Chapter 153 Strongest Sage, Hypothesizes
Chapter 153 Strongest Sage, Hypothesizes
"The reason why this raid was found out…?"
Eiku seemed dumbfounded to hear me.
"Yes. Do you have anything in mind yourself?"
"I do not. I never even took the letter out of the mithril case until I met Mathias. The only possibility is if the information was leaked in the capital, and someone brought it here to the dungeon city faster than me…"
Eiku took the paper from the king to me in his hand.
"No, I don\'t think that was the case. The fact that this was sent through a secret agent means that this entire matter was treated as an absolute secrecy, right?"
"That\'s right."
"Then, if there was someone who stole this information, that someone must have infiltrated quite deep into the kingdom\'s inner circle… And I really don\'t think someone like that would take the risk for the sake of this small fry."
If that someone had enough intelligence gathering capability to know the inner workings of the kingdom, they would have known that that level of blockade was meaningless.
Thus, that capital mole would have told the city ruler to escape instead of barricading himself.
How would anyone profit from this fool after he lost all power.
"That\'s certainly true… Then, what did Mathias-sama think have happened?"
This room is very luxurious for a hidden room.
There\'s expensive looking chairs, desks and even a fireplace.
It must have been used for all secret meetings they had done so far.
"This."
I took a letter from the fireplace.
The corner is slightly burnt, but the content can still be read.
"Letter… Is it. The content is…"
"Looks like I guessed right."
I opened the letter I got from the fireplace.
The letter pertained to the matter of the city ruler\'s execution and that the executor would arrive either today or tomorrow.
And the last passage is an instruction to burn the letter once it\'s been read.
The sender probably wanted to hide the existence of this letter.
Unfortunately, looks like the city ruler wasn\'t even capable of burning things, the sender\'s consideration is in vain.
"I see… But where was it leaked…"
The sender\'s name isn\'t written on this letter.
However… there\'s enough other info to pinpoint the culprit.
"Rather than leaked, it\'d be more correct to say that the letter had been spied on."
I observed the mana reaction--of the burnt letter.
Yup, no mistake about it.
"Spied on? Through the mithril case?"
"It\'s relatively easy to do that if the case isn\'t magically protected."
"…Is that true in Mathias-sama\'s case?"
"I can do it sure… but not this time. There\'s no doubt, it\'s demons. …Since I can sense demon\'s mana from this letter."
I activate detection magic once again.
…It really is demon\'s mana.
"…It can\'t be, demons were giving orders to the city ruler!?"
Eiku asked me in blank amazement.
He must know how the demons were lurking in the kingdom\'s inner circle considering he\'s a secret agent of the kingdom, he\'s probably worried that it might be the case too here.
However, fortunately or unfortunately, his conjecture is wrong.
My expectations of demons had all been betrayed so far, but I\'m pretty confident this time.
I\'m sure that demons aren\'t that stupid.
"They would have advised a better plan if that was the case."
"In other words…?"
"Demons were close by the dungeon city for other purposes, and they helped the city ruler as an extra while they were here. Of course that means they have a main objective… And there\'s only one reason anyone comes to a dungeon city."
I pointed at the ground as I said that.
To be more precise, at the dungeon below the ground.
"Looks like those demons have some business in the dungeon."