That was why Renner chose to personally request Lakyus and her party.
Climb knew well that this was a dangerous move. Normally, an adventurer accepted requests through the guild and did not acknowledge personal requests. To do so was a violation of the rules.
Of course, the guild could not impose punishment or expel the highest ranked adamantium class adventurers . Nevertheless, their reputation within the guild would suffer and there would be negative consequences in the future. The reason that her request was accepted despite all of this was because Blue Rose loved the Kingdom and considered Renner their friend.
Climb felt his gratitude toward Lakyus rise, the one who accepted the job even at her own risk.
Lakyus decided that it was about time to bring up a certain topic. She opened the bag Tina had brought and pulled out a single parchment.
It was a writing that the Blue Rose members, including Lakyus, could not decipher. But if it was Renner, the best brains out of everyone that Lakyus knew, then perhaps something could be done about it.
“We found this when we were burning the village’s drugs. It seemed to be some kind of written orders so we brought it back… do you know what it is?”
The open parchment contained symbols that were not part of any country’s written language.
Renner glanced at it and replied immediately.
“…It’s a substitution cipher.”
A substitution cipher was a type of code where a word or several words together was switched for a different word or symbol. If ‘1’ indicated ‘a’ and ‘2’ was ‘b’, then ‘11221’ became ‘aabba’.
“That’s what I think too. We looked hard for a substitution chart but couldn’t find one unfortunately. There’s a chance that it was memorized so we captured someone who looked to be in charge. Our option here should be to ask the captive with charm magic, but as you already know, charm magic loses its effectiveness when repeatedly cast by the same person on the same target. The first time has to count. I didn’t want to go ahead with it without consulting you first.”
“I see… the reason this message was left behind… a trap… or is it for a different reason? Then they wouldn’t have made it too difficult. Yes, I think I can crack this code pretty easily.”
Lakyus’ eyes went wide at Renner’s words. In spite of herself, her eyes met with Tina who sat next to her.
She couldn’t believe it. But on the other hand, she felt that it was to be expected.
“Let’s see. The first letter of the Kingdom’s alphabet is either the male article or female article; it should be one of the syllables so… wait one moment.”
Renner muttered as she stood with the parchment in hand and returned with a pen and paper.
She began to write.
“This code switches out one letter per symbol so it’s easy. And thank goodness that it uses the Kingdom’s alphabet. If it used the empire’s or if we needed to translate it first then it would’ve been almost impossible. This is… first, if you figure out just one letter then you can just fill out the rest. Anybody could do it if they tried.”
“No no, you just make it sound easy. Wouldn’t it be impossible without knowing tens of thousands of words?”
“But this is an order written in code. The instructions wouldn’t be hidden behind a metaphor and the chance of them using difficult words is very small. The messages are probably written clearly so that even children can understand it. That’s why their scale is so large.”
Lakyus inwardly broke out in cold sweats.
Although her friend called it simple, that was absolutely not the case.
If it’s her then it’s possible… really, her ability is ridiculous.
Every time they met, every time they spoke, she was surprised. Lakyus didn’t know anyone who better fit the term ‘genius.’
In contrast to Lakyus who was trembling on the inside, Renner lightly held out the paper in her hand.
“I’m finished. It wasn’t orders though.”
Various locations outside the Kingdom were listed on the paper. Seven were within the Kingdom’s lands.
“Could these be where they store the drugs? Important bases maybe?”
“Such important information wouldn’t be written down and just left in a production facility. Isn’t this bait?”
“A bait? You mean it’s a trap?”
“Mmm… No, I don’t think so. Even though Eight Fingers is one organization, isn’t it more like the eight groups that make it up are cooperating with one another?”
Lakyus nodded her head.
“Then this is probably about the other seven groups. The organization that’s in charge of drugs leaked this information on purpose so they could spin it into an advantage.”
“So they prepared information on all the organizations besides their own… I knew that they weren’t close, but to think that it was this bad…”
As an adventurer, the thought of betraying one’s allies filled her with aversion.
“As I thought, it’ll be bad if we don’t move quickly.”
To her friend who was nodding her head, Lakyus repeated her question.
“Then what should we do about the brothel? It’s a very vile place so supposedly you can experience anything there.”
Even when she said so herself, Lakyus felt her insides boil in anger.
Damn it. Trash that only thinks about their lust can all die!
Remembering the information she received about the brothel, separate from the daughter of a noble, her adventurer side that endured all kinds of hardships raged inside of her. There was no need to ponder what ‘anything’ implied. No doubt that countless people— regardless of gender— were murdered there for entertainment.
In the past when the slave trade still existed, brothels like that had been plentiful in the underworld, but thanks to the active role of her friend in front of her, the slave trade was outlawed and those days were long gone. This was probably the last such brothel remaining in the capital, perhaps in the Kingdom.
That was why removing it wasn’t so simple. No doubt that they would be met with strong opposition. It was the last depraved paradise for those with fetishes so vulgar, they could never tell other people about them.
“Say, Renner. Since we can’t rely on the government to investigate, how about we break in there by force and raze it? There’s no problem as long as we find evidence, no? If the slave trade is running the brothel, destroying it will be huge. And depending on the evidence we find, we could deal a big blow to the nobles who are involved.”