147 A Plot in Orazvil City

After Terroriser and Ellies left the meeting room, the people in the room kept silent for a brief moment. Then, under that serious and heavy atmosphere, one of them spoke.

It was the one called Pablo.

"Then, can any of you explain what happened with the group that was killed a few days ago?" He asked and looked at Barney as though waiting for an explanation.

Hearing it, Barney scoffed, "Why are you looking at me? I don't have any idea about what happened."

"Yeah? But they were your men. If you don't know, who is supposed to know?" Pablo said with an ice-cold smile.

Barney furrowed his brows, but before he could speak, someone else interrupted.

"Calm down, guys. This is not the time to fight between us."

It was one of the masked people seated around the table. 

However, Pablo did not relent under his intervention, "Do you expect that I will calm down? We are in a critical part of the operation, and an incident such as this happens. Moreover, that old retarded asshole with dementia even used the creature! What if one of the attackers suspects something after seeing it?"

Barney grunted, "You people of the Church of Carnage are always so paranoid. How many people in this world can identify that creature? Plus, the Duke took care of the aftermath quickly. Don't worry, I'm confident that the plan has not been leaked."

"I would not be so sure about that, Barney," Another masked person said. "Although my men took care of the situation quickly, it raised the suspicions of several parties. I received a report from a spy that Midnight Order disguised as reporters had recently demanded all the information about this case. They probably suspect something. Plus, we have not identified the attackers yet."

At that moment, an aged voice spoke with a sigh.

"Things are much more troublesome."

The voice from before wrinkled his brows, "What do you mean, Archbishop?"

"...There is a rumor spreading in the Churches of the city that this incident is related to the Blight.

Clank!

A cup fell to the ground.

"Impossible!"

"Who leaked it!?"

"That is outrageous! Nobody should be able to identify the creature in its current form!"

"It's true." The one called Archbishop said in a serious tone, "Although they have not confirmed it, several churches are already suspicious and the way the Duke managed the situation did not help. I don't think I need to say this, but my church can't afford to be associated with the Blight. Thus, if you don't find a way out of this situation soon, we will pull back."

"You hypocritical cocks! Stop making yourself look righteous after being involved in this shit!" Pablo laughed mockingly. However, the Archbishop remained indifferent. 

"Involved? No no, our church has not participated in anything yet. To be honest, I loathe collaborating with people like you."

The comment of the archbishop froze the atmosphere in the room.

Barney coughed awkwardly and tried to shift the topic, "Anyway, we will have to be more careful after today and hurry up with the plan," he then stared at one of the two people that had not spoken yet, "Kevin, how are the sacrifices doing?"

"We are almost ready, master." The one called Kevin replied respectfully, "Although there have been some small issues, we are confident we will be ready for next week."

"Sacrifices, huh. That is a nice way to call them," Pablo smirked and looked at one of the masked men, "But who would have thought that the righteous lord of Orazvil would fall so low as to plot against his own people."

"Don't try to make me feel bad, Outcast God's dog. As the Archduke of Orazvil, I always have my people as the priority."

"Your people? Hahahaha! Such a funny joke! Is killing your people for your personal benefit the best for them!?"

The Duke just glanced at him indifferently, "Before when I became the lord of this duchy, this place was completely ruined. People died from hunger, children were sold as slaves, and bandits raided the towns and cities recklessly. But now, this duchy is one of the most prosperous places on the continent. It was me that achieved all of this. However, there is much more I need to do, and for that, this is something necessary.

Pablo smirked condescendingly, "That is the reason I hate sanctimonious bastards like you. The greater good, hahaha, do you think the lives lost for your 'greater good' would think the same as you?"

"I'm different, though. What is wrong with enjoying death and slaughter!? Even if I kill, I don't go around looking for excuses!"

"Crazy bastard." One of the masked men muttered.

Pablo shrugged and swallowed a cup of wine messily. Many of the masked people in the room frowned when they saw that.

Finally, Barney sighed and looked at the only person in the table that had not spoken until now.

"Emroy, what do you think?"

The last masked man shook his head in disinterest, "I don't care about your plans or plots. My job is just to supply you with the tools, how you use them is your problem."

The other people looked at each other with wariness in their eyes before Duke opened his mouth.

"...To be honest, Mr. Emroy, you are the person I trust the least in this room. Your people have never been trustworthy."

The latter shrugged, too lazy to even answer.

At that moment, someone knocked on the door. The people in the room frowned before signaling a bodyguard to open the door. At the same time, every person in the room tensed up ready to fight.

But when they saw a gorgeous woman behind the door, their expressions relaxed.

"Miss Hilma, what brings someone like you here?" Barney asked curiously.

The gorgeous woman giggled softly and narrowed her eyes, "Nothing, dear customers. I just wanted to know if you are satisfied with our service. After all, not every day we receive so many important customers."

"Hahahaha, satisfied, very satisfied," Pablo grinned while ogling at the beauty in front of him. "The food and the wine are the best I have tasted in a while. Moreover, this place has such beauty like you. Just being able to get to know such a fairy like Miss Hilma is worth the price."

Hilma frowned briefly, but it was quickly hidden by her usual smiling expression, "Is it so? I'm happy then. Unfortunately, I have to check the other customers, so I can't spend more time here. Enjoy the night."

Upon saying that, Hilma left. And instantly, her expression turned grave.

"Fortunately, they did not notice anything."

"Madam, what should we do?" A strong-looking man asked the gorgeous beauty. "I'm sure the people behind this were targeting that room. Should we tell them about it?"

Hilma shook her head, "There is no need. Just find the missing servants and forget everything."

"Madam?"

"Don't you understand, Zaroth? I don't know what these people are targeting, or what these bigshots are planning, but my instincts are screaming it's not something we can get involved in."

"Then?"

"Find the missing servants. If they are alright, we will forget about what happened today."

One hour later, the missing servants were found sleeping inside the vents.

——————————————————————

A heavy silence filled the place where some of Team 6 and the others were gathered.

After a few seconds, Julian heaved a sigh and wrinkled his brows, "This is… very troublesome."

"Captain, what is the meaning of this? They can't be serious, right?" Ellies, the wolf lady, spoke in an anxious tone.

"Calm down, Ellies." The cat beastmen tried to keep her even in this situation, "Now is not the time to panic." He then stared at Team 6 and narrowed his eyes. "You guys, did you know anything about this?"

Terroriser shrugs, "Nope, although we know a bit about it, I was not aware it was such a very serious situation."

Julian and everyone's reaction was normal. After all, the information they got from eavesdropping on that conversation was enough to blow up the mind of a normal person.

Firstly, there was an ominous plan of course, and this plan involved sacrificing many lives. Second, the people that have been kidnapped recently will be used as sacrifices. That includes the person Julian and his group want to rescue. Third, it is related to this creature that the group encountered whatever was happening.

The Banana Bus Crew has no knowledge about the creature but encountering it several times for the past month, there is really something going on. It might keep interrupting their peaceful adventurers if they left unchecked on it. 

So, some of them felt they needed to be involved in this situation.

And lastly, there were at least multiple powerful parties involved in this.

Three of these parties were easy to identify. One was Barney and the Traffickers, another was the founder of Orazvil himself, and the last was the Church of Carnage, a large terrorist religious organization.

As for the other two, the group knew only that one was the Archbishop of a Church, and the other was a mysterious man they had no clue about.

"Damn, things are much more annoying as shit." Wildcat commented.

"I agreed with the pig." Julian said.

Wildcat let out a disapproval look, "The fuck, stop calling me that, you puss."

Ignoring Wildcat's words like he wasn't even there, Julian continues, "We will need to ask for help."

Ellies' expression changed, "But captain, if someone learns about this, the punishment we will receive-"

"No, Ellies. It's already out of our control." Julian's face was unusually grave, "We are facing the ruler of this territory, a large terrorist religious group, and several other organizations planning a mass-scale sacrifice. Plus, I have heard about Pablo before. He is one of the higher-ups of the Church of Carnage, a Demigod that enjoys killing people indiscriminately. There are also rumors he is of the same race as the Ancient Demons in legends. If it is true, then things got way worse. Tell me, Ellies. How are we going to face such a group?"

Ellies paled and fell silent. Julian could only sigh and looked at the group, "My fellow comrades, thank you very much for your help. You can come tomorrow to get the things I promised you all."

Terroriser smiled bitterly, "I thought our deal was to help you to rescue someone." 

"I'm not even sure if we can rescue him. I'll go to talk with my bosses, they will be able to help us. Don't worry, I'll tell you if we need your help. Of course, with a suitable reward."

Terroriser nodded. He doesn't know what these groups are but he felt it was perhaps the only safe place to ask for help.

"Very well. At least if you say that we are done then we'll be leaving." Terroriser then nodded at his friends before leaving.

When the group left, Julian turned towards Ellies, "Ellies, follow the person in charge of the slaves. Try to get the location of the Prince."

"What about you, Captain?"

"I'll head to the Headquarters of the Midnight Order. I need to talk with her personally and convince her to interfere. Ellies, if the prince dies here, none of us will be able to keep our heads."

Ellies gulped nervously and nodded. The current situation was as grave as it could be.

A Prince entered a former rival country without permission, moreover, he was kidnapped when he was in it.

The political and diplomatic implications of something like that were enough to start a war! Especially since these two countries were once rivals, which makes things worse.

Now, Ellies could only hope that the prince is rescued safely.

"Right, have you been able to find that group's true identity?"

Ellies shook her head, "Not really, we tried looking through other than the records of them in the Exodus Dungeon, their property damages in the city, multiple bar fights, Fionire Adventurer's Guild, Kalren City's incident. Other than those last month, there's not even one information we could find before they appeared in all of this, as if they just recently arrived in this world."

Julian frowned, "I got the feeling they are not simple mercenaries, and my instincts told me that they know more than they are showing."

"Captain?"

"...Let's ignore the situation with the Blight for now." Julian said, "I don't know how the artifacts they use work, but the fact they can't be detected by magic is something, besides…" Julian thought about the means these certain groups of mercenaries used to eavesdrop the conversation between Barney and the others.

For an instant, he wondered if they had done the same to them. In the end, he could only swallow his doubts and shake his head.

"I have the feeling they know more about our situation than we told them. I only hope they are not our enemies, otherwise, this situation will be even worse than now."

This was the first time in a long time that Julian felt so helpless.