Chapter 98 The Order Shizuka Carried

The dim amber lantern light flickered across the ink-stained desk inside the quiet company dispatch office. Outside the reinforced door, the distant hiss of venting steam mingled with the echoing alarms of the evacuation across the lower levels.

Shizuka drew a stained, blood-spotted parchment from her inner tunic, laying it flat beside the leather-bound master dispatch register.

The two documents sat side by side beneath the lantern beam, their identical administrative stamps revealing the calculated precision of a state-sponsored slaughter.

"Every line of the tactical coordinates matches the false route my unit received into the basalt gorge..." Shizuka murmured in a voice trembling with restrained fury. "My captain followed these exact bearings, trusting the company seal until the volcanic rift collapsed beneath our feet!"

Ren stood near the window, his keen eyes scanning the foggy corridor while his hooked sword rested ready at his hip.

"The registry entry confirms someone altered the route three days before your deployment..." Ren noted quietly, pointing to the chronological ledger stamps. "This represents no accidental navigation error caused by unexpected tremors, but a deliberate tactical ambush designed to eliminate your entire unit!"

Akane stepped forward with a bottle of official guild sealing wax and three blank courier cylinders retrieved from the supply cabinet.

"We need three silver pieces to prepay the emergency aerial dispatch fee for the municipal courier hawks waiting at the surface tower..." Akane said, preparing the brass sealing press. "If we send three separate copies along different flight corridors, Gendo's mercenaries will not be able to intercept the evidence!"

Ren reached into his leather coat, retrieving three silver coins and placing them onto the desk beside the sealing wax.

"Three silver pieces for the emergency courier fee..." Ren said, logging the necessary expenditure into his financial ledger. "That brings my remaining cash reserve to exactly two hundred seven silver pieces."

[ Personal Cash: 207 Silver | Emergency Dispatch Fee Paid ]

Akane took the coins, quickly pressing the red sealing wax over the parchment scrolls and stamping them with Ren's registered hunter crest and Shizuka's courier insignia.

She handed the three sealed cylinders to a swift-footed apprentice runner who waited by the secondary ventilation escape chute.

"Sprint directly to the high hawk tower and release all three birds toward Suzuhara, Ouka, and the regional guild headquarters!" Akane commanded with crisp urgency. "Do not stop for anyone until the birds are in the air!"

The young runner saluted with fierce determination, vanishing up the escape ladder with the precious cylinders tucked into his leather tunic.

Shizuka traced the administrative header on the master registry, her fingers pausing over a stamped imperial reference code in the upper margin.

"The directive contains an authorization serial linking directly to Director Arata at the capital headquarters in Ouka..." Shizuka observed, her sharp eyes narrowing with analytical intensity. "The reference code proves the order came from the board of directors, though the specific text of Arata's original telegram remains locked in the central archives."

Ren nodded in agreement, recognizing the vital distinction between proving local execution and proving ministerial conspiracy.

"Securing Gendo's signed order establishes indisputable criminal liability for the massacre on this mountain," Ren stated in a calm, resolute voice. "When the provincial magistrates review this evidence, Gendo will face the executioner's block, and Arata will be forced to answer under oath in the High Court!"

Shizuka examined the secondary ledger columns, discovering an itemized list of illegal crystal shipments that were diverted to private merchant warehouses in the capital.

"These records document twenty illegal shipments of grade-one volcanic crystal over the last six months..." Shizuka revealed, pointing to the false cargo manifests. "Gendo was skimming thirty percent of the quarry's output and laundering the profits through shell companies registered in Ouka!"

Akane whistled softly in astonishment, shaking her head as she cross-referenced the numbers with the official production ledgers.

"That explains why Gendo was so frantic to force the miners back into the lower shafts despite the catastrophic pressure surges..." Akane deduced with fierce anger. "He needed to replace the stolen crystal inventory before the imperial auditors arrived from the capital next week!"

Ren placed his hand on the hilt of his hooked sword, his resolve hardening into unbreakable resolve.

"The entire operation was built upon the blood and sweat of exploited laborers to enrich corrupt corporate directors in the capital," Ren said, his voice cold as ice. "Every worker who died in these shafts was murdered to conceal an embezzlement scheme!"

Shizuka looked up from the stained documents, her eyes brimming with a mixture of profound sorrow and quiet vindication.

"My fallen squad mates were branded as deserters and incompetent scouts by the company's propaganda leaflets in Suzuhara..." Shizuka whispered, pressing her fist against the open ledger. "With this verified evidence in our hands, their honor and their sacrifice will finally be cleared before the entire kingdom!"

Akane reached out and gently squeezed Shizuka's shoulder, offering the silent, steadfast solidarity of a fellow craftswoman who understood the pain of corporate betrayal. Her warm touch grounded the trembling courier, transforming raw grief into a calm, unshakable and fierce resolve.

"We will make sure every town along the southern road learns the truth about what happened here," Akane said with fierce warmth. "Your captain's memory will be honored by every honest worker on this frontier!"

Ren moved toward the doorway, extending his seismic senses along the corridor to track the approaching vibrations.

[ Equipped mask: Glassfoot Spider | Source rank: E ]

[ Personal rank: C | Agility: 56 | Perception: 55 | Seismic Vibration Sense Active ]

The vibrational pulses mapped a solitary, colossal figure marching along the railway line, accompanied by the distinct mechanical hum of a pressurized hydraulic piston.

"Gendo is advancing alone through the main steam gallery..." Ren reported in a low, steady voice. "His physical mana signature is fully concentrated in his right arm, indicating he intends to breach this room with maximum concussive force."

Akane swiftly overturned a thick filing desk, positioning the solid barrier between Shizuka and the main entrance.

"I will use this reinforced partition as an anchor point for magnetic distraction spikes during the fight..." Akane whispered, locking three magnetized bolts into her forearm launcher. "That will force Gendo to overcommit his powerful strikes against stationary cover!"

Ren nodded approvingly in agreement, calculating the exact two-second mechanical reset window of Gendo's hydraulic pistons.

"When his gauntlet strikes the partition, the pneumatic exhaust will lock his right arm for two crucial seconds," Ren instructed with cold tactical precision. "That is the exact moment I will flank him and shatter the hydraulic valve housing!"

Shizuka wrapped the original master ledger in thick waterproof oilcloth, securing the vital legal evidence inside her personal travel satchel.

The sudden clang of armored footwear echoed through the corridor outside, accompanied by the deep mechanical hum of hydraulic machinery. The door frame fractured under immense physical force, splintering into jagged fragments as a colossal figure stepped across the threshold.

Foreman Gendo strode into the dispatch room, his massive frame clad in reinforced plate armor that radiated B-rank physical mana.

On his right forearm, the massive hydraulic impact gauntlet hissed with venting steam, its mechanical pistons glowing with dangerous crimson light. His cold, arrogant gaze swept across the room, locking instantly upon the open filing cabinets and the leather satchel in Shizuka's hands.

"So the surviving rat from the border courier squad finally found her way to my private records..." Gendo sneered, taking a menacing step forward into the room. "You should have died in the basalt gorge with the rest of your pathetic captain's crew!"

Shizuka drew her twin short blades in a single fluid motion, her body dropping into a low, lethal combat stance.

"My captain died defending an imperial dispatch that you betrayed for corporate profit, Gendo!" Shizuka shouted, her voice ringing with icy fury. "Your signed murder order is already flying toward the capital, and your reign over this quarry ends today!"

Gendo threw his head back and laughed, a cruel, booming sound that shook dust from the ceiling beams.

"You think a few carrier birds will save you from the fist of a B-rank director..." Gendo growled, raising his massive impact gauntlet as red mana crackled along the knuckles. "I will crush all three of your skulls into the floorboards, burn this entire facility to the ground, and claim the salamander's crest for myself!"

Ren stepped smoothly between Gendo and Shizuka, bringing his reinforced shield up into a rock-solid guard as his hooked blade gleamed beneath the lantern light.

"You will not lay a finger on either of them, Gendo," Ren said in a voice as cold and unyielding as winter granite. "Your corporate authority is officially revoked under Article Nine of the Hunter's Charter—prepare to answer for your crimes!"

Gendo sneered with absolute contempt, the hydraulic pistons of his gauntlet locking into their primary firing chamber with a deafening metallic snap.

"A C-rank freelancer who relies on scavenged monster faces has no right to lecture a corporate director on authority!" Gendo roared, stomping his armored heel into the floorboards. "Let us see if your little toys can survive three tons of pneumatic crushing force!"

The surrounding walls creaked under the immense wave of crimson mana radiating from the corrupt foreman's gauntlet.

The air in the room grew tense with suffocating mana pressure as the ultimate battle for justice on Mount Kurotake began.

With steady breath and absolute focus, Ren locked his stance to confront the corrupt corporate tyrant in single combat. He felt the fiery resonance of the Firecrest mask surge through his core, ready to clash with the brute strength of the hydraulic gauntlet.

The countdown to the quarry's liberation reached its explosive culmination in the fiery heart of the mountain.

Refined steel and pressurized steam prepared to decide the destiny of Suzuhara once and for all.