With his guise as a normal war mercenary, Clyde successfully snuck into the core area of the Mercenary King’s residence with Sparke’s unintentional help.
In the core area of Saka Fortress, Clyde finally found the behind-the-scenes mysterious magician. Since that mysterious magician wore a black cloak, he was unable to see his appearance, but he patiently followed the other party and finally arrived at that magician’s temporary room. There, the mysterious magician walked to the table and elegantly prepared two cups of steaming hot tea.
“Mister, don’t stand outside. Come and take a seat! The tea is ready.”
“Miss Mage, it’s better to accept it deferentially than to decline courteously.”
The mysterious magician had already noticed Clyde, but she hadn’t said anything because she knew that she was not his opponent. With a certain special ability, this mysterious magician could detect the magic power reserves of her opponent. Clyde’s magic power reserve was terrifying and practically infinite. She could not place a concrete numerical value on his magic power reserve. In any case, if they fought, she had no chance of victory, so she could only try to achieve a peaceful settlement.
As guessed by Princess Verly before, this mysterious magician was a person of the Augusta Wagner Empire, one of the four frontier super empires. Her status was on the same level as Princess Verly’s. She was a princess named Tereni. Princess Tereni was not actually here in person: this black figure was just a puppet controlled by her. When Clyde discovered that the magician in front of him was actually just a magic puppet, he was somewhat surprised since he temporarily could not judge her attractiveness index.
“This puppet is well made!”
“You are flattering me. As far as I’m concerned, it is not a difficult matter. Moreover, I am best at manipulating magic puppets. But can I ask why you are following me?”
“It’s not a big matter. I just hope that you will stop helping Mercenary King Gruz’s operation; otherwise, I can only destroy the forbidden magic crystal.”
Clyde straightforwardly challenged her authority. He asked her to ignore the matters of Saka Fortress. The so-called magic isolation barrier had been created with a forbidden magic crystal, inlaid on this substitute magic puppet’s chest. When the puppet had turned to Clyde, he had already seen it. Although it was just a magic puppet, it had extraordinary combat power equivalent to an Advanced Magician. In addition, it also possessed some special abilities. If Clyde directly destroyed it, his losses would outweigh his gains. Princess Tereni was also well aware of the situation and calculated the pros and cons.
“This demand is somewhat…”
“Then, let me change the method. You can cooperate with me and change your employer. That shouldn’t be a difficult matter.”
“You truly are joking. What treasure has our Augusta Wagner Empire not seen? Even if you double the gold coins… that… that is…!”
“How about it? Do you want to consider cooperating?”
Clyde took out a few seemingly complex magic scrolls that contained the general magic spells of the Moon God Clan. For a magician, never-before-seen magic spells were more valuable than gold, silver, and other treasures. As expected, Princess Tereni, who had initially wanted to keep her word, immediately changed her mind. Now, she was using a substitute magic puppet; otherwise, Clyde would have gotten a chance to see her incomparably excited smile.
“Do I truly just need to withdraw to receive these mysterious magic scrolls?”
“Of course, I’m giving these for free. I still have more of them. How about it, Princess Tereni? Do you want to exchange contact details? Perhaps, we might have more cooperative opportunities in the future!”
“O… Okay, I will make an exception, but you must keep it a secret. If my Big Sister Teresa finds out, I will be locked up to reflect upon myself.”
In the end, Princess Tereni couldn’t withstand the temptation of new magic scrolls. After a few rounds of intense mental struggling, she made an exception and commanded the magic puppet to give Clyde a magic crystal so that they could later contact each other. This was only a temporary item that could only be used three times.
After the secret transaction, the rest was very simple. Following Clyde’s request, she would make the magic puppet leave at the designated time via long-range manipulation. At that time, the magic isolation barrier of Saka Fortress would automatically collapse due to the missing array core. Clyde and his subordinates wouldn’t even need to make a move.
The unlucky Mercenary King Gruz was entirely unaware that his behind-the-scenes supporter had already sold him out. After the ‘secret deal’ with Princess Tereni was completed, Clyde wasn’t in a hurry to leave Saka Fortress. He turned and walked towards Sparke’s residence. He wanted to see what those two assassins disguised as maids would do!
Sparke’s residence was located at the inner area of Saka Fortress, right next to the treasury. When Clyde arrived, Sparke was hosting a banquet. He and his subordinates had drunk so much that they drunkenly swayed while many beautiful maids wearing revealing dresses proposed a toast.
Among them were those two maids Clyde had seen before. During this observation, Clyde noticed even more problems. Not to mention those two maids, all the accompanying maids were talented. Although they smiled brightly like ordinary maids, they were a bit too professional. They continuously proposed toasts and didn’t let their cups empty. Although they wore revealing dresses, they didn’t resemble drinking maids. The charming smiles on their faces were too fake. Fortunately, the men were all drunk, so no one would notice these details.
“I’m not bragging to you all! After Master Gruz retires, I will become the next Mercenary King. At that time, I promise you all…”
“Lord Sparke, you absolutely can surpass Lord Gurz and become the strongest Mercenary King! This little woman respectfully toasts you a cup.”
“That’s natural. I…”
Sparke was very drunk, and his hands messily caressed the maid beside him. This maid resisted her disgust and tried to avoid Sparke’s claws around her wrong places as much as possible. The other women present also adopted a similar method. At a glance, it could be seen that they weren’t sincerely accompanying the men in drinking; they certainly had other hidden objectives.
Those maids were all in disguise. Clyde’s insight into women had been tempered via all kinds of practice. The dresses these maids wore weren’t the right size, so they had obviously snatched them from the true maids, and in a hurry, they hadn’t checked the sizes, so inconsistent measurements had occurred. It was very likely that the real maids had swapped with them long ago in secret. It was unknown what had been the fates of those true maids.
Clyde didn’t enter the hall, simply observing the scene while hidden near the doorway. Even after Sparke and the others became dead drunk, the accompanying maids weren’t drunk at all. They were full of spirits. Rwo maids skillfully removed the key to the treasury from Sparke’s waist, before entering the nearby treasury with the other maids. As it turned out, they were just thieves, so their combat power was naturally inferior to assassins. Facing a large number of defenders, they would be helpless. Compared to assassins, thieves used various despicable tricks to steal money and goods.
Sparke was totally oblivious even after his key had been stolen; he slept like a dead pig. His subordinates were also in similar states. Those female thieves triumphantly left after stealing the key. Originally, Clyde hadn’t wanted to disturb the others from making a fortune, but as he prepared to leave, the sleeping Sparke suddenly woke up. His boastful expression disappeared and was replaced with a sinister expression as he thoughtfully looked at the direction those female thieves had went as if everything was within his plans.
“They finally took the bait! Get up, everyone! The prey have taken the bait!”
“Lord Sparke is so wise. Those stinking women truly thought that their acting was excellent and that they were able to fool our eyes!”
“But their acting was not good. Wait until I teach them what women ought to do.”
His subordinates also woke up in quick succession. Clyde was speechless after seeing this scene. Everyone in the entire hall from the maids to the drunks had been acting. The target of those mysterious female thieves was obviously Saka Fortress’s treasury. In a certain sense, they could be regarded as Clyde’s allies. Sparke appeared to be a prodigal playboy on the surface,but this might be an identity he assumed to confuse his enemies. He actually concealed himself very deeply like Baron Burke. Now, he revealed his true colors. He planned to play ‘the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind’ with those mysterious female thieves, but he didn’t imagine that the ‘oriole’ might not be him.
Clyde temporarily adjusted his plans and followed Sparke and the others to the treasury. For these over 50,000 war mercenaries in Saka Fortress, cutting off their pay was more terrifying than cutting off their provisions. Those mercenaries could eat coarse food grain to appease their hunger or starve for several days, but if they were not paid for a single day, their morale would collapse. Therefore, it was more useful to destroy their treasury rather than destroying their granary. After resolving the matter of the magic isolation barrier, Clyde had anyway intended to destroy Mercenary King Gruz’s treasury. At that time, there would be no more gold coins to pay the mercenaries, and only a few of the 40,000 temporary mercenaries would continue to stick it out.
