Chapter 134. A Conspiracy
In a densely packed residential area in Gede Town, inside an old, small house.
Curtis entered a room and opened the door to the basent, slipping inside.
In the basent, there were already four people waiting. Upon seeing soone enter, they all instinctively reached for the weapons at their waists.
However, when they saw it was Curtis, they relaxed slightly, maintaining the sa posture but easing their tension.
"Where’s Kate?"
The leader, a man wearing crude leather armor with a fine-quality leather vest faintly visible underneath his clothes, asked.
"Captain Braden, I’m sorry, I waited at the eting point for a long ti, but Kate didn’t show up, so I decided to leave and gather so information," Curtis explained. "I heard about a man with brown hair, blue eyes, and a scar on his left cheek being captured by the guards. That must have been Kate."
"I went back to check, and the eting point hadn’t been disturbed, so I ca here directly."
A stir ran through the group as they were about to speak, but Braden silenced them, saying slowly, "Don’t rush to move. Let’s clean up our traces before we leave."
"If Kate listened to what I told him, he won’t reveal any information until tonight. We still have ti."
At Braden’s reminder, the group relaxed a little.
"How was he discovered? Didn’t the guy we hired to make the fake docunts work for over twenty years?" Braden asked, seeking to understand the details of Kate’s capture. He needed to determine if their fake docunts were still usable.
Curtis looked awkward for a mont before speaking slowly.
"It seems he didn’t let anyone else pass while queuing, and the guards grew suspicious... Captain, you know our weapons are custom-made, and a real search would have exposed them. That’s why he couldn’t escape."
The group exchanged confused looks, not understanding why queuing could be considered suspicious. Isn’t it natural to wait your turn?
Braden paused for a mont, then gritted his teeth in anger.
"Damn it, Kate, did he not receive proper infiltration training? He’s standing behind a formal mage..."
At this, everyone understood why Kate had been captured. Curtis quickly defended Kate.
"Captain, maybe Kate didn’t want to look around and expose himself..."
Braden waved his hand, signaling Curtis to stop, before saying, "Alright, Kate’s fate is his own. We can’t do anything about it. If he cos back, I’ll only punish him for failing the mission."
"Now, let’s talk about our target..."
He paused for a mont before continuing.
"Costi, before you arrived, we discussed the intel we’ve gathered—nothing useful. What about you?"
He looked at Costi expectantly, hoping he had so good news.
But Costi shook his head. "Sorry, I haven’t made any progress either."
The temperature in the basent seed to drop, and the only sound that could be heard was their soft breathing.
Braden broke the silence, continuing, "So no one has found any information. Where the hell is that thing... Damn it, wasn’t it supposed to be here? Why are there no signs?"
Costi suddenly spoke up.
"Captain, is it possible that the owner of this town has already taken the item and is preparing to offer it to the Alliance...?"
His suggestion was imdiately t with doubt.
"What are you talking about? Other factions might need that item, but the Magic Alliance certainly doesn’t. They already have enough lords..."
Another person interrupted.
"That’s not impossible. The Alliance may not want it, but what if he just wants to study it? You know how mages are—when they co across sothing, they want to study it, even if everyone else thinks it’s trash..."
But another person quickly rebutted, "If we’re saying that mages would take such an item, then our target is already much broader—counting the mage Kate encountered today, there have already been three formal mages passing through this town this month..."
"And with our team, how are we supposed to take sothing from a group of formal mages? We can’t even take them in a sneak attack..."
Costi imdiately spoke up to calm everyone down.
"Alright, stop arguing, discussing this won’t help. Let’s talk about how we’ll find it next."
He looked toward Braden, and the others followed suit, awaiting his response.
Braden took a mont before speaking uncertainly, "If that item is in the hands of those mages, we don’t need to steal it from them..."
He continued, "The mission I received from my superiors was to assist our allies. If the item really is here, all we need to do is report its exact location."
"If our allies really want it, they can co to the Alliance to get it themselves!"
"If they’re willing to pay a high price, the Alliance will surely hand it over to them."
His words also revealed so dissatisfaction with his allies, who had sent him to investigate rather than handling the matter themselves.
They were clearly afraid of the Alliance, which was why they had sent him and his team as "assistants."
To make matters worse, he had already lost a mber—he had no idea if Kate would return. After all, they were in the Alliance's territory, where even the guards might be capable of casting two spells.
And as for the Alliance's city managers, almost all of them were powerful formal mages.
This wasn’t the case in their holand, where it was difficult to find soone who could even hope to rise to the formal level, let alone push such people into managerial positions.
"Alright, let's pack up... We’ll execute the original plan and infiltrate the residence of the Gede Town administrator to see if we can find the item. As for those mages, we’ll deal with them later."
At his command, everyone began to get ready, and Braden walked to a corner, pulling out a piece of paper that had a description of the item they were after.
As spies, they referred to it simply as "that thing."
This item was not inherently important, but it was a symbol of the territory of Antir. Whoever possessed it would have the opportunity to claim that land.
The item wasn’t important in itself, as only the lords could use it, and it could only be used on their own territory.
Even without the item, there were other ways to seize that land. But this thod was convenient and didn’t leave any hidden dangers.
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