“Will.. will that be okay?”
Lensa looked at the trio after stating her logical demand. Ken and Almera had smiles on their faces while agreeing to her request. Eren smiled too. But his smile had a tinge of anxiety hidden in it.
‘You enjoyed fuc*king a virgin elf, didn’t you. Now prepare for the consequences, damn it.’
Eren cursed while sitting beside Lensa on the luxuriously plush sofa. Almera and Ken had already left the room.
“So, what’s up, Novice Lensa Carren?”
Eren started first. The more quickly he is done talking to Lensa, the better it would be for him to get away from the mess. The latter scanned him from top to bottom with her eyes before replying:
“Lensa is fine, Eren. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind me calling you just with your name either.”
‘I do mind in fact.’ Said internally before saying completely different outwardly:
“Yeah. It’s fine. What do you want to ask about Ken? I’ll tell you all that I know honestly. Hehe!”
Eren subtly moved the conversation towards Ken. He was expecting his move to achieve some form of success. But alas, the elf girl asked something else entirely:
“Eren, have we met before? Like, have you come to the city of Silvermoon in your childhood?”
“Um.. no. This would be my first time talking to you. And the same goes for my arrival in the city of Silvermoon as well. Why do you ask that?”
Eren was a great actor and a pathological liar. But even he was finding it difficult to face the girl’s inspective eyes with ease.
“It’s… it’s nothing. I just thought that maybe we have met each other before. Maybe my thoughts are in complete disarray after experiencing that state. Please don’t mind my weird questions too much.
About Ken, let’s see. Just tell me all that you know so far along with your interactions.”
Lensa finally let go of analyzing Eren. Probably because she didn’t find any chink in his armour. She finally moved to talk about Ken in response to which the latter obliged and told her all that he knew and experienced working with him.
Of course, Eren made sure that Ken is represented in the best light possible. Thankfully, he didn’t have to lie much as the boy was the perfect relationship material.
Eren took his leave soon afterwards. Lensa couldn’t help but watch his departing figure with keen interest. She still felt that there was something more than meets the eye when it came to the butcher. But she just couldn’t put a finger on it.
In the end, she let the matter go. For now at least. She’ll have to dig deep in the future when the opportunity comes. Or she’ll have to create an opportunity for herself.
************************
“Where did you guys disappear to?”
Marla asked with her hands folded in an inspective posture. Eren’s team was back at the inn, in Marla’s room where she had summoned them to discuss the next part of the mission.
Almera came forward and informed Marla about the recent developments that took place regarding Ken. Marla didn’t know whether to laugh or play it cool after hearing what had happened with the boy. But she couldn’t help but choose the former at the end:
“Hahahaha! You guys underestimated elven ales. Thank god, nothing major happened apart from this debacle. Otherwise, I would have had to bring your dead bodies home.
And Unscented Wind Empty Mind is the worst ale one can start elven booze with. You should have gone for Froastfoam. It’s the best and the safest option for newcomers.”
Marla wanted to talk more about the booze but then she heard Almera clearing her throat. The Adept was reminded by her assistant that she was going off-topic.
“Alright! Time to tell you about the second part of the mission. We’ll move back to LA as soon as we finish this.
From tonight onwards, we’ll each be given an area outside the city walls to keep an eye on. We are looking for cultists and their links to someone in the city of Silvermoon.
Most of the city administration doesn’t know this part about the mission and we are going to keep it that way. We’ll each leave separately just before the late evening and come here to the inn in the morning.
Don’t worry about your safety.
These days, I’ve been busy and made some preparations. I had to recon the areas to make sure that those can be areas of interest. I used some of our captives’ intel for that.
After confirming the areas, I’ve planted a few articles outside the city zone at the areas we are going to monitor.
I’ll give you a recipient artefact each. If there’s an outsider Adept or Ace ranker within a certain range, the artefacts will produce a visual signal and let you know where they are located. You’ll have plenty of time to retreat if someone you can’t handle shows up.
Almera you will follow any suspicious E-Ranker when you find them using the device. And Ken and Eren will follow F-Rankers. We’ll try to keep our cover intact and follow them. And try to capture them if the cover gets blown. Killing them is the last resort.
We’ll do the recon for the next three days. We’ll retreat to LA, whether we’ll capture a new lead or not. Is there any part of the mission you don’t understand?”
Marla asked her teammates and got no response in return, telling her that they all had understood their assignment. She nodded her head before started giving a few more in-depth details that she hadn’t shared yet.
Eren kept on listening to Marla’s instructions. But a part of him was thinking about the reason that led to the secrecy they had to maintain during the second part of the mission. And he narrowed his eyes after zeroing in on the most probable one among them.
‘Someone big in the city of Silvermoon is in cahoots with the cultists!’
=======================
AN: Thank you @byrnem622 and emme_z for sending gifts. Also, thanks to all the readers who have placed their Golden Tickets on VEH.