Overpowered Reincarnation Perks! - Chapter 17.2
While the stairwell looked a bit bleak with its roughly stacked bricks, the underground space was quite spacious and pleasant. The ceiling was quite high, so it didn’t feel cramped at all despite being underground.
The floor tiles were neatly cut, and the walls were lined with embossed decorations. Below them, water flowed along narrow grooves, which were carved in geometric patterns and converged at the center.
The large fountain was right in the center.
‘It’s similar to what I saw in the square.’
There was a flower bed next to the fountain, with well-tended colorful flowers in full bloom.
They must be shade-loving plants, as it would be difficult for flowers to grow in a basement.
“This way, please.”
Dienes guided me to a table a bit away from the flower bed. Unlike the one I saw in the drawing room upstairs, there was a wrought iron table and white chairs suitable for an outdoor garden.
Wine and some light refreshments were prepared on the table.
‘Fruit candies are one thing, but wine?’
This person is a commander, isn’t he? Is it okay to drink while on duty? The state of this castle is getting more ridiculous by the minute.
He might think that having a drink will help us speak frankly, but drinking here would be suicidal.
‘There might be something in it. I shouldn’t touch the wine or the candies.’
Dienes pulled out the chair for me to sit comfortably. He seemed to have basic manners, but I couldn’t let my guard down.
This man seemed to have left his common sense somewhere else, no matter how I looked at him.
As I sat down, Dienes walked to the opposite side and took his seat.
“So.”
Dienes cut to the chase without any formal greetings.
“In exchange for handing over the bodies of the deceased and guaranteeing the safety of the two men, what can you offer me?”
“The safety of this castle.”
I don’t intend to drag this out either. I need to lay out what I have to offer, negotiate quickly, and leave this place.
After all, interest in a stranger doesn’t usually last long. I need to make Dienes agree to my demands before he gets bored with me.
“I have the ability to create a shelter… a safe zone that prevents monster attacks. Of course, not enough to protect the entire castle. Just because the castle’s control has disappeared doesn’t mean monsters will all flock here at once. And conveniently, the commander has gathered monster hunters to this castle—”
“Dienes.”
“Pardon?”
“My name is Dienes.”
Introducing ourselves in this atmosphere?
“I’m Ju-in.”
“I know.”
Come to think of it, I did mention it in the prison. He remembers that I was the intruder from back then.
“It’s a unique name, hard to forget.”
“I hear that a lot.”
Here, that is.
“Did you, Ju-in, kill the lord to become the lord of this castle?”
So why do you keep thinking I’m the lord’s murderer? I don’t even know who the lord is!
“Why do you keep accusing me of being the culprit when you have no evidence?”
“It’s a hunch.”
A man’s hunch?
I recalled Dienes’ skill that I had confirmed through insight.
[Intuition Lv.8]
- The ability to always find the truth among unclear and false clues. However, it’s uncertain whether it’s the main cause that led to the current result.
- The ability to always find a way to solve problems without making mistakes in any complex causal relationship. However, it’s uncertain whether it’s the most efficient method.
“……”
I want to get angry that he’s just guessing without evidence, but I can’t protest because the skill is the evidence.
“I’m not the culprit. I don’t even have the ability to harm anyone in the first place.”
I did bash the guy who tried to molest me with a hammer, but I’ve never harmed an innocent person.
“If you didn’t kill the lord, there’s no reason for you to target this castle, is there?”
“The cause and effect are reversed! I didn’t kill to get in, I came in after hearing that the lord had died. To protect people!”
I slammed the table in excitement. Of course, the iron table was fine, and only my hand hurt. Feeling like I’d lose if I acted like it hurt, I gritted my molars and trembled.
Dienes’ expression softened a bit. Seeing his lips curl up slightly, he must find my reaction amusing.
If I’ve piqued his interest by sacrificing my palm, it’s not a bad deal.
“In the first place, the commander.”
“It’s Dienes.”
Does he dislike being called commander? He keeps correcting me to use his name.
“Ah, right. If Dienes hadn’t made such a strange plan, we wouldn’t have infiltrated the central palace to set fires and destroy the warehouse.”
“Strange plan?”
“The monster attraction operation! That crazy plan to turn monster hordes into a collective with those brass buttons! Do you know how dangerous that is?”
The monsters gathered in the village at the foot of the mountain were only about a dozen, but once they became a collective, they were strong enough to crack stone floors.
If it’s a collective of hundreds, crushing buildings to dust would be nothing. Not only would it be impossible for humans to face, even escaping might be impossible. Even if you hide in the mountains or caves, if they attack that place, the whole area would collapse.
“I know.”
“…You know?”
Dienes blinked slowly. A sign of affirmation. As I understood that, I felt a chill down my spine and my blood run cold.
“Did you plan such an operation on purpose?”
It was strange.
Bringing me, an ‘intruder’, locking me in prison, and leaving me to die without proper interrogation, or asking me calmly if I was the culprit without any emotional fluctuation, even though the lord had died.
‘It said that he wasn’t interested in the survival of the people in the castle. Despite being the commander.’
I thought he was mentally ill, brainwashed, or something, and didn’t have the luxury to think about others, but maybe this man’s lack of basic humanity is for a different reason.
“Knowing that if the monster collective becomes too strong to respond to, this castle will be destroyed and people will die en masse.”
No, perhaps even further.
“Did you plan such an operation with the intention of destroying the castle?”
“Destruction?”
“I’m asking if you weren’t trying to eliminate monsters before the castle’s control waned, but rather trying to attract monsters to damage the castle’s control.”
Because the lord fell ill and the control weakened. Thinking that if the castle is attacked by a monster collective now, it will collapse.
No matter how I think about it, it’s not an operation set up to protect the people in the castle. Is it really as Callion said, that Dienes planned to betray the lord? And in the meantime, someone beat him to it and killed the lord, messing up the plan?
Dienes was staring at me quietly without any change in his expression. Feeling creepy, I leaned back, and he opened his mouth.
“There’s one weakness of the monster collective that you don’t know about.”
“Weakness?”
“As the body swells, the outward strength increases dramatically, but the inside is in a precarious state. Because the core stones that were attached to different bodies are all jumbled up together.”
Just as a car runs on the power of fuel, monsters move by the power of core stones. When the source core stones temporarily clump together, the power increases exponentially, but it’s only the surface that gets stronger.
“It means they’re extremely vulnerable to internal attacks. So fragile that even a light impact can easily break them.”
“Even so, the outside is harder than steel. How can you attack the inside? Even if you shoot a cannonball into its mouth, it would be crushed inside.”
“Monsters eat humans.”
