The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 669: Isn’t it nice if all the fish gathered in one place?

"They ask him to form a party?" I asked in surprise during the report call.

[Yes, Young Master] replied the one reporting. Not Heraz, since he was busy on the move. [They come with many people, but only four approach him. They went out of the ruin and entered a carriage]

"A carriage, huh? Not a horse?"

"Perhaps they don’t want to attract attention," Natha commented. "Since they came with a lot of people, maybe they did plan to attack Qu’en if he did not cooperate. At any rate, they must have told to not kill the target unless they could secure the spear."

"Hmm...but," I bit my lips. "We didn’t have the chance to rail them up about the relic..."

[We have told Qu’en to let it slip somehow during the journey, Young Master] the report continued. [Qu’en asked them for a priority chance to choose a loot, so they would probably ask him about it later]

And they did, according to the next report.

The church agents were committed to their plan and acting like a party. The carriage they used wasn’t luxurious, but decent enough for a group of well-established mercenary group--you know, so they wouldn’t look like a bunch of bandits.

They also made a stop at night to camp and it was then, during meal time around the fire, that they asked Qu’en about the relic after a round of drink. Qu’en, pretending to be tipsy, replied with the prepared scenario: searching for certain relics shaped like a pearl.

When asked why and what the pearl was, Qu’en simply mumbled incoherently about a dream from the Goddess or something.

I had no idea how well Qu’en acted, but I did hope they could record this session for me to watch like a movie.

But anyway, one of our objectives was done. There was even a replica of the bead we initially made to entice them. Those agents would be able to find it if they searched Qu’en’s belongings. I even put Valmeier’s old soldier tag there to convince them more.

[One of them secretly left the camp to report to the group following from behind, and someone from that group left right after]

"Reporting to the higher-up?"

[We think so. Someone is currently following that person]

"Good. What about Heraz and the magician?"

[Still following Qu’en, Sir. There’s a detection spell on the spear, so it’s not difficult]

"Oh, wait!" I suddenly remembered something. "What if they knock down Qu’en somehow and see his wrist? Wouldn’t they see the bracelet?"

[Don’t worry, Young Master. As a precaution, Qu’en had already put the bracelet in a hidden pocket. It’s mainly a detector right now]

"Oh, that’s a relief. Okay, good job."

Indeed, Heraz’s team was full of competent agents. At any rate, it seemed like our plan was going smoothly. Waiting for the update, however, was still nerve-wracking. During each interval, I had to either hug Shwa or Jade to calm myself, and my sons seemed to understand it well. Jade was patting my back and feeding me candy, while Shwa lightly smacked my cheek as usual.

Thanks to them, it was slightly bearable until the next report came in.

There were two reports next; one came from the team following Qu’en, and the other came from the one following the previous agent.

The one following Qu’en said the group was still pretending to be a party and going toward Northeastern. The other one, also going Northeastern, was reporting about what seemed to be their eventual destination.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the Holy Empire. Yet.

"Sareah, huh?" Natha stroked his chin while recalling the information in his memory. "The place has a strong tie to the Holy Empire, so that’s probably why. A lot of their older priests spend their retirement there."

"Oh, is that so?"

The agent confirmed Natha’s words and followed with more intriguing information. [The agent came to a villa, and after snooping around, we found a carriage with a crest of a Lenaar’s ducal house]

It was fortunate that I wasn’t drinking anything at that time, so there was no spitting accident happening.

Wow...we had thought this might happen, but honestly...I didn’t think it would really happen. They did send someone from Lenaar.

"Which ducal house?" Natha asked.

[Arnea, Sir]

Huh? That sounded familiar, but...I wasn’t sure.

Natha, however, was sure. "That darn magician?" the room turned cold all of a sudden as his gaze turned menacing. When I was wondering why he had that reaction, Natha added in a murderous tone. "The damn prick who made my sweetheart suffer?"

[Yes, my Lord]

Ah! That magician. The Hero’s old companion. The one making an indiscriminate attack on the frontline that killed both demons and humans alike. Valmeier had to burn out his mana circuit to provide a sanctuary field for the rest of the soldiers so they did not get sucked into the explosion.

Yeah. That magician sucked.

[We were hoping that there would be no magician involved, but--]

"Oh, don’t worry," I told them with a scoff. "If it’s that person, he wouldn’t know how to read formations even with a dictionary in his hand. Why do you think he couldn’t even do his job properly during the war?"

And I doubted he had changed during the past two years. Not if he didn’t even change during the wars, when improvement was vital. He was probably enjoying his status as a ’Hero’, and only agreed to this assignment so far in the North because he didn’t want to go to war again.

Especially a losing war.

"It’ll be fine to let him have the replicas--both the spear and the relic," I held Natha’s hand to calm him. "He will probably take them proudly and bring them to the Holy Empire so he could get praised." ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

If Valmeier’s memory about this person was right, then he wouldn’t let any chance that would bring him glory slip away. He might even pretend that he was the one behind it all, without crediting the agents who had to work hard in his stead.

I mean...he did the same to Valmeier anyway. I overheard him brag about the kills that belonged to Valmeier during that last party I attended. I wasn’t even mad, because he sounded so cringy while doing it, and people were ready to lick his ass since he was considered a ’Hero’ and came from one of the ducal families.

I turned to face Natha and smiled at him. "And then you can vent to both the church and him, how about it?"

The cold finally receded because of that. But I knew it did not disappear; it was just simmering inside the box of fury in Natha’s heart, ready to be unleashed at the right time.

"Continue to monitor them," Natha spoke again after taking a deep breath. "Tell Qu’en and the others that we should make the magician take the spear and the relic."

[By your command]

Phew...

"It looks good so far," I muttered. "They were more or less moving as we thought they would."

Unfortunately, the church hadn’t made a real big move that would tell us where the seventh relic was.

"I hope seeing Jin at the auction will rile them up."

* * *

The next day, it was getting more exciting.

We were told that the group with Qu’en finally made their move. Apparently, when Qu’en asked where they were going as the carriage moved toward the highway to Sareah, they decided to give him a spiked drink and kept him unconscious until they arrived.

Hmm...perhaps they were secretly afraid that ’Valmeier’ would be able to beat them all if he got suspicious? I mean...I did have a reputation as a demon slaughterer.

Surely, if I could kill a lot of Wrath demons, a bunch of humans wouldn’t be a problem.

They proved my conjecture further by putting on a mana-sealing cuff on Qu’en. How stupid. How could ’Valmeier’ take out the spear if the mana was sealed?

Eh, that wasn’t my problem.

While the carriage moved Qu’en--who wasn’t really unconscious--another event was happening a few kingdoms over. Yup--the auction where Zarfa and the others would participate. This time too, I received a life update from Aina, who did it like she was commenting on a tournament.

[Oh, they have a spread of nice items this time! An end-of-autumn special! Before-the-winter clearance sale! To accommodate all the tourist, they provide their best wares in the first half of the year!]

[Oh! The madam from the east block is having a fierce battle with the gentlemen on the upper box! Who would come out as a winner--wait! We have a new entrant! Miss Goldbel had raised her hand!]

[What a fierce eyes, Miss Goldbel! Is this because you are granted an unlimited fund? Higher! Higher! Let’s raise the price higher!]

Jade was loving it so much. Due to the time difference, the auction happened right after our dinner, so it was a nice bedtime show for Jade and Shwa. While he didn’t understand, Shwa made a delighted sound every time Jade clapped his hand in excitement.

The call came to a lull when the auction paused in the middle, giving the participants time to rest. The auction house provided a lounge for the participants to have some refreshments while waiting, and it became both a socializing place as well as a battleground of wits.

But more importantly, it became a place where the Hero could be seen, slipping the information that he was looking for a relic. Surely, in a place like this where people from all over the place gathered, the information would spread far and wide.

Coincidentally, during this time, another report from Sore came.

[The carriage had reached Sareah]