The Extra's Return

A young soldier wearing armor on several parts of his body came out from inside the city gate.

"Hey, it's time we changed shifts."

The young soldier said to the one old soldier who had been standing in front of the city gate. He reminded him to change shifts.

When the old soldier who had been standing guard in front of the city gate heard the voice of the young soldier, to take turns in guard shifts, the old soldier's eyes immediately opened wide.

Even though his eyes had originally been almost tightly closed due to sleepiness while carrying out guard duty, but as if hearing a voice coming from heaven, his strength came to gather in his body when he heard that his guard duty was over.

He had the night shift, hence, it was only natural that he was already sleepy. And right now, the sun was about to force its way to the surface, signaling that his guard duty time was over.

While yawning, he said to the young soldier who came over to him, "Hoam. It's really cold here. I want to hurry home and hug my wife. Then do 'that' all I want."

"What did you say? How dare you say that. Are you mocking me, damn it."

"Hahaha. That's why you should find a wife soon too. We don't know when we'll die, so it would be a shame if we die without ever feeling the warmth of a woman."

"I can hire a prostitute without getting married!" The young soldier who had just come to take turns guarding the city gate said irritably.

"Ooo, you bastard..." The old soldier put the young soldier's head in his armpit. "Wait, someone is coming."

"What? At this time?"

The chatter of the two soldiers guarding the gate was interrupted when they both noticed the arrival of someone. There was one person who came from outside the city gates, where the age of the person seemed to be in their teens.

***

I managed to leave Fier mountain.

Continuing to walk west, I finally saw a town. At the town gate, there were two soldiers wearing full armor. They were the guards of the town gate.

One of them was an old soldier and the other was a young soldier.

I came walking up to them. But they immediately had strange expressions.

They had been rubbing their eyes as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Before I approached them, they rushed over to me and tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey, kid. Are you okay?"

Their tone of voice indicated that they were worried about me.

Seeing that their eyes were focused on my body and my clothes, perhaps they were worried because I was wearing tattered clothes?

I didn't think that I would make them react like this if only from that.

"Hey, is it possible that this child is a kidnapping victim? Isn't it rumored that many children have been missing recently?"

"It's possible."

The young soldier had whispered something in the old soldier's ear. Although he had whispered quietly, I could still hear what he had said.

'Kidnapping, huh?' I could vaguely understand what he meant.

However, in order to directly enter the town, I took my ID card from a pocket tied around my waist, then I showed my ID card to the two of them.

I didn't want to be interrogated by the two of them about the kidnapping matter they were discussing. If they interrogated me first, it would take a very long time.

When the two of them saw my last name, which was written on the ID card, they realized that I was the son of a nobleman.

It's a good thing this place isn't Earth, where information flows slowly. If information flowed quickly, it's likely that the lord of this town would have assigned soldiers to intercept my arrival.

Because of my status as a noble child who had run away from home, some other nobles could kidnap me and use me as a tool against Baron Warwick.

"By the way, I'm not a victim of kidnapping or anything. I just fell down, that's why my body is full of wounds."

With a makeshift excuse, I walked past the two soldiers.

Before actually entering the town, I asked the two soldiers who had been guarding the gate about the rumor that many children had suddenly disappeared.

But both soldiers looked stupid. "The tentative guess is kidnapping. There's also the hypothesis that high rank beasts or monsters are running around exterminating people." That's what they said.

'Hmm. It's already started, huh.'

***

The town I stopped at was called Impel Town.

The location of this town is a little further west from Fier mountain.

The condition of this town is very different from Ryam city. Ryam city, which despite holding the title of city, was not too densely populated. However, this town was the opposite.

Although this town was smaller than Ryam city, I saw that the settlement here was very dense. Maybe that's why the people look so crowded.

People had been walking on the road which is probably the main road of this town.

Before finding an inn, I stopped by a clothing store. I bought some shirts, pants, underwear, and some other necessities. After changing the shabby clothes I was wearing, I walked out of the clothing store.

I walked out of the clothing store wearing a black robe that wasn't too flashy. The robe I bought and wore was a robe commonly worn by ordinary people.

While looking for an inn, I bought some street food and put it into Inventory.

Unlike Ryam city which had only a few inns, as far as I could see, this city had several inns. Although not many either.

After I paid money to one of the innkeepers, then I entered the inn's room.

Throughout my journey in this small town, many people seemed to be talking about rumors of kidnappings of children up to the teenage years.

Although they weren't sure if it was kidnapping or something else, it was a fact that many people, especially children and teenagers, were disappearing.

I was also warned by the chief of the village I stayed at before going to Fier mountain.

He said there were many incidents of people disappearing around this area. And he had told me to be careful.

Seeing that a small rumor about kidnapping children spread from around Fier mountain, it seemed that the beginning of the upcoming event started from this area.

As I thought about the kidnapping of children, I looked at Nya Nu, whom I had just taken out of the Stigma of Darkness.

As if he understood what was reflected in my gaze, he shook his head that only contained a skull.

"Master, it was not my doing. I have never needed a human as an experimental material."

He immediately denied that the rumors of people disappearing had anything to do with him.

"Don't worry. I know it's not you."

Nya Nu did not need human experimental subjects because the purpose of his research was to transplant the Dragon Eye into the body of a Demon.

He often captured monsters for experimentation, including Goblins or others, but I knew that he had never been involved with humans on this continent.

He is the true definition of the word hikikomori.

Ignoring Nya Nu, I lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling while thinking, 'I know exactly what, who, and how this is going to go.'

This case would be the main event that would make Jullian a Hero.

If the event where the appearance of an evil character using the Sword of Fear had been an insignificant event in the novel, then the event of the kidnapping of the children would be a very important event.

An opening event of the novel with the title, Rise of the Hero of Light, that event became a stage where Jullian was established as the main character. That's the rough outline of the children's kidnapping case..

But, what would make the incident so unfortunate was that people would have forgotten about the death toll from the incident by the time Jullian rose to become the Hero of Light.

People would only focus on the rise of a hero.

'Do I have to save people?'

No, I'm not a hero who would be moved just because the children disappeared.

I'd rather think of a way that I can capitalize on such an event.

After all, this incident still hasn't reached the climax. The number of victims is still too small to be heard by important people.

'I'll wait for the fire to get a little bigger.'

"Mmm... Master, what do you need from me?"

In front of me, Nya Nu was scratching the back of his skull. His eyes kept staring at the back of my hand, where the Stigma of Darkness was. He had asked me as if he didn't want me to get him out of the Stigma of Darkness. Was it so comfortable inside the Stigma of Darkness?

"You can use camouflage magic, right?"

"Ugh! Even though I have the title of The Great Magician, but my current strength has dropped way down..."

"So, are you unable to use camouflage magic?"

"I-I can, Master. But the magic I can use right now can only fool ordinary humans."

"That's fine. Go out and listen to the rumors about the kidnapping case! If possible, you should find out about when and where each suspected kidnapping took place."

"Ugh! Alright, Master."

"You don't need to exert yourself. Remember, you only need to escape when you detect danger."

"Hahaha. You don't need to worry, Master. I won't be in any danger. Even so, I am a Lich known as The King of Undead. Only you, Master, can defeat me. I'm sure all the creatures in this world will fall under the Curse Magic I cast-"

"Nonsense."

"...."

Oops! I accidentally cut off the intro he was doing.

He's shocked skull face was a beautiful sight in itself.

Without waiting for him to respond, I gave him instructions.

"My point is, I don't want you to start an unnecessary battle. Just focus on finding information."

"...Yes, Master!"

As soon as I finished giving instructions, I sent him away. Then he disappeared behind the window of the inn. Before he disappeared as quickly as lightning, he replied curtly.

Is he cranky?