The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 626: Behind a perfect stealth, there’s always a flashy distraction

Chapter 626: Behind a perfect stealth, there’s always a flashy distraction

It would take another half a day to reach the city, so we decided to spend the night outside. Besides, it would be less suspicious to arrive in the evening rather than late at night.

"There won’t be more attacks, right?"

"I don’t think they have traced us already," Zarfa shrugged. "None of them would think the one taking the relic from that house to be us." frёeωebɳovel.com

"Technically, it’s the boss’s subordinate, so not us!" Aina raised her ladle and wiggled her brows.

Heh, this girl. But Jade and Ignis did not give me any warning, so it should be alright. No idea how it would be after we reached the city though, since communication was better there. Someone might recognize us and contact the church or their alliances with a communication orb or something.

"Anyway, we’ll move fast tomorrow," Zarfa said. "Fatia had send her messaging bird to Midas, so the information would be ready right away. We’ll still pretend to be on a family vacation or whatever, so our greatest actor Jade will be at the front! Yaay!"

"Yaay!"

"That means you can’t ride the horse anymore, Jade."

The little boy gasped. "Why?!"

"Because Young Master usually rides in the carriage," Zarfa wiggled her finger. "Anyway, once we checked in the hotel, we’ll change into mercenary right away--that means Jade will have to go as a bird."

Jade pursed his lips, but nodded nonetheless. What a good boy.

"Once we find out whether or not the relic had moved place, we’ll move right away."

I looked at the mole who was enjoying his small dinner and patted its back. "Do you know if the small ball is still in its place?"

The mole moved its nose and sniffed the air, before nodded firmly. It even pointed in the direction of the relic, which should be the ruin. It seemed to be located between this city and the last town. At least, it wasn’t past the last city. I didn’t want more people to come to the area between the last city, Kast, and the mountain range where the Templars stayed--which was common to the area where new ruin was found.

"Well, it’s a good news!" Zarga clasped her hands. "Let’s pray it stayed that way."

Perhaps because of that, we rest well that night despite being in the wild. There were no more attacks and the weather wasn’t very cold that night. Thanks to that--and my additional rejuvenation spell--we looked as fresh as people who just came back from vacation, as planned.

We opened the carriage’s top and let Jade be...Jade; a child who enthusiastically pointed at everything to introduce a new world to his new pet--although said pet was busy getting scared of the tall everything in the bustling city. Was this animal abuse? I had no idea.

We also intentionally wore nice clothes, and Zarfa waved her Midas badge when we entered the city gate. With that, and a pouch of money, we didn’t even have to go through identification process.

Money always did wonder in custom, huh? That badge acted like a free visa the way my platinum medallion functioned in the auction houses.

Anyway, we entered as flashy as possible, which might pose a question because...weren’t we trying to be as discreet as possible?

Yeah, we did. And this was how. We tried to plant an image of rich young master and young ladies with their elite bodyguard so it wouldn’t seem weird for Ian and Jin to wear a full body armor with a full-faced helmet. We want them to see us as rich people with a child so that once we get on the street dressed in rough mercenary garb with a little bird familiar, people wouldn’t be able to think that we came from the same group as the one coming through that gate.

And it helped that the hotel we stayed in was owned by Midas.

It meant we had a floor exclusively for us, and we could have our meetings undisturbed. It meant that we could access the secret tunnel that sent us directly to the outskirts of the city. It meant we could become two different groups with minimal detection.

"Alright--is there any new ruin found out between here and Kast recently?" Zarfa put aside the report that had waiting for us the moment we entered our assigned floor.

The staff at Midas had turned a room into a meeting place, with a big table in the middle and a few cabinets. Very nice. Honestly, their preparedness made me miss home even more--the vassals and the Castle staff...my child and my husband...

Focus! Let’s focus, Val--you’ll be able to go back home after taking this sixth bead.

"Oh, how do you know, Miss?" the hotel manager, who was also the head of Midas’s information guild, looked surprised. "Did you pass through it on your way?"

"Nah--we just have a good nose in the group," she winked at the clueless Shiny, who was once again feelinh uncomfortable about getting surrounded by new tall creatures. "Anyway, tell us about it."

"It was found two months ago and made public about two--no, almost three weeks ago," the manager pulled out a paper from the pile of documents. "The mercenaries and some merchant groups had camped there since then."

"What about loots?"

"Not much; this is what people sold coming from the ruin," another paper arrived in front of Zarfa, and from the look of it, not much had been found.

"Is this everything? What about the illegal route?"

"This is the black market, and we had been watching the church, but we hadn’t seen any meetings or transactions."

I patted the mole and asked it about the bead’s location again. It raised its metallic claw and pointed in the same direction.

"It’s still there," I told them.

"That’s good," Zarfa nodded and read the document about the new ruin again. "What about the groups going to the ruin? Have you found out their affiliation?"

"It’s here, Miss..."

I had to admit...seeing Zarfa in her work mode was something--very different from how she acted as usual, like a spoiled rich lady. There was no need for us to chime in, so we just sit back and relax with the refreshments that the staff provided, watching Zarfa in her zone.

"Tsk--as we thought; there’s a group affiliated with the church, and at least two contracted by the noble houses we think in alliance with the church," Zarfa slammed the document down, clicking her tongue.

"So...we need to be careful, huh?"

"Rather than being careful..." Zarfa stroked her chin. "I was trying to think of a way we could find this relic without attracting others’ attention and taking it out without garnering suspicion."

"Would they know if we put the bead inside our storage ring?" I tilted my head.

"They won’t, but...since the place is new, it will be under tight scrutiny," Zarfa let out a sigh. "Imagined if it us; wouldn’t we want to know what each group finds inside? We did it even now, so the church must be too."

"It’ll be complicated if they follow our group after and pester us about our findings," Fatia continued. "If we’re not careful, they might find out our identity."

Ah...that would be annoying. Indeed, if they realized that the one buying the relic in the auction house belonged to the Hero’s group, they mught think we would try getting one from the ruin ourselves.

But in that case, nothing we try might free us from suspicion, right? Even if we take other items as camouflage, they would still scrutinize us, pretending to be inspecting for tax or whatever.

I pursed my lips while thinking hard, stroking Shiny’s gray fur while at it. Oh, if only I alredy mastered the fusion function; I would have been able to fuse with Shiny and go to the relic myself.

Wait...why couldn’t I? I mean...not as Shiny, but...

"Hey," I raised my head and looked at the dubious lookin Zarfa. "What if I used stealth and took the relic?"

Zarfa narrowed her eyes. "By yourself?"

"Well...if there’s anyone who can use stealth, then..."

"I can," Renna raised her hand.

I turned to Zarfa and shrugged. "The point is to not make them scrutinize us, so if they didn’t know about us entering, that wouldn’t be a problem, right?"

"Hmm...still, if they found out somehow..." Jin frowned while glancing at Renna.

"Then we just need to make sure they don’t," Fatia looked up sharply. "What if we enter the ruin as usual and join their search? We can make sure they don’t cross paths with Sir Valen and Renna, while steering off suspicion about taking something from the ruin."

"Oh, wait--" Zarfa turned toward the manager again, who readily replied before the question even asked.

"We have sent a group over to be on standby," the manager said. "We can ask that group to propose a joint search and slip you into the group, Miss."

"Oh, that’s good!"

"But still...would it be alright with just two people?" this time, it was Ian being worried. "I mean...no defender and all..."

"Yeah...maybe if it’s three..."

I wanted to argue that with Ignis, Jade, and Shiny, we were practically five resources already. But I didn’t have to argue like that because I heard a sound from the window.

"Young Master, we’re here."

I looked at the group and raised my brow. "There’s the third stealth."

Heraz was here. And probably with another sla--helper.