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Chapter 227 ~ Rescue

Sir Furt could hardly believe his ears.

He sat on a couch, stuffed thick with goose down over velvet and ornate decorative engravings of flowers that he had just bought using the gold Arche had brought a few days ago. 

The softness that the luxury he enjoyed thoroughly since then, and had been the source of his newfound happiness and pride. 

But now, he sat upon it with an ashen pale face which was rapidly going ghost white. 

“W-What did… you say?”

His voice trembled, his own nerves, fear, and anxiety betraying him as he spoke before the moderately built visitor who sat on the opposite side. A tall, hulking brute with muscles seemingly more dangerous than even the heavy looking pace behind him stood behind the visitor. He was silent, yet spoke more words through the sheer weight of his presence and his equipment. A promise of pain and suffering. 

“I said, your debt is being called in, Sir Furt.”

The lender said and held out a hand graciously. His lips curled into an understanding yet helpless smile. 

“A question has been cast upon your ability to pay, and I’m afraid we require a substantial sum of the total now.”

“M-My daughter is out on a job! She’ll pay when she gets back!”

“That may be fine then. But we require something now. You can’t simply borrow more again today as you usually do, not without paying something.”

“B-But…”

‘Damn you, useless girl! If only you’d just gotten that old goat’s rod up, this wouldn’t be happening!’

Furt silently cursed his daughter. 

And the lender, having heard the surface thoughts of the man before him, decided it’s time to extend the prettily disguised olive branch. 

“We can extend you additional credit if you were to offer… something of high value.”

“What?”

Sir Furt’s eyes bulged out beyond his control.

“There has been… a premium on young blonde girls right now. You happen to have two of them. They’re quite fashionable in certain… circles.”

The lender scrunched up his face in somewhat of a sour look, clenching his teeth, displaying his obvious distaste and disgust.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Give them up, and we’ll be willing to extend you a little more since they’re… pristine, well bred and well behaved, in addition to their other qualities.”

“I-I see…”

‘T-They’re my girls. I can’t… Wait no, that’ll solve the money problem now. At least for now. I can acquire some fine things to show off to other nobles, and regain my prestige in high society! Then, when the bloody emperor dies, i’ll become an integral figure in nobility once more! By then, who wouldn’t want to be arm in arm with me again?! Then, I’ll be able to find them again!’

Bitterness struck him, cursing the situation he ended up in right now. 

‘I just need time… Time to get my status back.’

“Wait here…”

Sir Furt ordered, and left the room.

And soon, he returned with two little identical golden-haired girls. 

“Go see Mister Luca.”

The girls, seeing the familiar person who had visited their home numerous times before, walked over to the merchant without hesitation. 

They curtsied elegantly, like the good, well bred, little noble girls that they were.

““Hello, Mister Luca. It is nice to see you again.””

The man smiled softly.

“It is good to see you as well. Have you been good girls?”

““Yes, we’re good girls!”” 

They said in unison once again. Their sister seemed to love it when they say things in unison, and they’ve also come to think of it like a fun game whether or not they could say the same things at the same time.

The man smiled softly and put a hand on their shoulder.

“You’re going to be coming with me, for now, okay?”

The twins looked at their father and saw him nodded. 

Then, without saying anything, Luca removed a small pouch from his inner pocket and slowly set it down on the table. The mere sound of it tantalizing Sir Furt’s ears proven by the smile that immediately curled up on his face.

“Do you want to count it?”

“No, I’m sure it’s all there.”

“As you like then, my lord.”

Luca stood up from his seat, nodded at Sir Furt, then led the little girls out of the mansion as the hulking brute followed suit. 

And upon exiting the mansion, the man, cold hearted as he was, could not help but feel disgusted and disdain in his heart. 

‘Truly, a fool. This must be why many of us have a distaste of humans.’

“Luca” led the group to a silent alleyway far from the majority of the populace. He produced a scroll from inside his pocket, and threw it up to the air. There was a flash, before blue flames consumed the scroll, instantly disintegrating it. 

Then, a few moments later, a whirling black void appeared, and they entered. 

And the moment they walked past it, the little twins widened their eyes in shock. 

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

Lakyus knocked on the wooden door of the guild’s private meeting room twice, and an answer came quickly afterwards from within. A familiar voice.

“Come in.”

The door opened and Lakyus entered with the rest of Blue Rose following closely behind. 

Inside, sitting upon a chair with a large table before them, they saw Alexander, for the first time, without his armor, and Lilith without her robes, though her fox’s mask still concealed her face. 

A look of surprise flashed across the young noble lady turned adventurer. While she knew how young these new yet formidable Adamantite ranked adventurers were, they looked like regular young men and women just having reached adulthood, too young for a life of an adventurer, marred with danger and death. 

The two sat together on one side of the table, along with Momonga and Lupu on either of their sides. And on the other side of the table were five empty chairs. 

Blue Rose entered the room and locked the door behind them. The twins, Tia and Tina, as well as Evileye observed the room closely. Then, only after they nodded that Lakyus spoke.

“We’re surprised. We didn’t expect for you to send us a message to meet privately.”

Yuuji raised from his seat and smiled in return. 

“And we appreciate you coming despite the abruptness of the invitation. Please, take a seat.”

Lakyus approached the chairs on the opposite side of the table and sat down at the center, right before Yuuji. Gagaran took the seat on the outermost side, nearest to the table, while Tina sat in between her and Lakyus. And finally, to Lakyus’s left sat Evileye and Tia. 

“Now then. We’re here. What do you guys wanna talk about, eh?”

Gagaran leaned forward, placing her muscular arm on the table and smirked as she eyed Yuuji and the rest of Providence.

But Yuuji simply smiled, and instead spoke to Lilith and Momonga. 

“Before that… If you will, Lilith, Momonga.”

The two nodded, and soon, a myriad of spells were cast upon the room. 

“[Dispel Magic], [Fake Cover], [Counter Detect], [Lesser Protection from Divination].”

“[Alarm], [Magic Lock], [Secret Rendezvous].”

A look of shock flashed across all members of the Blue Rose, especially Evileye who stared at the magic, some she never heard of, with widened eyes and gaping mouth beneath her mask.

And noticing the nature of the spells, a grave look appeared on her face, which was reflected in her voice.

“Seems like what you’re about to tell us is of the utmost importance and secrecy.”

Yuuji nodded at Evileye’s words. 

“We have received a request from the crown to dispose of Eight Finger’s top fighters, the Six Arms.”

The air immediately tensed as their eyes all sharpened at Yuuji’s words. Even Gagaran, who had worn a wide grin on her face since she arrived, frowned at the mention of the dark, underground organization.

“I see now why you would go through all this trouble to ensure we’re talking in private.”

The Eight Fingers were notorious entities. They were criminals, by every meaning of the word, but wielded a wide network and influence in the kingdom. Not to mention regular nobles, there were even high ranking nobles under their influence or had dealings with them. 

With such influence, they would have eyes and ears everywhere. Perhaps even in places they’d least expected such as the adventurer’s guild. 

Anything could happen, and they wouldn’t want plans and information meant to take them down to be leaked to the Eight Fingers. 

“So you want us to help you fight them? Is that it?”

Gagaran voiced her question. It was a natural response, and a question that all Blue Rose shared. 

The top fighters of Eight Fingers, members of the so-called “Six Arms” were all extremely powerful. 

Their leader possessed the power of a powerful Adamantite, while the rest wielded similarly dangerous and lethal powers. In addition to outnumbering Providence by two, it would be extremely difficult for even Providence to defeat them unless they could break them up and take them down one by one, which was too idealistic to be done in real life. 

It’d make sense why they’d request for Blue Rose’s help to balance the odds. 

But to their shock, Alexander shook his head.

“No. We will handle Six Arms by ourselves. However, most heads of the Eight Fingers are all scattered around the kingdom. I want you to raid their hideouts, burn their fields, and smoke those vermin into one place, where we can cut them down in one fell swoop.”

Their eyes all widened in shock, their mouths opened in disbelief.

As if he was speaking a different language, Blue Rose could hear him say the words, but simply could not fathom what he meant by it. 

How utterly ridiculous! His words were too unbelievable? 

Was their initial impression of him wrong? Was he, in fact, a delusional person who could speak such idealistic and fantastical things as if they were actually probable? 

If it was that easy, then they would’ve done so years ago! Eight Fingers would’ve been just another small-time evil organization they crushed!

But before they could voice their disbelief, they saw Momonga produced a scroll from within his robes, and unfurled it onto the table, revealing drawings of squares, rectangles, long winding lines with familiar words and names, and Xs. 

It was a full map of the royal capital, with X’s drawn upon a few of the buildings on the outermost districts, farm fields, and some even in the districts near the inner circle of the capital. 

“These are the locations of their hideouts, brothels, distributors, and fields within the royal capital. We’ve managed to pinpoint them with the help of divination magic and the Golden Princess. I would like for Blue Rose to conduct a raid onto most, if not, all of these points in quick succession.”

A fully, thought-out plan, perhaps concocted by the Golden Princess for quite a while, but only enacted now with the arrival of another Adamantite ranked adventurer. 

The figure of the seemingly innocent, yet prodigious princess she called friend appeared in Lakyus’ mind. 

She had always been smart, kind, and had dreamed of culling these cancers from the kingdom. Unfortunately, she was born as a princess, who was “only good for political marriage”, given very few resources, and little to no influence. 

Blue Rose knew very well how limited Renner was. The few missions she had done for her in the past were paid with gold out of her own pocket money, which was much less than what Blue Rose would normally charge. 

But now… With the King himself employing Providence, perhaps their wish of completely eradicating the cancer of the kingdom would finally come to fruition. 

Lakyus then pondered on the plan Alexander proposed. 

“We’ve raided their bases and burnt their fields in the past. That much wouldn’t be a problem if Six Arms were absent. But, wouldn’t doing this alert them? Wouldn’t they simply go back into their hiding spots we have no idea of?”

“That’s the point. They’ll go and hide. But with the troubles they’ve been experiencing recently, they’d have limited options on the safest place to hide in. And this…”

Yuuji pointed at an unmarked point in the map. A luxurious mansion located within the inner district of the royal capital. 

“Would be the most probable place they’ll go to hide.”

“This is…”

The fact that it was a location so deep into the inner district alerted Blue Rose. They did not expect the Eight Fingers to possess a hideout within the inner district of the royal capital. 

“This is a mansion owned by the crown princess. There are proofs that it had been used by those connected to the Eight Fingers. With all other hideouts compromised, this would be the safest place they’ll go to during an emergency.”

“What…? Are you saying…!?”

Alexander nodded, and his confirmation plummeted the room into further disbelief and dread.

“Oi oi… Are you serious…? I know he’s a jerk, but I didn’t think he’d stoop that low…”

“Unbelievable…”

Tia and Tina, in their silence, shared their sisters’ disbelief. 

They didn’t know of this… They’ve never heard of something like this from their sister Tira. 

Did she know and simply didn’t tell them about this? Or did even she, leader of the assassin organization Ijaniya, was not privy to? 

“Are you sure about this?”

Lakyus asked with her teeth clenched, hands clenched into a fist, and eyes filled with unbridled anger and disgust.

“Yes. We’ve collected evidence to prove it.”

Momonga pulled out several documents and gave it to Lakyus. 

They were receipts, proof of Barbo’s transaction and deals with the Eight Fingers. Many of which were paper trails for the procurement of “female companions”. 

“That bastard…”

The papers crumpled within her clenched fist. And no more hesitation, nor disbelief, were present in any of their eyes anymore. 

“We’ll do it. This time for sure, we’ll weed out every last root of these cancers from the Kingdom.”

Evileye, Gagaran, Tia, and Tina nodded in agreement with their leader. 

Their eyes filled with similar intensity and determination. 

“Yes. Each and every last one of them.”