Chapter 52
Chapter 52: Longing for Freedom (2)
Fratel City, one of the largest cities in the northern part of the Altaria Empire, boasted an impressive scale.
This was due to its many mines, which produced iron ore and various other minerals, fueling a thriving commerce that led to significant industrial development.
Though it couldn’t quite compare to Varehein City, where the entrance to the dungeon was located, Fratel still attracted large crowds.
Among them, there were always riffraff, forcing the outer city guards to stay busy conducting inspections.
“Sir, may I see your identification, please?”
The guard at the outer wall asked cautiously. Usually, he would speak with more authority, but not this time. The young man with blonde hair and the woman with black hair before him were clearly of noble descent.
“Here.”
Swish.
Both the young man and the woman handed over their identification.
The guard, trying hard to suppress the trembling in his hands, took them.
He pulled out a crystal orb from his chest pocket and placed the identification cards on top of it.
Flash!
A soft light emanated from the crystal, and soon, their names appeared.
“Are you Mr. Bernd Müller and Ms. Heidi Oclair?”
“That’s right.”
The young man answered, and the woman beside him nodded.
That was the end of it.
The guard quickly returned their identification and moved aside.
“Welcome to the mining city of Fratel! I hope you enjoy your stay!”
“Thanks.”
The young man smiled and entered the outer city, with the woman following close behind.
“Your disguise really is something. Even though you’re one of the most famous people in the Adalbert territory, they couldn’t recognize you just by changing your hair and eye color.”
“In this case, I think being too famous worked in our favor. Honestly, why would the heir of the Adalbert family go around hiding his identity?”
“True. It was definitely worth bringing the artifact.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
The blonde young man, Martin Adalbert, nodded as he responded to Sien, who had dyed her hair black.
Before stepping out of their vehicle, both of them had used an artifact to change the color of their hair and eyes. They also applied some makeup to alter their appearances slightly.
In addition to these precautions, they had another important tool: forged identification.
Nobles across the Cracian Continent all carried magically enhanced identification cards, designed to prevent commoners from impersonating nobility.
To fully disguise themselves as different people, Martin had gone to the trouble of creating new identification cards.
“Imperial officials have really grown lazy, haven’t they? It’s been 20 years since the Müller and Oclair families fell, and yet they’re still listed in the records.”
“Instead, we should be thankful. It’s made impersonating them a lot easier.”
With a polymorph artifact and noble identification in hand, the two of them were fully prepared for this infiltration.
Thus, they casually continued their conversation as they walked, eventually arriving at the slum area within the outer city.
The air outside the outer walls wasn’t great due to all the dust, but this area was even worse.
It was so bad that every breath felt like tasting dirt.
Martin and Sien observed the scene with grim expressions.
“The Brightner family is completely out of their minds. Taking care of their people’s health is one of the key principles that the Adalbert family heads have always emphasized. They’re blatantly violating that.”
“Right? I came here to find something to criticize, but they’re just handing it to me on a silver platter.”
Like every dungeon city, Varehein’s industries were heavily based on byproducts from the dungeon. Large industrial complexes lined the outskirts of the city.
The heads of the Adalbert family had long understood the harmful effects of such industries.
Using various magical engineering technologies, they focused on protecting the health of workers and nearby citizens.
With such care for their own people, it was unthinkable that the Adalberts would neglect other regions where industries had developed.
In fact, the Adalbert family regularly sent people to inspect Fratel City. For things to have deteriorated this much meant that the Brightners were deliberately ignoring these inspections.
‘They’re pushing their luck, acting like they can handle the consequences even after I’ve seized control.’
Martin looked around, baffled by the situation.
Dilapidated shacks were clustered along the streets, and the stench of filth scattered across the road was overpowering.
Given the state of the streets, it was no surprise that the residents were in even worse shape.
Most wore ragged clothes that looked like torn rags, and their faces were gaunt and sickly.
However, one thing stood out even more.
“…Did you notice, Martin?”
“You’re talking about how there are no able-bodied men around, right?”
Sien nodded cautiously in response to Martin’s question.
There were plenty of men coming from outside the city, but all of them bypassed the slum area and headed directly into the city itself.
In the slum, there were only the elderly, women, and children.
For a mining city, it was expected that there would be many miners.
However, even accounting for that, it was strange that there were no men to be found at all.
“Let’s head into the city center. We might hear some useful information at a tavern.”
“Let’s do that.”
Sien agreed with Martin’s suggestion.
The two had barely started walking again when they had to stop.
Bang! Bang!
The sound of mana rifles echoed.
“The head of the family has given the order! We must not let them escape!”
A rough voice shouted.
At that moment, Martin activated Omni Distortion.
Golden threads of light emerged from the ground and quickly spread around them.
“The one shouting earlier seems to be a knight from Fratel. The guards are following him.”
“So, someone’s being chased?”
“Yeah. Judging by their height and weight, it’s a woman. She’s only using martial arts, but she’s reached the 3rd Circle.”
“If someone that skilled is being chased, something must be going on.”
“Exactly. And the issue is that they’re really close to us. The woman seems to be heading straight for us, in fact.”
“This sounds like a decision for you to make, Lord Heir. Are we getting involved or ignoring it?”
“Could you stop using formal speech only at times like this?”
“I’m your escort knight. It’s only natural for me to follow your lead, isn’t it?”
Sien teased playfully, and Martin shook his head in mild exasperation.
But that only lasted a moment. He quickly turned his body to face the situation.
Seeing this, Sien’s grin widened.
“I knew you’d get involved.”
“I have a feeling about this woman. It seems like she knows something important.”
“…That’s a pretty flimsy reason.”
“Does it matter? All we have to do is save her.”
Having said that, Martin calmly looked ahead.
About 10 seconds later, a woman burst out of a nearby alley.
She had shoulder-length brown hair, a strikingly clear face, and a long, elegant neck. Despite her beauty, her clothes and skin were filthy, likely from extensive hardship.
She clutched her left shoulder with her right hand, clearly having been hit by a mana bullet.
Her hand was stained red with blood, and her face was twisted in pain.
‘I found her sooner than expected.’
Martin smiled inwardly.
This was the woman he had been looking for, the one he had vowed to find.
It was a stroke of luck to meet her like this.
This made things much easier.
“Get lost!”
The woman spotted Martin and Sien and immediately swung her right hand.
Swish!
In an instant, she drew her sword. The blade, wrapped in purple aura, shot straight toward Martin’s neck.
Grab.
However, Martin calmly raised his right hand, enveloped it in aura, and caught the blade.
Her full-force attack was effortlessly blocked, leaving the woman wide-eyed in shock.
Her face turned pale, as if she had just seen a ghost.
“We’ll talk later.”
With those words, Martin placed his left hand on her forehead.
Woooong.
The space around her warped, and the woman vanished.
Martin dusted off his hands and turned his attention forward.
A knight and about 20 guards were now within his sight.
It was time to deal with them.
—
“Everyone, hold your positions!”
A young man dressed in the Brightner family’s uniform raised his right hand and shouted.
He then calmly approached Martin and Sien.
“I am Jeff Rietrich, the captain of the second squad of Fratel’s Guard. A woman with brown hair passed through here a moment ago. Did you happen to see her?”
“She went that way.”
Without hesitation, Martin pointed to the direction of 4 o’clock.
He then continued.
“She suddenly attacked us and fled toward the rooftops. We barely managed to block her attack, but we were too startled to give chase. Sorry about that.”
“We should be the ones apologizing. Our failure to catch the criminal put you in danger.”
“I’m Bernd Müller, and this is Heidi Oclair.”
“Mr. Müller, Ms. Oclair, we sincerely apologize for exposing you to such danger due to our oversight. We will ensure you are compensated for this.”
“Thank you for your concern. But what exactly is going on?”
“I’m afraid I cannot share that information. By the way, if it’s not too much trouble, could I check your identification cards?”
“Of course. It’s only right to cooperate with the guards keeping the city safe. Here you go.”
Martin handed over the identification marked with the name Bernd Müller.
Sien also handed over her card.
After verifying the IDs, Jeff nodded and returned them.
“Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Müller and Ms. Oclair. However, I must ask you both for a favor.”
“Go ahead.”
“Please forget about the woman you saw and everything that just happened. If word gets out, it could incur the wrath of Lord Brightner.”
“…We understand.”
“Thank you for your understanding. Have a pleasant day.”
Jeff raised his sword to his chest and bowed before leading his men in the direction Martin had pointed.
As they left, Sien spoke.
“There’s definitely something going on. The fact that they didn’t chase right away and instead checked our IDs and made us keep quiet speaks volumes.”
“They clearly don’t want us to know about whatever this is. They even used the lord’s name to threaten us.”
“This just makes me even more curious. What on earth is happening in this city?”
“We’ll find out soon enough. For now, let’s head somewhere out of sight.”
“Wouldn’t teleportation be faster?”
“I’d prefer that, but I don’t know this area well enough.”
Martin knew the important places in Fratel City. After all, it was a city with significant economic influence, and he had visited it several times before.
But he didn’t know the hidden, out-of-the-way places where they could avoid being seen.
Teleporting without knowing the coordinates was as good as suicide, so for now, they had to rely on their legs.
“Alright, let’s keep searching.”
With that, Martin moved onward.
Although he knew a lot about the future thanks to his regression, explaining it in a way that made sense to others was difficult.
There were too many gaps in logic.
And, he didn’t fully understand everything about this period either.
For about two years, he had been mentally broken, dedicating himself solely to swordsmanship at the Igreet family.
He only had clear knowledge of major events, while the finer details were hazy.
Most of what he knew now came from the time after he had seized real power and learned what had transpired.
‘In contrast, this woman knows a lot.’
Sara Meinert.
The leader of the resistance group, The Cry for Freedom, which opposed the rule of the Brightner family.
She was also the one who gave Martin the justification he needed to intervene with the Brightners.
‘Things are going smoothly from the start.’
Martin was quietly satisfied.
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