Chapter 15: The Sewer War God!

“Calm down, Kalia!” Roland ignored the suited man at the door, who had been almost executed by Kalia, and instead tried to soothe her trembling form.

Only after hearing Roland’s voice did Kalia seem to come back to her senses, collapsing into a seat and gasping for breath, her magic dissipating the shadow spears she had conjured.

As the man’s body hit the ground, the city guards patrolling the street noticed the commotion inside the café and rushed over at full speed.

Leading them was the same officer who had come earlier that morning to notify Roland.

Upon seeing Roland present, this trusted aide of Odmeyer quickly grasped the situation.

After Roland and several eyewitnesses briefly recounted what had transpired, the city guards took the man’s corpse and the revolver and left.

In truth, Roland had not been unaware of the man’s presence.

He had modified the communicator to function like an alarm.

He knew the enemy wouldn’t be foolish enough to transmit through this device, now a captured war trophy, but by tracking reverse signals, he could detect when others carrying the same communicator came near, triggering an alert.

Although the effective range was limited to thirty meters, it sufficed.

The plan he made with Odmeyer was for him to circle twice near the five marked locations on the map — which was why he chose to bring Kalia to the café near the city guard headquarters first.

He hadn’t anticipated that those madmen would arrive so quickly.

But more than the safety concerns, Roland cared most about Kalia’s mental state.

“Are you alright?”

“…Yes.” Kalia replied softly, then fell silent again.

With the incident resolved, the café was preparing to close temporarily. Roland led the somewhat dazed Kalia outside.

Passing the suited man’s corpse, Kalia suddenly spoke, “I guess what I did counts as a good deed, right?”

“Of course it is. That man was a notorious lunatic across the continent. Even the demon clans see the Chaos Brotherhood as a thorn in their side.”

“After all, even the demon lord, powerful enough to slay gods, only sought to rule the world.”

“But the Chaos Brotherhood aims to destroy it. They’ve existed for so long, like cockroaches—kill one wave, and more will emerge from the shadows.”

“A little-known historical fact: during the Demon Lord Wars, when humans and demon armies fought fiercely, both sides tacitly agreed on one rule.”

“To exterminate the Chaos Brotherhood whenever discovered, even sharing intelligence to that end.”

Roland patted Kalia’s shoulder. “Relax. Because of your actions, many might be spared the disasters this man would have wrought.”

“Including you? He had a gun pointed at you just now.”

Roland chuckled lightly. “Want the truth?”

“Of course.” Kalia’s tone had begun to lighten.

Her ability to self-regulate surprised Roland somewhat—and made him curious about what role she might have played if he hadn’t received the system warning and reported to the capital early. Why had the Empire labeled her an involved party? Why hadn’t Flam, her legendary mage teacher, intervened?

As the events unfolded, although Roland had pieced together the general course of the disaster, more mysteries—especially surrounding Kalia—only multiplied.

Roland glanced at Kalia, waiting for a response, then decided to set these less important questions aside for now.

“Actually, even if you hadn’t acted, I could have dodged. You just moved too fast.”

“Hmph, bragging! Without me, you’d have been shot!”

“Yes, yes, thanks to Miss Kalia’s help. Want some more snacks?”

“Don’t try to change the subject! By the way, can I really eat more? That was quite expensive just now.”

“No worries. You sneaked out without paying, so it’s practically free.”

Hearing this, Kalia was speechless. “I thought you were an honorable person. Didn’t expect you’d skip out on the bill!”

“I’m neither honorable nor a good person. Just someone with a normal sense of right and wrong.”

Roland turned to Kalia. “What, want me to go back and pay? If you insist, I could.”

“Pfft, I’m not doing that. Once you escape, there’s no going back!”

Kalia’s mood gradually returned to normal as she suddenly remembered something. “What was it you wanted to do when you left earlier?”

“Want to come along? I don’t think you’d like the place.”

“Don’t underestimate me! When collecting potion ingredients with the old lady, I’ve been to plenty of disgusting places—like the swamp lizard’s lair… Ugh, just thinking about it makes me shudder.”

Kalia hugged herself, trembling, recalling the scenes she’d witnessed.

Roland had heard of swamp lizards but none lived near Riscann. Their habitat couldn’t be pleasant.

After a shiver, Kalia turned to Roland. “So, what is it? Just tell me!”

“We need to verify some intelligence, possibly hidden by Odmeyer.” Roland began searching for a sewer entrance. “For that, we have to go into Riscann’s sewer system.”

“S-Sewer!?”

“Scared?” Roland smirked. “If you are, go home now.”

“I only followed you because I thought you wouldn’t dare confront those assassins. But now I see you’re far stronger than me in a straight fight. No wonder you’re a witch.”

“Who says I’m scared? It’s just a sewer!”

“Stubbornness isn’t a virtue.” Roland turned into a narrow alley.

Having lived in Riscann for over a decade, Roland knew the city’s layout well.

Just down this alley was an entrance to the sewers.

Riscann’s sewer system was complex, with many entry points for maintenance.

To keep main roads clear, these entrances were hidden deep within backstreets.

Only locals like Roland knew their exact locations.

Even he couldn’t claim to know them all, but one was enough for their purpose.

After all, he was going down to find rats.

“Last chance. You can still back out.”

Roland stood on the sewer cover and turned to Kalia. “If you’re coming, step up.”

Kalia stuck to her stubbornness and jumped beside him. “Shouldn’t we lift the cover first before going down?”

“That’s naive. If the cover moves, the city’s monitoring devices will detect it. The Inspection Bureau and city guards would swarm here.”

“Then how do you plan to get down?”

“Hold my hand.”

Silently obeying, Kalia grabbed his arm.

“One, two, three... Flash!”

“?”

With those words, they vanished instantly.

When Kalia opened her eyes again, she was inside the sewer. Roland thoughtfully cast his max-level illumination spell to light the way.

But seeing the filth and vermin all around, regret began to set in.

“Rats! Aaaaaaah!”

With a piercing scream, Roland’s light was swallowed by darkness as countless shadow spikes erupted into a bloody massacre within the sewers.