Morning.
A man in his forties cloaked with black robe traced the narrow alleys of a certain area within the capital city of the Dwarfen Kingdom. A dilapidated neighborhood where unfortunate people live in a state of poverty, the slums.
The man deliberately ignored all the impoverished people that he encountered in every turns, thinking it’s their fault putting themselves to desolation. The population largely consists of orphans and people who failed to raise themselves in the city.
He passed some rugged, of what they called, shelters as he is going to his destination. He is definitely not living in the streets but he somehow memorized this maze-like confusing area since he’s always using this district almost every day.
His job is to deliver the goods that were manufactured by the syndicate he’s been working to, illegally produced addictive narcotics called blue quartz.
Blue quartz are a type of an extremely addictive stimulant made out of a certain monster called Crystal Hermit, a D-ranked monster releasing an addictive mist that was more potent than the Mist Pumpkins give off.
This drug gives the user a feeling of bliss as if being on the seventh heaven. That feeling made them want to try again and again until they lost their minds. For that reason, all countries banned its manufacture and distribution.
As a syndicate who works underground, they have to move inconspicuously by straying away from the light. Slums are one of their cloak to conceal their activities.
The man continue walking around until he reached a building that’s not as odd as the others. He pushed the wooden door since he knew it didn’t have something like a lock.
What awaited him inside was a robust man sat in a lotus position facing a low table. He has a sword on his waist defining his ability to fight.
“How’s business going on?” The swordsman asked.
“Not as good as usual. Recently, more soldiers and knights deployed throughout the city. They had increased their awareness on us again.”
The news of people getting addicted to drugs has been reaching the ears of the authorities in the city. Aware of its negative effects on the population, more soldiers and knights has been deployed throughout the city.
“You said that right. But it’s unlikely we would be discovered as long as we are under his protection.”
“I have been hearing about this man from time to time, but who the heck is he?”
“As if I ever know.” The robust man folded his arms in frustration. “Only our bosses knew that information.”
The organization they been working for has hierarchy within its members. The top is the one who ruled all whole organization. Below it, the heads of each respective division. Direct subordinates of them, then the subordinates’ underlings, and so on.
The two are at the bottom caste of different division, so they don’t the authority to access such information.
“Ah! I’m tired of the women in this city. I wanna have something new. Maybe I’ll have elves next time.”
“Ha! As if you got money for that! Only exclusive members can have some high-class women.”
The robed man suddenly blurted his hidden desire. A dream to share a bed with a member of the elven race. Just as the man exclaimed, he can’t afford to pay one.
There are races other than humans residents the continent, elves are one of those. Elves are long lived race that are nature lovers and rarely leave their home country, the Elven Nation of Forester.
Although build with weak physical body, elves has high affinity for magic in exchange. They are proficient with marksmanship and expert at wielding bows.
But they have a trait that the others races don’t have, all of there members are beautiful and none are considered ugly. Making many to dream of having one of their own.
For that reason, elves are illegally captured and branded as high quality goods of illegitimate groups. The organization the two are joining is the top group that sells and offers elves.
“Hmph, I have to get more supplies to please our seniors. Maybe I will be promoted if I sold bunch.”
“Yeah, yeah. Good luck with that.”
After the casual conversation, the swordsman give the robed figure permission to pass the hidden passage to their secret base in the Dwarfen Capital.
◆◇◆◇◆◇
“…So that’s how it is.”
Inside the living area they have been staying, while the ray of the morning sun still basked the interior in light, Michael uttered those words.
“At least we find a base of this Five Headed Hydra organization, but it is just a small fraction of a division though.”
“Indeed. It’s better than nothing.” Michael nodded at Lucy’s statement. ．
They are currently in the base in the 30th Floor of the dungeon, inside their house to be specific. Discussion in a crowded city doesn’t seem to be safest option so they unanimously concurred to set the meeting in the safest place they know.
Above the table they have been facing, a large translucent panel steadily floated radiating a pale light. Within it, a sort of something like a footage broadcast in front of the them.
The twins attentively focus their deep blue eyes at the live feed of a suspicious individual they eyed since last night. The man in the question didn’t have an idea that he is leading the Myriad Wings to their hideout.
After leaving the tavern last night, Michael deployed a Clairvoyance to watch him the whole time. Even if he had an anti-intelligence magic item in hand, it cannot detect something that was cloaked with God’s Veil.
“Who do you think is the one who “protects” that they been talking about?”
“…I don’t have in mind. Maybe a dwarfen official?”
“That’s the only thing we can think about now.”
They don’t have concrete evidences yet so they can achieve to a certain conclusion. The way the syndicate haven’t discovered yet implies someone who work behind the curtains to distract the authorities.
Michael remotely navigate his Clairvoyance around the secret hideout of the drug syndicate they have been investigating. He paned the screen and taped something that caught their eyes.
“Hmm? Is that Crystal Hermit?”
“…Seems much likely.”
Dozens of blue crystalline rocks are piling up behind the door of one of the rooms in the underground hideout. A room that is used for storage purposes.
Each had the size of at least a meter and beamed a pale azure glow that slightly illuminated the whole room. Each of the crystals there were the carcasses of the Crystal Hermits.
“Where on earth did they procure this amount of Crystal Hermits without the kingdom noticing? I thought those were hard to find?”
“…Crystal Hermits are arbitrarily rare because they tend to be alone all the time. There numbers scattered all over the world and still considerably large if you count all its living members.” Michael paused to pass his Clairvoyance through the wall. “As for how they smuggled the our blue crabs, they used this.”
“A transfer circle…” Lucy muttered what’s they saw on the footage. “The prisoner said that the the Five Headed Hydra is quite a large organization. It’s no wonder they can hunt large numbers of monsters and slipped it to several cities through transfer gates.”
Transfer circles are magic devices that transport people and objects at long distances. Transfer circles are made in pair, a sender and receiver and vice versa.
Transfer circles are like the Warp podiums that Raphael made. The remarkable differences between the two is while Warp podiums activated instantly, transfer circles took several seconds up to minutes, depending on the size of the cargo, to cast.
It needs numbers of materials to create and handsome amount of fortune to fund, only producing a handful if pair in a year. Only few people have transfer circles in their own, mostly for escaping purposes and urgent errands.
“Since its suppose to be a large syndicate, they either are financially stable to afford one, or in the worst case…”
“They are capable and powerful enough to create their own.” Michael finished what Lucy’s about to say.
This is going to be a serious case, that’s what they thought. The organization carefreely use expensive transfer circles as a courier of their supplies and support, which is hard to believe.
It deeply indicating its a trivial matter to them of using such rare items and could do something bigger than they are currently showing off. That thought made Uriel to let out a tired sigh.
“Seems like we’re hitting a wall thicker than we initially thought. The sun is happily shining but our melancholic mood ruined it.”
“…Indeed.” Michael agreed to his older twin sister. “We have more things to do for the next days. Extensive preparations and planning such as gathering intel, laying groundwork and many more…”
The Five Headed Hydra is the top underground organization in the Northern Continent. A group that lurking under the shadows and gradually corrupting the righteousness of some countries.
Uncertain of the vastness of their influence, Uriel couldn’t rest and ask. “Do you think they already reached our territory?”
“…Well, I can’t say for sure. I don’t notice any suspicious activities the territory either.”
“Then, what are we going to do for a meantime?”
“…Let’s find out who is protecting them first.”