Chapter 345 - 337. Raising the Curtain
Erasing someone’s trace wasn’t such a hard thing to do. The point was doing it before someone else tried to follow that trace.
The moment Darleon stepped inside the portal into the enclosed arena beneath Mortix Hill, a team of shadow guards under Radia Mallarc’s command already moved to alter all CCTV recordings showing Darleon driving to Varion’s house, and then moving to one of the hotels owned by Mortix. By the time Darleon got back to his house, no one could tell that he had left his house at all.
So, when the Internal Security Department checked on Varion’s whereabouts once the secretary reported that the Guildmaster couldn’t be found in his house, they found nothing. Nothing but a messy house that looked like it had been ransacked. And yet, there was no valuable getting stolen—or at least, what should have been stolen had it been a robbery, like money and expensive equipment, were still there.
Varion Belthera, the Guildmaster of Celesta, had vanished. Based on the acquired footage, he was seen leaving the guild building on Wednesday morning, heading into an area that had no CCTV installed. He was seen coming back to his house in the evening, and had never left his house until his secretary finally checked up on him Friday morning after the no-show on Thursday.
The secretary immediately notified Internal Security as per the standard operating procedure, as well as contacting his father. The former Guildmaster wasted no time to come to the guild, asking for clarity, and they could see how furious he was.
"We looked inside his house, and while there were traces of more than one person coming inside, we couldn’t find any identifiers," the Head of Internal Security, Siyu reported; hands behind her back and head lowered in regret.
"What about his commlink? Can’t you guys trace his commlink?!" Darleon Belthera sounded agitated, and rightfully so. Everyone in the guild knew how much the old man loved his son.
"I’m sorry, Sir. We had tried, but to no avail," Siyu lowered her head even more. "Whoever has the commlink must have destroyed it beyond repair or—"
"What do you mean you don’t know?!"
Darleon roared inside the office, and even Senia flinched. While she only became an active esper after Varion became the Guildmaster, she had seen the old man from afar before, and his strict, scary aura still affected her.
The former Guildmaster swept his angry gaze around the room. "Is this not Celestia?! Is this not the best guild in the Federation?!" his voice could be heard in the hallway, even through the closed door. "How could you say to me that you can’t find your own Guildmaster?! My son! My—"