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「Zele Schedar? Never heard of them.」

Isaac looked at the sky, pretending to not feel anything but it was clear he was forcing the pain back. But soon after he shouted in pain, as yet another arrow pierced his only intact limb, his leg.

The man in long clothes kept his eyes focused on Isaac as he reloaded his crossbow, his hands clearly accustomed to those movements.

Having his four limbs pierced with arrows, Isaac’s face contorted in pain as he looked at the man in long robes, and slowly began to tremble, noticing the deep hatred like a dark abyss inside his eyes. He was not even looking at Isaac as a human being.

「I already told you, your three men spoke.」

He said with a sharp and cold voice, mercilessly plunging his thin sword into Isaac’s thigh. Blood started trickling out from the wound after a short delay, while Isaac struggled to contain a scream.

「Okay, okay…! I’ll talk… I’ll talk!」

His earlier bravado was completely gone, Isaac’s eyes filled with fear and nothing else now.

(That glow… is it Fatal Pain?)

Looking more closely, Mira noticed a dark red glow on the blade. That made her think of a specific skill that would fit perfectly in this situation. Fatal Pain, a skill of the Concept tree that could amplify the pain caused on an enemy. There was no pain feature in the game, so back then there was little use for it, but seeing Isaac’s reaction it was easy to tell it was a painful experience.

When the man in long clothes pulled the sword out, the red glow vanished as the wound spouted more blood.

「Now speak, where’s Zele Schedar?」

The man stuck the thin sword into Isaac’s other thigh, then produced a small bottle from his pocket. There was a green liquid inside, which Mira recalled seeing in a Dinowal store, a healing potion, and a rather high level one. That potion would easily be able to heal all the wounds from the crossbow.

Isaac knew that much as well. His eyes darted between the potion, the man, and the rocks behind. Eventually he seemed to come to a conclusion and slowly opened his mouth.

「He’s…he’s…」

Before he could get any more words out, an arrow came flying out of the blue, heading straight toward Isaac’s throat.

「What?!」

Before it could reach its target, a tall white shield blocked its path, and after a metallic clink from the arrow the shield vanished. The man in long clothes looked at the red arrow on the ground surprised, then looked at the direction where it had come from.

On the other end of the rock where the man in long clothes stood was an archer, who continuously cursed as he tried to understand what had happened to his arrow.

「Dammit, what’s going on here!」

He had a reddish brown cloak, which dangled behind him as he put a second arrow on his bow.

「I can’t approve of such silencing methods.」
「Who are-」

Mira was standing behind that man. The moment he raised his voice, she took a step forward, and knowing entertaining his conversation could be a bad idea, she used her sage skill Shockwave on his back.

An onrush of pure destruction, the shockwave assaulted the man before he could finish his question. It was a perfect surprise attack, and the immense pressure from the magic attack pierced mercilessly through his body.

As if hit by a large animal, he was sent flying and turning in the air, rolling down the rock once he landed. But even after going through all that, the man could still move. It was an obvious outcome for a trained assassin with a resilient body, quickly pushing his body to stand up and instantly shooting an arrow to the spot where he had been standing.

「What’s… going on?」

The man was left speechless. When he raised his bow, what looked like a large white knight with a towering shield appeared in front of him. The white knight struck the shield forward, forcefully pushing him down on the ground with a dull sound.

「Hmm, I had a hunch you were also part of Chimera.」

A moment later Mira walked up to the fallen man, and noticed a black dagger made from black mist stones on his belt. The man wore many powerful spirit arms so the powerful attack had not killed him, but he was unconscious. Though it was still hard to say if it had been good luck or bad luck for him to survive through one of Mira’s unrestrained attacks.

Mira stripped him of all his possessions, then used the Arresting Cloth she had just bought to tie him up. Her Holy Knight picked him up and carried him as Mira walked towards the man in long clothes.

「I remember seeing you in the Libra Fortress. I can see why you’d be here too.」

The man in long clothes recognized Mira, lowering his guard as she approached and looking at Isaac again. He remembered her as a member of the Fifty Bells.

「I’m also looking for information, you see, so I had to intervene here. I can’t let him die yet.」

Mira’s eyes turned to Isaac for a moment, then returned to the man in long clothes.

「That’s fine… You can do whatever you want with him once I’m done.」
「That’s a great help, though last time was a bit disastrous.」

He had killed all the Chimera members in the Libra Fortress the last time they had met, making it impossible for the Fifty Bells to obtain any information. Mira hinted at that event, and after a bit of consideration the man in long clothes decided to be more helpful this time.

From what Mira had seen in the Libra Fortress, the man in long clothes had a strong hatred for Chimera Clauzen, and if she left them alone he would certainly kill Isaac. Even if Chimera’s assassin had not shown up, if the man in long clothes got closer to killing Isaac, Mira would have stopped him as well, and understanding that he decided to be more cooperative.

With all that out of the way, he began interrogating Isaac.

He did not ask for anything regarding Chimera Clauzen overall, but only about one of their heads, called Zele Schedar.

According to Isaac, he was a man with a wealth of knowledge about spirits. He was the one developing methods to extract spiritual power, creating all those Shadow spirit arms used by Chimera. The spirit bomb was also one of his inventions. And the key piece of information, his location, was a small village at the foot of a mountain to the east of Sentopolly.

「A small village? What’s he doing there?」

That was the last question, and Isaac replied that he honestly did not know. Only a handful of the highest ranking members knew what was happening there. Then the man in long clothes sheathed his sword and took a few steps away, showing he had gotten what he wanted.

「What, are you going there alone?」

Mira had watched everything from a distance, and as he walked past her she asked him that.

「Yes, I am. Or are you going to stop me?」

He stopped next to her, turning a cold stare towards her.

「Not at all. The more you stand out, the less attention is focused on us.」

If the Sky Denizens kept attacking Chimera Clauzen so openly, they would switch their defenses against them. That would give Mira and the others a far easier time working in the background.

「Though if you could match your attacks with our own strategy, it would be the perfect diversion for us.」
「I don’t care about that… Though I still need to prepare some things, so I’ll be attacking in seven days. If you want to match anything, try to keep up with me.」

Without much hope, Mira decided to ask for his cooperation, and the man in long clothes only gave a date as his condition. Then he shoved half of the healing potion into Mira’s hands and walked away.

「Wait, who even is Zele Schedar? 」

Mira was curious why someone from the Sky Denizens was so interested in only one of Chimera Clauzen’s heads. As he left, she asked before he went too far away. Without turning around, he simply said 「A traitor」 and walked away.

Mira went to Isaac’s side, and before giving him the healing potion she pulled out the arrows stuck in his limbs. With each pull Isaac moaned painfully, but he understood that was needed so he did not offer resistance. Instead he only complained about the man in long clothes, saying things like 「someone like that can’t be human.」

「Also, thanks, I guess. Though maybe not, from what I heard you also want to interrogate me, right?」

After binding him in Arresting Cloth too, she let Isaac drink the potion. It had a powerful healing effect, Isaac’s wounds closing considerably and returning him to a stable state.

「Yes, that’s correct. Will you reply honestly or do I have to force the information out of you?」
「I’ll tell you, of course. What do you want to know? Though actually, it seemed like you came out of nowhere, who are you?」

He had given up completely, sitting on the ground with his body restrained. Though he still had the courage to ask Mira a question first.

「The Fifty Bells, that should be enough.」

Not caring about his brazen attitude, she replied.

「I see. So you’ve gotten this far as well.」

Isaac heaved a deep sigh and looked at the sky with a distant look. He understood the situation of Chimera Clauzen as a whole now, and could foresee its end coming soon. Or at least that was how his expression looked.

「So, what do you want to know? Are you searching for someone too?」

Isaac’s eyes focused on Mira again, looking decided, almost like this was his farewell.

「Do you know an alchemist named Johann? Or actually, you should know him considering where you worked. Either way, he seems to have been taken captive, do you know where he is now?」

It could not be a mere coincidence that Isaac had appeared in the warehouse facility while Mira rescued Angelique and Anne. So she turned a questioning look at Isaac.