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1104: Mysterious Gaze
Fran left the lord’s mansion and immediately started searching for any signs of intruders.
「…A lot of people over there.」
『They must be the adventurers trying to chase down the undead.』
Though we sensed many people moving around the west side of town, they did not seem to be making much progress.
Must still be in the initial search phase.
We considered our next move for a bit at the mansion’s entrance, when Fran and Urushi suddenly took a battle stance.
「…」
「Grr.」
I also focused my senses in preparation for immediately casting magic.
『There’s definitely someone watching us right now.』
（Nn. The same thing we felt outside of town.）
『That gaze, huh…?』
Indeed, we felt someone’s eyes on us for a brief moment as we entered Alessa. Definitely the same person staring at us right now.
At first I thought it might be one of Klimt’s spirits, but no. Both my Spirit Perception and Fran’s intuition denied this hypothesis.
『But how are they doing it?』
The first time we sensed it, the gaze was clearly coming from somewhere outside of town. That means it can’t be the same as the intruder we’re looking for.
The commotion about the undead slipping into town happened long before we got here. Or wait, what if the outsider who spied on us really is the same person as the intruder?
Is it really possible for someone to spy on us here from outside of town? Well, I’m sure there are many ways, but it’s much harder if they have to avoid revealing their location. They’re even somehow getting past Klimt’s spirit surveillance network.
Anyway, we decided to move in the direction we sensed the brief gaze coming from.
Leaving the actual movement to Urushi, Fran and I concentrated on detection. We scanned a wide area with our magic and skills at full throttle.
Despite looking as hard as we could, we found no success. There was the occasional suspicious presence, but it ended up being some random thief trying to break into a house, or an adventurer slacking off.
Those two we simply tied up real quick and left them on the ground. They can be dealt with after everything else is settled.
We felt the gaze again and again, as we tried to track it down to the source. Yet the enemy was still nowhere to be found. They must have fled as soon as we discovered them.
（Just like Esmeralda.）
『Huh? Wait, you’re right.』
It’s just like Fran said, Esmeralda can do something similar with her sand. Basically, if she monitored us using sand under her control, we would sense the gaze coming from that sand. Meanwhile, her main body can remain completely hidden.
（They purposely reveal that they’re watching. Then we get lured in the wrong direction.）
『I-I see.』
If our enemy has a similar ability to Esmeralda, then of course we would find nothing at the source of the gaze. As Fran says, the gaze must be a bluff luring us on a wild goose chase.
『Tch. This guy might be trickier than we thought.』
（Nn. What now?）
『Wait a minute.』
I thought back to the route we followed. We went all over the east and south sides of town, and the Rank C adventurers were gathered in the west side. They’re probably getting lured around by the same gaze trick too.
North was the only side remaining.
That’s also the side closest to Raydoss. Most of the undead were gathered there, so there were also many adventurers defending the city. Even within the walls, it was crowded with people transporting the wounded or various supplies.
I had completely disregarded the possibility, but… such a capable enemy might be able to hide undetected among crowds of lower ranked adventurers.
『North. We try north next.』
「Nn.」
「Woof!」
Ignoring the annoying gaze, we dashed north. With so many people there, it becomes very difficult to sense a particular presence. They always say the best place to hide a tree is in the middle of a forest.
However, both Fran and Urushi had excellent senses. They managed to find a suspicious sign in no time at all. Or rather, things went so smoothly because we had already experienced something similar.
We headed to the place we found suspicious, and that’s when I recognized it.
『This feeling… It’s the same as the time with Hideman.』
（Nn.）
（Woof!）
We all sensed something very similar to Hideman, the Black Skeleton Corps member specialized in stealth we defeated at the capital. Despite something clearly being there, it was impossible to track it down.
『It’s coming from this warehouse. Try some cleansing magic first.』
「Okay!」
We repeated the strategy we applied at the capital, except this time we only used the Area Turn Undead spell.
「NRGHWOOOH!」
「It worked.」
『Hideman…?』
I appraised the undead, and his name was also Hideman. But for some reason, he looked nothing like the previous one. The Hideman in the capital was a much smaller looking zombie, who even had slightly different skills and stats.
「You bitch! Not again, dammit!!」
『He’s self-destructing again!』
「Haaah!」
Hideman immediately activated his self-destruct mechanism to avoid exposing any more information. Fran and I struck him down just like we did in the capital to prevent the explosion, but…
「We couldn’t get anything out of him.」
『Not quite. We’ve learned that Hideman knows who you are, and not from hearsay. This Hideman seems to be the same as the one we found in the capital.』
「I see.」
Perhaps Hideman has multiple bodies that share the same memories, or maybe he can swap bodies to resurrect himself… Either way, this is clearly not the end of him.
A spy of his caliber, and now you tell me he’s pretty much immortal? That’s just scary… Will the capital be okay without us?
First, we should examine Hideman’s corpse. As expected, he wore the same robe enchanted with a cloaking effect. Perhaps these can be mass produced. That said, they seem to at least have a user limitation since Fran couldn’t equip it.
He also had an item bag, which of course, had a user limitation as well. I considered spending the mana to open it, but Fran wanted to prioritize the situation at the walls.
「Let’s go back!」
『Yeah, we should get rid of the undead first.』