Part 3 The Traveler Chapter 11 The Hunt

　　”Honorable Aroldus, my second question is, how did Sherlock Moriarty escape the ruins?” Ikonser’s mood was considerably lighter than it had been a moment ago.

　　The surface of the silver mirror shimmered, quickly outlining the image of Sherlock Moriarty with his back against the wall, his fists sometimes unclenched, sometimes clenched.

　　Then Iconser Bernard and the nearby deacons and captains of the Mechanical Mind saw the private eye smile pompously, turn around, and rush out with his gun drawn.

　　In this moment, they all felt a sense of sadness and excitement, influenced by the composition.

　　The picture in the mirror jumped, showing Sherlock Moriarty holding a revolver, shooting the altar, but no effect of the scene, that one was separated from the extraordinary bullets to see the people present actually a little heartbreaking.

　　Then Sherlock Moriarty threw a key made of brass and the altar showed signs of being contaminated and unstable.

　　A wave of air erupts, Mr. A falls to the ground, and Sherlock Moriarty runs out of the temple-like building in a tumble.

　　By this point, the scene shifts and the slightly muddy Tasok River becomes the main backdrop, with Sherlock Moriarty and Mr. A floating in the water while looking into mid-air, where there is a void of even clouds and mist.

　　Almost instantly, Mr. A became transparent and disappeared, leaving Sherlock Moriarty alone to stare in shock.

　　”A rescue from the …… Church of Darkness?” Iconser frowned slightly, “Unfortunately, he didn’t mention in his letter what appeared at that time, so we have absolutely no way to guess. Did he want to sell this secret for a good price, or was he simply affected and lost the relevant memories? Also, his escape experience within that underground relic shows nothing, and seems to have been hidden at the same time as the corresponding clues were hidden ……”

　　He analyzed it quickly in a flowed statement, then mentally burdened himself not too much to position the reciprocal treatment as an answer rather than an adventure.

　　Aroldus didn’t seem to have much of a mischievous spirit today, and could capitalize on that …… In his self-relief, Ikonser saw a single, bloody word emerge from the mirror.

　　Thumping, he got a bad feeling, suspecting that Arodes had adjusted and returned to his “state”.

　　The blood depicted words wriggled and flew to form a question:

　　”Who is the object to whom you have given everything, to whom you have given your all to please, only to reap the discarded end?”

　　With a buzz, Ikonser’s face first lost its blood color, then rose red.

　　The question both pierced the wounds lurking deep within him and left him at a loss for words.

　　If you tell who he is, before tonight, his reputation will be finished …… I have become a “legend” in a sense …… Iconser swallowed hard and said in a miserable tone said:

　　”I choose to punish.”

　　A bolt of lightning immediately fell, but unlike in the past, it was no longer silvery white, tinted with a little green.

　　It struck Ikonser squarely on the top of his head, causing his hair to stand on end and reflect the color of the lightning.

　　He shook violently like a dice, as if he had been given a hallucinogenic drug.

　　Archbishop Horamik sighed, closed his eyes, and whispered to himself:

　　”A ‘0’ level seal?”

　　When Ikonser slowed down, he looked around the room and said:

　　”One more question, where did that key come from that Sherlock Moriarty used to disrupt the Advent Ritual.

　　”Which of you will use ‘2-111’?”

　　The deacons and captains of the “Mechanical Heart” present looked at me, and I looked at you, but no one responded for a moment.

　　……

　　The sound of water clattered and lapped against the cabin, as if there was only one sound left in heaven and earth, the night sea was noisy and silent at the same time.

　　Klein suddenly awoke and opened his eyes to see a wooden ceiling draped in a scarlet moon veil.

　　His psychic instincts told him that something was going on outside.

　　Who was in seclusion? He listened sideways for a moment, vaguely grasping some unnatural sounds.

　　With a slight pause, Klein rolled over and sat up, pulling on his gloves and donning his coat.

　　His eyes turned deep as he pulled out his gold coin and flicked it upwards, doing a quick divination.

　　After getting the revelation that there was nothing dangerous, he pulled out the revolver pressed under his pillow and slipped it into his coat pocket.

　　After making the appropriate preparations, Klein opened the door and walked out of the room, following the sound to the upper deck.

　　At this time, detached from the industrial pollution of the sea, the scarlet moon hangs quietly, and mysterious and dreamy.

　　Carefully bypassing a few patrolling crew members, Klein reached the area where there was movement and smelled the not-so-subtle odor of blood.

　　With the help of the moonlight, he looked over and found the former adventurer Krivis crouched by the side of the ship, setting up something.

　　In the shadows of the ship’s cabin, separated from this gentleman by a good dozen meters, hid three people, one was Crivis’s partner, the female bodyguard in the black overcoat, and the rest were their employer’s children, a young girl of fourteen or fifteen and a young gentleman of less than ten years of age.

　　The two little pre-teens were dressed in thick cotton nightgowns over tweed overcoats, and at first glance had come out in considerable haste.

　　They were shivering a bit in the night’s cold wind, but they were still squatting there in high spirits, gazing at Crivis.

　　A hide-and-seek activity? Klein mentally snickered.

　　He deliberately aggravated the sound of his footsteps, causing Crivis and the others to cast their gazes over.

　　”What’s going on, my friend?” Klein said as he recalled the demeanor of some of the bounty hunters he knew in the Eastern District.

　　But he still maintained the coldness and sharpness that characterized the identity of Germaine Sparrow.

　　Crives said with little change in his expression:

　　”A private job, a hunt that arrived unexpectedly and was worth waiting for.”

　　A hunt? Klein was suddenly somewhat interested.

　　The reason why he used Gelman as the name of his identity was because it represented the number one hunter in a certain game he had played in his past life, and it was more in line with his idea of hunting evil at sea.

　　Kraven didn’t rush to ask why, but amusedly pointed to the shadows next to him with his left hand, which was wearing “Creeping Hunger”:

　　”Private work? In front of your employer?”

　　Crouching there, Krivis glanced at the young girl and the boy, his tone unchanged:

　　”Cecil wasn’t careful enough to wake Donna and Denton and had to let them follow.”

　　The young girl called Donna heard herself mentioned and wrinkled her nose, tilting her face rather curiously to ask Krynn:

　　”Uncle, are you also an adventurer?”

　　Uncle? Even Earth’s me is at most 10 years older than you! Klein laughed:

　　”No, you can’t use the word ‘also’, technically I’m the only adventurer here, they’re just bodyguards now.”

　　He turned to Cleves:

　　”Hey man, found any prey?”

　　Crivis said as he glanced over at the water tinted a light scarlet:

　　”A fishman.”

　　A fishman? That was an extraordinary creature! Although it’s the lowest kind, it’s still quite troublesome for ordinary people to deal with it, how can we have five or six people and four or five guns to be sure …… By the way, the scales of the fish man are very strong, the pistol can only half break the defense, you have to have a repeating rifle to be able to do it …… Klein raised his eyebrows and asked :

　　”What are you going to do? And how are you sure it’s a fishman?”

　　Cleves pointed to the edge of the ship’s side:

　　”There’s a little trace of it’s body slime corroded out here, and it made an attempt to climb aboard and attack the passengers an hour or two ago, but the deck was still very busy then, with a large number of sailors and crew members.”

　　Klein took a few steps forward and saw that there were indeed some traces of corrosion showing greenish color on the edge of the ship’s side there.

　　He recalled the information he had come into contact with in Tingen, corroborated what had been written, and asked in return, rather interestedly:

　　”Why is it definitely one, and not a group?”

　　He remembered that fishmen had a tendency to live in clusters.

　　”If it was a swarm, then they would have simply destroyed the bottom of the ship and sunk everyone, and besides, the swarms of fishmen in this channel and the surrounding waters have long since been cleared, and the people of the Storm Church are very fond of hunting them.” Krivis explained in a calm manner.

　　That’s because the probability is that the fishmen correspond to one of the main materials of the Sequence 9 “Sailor” magic potion …… Klein rubbed the revolver in his coat pocket and asked with a smile:

　　”Are you sure?”

　　Krivis didn’t answer directly and opened the paper bag next to him, which contained pig and cow offal that still had blood in it, which was the source of that bloody odor that Klein smelled.

　　”All fishmen love this kind of food and can’t resist their temptation, of course, these monsters love human offal the most, so in many sea legends, it is emphasized to prepare some pig and cow offal or canned offal in the ship’s galley.” Krivis said as he sprinkled some pellets on top, “And the pepper pellets give the fishmen a pot-smoking high and a loss of some balance, this lasts for a minute or so, after which the high state of euphoria recedes the fishmen become very tired.”

　　He whirled around and pulled out a wooden box from within his clothing and smeared the turquoise paste onto the tips of his trilobites, daggers and shortswords:

　　”The mint paste that is popular in Puerto Prizzi is a unique sweet to humans, but in the eyes of the fishmen, it is a deadly blood toxin.

　　”In addition, I borrowed two rifles from the sailor and obtained a promise not to disturb the place for twenty minutes, costing a considerable amount of money, but it will be ten, twenty, or even thirty times as much if I can succeed in hunting a single fishman.”

　　Worthy of being a senior adventurer, he grasps the weaknesses and problems of his prey exceptionally clearly …… Listening to him, I feel that they really have the possibility of successfully hunting fishmen, even if they are not extraordinary people …… The low sequence of extraordinary people in the face of traps and thermal weapons It’s true that they won’t be too much stronger than ordinary people …… It’s not as if there are no low sequence Extraordinary People who have died in gangster armfights …… However, the fishman is like wearing a full body armor, not so good at killing, it will be injured, but it may not be impossible to escape… …Klein asked curiously:

　　”You seem to have killed a lot of fishmen?”

　　”Knowing what characteristics common sea monsters have is a prerequisite for an adventurer to stay alive.” Krivis had no joy of being praised and remained stoic.

　　While the two conversed, the young girl, Donna, and the boy, Denton, crouched in the shadows and listened with rapt attention, thinking only that it was the most interesting thing in the world.

　　Well, I’ll have to catch up on my homework in that area as well …… Klein chuckled:

　　”So, I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

　　Krivis said in a low voice as he threaded part of his entrails onto the boom:

　　”If you want to get involved, take care of Donna and Denton so Cecil doesn’t have to be distracted.”

　　”Fine.” Klein, who wanted to watch from the sidelines, agreed with a smile.