Chương 114: Chapter 115: Discussions

Slums, Ichoris City. A man with wavy black hair leaned against his bedframe, his hands cradling his head. His muscular upper body was bare, and the rest of him was covered under a clean white blanket. Across from him, a woman with curly orange hair dressed herself. She looked behind her, and a small smirk landed on her lips.

"Haven't had enough?" Vito sighed, "He's still not back." The day before, Colton returned to the city. Now he was already gone. Although there was probably nothing to worry about, he had a nagging feeling in his heart that something was wrong. Corinne snorted.

"Rude."

"Sorry, it's just... I don't know." A part of it might have been that he was still feeling a little bad about Blake's passing. Another part might have been how he failed to keep Graham. But no matter what the reason was, something didn't feel right.

"What do you think was in the note?" he asked.

"Thinking about another man even when I'm right here." She furrowed her brows into an innocent smile.

"Am I not enough for you?"

"You know that's not what I mean." Vito shook his head.

"If I remember correctly, you stopped me from reading it like a hundred times." Corinne staggered to the bed, sitting down at the edge.

"But does it even matter?" Vito raised an eyebrow. Corinne continued.

"Colton's a capable guy, but on the off chance he got himself into some trouble... isn't he always preaching about having to fight your own battles? You think he'd want us to interfere?" Vito shook his head.

"It's one thing if it's a fair fight, but what if the Mayor is involved?" Corinne shook her head.

"Then we really can't poke our heads into it." Vito's eyes landed on the ceiling. Ever since Blake passed away, there was one mystery that he couldn't solve: Who sold the information about his passing? Initially, he thought it was the mayor, just trying to snag some extra credit, but it really didn't make sense. The wording seemed very antagonistic towards the mayor. So what if it was Prachar? As the second biggest power in the city, they certainly had the means to kill Blake.

But that still wouldn't solve most of the issues. That's when the strange theory came to mind. What if Prachar found out that the mayor killed Blake? If the Zircon family had some issues with the mayor that Vito was unaware of, and they were airing out their grievances… Colton was powerful, but compared to a Weaver? Compared to an Anvil?

"Do you..." He hesitated. His suspicions had to remain a secret and away from prying ears.

"Do you think that Zephyr sold us that information? Is she proposing an alliance against the Mayor?" Corinne gave him a long look. Vito shook his head and sighed.

"No, you're right. Let's just hope I'm being paranoid." Corinne jumped off the bed and gave Vito a knowing nod.

"I'll see you."

"Do you really have to go?"

"It's only a few months." She turned to face the door.

"Don't replace me, okay?" This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Upper Ichoris, Prachar headquarters. In a giant metal room, a man stood curiously in front of a machine while humming his favourite tune. Every few seconds, the machine released a small spark. The man stayed unfazed and observed each effect closely.

Around him were a plethora of things belonging to the man: small metallic tools, strange contraptions that made no sense, a half-eaten sandwich. The door slowly creaked open from behind, and he stopped humming.

"Erden, you're still here?" He sighed and turned around. From the door came a stunning woman with silky, silver-white hair. On any other woman, her loose shirt and baggy pants would be considered to be 'practical', but she somehow made them exotic. Life just wasn't fair. On her chest was an ice wood badge with the symbol of a knife.

"Am I in trouble?" He grumbled. She walked into the room and stretched with a yawn.

"What are you working on?" Erden smiled and turned back to his machine.

"I genuinely have no clue." Zephyr gave him a strange look.

"What?" He pressed the button, and a small spark flew out.

"Look. When I press this button, this part lights up. But when I press this other button—" zap"—this part lights up. And when I press both, nothing happens. But now, after pressing both, I press either one of them, and they both light up. It's fascinating, isn't it? There's no Energy involved; it's simply the movement of these small sparks. If I could figure out the logic behind some of this stuff... the possible applications..." Zephyr listened closely, eating a sandwich. His sandwich.

"Give me one possible application that Energy doesn't already solve," she challenged.

"Tch." Erden pouted.

"Why are you here?" Zephyr chuckled and sat down beside him.

"I need someone to bounce my ideas off. Everyone else here is a moron." Erden raised his brow.

"If I'm the smart one, Prachar really has fallen."

"Recently, the brother of the Blake guy came to the city. I've been thinking back to his death." She smoothed out her pants, and Erden focused back on the machine. He really wasn't too interested in the little games everyone was always playing.

"I still can't figure out why Redigo sold the information of Blake's death to us. It's like they're declaring war against the Mayor." ZZP.

"OW!" Erden yanked back his arm and blew it off. He'd forgotten to weave a construct to protect himself with Zephyr's yapping in his ears.

"They can't possibly be dumb enough to move against him. The two are practically symbiotic… Unless it wasn't Redigo?"

"Symbiotic?" Erden wasn't familiar with the term. She took a sharp breath, lightly biting her index finger as a glint appeared in her eyes. Erden gave her a strange look, knowing he'd been fully ignored. He focused back on his project.

"The problem is there's literally no other party that logically could have sold us that information. Grave has nothing to gain, the merchants wouldn't be involved in a murder against Redigo, and even within the families, they remain in line." A few seconds of silence.

"The Zircon family is closely tied with Redigo and therefore the city, so nobody would dare go against them except maybe us…" She paused.

"Unless…" She went silent for a while. Erden continued experimenting. A few minutes later, she abruptly got up. In her eyes was a mysterious sparkle.

"Erden, do you know Dissent?" She calmly asked. With a sigh, he turned to look at her.

"The terrorist group?"

"If you were a terrorist organization who wished to spread discord, how would you go about it?"

"I—""False flag, exactly." Erden closed his mouth and waited.

"I also heard they were getting active again… Let's not be too hasty. We don't have the proper information channels set up in this city with how incompetent the last management was. Has the Legerdemain gotten back to us?"

"..."

"Erden, has the Legerdemain gotten back to us?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. No, yeah."

"What?"

"I don't know."

"As of now, we have no eyes anywhere in the slums, and I doubt Redigo's bothered with anything… Maybe…" Zephyr narrowed her eyes.

"Thank you for the discussion, Erden. I know what we need to do now."

"And that is...?" But Zephyr was already gone. Erden sighed and went back to his machine. Upper Ichoris, Acies headquarters. In a small office, a man with a gravelly voice spoke in front of a machine.

"Redigo's position remains practically unshakable. With that new Prachar head, Zephyr, they've somehow managed to fix up all their grievances with the mayor. Their financial situation is slowly recovering, and they've left no opportunities for us to get in. The opportunity has passed." BEEP. His fist slammed against the table, then he took a deep breath. He cracked his head and walked to the window. From his vantage, he had a nice view of the sea square.

The trees swayed in the wind, and people donned themselves in warmer and warmer clothing as the days passed. He remained waiting there until he heard a beep from behind him.

"A shame." A quiet but sly voice.

"The increase in income wouldn't have been bad. We'll take our losses gracefully. Now's the time to double down on our core model rather than expand with the rising prices. Up the weapons manufacturing in Ichoris, and send your greatest talents here. We'll send them back for the next time Magnus looks to do another major project. I would say to wait until another opportunity arises, but I doubt there's a point. Good luck." BEEP.

Grave stared at the wall where the projection had been for a few more seconds with a dark expression. Zephyr... He closed the machine, then left the room with a sigh.