The Crown Prince Who Raises a Side Character-Chapter 24: New Adventurer Bern (22). Clue
Looking down at the man who had passed out with his face planted on the floor, Bern let out a dry chuckle.
Lucidra, perhaps sensing the oddity of the situation, asked,
[What’s so funny?]
‘It’s just... doesn’t it seem absurd to you? The area wasn’t even secured yet, and he still tried to hit on Blanca in the middle of all that. Kind of ridiculous, don’t you think?’
[That’s just how men are. Even in the middle of a sword fight, one glimpse of a woman’s skin and their brains short-circuit. I’m telling you, all my outfits are purely for practicality.]
‘Oh ho.’
[...Wait a second. What’s that “oh ho” supposed to mean?]
‘I just figured it was more of a personal preference on your part.’
Half-listening to the self-proclaimed Archdemon screech in protest, Bern picked up the black orb that the man had been holding.
To the touch, it felt like any ordinary glass bead—cold and hard—but the magic contained within it was thick, murky, and oppressive, like clumps of oil sludge packed together.
“Bern!”
Blanca arrived a moment too late, letting out a sigh of relief when she saw the suspect collapsed on the ground and Bern completely unharmed.
“I’m sorry. I tried to catch him right away, but I lost him.”
“No, it’s fine. If you hadn’t played bait in the first place, we wouldn’t have been able to hook him at all. If anything, I should thank you for letting me ride your plan’s coattails.”
Even if she did it to lower the suspect’s guard, deliberately letting a spell take hold of her couldn’t have been pleasant.
And yet, she’d willingly put herself at risk. Bern felt a genuine sense of respect for Blanca.
At Bern’s unreserved praise, Blanca turned slightly red and changed the subject.
“It—it wasn’t much. More importantly, what’s that orb?”
“It’s something this guy was carrying. I have a rough idea of what it is, but let’s save the details for later.”
Bern lifted his foot from the man’s abdomen, letting the body rise into the air, and grabbed him like a sack of cargo.
There was still a lot to do before sunrise.
***
“Ugh...”
“Are you awake?”
The manor’s drawing room.
The man, now conscious, opened his eyes slightly and scanned his surroundings, exhaling in hollow resignation.
He was tightly bound to a chair.
All his tools had been confiscated, and three adventurers surrounded him, each eyeing him sharply. There was no way out.
“You spread those fake rumors just to lure me out, didn’t you?”
“No. If you hadn’t shown up, we had a backup plan to track you down anyway. Frankly, either way worked for us.”
The man’s eyes twitched.
If the red-haired adventurer was to be believed, that meant the sky-blue-haired mage was just as monstrous as the redhead.
He considered the possibility that they were bluffing, but the redhead spoke with an air of stating the obvious.
“Now then, I’m going to ask you a few questions.”
“You really think I’m just going to talk?”
“Where are the women you abducted? Are they still alive?”
The man winced as the redhead ignored his defiance completely and continued on.
But then, he relaxed into a smug expression.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
“Well. What I can say is this—if anything happens to me, those women’s safety won’t be guaranteed.”
—So if you care about the hostages’ safety, don’t even think about harming me.
The man tried to take back control with his veiled threat, but what he got in return was far from what he expected.
“I see.”
The redhead simply nodded with a blank expression.
“Blanca. Looks like it’ll be difficult to rescue the victims.”
“Right. Then I’ll just write down that this man already killed them all.”
Scribble scribble.
Watching Blanca calmly jot notes with her pen, the man suddenly felt like the ground beneath him was crumbling.
“Then, what was your motive for doing this?”
Without a care for his state of mind, Bern moved on to the next question.
But the man couldn’t just let it slide.
“Hey, it seems like you didn’t quite get what I said, so let me explain again. If I don’t send a signal by a certain time, my colleagues back at our base will kill all the women. So untie me—”
“Hmm. I think you might be misunderstanding something.”
Bern cut him off and replied flatly,
“We’re adventurers. And our request was to ‘capture the culprit behind the disappearances,’ not ‘rescue the kidnapped victims.’”
“......”
“Understand? Whether the women you took are alive or dead doesn’t really matter to us. Of course, if we save them, we can negotiate a bonus with the lord who hired us, so that’d be ideal. But judging by how this territory is run, I doubt the lord would offer much of a reward even if we succeeded.”
The man almost nodded without thinking.
Even to an outsider, it was clear that the lord of Frencia wasn’t the type to open his purse for the sake of his people.
“Going back and forth with you—testing wits, playing mind games—it’s all a waste of time and energy. So let’s just say you killed all the victims. That way we don’t have to bother with pointless searching or rescuing, and we can just wrap this job up cleanly.”
Not worth the money. Too much of a hassle. So let’s just consider them dead.
Every word from Bern’s mouth was spoken with chilling indifference—as if they weren’t discussing human lives at all.
The man felt something cold begin to slither up his spine.
It was a sensation he hadn’t felt in ages—not since he’d met his mentor and grown stronger.
That feeling had a name.
Fear.
“Anyway, we’re assuming the victims are all dead. Moving on—what about your motive and whoever’s behind this? Got anything to say? Maybe a nearby lord ordered you to do this, or someone paid you to ruin Frencia?”
“I, I—”
“Hmm, sounds like a no. Then I’ll write ‘no clear motive’ in the report.”
“Boss, don’t you think we should at least give him a chance to talk?”
“Is there any point? Honestly, even this Q&A feels like a waste of time.”
“If he ends up cooperating, we might be able to use that to negotiate for a bigger reward.”
“Hmm. Blanca, what do you think?”
“Well, unless this turns out to be a huge case, I doubt it’ll affect our compensation much. There’s no guarantee he’s telling the truth either. If we act on false info and waste our time, we lose out on other potential requests.”
“Hear that, Renya? Let’s just stick to the original plan.”
“Tch... can’t be helped. Understood, boss.”
Money. Profit. Gains.
Every word from the adventurers was about that—nothing else.
Human decency, morality, honor, pride.
They’d thrown all that away a long time ago.
The man’s gaze turned to the report Blanca was steadily writing.
That report.
What happens once it’s finished?
The redhead, Bern, didn’t seem to care about his answers at all.
If anything he said happened to be interesting, great. If not, they’d just write down whatever suited them.
This content is taken from fгeewebnovёl.com.
So there was no reason to torture him or threaten him.
But... was that really a good thing?
If these people didn’t care about the lives of the hostages, would they care about his life?
More importantly, if he slipped up and said the wrong thing, that report could end up being completely false.
As that realization sank in, the man’s face went pale.
This wasn’t the time for negotiation.
The red-haired man’s questions. As he continued, the man was certain that once those questions ended, his life would as well.
His mouth opened in desperation.
“W-wait! I’ll tell you everything! Everything! I have information that will interest both you and the guild! If necessary, I can testify in front of others, I can—I will!”
***
‘Huh, I didn’t expect this little bluff to be so effective. I underestimated his mental strength.’
[Well, I don’t think even the strongest person could resist talking after that.]
The arrogant man’s attitude flipped as easily as flipping a coin. The confidence he had in trying to take control of the situation evaporated, and in its place was a man babbling away about everything—even things that weren’t asked—desperately trying to speak.
According to him, he had originally been just a mediocre, independent wizard.
But then, a “master” appeared before him. This master gave him power, but in return, he demanded a continuous supply of sacrifices.
At this point, Blanca furrowed her brows and asked,
“Sacrifices? Does that mean the women you’ve already kidnapped are all dead?”
“N-no, not necessarily. For the ritual my master is preparing, it’s crucial to offer multiple lives at once.”
That meant they weren’t to be killed before the ritual—at least not until it was time for the offering.
Bern then asked,
“Were you the only one collecting sacrifices?”
“No. My master’s disciples are spread across the Birka Kingdom. Each with their own methods, but they’re all contributing sacrifices to my master.”
Over fifty young women had gone missing in just this area of Frencia alone. If this was happening all over the kingdom, the total number of victims would be unimaginable.
This raised more questions.
What kind of being was this “master,” and what kind of ritual was he preparing that required so many sacrifices?
“That—”
The man was about to say more when suddenly...
Whoooooooom!
The black orb Bern had recovered began shaking violently and, with a force that pierced the leather pouch around it, shot into the air.
As if it had unleashed the magic sealed inside, it released a terrifying amount of power and quickly transformed into a black sword, aiming straight for the man’s neck.
Or rather, it tried to.
“Predictable, too predictable.”
By the time Bern drew his own sword and blocked the attack, the man’s neck would have been pierced.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The black sword flew through the air in erratic paths, attempting to impale the man, but Bern—unfazed by the unpredictability of the strikes—deflected every single one of them with perfect precision.
Whoooooooom!
Realizing it couldn’t defeat Bern, the sword seemed to change shape, turning into a massive beast that charged straight for the man.
Even if Bern were to slice the beast with his blade, its massive size and overwhelming momentum would crush both the man and Bern in one blow.
But Bern shattered that expectation easily.
As soon as he understood that the beast would keep charging even if struck, he grabbed his sword with both hands and swung it like a baseball bat, sending the creature flying.
As the creature flew through the air, it tried to shift shape again to continue its assault, but Bern didn’t give it any chance to attack.
Bern’s sword traced dozens of trajectories.
His blade danced through the air with overwhelming precision, each strike cutting through the beast’s form, not just slicing it, but compressing its form into nothingness with an almost crushing force.
As everyone stood in stunned silence at the sheer overwhelming nature of Bern’s technique, he clicked his tongue in mild dissatisfaction.
“My arm’s getting numb.”
Even though his skills were specialized in one direction, reproducing techniques that the Crown Prince used in his original body had its limits.
Despite using less of his aura and reducing the output of his attacks, the recoil from the strikes was still enough to make his body feel it.
However, unlike the opponents he had faced before, the shadow beast had proven to be a tough one—even Bern couldn’t take it lightly.
There was no real chance of losing, but the fact that an important informant’s life could have been at risk bothered him.
‘It’s a classic trope—the villain about to reveal important secrets, only to be interrupted by the shadowy mastermind. I really don’t want to experience that firsthand, though.’
Having completely taken care of the shadow beast, Bern turned his attention back to the man.
“Continue what you were saying.”
The man’s lips trembled.
Though he felt like his legs might give out under the gaze of Bern, fear of upsetting him made him speak {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} up.
“My master’s name is... Mortius. Mortius Varmore. He’s a lich trying to ascend to a new level through a ritual involving the sacrifice of thousands.”
Blanca’s eyes widened in shock.
