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Once I parted with Den, I shot my thread up again and climbed on the rooftop. The roof was made with slanted wooden lumber that had thin metallic plating, so while it was durable, it looks quite crude.

But different from full boards, the metallic boards were attached to them now, so there was a low possibility that the sound of my footsteps would leak inside. The metallic plates that were between the wooden boards and my feet acted as a cushion. The reason they added those plates was to protect the wood from corrosion.

“That said, it would be difficult to drill a hole through the roof like this. I could’ve gotten Finia to cast the Silence spell if she was here.”

I first had to tear off the metallic plate to drill a hole. Doing something so big would be extremely loud. Even the watchmen inside would notice it at that point.

“Wait, I guess it’s fine even if they do notice it? If I let those guys inside know, they might even cooperate.”

Den was going to charge from the front after some time. I had to rescue Michelle and Cloud during that turmoil. For that, I had to make a plan of how to rescue them. The fastest way would be to gain the cooperation of the watchmen.

I continued crawling about the walls until the last second, inspecting the interior. The second floor was divided into several partitions, and there were about ten-odd people in one of those rooms working on the drug. It seemed that they then carried it to the first floor for safekeeping and then secretly moved it to the secret room in the dormitory.

Cain was already on the first floor, so there were only three watchmen on the second floor. If I was going to move, this was the time.

“Then it’s better to hurry.”

I sent a thread through the hole I opened up earlier, infiltrating the warehouse. However freely I could manipulate threads, I couldn’t do much when I couldn’t see the situation inside.

There were no people other than the three watchmen in the small room Michelle and Cloud were held in. They seemed to be showing opposition earlier, so it should be alright to openly negotiate with them.

Michelle and Cloud were just lying on the floor and tied to a pillar, so there weren’t any beds in there. But there were at least chairs for the men, so they sat on their respective chairs, acting restless and shaking their legs.

There was a fallen empty bottle on the floor, probably what they made them drink. I twined my thread around that bottle, and passed the air vibration near my mouth along the thread.

Like this, I could send my voice to the bottle, using it as a megaphone to amplify my voice.

“You people, can you hear me?”
“W-What! Who’s there?!”

It would be hard to find my thread in this dim warehouse. For them, it probably sounded like the female voice was coming from the darkness. It probably felt like they were addressed by a ghost. But their fear was advantageous for me now.

“I heard the situation. If you cooperate with me in rescuing them, I will accommodate your wishes.”
“Who is it! Where are you talking from!”
“That doesn’t matter now. Choose, you’re currently standing on the border between life and death, you know?”

I made full use of this sense of unknown and started negotiations from an overbearing standpoint. If I made a blunder in this kind of situation, they could underestimate me and complicate the situation.

It was better to seize the initiative from the get-go and sum up the situation. As expected, the men started signaling each other with their eyes when they heard me. They were probably lost on what to do. Since they couldn’t see me, they might have assumed it was Cain’s trickery.

“Have you heard the name Nicole?”
“Y-Yes! This brat…I mean, this Cloud guy said ‘Nicole will come to rescue us’ before.”
“I am that Nicole. So, will you cooperate? Otherwise, I’ll put you down.”

I thought they might look down on me now that they know I was a woman, so I threatened them from the shadows while returning my tone to normal. The men seemed to have felt fear towards the unknown existence whose only voice could be heard, so they were petrified while sweating bullets.

As the final push, I coiled one thread around one of the men’s neck, tightened it for a second, and released him.

“Uwaah!?”

He hurriedly reached for his neck after feeling it, but the thread was already gone. With this, he should’ve realized I could kill them anytime.

“So, what will you do?”

I asked once more, and they vigorously nodded a few times. Seeing that, I finally proceeded to explain my plan to them.

Once I explained the situation to them, I moved to check the situation at the front from the roof. Den had calmly made his way to the warehouse entrance. Of course, the watchmen noticed him too.

“Hey, you there, what are you here for!”

Den didn’t reply to that guy at all, and proceeded to get even closer. The watchmen questioned his actions and tried to stop him with force.

“Didn’t you hear me when I said not to come close?”

He reached out for Den’s collar, who was dressed as a butler, planning to lift him up.

Den flicked that hand off and instead grabbed the man by his collar and easily lifted him up. Even in this state, he’s… actually, that’s a bit harsh, but anyway, he used his original Ogre’s strength and threw the man towards the door as easily as throwing rounded paper.

The watchmen raised a shrill and collided with the door, then broke through it and disappeared inside the warehouse. Even I heard the sound standing on the roof. In other words, it must’ve definitely spread through the warehouse.

“Did you hear that?”
“Yeah.”

I confirmed it with one man standing watch over Michelle and Cloud. It seemed that it even reached those who were deeper in on the second floor.

“It seems that the drug makers headed to confront the source. There’s no one else on the second floor.”
“I see, then it should be fine to get louder here.”

I used Enchant and started to rip the metallic plates off the roof with all my strength.