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Chapter 39: Honorary Citizen

He trudged along the hallway and quickly scanned the rooms, none of which were locked. As Crockta went past rooms that didn’t have any sign of presence, he suddenly noticed a figure looking at him. He jumped back, scared out of his wits.

“...!”

It was just a statue. The faint moonlight shining in through the window dimly revealed its silhouette. It was an elf statue that stared off into space with an indifferent expression. Crockta extended his hand to caress it and was greeted by the cold sensation of plaster. The statue’s form was so life-like that it seemed like it could move at any moment.

Crockta looked to the side. The elf statue was guarding the door next to it. He grabbed the doorknob, but it refused to turn; it was tightly locked. Among the areas he had searched so far, this was the only locked room.

Crockta looked around. The mansion was filled with darkness, but his Mind’s Eye skill began revealing forms and shapes around him.

Nothing moved inside the room, nor did he detect any presence around him. It was an eerie place.

Crockta exerted pressure as his hand tightly gripped the doorknob of the locked room. It creaked and eventually gave way, bursting apart. Parts of the doorknob dropped onto the floor, and the door was now open.

When Crockta entered the room, he immediately flinched. There were several statues inside the room just like the one he had seen at the door. For a second, he thought that they were alive and was about to raise his greatsword to fight.

Upon realizing they were just statues, he scanned the room instead and noticed there were numerous paintings hanging on the walls. All of them seemed very expensive, and each one had its artist’s signature. This was a room that embodied Elsanad’s sense of beauty.

While studying the room, Crockta came to a halt in front of an artwork. This piece had been made clumsily compared to the other paintings, but what made him stop to look was not the art but the signature at the bottom—’Elwina.’ The artist was Elsanad’s daughter.

This piece was a simple drawing of a human and an elf standing side by side. Despite the lack of artistic skill, it was evident that it had been drawn with acute interest in anatomy as Elwina had depicted precise anatomical details on their bodies. After scrutinizing the painting for a while, Crockta lifted the artwork from the wall and looked up.

‘Found it.’

In the middle of the section of wall that the artwork had occupied was a hollow space with a button inside. Crockta pressed the button, and the ground began to slightly tremble. Crockta turned toward the source of the vibrations and saw that the floor of the room was slowly splitting open. After gradually parting in the middle, it revealed stairs that headed down to a basement.

The voice of Alsien encouraging Crockta to visit Elsanad’s basement popped up in his mind.

‘Is this it?’ he wondered.

Crockta placed his foot on the staircase. The passage was slightly small for him, but he continued to proceed anyway. With each step he took, his footsteps echoed into the distant darkness.

He walked down the stairs for a while until he arrived at the end of the staircase and saw a door. Crockta knew there had to be something behind this door. He recalled Alsien’s forlorn trembling eyes. What did she know? Why was she in such anguish?

Crockta opened the door and then immediately jolted back in shock.

“...!”

He felt a chill run down his spine.

Dozens of shadowy figures were staring at him from amid the darkness. He instinctively grabbed his greatsword’s hilt with trembling fingers. However, the shadows didn’t move. He had entered the basement unannounced, yet the figures continued to stare off into space.

Crockta’s heart sank as he looked at their faces. He immediately thought of Elwina, who greeted visitors at Arnin’s entrance. Crockta had only found out later that she was Elsanad’s daughter. He had simply thought of her as a rude woman he had met in passing, but that wasn’t the case.

Elwina was an eccentric elf who had her own world, but that world was not a permissible one. Crockta extended his hand toward one of the elves who were standing still. He could feel her soft skin, but it was frigid without a trace of life.

“Do you know why she is so obsessed with being a guard?” Alsien had said that in passing.

Now, Crockta understood what she meant.

No one in this city would care about the victims who had lost their lives and become a part of someone’s collection just for their viewing pleasure. No one would know where and how they had disappeared. After all, no one would care if visitors suddenly disappeared when they visited Arnin.

Elwina’s targets were visitors to Arnin, and even Crockta wouldn’t have been an exception.

“This is a tragedy,” Crockta murmured.

He lowered his head sorrowfully while being surrounded by the numerous victims who had been stuffed and preserved.

Looking at them, Crockta noticed that they were all attractive. They had beautiful faces with deep blue eyes. However, the traits that made them into Elwina’s victims were their unique hair colors, rosy pink lips, unusually slender legs, elegant shoulders, and long delicate necks. Elwina wanted to preserve their beauty and keep them forever in her collection. It was a horrendous tragedy.

Crockta closed his eyes. His shoulders felt heavy with the weight of Arnin’s sins.

Although Arnin had the fa?ade of a beautiful city, it was actually an abode of demons. It sold its own species for wealth and authority, fabricated truths, and had a monster inciting and deceiving its citizens with a smile on its face. Moreover, the citizens trusted and followed the mother of a demon who claimed to care for its citizens while remaining silent about the demon’s twisted sense of aestheticism that led her to kill, stuff, and preserve the city’s visitors.

Arnin was a bedlam of deceit and malice. Truth didn’t exist here.

Crockta clenched his fists with trembling hands. The preserved bodies continued to stare at Crockta, whose head was slumped down.

When he raised his head, his eyes met with those of a small elf child. The young child was smiling and would do so forever.

Crockta groaned as Lenox’s face popped up into his mind.

‘What would you have done? Do you have the answer to this tragedy?’ Crockta asked Lenox in his mind.

Lenox, who was looking right at him, grinned and then opened his mouth. His voice echoed in Crockta’s imagination. Lenox just said a single word to Crockta, but it was enough. The answer was always the same.

Crockta nodded.

‘Bul’tar.’

***

The sun was up again.

Ilya and Mayor Elsanad were having a face-off in the public square again. Instead of Ilya criticizing Elsanad and then Elsanad defending herself, the situation had escalated to an argument to decide on the next mayor. Arnin’s future would be decided according to the outcome of this argument.

“Elsanad, stop changing the topic pointlessly. You are a criminal. Are you going to continue to deny your sin when there’s clear evidence in this account book?” Ilya questioned.

“I have already said this many times. I said the account book was fabricated. Anyone can make up evidence like that. I can immediately forge an account book that claims you were working behind the scenes with the Haedong Balhae clan,” Elsanad countered.

“Are you suggesting that that’s how you have always handled matters? Is that how you ran the city? Through forgery and deceit?”

“You are twisting my words. Don’t try to change the topic by turning my words against me. What you are doing right now is forgery and deceit.”

The conversation dragged on like this. Ilya was adept at inciting the crowd, while Elsanad always responded logically. The citizens were divided into two factions and cheered on the politician they supported.

In case of an emergency, Arnin guards kept their eyes on the podium as Ilya and Elsanad continued their endless arguments. No one cared about the victims anymore. Elves who had been trafficked were forgotten, and the voices of victims who had disappeared without a trace were buried.

In the midst of Arnin citizens who were indifferent to the woes of victims, an orc walked across the public square.

“W-What?” A man the orc had bumped shoulders with turned around to look but quickly averted his eyes once he saw the orc’s menacing face.

The orc had a grim expression on his face. With his greatsword on his shoulder, he walked toward Elsanad and Ilya.

“You can’t get any closer.” The guard team protecting the podium blocked him.

The orc did not go farther. He stopped there and looked at the politicians.

Ilya’s eyes gleamed when he noticed Crockta, but he didn’t pay much attention to Crockta and continued criticizing Elsanad, who looked unhappy.

Crockta didn’t see a trace of guilt in either of them. After seeing their true selves, the orc turned toward the citizens. He examined the faces of the citizens with his eyes and saw a whirlwind of emotions—curiosity, nervousness, and admiration.

Yet, they didn’t have what mattered the most—anger. No one was angry here.

With a heart filled with anger, he screamed, “Everyoooonnneeee!”

The orc’s voice rang throughout the public square, “Quieeeeetttttttttttt!”

It was an intense shout that rang in people’s ears!

An orc warrior’s battle cry, which had not been heard in Arnin for ages, shook the public square.

“...!”

It was a voice that jolted everyone, and the public square immediately fell quiet. Everyone looked at the orc, who was the source of the sound. The guards didn’t know what to do, so they just looked at him. Meanwhile, Ilya and Eslsnad, who had been arguing on the platform, froze.

All of the eyes and ears at the public square gathered around the orc, who was holding something in his hand. It was a crystal ball that occupied his whole hand.

Ilya’s face paled.

“Now,” said Crockta.

Right then, a human stepped out from the crowd. It was the human sorcerer, Puri. He had come forward to pay back his debt to Crockta for rescuing him in the plains.

Puri put his hands together, and his mana surrounded the crystal ball. Within a few minutes, the crystal ball shone brightly, and a huge screen spread out in midair. This was the Crystal Memory Playback magic; it played the video that had been recorded in the crystal. It was a high-level spell that required an expensive item and couldn’t be performed by just anyone.

With rapt attention, the citizens gazed at the screen, which had a briefly static video that eventually became stable. A face began to faintly appear on the screen. It was Ilya’s. He was saying something while moving around the room on the screen.

The video played back the remarks he had made that day.

-Fine, I will tell you everything. The one who sold the elves to the Haedong Balhae clan members was me. I traded with them.

Ilya jumped up from his seat.

-Then, I got rid of them after they had served their purpose. Did those lowly humans cursed by the stars really think I would make an equitable transaction with them? However, I made money thanks to you.”

The citizens’ murmur began turning into a hubbub.

The argument between Ilya and Elsanad had been persisting without any progress, but the truth was finally being revealed.

Ilya’s horrifying remarks continued to be heard from the video being played.

-Anyway, Arnin’s next mayor will be me. That’s it for you. You should just quietly leave Arnin.

All eyes were on Ilya now. His expression darkened, while Elsanad’s face lit up. She didn’t know who that orc was, but he had presented evidence that proved her innocence.

With a triumphant face, she jumped up from her seat and said, “Citizens of Arnin! Did you see that? This man has been manipulating us!”

She raised her fist in the air. “As the mayor and a citizen of Arnin, I will officially charge this man for his crimes!”

Then she shouted at the Arnin guard team, “Guards, immediately arrest this man!”

The guards in turn looked at Elsanad, Ilya, the orc, and then the citizens. They were confused by the unexpected situation, but the citizens had already begun rallying in support for Elsanad.

“Catch him!”

“Ilya was the culprit!”

“The mayor is innocent!”

The video wasn’t over though.

The screen briefly went static again, then a white mansion appeared with the night as its backdrop. Every Arnin citizen knew that building. It was a building recognized for its beautiful architecture—Elsanad’s mansion.

The citizens paused.

“...?”

The view in the video moved according to Crockta’s line of sight. The crowd saw that he went past the fence, went inside, and entered a room full of statues and paintings. The citizens, who did not know what this was about, tilted their heads curiously as they watched.

Elsanad’s face dropped as she yelled, “Turn that off immediately!”

She tried to run off the podium, but Ilya grabbed her wrist. From Elsanad’s reaction, Ilya could tell this was going to lead to something worth seeing. The video eventually showed the secret basement door, and the shot continued going downward.

Elsanad screamed her heart out, “Guards! Stop that orc immediately! Stop him!”

Nevertheless, the video did not stop playing.

“...!”

A horrendous truth was revealed.

At first, the citizens didn’t understand what they were looking at. They didn’t know what the scene of the elves and humans who were standing still without a word in the room meant. Once they realized the truth, they were stunned.

It was an unimaginably gruesome scene. The screen was filled with the faces of elves, humans, and children whose smiles didn’t move while Crockta’s line of sight in the video focused on the preserved beings.

Some citizens lost their balance upon seeing this scene. The truth was cruel. A demon who committed even greater sins than mass murder and elf trafficking had been ruling the city.

From a glance, most of the humans and elves in the collection appeared to have aged past their twenties and still seemed like they were alive and breathing.

The shot in the video then dropped to the ground as if the one filming could no longer look at the horrible scene; only their feet and floor showed now.

Then Crockta’s murmur in the video reverberated through the public square.

-This is a tragedy.

It was a sorrowful voice. The screen showed the floor for a while and then it was cut off.

The crystal ball shattered after performing its task.

The video had ended, but no one dared move. There was only silence. It was a public square where everyone was deadly still.

Only the orc moved.

He turned around and spoke to Ilya and Elsanad, the two demons, “Ilya and Elsanad.”

They were still frozen in place.

“Based on the evidence I just presented, I charge you two for your crimes.”

The guards who had gotten carried away by the video came to their senses. They looked at one another and then walked toward Ilya and Elsanad to arrest them. Now, the two elves were criminals instead of mayor candidates.

Elsanad screamed, “This is ridiculous! That’s all fabricated! Just because he has an entry pass to Arnin doesn’t mean he’s an Arnin citizen! A filthy orc who is not even a citizen is accusing me?? That shouldn’t be allowed!”

It was her last ditch effort to resist arrest.

She continued, “You are just an orc! Who are you to pull shit like this? Guards, do you believe this orc over me, the mayor? An orc who is not even a citizen?”

It was futile resistance from Elsanad, who wanted to stall her downfall for as long as possible. Even Ilya, the conspirator, looked at Elsanad with disgust.

However, Elsanad was indeed still the mayor, so the guards paused their footsteps for a second at her command. Then they looked at the mysterious orc who had accused her.

Everyone’s eyes turned toward the orc, but he remained calm.

The orc opened his mouth and said, “Listen, Elsanad.”

It was a gruff and deep voice, characteristic of an orc.

“I receive the same treatment as the citizens of Arnin.” His voice rang throughout the public square. “All of the rights enjoyed by Arnin citizens apply to me as well. It’s a legitimate right I earned through my dedication and service to Arnin. As long as I don’t commit a crime that harms Arnin, no one can take this right away from me.”

He then took something out. It was a small certification plaque that shone under the sunlight. Everyone’s gaze shifted to the certification plaque.

The orc declared, “I am Crockta, Arnin’s honorary citizen, and this was vested to me by Plains Administrator Enyanis.”