Chapter 78

* * *

A massive conference room with a panoramic view of the city.

Six people sat around an ornate round table in the center.

At first glance, it seemed like an ordinary scene, but if anyone who knew the identities of these members were present, they would have doubted their own eyes.

It was that unrealistic to see the heads of six families who had ruled Last City for the past hundred years and would continue to rule gathered in one place with stern expressions.

After a moment of silence, Oswald, the head of the Arkon family, spoke.

“Still haven’t found that bastard. How disappointing.”

Blatant condescension.

However, while the family heads might have been displeased internally, they didn’t show it outwardly.

Although all six families played crucial roles in maintaining Last City, the influence and authority of the Arkon family, who could uniquely create the covenant that prevented the spread of contamination, was unparalleled.

“If we wait a little longer, there should be good news. After all, reports are still coming in, aren’t they?”

“The bounty on him is 600,000 gold. Those blinded by money will catch him eventually, so calm down a bit.”

Despite people’s reassurances, Oswald’s expression remained grim.

“You do understand how serious the current situation is, don’t you? The city doesn’t have much time left! How can you speak so leisurely when our fate depends on a mere commoner?”

A secret known only to a select few among the six families.

Last City was merely a temporary shelter created urgently to avoid contamination, not a settlement designed for permanent residence, and as time passed, numerous problems were emerging.

The most serious among them was the resource issue.

Everything was rapidly depleting – food and water essential for life, raw materials needed to create various potions and items, and the magic stones crucial for maintaining the city’s functions.

‘At this rate, everyone will die. We need to find a breakthrough.’

After long deliberation and meetings, the six families devised a plan to relocate to uncorrupted land.

They didn’t know if uncorrupted land existed.

Even if such land existed, the chances of finding it through random searches were extremely low, but they had no other options.

The six families joined forces and secretly dispatched search parties to find new land.

And naturally, all attempts ended in devastating failure.

Not a single person returned alive among the hundreds of search parties sent over dozens of years.

Resources showing their bottom, people losing hope one by one.

In such a desperate situation, a miracle occurred.

‘We found this equipment in the black market!’

Equipment belonging to a search party member who had gone outside the city was found being traded in the black market.

The equipment was brought by a commoner named Kuzan.

And shortly after placing people to monitor Kuzan, they discovered an unbelievable truth.

‘Heh! I recently hit an amazing jackpot. Want to know what it is? I went down to the underground tunnel and saw someone collapsed, so I went closer…’

‘You found them dead, stripped their equipment, and sold it for profit?’

‘Huh? How did you know that?’

‘I’ve heard this story more than five times already. Do you know you tell this story every time you drink?’

‘Ugh, then what about this story? Did I tell this one too? Actually, that’s not all, there were a few more things on them…’

‘What? Did you find a purse of gold coins?’

‘No! Something even more incredible! There was a vial containing an uncorrupted pure flower, and a map showing the way to somewhere!’

Everyone present just laughed loudly when they heard those words.

They thought Kuzan was lying as usual.

Of course, even if Kuzan had been someone who usually told the truth, no one would have believed such an outlandish claim about an uncorrupted flower.

However, the six families were different.

‘The search party found uncorrupted land!’

The search party had succeeded in their mission.

As proof, they had picked an uncorrupted flower and were trying to return to the city, but met with an unfortunate accident and lost their lives, and Kuzan had taken that flower and the map recording the search party’s journey.

Upon realizing this, the six families quickly sent people to retrieve Kuzan and the evidence and map he might have, and Kuzan began fleeing from his pursuers.

That had happened just a few days ago.

‘To think he still hasn’t been caught.’

Oswald bit his nails with an irritated expression.

While it went against etiquette, if he didn’t do this, he felt he wouldn’t be able to sit still due to his rising anger.

“Should we increase the bounty?”

“The current bounty is already the highest in history, raising it further would be meaningless waste.”

“Well, unless we try…”

Knock knock.

“Enter.”

The moment he heard the knock, Oswald granted permission without hesitation.

It meant he was so preoccupied that he couldn’t even ask who it was or what business they had.

The messenger quickly bowed their head, seemingly startled by Oswald’s intense stare.

“No need to be afraid. What is it?”

“About that Kuzan person for whom the great ones recently posted a bounty…”

“Have you caught him?”

“N-no, that’s not it. Someone claiming to have found the evidence and map instead of Kuzan has come.”

Oswald frowned and sighed.

“Another con artist?”

The existence of the uncorrupted flower and map was top secret.

They had deliberately kept the description vague, mentioning only ‘evidence and map’ to avoid causing a commotion, but over the past few days, they had received visits from numerous con artists bringing street trash and crudely made maps demanding the bounty.

Despite executing every single one of them for attempting to deceive the six families, the stream of con artists didn’t stop due to the amount of money involved.

However, this visitor was somewhat different.

“Th-they don’t seem to be a simple con artist.”

“On what grounds do you say that?”

“They introduced themselves as an executive of the Sewer.”

At that moment, everyone in the conference room couldn’t help but make strange expressions.

The only force that didn’t follow the will of the six families.

To think that an executive, a core member of the Sewer, would actually come here in person.

‘Surely someone of executive rank wouldn’t try to pull a con. Should I be happy about this?’

After contemplating briefly, Oswald shook his head and said.

“So where are this evidence and map?”

“They say they’ll hand them over in person. Despite my repeated attempts, they absolutely refused to listen…”

“Bring them in.”

Unless all the Sewer executives were coming, it was just one person.

As soon as Oswald gave permission, the messenger slowly backed away with their head bowed.

And moments later, a figure entered the conference room.

A pitch-black robe and mask that seemed to absorb even light.

A strange figure with exposed areas like hands and neck completely wrapped in black bandages.

Oswald glanced down briefly and nodded after confirming six fingers on each hand, twelve in total.

‘It is Crow.’

Crow.

They were a mysterious figure whose gender, age, ability, race, status, and everything else remained unknown, but their polydactyly couldn’t be hidden.

“Don’t you usually send Dorothy for such matters?”

“Dorothy has work to do. That’s why I came.”

A mysterious voice that could belong to either a man or woman.

Despite hearing it several times, it was a voice impossible to get used to.

“Well, it doesn’t matter who. The items?”

“First, make a promise.”

“Promise?”

“That you’ll give the bounty immediately when I hand over the items. 600,000 gold. In full.”

“You don’t trust us? We are the six families. Do you think we’d try to cheat you out of a mere 600,000 gold?”

“Promise.”

“Ha! A promise? I’ll gladly make it. If the items are genuine, I’ll pay 600,000 gold right away!”

When Oswald promised, Crow took out a small glass vial from their robe and placed it on the table.

A small vial containing a single flower.

Astonishment filled the eyes of the family heads.

‘An uncorrupted pure flower! It really existed!’

The corners of their mouths rose and their shoulders began to tremble.

They barely maintained their composure because Crow was present, but if only the family heads had been there, it would have turned into a scene of madness.

Oswald, who had been staring at the glass vial unaware he was drooling, finally came to his senses and asked with excitement in his voice.

“The map?”

Thud!

A piece of parchment fell next to the glass vial.

Though he had only seen the back, Oswald was certain this was genuine too.

After all, the highest-grade magic parchment that emitted a faint light after special treatment was something they had specifically produced only for the search parties.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, Oswald picked up the parchment and spread it out forcefully.

And then he froze.

“…What is this?”

“As you can see, it’s a map.”

“No, I know it’s a map. What I want to know is why it’s so small.”

It was only about one-fifth the size of a normal parchment.

‘Was it damaged in a fight with monsters? No, that doesn’t seem right…’

The cut was smooth and clean as if sliced with a knife.

After turning and shaking the parchment around, Oswald suddenly realized something and looked at Crow.

“…Where’s the rest?”

* * *

At the same time, unprecedented big deals were being made all across Last City.

“My goodness! It’s really a pure flower!”

“Did you think I was lying?”

“N-no way. I’ve always trusted you, Dorothy! … Wait, then this map too?”

“How much will you pay?”

At Nature’s Rest, where spirits and fairies gathered.

“Uncorrupted land, huh. With such clear evidence, we can’t help but believe it.”

“Decide quickly. You know there are plenty of others who want to buy this.”

“Well, I really want to buy it, but as you know, we’re not that wealthy… This is all we can gather even if we pool everything we have.”

“You can pay the difference in kind. I heard you made a 7-layer compressed drive system recently? If you throw in that, plus the composite vacuum tube and corrosion-resistant alloy…”

At Iron Giant, composed of blacksmiths, technicians, and alchemists.

“Is this actually possible? It looks way too dangerous, aren’t we just going to die for nothing?”

“If you die, you die. You’re talking too much. If you don’t like it, give it back.”

“No, who said I don’t like it? Why so picky over one comment? Wait, I can’t handle this alone. I need to discuss this with the other executives.”

At Mercenary, which oversees mercenaries and bounty hunters.

Last City wasn’t just made up of the six families and the Sewer.

Every single organization with considerable power and influence, though not matching those two forces, purchased a flower and a piece of the map for a hefty sum, and they couldn’t help but become desperate to find the whereabouts of the rest of the map.

“Maybe I should have cut it into smaller pieces?”

And the mastermind behind this entire situation was regretting not having cut the map into even smaller pieces.