HPL 34

chapter 34

It was the hour when dawn was just beginning to give way to morning, so the area around the trading company was quiet. Only two employees stood in front of the building, yawning widely.

As our carriage and wagon approached, the two men stifled their yawns and trudged toward us.

“Who’s there?”

“This is Wayne Bell McCullin. My apologies for coming so early in the morning.”

When Wayne leaned his head out the carriage window, the employees jumped in surprise.

“P–Please wait a moment.”

“We’ll fetch the general manager right away.”

They rushed inside the building.

Not long after we disembarked, a man in a half-buttoned vest came running from the building, clearly in a hurry.

“I’m Cart, the general manager of the Uriel Trading Company. Young Master of the McCullin family, what brings you here at such an early hour? Baron Uriel hasn’t arrived yet.”

As the manager bowed obsequiously, Wayne raised a hand with an easy smile.

“I didn’t come to see Baron Uriel. I came to collect the goods meant for our trading company.”

“What? But we were supposed to deliver them to the McCullin Company headquarters ourselves.”

The manager tilted his head, and Wayne flushed as if embarrassed.

“You know I grew up in the back alleys and only recently began learning the business. My mother insists that I start from the bottom, so I decided to pick up the goods myself today.”

“Ah.”

A faint, derisive sound escaped the manager’s lips. His expression shifted — he clearly looked down on Wayne now.

So he remembered Wayne’s origins. He didn’t realize that Wayne had mentioned it on purpose.

Believing Wayne’s words completely, the manager led us to a warehouse behind the building. It was larger and cleaner than expected.

“The goods for the McCullin Company are all set aside over there.”

He pointed to a stack of boxes in the left corner. Wayne glanced at the pile and rubbed the bridge of his nose sheepishly.

“I’m supposed to learn from this accountant how to check the labels on the boxes. Could you give us a moment alone? We’ll load them ourselves.”

I flipped through some documents, pretending to go along with Wayne’s story, glancing at the boxes. Thinking Wayne wanted privacy to avoid embarrassment, the manager nodded and left the warehouse.

The moment he was gone, Roy, who’d been pretending to be a porter, spoke up.

“It’ll take a while to check every box. You’re not planning to open them all here, are you?”

“Of course not,” Wayne replied. “We’ll take them somewhere else first.”

“I have a faster way,” I said, walking toward the stack.

“Really? There’s such a way?” Jack asked, eyes wide. The others also looked puzzled.

Only Priest Leman seemed to catch on and explained to the others,

“There’s a holy technique for detecting corpses or body parts. It was created in the age of black magic to prevent the dead from turning into zombies. I never thought I’d use it here.”

As I summoned divine power, luminous motes of light began to swirl and float toward the boxes.

Priest Leman joined in, focusing his energy; a faint mist-like aura gathered around him.

“It’s the same divine power, yet a little different,” Roy murmured.

“Dyna’s light shines brighter,” Wayne added quietly.

Hearing their whispers, Leman smiled faintly.

“The color changes depending on how pure and strong the holy power is. I’ve never seen light this clean and strong before. It shows how pure Lady Dyna’s soul is.”

Roy and Wayne echoed the word “pure” under their breath, while Tom and Jack suddenly started scratching their ears awkwardly.

Tomi, watching them, spoke telepathically,

“It seems they were all shocked to hear that Lady Dyna is pure.”

They must have misunderstood — he meant the purity of my power, not my personality.

Meanwhile, the motes of light spread quickly through the gaps between the wooden boxes. Soon, I sensed a heavy aura of death coming from one box in the back.

“That one.”

Withdrawing my power, I pointed to the box exuding death.

As Leman dispersed his light, Roy strode over, lifted the box, and carried it back to us.

It bore a label on the lid and a rose emblem on the side — the symbol of the Uriel family.

Tom swiftly drew a dagger and wedged it between the lid and the box.

“Ugh—hup!”

He pressed down like a lever, loosening the nails slightly. Jack didn’t miss the opening and inserted his blade from the other side.

After a few more pries, the nails came free, and the lid opened.

The moment we looked inside, we understood why Nene had only one ear left — and how the other mixed-bloods had died. A freezing magic circle had been carved into the box’s interior, preserving the dismembered remains — evidence of the atrocity — perfectly intact.

My stomach lurched.

“Those bastards…”

“They’re completely insane.”

Tom and Jack cursed and kicked the ground violently. Roy and Wayne’s faces twisted in disgust, while Priest Leman called upon the Creator with a trembling voice.

If only I could unleash all my divine power right now — I’d call down heaven’s wrath on these monsters. But since I couldn’t, I would make sure justice found them by law instead.

“Save your anger for later,” I said firmly. “Right now, we move. We’ll track down every last one of these scum and make them pay.”

Everyone took a deep breath and got to work.

We quickly shut the lid and stacked other boxes on top to hide it. Roy lifted the incriminating box, and the others picked up decoy ones.

Leaving the warehouse, we loaded them onto the wagon. We told the Uriel staff we had forgotten some documents and would return shortly, then left the premises.

With the evidence secured, we headed straight to the lord’s mansion. If we delayed, the culprits might catch wind and flee.

When we reached the manor, guards stood before the heavy iron gates. They stopped us, but upon seeing Wayne and Priest Leman, they let us pass without question.

Beyond the gate, a well-kept stone path led to the main building. Our carriage and wagon rattled along it at full speed.

But something felt off. Even though it was early morning, the soldiers were moving about hurriedly. There was an odd tension in the air that couldn’t be explained by simple diligence.

That uneasy feeling grew stronger once we stepped out of the carriage.

Of course, the mansion of a regional lord would be heavily guarded — that was normal. But here, the atmosphere was taut, stretched thin as if ready to snap.

“Is the manor usually like this?” I asked, glancing around.

Priest Leman frowned. “No. It wasn’t like this last time I visited.”

Despite the strange mood, we couldn’t waste time. Following a butler’s lead, we hurried to the lord’s office.

Inside was a man who looked to be in his mid-fifties — unassuming, yet clearly the lord, Beck.

When we entered, his eyes widened.

“Wayne? Priest Leman? And…”

His brows knit when his gaze fell on me, but Leman quickly introduced me.

“This is Lady Dyna El Tail, of Baron Tail’s house — a great supporter of the temple.”

“Ah, I see…”

His gaze shifted to Roy, Tom, and Jack. I introduced Roy as my assistant, while Wayne explained that Tom and Jack were his friends.

“I understand,” said Lord Beck. “But what brings you all here so early?”

Without a word, Roy set the box on the table. The lord’s eyes followed it.

“Please open it,” Wayne said gravely. “You won’t believe us until you see it yourself.”

Beck did as he was told.

When he looked inside, he recoiled, stumbling back in horror. He didn’t scream, but his face said he wanted to.

“Wh–What is that?”

He backed away several more steps, stammering. Wayne took out the documents we’d seized from the Black Dogs.

“You’ll understand once you read these.”

“I… I don’t know what to say…”

The lord accepted the papers with trembling hands and began to read. At first, he seemed too stunned to focus.

But as he read on, his expression hardened. By the end, his grip tightened as if he might tear the documents in rage.

When he finally finished, Roy spoke calmly.

“We took those documents from the Black Dogs, and the box came from the Uriel Company’s warehouse.”

“Those damned…”

Lord Beck ground his teeth. I spoke quickly.

“There may be more people involved.”

The lord seized a small bell from his desk and shook it violently. The butler who’d led us earlier appeared almost instantly.

“You called, my lord?”

“How are the preparations going?”

“The commander reports that everything is ready.”

“Tell him to proceed with the search immediately — no need for permission from anyone. Search the trading company and every property connected to House Uriel. If anyone resists, they are to be subdued by force.”

We froze for a moment at their exchange.

Preparations? Then the soldiers’ restlessness earlier… they’d been getting ready before we even arrived.

As the butler hurried out, I narrowed my eyes.

“You already knew?”

“Someone else reported Baron Uriel,” Beck admitted. “But it wasn’t about this… atrocity. It was a fraud report — falsified ledgers.”

“There’s another informant? Reporting financial fraud?”

He nodded grimly. My stomach sank.

The others, too, looked uneasy. Only the priest, unaware of the details, appeared innocently surprised.

“Can we meet that informant?” Wayne asked sharply.

The lord hesitated, clearly startled by Wayne’s tone — not the easygoing young man he remembered. But we didn’t have time to wait for his surprise to fade.

“I’d like to meet them as well,” I added.

The others echoed the request.

After a brief pause, Beck nodded. “Very well. I was just about to meet them myself. You may come along.”

He led us to a drawing room near his office.

Inside sat a woman with brown hair pinned up, her back to us.

I froze for a moment.

So it really was you.