Chapter 218: Keep Your Allies Close, But Your Enemies Closer (2)
The Special Task Force was the Samael Empire’s independent intelligence agency.
Kai, an agent of this division, had temporarily suspended his mission to eliminate Eslow and instead shifted to a deep investigation of the Four Lords of the Lillian Kingdom. He judged the empire’s information on them insufficient and set out to correct it.
While gathering intelligence in the north, he received an urgent transmission from Unit Three, the homunculus now known as Decameron. Since homunculi were forbidden from contacting him unless the matter was ranked level-one or higher in importance, Kai immediately drew out his glass communicator, but he didn’t speak first. He waited for Decameron to do so.
—Secret friend, can you hear me?
Yet the voice that came through was not Decameron’s. It was Keter: the scoundrel of Sefira, the Bow of the South, the Liqueurian who had escaped, a member of the secret organization Arcana, and his so-called “friend.”
“I hear you. State your business.”
Brief and to the point: that was the standard of the Special Task Force, and Keter was no different.
—Introduce me to the Syndicate.
Keter didn’t give any long explanation or mince his words; he said exactly what he wanted. And Kai’s response came without even a tenth of a second’s hesitation.
“Understood. I’ll send you the meeting location through Decameron.”
Click.
The transmission ended. There were no pleasantries, no talk of well-being or whereabouts—just business. Neither explained their reasons, nor demanded explanations from the other.