“Ugh! What’s this smell?” Sebastian immediately pulled up the collar of his shirt, where a mask was attached. His mask seemed to have a slight filtering effect, but Claire and Jayad recoiled from the stench, backing away repeatedly.
Surprisingly, Sherris and I, the two girls at the forefront, showed no reaction. I even leaned forward, cautiously observing the basement with my magic wand, afraid of any enemies ambushing us at the entrance.
Moreover, this foul odor was somewhat familiar, like a mixture of fermented feces and decaying corpses. I think I had smelled it before.
At this moment, Sebastian put a mask on Claire, while Jayad conjured a shield of Holy Light around himself. Only then could they barely filter out the stench and enter the basement.
Their masks carried a scent, as if sprinkled with a special perfume. It seemed Sebastian had anticipated such a situation and prepared a perfume to ward off the smell in advance. He had been prepared these past few days.
“What is this place?” Jayad asked, looking around. This basement was quite large; perhaps “cellar” would be a more fitting term. The walls were adorned with rusty knives, kusarigama, iron hooks, cleavers, and more.
On the wooden table lay a chopping block and a stuck cleaver. Although there was no meat displayed nearby, there were bloodstains, black and red, everywhere. Combined with the stench, it created a grim atmosphere.
“It feels like a slaughterhouse, or a butcher shop, but then again…” Sebastian glanced at Sherris, and considering her racial identity, he asked with a playful tone, “Is this your home’s kitchen? Or perhaps a restaurant for ghouls?”
“No, although it could be said to have been, this is the Master’s cellar, and also where he used to raise ghouls,” Sherris replied.
The Master’s cellar? Did she mean Pierce? And Moore had occupied Pierce’s current home. And this somewhat familiar stench… Right! I remembered now. This was the same stench that wafted out when Moore opened the door the last time I saw him. It was almost identical.
“Is this Moore’s house?!” I immediately questioned. I originally wanted to shout, but I suddenly realized this might be the enemy’s main base, so I lowered my voice.
“No! This is the Master’s home. That despicable Outsider just occupied it!” Sherris said somewhat agitatedly.
“Alright, alright, I understand. Don’t get agitated. Do you want the enemy to discover us? It took me quite an effort to dig a tunnel here,” I quickly soothed Sherris.
“Yes, Sister Sherris, we all understand your desire for revenge. But if the enemy finds us, all our efforts will be in vain,” Claire also comforted her.
Claire always had a way of making people feel comfortable around her. Coupled with her cute appearance, innocent personality, and melodious voice, she made people trust her easily and lower their guard.
This might also be the reason Sebastian insisted on bringing her along. Taking a little girl to such a dangerous place was precisely to rely on her social skills and unique intuition in specific situations.
And now, under Claire’s appeasement, Sherris calmed down. She also knew clearly that excitement would lead to failure.
“Let me organize the current situation. This was Pierce’s former home, now occupied by Moore. Pierce used to summon and feed ghouls here, right?” Sebastian began to summarize the intelligence with the professionalism of a detective.
“You are certainly familiar with this place, Miss Sherris. You brought us directly into the enemy’s basement. Are you hoping we can directly raid and kill Moore?”
Faced with Sebastian’s question, Sherris did not reply directly but essentially defaulted to an affirmative. She felt she would surely be reprimanded.
However, I unexpectedly said, “It’s not impossible, but I hope you’ll tell us your target before making this plan, so we can prepare for combat.”
“Huh?” Sherris was somewhat surprised. Her actions were no different from betraying her teammates, yet I agreed.
“With the entire village fallen and Moore clearly being the culprit, a decapitation strike is feasible. However, to ensure the success of such a desperate action, necessary intelligence and combat preparations are essential. I hope you can trust us more. At least, our goals are aligned now.”
I had noticed before that this little girl was exceptionally cautious and didn’t really trust us much. She stopped us outside the village because we still had some value.
She had originally planned to dig a tunnel to the basement she was familiar with to assassinate Moore. Even if we hadn’t come, she would have done it alone. Therefore, she hadn’t told us her plan at all, only using us as pawns.
Sherris’s idea was probably that by the time we dug through and discovered something was wrong, it would be too late. We would have no choice but to fight Moore’s cronies, while she would go to assassinate Moore amidst the chaos as originally planned.
The biggest problem with this plan was whether Sherris could assassinate Moore alone. My assessment was not optimistic. When I learned that Moore was likely a believer of Xath’gwa, and considering the sense of danger I felt when I last met him, I suspected Sherris might not be his match.
However, conversely, Sherris was definitely not just a newly awakened half-ghoul as she claimed. We shouldn’t underestimate her combat power.
Even I knew Moore’s danger. Sherris, as a local, whose parents tried their best to outwit Moore but were ultimately annihilated by him, should understand Moore’s danger better than I did.
Her choice to attempt a solo assassination surely meant she had some confidence in her ability to defeat Moore. At least she likely had a theoretical trump card to kill Moore, which she simply hadn’t told us.
Sebastian and I exchanged a glance. He had already figured out what I had: this feeling of having to outwit one’s own teammates was truly troublesome, especially when facing such powerful enemies.
“I understand,” Sherris nodded. Whether she truly heeded our words, we did not know.
Fortunately, there was no one in this cellar. We first checked the surroundings. Sebastian soon made a discovery: “There’s a magic circle here, and it doesn’t seem to be activated yet. Miss Sherris, can you tell if this magic circle was left by Pierce?”
The place was covered in bloodstains; even the floor was blanketed with pieces of viscous black and red stains, making it feel like stepping onto a horror movie set.
And beneath a layer of bloodstains, a magic circle could indeed be seen carved into the floor. The grooves still faintly glowed red, making it impossible to tell if it was new or old.
“This wasn’t here before. It must have been carved by Moore later,” Sherris said.
