Reborn as the Hero's Daughter

If I carelessly left the room, I could’ve gotten spotted by his servants. Thus, I used my illusion ring and hid my form. Combining it with my Stealth Gift, they wouldn’t see me even if I was before their eyes. That is assuming they were an amateur, of course.

I first peeked through the keyhole to confirm that his servants weren’t around, and then slowly opened the door and slipped into the corridor.

Then I mimicked the wall pattern with my illusion ring and started to inspect the end wall. As expected, there was a place about one-meter tall that appeared to be a hidden door, which led to the opposite side.

But this hidden door was installed at a place that overlapped with the door of Cain’s own room, so when his door was fully open, it would make it invisible from the other side of the corridor.

“That’s some trick you used there.”

I muttered quietly and sneaked into the hidden room. I made sure to properly lock the door so they wouldn’t realize I had infiltrated it.

The hidden room… was actually more like a hidden corridor. It was narrow, about one meter in width, which led to stairs that went downward.

I headed down those stairs while making sure to silence my footsteps. There were no illuminations, but light shone in from somewhere which got reflected off the mirrors installed here and there, illuminating the corridor. Thus I didn’t need to use any illumination myself.

After I descended the cramped stairs as I turned corners, I felt like I had easily gone down five floors. This dorm was supposed to be three stories tall, so I was definitely underground now.

Once I went down that far, a door finally appeared before me. Given the depth, even the light coming from the outside had weakened, making the place quite dim.

But my eyes were used to the darkness so I was able to clearly see my vicinity.

“It’s…not locked?”

As I turned the knob, it gave off a small click and opened. The space beyond it wasn’t very high, but it was quite spacious. There was a drug shelf on the wall, which was lined up with dozens of small bottles. There was also a small desk and file cabinet installed in it.

“Is this the same bottle that one of the guys that attacked Finia and Den used?”

I mean, they were basically the same as the ones used in the academy, so they were not fishy on their own. But if their contents were the same as that drug, then there would be no more doubts.

I looked through the drug shelf and took two bottles off it. Of course, I didn’t forget to move the ones behind to their place so he wouldn’t realize it. After that, I started to inspect the room and found the account book for the drug sales.

“Hmph, did he underestimate the situation, thinking it wouldn’t be found since it wasn’t in his room?”

Checking who the dealing partner was, it turned out to be his father, Tubal Methuselah Lamech. Moreover, the latest records had new drug written on them. It seemed that he was sending improved drugs to Tubal. I can’t believe they are doing this shady business as a family.

Once I continued investigating, I realized that there was another room deeper in. When I slowly opened the door, there was something like a prison there. There were three prison rooms, and two of their doors were closed.

In one of them, there was a bizarre shape of a human with growing mushrooms all over the body… or more accurately, it was a corpse of an adventurer parasitized by a Fungus.

“Gh?!”

I have seen many things in life. I’ve even seen Undeads several times. But even so, nothing had come close to the bizarre existence before my eyes. Even though they were clearly dead, even though mushrooms grew from their melted, hollowed eyes, that Adventurer was moving.

At every step, the mushrooms growing from their feet got crushed and spread the spores around.

“Aaaauuuuughhhhhhh!”

The Fungus raised an incoherent groan and slowly headed towards me, apparently discovering me. But there were sturdy iron bars separating us from one another, so they couldn’t come any closer than that.

Despite that, it still tried to catch me and stretched its tattered arms towards me. Needless to say, those arms were also filled with mushrooms.

“…Pitiful.”

I held no strong feelings for this dead person. But even so, I found their current state tragic. If I killed them, they would realize I was here. It would be correct to leave this room without doing anything. I understood that, but I couldn’t leave this Adventurer be.

Using my Thread Manipulation Gift, I twined it around his neck and pulled with all my might. A Fungus was something like a hybrid of Undead and a plant, so there was hardly a point in strangling it. But I pulled on the Mythril thread while enhancing myself, so it shredded the neck fiber and lopped the head off.

Even so, the Fungus didn’t stop moving. The existence of a head meant nothing to a monster that was both an Undead and a plant. I kept cutting it up until it completely stopped moving. It continued to squirm even then, and only after cutting off its limbs and cutting it into two did it finally stop.

Thick blood spread on the floor and spores scattered on the ground, turning the place misty. You could say I was parasitized too by now. But the Fungus parasitizing wasn’t a problem as long as you properly handled it afterward.

Since I couldn’t use magic in the dorms, I should probably leave the grounds and head to Maxwell to get him to purify me.

There was also a Troll restrained in a cell, with its eyes looking hollow. Trolls were giants that exceeded three meters and held abnormal regenerative powers as their special trait. But they were dangerous monsters with violent dispositions and immediately tried to devour humans on sight.

A monster like that was currently lying down lethargically. It seemed that it had been given some kind of a drug and made powerless.

Its arms and neck muscles had swellings all over. They were probably traces of where they injected the drugs. The marks of hypodermic needles recovered immediately so they weren’t left.

I easily lopped off its head too. It gave off no reaction, so it was as easy as beheading a puppet, but that made things all the more ominous, giving me goosebumps.

Since I dealt with both the Fungus and the Troll, Cain would probably make his move soon. But there would be no problems if I acted even faster. I obtained his account book as evidence, and there were drug samples and Fungus and Troll corpses too.

If Maxwell makes a move immediately and holds this place down, the Lamech household was done for. Thinking so, I grabbed account books that mentioned transactions as evidence at my own discretion. The one that mentioned Tubal was the most important one.

With this, my preparations were done. With all this evidence, breaking off Letina’s engagement should be doable.

“I guess this is case-closed.”

I returned to the room with the drug shelf and sighed.

Now as long as Maxwell applied enough pressure, Letina should become officially free. With that considered, perhaps that pitiful Adventurer’s effort would also be rewarded. He would serve to prove Cain’s crimes with his own body, after all.