Hardcore Military Buff

Carrying the black case on his back, Lorenzo finally returned home after sunset. Mist rose along the way, and the multicolored light filtering through the fine droplets shimmered so dreamily that it left him dazed.

After exchanging a few words with Mrs. Fanrude, Lorenzo went back to his room and locked the door.

Lorenzo took out the only piece of information he had obtained in the Underground Palace that night: an account book. One of the main reasons he had rescued Eve was this book. It had left the Underground Palace with Eve and the boat, so it had been preserved in good condition, with the writing still clear.

Human memory was unreliable. No matter how hard you tried to remember something, you might still forget it in the end—and you might not even realize you had.

That was why every organization needed an account book, one that kept a detailed record of its expenses. Even Sabo's gang was no exception.

His fingers glided over the accounts as he flipped through them. The entries were a mess, and whoever had kept the books didn't seem very professional. Expenses had been jotted down together without any rhyme or reason, while some particularly important transactions had been marked with strange symbols instead.

Lorenzo searched for a long time but found no clues. After thinking it over, he calmly took out a cigarette, rolled with Mandrake Herb. Perhaps the strange Spirit Sight would help him, but he hesitated. His connection to the darkness had undoubtedly grown stronger, and he didn't know what might happen if he took the herb now.

But... what did it matter? When in doubt, smoke a cigarette.

With that thought, Lorenzo lit it. He also opened the case he had brought back from the cemetery. There was more inside than he had expected: besides the sword, there were all sorts of bottles and jars.

He picked up the reassuring sword. It felt like gripping a piece of freezing frost. Drawing a deep breath, he inhaled the Medium's herb and stared at the account book. Then the whole world sank into darkness.

The familiar sound of the surf rang out again. The damp wind carried the scent of the sea. Angry waves slammed against the shore and shattered against the rocks, exploding into white foam.

Lorenzo lowered his head, his expression unusually grave.

The ground beneath his feet was soft, and dead, yellowing grass covered it.

The surroundings were so clear and lifelike that, if Lorenzo hadn't been conscious, he might have thought he had truly arrived in this unknown place.

The advantage was that Spirit Sight let him see more clues. The drawback was that his connection to the darkness had grown stronger.

A ghostly green light shone in the distance before him, like a burning green sun, or perhaps some enormous eye gazing down at the world.

He lifted his head. It was the lighthouse he had seen again and again. Now it stood right before him, its damp, solid surface overgrown with moss and vines. An ominous light glowed from its top. If nothing had gone wrong, the mysterious Sacred Coffin should be inside.

This was the source of it all.

After a brief flash of delight, Lorenzo calmed down. He needed more clues. Inverwig had coastlines everywhere, and there were at least a hundred lighthouses like this one. He needed to find something that could distinguish it from the rest.

But as he looked around, a hoarse voice sounded. A pitch-black shadow loomed over him. Backlit by the green glow, the monster breathed hot air from its bloody maw, like some enormous bear.

Lorenzo wasn't afraid. He had used Spirit Sight many times before. The things he saw contained a little truth, but most of what he saw was still an illusion, caused by the herb and some unknown force.

So it was fair to say that everything before him was an illusion, except for the clues. But just as he thought that, the shadow in front of him attacked. As if testing him, it lazily swatted at him, like it was shooing away a fly.

Instinct warned Lorenzo. He didn't hesitate, raising his sword and slashing at the illusory shadow. Warm blood splattered across his face.

The sensation was so vivid that every hair on Lorenzo's body felt the blood brush his cheek, and electricity surged through every nerve.

Was this real...?

The shadow roared. Its tremendous strength crashed against the blade, and its sharp claws left a bloody gash on Lorenzo's arm. There was no time to decide whether it was real. He swung the sword again, but the illusory shadow dissolved like ink beneath his strike. The entire dark world crumbled away, and the familiar room reappeared before him.

He was still frozen in the middle of his swing, but there was nothing in front of him.

At some point, the tobacco had burned away. His Spirit Sight had ended.

Lorenzo slumped into his chair, drenched in cold sweat. He slowly set the sword on the table. After a long pause, pain flared in his arm.

There was a shallow wound. As if in a daze, he wiped his face, only to find scarlet blood on his palm.

Everything he had seen through Spirit Sight had been real. Just moments ago, Lorenzo had fought the monster from his vision.

This hadn't happened by chance. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

He took a deep breath. A terrible suspicion rose in his mind.

His connection to the darkness had grown stronger—so strong that he could briefly stand in that world for real while using Spirit Sight.

This was no good. As he had told Eve, people and creatures of darkness lived in the same world, but neither could see the other. Now Lorenzo could see them, and they could see him too.

"Damn it..."

Lorenzo cursed under his breath, then thought better of it and moved the sword beside him, hoping it would make him feel a little safer.

It was a standard-issue weapon of the Demon Hunter Order, forged from an alloy and plated with holy silver. It was deadly to Fiends. Since it looked just like a long nail, people jokingly called it a Nail Sword.

One of the main reasons Lorenzo had started using a Cane Sword was that it looked a lot like this weapon. Other than being much lighter and far less effective against Fiends, the two were similar.

"Lorenzo! What are you doing?"

Mrs. Fanrude's shrill voice rang out from downstairs. Only then did Lorenzo realize that his excited swing had knocked over the bookcase. The noise had caught Mrs. Fanrude's attention.

"I fell over! I'm fine!"

Lorenzo shouted back. Mrs. Fanrude was getting on in years. He'd better not drag her into anything involving Fiends.

He righted the bookcase. Seeing the books scattered across the floor, Lorenzo couldn't be bothered to tidy them up. He sat back down, and his gaze suddenly fell on the account book. Its thick pages had flipped to a new one, stained with bright red blood.

Lorenzo thought he had noticed something. He saw that the blood had stained one of the transactions.

It was an address. Lorenzo took out his map, but searched for a long time without finding it.

He paused, then remembered Inverwig's astonishingly rapid expansion. The cities and towns in its territory changed every day. His map was out of date.

As if struck by an idea, Lorenzo grabbed the account book and rushed out of his room, heading downstairs. Mrs. Fanrude was sitting on the sofa, reading the newspaper. Seeing how agitated he was, she took off her thick spectacles.

"Did you hit your head when you fell?"

"No, I'm looking for something."

Lorenzo answered and stood in the middle of the living room. A huge map hung there. The yellowed parchment was marked in ink with mountains and cities, detailing the entire territory of Inverwig. Even secret locations were marked with symbols.

It was a military map from the Glorious War. It recorded far more than Lorenzo's map. You could even find the reserve supplies the Inverwig army had buried underground, as well as cities that no longer existed.

The map should have been locked away in a military warehouse. But when Mrs. Fanrude retired, somehow she had managed to smuggle one out and boldly hang it in her living room.

She said it was a better memento of her military service than any medal of honor. Whenever Lorenzo sat with her in the living room, Mrs. Fanrude would point at different spots on the map and boast, "See? Everything from here to there—I conquered it."

"What are you looking for?"

"An address."

Lorenzo scanned the coastline on the map.

It was a shipment: Sabo had arranged to send a large quantity of food to a town called Ende. Inverwig had countless small towns, but Lorenzo had seen the lighthouse during his Spirit Sight, so he had narrowed his search to coastal towns. Even so, he couldn't find it.

"It's not there..."

After looking for a long time, Lorenzo still couldn't find the town on the map. Just then, Mrs. Fanrude came over.

"Ende?"

Squinting through her thick spectacles, Mrs. Fanrude looked at the map.

"Are you looking for that town?"

"Yes, a coastal town, but it's not on the map..."

"Coastal? Of course it's not."

At the mention of the coast, Mrs. Fanrude immediately had an answer.

"It's not? Why not?"

Lorenzo turned to her, unsure why she would say that.

"Because of the Glorious War. We're separated from Gaunalo by the White Tide Strait. During the hundred-year war, the two sides' fleets fought countless battles. The coastal towns were turned into military bases or moved inland a long time ago. It wasn't until the Glorious War ended, just over a decade ago, that people gradually returned to the coast."

Mrs. Fanrude had lived through the war and knew far more about it than Lorenzo did.

Her withered finger slid over the map as she explained.

"You have to use a book of symbols with a military map. We usually use symbols and numbers to represent locations. That way, even if the map falls into enemy hands, they won't understand it without the book. Look at those triangles. They mark places that used to be towns."

There were no city names, only rows of triangles along the coast, each with a number as a suffix.

Looking at Mrs. Fanrude, Lorenzo considered his question, then asked tentatively, "Ma'am, which town do you think would need food supplied from outside?"

"You mean a supply line?"

"Something like that..."

According to the transaction record, Sabo had spent a great deal of money shipping food to this mysterious town of Ende. The shipment had been dispatched directly from Raindona Port, bound for Ende, whose location was unknown.

"Hmm... probably here."

Mrs. Fanrude pointed to the far edge of the map, on the western side of Inverwig Island. Inverwig hadn't developed the west much; there were barely any railways there.

"Because of the war, Inverwig keeps a very close watch on places bordering neighboring countries, but not the north and west. To the north, there's the northern sea. An enemy would have to take a long detour to attack us, endure the Ice Sea's drifting ice, and contend with those Viking pirates. To the west, there's nothing but open ocean. And our major cities are concentrated in the center. If they landed out there, they'd have to eat grass."

"So it can only be this area. It's far from the major cities, has no port, and even fishing boats don't go there. It can't produce enough food for itself, so it needs supplies from outside."

"Then why not the north?"

Lorenzo was still unsure.

Mrs. Fanrude shot Lorenzo a look, then answered, "Children who grew up in this new age don't know what hardship is. Inverwig's north is covered in snow year-round. Before the new steam engines appeared, the permafrost there was impossible to develop, let alone build towns on. And with Raindona Port expanding in recent years, the north has no value for development."

Listening to Mrs. Fanrude, Lorenzo nodded. His gaze settled on the western part of Inverwig. The triangular symbols weren't densely packed there. Just as Mrs. Fanrude had said, Inverwig hadn't developed much of the west. The farther west the symbols went, the sparser they became, until they disappeared altogether.

Suddenly, one symbol caught Lorenzo's eye. It was outside the land: a town built in the sea.

"Ma'am, do you know what this is?"

It was clearly a triangular symbol marking a town, yet it was out at sea. This was a military map; Lorenzo didn't think it was a simple drafting error.

"Hmm... probably a town that was swallowed by the sea. That happens all the time. Sometimes the water level rises along the coast and floods the low-lying land, but when the tide goes out, it appears again. That's probably why the symbol is there."

"I see..."

It was a strange feeling. Lorenzo hadn't been able to pinpoint Ende's location before, but after hearing Mrs. Fanrude's explanation, he was certain this was it.

He suddenly remembered what Shrike had first told him.

Instinct...

The Sacred Coffin was luring him forward, pulling at his instincts and drawing him toward it.

"By the way, are you planning to go on vacation?" Mrs. Fanrude asked curiously. The west was practically uninhabited.

"Something like that."

Lorenzo answered.

"Hmm... then I recommend taking this route."

Mrs. Fanrude pointed to a dotted line running across the west. It was a railway.

"This is a military route. At first, everyone thought we couldn't win the Glorious War. The higher-ups prepared to retreat west and keep fighting after the southern coast fell. But, as you know, we drove the enemy out of Old Dunling and won the war. Construction on the railway stopped.

"Recently, though, someone developed a tourist project in the west and reopened the line. I think you could use it."

When she had finished, Mrs. Fanrude sat back on the sofa and resumed reading her newspaper. After a moment's thought, she added, "Lorenzo, there are plenty of weapons in the basement. If they haven't got damp, take whatever you need. They're all military-grade, so they're definitely better than the junk those crooks in the Lower District sell."

Lorenzo had just started up the stairs when her words made him stumble.

"What are you talking about?"

"Hm? You think I'd believe your nonsense?"

Mrs. Fanrude looked up at Lorenzo. Her cloudy eyes seemed to see right through him.

"Vacation? You're going on vacation? Who'd believe that? It was Shrike who recommended you as a tenant in the first place! You're going to kill someone, not take a vacation!"

Lorenzo had always thought he'd hidden his intentions well from Mrs. Fanrude. Who would have guessed the sharp old lady had seen through him all along?

"No... I mean... military-grade weapons?"

Lorenzo was stunned. That meant he'd been living above an arms cache for six years without ever realizing it.

The situation was a little awkward. Mrs. Fanrude grumbled, "What? I've earned enough medals to cover an entire wall, but my pension's barely anything. What's wrong with me swiping a few crates of weapons to sell?"

This old lady was more than just a little crazy. Lorenzo had heard of people mooching off the government, but never anyone so brazen about it.

"I thought I'd make a decent amount, but as soon as people heard they were military-grade, all those tough guys and shady characters in the Lower District were too scared to take them. So they've just been sitting there ever since."

Mrs. Fanrude's eyes shifted, and she added one final thing.

"Oh, and Lorenzo, let's get one thing straight: if you die out there, I'm selling everything in your room to cover the rent."

Lorenzo's face darkened. That damned old lady...