Side Story 3: Visiting a Remote Island 11

「This cursed dagger is too dangerous for the public eye, but it comes in handy at times like these.」

The man stabbed by Ouna’s dagger started talking to her in sweet whispers. Apparently, even a small cut would allow you to charm anyone of the opposite sex. How terrifying.

「After all, no one wants to see the pathetic faces of men lusting after an old hag like me.」

Huh? That’s why it’s too dangerous?

「Ouna, you made Tsutsumotase too?」

「Indeed, though I never intended to give it this kind of power. There was a bit of an accident, you see. Still, disposing of it felt like a waste, so I ended up keeping it for myself. As you can imagine, it could be disastrous if anyone else gets their hands on it.」

Disastrous? I don’t even want to imagine that! All we can do is hope that Ouna keeps it under strict control.

「Hmm… it seems to be working a tad too well.」

Ouna glanced at the man, who was still babbling away in ecstasy, then tilted her head.

「What do you mean?」

「Tsutsumotase should only have the power to induce a modest degree of affection and sexual attraction toward me. It is far from complete mind control. But this time…」

Ouna glanced at the man again, and he immediately flushed red and returned a beaming smile. His face seemed to display a crazed obsession, ready to obey anything Ouna said. This was far more than mere affection.

『Maybe we’ll find the reason for that after continuing his interrogation.』

「True enough… Well then, tell us everything you know.」

After a few questions, it became clear that this man and his comrades were responsible for the incident here.

『To think there was an entire organization behind it all.』

「The Evil Extermination Society, huh? I’ve heard of them, but I didn’t know they were crazy enough to attempt such a large-scale operation.」

The incident at this haunt was not the work of this man alone.

He belonged to a group called the Evil Extermination Society, an organization dedicated to ridding the world of fiends. They carried a grand name and goal, but apparently, they were only known for various small activities, and limited to this continent.

Their stated goal wasn’t particularly suspicious. In this world, organizations both large and small carried similar missions. After all, many fall victim to fiends or Evil God Fragments in every corner of the planet.

There was that one company of mercenaries we fought who claimed to be one such organization.

However, this man did something contradictory to that mission. His objective was to contaminate the haunt by sprinkling a potion infused with evil energy. That’s the behavior I would expect from a worshiper of the Evil God.

Or so I thought, but it seems he did not see any such contradiction.

「People all over the world underestimate the threat of the Evil God. They will never understand unless they suffer themselves. And once the Society resolves the situation, all of those fools will kneel before us.」

『He sounds awfully proud for making an artificial crisis.』

The plan was to trigger a stampede by spreading evil energy throughout the haunt, then step in once the damage was done. And by saving everyone, they would gain tons of public support.

The grunts like this guy seemed to genuinely believe they were doing this for the good of the world. But in reality, they’re probably just being exploited for the selfish ambitions of their leaders.

Sending out a fanatic this weak armed with nothing more than a magic tool made it obvious he was disposable. Even if he got killed by monsters, the goal of spreading evil energy would still be accomplished.

「Now I understand why Tsutsumotase worked so well. He must have undergone some sort of treatment to make him easier to brainwash.」

『Ah, I get it. So he’s already predisposed to being manipulated.』

「But in that case, capturing a single grunt won’t solve anything. I’m sure they have plenty of replacements.」

『Right…』

The man seemed to be convinced he was working for some small-time organization, but there’s no way that can be true.

It’s not easy to obtain potions with highly concentrated evil energy. And lending such high-performance stealth equipment to disposable grunts was far from normal too.

A huge amount of money and effort was involved in this operation, way more than what they should have access to. A larger organization must be backing them up.

Meanwhile, it seems Fran was curious about a different area.

「You said you’d stop the stampede yourselves. But how? Are your allies strong enough?」

To combat the stampede of an entire herd of earth dragons, even a Rank A adventurer might not be enough. Fran questioned the man’s confidence in saying they could solve the situation.

「Our magnificent leader said he would stop it. I’m sure he has a plan.」

Oh boy! So he doesn’t know what the plan is! Now I’m pretty sure they don’t actually have any way to stop a stampede.

If this was the work of a hostile nation, maybe their goal was to let the stampede run its course and devastate the country. After witnessing so many of Raydoss’s schemes, everything starts to look like an international conspiracy.

『Can we have him lead us to his hideout and unravel the whole organization from there? That seems like the fastest solution…』

「Unfortunately, the charm won’t last that long.」

『Oh… W-Wait! Something’s wrong!』

In the middle of our interrogation, the wooden box on the man’s back suddenly began rattling violently.

At the same time, evil energy started leaking out. And not just any kind of evil energy, but one with vitality, as if it came from a living creature. The man said he was only transporting a potion, so what in the world is going on?

「Guh… Gaaah!」

『What is that?』

「Stun Bolt!」

「Grrr!」

An amorphous blob emerged from the box. It looked similar to a slime, so I guess I’ll call it an Evil Energy Slime for now.

Fran and Urushi immediately attacked it with magic, but all they managed to destroy was the wooden box. The Evil Energy Slime remained unscathed. It promptly wrapped itself around the man and forced its way into his mouth.

「Grooooogh!」

The man screamed in agony as the Evil Energy Slime disappeared into his stomach. At the same time, he began radiating evil energy from his entire body.

「Oroooogh!」

Now corrupted by evil energy, he looked just like the evil contaminated monsters of the haunt.

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