The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 217
After subduing the guards and securing a route to the lowest level, we waited briefly for the other party.
Soon after, Elliot and members of his Alliance appeared.
“You made quite a flashy entrance.”
Their number was nineteen. Elliot continued speaking proudly, suggesting they were quite elite.
“I don’t have any information from here on. So we should proceed cautiously.”
“The lowest underground level…. You said food is transported here?”
“About that, there is something strange.”
“…You’re mentioning this now?”
“Sorry. I only received this information right before entering.”
We were passing through the corridor leading to the lowest level. This corridor was wider than any we’d passed through so far.
“Food does come and go, but apparently the volume of traffic doesn’t add up.”
“If you mean less comes out than goes in, isn’t that natural since the people inside need food?”
“The difference is much larger than expected. Plus, they say suspicious carts with contents covered by cloth have been coming out.”
“That…”
Elliot silently nodded.
This meant one thing: the population in this lowest level was larger than expected.
We finally reached the lowest level.
“Impossible…”
Ash, who had been amazed at the underground market earlier, was now completely speechless.
Elliot muttered while licking his lips.
“So it was like this after all. Markets are supposed to be inside cities, after all.”
An underground cavern even larger than the underground market. People were moving around like ants.
Mining tools were visible here and there, suggesting there might be mines further below.
Most surprising was that residential buildings were packed tightly together underground. Some buildings were even over 5 stories tall.
“An underground city…!”
It wasn’t a hastily built city either. The air quality was good, presumably using ventilation magic, and factors like humidity and temperature were comfortable.
The population was roughly 40,000. Having 40,000 people living underground was unthinkable.
Elliot raised the corner of his mouth in a grin.
“So they moved the slaves caught in slave hunting here. Hah, looks like we hit the nail on the head.”
Elliot’s goal was to expose the higher Alliance’s tyranny, so he just needed to rescue some slaves here and escape.
So while their mission became easier, ours became harder.
With more people, it would be harder to find Yumir.
Elliot drew a cold line.
“Although an unexpected situation has occurred, we’ll proceed with the operation as planned. Even if you don’t return by the set time, we won’t wait and will retreat. Don’t blame us.”
As the leader of Alliance members, it was probably an unavoidable choice.
Elliot’s group dispersed to various locations to begin their operation while avoiding guards.
“Ars, guards are coming. Let’s move quickly too.”
We also decided our areas and began searching for Yumir.
* * *
The underground city went into emergency mode due to the sudden raid.
This underground city was one of the Alliance’s biggest interests.
The quality and quantity of ore deposits in the mines here were enormous.
The Alliance discovered this place about 10 years ago when a geologist found it by chance.
At that time, it was crawling with worm-like monsters, but they were exterminated under Roar Alliance’s leadership. Since knowledge of monsters under the city could cause great chaos, the extermination was carried out secretly.
After a year, they had control of the entire underground.
Initially a useless space, everything changed when the massive mine was discovered.
All the upper Alliance started salivating over this mine.
Roar was naturally furious, warning others not to even dream about it since it was their territory after exterminating the monsters.
This led to conflict when the upper Alliances dismissed Roar’s claims, saying the underground area was part of Uland above ground.
After 5 years, they finally reached a compromise that was quite unique.
The upper Alliances gained mining rights in exchange for paying Roar a certain percentage of mining profits.
This was normal so far, but there was another clause.
It concerned the workers who would mine.
If the mine’s existence became widely known, it was obvious that not just upper Alliances but middle and lower Alliances would all demand mining rights.
So Roar decided to never let anyone from the underground city leave except their own alliance members, in order to hide the existence of the mine.
With such restrictions in place, the upper Alliances had difficulty finding workers. They couldn’t send their own Alliance members to the mines since they wouldn’t return, so they had to find workers through other means.
That’s how slave hunting began – to use those slaves as workers here.
Thus, slaves and those who were deceived continued to flow in, growing in scale until forming the current city.
“…What did you just say?”
Roar’s executive Ingeum furrowed his brow sharply.
“Intruders have penetrated this far?”
“Yes! It’s reported that around twenty people have already infiltrated the city!”
“Damn it…”
He had no idea which faction would do such a thing. That’s how many groups were targeting the mine.
“No, it can’t be the upper Alliances at least.”
If it were an upper Alliance, they would surely know about Roar’s general assembly being held for three days from yesterday to tomorrow.
“That means it must be those middle or lower Alliance bastards… How laughable.”
He declared coldly.
“Deploy all executives to search for these rats!”
“About the Alliance Leader…”
“I’ll report to him.”
“Yes sir!”
Ingeum headed quickly to the upper floors of the Alliance building.
There, a naked beast-person was holding a woman.
The number of women wasn’t just one. Five women were already lying exhausted.
While internally disgusted by the sight, Ingeum reported without batting an eye.
“Brother Alaga, a troublesome situation has occurred.”
“Hm…?”
The beast-person called Alaga turned his sweat-covered face. His eyes held displeasure.
“Ingeum, didn’t I tell you not to talk about work while I’m sowing my seeds? This is sacred work. A sacred act that must not be interrupted!”
“I keep that in mind, but this is an urgent matter.”
“Tch!”
Throwing aside the woman he was holding like an object, he put on his coat and asked.
“What’s the matter? Is it something too difficult for the executives to handle?”
“Not exactly, but it’s a matter that must be reported to you, brother.”
“Must be reported? What, did someone infiltrate this place?”
“Yes, the number of intruders is said to be twenty.”
“…Oh ho.”
Rather than showing surprise or anxiety, he showed interest.
“It won’t be those upper Alliance bastards. Must be other trash.”
“Probably so.”
“Don’t know which Alliance, but they’re stupid ones. Poking at a hornet’s nest.”
This is a place where interests are concentrated. If a mediocre Alliance stirred up trouble here, they would become targets of the upper Alliances including the Lower Alliances and be dissolved.
“This is rather good. We’ll make all those Alliance bastards slaves here.”
Then he gathered his weapons.
“Are you going personally, brother?”
“I need to stretch my body after a while. Just sowing seeds makes me feel stiff.”
“I’ll accompany you.”
“No need. You just send these ones back.”
Alaga gestured toward the women sprawled about.
Ingeum let out a small sigh and started putting clothes on them.
* * *
15 minutes into searching the city.
I could easily notice something strange.
‘There are only men… Why?’
I wanted to know the reason, but as if the whole city was in an emergency, citizens were hiding in buildings, holding their breath.
‘Their response is swift.’
Still, there’s time. Since this place has many hiding spots thanks to the buildings, they’ll have difficulty clearing us out too.
“Over there!”
“Surround them!”
I wanted to catch someone and gather information, but it seems there’s no such luxury.
Two guards rushed toward me.
Their hands swirled with magical power, likely attempting to use binding magic.
Before they could cast their spell, I approached and *slash*! Cut their throats.
“Guh!?”
“Kuhk…!”
The guards died without even properly screaming. Other guards running from afar were shocked at this sight.
“B-be careful! This one’s quite skilled!”
“Call the executives!”
I decided to deal with them too. It was right to reduce the number of guards for my other companions’ sake.
“H-here he comes!”
“You bastard…!”
Thinking I was a warrior-type who engaged in close combat, they took defensive stances with their weapons, but I created a small sphere of light and shot it between them.
Bang! The sphere exploded between them, emitting an intense light.
This nearly blinded them, rendering them powerless.
By cutting their throats, I’d dealt with the guards that came my way.
‘Need to move quickly.’
I was about to shake the blood off my sword and move on when a voice came from behind.
“Interesting.”
“…!”
A beast-man slowly approaches from behind.
His ears and tail had leopard-like spots. Most notably, he had a large scar on his jaw. These distinctive features reminded me of the information Elliot provided.
‘A Roar executive!’
He was one of the madmen of Roar that Elliot mentioned.
“There aren’t many who can stay so cold while killing people. You… How many have you killed?”
“…More than you can imagine.”
As if he hadn’t expected me to answer, he found it even more amusing.
The reason I bothered engaging with him was to extract information.
‘He seems loose-lipped.’
Even if he won’t give sensitive information, he might share some details for fun.
“Can I ask you something?”
“I like you. Go ahead. I’ll answer if I can.”
He thinks he can subdue me easily. Maybe that’s why he’s being so loose-lipped.
“I don’t see any women around. What’s with this place, it’s like hell with only men here?”
“Haha! Good observation. It must feel like hell for the men. Though it’s not that there aren’t any women here.”
“…Then where are they?”
“Think I’d tell you that, stupid? Trying to probe me? Did I look that easy?”
“Yeah, you did.”
“Kahah! Cheeky bastard. It’ll be worth killing you.”
He flicked his tongue and drew his weapon.
“I am Jabacus, ranked 10th in Roar! Surely you’ve heard of me?”
“Never heard of you. Who would bother remembering someone ranked mere 10th?”
“…”
My subtle jab seemed to get under his skin as his expression hardened.
“Hmph, abandon any hope of dying peacefully.”
He was about to charge with killing intent when suddenly…
Thunk! A spear tip pierced through his chest.
“Guhk!?”
“What’s with this guy.”
Ash, who had ambushed him from behind, drew a dagger with his other hand and stabbed his head for an instant kill, dismissing him as worthless.
After storing his weapons, Ash spoke to me as I stood there dumbfounded.
“Ars, I found out where Miss Yumir is.”
“Really?”
Though Ash appeared frivolous on the outside, he was quite clever. His level was probably just below Gaspar’s. He hadn’t been working as a mercenary for nothing.
“For some reason, all the women living here seem to be isolated in one place.”
“Isolated? Why…”
“I said I don’t know why. Anyway, I found the location. See that tall building over there? It seems to be behind that.”
“Let’s go right away.”
“Alright, while Miss Ilya is drawing their attention, let’s hurry and deal with this!”
The reason why women were isolated separately.
Feeling an inexplicable unease about this, I headed toward the destination with Ash while concealing our presence.
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