fredo.'

His thoroughness was exactly like his father.

'No, maybe it is that they both have a lot of suspicions rather than that they are thorough that is similar?'

She started to speak to Naru who had come to her side.

"Ah, by the way, do you see the magic flowing around the glass box? You'll get hurt if you touch it. It's set up so that anybody other than the authorized people who touch it will instantly be teleported."

She could see that Naru who had stopped moving after hearing her statement finally start to speak after a while.

"…Deputy Chief Priest-nim."

His voice was extremely low. Her gaze automatically headed for Naru's eyes.

Flinch.

She subconsciously flinched.

'…How could his gaze be so-'

How could it be so vicious?
She had been shocked by his vicious gaze.

'No, it's shocking because it is Naru.'

To be more specific, she was shocked that this boy named Naru had such a gaze.

'I guess the rumors are true that Naru caused a big issue this time.'

The Black Castle destruction plan.

The Endable Kingdom's chief executives had all heard about it by now.
The people at the center of that plan were Count Mock and young master Naru Von Ejellan.

'Of course, I'm sure Duke Fredo was giving him orders from the back.'

The Deputy Chief Priest who knew that Duke Fredo was actually awake believed that Fredo was the mastermind behind all this.

'He's an amazing Vampire.'

Wasn't he?

She was in awe of his ability and plan to draw in the Roan Kingdom and Cale Henituse and made her feel that she had grabbed onto the right rope for success.

'…I can't fall behind to Gersey.'

Greed was visible in her eyes. That greed was so strong that the boy looking at her could feel it.

"Young master Naru, why are you not saying anything after calling me here?"
"…Deputy Chief Priest-nim."
"Yes?"
"…I truly believe you are cool."

'Hmm?'

The Deputy Chief Priest suddenly became anxious.

'Aigoo.'

Alberu who was watching from the back subconsciously clenched his eyes shut.
He instantly understood the meaning behind Cale's words.

'His eyes have rolled over because of the gold.'

It made him wonder why such a rich punk would act like this.

Cale continued to speak at that moment.

"I truly respect you. How did you gain such wealth?"
"…Well, you know."

The Deputy Chief Priest was anxious.

It could not be helped.

"…It's shocking to hear that from you, young master Naru. The Ejellan Duchy's wealth is incomparable to my own."

She was asking why someone who was the son of Duke Fredo who had much greater wealth than her was saying such a thing.

"Hooo."

The Deputy Chief Priest noticed the boy's gaze becoming even more vicious at that moment.
However, that viciousness quickly disappeared.

"Haha, I'm sorry for showing you such a sight. I've never seen gold piled up like this before."

Naru scratched the back of his head like an embarrassed boy as he responded.

'Hmm? Did I see it wrong?'

The Deputy Chief Priest wondered if she had mistakenly seen the previous vicious gaze as Naru returned to his usual self. Cale and Alberu exchanged glances at that moment.

'Hyung. You heard her, right?'
'Yes, I heard her.'

Cale and Alberu now knew that Fredo was extremely rich.

"Anyway, let's get down to business."

Cale turned back toward the Deputy Chief Priest after hearing her voice.

"We don't have much time."
"Is Marquis Gersey keeping a tight watch?"

She quietly nodded at Cale's question and took a sealed envelope out of her pocket.

"The basement of Section 1… This has a map and some information about the facility located there."

The envelope was quite thick. Cale carefully received it and put it in his pocket immediately.

"I heard that you will be coming with us at that time, Deputy Chief Priest-nim."
"That's right. You won't be able to come with us at that time young master Naru, but I will be guiding the group through the facility."

Young master Naru could not come with them.
Cale's eyes clouded over before instantly returning to normal after hearing the Deputy Chief Priest say that.

"And…"

She was silent for a moment as she chose her words. She then seemed to have made up her mind as she pulled out a rolled-up piece of paper from her pocket.

"This is information about the ritual on the last day of the festival."

Her expressions did not look good.

"I think that there has to be something hidden inside the ritual, but it just seems like a regular blessing ritual no matter how many times I look at it."
"Is that so?"
"Mm. I think Gersey's trusted subordinates know about it."

The Deputy Chief Priest was the person right under Chief Priest Gersey, but he supposedly had his own trusted subordinates who took care of things for him.
There were about five of them who only listened to Gersey.

"I haven't been able to put one of my people there yet."
"That's okay. This information is already extremely beneficial, Deputy Chief Priest-nim."
"Then I'm relieved. Anyway, I put some notes down about my suspicions. Young master Naru, you unexpectedly speak in a way that sounds nice to the listener."

She was being respectful to Naru as if she had never called Cale a little kid.

"Thank you."

Cale gently responded to her as if it was nothing.

'It's over now.'

Information on the underground facility and the last day of the festival.
And 'Cale' confirming the Deputy Chief Priest's face.

Cale had confirmed everything he had come for today.

"Alright, now then!"

The Deputy Chief Priest smiled brightly.
Cale was starting to get ready to say goodbye.

She then started to speak.

"Alright, shall we go check on the hostages?"

'What?'

Cale questioned his ears for a moment.

'Check what?'

The Deputy Chief Priest didn't seem to have noticed Cale's state as she headed toward the door she came from earlier.
It was the door heading underground.

"Hmm? What is it, young master Naru?"
"Ah, you see…"

The Deputy Chief Priest went, 'ah!' and continued to speak as Cale was trying to figure out what to say.

"Young master Naru, you must have been shocked because I called them hostages. Don't worry, it is not as cruel a situation as a little kid would be thinking about."

"…Yes, ma'am."

She continued to speak to the stiff Cale as if she pitied him.

"I'm sure that this is your first time conducting official business. It must be hard to complete all of Duke Fredo's orders, isn't it?"

She then looked toward the small set of stairs underneath the door heading underground.
She jokingly grumbled.

"I was a bit annoyed at the fact that Duke Fredo wanted me to show the hostages again, you know? I'm a very busy person. He's so pushy about it because it is the deal conditions with the Mercenary King or whatever."

The deal conditions with the Mercenary King.
Hostages.

The hairs on Cale's back started to stand up once he heard that.

'That damn Duke Fredo!'

He was certain that the hostages were the Ranger Brigade members!

Cale and Alberu made eye contact.

The Deputy Chief Priest pulled the old door heading underground once more.

"This thing doesn't work properly because it's so old."

Screeeech-

Alberu did not miss the opening from her grumbling and the screeching of the old door to quietly whisper so that only Cale could hear.

"Did you know about it?"

Cale shook his head.

'No.'

He had not heard anything about it.
Duke Fredo had not said anything about the Ranger Brigade members.

'That bastard.'

Duke Fredo's intentions were obvious.

'Do whatever you want.'

He had handed the issue of the Ranger Brigade members to Cale.

The corners of Cale's lips twisted up.

'I guess this is his way of apologizing for hiding information about the White Star.'

He truly was quite thorough about keeping things in balance.

Cale walked over to the Deputy Chief Priest who had her back toward him and was heading to the stairs.

"Deputy Chief Priest-nim, do we just need to go down?"
"Of course! The hostages are down there."

Cale was flabbergasted.
He had expected the Ranger Brigade members to be outside this sinkhole city.

But they were actually so close to Cale!

They were in Section 2 at that!

It wasn't important to Cale how they brought them here or how they managed to trick the White Star.
What was important to Cale were Duke Fredo and the Deputy Chief Priest's amazing abilities.

"Alright, let's go down."

The Deputy Chief Priest was in the lead as Cale and Alberu walked down behind her.

There was a clean and larger than expected hallway once they walked down the short and narrow stairs.
There were rooms to either side of the hallway.
However, there were only iron bars the size of doors instead of doors.

"Alright, will you check on them? Duke Fredo said that you would take care of it, young master Naru."
"Of course."

Cale started to walk toward the hallway.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The hallway that was made of marbles made Cale's footsteps echo.

"Young master-nim."

Alberu followed behind him.

"Ha!"

Cale did not hide his scoff.

'It's too nice.'

Each room was quite large. Furthermore, they had marble floors and expensive carpets everywhere.
There seemed to be ventilation as well as the air was crisp.

This was obviously expensive to build.

"To be honest with you, this is originally a hiding spot I had stealthily created."

He heard the Deputy Chief Priest behind him.

"It's temporarily been modified into a prison at Duke Fredo's request."

Cale nodded his head.
As Duke Fredo mentioned last time, he was taking good care of the Mercenaries Guild's Ranger Brigade members.

'I'm relieved.'

A genuine smile appeared on Cale's face instead of a twisted smile.

He could see into the room through the door-sized iron bars.
The people inside each room had chains attached to one foot, but they didn't seem injured and their complexions looked good.

Cale used, 'record' as he walked all the way down the hallway to the last room.

He then subconsciously started to speak.

"…Bud will be happy."

It was at that moment.

Baaaaang! Baaaaang!

He could see two hands grabbing onto the iron bars.
He then saw a set of vicious eyes glaring at him from the last room.

"…How dare you bastards say our Mercenary King-nim's name like that?"

The young man with a scar on his cheek looked as if he wanted to rip Cale apart.

'Ah, right. I'm Naru right now.'

Cale realized that he mentioned the Mercenary King while looking like Naru and gently spoke to the extremely angry young man.

"Calm down."
"Calm down my ass!"

However, that made the young man who was most likely a member of the Ranger Brigade become even angrier.

"What are you plotting while keeping us locked up here? And what the hell is a little kid like you doing here? Are you looking down on us that much?!"

Bang! Bang!

People started to kick at the bars or grab at them and glare at Cale from the other rooms as well.

Hundreds of eyes were now viciously glaring at Cale.

"Hahaha. They're all so full of energy!"

Cale could not help but laugh at that sight.

'Bud will be happy. Especially since they're all so energetic.'

Cale was excited.
He had recorded the number of Ranger Brigade members he saw inside the rooms as he walked down. The number seemed correct.

He put on a genuinely happy smile.

His gaze headed toward the Ranger Brigade members inside the multiple rooms.

"Stop wasting your energy for no reason and just sit back and wait."

'I will come save you.'

Cale was excited.

"…Amazing."

Cale turned around after hearing the Deputy Chief Priest's voice.
She walked over to Cale with a look of admiration.

"I guess you truly do have Duke Fredo's blood."

She was shocked at Cale.

'He can look so relaxed and calm even while facing hundreds of hostile people.'

She could feel that the story about how Naru had flipped over the grand assembly hall in the White Palace was true.

'He's only a child between 12-15 years old in human years, but to see him suppress the enemies with his presence like this-'

She could have never imagined it.

"Haha, am I like my father? I don't really know if that's the case. Anyway, I am done confirming the condition of the hostages."
"Really?"
"Yes, ma'am. I will be on my way now."
"That was quick."

Cale smiled.

"I don't think there is a need to check anymore seeing that everybody is so energetic like this."

Boom- boom!

The iron bars started to shake again.

One of the Ranger Brigade members started to shout.

"Are you playing with us?! You bastard, I won't leave you alone when I get out of here!"
"That's right! You dirty bastards! You really think you can keep us imprisoned with these chains forever?!"
"Take these off right now!"

Clang clang! Baaaaang!

The iron bars were shaking and the brigade members started to raise their voices.

The Deputy Chief Priest could see a boy walk over to her while ignoring all the noises.
The boy walked past her and headed to the entrance as he started to speak.

"Deputy Chief Priest-nim. This place is soundproof, right?"

He then started to smile.
She thought that he looked quite evil.

'…He might be even crueler than Duke Fredo.'

She had heard that his body was weak.
But such a boy was able to look so confident in front of hundreds of enemies, no, he was beyond confident as he suppressed them and sneered at them.

It was obvious why Duke Fredo would cherish him so much.

That was why she was enjoying herself as well.
She quickly started to walk to stand next to Cale as she responded.

"Of course. This place is completely soundproof and nobody can come in here without me."
"…Really?"
"Of course!"

She did not notice the boy's eyes sparkling as he looked up at her.

"Young master Naru, today was fun. It was really short though."

She said goodbye to Cale once they came back up.

"I enjoyed myself too, Deputy Chief Priest-nim."
"I'm relieved to hear that. Mm."

She looked at a calendar inside the old house and continued to speak.

"I heard that the Black Castle destruction plan will take place on the first day of the festival?"
"Yes, ma'am. I guess I will see you again after the festival."
"Okay then. Have a safe trip."
"Yes, ma'am."

* * *

"Naru. The day you've been waiting for has finally come. Are you ready?"

The White Star raised both of his hands and placed them on Cale's shoulders with a benign expression.
Count Mock was standing next to Cale with a serious expression.

The boy with purple eyes responded while standing there wearing a silver uniform.

"Yes, your majesty."
"Just call me uncle."
"I understand, uncle."

Cale's eyes were sparkling as he energetically responded to the White Star.

"We will definitely come back after turning Cale Henituse's Black Castle into dust."

Cale extended one arm.

"Together with our Endable Kingdom's warriors."

There were many warriors standing behind Count Mock and Cale.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]