Inside the mansion, Madeline was looking indifferently at the dead body of the man she fought.
"… Such a pity. I wanted to ask him some questions. But as expected, it's very hard to catch an A-Rank practitioner alive."
She then turned around to leave the mansion. In the way, a beastman approached her and bowed slightly.
"Director, we already suppressed all the enemies."
"Well done. How many did you capture?"
"… We caught ten of them but…" The beastman showed a bit of hesitation.
"What happened?"
"Two of them committed suicide after we caught them, and the other eight seem like they don't know much."
Madeline frowned. "Well, It could not be so easy. What about my brother? Do you have news of him?"
"Nothing ye–"
*BOOOMMM!!!"
A powerful explosion shook the city before the beastman could start to speak.
"What happened!?" Madeline's face turned grave, but nobody around her knew what was happening.
It was only five minutes later that she learned about what happened.
When Madeline heard that her brother's group had blown up a giant hole in the middle of the city, she was stunned.
Then, her face broke into a huge smile.
"Hahahaha, they are crazy!"
…
The events of that night quickly spread to the entire city.
Moonlight Glow realized an operative that culminated with the discovery of a giant net of slavery. The fact that several kilometers of tunnels existed below the city and were being used for criminal activities caused a great commotion.
According to Moonlight Glow, they found more than one hundred boys and girls in conditions of slavery. Several of them were suffering from malnutrition and several other affectations.
The next morning, the city hall made an announcement praising Moonlight Glow for the operative, but they also condemned the church for mobilizing such a huge military power without informing the city hall.
At the same time, the city hall announced they would work to avoid something like this happening again.
…
Javelin and the others finished hearing the report with serious expressions.
"… Well, it looks like everything went alright, more or less."
"Miss Madeline is not in trouble, right?" Bloed asked.
Javelin shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Madeline was already ready for the backlash when she approved this operation. Besides, she got results and cracked the biggest case of slavery in the last thirty years. Even if the Duke is discontent with her, there is nothing he can do besides expressing his dissatisfaction."
"Hmph! That man is fishy! It's obvious there is something wrong with him! We should simply go and catch him." Liu Ying snorted.
Bloed and the others looked at Liu Ying with helpless expressions. If they could do that, the situation would be much simpler.
"Anyway, how is the prince?" Bloed asked.
Javelin smiled bitterly. "He is alright. Although he suffered some injuries during the time he was caught, he only needs a few days before he recovers. Fortunately, the prince was wise and did not reveal his true identity to his captors, otherwise, the situation would have turned ugly."
Bloed did not need to be a genius politician to understand Javelin's meaning. The fact that a prince entered another country in secret was already bad, but if that prince is then kidnapped, the situation becomes even worse.
Thus, Javelin and Moonlight Glow were trying to hide the prince's existence as much as possible. In fact, the number of people in the city that knew of the true reason behind last night's battle did not surpass ten.
"… How in the hell the prince managed to enter Diadel Duchy in secret?" Bloed could not help but wonder that.
Javelin smiled wryly. "That is a long story... The only thing I can tell you is that the prince is a very mischievous child."
Bloed was speechless. This was way beyond being mischievous.
But in the end, it was not his problem. Instead, there was another thing he was more interested in.
"… And the Blight. Do you have any news about it?"
Javelin's expression turned serious instantly.
"I wanted to talk to you about it. We searched the entire place, but we found nothing. Actually, Madeline is even doubting that the Blight's existence in the city itself."
Bloed fell silent. He knew what Javelin was implying.
If not by the fact that Javelin heard the conversation in Auspicious Night, and thus he knew that whatever these people are planning is related to the Blight, he probably would suspect Bloed's words about the Blight being true too.
Bloed sighed. "… I'm also worried about that… I checked the corpses we found in that room, and some of them have traces of an organism being incubated inside their bodies."
"The Blight?"
"Unfortunately, I don't have proof." Bloed shook his head. "Even although I'm rather certain it's related to the Blight, I can't prove it."
"… In other words, our clues end here."
"Unfortunately." Bloed could not help but feel dispirited.
It was not as though they could interrogate the Duke or something like that and ask him about the Blight. No to mention that nobody would agree to it, but just the forces behind the Duke made it very hard.
Bloed was sure that at least two demigods were supporting the duke.
"Anyway, now that our task is done, we will leave." Bloed stood up and got ready to leave.
"Thank you for your help all this time, Bloed." Javelin said with a grateful smile. "Right, I know I promised you an extra reward, but can you wait a few days for it? I need to deal with some things now, so…"
"It's alright. I don't mind."
"Great." With a wide smile, Javelin bid farewell to Bloed and the others.
…
In another part of the city, inside an office.
*Crash!*
The sound of something shattering against the ground reverberated.
"Moonlight Glow! Damn Moonlight Glow!" A man growled in rage.
"Calm down." A voice came from another side. "Now is not the time to get angry."
"You are right." The first voice took a deep breath to calm down. "It looks like we will have to do some changes to the plan."
"I agree. These beastmen have been sniffing around too much recently. Besides, the church of fate has started to move too."
"… But, what about the sacrifices? It will be hard to get the slaves again."
A soft chuckle resounded in the room. "Don't worry, there are other ways to get sacrifices."
...
P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels