Chapter 64: What? There Really is an Envoy?!

“No way, bro! If you haven’t been trampled by a cow, then what was all that shouting earlier? It sounded like your wife was being stolen!”

This seriously has Vilyric all confused.

*Cough*, first off, let me clarify: my Priestess doesn’t gossip; she just thinks it’s necessary to grasp more detailed information.

“That guy you just took down, Bryce, is he the same one who almost got you killed? How did you two end up crossing paths? Spill it!”

At the mention of this, the girl with bangs displayed her disgust and sighed dramatically. She cast a glance at the utterly interested face of Vilyric, then fixed her gaze on the fire rising in the distance and took a deep breath.

“After we split up…”

Following the plan as intended, the girl with bangs and Aileen went to the special place that Aileen mentioned and left a subtle mark for contact.

Afterward, they temporarily returned to the underground stone house connected to Aileen’s place. While reminiscing about everything that had transpired since they parted and expressing feelings of longing, they waited for the contact to arrive and signal them.

But not long after, they heard a huge roaring sound from the black market. Rushing out to check, they found the Southern District in complete chaos.

At that moment, the girl with bangs and Aileen had differing opinions on what to do next. The former was uneasy about Vilyric’s two defenseless girls wandering through the chaotic black market and wanted to go look for them, while Aileen believed that since they were the Queen’s envoys, they must have their own backing, and since the magical item left by Vilyric was undamaged, there was no need to worry too much.

After some debate, Aileen finally stated that if the girl with bangs was really concerned, she could go ahead and search for them alone while Aileen would remain there waiting for the contact.

Trusting Aileen, the girl with bangs didn’t think too much of it; she just felt it was a feasible plan and, after giving a few parting remarks, walked out.

Looking back now, she realized Aileen’s expression seemed a bit off at the time; perhaps she was deliberately trying to send her away.

“Wait a minute, something feels off here…”

“Huh? What is it?”

The girl with bangs seemed puzzled, turning her attention to the suddenly pale-faced black-haired girl who interrupted her.

“Uh, it’s nothing, just continue…”

“Alright.”

After parting with Aileen, the girl with bangs ventured alone to where the incident happened, near the building that had been sliced in half. However, when she arrived, it was already sealed off by unknown forces, preventing anyone from getting close.

Although the members did not wear any identifiable badges, as a former member of the Ghost Thieves, the girl with bangs quickly recognized them through subtle clues.

Feeling isolated and lacking the courage to confront so many people, and finding no sign of Vilyric or the others, she pondered for a moment and decided to slip away unnoticed, planning to return to the stone house to discuss with Aileen.

Unexpectedly, when she returned to where she had left, Aileen had vanished without a trace.

Naturally, she was extremely anxious, but Aileen’s sudden disappearance left no clues, and the girl with bangs lacked the magical abilities that Vilyric possessed, making it impossible to locate her.

Just as she was about to head back to the surface and search Aileen’s home, someone suddenly barged into the stone house from above.

The girl with bangs was startled but chose not to act aggressively, as four out of the five newcomers were people she recognized—at least, she recognized them unilaterally.

The legendary adventurer team known throughout Demon Town and the entire United Kingdom—Grim Reaper’s Scythe—who she had idolized since she started her career.

Although only one member of the team had allegedly reached true legendary status, the adventurer guild’s evaluations were absolutely fair; in a team fight, Grim Reaper’s Scythe was as good as having four legendary fighters.

At least, that was the conclusion given by the guild.

Thus, in a sense, this legendary team was on par with the three great legends of the royal capital, and hardly anyone in Demon Town didn’t recognize them.

The girl with bangs had extreme trust in the idols of Grim Reaper’s Scythe, quickly proving her identity as an adventurer and a member of the Black Knight Mercenary Corps, and frankly stating that she was here to investigate the poaching gang, although she did not directly mention Vilyric’s presence.

After gaining their trust, she learned astounding information from the leader of Grim Reaper’s Scythe.

In reality, Grim Reaper’s Scythe had already received communications from the headquarters and accepted the task of assisting Queen Liliya’s secret envoy in investigating the situation in Demon Town while addressing the current chaos in the Northern Region.

They were pretending to be heavily wounded in the explosion, but in fact had moved to the shadows, completing contact with the envoy who came from afar and continuously gathering intelligence.

As for the recent continuous suppression by Tuls Family, the guild upper echelon had deliberately allowed it, appearing to remain passive while actually relying on the royal decree and assistance from the headquarters, quietly amassing a considerable force.

Although most adventurers were previously unaware of the details, the guild’s core members had recently chosen to remain in Demon Town, a result of careful guidance from the upper management.

Recently, intelligence had mostly been gathered, and taking advantage of the gaps while the first and second direct sub-teams of the Tuls Family were out, the envoy and Grim Reaper’s Scythe seized the opportunity to charge into the underground black market, determined to wipe out the poaching gang lurking deep within the city and liberate those enslaved magical beasts to ease the increasingly intense border conflict.

It was precisely in the hands of the young girl who was the envoy—besides the four members of Grim Reaper’s Scythe—that the girl with bangs saw a royal seal hand-delivered by the Queen herself, confirming her identity was indisputable.

“Hah?! Liliya really sent someone… Cough, cough, what I mean is, indeed, everything is going according to plan! Hahaha…”

“Did I just hear you casually call the majesty by her name…?”

Glancing at the slightly guilty-looking replica envoy, the girl with bangs didn’t doubt too far, after all, the document Vilyric had shown her was also authentic, prepared by a certain queen herself.

Considering that the Priestess actually displayed a higher status, she previously speculated that perhaps Vilyric was the actual leader of the operation and that the part she handled was more crucial, while the actions outside were merely a feint… and so on.

“Cough… Anyway, what happened next?”

“After that, I followed the envoy and joined forces with the big group that was coming in from various passages. I informed the seniors from Grim Reaper’s Scythe about Aileen’s mysterious disappearance and hoped they could use their methods to help find her, but they told me that based on the intel they gathered, Aileen is actually one of the masterminds behind this conflict, currently the top leader of the Ghost Thieves!”

The girl with bangs looked somewhat excited but quickly sank back into despair.

“Of course, I didn’t believe it at first. Even after seeing a lot of incredible evidence, I firmly believed there must be some misunderstanding—after all, Aileen was such a kind girl… But now that Aileen has gone missing, I can’t find you all, so I had no choice but to join the attack on the underground black market along with the captain who had just learned of the news from the royal command.”

“The battle progressed smoothly. I don’t know if it’s because the envoy and the other three major dark forces reached some sort of agreement, but such a grand offensive, and the black market didn’t respond at all from the east, west, and north sides. Gradually, everyone’s formation spread out, starting to eliminate those scattered poaching gangs, and right here…”

“I saw Aileen once again.”

   

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