Chapter 1193: Origin of the Superhumans

We began our interrogation, which went smoothly since the man’s heart was already broken.

Though he tried to mix in lies on a few occasions, he turned honest after a suitable punishment.

As a result, we managed to learn a lot.

Their goal was apparently to sacrifice everyone in the nearby villages. The guy we captured didn’t know the details, but the orders were clear. They were to ma.s.sacre everyone.

Another crucial piece of information was that this army had come from the east.

In other words, they’re here on the East Conquest Duke’s orders. We asked why they were invading the territory of their supposed ally, the South Conquest Duke, but the man didn’t know the reason. They were just following orders from the higher-ups.

However, the East Conquest Duke was widely known as a madman, so many whispered that he might start a civil war someday. The squad captain simply followed his orders without any knowledge of the full picture.

I guess this supposed alliance was only superficial, and the East Conquest Duke was eyeing his neighbor’s territory the entire time.

So the civil war has already started?

I thought the East Conquest Duke was busy fighting the Kingdom of Belioth, but it seems that front had devolved into a stalemate. He apparently dropped a floating island on Belioth to seal away any chance of an offensive.

『You mean the floating island that was home to the heavenly dragons? How did they make it fall?』

「T-They said it was because of destroying the core or something like that… I don’t know the details!」

Did they infiltrate the island, sneak past all the dragons, and destroy the core before without getting found? Maybe they blasted it with a super powerful attack from the outside? Either way, it couldn’t have been easy.

Belioth must be in complete chaos right now. Which means the East Conquest Duke can ignore them and focus on internal affairs.

That’s not good for us.

We continued the interrogation and ended up learning their future plans.

（So they’re heading west.）

『Yeah, our village is in trouble.』

Apparently, there’s other squads aside from the one we found, and they’re all headed west. We need to return to the village and evacuate everyone.

And then, the man dropped a big bombsh.e.l.l.

『A whip-using adventurer from Kranzel? You mean Amanda?』

「I-I never heard their name! All I know is there was a report about that adventurer being repelled by the Superhuman General!」

We already knew that Amanda was partic.i.p.ating in Kranzel’s fight against the East Conquest Duke. Though I didn’t hear much news regarding her, there were no reports about her being defeated.

It seems Amanda caused significant casualties to the Raydoss side, until someone known as the Superhuman General deployed and “repelled” her.

The choice of words here is pretty vague.

Not killed, not defeated, not captured, but “repelled”. It says nothing about Amanda’s current condition.

This Superhuman General must be pretty powerful if they’re the supreme commander behind all these superhumans. They apparently managed to beat Amanda single-handedly, even if they prepared some sort of counter for her, which means they’re definitely at least equivalent to a Rank A adventurer.

Must be the East Conquest Duke’s secret weapon.

Furthermore, we learned that the soldiers who lost their sanity were products of the East Conquest Duke’s experiments. A mad experiment called the Superhuman Project, aimed at enhancing people through a combination of surgical procedures, drugs, and magical tools.

They’ve apparently been conducting these experiments on criminals, volunteers, and slaves for years. While they struggled to create the perfect super soldier, they did manage to produce a large number of failed soldiers.

In fact, they saw an opportunity in these enhanced soldiers without sanity, and switched to researching the best way to control them.

And they managed to make it work.

By using the whistle sound we heard earlier. They can control the entire army by infusing mana into orders given by the whistle.

The guy we captured had a higher-up who possessed this whistle. It seems that’s also who managed to detect us.

「Our commander goes by the codename of “Windwolf”, and he’s one of the real superhumans…」

There’s apparently four of these legion commanders, all of whom were successfully created superhumans. This Windwolf was supposedly a small man with the appearance of a wolf-like beastkin.

He gained the power of a monster called a Emerald Wolf after getting infused with its monster factor.

Though Windwolf was apparently one of the weaker superhumans, his ability to manipulate wind made him excellent at scouting and use of the whistle. He was given the largest legion due to this talent.

I found it hard to believe, but apparently the Windwolf Legion consisted of over 20,000 superhuman soldiers.

And all of their members were spread around this area. Just how many lives have they taken…?

（Is Amanda okay?）

Fran muttered her biggest concern.

We don’t know the details of what happened, but I doubt she got away completely unscathed.

The division Amanda was in should have been coordinating with the Belioth army to invade Eastern Raydoss. If they’re still stranded in the east, perhaps they’re surrounded by superhuman soldiers as we speak.

Amanda leaving the front lines and the loss of Belioth’s a.s.sistance makes their situation incredibly dangerous.

Are they safe? Does the lack of any information mean they’ve already been wiped out?

『First things first, let’s take this guy and return to the village. We need to evacuate them.』

（Nn!）