Turning Chapter 1088

Chapter 1088

What did it mean that its appearance was the same as Kishiar but the energy it possessed was the same as Yuder? Seeing Yuder's confused face, Kishiar said that he also wanted to talk again after organizing his thoughts a little more.

They left the bedroom with their own thoughts. Everyone was already seated and waiting in the conference room.

As soon as he entered, Yuder's gaze was first drawn to the pile of miscellaneous items on the table. Judging by the bracelets made by threading stone-like objects with color, papers with strange patterns drawn in dried blood, dark red ropes, and small farming tools, those seemed to be the items sold by the ones who had impersonated the Shuden Trading Company.

Yuder narrowed his eyes and stared at them, then strode over. As he abruptly picked up one of the items on the table, he felt the sensation of everyone's gazes being focused on him.

'...As expected.'

"The items here, they weren't complete fakes."

The retainers who heard Yuder's words, uttered as if making a declaration, showed surprised expressions.

"No, how do you know that just by looking at it...?"

"We only found out after bringing it and showing it to an expert in monster byproduct processing..."

"I can distinguish them."

Unlike the retainers, those who had come from the Cavalry's Northern Branch had calm faces. They also didn't know how Yuder had distinguished the monster byproducts just by looking at them. It was just that they had the thought firmly ingrained that it wouldn't be surprising no matter what Yuder Aile did.

'If it's Yuder...'

'It's good that he's faster than the person who was said to be an expert in byproduct processing. It's convenient.'

However, seeing that attitude, the retainers misunderstood that Yuder had more tremendous abilities that were not known to the public. The gazes of those who had only felt that he was just a quiet young man while knowing his achievements in their heads changed, as they had never directly seen Yuder using his power.

Regardless of that, Yuder was lost in thought while roughly running his hand over the other items.

'Most of the items contain some specific material... probably something like monster bones and blood. It doesn't seem to be a mixture of different types, but byproducts from a single species...'

They looked like low-quality fake junk on the outside, but that wasn't the case. In Yuder's view, these were items made by hiding and mixing some genuine monster byproducts into cheap materials.

'Seeing how cleverly they mixed it to the point where even experts would have a hard time noticing, I can feel a dirty intention.'

However, Yuder, whose weakness was monsters, could immediately tell whether these items were real monster byproducts or not through the feeling of losing strength as soon as he touched them. Yuder tightly gripped the bracelet hanging on his finger and applied force to crush the bead.

-Crack...

Although he had to crush it with pure strength without his ability working, fortunately, it broke well in an instant.

The inside of the broken bead was empty. However, a subtle sensation he had felt before slowly crept in.

'This is...'

At that moment, Kishiar, who had approached Yuder's side, naturally took the broken bracelet while gently waving his other hand.

"Hmm. It contains an unpleasant magical power."

In an instant, the ring he was wearing shone, and the subtle sensation Yuder had been feeling disappeared as if washed away. It was partly because he felt better after removing the bracelet made of monster byproducts, but it was a little different from that.

"Did you just say... magical power?"

Denny asked with wide eyes. Kishiar nodded and raised the bracelet he had just taken so that everyone could see it well.

"Yes. The monster byproduct included in this item is not an ordinary byproduct. It contained a little unpleasant magical power inside."

"Ah... could it be a byproduct that can be used as a substitute for a medium?"

"They put that expensive thing in all these cheap items? Even with magical power added?"

As expected of the people of Peletta who made money by processing monster byproducts, they quickly understood Kishiar's words.

"It may be considered expensive by monster byproduct standards, but by magic medium material standards, it's one of the cheapest. Although it's difficult to obtain this byproduct in our North, it's relatively easy to obtain in other countries. Compared to things like a dragon's heart piece or bones, its efficiency is infinitely low, so it's not very popular."

'As expected.'

Yuder recalled the dragon bone products that the southern merchants who had self-destructed and died in the South had possessed before. That item, which looked like a piece of black stone at a glance, was a medium for magical power and had the effect of deliberately causing rapid changes in the magical power of the surrounding area, triggering anomalous cracks.

'Then the subtle sensation I felt just now was also magical power.'

Although it wasn't visible to the eyes, Yuder's magical power detection had been keen enough to amaze mages since before. It seemed that he had felt the faint magical power remaining in the bracelet.

"My lord. I don't quite understand what it means to contain unpleasant magical power. Can these items having magical power put in them be... something bad for us? I heard that magical power is originally spread throughout this world, not poison."

"Yes, as you said, normal magical power is not originally harmful to us. However, it's a different story for magical power that has stagnated in one place for a long time. At the end of being concentrated, it becomes spoiled like stagnant water and has a negative impact on the surrounding environment. I have encountered such magical power in the West before. The magical power I just felt was very similar to that."

"Oh my..."

Yuder recalled the 'Magic Spring' that had made the Great Sarain Forest endlessly expand.

"In other words, what they put in these items is a kind of rotten water. As the items are used more and more, it will gradually flow out and spread, and when it covers the entire North like dark clouds, what will happen?"

"..."

"Whatever it is, something bad will happen to us."

"And you mean that's the strange cracks."

"I think so."

The eyes of the Peletta retainers who heard the answer turned grim. Of course, Kishiar's eyes weren't very gentle either. The man, who had a chilly smile on his face as he turned to Yuder, asked in a low voice.

"Now. Since we've confirmed it for sure, there's nothing more to see. Right?"

"Yes."

The intentions of those who sold them were very clearly imbued in those miscellaneous items. They had put a small amount of impure magical power into items made with magical power mediums and sold them throughout the North.

In fact, how much would the feeble magical power contained in those small items amount to even if gathered together?

However, even those magical powers could grow someday if they kept gathering and gathering.

Perhaps the ones who had impersonated the Shuden Trading Company had sold those items with the intention of waiting long enough for that. However, the suddenly appearing Kishiar and Yuder had unexpectedly given a shock to it, causing the anomalous cracks to appear much faster than anticipated.

'In a way, it might have been better to quickly detonate it before it grew.'

"From now on, we will collect and destroy all of those items. We will also have to thoroughly search for the whereabouts of the merchants who sold the items. Were there any new findings?"

"It's not certain, but there was a rumor that a wandering merchant group heading to Apeto was seen two days ago."

"Apeto."

Apeto was the main territory of House Apeto.

'Of course they won't be cooperative.'

However, neither Kishiar, Yuder, the Peletta retainers, nor the Northern Branch Cavalry members showed any signs of tension.

"Just go and search. I'll have to write a letter to Revlin."