[V8C6] Demise of the Harpies
Translated by Jodas 8: The Witch of the BoundaryAfter discussing the intel Tia brought back with each other, Hütter and the others decided to remain at the inn for another day, then depart first thing the next morning. They decided they would head Southeast from the border, en route to the Lange Hamlet.
Until then, the adults would spend their day gathering information. The messenger would follow after Headmaster Möbius, while any empty-handed mages would search for clues on the Monsters’ whereabouts.
The Apprentices let Tia rest as they busily worked to prepare a change of clothes for her and repair the Magical Flying Device.
As for Hütter, he left the Apprentices saying he was off to go buy some things and made his way towards a bar off of the main street, but not quite in a back alley.
As a matter of fact, Hütter had actually been to this town before. But he’d never done any scams in this town.
Large towns like this along the border were frequent stops for those fleeing across the border for some reason or another. As a consequence, he didn’t want the residents of towns like this to have lingering memories of him.
As he complimented his past self on his good judgement, Hütter took a seat at the bar’s counter. Even before coming here, he’d already had an idea of what he was looking for.
Acting the role of a traveling merchant who’d failed on a venture and come to drink his sorrows away, Hütter ordered some liquor.
“Ah, damn it all. I’m really in the pits now. Why does the King of Darwock have to die now, of all times!? I was just on my way to sell all my stock at great prices up there, you know!”
The owner placed a glass of liquor on the counter in front of Hütter as he spoke.
“Why don’t you just go up there and sell it all of anyways? Nothing like a good crisis to get people buying.”
“You know how the King and Queen up there didn’t get along, right? I had my sights set on a noble up there who was a big deal in the King’s faction. I was gonna get some big sales in at the top levels of the King’s faction… Ah, dammit.”
He downed the glass in one gulp and let out a drunken sigh.
Oozing with panic and anger, Hütter grumbled.
“Everything I bought were all magical devices and whatnot, so it’s not like I can just sell them off wherever, you know…?”
“Then you should try heading South and bringing them to the Wedge Tower. There should be a couple mages from the Wedge Tower stationed in this town, too.”
“Oh? Could you tell me how to get in touch with these guys?”
As he spoke, Hütter ordered a second glass, placing a few extra coins on the counter.
The owner filled his glass as he explained how to make contact.
(I see now. It was this easy for the Monster’s human thralls to figure out where the Wedge Tower mages were hiding.)
The Wedge Tower deployed a mix of Investigation Office mages, servants without magical talents, and outside collaborators as contacts to stay in towns and villages around the Wedge Tower. In a sense, they served as branch operations.
The primary mission of these branches was to keep an eye on the Crystal Territory and support the Extermination Office on their missions. They also helped the Finance Office distribute magical devices and procure supplies.
(And just like this, someone found out where the mages were staying in Merwen, leading to them all being killed.)
They’ve already advised the mages staying in this town to go into hiding for a while.
The problem, however, was the other towns and villages.
(There shouldn’t be too many Monsters or thralls out there… Since Tia was attacked in Merwen, I bet the Monsters targeted there because of its value as a chokepoint.)
The Wedge Tower made no secret of its existence.
But considering they’ve cut ties with the Emperor, they couldn’t make their branches public either. In essence, the Wedge Tower’s branches were something any local would know about, but an outsider would have to go digging for.
“Hey, pops. Has anyone else come asking for the Wedge Tower’s contact information lately?”
“Yeah, there was someone not too long ago.”
‘That had to be it,’ Hütter whispered in his mind.
That person was the Monster’s thrall.
Hütter ordered some snacks to go along with his drink, once again leaving a few extra coins.
“I’d love to team up with that guy and do some business together. Could you tell me a little more about them?”
“This is a description of someone I suspect to be one of the human thralls. I’d like you to share this information.”
Once he finished gathering information at the bar, Hütter returned to his room at the inn and handed a piece of paper to Otto.
Written on that paper was the description of a human suspected of being a thrall.
Whether to just remain on guard around this person, or to seek them out and question or silence them, was not Hütter’s decision to make. He didn’t mind either way.
Otto scanned the paper and scratched his greying brown hair.
“I’m surprised. You’re pretty fast at this.”
“I just happened to score a hit at the first place I stopped. Pure luck of the draw.”
While it was true that he’d gotten lucky, it was thanks to his con man’s instincts that he was able to suss out a bar that looked like the right place to check.
In his line of work, an establishment’s location, size, clientele, and atmosphere could tell you a lot about whether or not it was a good place to gather information.
“The folks we have stationed here have already moved to another spot, but… I’m glad we have this information. I’ll share it with the others.”
“Have the Investigation Office guys made it back yet?”
Otto nodded to Hütter’s question as he folded the scrap of paper.
“It sounds like they haven’t been able to get a hold of Headmaster Möbius yet. It sounds like they’ve been roped into escorting Prince Axel all the way to the Darwock Royal Palace.”
“Ah, I see… What about the guys who went to check out the West?”
Had the Monsters predicted that the Wedge Tower messengers would try to escape past the Western Wall? More than that, had they intentionally let Tia go to get the whole group to head towards the Western Wall, where they could crush them in one fell swoop?
Cautious of that possibility, they’d had the Investigation Office members who specialized in far-sight, detection, and stealth head West to perform reconnaissance.
Otto spoke with a grim expression.
“…They couldn’t spot anything to the West. That said, it appears there were an unnaturally low number of birds out there. Plus, they detected several mana signatures that somewhat exceeded a human’s.”
So that meant something powerful enough to scare away the birds was hiding around out there.
Mana signatures did not necessarily indicate a Monster’s presence. It could have just been a passing lesser spirit for all they knew. While it would be best to get visual confirmation on such things, that was a tall order when stealth was also a priority.
While the Empire possessed expansive territory, flat land that was suitable for agriculture was limited. Even taking that into account, this region in particular was covered with harsh, mountainous terrain. It was an ideal place for Monsters to conceal themselves.
(An ordinary traveling merchant wouldn’t pass through there. If anyone went through that pass in a hurry, then the odds were high it was a Wedge Tower mage. From the Monsters’ perspective, finding your prey would be a piece of cake.)
As he thought, it would be best to avoid crossing the Wall. The folks from the Investigation Office seemed to all agree on that point as well.
“I’m thankful you brought up your concerns about the West, Mr. Hütter. Even though I should have been able to notice something like this…”
Otto muttered, and it looked as if he had more grey hairs than before. His gaunt cheeks stuck out more than usual, and although it was extremely rude to say, he had the look of a ratty old dog.
It was almost hard to believe he was the same age as Headmaster Möbius.
“Ah, don’t let it bother you. I don’t know a whole lot about Monsters’ habits myself… So I’m really grateful for all of your experience on that front.”
As far as the mages of the Wedge Tower were concerned, Hütter was an outsider. He should try not to stick his nose into too many places where he didn’t belong.
After casually complimenting Otto and the others, Hütter asked:
“Those Eyeball Bird things that attacked Tia, do they move in a flock?”
“Yes, there’s usually at least five or six of them. In some cases, even more… Especially lately, we’ve been seeing their numbers increase. Because their rivals, the Harpies, have dwindled.”
“Harpies… Those were the ones that looked like young girls with wings, right? I’ve never seen one myself.”
Hütter only started learning about Monsters once he arrived at the Wedge Tower, but he’d heard of Harpies even before that. Harpies were relatively famous among Monsters, and often appeared in stories.
Because of that, Hütter naturally imagined them as ‘Bird girls who are good at singing.’
Otto responded to Hütter’s muttering with a bitter expression.
“They abduct human men for reproduction. Several members of the Extermination Office have suffered that fate.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine what lie in store for those abducted humans. At the bottom of the Breakneck Gorge where the Harpies lived was a pile of their victims’ bones.
“They’re especially dangerous due to their songs that are capable of mental interference. Back in the day, we could combat them with choral magic, but now Spiremaster Alto is just about the only user of that.”
Now that he mentioned it, Otto’s late wife Satie was said to be an excellent singer and a choral magic user.
Perhaps she had used choral magic alongside Otto and Möbius to fight Harpies at some point?
Hütter asked another question that came to mind.
“Couldn’t you just use earplugs or something to deal with that?”
“While you might be able to mitigate the effects a little bit, it wouldn’t do much for you at closer ranges. In addition to mental interference, they can also use their songs to control lesser wind spirits.”
“Ooh, that sounds dangerous~…”
Hütter groaned, and Otto allowed his expression to soften a bit.
“But a few years ago, it seemed like a particularly strong Queen from the flock died. The Extermination Office jumped at that chance and delivered a huge blow to their ranks, so thanks to that we’ve managed to trim their numbers considerably.”
“Oh yeah, I’ve seen the records. Apparently Headmaster Möbius went out on that expedition personally…”
“Yes, by now, there should only be a few stragglers left.”
And because of that, the Eyeball Birds have grown in numbers. The world of Monsters really was ruthless.
(Monsters generally don’t like to unite with other species it seems… Only the presence of a Greater Monster could get them to do that.)
Then, if you pulled away the Greater Monster, would the coordination between the Lesser Monsters fall apart?
This was still merely a conjecture, but if he ever got the chance to get close to a Monster, he should try to observe them real closely.