Chapter 222 : Chapter 222
Chapter 222. Probing
After the room gradually fell into silence, Gillian suddenly spoke.
“This will not do. We have to confirm whether that mage truly comes from the Alliance, or if she does, what effect that will have on us...”
When she recalled that white-robed mage, Gillian still felt from the very first moment she met Fran that Fran was no simple person. She was very likely to affect their mission.
And then there was Fran’s claim that she came from the Northern Society...
Even now, Gillian still had no way to truly confirm whether that Northern Society even existed.
She had asked directly at the time, and Fran had answered with great ease that the Northern Society was within the Northern Frontier and had its own battle mage corps.
Those words had been deeply engraved in Gillian’s mind. Even though it had only happened yesterday, she still remembered them with perfect clarity.
She had practically sent people to investigate the place Fran mentioned on the spot, but just from Fran’s words alone, she knew that the Northern Society was not close to Snow Bear Territory. Those people would not be able to return anytime soon.
That only made her mood even more irritable. On top of that, the half-true, half-false information she had gathered had nearly given her the feeling that failure was closing in.
“Since she belongs to the Sword Chant School, then we will arrange for a Professional to duel her...”
“During the duel, won’t she be away from her room? I remember that there should be mercenaries skilled in that sort of work. Have one of them investigate the place.”
“Bribe the servants of Snow Bear Territory. I want to see whether that mage has revealed any flaws inside the lord’s manor...”
In one breath, Gillian arranged several tasks, all for the sake of probing Fran’s true background.
The church knight standing with his head lowered said nothing. He remained motionless, like a statue, merely listening to Gillian’s orders.
---
At the same time, inside a certain private house in Snow Bear City.
The place had long since been occupied by mercenaries and was being used as a temporary residence. As for the original residents, they had already been driven elsewhere.
Patrick paced ceaselessly back and forth across the room, from one end to the other.
Liam, meanwhile, sat in a chair, his expression equally grave. The room had already been silent for quite some time.
In a heavy voice, Liam said slowly,
“What exactly does the wording in our contract, ‘spare no effort in pursuing the lost item,’ actually mean in practice? How are we supposed to fulfill it?”
The punishment of “Hatred of the Spirits” written into the contract was no joke. Anyone burdened with that punishment would provoke disgust in others the moment they came into view.
In more serious cases, people would attack on sight.
Even the lord of White Dragon Harbor did not dare bear such a price lightly, which was why the mercenaries had signed the contract without too much worry.
In the mercenaries’ original view, this should have been a very simple pursuit mission. As long as they did their utmost to investigate, they would never be violating the contract.
Even if they ultimately failed to find the item, that would not be their fault, and the contract would not punish them.
But after what had happened earlier, Patrick had immediately caught the scent of danger.
He understood that if they continued to “search with all their might” like this, they would very likely face attack.
Their attackers might be those beastman tribes, or the believers of the Goddess of the Currents, or even the lord of Snow Bear Territory himself...
“If we can lay eyes on that item, then our duty to pursue it with all our strength will have already been fulfilled, and we will be able to avoid the punishment directly.”
“So if we want to stay alive, then we must wait until the very end and think of every possible way to get a look at that item.”
“Of course, that is only the desperate measure we will have to take after the item is found.”
Patrick paused, then continued,
“For us, the best possible outcome is that no matter how fiercely things are fighting outside, those thieves stay hidden in the mountains and forests and do not come out.”
“As long as this drags on for three months, our obligation will basically count as completed. What I fear most is that the item will suddenly be found right now.”
The room instantly fell into silence. Both men present knew that this time, they had fallen into a trap.
Even if they somehow got their hands on that item in the end, they still might not survive long enough to return to White Dragon Harbor and exchange it for ten thousand gold coins.
Because what they had been dragged into was a war. One side of that war was the lord of White Dragon Harbor, and the other was the believers of the Goddess of the Currents.
These mercenaries were nothing more than unlucky fools lured in by that lord with a few gold coins. Simply staying alive would already require them to exhaust every ounce of strength they had.
At that moment, Patrick suddenly spoke.
“To be honest, what confuses me most right now is whether the girl standing beside the lord when the believers of the Goddess of the Currents arrived in Snow Bear City that day was really a mage from the Alliance.”
Liam also recalled that eye-catching girl. To be honest, girls of that age were the sort they had only ever seen among those who had just entered the mercenary trade.
Once a mercenary gained even a little reputation, they were usually already in their twenties. That was simply the norm in their line of work—only the truly capable survived long enough.
And yet Fran had already become a mage at that age. Even if she had advanced in the Spirit Realm, someone that young still could not be underestimated.
“If she really is a mage from the Alliance, then doesn’t that mean even the Alliance has intervened in this war...”
As Patrick spoke, a trace of fear gradually entered his voice. After steadying his emotions a little, he continued,
“Then the intensity of this conflict may be far beyond anything we imagined. We may not even be able to get anywhere near that item.”
Even Liam, sitting nearby and listening, began to tremble.
They had seen the Alliance’s true strength with their own eyes.
The Alliance was one of the greatest powers on the continent. Compared to it, both the Church of the Goddess of the Currents and White Dragon Harbor were rather small.
Perhaps with a casual squeeze, the Alliance could reduce both forces to dust.
But as one of the continent’s greatest powers, the Alliance also faced pressure from other major powers.
That meant the Alliance could indeed crush those two forces outright, but doing so would not be worthwhile.
For the Alliance, defending against and striking at other great powers was far more important.
If the Alliance intervened, even if it only sent out a single battle mage corps, that would be enough to overturn the entirety of Snow Bear Territory. By that point, even staying alive would become a luxury for them.
“If she really is from the Alliance, then we will have to start thinking about how to stay alive even while suffering the contract’s punishment.”
Liam spoke those words heavily. Even he understood that if the Alliance became involved, then the only way for them to survive would be to flee at all costs.
Just as the atmosphere in the room was sinking further into despair, a voice came from outside the door, accompanied by hurried footsteps.
“Boss, that mage you told me to watch has made a move. It looks like she’s about to fight someone from the Goddess of the Currents’ side.”
The two men exchanged a glance, then rose to their feet together.