Chapter 23: The Web of Cause and Effect

Once the issue with Lan Tuls was resolved, things naturally became much easier.

Although I had guessed that this guy had a fairly high status in Demon Town, hearing her description made it clear that it was even higher than I had imagined.

To put it simply, the Internal Security Bureau is like the police department on Blue Star.

Demon Town is a city that intensely targets magical beasts. The Internal Security Bureau has five special teams, each with five hundred members. Four of them are specifically for hunting and battling magical beasts, while only Lan’s third team mainly focuses on suppressing crimes committed by humans.

Since Vilyric and the others were deemed human by the hunter Alvins, this matter falls under human crimes, so the search operations are entirely coordinated by Lan, the captain of the third team.

An ordinary team captain certainly wouldn’t have this kind of authority, but Lan is different—she is the daughter of the City Lord of Demon Town, Tyler Tuls, and part of the Tuls Family’s contemporary elite. Even if she rarely emphasizes this point, others have to take this relationship into account.

After negotiating, she straightforwardly arranged accommodation for several girls, including Vilyric, that wouldn’t be checked and shared all the intelligence related to recent events.

Finding a place to stay wasn’t particularly difficult for the Priestess, but since Lan was willing to take the initiative, she was glad to lighten her burden.

Demon Town is indeed hunting magical beings, and this batch of magical beings is quite formidable. It is said to be an elite team sent by the Moonshadow, Steel Claw, and Burning Feather, the three pillars of the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons, with the mission of finding the abducted youngling from the Moonshadow Royal Family, suspected to be a mythical creature after evolution.

Although Demon Town and the United Kingdom’s officials repeatedly state that they did not participate in or direct the actions of the poachers, and they don’t even know where the poachers took the Moonshadow Royal Family’s youngling, even Queen Liliya believes the same. However, the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons seem convinced that the youngling is still near Demon Town.

Earlier, they had repeatedly requested permission from the United Kingdom to allow some of their personnel to enter Demon Town for a search, but given the kingdom’s situation, even though Liliya was inclined to mediate, it was impossible to agree to such a thing.

After the kingdom continuously rejected them, it seems they couldn’t bear it any longer and sent in a magical being team to sneak into the city.

“So, even you don’t know where that Moonshadow Royal Family youngling is, huh?”

In the temporary accommodation arranged by Lan, Vilyric and the others were gathered together, either sitting or standing, while the captain of the third team, who had been coerced into joining, sat on the sofa explaining what she knew about this incident.

“Well, it’s a fact that the youngling was captured by poachers. From what I know about the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons, they wouldn’t make up something like this just to stir up trouble. But which group of poachers made this stupid mistake and where they are hiding the target is harder to say… Tsk…”

After briefly organizing the information, Lan seemed to emphasize something and firmly declared.

“Just so you know, while I can provide you assistance, I won’t engage in illegal activities or anything morally wrong. I’m not at the point where I would abandon my principles for martial advancements.”

“Relax, relax! If it really came to that, we wouldn’t need your assistance… Haven’t I said it? I’m just a bit curious about this matter itself. Plus, let’s be honest, you don’t actually want the United Kingdom and the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons to really break into a war with magical beings, do you?”

“…”

Seeing that the Priestess had hit upon her thoughts, Lan’s expression became somewhat awkward, and she finally just nodded, seemingly resolved.

“Even though I don’t know where that youngling is, nor what the magical beings intend to do, I do have some guesses about the poachers’ group.”

After hesitating for a while, Lan bit her lip and finally spoke up.

“Not long ago, by chance, I saw someone who looked like a member of the Ghost Thieves in my house… at the City Lord’s residence.”

“The Ghost Thieves are one of the particularly large poaching forces operating underground in Demon Town and have business dealings with many noble and wealthy merchants. But after that incident occurred, they suddenly went dormant, their subordinate forces rapidly shrank. Although the reason is unclear, it’s obviously very strange.”

“And my father… the City Lord of Demon Town, Tyler Tuls, has a very suspicious attitude towards this incident. Not only has he made no attempt to find the youngling and ease the crisis, but he has also secretly suppressed the forces involved in this matter, even going so far as to have a falling out with a legendary adventurer team like the Grim Reaper’s Scythe.”

Lan took a deep breath and didn’t directly state a conclusion but asked in return.

“What do you think this combination implies?”

“The Tuls Family is colluding with the Ghost Thieves, intentionally stealing the younglings valued by the magical beings to do something?”

There was no need to be coy; the Priestess candidly voiced a conclusion that would make countless people change color if they heard it.

Lan neither confirmed nor denied it but fell silent with a grim expression. She probably had suspected this for a long time.

“Mm… It seems I was right.”

Could it be that the Tuls Family is pulling the strings behind the scenes? The City Lord of Demon Town, Tyler Tuls… No, could it be the family head, the Chancellor Griffiths Tuls, far away in the City of Courage?

Now that I mention it, Liliya seemed to have mentioned that the first person to bring this up in the court was indeed that old Chancellor over eighty…

Though I had a slight urge to return to the City of Courage to verify the information with Liliya, the situation in Demon Town is very chaotic right now, and this is merely a temporary residence provided by Lan—leaving could happen at any moment. Setting up a portal would be too wasteful.

The Black-haired Girl suddenly stood up.

“Alright! Now that we’ve figured it out, let’s go catch that Tyler Tuls, beat him up, and make him spill everything!”

“No way!”

Almost immediately, Lan’s urgent cry rang out.

Seeing the confused glances from the other girls, who then seemed to understand something, Lan pursed her lips and spoke in a near pleading tone.

“I know you all might possess that kind of strength, but could you let me talk to my father first? It doesn’t need to take long; I can set out tomorrow. I know my father; he’s not the type who could do this alone—someone is definitely advising him. Why not let me probe into it first… Please, consider it part of my information provision…”

“Uh… well… I guess that’s fine.”

Though Lan’s approach was definitely mixed with selfish motives, there was one point that Vilyric agreed with: this matter isn’t likely to be truly orchestrated by someone as public-facing as Tyler Tuls. Even capturing him would probably only yield a case of a “golden cicada shedding its shell,” so she had continued to avoid confronting him.

What she had just said was actually meant to scare this Tuls Family heiress, leading her to make this decision.

See? It was her who took the initiative to request this, not Vilyric!

Now that she had learned the specific name of the poaching group responsible for capturing the youngling, the actions to be taken were clear.

“Lan, is there a way for us to meet one of the members of the Ghost Thieves? Even if it’s just a peripheral member, that would be fine.”

Vilyric looked over with hopeful eyes, but the captain of the Internal Security Bureau promptly shook her head.

“Impossible. Didn’t I say? After the incident, the entire Ghost Thieves group went into hiding. I’m part of the Internal Security Bureau, and if I knew where the poachers were hiding, I would have gathered my team to capture them all a long time ago—why wait until today?”

“Uh, that does make some sense…”

At that moment, Tilysha quietly leaned over and whispered in the Priestess’s ear.

“Miss Vilyric, don’t you feel like you’ve heard the name ‘Ghost Thieves’ somewhere before?”

“Mm?”

Wait a minute… thinking back, it really does sound somewhat familiar, though the impression is vague… Where did I hear it?

Vilyric glanced around, but apart from Tilysha, who seemed to be deep in thought, the others didn’t appear to react to the name at all.

The Little Dragon Daughter usually wouldn’t remember names of “lowly beings,” so that was normal. But if Leila and the others didn’t know either, then in Demon Town…

Suddenly, a face with bangs and a rebellious frown sprang to the Priestess’s not-so-deep memory, and at the same time, Tilysha gasped beside her.

“Ah! I remember, Miss Vilyric! It’s Mr. Bangs!”

“How did you start calling him Bangs too…?”

It seems that’s how it is. When we first encountered Bangs at the Adventurer’s Guild, and Tilysha had given him a good beating, he mentioned during his apology that this guy had once been part an organization called the “Ghost Thieves.”

Oh dear, it really is true—having searched high and low for her, she had stumbled upon the answer without any effort!

   

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