The Hero Party Couldn’t Kill Me

Chapter 5: To the Solus Empire (9)

As soon as Mina saw Orcus, she quickly entered the shadows and tried to escape.

“Euuu… !”

But before that, Orcus aimed at her shadow and fired her current magic.

Mina couldn’t escape from the unexpected blow and collapsed.

As she fell, her paladin grabbed Mina and dragged her in front of her saintess.

He tied Mina’s hands with the rope Orcus gave him.

‘Damn it….’

After a while, her awakened Mina confirmed her situation belatedly. She asked, glaring at Orcus.

“A rotten bastard. How much did you get paid for doing this?”

“Because you disgraced the name of our Noir Magic Tower. That should have been enough.”

“Since when did you pay attention to Etoile?”

“Oh no, don’t be so emotional. If you’re innocent, shouldn’t you refute properly?”

‘Damn it.’

Mina regretted her belatedly her own stupidity and her actions.

In the first place, the fact that the saintess was in front of her lab meant that the conversation with Orcus had already ended.

No way though. I didn’t know that he would come forward and stop Mina from her.

How much did you get from the saintess? Or what the hell was she being threatened with?

Or else….

‘But you know what? I thought I was like that with Calia.’

… Was Orcus really just thinking of getting rid of her?

“Shall we talk again now? Did you meet Edmund that day?”

“… ….”

The saintess was interrogated after forcibly holding the orb of truth in her hand.

Mina glared at her saintess.

Now that this has happened, there is no choice but to keep her mouth shut.

If you confess here, it will really end.

After the silence continued, the saintess sent her signal to the paladin next to her. The paladin struck Mina in the head with her spear.

“Keugh… ….”

Even so, Mina showed no sign of opening her mouth.

Peruk. Puck.

The threshing went on for about 10 minutes, and Mina eventually lost consciousness.

She didn’t open her mouth until the end.

“Do you have any magic or pills that force you to open your mouth?”

“That’s not our specialty.”

“… Really, isn’t it?”

“You can’t use mind control magic because he will resist it. Why don’t you ask the magic tower that gave you the medicine? Of course, I don’t think I can make them open their mouths like that.”

“… ….”

In fact, even in the Mage Tower, wizards of the elite class have that much mental strength.

Moreover, mind control-related magic is still under-researched.

Thus, what Orcus said was true.

“… Then I can’t help it. For now, I’ll take you to church. By the way, this rope really blocks mana, right?”

“You don’t have to worry as long as the chains don’t break.”

“But just in case, I’ll take one of the wizards from the Noir Mage Tower.”

“As you like.”

Orcus summoned a suitable mage. Soon, a blond man with a very neat and decent appearance for a noir mage tower entered the lab.

“Mark. Will you take these people to the church safely?”

“… What is this situation?”

“He was excommunicated. That’s why they say they’re going to interrogate you.”

Marc glanced at Mina and smiled with joy.

Since he was competing for the position of the next Mage Master, the fall of his competitor was a great joy for him.

“I will never let you run away.”

Therefore, he gladly accepted his mission.

“After we get this person’s confession, we will contact you again. Because it looks like Edmund will come to the Empire sooner or later.”

In this way, the saintess and the others said goodbye to Orcus after seeing all the work in the Noir Magic Tower.

Marc managed to hold back his laughter and closely watched Mina as she was being dragged away by two paladins.

“… Wait a minute. What the hell is this situation? Marc, can you explain?”

Just before leaving the tower, they ran into Magnus, a narrow-eyed wizard, waiting at the front gate again.

As soon as Magnus saw Mina being taken by the paladin, he asked Marc.

“Didn’t you hear? This b*tch was excommunicated.”

“Excommunication? Why?”

“If you say he resembles that alien, he must have formed an alliance with him. Anyway, don’t worry about it and do your thing.”

After a brief conversation, Magnus sent them out of the Mage Tower.

But no one noticed that he secretly loosened the knot with magic.

***

Meanwhile, I walked around town in Roswell for a while wearing an absolute mask.

We finished the funeral yesterday, but there is still a memorial atmosphere in Roswell because of the death of the Duke of Rosier.

Blue rose flags symbolizing the Rossier family were flying all over the street.

‘I didn’t expect this.’

From noble mtl dot com

I also saw a wanted poster with my face drawn on it.

It seems like Iris sprinkled it in advance.

I also thought that if I came to the Empire a little earlier, or if Duke Rossier’s death was even a little late, they might have pointed me out as the culprit.

‘Of course I won’t get caught.’

The performance of the absolute mask was beyond expectations. From the outside, it was a hard material, but when I put it on, it stuck to my skin and was very comfortable to wear. Above all, it was possible to move the mouth freely while wearing the absolute mask.

The function of changing the already known appearance and body shape was also perfect.

Now I have become a 171 cm tall middle-aged man with a skinny body, and no one looked at me suspiciously.

After wandering around Roswell for a while and gathering information, I headed to the drug store that Lucas ran.

It is said that after his death, Clovis, who was his assistant, inherited the pharmacy.

It was already clear that Iris was the culprit, but I still wanted to find more solid evidence.

But when I went to the pharmacy, the door was locked.

Looking at the broken windows and messy interior, it seems that there has been a commotion.

But I could feel the presence in the depths of the pharmacy.

I knocked on the door until he came out.

In the end, Clovis, whose patience ran out, opened the door with an annoyed expression.

“What the hell is going on? We are no longer in business.”

“No, I came because I wanted to ask you something.”

“If you are asking if Master killed the Duke, you already know very well.”

“I am different from them. I want to know the truth.”

I handed him a gold coin and said. Then Clovis’ eyes shook.

“Come in quickly.”

He quickly grabbed my arm and led me into his pharmacy. And after closing the door tightly, he guided me to a suitable seat.

“What the hell is it? Why do you want to know the truth?”

“I will only tell you that I have a grudge against the next head of the family.”

“… It sounds like a big deal.”

I am well aware of Iris’ public opinion within Roswell.

Some of her were worried that she would be able to play the role of head of the family, but most of them expected and praised her because of her brilliant career as a member of her warrior party.

That’s why Iris is good at managing her self-image.

“By the way, I want to ask your opinion. Did the Duke really die because of Lucas-sama?”

“When Lucas was with me, he always praised the Duke dryly. He’s been friends with him for a long time. I would never poison myself for resentment.”

“Then the truth….”

“Lukas-sama is not the type to make mistakes!”

Clovis’ voice sharpened. Realizing that he was agitated belatedly, he cleared his throat and continued his speech.

“He has been making the medicine steadily for the past 30 years. Besides, he always carefully checked the performance of the medicine several times before taking it to the Duke. There is also no possibility that the medicine was contaminated in the middle.”

“Then….”

“Rather than medicine, it is more likely that the problem was with the food the Duke ate. Allaune extract reacted with certain components in the body and caused a problem.”

“What exactly does the Alaune extract react with?”

“… There are more than ten known ones.”

“Then, what medicine did the duke take without noticing?”

“… ….”

Clovis closed his eyes and thought for a moment. Then he opened his eyes and said.

“Petals of Mystic Rose. No smell, no taste. If you grind the dried petals into small pieces and sprinkle them on food or put them in water, you won’t notice them easily.”

“Mystic Rose?”

“If you’re a Roswell native, you might not know. It disappeared from Roswell decades ago. Only some drugstores in Roswell, including ours, carry it in the form of dried petals.”

“But are they easy to find in other regions?”

“It shouldn’t be difficult to find because it is a medicinal material that is used for so many different purposes.”

“Thank you.”

After hearing the story, I stood up. Clovis still looked at me suspiciously.

“So, do you think the next head of the family would have murdered the duke?”

“What do you think?”

“… There’s no one in the mansion who wants the petals of the Mystic Rose. The mansion’s servants and escort knights are extremely restricted from moving to other areas.”

“… ….”

“But, even if that were true, what difference would it make? There is no hard evidence.”

“That, I don’t know.”

With these words I left his pharmacy.

After that, I tried to visit the Roswell mansion for a while. Because I wanted to see what the security was like there.

But when I hadn’t walked that far, I felt the crystal ball vibrate, so I immediately turned my steps to an empty alley and checked the crystal ball.

A message with only numbers representing the coordinates.

The sender is Mina.

‘… It must have been Satan.’

I clicked my tongue and hurriedly contacted Marion.

***

After a while, I arrived at the location Mina told me about.

The place where she ran away is in a deserted forest.

And she was lying in plain sight.

I immediately checked her condition.

Mina closes her eyes as if she is dead.

Her face was bruised and bloody from multiple beatings and smelled of something burnt.

As if it had been burned with electricity.

“Hey, wake up!”

I was trying to wake her up by shaking her. The next moment I tried to check her pulse, she struggled to open her eyes.

“Ed…. Kuh… kuk kuk…….”

She laughed helplessly as soon as she saw me.

“… You are right Damn it.”

After saying that, she lost consciousness again.