The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

Chapter 160: Suspect Isaac (4) - What an Ordinary Person Can Do Dull the bright blonde hair with dust, making its light dim. Dirty the white skin with soot, take off the pipe and detective hat, then put on plain cloth clothing. The always confident and straight posture becomes hunched. The bold gait becomes somehow like someone watching their surroundings nervously. The gaze that seemed to pierce through others becomes hazily downward. In just a few dozen minutes, Isadora had completely transformed into a different person. "Well then... I'll be going..." Seeing Isadora who had even completely changed her speech pattern and voice, Isaac couldn't help but admire her inwardly. 'This is no ordinary skill.' There are many means to change a person's appearance: wigs, masks, special clothing, and so on. But all that Isadora had separately prepared this time was at most a set of worn cloth clothing. Yet even so, the disguise was near perfect. She looked young enough to not even reach the level of a new member of society, and from her small hunched shoulders, wariness and fear toward her surroundings clearly emanated. She had instantly caught the type of person that back-alley thugs would target and thoroughly acted out that appearance. It would have been impossible unless she normally observed and remembered people's postures, speech patterns, gaits, expressions, and such in extremely minute detail. As Isaac secretly hid his body and followed Isadora, before long the culprits revealed themselves like insects drawn to a lantern. Because the distance was considerable, he couldn't know exactly what they were talking about, but it was clear that words like 'work,' 'introduction,' and 'cut' were being exchanged. Isadora perfectly acted out 'a victim who is very anxious and suspicious but so desperate that she ends up being deceived,' and they began moving to a secluded path with few people's eyes. Isaac quietly followed behind. *** "Come on, get in this carriage. We'll take you to your workplace." Isadora looked at the vehicle that the thugs who had dragged her here were pointing to. The thugs called it a carriage, but one shouldn't think of the sort of thing that nobles rode around in. Its appearance, like a rectangular basket on wheels with roughly made roof and walls, was clearly a cargo wagon for freight, not something for people to ride in. There was even an iron door attached to the entrance, giving it an appearance that encouraged all sorts of ominous imagination in the viewer. Several children who had been dragged here by the thugs like Isadora seemed to sense the ominous feeling and tried to back away. "I, I just want to go back." "Huh?" Whack! The answer came not in words but with violence. At the blow that was more like striking than slapping, the child who had spoken rolled on the ground, and the other children who saw this froze. "Don't be troublesome and get on quickly while we're being nice about it. Hm?" When the one who seemed to be the leader of the thug group growled, sobbing sounds echoed among the children. Before the man who was irritated by this could raise his foot this time, Isadora cried out as if frightened. "I, I'll go! I'll go so don't hit me! Y-you all hurry up too!" Isadora pushed the sobbing children's backs and forcibly made them board the carriage. It was an attitude as if she was afraid that if the children hesitated unnecessarily, she might also suffer harm. The thugs giggled saying there was a quick-witted girl, and the man even tried to smoothly place his hand on Isadora's shoulder, but soon frowned and stepped back upon seeing the soot and dust covering her clothes. "Tsk, hey. You go to the supervisor and mention my name saying you want to wash up. If you wait quietly, I'll come find you later and help you out. Got it? It's Tolendo. Don't forget." "R-really? Thank you, thank you...!" "Haha, yeah you should be grateful. We're opening up a path to survival for you." Tolendo laughed, seemingly pleased by Isadora's constant bowing, and some children directed gazes mixed with disappointment and contempt toward such an Isadora. Once all the children boarded, Tolendo's gang locked the back door of the cargo wagon and covered it with a tarp, and the children had to sob in the pitch-black darkness without knowing where they were going. Eventually, when the exhausted and collapsed children could no longer even make crying sounds. Finally, the tarp was removed and light leaked into the darkness. Of course, what awaited them in the light was far from salvation or kindness. "Come on, get out quickly! We'll beat the hell out of any brats who dawdle!" At the sight of men holding clubs and whips and repeating threats, the children hurriedly lined up as instructed. Isadora also pretended to comply with them while quickly surveying her surroundings. It wasn't very difficult to figure out where this place was and why they had gathered the children. '—As expected, it was a coal mine.' In the Cardian Republic, the mining industry was one of the very promising sectors. This was because what the current government was actively pushing was steampunk—that is, various technological revolutions using steam engines. Some claimed it was because magical civilization dependent on individual talent didn't fit the republic's ideology centered on equality and freedom, but Isadora knew the truth. The Revolutionary Government led by the Premier didn't reject magical civilization because they disliked it. If they had truly rejected it for ideological reasons, they wouldn't have made efforts to draw the talents from Sky Academy to their country after its collapse. The reason they were desperately pursuing technological development that didn't require mana was simply because they lacked the foundation to revive the nation with magical civilization. Sword aura, swordsmanship, mana cultivation methods, secret techniques. All sorts of techniques that used mana were monopolized by that country's upper class, and the republic had lost a considerable number of those upper-class members during the revolution process. '…Well, once they actually introduced steam technology, it did fit the republic's constitution better than most magical techniques, but that's not what's important right now.' The most basic element of a steam engine is boiling water to turn turbines. Among these, the act of boiling water requires coal, and creating turbines or machines that use turbines as power sources requires metal. To businessmen, mines were treasure vaults that continuously spewed out wealth, and the most useful tool for thoroughly plundering these treasure vaults was not shovels or pickaxes, but human beings themselves. Among them, children were very highly efficient tools. Their small and nimble builds allowed free movement even in narrow and low coal mines, they could be worked for much lower wages than adults, and unlike adults who tried organized resistance by forming unions and such, they were relatively obedient. In that sense, child labor was an act equivalent to a basic skill for the republic's mining businessmen, but it seemed the owner of this place was someone who had gone one step further. "From now on, this is your home and your workplace!" "Don't worry! Those who fill their entire quota will be sent back! We'll pay all the back wages at once too!" "However, we won't forgive anyone who runs away! Not only the person themselves, but those in the same group will also be punished, so grit your teeth and stop them!" Hope torture to prevent them from becoming completely desperate and fighting back. Threats through violence and divide-and-conquer using collective responsibility. They said such things, but none of the children working here would actually be able to return home. Most would die from poisoning in the mine's characteristically harsh environment while working, and even if they somehow survived for a long time, they would be sent out for show to the remaining children, then actually be quietly disposed of behind the scenes. An ant lion's den itself, full of intent to exploit naive children down to their very bones. However, if what the criminals were after was ultimately the exploitation of labor, there was a high possibility that the children who had gone missing just a few days ago were still alive. "Hey, you girl there! What are you dawdling for! Move quickly!!" "W-well, someone called Tolendo told me to wash up first." "…Tsk, hey! Move this girl to Barracks 3!" "…Yes. You there. Come this way." A girl with no life in her eyes but whose features themselves were youthful guided Isadora with a gloomy atmosphere. While continuing her frightened act, Isadora fell into thought. 'By the way, I wonder if our assistant followed properly?' Since he got involved in some large-scale crime from his very first day of work, he probably isn't feeling comfortable right now either. It would be really nice if he just got scared and ran away like this. *** "Hmm." Isaac crossed his arms as he looked at the scene spread out before his eyes. Wire mesh serving as fencing installed to surround a certain area, and signs like 'No Entry' and 'Private Property' hanging from wires here and there. It was a scene where a law-abiding citizen should immediately turn around and leave, but the problem was that his employer had been dragged beyond that wire mesh. "Well then, what to do." Isaac analyzed the current situation extremely logically through cold reason. He could not use mana. In a situation where the Crown Prince didn't have many available resources anyway, he had completely excluded mana-related functions that wouldn't be used properly anyway, using as a counterexample how Hamel, who had clumsily retained mana-related functions, had been beaten even by street thugs. He could use neither sword aura nor magic, and all he had was just 'an excellent body by common standards.' Firearms seemed to exist within the republic, but since the government strictly regulated their distribution, they weren't something an ordinary person like Isaac could get his hands on. In other words, without any special abilities or weapons, he had to charge into a place crawling with enemies—at least a dozen visible to the eye, with the actual scale possibly several times that number. After calmly savoring all of this, Isaac stepped forward without hesitation. "Damn, this horse shit smell is fucking awful. How long do we have to play coachman?" "Bear with it a bit. I heard government engineers are developing carriages that run on steam without horses these days." "You believe that? Naive idiot." "What's so impossible about it... Hey, hey, yo! The horse is running away over there!" "Huh? What? W-wait! Why is that! Stop!!" -Neighhhhhh! The thug group that had been chatting near the wire mesh entrance were startled by the horse suddenly attempting to flee and ran out in alarm. They had definitely tied it securely to the carriage, so they couldn't understand why the hell it was acting up like that. If they had been a bit calmer and more careful, they might have noticed the shadow of a man hiding in the carriage's blind spot, but unfortunately their search dice didn't smile upon their owners. And the price of a fumbled investigation roll was painful. (E/N: Critical miss) Thwack! Whack! Even an ordinary person can tamper with a carriage while others are distracted. Even an ordinary person can deal critical damage by striking someone's back of the head with a wooden club. Even an ordinary person can search through a fallen opponent's belongings to secure keys and hide them out of sight. Yes, these were all things even an ordinary person could do. "I can't declare I'm giving up on work from my very first day." Isaac decided to make an effort in his own way as an 'ordinary office worker.' It seemed like the Greater Demon in the shadows was cursing him not to act recklessly, but it must have been his imagination.