63 Kingdom Outsiders

"Truthfully, I saw through the fact that you weren't really a lieutenant soon after I first met you. I thought it was strange that a Lieutenant would be sent to run errands for a simple vice captain like me back then, so I had a look through your public file. All of your supposed achievements state that you are an excellent strategist, so it was obviously untrue."

"But I really-"

"No, you're not tactically inclined enough to be a strategist, and what sort of strategist lieutenant gets sent to transport resources for a vice captain?"

The fake lieutenant's eye twitched, but she had been hidden for 2 and half years now and wouldn't reveal herself so easily.

"Commander, that's all just your speculation, and honestly it's quite hurtful…"

"Hurtful? No, hurtful would be me telling you that the reason I was so suspicious of you in the first place was due to your complete lack of competence when dealing with military matters, and that you simply don't resemble a lieutenant in any shape or form. I would never have promoted someone like you to this rank, so-"

"Ok, ok, I get it!" She couldn't take it any more and glared at him. Suddenly, her usually cheerful demeanour became ice cold.

"Hmph, so you saw through me. Do you think you can threaten me so easily? I won't let myself get blackmailed, I-"

"Miss Shi, your acting is terrible. I assume that's why you just acted like yourself for these past 2 and a half years."

Deon looked somewhat amused as her cold demeanour vanished and she wore a slightly depressed expression for a moment. It quickly disappeared and she stared at Deon silently, waiting for him to go on.

"I don't want to blackmail you, I want you to join me. Going forwards, I believe we can be of great use to one another."

"Why should I help you? What makes you think I would be willing to betray the king" She asked directly. When she said 'king', she was referring to Remi's uncle, the 'false king'.

Indeed, Lieutenant Shi was the false king's personal spy!

"Betray?" Deon smiled and shook his head.

"You have no loyalty to the present king. You should have been given the order to kidnap me whenever you got the chance. You've had plenty of opportunities to do this, but you are yet to act because you have your own objective that you consider to be of greater value. If I'm not wrong, you must think I have some secret spirits that are responsible for my abilities, right?"

Her eyes widened and she stared at Deon in disbelief. What guess? He was just explaining everything that had been on her mind during these past months!

Well, it was pretty obvious. Deon was well aware that she had, on many occasions, lingered around him and observed his actions for far longer than she was ordered to do so.

"You're mostly correct, but you're wrong about one point. I'm not just guessing that you possess some extremely high class spirits, I'm certain of it!" She said confidently.

"Oh?" Deon raised an eyebrow. "Do you possess an investigatory spirit that lets you see through my spirits?" He asked dubiously. He knew that there were some spirits which allowed a shaman to do just this, but analysing another shaman's bound high class spirits was impossible unless you used a similarly high class spirit to investigate.

"I have the 2-Star platinum class deep vision spirit. I can't completely see through your spirits, but that's exactly why I'm certain that those 2 spirits of yours must be mythril class!" Her eyes shone with greed as she said this, which soon turned to excitement as she waited for Deon to confirm her long held speculation.

Deon was startled. A platinum class 2-Star spirit, in this kingdom…?

He knew about the deep vision spirit, it was a spirit that came in multiple different ranks and classes, from 1-Star to 3-Star and silver class to platinum class. It could be used to identify the rank and class of a spirit that was bound by a shaman and hidden in their soul space.

The deep vision spirit could only see through a target which was equal to or below its own class and rank. This meant that since she was unable to see through 2 spirits in Deon's soul space, they must either be mythril class or 3-Star…Deon obviously couldn't bind a 3-Star spirit, so they must be mythril class!

She would never guess in her wildest dreams that Deon possessed multiple spirits beyond mythril class.

"Indeed, aside from my core spirit, I have 2 high class spirits, though they have nothing to do with any of my talents or achievements."

"What? I don't believe it!" She rolled her eyes, continuing to stare at him intently.

Deon shrugged.

"Believe what you want. Anyway, since you haven't killed me in an attempt to steal my spirits, I'm guessing that means you were able to see through some clues about the nature of my core spirit?" He asked curiously.

Obviously she couldn't possibly know about the ancient demon spirit, but across the spirit continent, there were in fact many demon type spirits. Anyone who had seen one demon type spirit would be able to identify another right away, because they all possessed an extremely evil and demonic aura.

"Obviously it's a demon spirit! Otherwise, as you said, I would have already killed you and taken those 2 treasures! Sigh, compared to my payment for assisting this kingdom's king, those spirits are definitely far more valuable…" As Shi sighed, lamenting her struggle over the past months, she let slip something that she shouldn't have, causing her to freeze.

Deon understood her hesitation to act against him. Demon spirits had a tendency to kill other spirits. Often, if a shaman who possessed a demon spirit died, their demon spirit would actually slaughter all of their other spirits! She assumed that since Deon's core spirit was a demon spirit, the result would probably be even worse.

Indeed, if Deon died, his ancient demon spirit would definitely explode in a slaughterous eruption, taking out all of his bound spirits with him.

Deon's expression brightened. Her words just now, combined with the fact that she actually possessed a 2-Star platinum class spirit, pretty much confirmed his guess.

"As expected, you're someone from outside of the kingdom, someone with no loyalty to this mortal nation. Miss Shi, I assure you that if you join forces with me, the benefits will be tremendous! Also, perhaps you can still earn your payment for assisting the current king, since I have no plans to remove him from the throne."

Deon paused for a moment to let her process his words, then said:

"Miss Shi, why don't we drag this war out for as long as possible? If you can help me to gather more resources and recipes, I will refine countless spirits and we can split the profit between us!"

Shi's expression changed and she looked at Deon in shock. For the first time, she noticed the hidden darkness in his eyes and she shuddered. She felt a deep rooted sense of fear for a moment there and her heart skipped a beat, startling and confusing her greatly.

'How could a suppressed 1-Star shaman make me feel fear? No, more importantly…as I expected, Deon is definitely not someone from this kingdom!'

She had naturally investigated Deon's background before being assigned to watch over him by the false king. It didn't take much digging to find that his background was a bit suspicious, with the first records of him appearing in this kingdom being his entry from the outside. She had long since guessed that perhaps he wasn't from the kingdom.

"Oh, the suppression is about to drop…" Deon blinked and looked up. The golden membrane was starting to shudder, showing that the shamans were struggling to hold on. When he saw the first individual finally run out of origin energy, Deon turned back to Shi and smiled.

"Let's continue our chat in a more relaxed environment, I trust that at this point, you will at least hear me out before deciding to take my life. Right then, time to bring this performance to its finale."

"Finale-?"

BANG!

"Gah!" The fake lieutenant cried out in shock as an explosion of all sorts of colours suddenly detonated above her body. She was so startled by the sudden ear-ringing explosion, that she actually fell to floor and rolled about.

"Ah!" Lieutenant Reana was startled and exclaimed out loud.

"Lieutenant Shi, are you alright?!" Deon ran over to the pitiful looking lieutenant with a face filled with worry. She wanted to smack him right now, but under the gazes of Deon's entire unit, she withheld herself. With a self-pitying sigh, she joined in the performance.

"Commander Deon…thank you so much! I feel as though an invisible weight has been lifted from my shoulders, leaving my body along with spirit that you miraculously and spectacularly destroyed!"

'Too much, way too much…' Deon forced himself to keep a straight face, but when Shi opened her mouth with a look that said she planned to drive the point even further, he quickly stepped in. This woman would overact herself into a grave and then continue digging further down, he couldn't just leave her be.

"Lieutenant, please don't strain yourself. That spirit was far too strange, I'm not confident that I managed to remove all traces of its lingering power! Sigh, we'll need to put our plans on hold…Lieutenant Reana, is it alright if we return at 1800 hours?" Deon turned to the approaching lieutenant and asked.

"Of course, taking care of Lieutenant Shi should be our main priority!"

Deon smiled and nodded.

However, suddenly, Lieutenant Reana was startled once again as Captain Dan approached Deon.

"Commander, you were indeed correct, of the 27 men following Lieutenant Reana, I can confirm that at least 12 of them are rebel spies. On top of that, 20 of the more recent recruits into our unit are also highly suspicious!" Captain Dan appeared in front of Deon and reported. Deon nodded, glancing at the captured rebel spies led by his most capable and trusted men.

The first purpose of the golden suppression was to subdue Lieutenant Shi. The second purpose was to out any potential spies currently residing within the 37th unit camp. When they felt the powerful suppression, those spies would naturally be fearful and act suspicious. After listening to Captain Dan's report, Lieutenant Reana finally realised the full implications behind everything that was currently taking place.

"This…could it be that my other 9 units are actually all planted rebel units?!" She exclaimed in shock, fear and anger. However, Deon shook his head.

"Lieutenant, if all 5,000 men were enemy rebels, you would have definitely noticed something. That said, it's likely that most of the commanders and captains are indeed rebels. Anyway, I must get going to treat Lieutenant Shi promptly, I trust that you can take things from here."

"Right." She nodded seriously, immediately turning towards the 27 men that followed her here with a grim expression. Seeing her intensity, Deon could rest easy, knowing that she was capable enough to handle this.

As the captured rebel soldiers shivered in fear under Lieutenant Reana's murderous gaze, Deon retreated with Lieutenant Shi into his private tent, positioning two trusted guards outside.