Chapter 149. Interception
Ged Town, the residence of the administrator Caleb.
At this mont, many fine horses were standing outside. Judging from the battle-scarred armor on their bodies and their fierce eyes, these were a group of expensive warhorses that had seen the battlefield.
At this mont, two fully armored knights were guarding the horses. There were mottled dark-red stains on their armor.
Both of them bore the emblem of a wolf’s head on their shoulders, which unmistakably marked them as mbers of a knight order.
Only mbers of a knight order were allowed to wear such an emblem on their shoulders.
Inside the residence, anwhile, a conversation was underway.
Caleb, the administrator sent by the Alliance to manage Ged Town, looked at the head on the table with imnse delight.
He was so happy he nearly jumped up, but with outsiders still present, he could only suppress his excitent.
“You’ve done very well. According to our agreent, I will hand over everything I promised.”
The corners of his mouth lifted into a smile, as though the dead man had been the murderer of his father.
Sitting across from him was Connor, the commander of the Bloodwolf Knights. He watched Caleb’s behavior expressionlessly.
If this were not Alliance territory, and if the other party were not an administrator appointed by the Alliance, he would already have stepped forward and interrogated him directly. Why would he waste ti on this sort of “transaction”?
But he absolutely could not do that.
An Alliance administrator represented the face of the Alliance itself. If he rashly killed one, and with his traces having already been exposed in Ged Town, it would certainly attract powerful investigators to look into the matter.
When that ti ca, his family would absolutely not be able to protect him, because his family’s enemies would also seize the opportunity to strike.
Looking at Caleb’s crazed face, Connor imdiately understood why the man wanted Zeno dead.
Others might not know, but Connor knew Caleb very well.
He had long learned of this frontier administrator from the materials his family had sent him.
Caleb had always regretted taking the path of becoming an administrator, but because his talent was diocre, he had never passed the examinations of the various societies and beco a true researcher.
On top of that, now that he had already beco an administrator, he could no longer participate in the Alliance’s investigator examinations.
So this was how his life would remain.
His motive for wanting Zeno dead was nothing more than jealousy.
He envied the fact that Zeno had been able to enter one of the great societies—that was the Skull Society!
Such jealousy in itself would not have mattered. Caleb had the heart of a thief but not the courage; he would never have dared to act personally.
But it just so happened that an opportunity appeared—an opportunity that was practically enough to bring in the Bloodwolf Knights.
Under normal circumstances, even Connor himself would not lightly accept a mission to kill a mage, much less a commission from one mage to kill another mage.
But this ti, he had coincidentally been hired by Duke Theodore, and he had to abide by the contract.
If it had been soone else, then breaking the contract would simply have ant breaking it. Offending the Alliance for the sake of a single contract was hardly a wise choice.
But Connor was different.
He was not afraid of those mages.
More than anyone, he knew that without an excellent ntor, the Alliance would only pay attention to cases of murdered mages under extre circumstances.
Moreover, he also had his family helping him cover things up, so naturally he was not afraid.
Connor tapped the table and urged impatiently,
“Hurry up. If the target leaves the Antir Region, it’ll be much harder for us to catch her.”
Caleb restrained his smile and took out two things from the drawer behind him: several sheets of paper and a small box.
Connor took them.
On the papers were the mage’s clearance records and so registration information.
“Forge Furnace School? What kind of school is that?”
Given the education he had received from his family, he naturally knew the nas of many schools. But this one was a first for him.
Still, he soon dismissed the matter.
What school it was did not matter. What mattered was what kind of ntor the person had.
Yet in the section listing Fulan’s ntor, the relevant line had been blacked out, making Connor frown.
However, when he saw Fulan’s destination, he relaxed again.
“A mage heading to the Northern Society—what kind of good ntor could she possibly have?”
He knew that the truly talented mages would not even co to the Antir Region, but would instead go to study in the more developed floating cities.
To Connor, this was good news.
The other party clearly was not soone with a great background.
But it was also bad news.
She was heading to the Northern Society.
At this point, Caleb opened the box. Inside was a Tracking Insect.
“It’s only an insect that has already recorded the scent of the Territorial Token. As long as you follow the direction it indicates...”
Before he could finish, Connor cut him off. Irritated, he said,
“So all you prepared was a Tracking Insect? Damn it, why did you have to do only that? Why not use a tracking spell instead? Why did it have to be the most primitive Tracking Insect?”
Tracking Insects were indeed useful—they could find things related to the target—but their usefulness had limits.
Inside a city, their precise directional sense was very effective. But for long-distance pursuit, they were useless.
No matter what, under normal conditions a Tracking Insect could only follow a target within a hundred ters.
If you wanted it to track over a greater distance, you had to feed it enhancent substances.
But even then, the insect could only point in a direction.
Wouldn’t a tracking spell have been better? Directly locate the target’s position, then go there and kill her and seize the item.
But Caleb was not intimidated in the slightest and replied,
“I can’t afford a tracking spell with concealnt properties. Besides, there isn’t a craftsman in Ged Town capable of inscribing one.”
This plan to kill Zeno had been little more than a spur-of-the-mont idea.
Now that Zeno was dead, Caleb naturally was no longer all that invested in the matter.
Besides, although Fulan joining the Northern Society also stirred a bit of jealousy in him, he did not even know what kind of society the Northern Society was.
He rely assud it was so second-rate backwater society, so Fulan had only been an added bonus.
Originally, he had intended to hand the token directly to Zeno. He had even proposed using a knight’s duel to decide the winner.
In truth, he had been thinking that Zeno was at least a man, so in terms of physical ability he should be stronger than those won, right?
All Caleb had needed to do was throw the match and hand Zeno the victory.
But the result turned out like this.
That Fulan had actually won the duel.
His jealousy had flared slightly at the ti—why was your swordsmanship so exceptional too?
So, with the attitude that killing two was no different from killing one, he had simply handed the thing over to Fulan.
“Damn it, let’s move!”
Caleb’s actions had truly saddled Connor with trouble. The mont he thought of Fulan galloping toward the Northern Society on a fast horse, he grew anxious.
That was also Alliance territory. He had no way to kill a mage there.
It was not that he did not want to.
It was that he could not.
He placed the specially made feed into the bottle containing the Tracking Insect. After eating it, the insect slamd hard toward the north.
Connor let out a sigh.
He did not know exactly where Fulan had already reached, but to be safe, the only option was to block the road she had to pass through.
He thought of the Northern Pass, the nearest route between Antir and the Northern Frontier. As long as they were fast enough, they could intercept her there and complete his contract with Duke Theodore.
So he hurriedly called for his subordinates and departed in haste.
anwhile, while the Tracking Insect had fallen into a brief sleep to rest, the black horse carrying Fulan entered Ged Town from the opposite direction and headed for the Adventurers’ Guild.
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