Science/Magic

The man did not return to see its boss after his encounter with Bloed. Instead, he strolled through the market like a normal person.

Bloed and the girls, meanwhile, already expected to have to wait for a while before they could get useful information, so they did not mind it.

Thus, the group made sure to keep the man's in the range of Bloed's transmitter without arousing his suspicion.

What they were not expecting was that they had to wait until the late afternoon before they could get results.

When it was almost night, the man finally changed his behavior and walked towards the south of the city.

Bloed and the girls looked at each other and followed after him.

When the man arrived in the south of the city, he increased his pace and went through several alleys and streets repeatedly. It was a trick used to detect and lose anyone following him. Unfortunately for him, this trick was completely useless when his location was being transmitted directly to Bloed.

After a few minutes and after confirming nobody was following him, the man slowed down and walked towards a building near the slums.

Bloed and the girls frowned. This place…

"It's completely different than the city we saw before." Liu Ying said with furrowed brows.

Bloed nodded. If the Diadel city they saw earlier was a beautiful artwork, this part of the city was trash thrown to the trash bin.

The city was filled with garbage, waste, and excrement; the houses and buildings were dilapidated, and the people they could see were malnourished.

A stench of rotting filth filled the streets, and homeless children together with suspicious-looking men threw the group gazes filled with caution and greed.

In less than ten minutes, the group was the target of pickpockets thrice!

Bloed could only sigh and lament the difference between the beautiful Diadel City and its slums.

When the man entered the building, Regina frowned.

"Master, I can feel several of the presences that were spying on us inside that building."

Bloed nodded. "As expected. It's them."

"Are we going to enter, Bloed?" Liu Ying asked.

Bloed shook his head. "Not yet. Let's wait first to hear their conversation. We can decide after that."

After saying that, Bloed led the girls to hid on the roof of a building nearby and took out the transmitter.

Not much later, the conversation inside the building reached their ears.

[How were the results today?] A hoarse voice asked.

[Boss, we got a great prey today!] A man said excitedly.

"Prey?" Liu Ying was startled.

Bloed frowned and continued hearing the conversation.

[Oh? How good?]

[A boy and two girls around fifteen years old. And the two girls are devastating beauties! We checked and the three of them are C-Rank practitioners, nothing too difficult.]

[C-Rank? It's rare to see three youngsters with such cultivation around here. Did you check their background?]

[Yes. We got the information from the inn they are staying on. The boy registered the room with his name, Bloed Norman, but we did not get information about the girls. After we investigated, we discovered there is not [Norman] between the people we need to pay attention to.]

[Is it so…? However, three C-Rank fifteen-year-old kids traveling together are definitively not normal. Even if the master is needing talented slaves, we must not act before making sure they are clean. It'll bad if they had a mysterious background and we offend them.]

Another voice spoke at that moment.

[Boss, I have information that perhaps can interest you.]

[Do speak.]

[They were asking for an information dealer. We can use that information to lay them a trap.]

The boss fell silent for a brief moment.

[Good idea. Moreover, we can use that opportunity to sound them out and learn about their background. Oh right, did they have any noticeable feature?]

[Well, one of the girls had silver hair and golden… The boy was even more unusual. His hair was blue, and his eyes… They did not seem normal.]

[His eyes?]

[Yes. They were glowing with strange symbols. Why, is anything wrong?]

[… I think I heard something about a young man with strange eyes recently… Wait a moment, I'll ask the master.]

Bloed sighed and turned off the transmitter.

"Well, this was unexpected." Bloed said with a complicated expression. To be honest, he had his expectations betrayed.

He was ready and expecting to face the intelligence network of the kingdom. But instead, he got a local gang.

Liu Ying's face was dark. "Slaves!? They were planning to capture us as slaves!?"

Bloed frowned. Yeah, he also felt offended.

"Master, there is something wrong." Regina furrowed her eyes and said.

"Hm?"

"… Slavery was forbidden in Diadel, wasn't it?"

Liu Ying smiled wryly. "Slavery is forbidden in most of the continent, but it's still practiced secretly, mostly by nobles. However… Normally, slavery is limited to people of other races. At least, it was so in the demon empire. I thought it was the same in the human lands, but it looks I'm mistaken."

"It doesn���t matter." Bloed shook his head and looked at the two girls. "Liu Ying, Regina, how do you want to deal with this?"

"Let's kill them!" Liu Ying said immediately. "Scum like them deserves to die."

Regina nodded. "That is the best option. They look like they will cause us trouble later, so it's better to attack first and take the initiative."

"Kill them, huh. How is their strength?" Bloed asked Regina.

"... Three B-Ranks practitioners. The rest are just C-Ranks."

Bloed fell silent briefly and thought about it. Even if the slavers had a powerful background, Bloed and the others would leave the city tomorrow, so they did not need to worry about that if they were careful. Furthermore, just like Regina said, it was better to take the initiative than to wait to be attacked.

Plus, Bloed thought this was a good opportunity to try some new things.

With a nod, Bloed asked Regina to take something out of the storage bracelet.

Three small amulets-like devices. Their design was rather simple, with a black glass-like material with a blue button in the middle.

"They are stealth devices. You put one on your chest and it diverts the light around the user to create a limited invisibility effect. Be careful, though; if you move too fast, people with sharp eyes will be able to notice that something is wrong. But it's night already, so there will not be a problem even if you are a bit less careful. Now, let's get this done and return for dinner."

"Hehe, yeah."

"Understood, master."

...

P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels