It was getting dark, and the banquet was coming to an end. As the guests were bidding farewell to one another, a ray of dazzling white light shot toward the sky. It exploded, raining down light. A powerful magic surged throughout the city. Anfey, Suzanna, and Alice turned pale, and the guests were whispering to one another. It was obviously a magic signal.
"Please calm down," Alice said aloud. Both she and Yolanthe wanted stability. She did not want anything to disturb the cordial atmosphere.
"Suzanna, you stay with Alice and protect her," Anfey said in a low voice. He then walked out promptly, looking calm.
Suzanna was about to say something, but Anfey had already left. She let out a sigh. There was a limitation to the message being conveyed using the magic signal. There were a few magic signals in The League of Mercenaries. Red represented emergency, and white represented that enemies had been spotted, and that someone had been killed.
When the guards, who were at the door, saw Anfey, they stood upright. Anfey's body turned into multiple residual shadows and shot past them, causing a strong wind that made them lose their balance. They had to release their combat forces in order to balance themselves once more.
The strong smell of blood was everywhere. More than 30 mercenaries in the courtyard had been killed. No one had realized it, however, until Ye brought some men to arraign the prisoner.
After Ye had sent out the signal, the first person to arrive at the scene was Anthony. It was his turn to patrol. Both of them looked pale.
A thunderous voice was heard from afar, and they saw Anfey, flying low in the air, heading toward them. As Anfey was approaching them, he lifted up his hand and created a magic wall. He stepped on the wall and it collapsed. Anfey slowed down, and with a somersault, landed gently in the courtyard.
Anfey scanned his eyes around and then said in a low voice, "How many people have been killed?" He did not ask about the enemy. When he left the banquet, he had released his mind power to sense the city. He had sensed Ye, who was checking on the dead bodies, and Anthony, who was rushing toward the scene. He did not find anything amiss. Ye had stayed put at the scene, and he did not find anything amiss either.
"33 of them." Ye was not one to easily show his emotions, but he was now in deep grief. Those people who had died were his right-hand men.
"Are you the first to arrive?"
"Yes. I am here to arraign Julie. I could smell blood from afar, and then…" Ye paused for a while.
"Sir, Julie has escaped!"
Anfey was stunned. "Show me around!"
The cage that Julie had been locked up in had been destroyed. It was empty. Six mercenaries had been killed. Although they fell down in different positions, they had all been cut in the throat!
There were blood stains on the floor and wall. Anfey touched the stains, twirling his fingers. Although he was not a forensic expert, he had some knowledge in terms of conjecturing on the timing of death, based on the viscosity of the blood.
"Eleven of them, who were sleeping in the backyard, have been killed as well," Ye said in a low voice. "These guys are ruthless!"
Anfey walked to the cage and gently touched the clasped mark with his finger tip. With his backhand, he drew out the long sword from the dead mercenary, who was now before him. He then carefully placed the blade onto the wound, slowly thrusting it in. The wound opened up when the blade slanted to one side.
After a thorough check on the wound, Anfey went to six other dead bodies and did likewise. He shook his head and said, "This must have been done by the same person."
"Same person?" Ye was stunned. "Sir, it is impossible! There are more than 30 men here. If there was only one enemy, the rest would have sent out the magic signal!"
"Have the rest been cut in the throat as well?" Instead of replying, Anfey asked the question.
"Yes."
Anfey lowered his head and went into the cage. He looked around and saw the broken chain and rope on the floor. There were blood stains on them, but judging from the color, the blood stains had been there for a long time.
"Whose blood is this?" Anfey asked softly.
"It's Julie's"
"Has she been badly injured?"
"How should I say…" Ye hesitated for a while and said, "Yes, very badly."
"What is this for?" Anfey found two sharp pieces of ironware under the chain. They looked like giant nails, and the blood stains on them had turned black.
"Has this been specifically used by Julie?"
"Specifically used?"
"Sir, this is…just an instrument of torture," Ye said with a wry smile.
"Understood," Anfey nodded and said, "Tell me, can Julie move around freely now?"
"Impossible," Ye said confidently. "Both of her legs have been crippled. Even if she takes several decades to recuperate, it will be impossible for her to stand up. Unless…she has the help of a high priest."
"Have you not rushed over to arraign Julie? It has been so many days, and yet, you have not collected any useful information?"
"Sir, you don't know how stubborn Julie was," Ye said helplessly. "When she could not take the torture, she would divulge a little, and when I stopped to interrogate her, she refused to say anything again. The cycle kept repeating, and I did not push her too hard, as I was afraid that I would kill her accidentally."
"You should at least have some information. Show it to me."
Ye took out a roll of paper from the Dimensional Ring and passed it to Anfey. Nothing much had been written on the paper. The statements were scattered and meaningless. Anfey took a glance, then handed it back to Ye. "Send some men to guard the city gate tomorrow. Julie has been crippled, so it will be inconvenient to move her around. They may use the carriage. You don't have to bother about those entering the city. However, for those who are going out, a thorough check must be carried out."
"Sir, if your conjectures are right, and our men have been killed by one person, then he must be very powerful. Even if Julie is unable to move, it will not be difficult to bring her out of the city."
"Will he get her out of the city in daylight?"
"Not during the day, but during the night."
"Turn off the lights at the city gate and city wall at night. Withdraw all the men. No one should stay there."
"Sir, are you deliberately letting them escape? After that, then we…"
"No, he dares not escape," Anfey said with a smile. "Suzanna, Anthony, and I will be in the city. Master, Baery, Steger and Bruzuryano are still outside the city. No matter how powerful he is, he could not possible fight against us. He will be extremely careful. Although it seems safer at night, he will not dare to escape then."
"Sir, is he being careful? He has killed so many of our men!" Ye said with a wry tone.
"Think hard. He has killed so many of our men…I can give you another reason," Anfey said flatly. "It is possible that he hates us, and he is very close to Julie."
"You mean…" Ye pondered for a while and said, "To disregard his own safety in order to save her shows that they are very close to each other. If he sees Julie, or hears anything about her, …he will not be able to control his anger."
"That's right," Anfey said softly. "Moreover…only our men and Julie are here. His target is very obvious. He is here to save Julie!"
"Sir, what should we do now?"
"Since he is so concerned about Julie, it will be easy." Anfey paused for a while and said, "First of all, we must keep them in the city. Julie will need to be treated. And we know how many doctors, pharmacists, and priests there are in the city, don't we?"
"Sir, I will send the men out now."
"No. The mercenaries of the inspectorate are extremely unruly. They will let the cat out of the bag." Anfey shook his head and said, "I have a candidate in mind."
A figure flashed across Ye's mind. Anfey must have chosen Robert.
"Ye, tidy up the place and then…bury them." Anfey pondered for a while and said, "Go to Hui Wei for the pensions. Remember, don't disappoint our men." Although Anfey rarely handled f such matters, and had delegated the task out, he had his own principle: never let his men shed blood or tears. Whenever his men were injured or killed, he had to repeat himself.
"Yes, Sir," Ye replied with a nod.
Anthony was still looking at the corpse, and was lost in contemplation when Anfey walked toward him. "Sir Anthony, have you found any clues?"
"I have seen a similar corpse before." Anthony looked at Anfey.
"Where? In the Country of Mercenaries?"
"Yes." Anthony nodded. "But, I was very young then."
"What has happened since then?"
"It has been a long time. I can only remember that I was with Shanteler and Davidson. We were on our way back from the wild prairie and passed by the campsite of the mercenaries. As we were very young then, and liked to make friends, we had thought of going over to chat with the mercenaries. However, we found dead bodies in the campsite." Anthony spoke slowly. "The wounds on the mercenaries were exactly the same. They had been cut in the throats. We found it weird, as the possessions of the mercenaries were still intact. We had even found nine magic crystals. One would usually kill for the sake of money in the wild prairie. If not for money…then it must be for hatred. The hatred must have been very deep to have the mercenaries in the entire campsite killed."
Anfey frowned. In every society, there would be people who could not blend in with the current civilization. They would choose to be in seclusion. As it had been said, the greatest hermit would retreat into the noisiest fair, and the small-time hermits would hide in the mountains.
Regardless of the former or latter, many of them had great capabilities. Minosie was a dreadful representative figure. Even after his death, he held the world in disdain, and had caused the people in the continent to live in fear. According to Anthony's conjecture, the opponent could be someone who was inactive. Such people would pose a problem, as not much information would be available about them. They would not know anything about this person, but he would know everything about them.