I could see the confused expression on the swordsman's face. Just a second ago he was fighting against a single kid. But suddenly, two other individuals appeared right in front of him.
"I'll leave him to you two!" I yelled out as I started running away.
"Oh, no, you won't!" The swordsman quickly closed the distance between us and swung his curved sword.
Thankfully for me, Gola got in between us and blocked the blade with her shield.
"Don't worry, mister. I'll make sure you're not harmed!" Gola called out as she tackled the man with her shield.
As the man recoiled from that shield bash, Tinalara quickly followed up by leaping at him.
It's best if I leave them to deal with him while I take care of other issues.
...
As I ran down the hallway, leaving the fight behind, I began entering different rooms and discovering that there was more to the products used in the drug than just dryad branches and spirits.
The rooms had some... questionable things inside them.
One looked like one of those fridge rooms that store meat on hooks, but it contained a strange kind of meat.
Another had a giant, thick glass enclosure filled with purple slime monsters inside.
It may be a waste of time, but I need to do something first.
"Sheiran, Rachnera, come out!"
Both the goblin boy and the spider monster emerged from my cloak.
"What can we do, mister?" Sheiran asked.
"Sheiran, make sure Rachnera consumes that meat and the slime monsters. I want to put a stop to this drug's production right now."
Even if I stopped the people involved in creating G.R.D., the ingredients could still be taken and used by others.
"Kay! C'mon, Rachnera!" Sheiran called out as Rachnera followed closely.
"If you need help, Rachnera is strong enough to protect you. But if it's too much, call for some backup," I said in a worried tone.
"Rachnera is super strong, so I don't think I'll need it. But I'll keep an eye out," Sheiran replied, raising his hand to his forehead like a soldier receiving an order.
Seeing him, I couldn't help but rest my hand on Sheiran's head and pat him.
"Make sure to stay safe, kid..." For some strange reason, I felt a paternal emotion inside me, despite still being so young.
Before I left, I realized something very important.
"Sheiran, Rachnera shouldn't eat everything. Make sure she leaves at least a small amount untouched"
"Why is that?"
"There has to be some evidence that the crime happened"
Otherwise, Kaida's group would've been fighting for nothing.
...
Once I left Sheiran and Rachnera alone, I searched for the room where the fairies should be held captive.
"This weirdly does feel like the game right now," I muttered to myself as I ran down the hallway.
Deploying the units and moving them around the map in separate groups formed by individuals with compatible roles and synergy.
Also, the thief either goes alone to open up the chests—that's their only use—or with a unit that can defend them.
Another reason thieves were considered bad, as their combat abilities were poor. It's also why Enyoll triumphed as an archer with the unique skill to open chests; he was someone you could leave alone without worrying about him dying.
I stopped in my tracks once I reached the last door.
"This has to be where the fairies are..."
With trembling hands, I gripped the handle of the door and slowly opened it.
"Haaa... ruining my fun, are we?" An obese man, sitting on a chair behind his desk, sighed.
I froze when I saw what was inside.
The whole room was filled with creepy, bug-winged dolls hooked on the tables.
On the shelves stood jars and glasses containing more of those dolls. But these ones were different—those dolls were faintly moving.
"You're the one behind all of this!" I exclaimed as I looked around the room.
The dolls looked eerily realistic. When I touched one nearby, it felt exactly like touching real skin.
"What are these?" I demanded, drawing both my daggers. "Where are the fairies?"
"You seem at least slightly knowledgeable about our business. Okay, I'll bite. Those are compress dolls," the obese man said, still sitting behind his desk while one of the dolls squirmed on top of it.
"Compress dolls?"
"A long time ago, fairies existed in our world. Beings created by the nine elementals to watch over Terra, and, just like them, made purely of elemental mana.
Long ago, when the dragons broke through their gate with their Dragon God to annihilate our world, every kingdom united to fight. In the end, we turned to the fairies for help. But they refused, saying they were just spectators, that they had no power or will to aid us." The boss explained while toying with his knife, sharpening it.
"But we were losing the war, and fairies—pure mana creatures—were valuable to humans, demi-humans, and elves. So... we used them. In those times, they were called batteries. Perfect for letting even the weakest human, unable to use mana, infuse weapons or cast minor spells."
That's a part of Terra's history. A side I know too well thanks to having played [Dragon's Roar].
"In the end, fairies couldn't hold it any longer. Saddened and disappointed in humanity, they tore their bodies apart and became pure mana—spirits. Undetectable to any race living in Terra."
"However, just because we can't see them doesn't mean they don't exist. And the higher-ups worked hard to create the perfect way to bring fairies back."
"The Grandr Root Dust. The drug you freaks have been developing."
"Exactly! Darn, you know a lot about the underworld of Terra. You're not someone affected by [Dark Eclipse], are you?"
[Dark Eclipse]... a dark group of evil people. The main villain group alongside the Montanev kingdom. Their goal is to bring back the Dragon God from the dead.
"I know way more than you'd expect."
"They're geniuses, aren't they? Developing a drug that uses fairies, organs from the two strongest weres—werewolves and weretigers—dryad branches, and purple slime secretions to create a drug that should drive anyone to the next plane! Genius!"
"This drug is far more than you can handle. I don't know how high you are in [Dark Eclipse], but you certainly don't know the full story."
Truth is, the drug is still in early development. Meaning all this business and experimentation causes nothing but pain and death.
"I've only been told the basics so I can produce it. I'm just a man from an ordinary group."
"Then you know how you and your whole group are about to end?" I asked, pointing my daggers at him.
"Hm... look at this..." he lifted the squirming doll on his desk. "A compress doll, truly an invention from the future. The skin, blood, and fluids are harvested from slave farms in Montanev—old people, adults, kids, babies, everything works. The insides are bones crafted from sturdy monsters, and the organs are from insect monsters."
"What are you getting at?" I asked. The man held his knife next to the doll's leg.
Then, the doll looked at me. Its expression was painful and empty. Its eyes dripped red liquid down its cheeks. It raised its hand toward me. Its body was mangled, a leg missing and bleeding the same red liquid, covered in burns and punctures.
"Kill... me..." it whispered hoarsely.
"You lure fairies into a chosen location—the methods weren't disclosed to me—and then you trap them inside these dolls. Bam! They have physical bodies again," he said, teasing the doll's leg with his knife.
"You mean that..." I could barely speak, frozen by the realization.
"Exactly! Our providers gave us ten fairies to turn into G.R.D. We've already finished with five, and I was in the process of turning this little one into materials."
"These little guys are critical, you see. Being pure mana is what lets the drug reach the effect [Dark Eclipse] wants. Say, boy, do you know how they were used as batteries in older times?" He asked, pressing the knife against the doll's chest.
"I'll take your silence as an answer. Death! Fairies release so many mana particles into the air when they die that you can use them to power spells!" He then let the doll—no, fairy—drop hard onto the desk.
"And we can extend it by keeping them on the edge of death. Look!"
He slammed his arm down on the desk, stabbing the fairy's only remaining leg. Blood gushed out like a fountain as he twisted the knife in the wound.
"Ahhh!" the fairy screamed, though weakly. Its throat couldn't keep up with the cries of pain from all the torture.
The doll glowed for a moment, then sparks of electricity burst around her. The man sealed the fairy inside a jar, trapping the mana inside.
"Apparently this process has something to do with outer mana, but I don't know what that is," he said calmly, as if he hadn't just tortured a living being—wearing a creepy smile the whole time.
"..." I was completely frozen. My fist clenched into a fist as I watched that man torture a fairy.
In the game, this method was never disclosed. The only character that knew something was the captain of the Golden Troupe—Lila Varsem—who later becomes an enemy boss due to her corruption.
"I'll kill you!"