Marla had told her teammates that they’ll talk about the mission’s results after they left the city of Silvermoon. And it was now time to fulfil that promise:
“So we finally found the cultist hideout, thanks to the clues given by Eren. but it seems we were too late.
The place was already in ruins by the time we got there. And…”
Marla took some time before replying:
“And there was no cultist alive at the scene. We don’t know who, someone who might or might not belong to another cultist organization, had raided the place before us. And they didn’t just stop at the raid. They also killed all the cultists present at the hideout.
The scene would have been gory, to say the least by our preliminary investigations. But other than that, the city’s historians are having a hard time getting anything else from the scene.
They are saying there’s some kind of residual mana collusion that is affecting their class-specific spells. That’s why we don’t know the identity of the person who committed a massacre there. Or if he was with his team. Because this does not look like a one-man job.”
‘That’s right, babe. It was a three-person job.’
Eren said this in his head before raising a question to his master:
“Master Marla, why are you saying that there’s a possibility that it might be another cultist organization that did the massacre? Wasn’t Beast Bloods a cultist organization itself? I’d imagine birds of the feather flock together.”
Marla looked at Eren as if only now coming to understand that he was, in fact, a teen. He had shocked her with his wits and intelligence so much that she had started to treat him as an adult. She chided herself for that before replying:
“Eren, you might see the cultists as normal rankers. But they are not. And they don’t operate as normal rankers do. They have their own set of rules that are based on a certain ideology: survival of the fittest.
We rankers also believe in that ideology. But we are not fanatics about it. But cultist organizations would never hesitate to lose an inch to win a mile. They don’t care about the members of their organization. Do you think they’ll care about others just because they are also cultists like them?
Only profits and power are eternal in a cultist organization. They can easily make cooperative bonds within themselves depending upon the situation. And they can break them just as easily if and when there’s profit involved in doing that.”
Sai Marla after looking first at Eren and then at Ken. The latter also nodded his head after that, confirming to her that he had understood.
“But what benefits can a rival cultist gang have to raid the place? And isn’t this time too coincidental? Someone raided the place just before it was discovered by us. Did they want us to find the place in the exact condition we found it to be?”
Eren asked with confusion written all over his face. The butcher was just trying to dig into what information the investigation team had collected so far. That’s why he asked the question in that way.
“Eren, you are smart. But you don’t know about how cultists work it seems. Ask Agatha when you have free time, she’ll tell you. Cultists only look for benefits. And there’s a benefit involved in raiding other cultist organizations’ hideouts.
We found the treasury that was looted from the place. That could be the motive. Another could be that Beast Bloods itself wanted to get rid of some of their members for some reason.
But it’s as you said. Some clues had been deliberately behind.
We have also come to the same conclusion that the ones who destroyed this hideout wanted us to find out about it. The chase Eren was involved in might have been staged from the get-go. Maybe just to close the case on this for good.”
Marla concluded her statement and looked at Almera with a meaningful expression. The latter couldn’t help but blurt out suddenly:
“The city administration!”
Almera looked at the D-Ranker and the latter nodded at her before continuing:
“That’s right. That’s why I didn’t want us to talk about this subject within the city’s limits. Some of the close confidantes I have in the city of Silvermoon’s administration department think that this hideout was brought out in the light to close a case on something we are not aware of as of yet.
Up till now, we had only suspected that someone in the city’s administration is involved with the cultists. But this incident confirms it.”
‘Boy, I love me some conspiracies. They are the best covers for guys like me.
I didn’t even have to take much effort in nudging them in the right direction. They’ll be at each other’s throats without me even doing anything about it anymore. As long as my cover stays safe that is.’
Eren could finally take a breath of relief after hearing updates about his latest missions from Marla. The part of the city administration that was loyal to the kingdom was suspecting the unknown force within it that had gone to the cultists’ side.
And Eren was sure, Arizihana would think that this cull of cultists in the shadows was organized by the city administration itself. And she was kept out of the loop because it suspected her of betrayal. This seed of suspicion planted in the minds of people from both sides will allow Eren to keep his involvement under the wraps. At least that’s what it looked like to him.’
“That’s all fine, Adapt Marla. But what about our rewards?”
The scrooge in Eren finally spoke up. Agatha couldn’t help but shake her head after hearing what her master had just said. The guy had just looted a hideout all to himself. And he was still seeking petty rewards.
“Oh, shush you miser boy. You will get them. In Merps of course. Wait till we get back to LA.”
Marla said and made her colt gallop ahead. The team was returning to where it came from.