The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief in Exile - Chapter 63

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 63
Ian said, “My way of doing things risks giving the enemy a chance to counterattack.”
“If there’s even a shred of consciousness left, they can fight back. So you have to kill them in one stroke, before they can do anything else.”
I nodded at his serious advice.
‘He’s not wrong about any of it.’
Every word was sound reasoning.
‘But with my abilities right now, isn’t that beyond my reach? I can only open and close…….’
Even as I mulled it over, I continued searching the Research Facility.
Fortunately, we’d rescued all the victims.
But we still hadn’t uncovered the true purpose of the research, nor had we found the Demon that had been Summoned.
“Ian.”
In the end, I made a suggestion.
“Let’s grab a few of them and interrogate them.”
“Yeah, that’ll be faster.”
Before we’d entered the Research Facility, Verity had done everything she could for us.
One of those things was the fist-shaped pouch that both Ian and I now wore at our waists.
The pouch was actually a Subspace Pouch, and inside it was an Enhanced Truth Serum that Aunt Elba had made.
We’d grabbed two researchers we encountered during our search and dragged them to a nearby sealed room.
I used my ability to block one of them’s Ki, knocking them unconscious, while I made the other drink the truth serum.
“Gack, khak……!”
The moment the Enhanced Truth Serum took effect, the researcher was in agonizing pain.
“It feels like she made this by peering into some monster living in the depths of her own psyche…….”
Aunt Elba had said that she’d abandoned all morality when creating this drug.
‘She wasn’t exaggerating.’
Blood vessels bulged across their entire body as if about to burst, and the researcher’s eyes turned crimson in an instant.
‘But honestly, I don’t feel much pity for them.’
The pain they felt now was less than half the price they deserved to pay for what they’d done.
“Now we’re going to play the up-and-down game. I’ll say something, and you tell me whether it’s above or below this floor. You’re not stupid, so you can do this, right?”
“Gack, khak……!”
“Records Preservation Chamber. Above or below here?”
“B, below……!”
“Ian, what floor are we on right now?”
“Basement Level 2…….”
“This, this floor……!”
“…….”
“…….”
Ian and I were both at a loss for words.
“Sick bastard…….”
That was all either of us could say.
‘Why are you responding to being called that!’
This piece of garbage, who looked to anyone’s eye like he was days away from turning forty-eight, was truly a sight to behold.
“……Then it must be Basement Level 3.”
Ian, having barely regained his composure, let out a bitter, scoffing breath.
“Basement Level 4 is where they were keeping the victims imprisoned, according to what we heard.”
“Good. So the Demon and the Angel—above or below Basement Level 2?”
“B, below…….”
“……Tell me exactly where the Demon and Angel are.”
“B, Basement Level 3, the deepest part, the deepestttttt……!”
As the stammering researcher answered, blood vessels bulged grotesquely across their neck.
“Gack, khaaagh……!”
Unable to breathe, they clawed desperately at their own throat, convulsing violently until they finally collapsed to the floor, writhing like a trampled insect.
Then they stopped breathing.
“The deepest……the deepest…….”
I stared at the corpse, muttering to myself.
“Deepest…deepest…words starting with that sound…….”
“The Inner Sanctum.”
At Ian’s words, I snapped my fingers.
“Basement Level 1 is for equipment storage, Basement Level 2 has researcher quarters and private research labs. And Level 3’s Inner Sanctum must have the main research lab.”
“The Demon and Angel must be there too.”
“Looks like someone’s guarding that place.”
We woke another researcher we’d knocked out for verification and made them drink the truth serum.
“B-Basement Level 3…!”
We got the same answer as before.
I rummaged through the dead researchers’ clothes.
“Huh.”
I found something curious.
It was a pentagonal Bronze Badge.
The badge bore different patterns on each side. On one was a clenched fist gripping tight, and on the other were two diagonal lines spreading progressively wider from top to bottom.
‘What is this?’
I showed the Bronze Badge to Ian.
“That’s an access card.”
“An access card?”
“When you hold it up to the entrance, the badge spins quickly and you see an optical illusion where the patterns on both sides merge together.”
“Does that do something important?”
“Just for show.”
This Research Facility really does pick the most pointless projects.
“By the way, the Mage Tower Master designed this thing.”
“Right, you mentioned the Mage Tower Master made a contract with a Demon.”
A worthless insect like that will be crushed eventually by Ribie when she becomes a Grand Sorcerer.
At the top of the stairs leading down to Basement Level 3, Ian and I reviewed our final plan.
“According to Verity, there are thirteen suspected Demons currently summoned to the Empire.”
This was intelligence we’d obtained by interrogating some general-class Demon we’d met on our first trip to Deste.
The information from a skilled Warlord-Class Demon had high credibility.
“Of those, only one has access to High-Level Curse Magic.”
Verity called this Demon “Necro.”
Necro was an infamous radical supremacist even among Demons—possessing considerable power, yet deeply resentful of a Demon ecology that caters to the wishes of lesser beings.
“A fool who wants to do whatever he pleases but refuses to take responsibility. Unfortunately, there are many like this among the younger Demons lately.”
“This one is unemployed, but his father works at the tower where Forbidden Magic is stored.”
“His father is a sincere and good Demon. A classic bureaucrat type.”
“Tsk, he was even up for promotion this year……”
Verity genuinely lamented how the father suffered for his son’s misconduct.
This unfilial wretch’s ability was Storage.
Anything meeting certain conditions could be stashed in a designated location and retrieved later.
“According to Verity, this ungrateful brat even secretly smuggled out one of the facility’s weapons.”
“His father has bigger problems than promotion now.”
“With a son bringing such shame to Demons, he can’t face anyone at work.”
If only Demons were present, the two of us would fight together.
But if both a Demon and an Angel were there, that Demon was mine to handle.
For reference, Verity had divided our roles.
“Havi, or rather, Hebenia……”
“Just call me Havi.”
Havi was originally the nickname Clavis used to call me.
Having studied abroad in Korea for so long, where nicknames felt unfamiliar, I’d grown accustomed to being called Hebenia.
But hearing my brother call me “Havi” in that dream—it felt oddly ticklish.
‘I’ve been secretly hoping for it since then.’
For the villagers to call me “Havi.”
“Being called Havi makes me feel like we’re really family. It’s nice.”
“…Now, of all times?”
Ian chuckled softly and stroked my head.
But his smile faded quickly.
So did mine.
“Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
Our footsteps echoed heavily.
* * *
The shared research lab on Basement Level 3 was crammed with all manner of equipment and books.
Ian and I stuffed the important-looking items into a bag connected to a Subspace Pouch.
‘Grandfather the herb merchant said he needed equipment for his research.’
So we gathered what we could—Graduated Cylinders, Beakers, Droppers, everything.
But the path deeper in was far from pleasant.
True to a facility dedicated to studying immortal human weapons, corpses and skeletons lay bound throughout the research chambers.
Some areas were drenched in vivid crimson, viscous liquid.
Others were packed densely with bleached bone.
“Havi, look there.”
In the research chamber Ian discovered, medicinal herbs were piled like mountains.
The herbs that the Imperial Court had supposedly purchased were here.
‘Were they transported to the capital and then sent back here?’
So we arrived at the deepest part of Basement Level 3, the innermost sanctum where all research materials and demons were presumed to be housed.
[Records Preservation Chamber]
Two crudely designed doors typical of a research facility, and a silver handle.
And an authentication-type lock installed to the right of the door.
Ian held the Bronze Badge that he’d been carrying instead of me up to the lock.
Then the Bronze Badge floated gently in midair and began rotating at high speed.
‘Sigh, I genuinely hate this kind of inefficient showiness…….’
Wait.
My head tilted slightly to the side as I watched with clouded eyes.
‘That’s…….’
As the Bronze Badge spun rapidly, the patterns engraved on both sides merged through an optical illusion, creating a strange image.
‘Divine Light descending?’
The beams of light commonly said to pour down from the sky—a natural phenomenon commonly called Divine Light.
‘Ah, so those two diagonal lines that kept spreading were that.’
A fist receiving Divine Light, then.
‘But I still don’t get it?’
My head tilted involuntarily once more.
‘If I strain to interpret it, it’s either a fist chosen by God…….’
Or a fist that stands against God.
‘That’s not Middle School Syndrome—that’s pseudointellectual drivel.’
Either way, neither appealed to me.
The rapidly spinning Bronze Badge abruptly stopped, and with a click, the silver handle rotated with an audible turn.
Ian caught the falling Bronze Badge with quick reflexes.
Creak—
The Records Preservation Chamber door swung open.
The interior was lined with enormous iron bookshelves fitted with glass doors, stretching endlessly. Inside, documents and books were densely packed.
Ian gave the glass door of one bookshelf a gentle nudge with his sword.
But it didn’t budge.
The Bronze Badge had the same effect.
“Should I try opening it? With my abilities?”
“We don’t know what mechanisms might be in place, so let’s not act rashly.”
“Then…….”
Our eyes naturally turned to another door at the far end of the Records Preservation Chamber.
Given the circumstances, the demon must be behind that black door with the “No Entry” sign.
‘So in the end, it’s like Verity said—I’ll need to capture the demon like a rat and twist its limbs until it breaks before we can touch any documents.’
I faintly heard Verity’s aggrieved voice: “Huh? I didn’t ask for anything quite that extreme?” But I simply ignored it.
Tap.
Then Ian tapped my shoulder.
Ian’s expression as he stared at the black door was ominous.
“Two of them.”
Thanks to steady training, Ian’s sensory perception had developed to Monster-Class level, allowing him to detect presences beyond the door.
In other words, both the demon and an angel were here.
“Damn it.”
Cursed Clavis!
Facing his own house’s annihilation, assigning such a trial to a seven-year-old youngest sibling—what kind of insane bloodline was this?
‘I genuinely want to cry for the first time in ages……!’
But thanks to this irritation, there was no room for fear.
‘Not that I was ever afraid in the first place.’
Was fearlessness really just a signature Clavis trait?
“So…….”
Ian, standing before the door, grasped the handle.
“Open it?”
“Yeah.”
The moment Ian opened the door, I threw up a Protective Barrier.
But nothing happened.
We stepped inside slowly.
The restricted access zone of the Records Preservation Chamber was a vast, cavernous hollow carved with precision from the bedrock beneath the Facility.
It was so utterly unlike the typical laboratories we’d passed through that the contrast was jarring.
In the middle of that barren cavern.
Atop a columnar dais of the kind used to display sculptures.
A muscular man with bronze-colored skin sat at an angle, one leg propped on the platform, the other dangling.
“Hmm.”
The man rested his chin on the knee of his raised leg and let out a strange laugh.
“So he really was alive?”
Young Clavis.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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