Chapter 50
Chapter 50
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: New Phase
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Already?”
“Be honest. Is this ever going to end? It feels like you’ve mixed in jobs beyond the Emporus Company.”
At Rachel’s grumbling, Abyss pretended not to know as he peered back at his documents. Leaning fully back into her chair, Rachel turned away from him.
“You did pass on other work too!”
As Rachel snapped and reached to flip over the papers, Abyss hurriedly shoved a cookie into her mouth.
Rachel nearly shouted, *Do you think I’d fall for something like this?* but ended up chewing quietly instead. The cookie was just too delicious to stay mad.
Seeing Rachel calm down, Abyss added an excuse.
“It’s all because your skills are so outstanding.”
“Mmph?”
Her words came out muffled from the cookie.
Ignoring it, Abyss brazenly continued.
“Talented people should be given work that matches their abilities. Your document processing is exceptional, so it’s only natural that you...”
Abyss dodged the crumpled paper flying at his face.
“You’ve got a real talent for spouting nonsense, don’t you?”
“Nonsense? You truly have talent! If you and I work together, our intel analysis will speed up threefold—no, fivefold!”
In the end, it was the same scouting offer he’d made in previous rounds. Rachel clicked her tongue and flopped onto the sofa in the office.
A week had passed since she’d found the genealogy at Harpa Castle and handed it over to the temple.
The Church hadn’t destroyed the evidence right away. They planned to verify its contents, investigate the demon contracted with the Emporus family, and identify those sacrificed to it for a memorial rite.
That process would take about a fortnight.
Thinking Rachel might worry, Enoch had left for the temple to personally confirm the evidence’s destruction.
And so, now Rachel was stuck in the basement of a tavern marked by a sausage sign—which was really an information guild branch—suffering through paperwork with Abyss.
A week ago at Harpa Castle, Rachel hadn’t just obtained the genealogy. She’d also secured Baron Paris Emporus’s secret ledger and the letter held by his steward.
The letter’s recipient was Damian. Paris Emporus had been trying to invite him to a gathering he planned to host in three weeks.
The content seemed plausible enough, but inviting Damian to a gathering hosted by Paris Emporus was suspicious.
Because of that, Abyss had dispatched agents to scout the venue and see what was there. They still hadn’t returned.
Separately from that investigation, Abyss and Rachel were decoding the secret ledger to prepare materials for the Second Prince’s faction.
“Like I said before, my talent lies in magic, so won’t you introduce me to someone who can teach me already?”
“I use artifacts myself, but it’s hard to master that path. Why cling to such a hopeless skill when you could leverage this proven one?”
In past rounds, he’d gone on about her sensitivity to mana and such, but now that he’d confirmed her paperwork prowess, he dismissed magic as hopeless.
Gazing at him, Rachel truly felt what he’d said in previous rounds.
“You really have no continuity.”
“What do you mean?”
“In Round 19, you insisted that the version of you I met before was just a memory to me, nothing more to you.”
“Of course.”
“To me, it was always you, but you flatly stated that any you from a time you didn’t experience wasn’t really you.”
“Exactly. Whatever I did in other rounds, that’s a separate existence from me now.”
“That’s what I meant.”
Abyss nodded perfunctorily as if he got it, then flipped through his papers.
“Enoch’s consistent, but you’re a total wild card.”
“You could say my thinking is flexible enough to handle any situation.”
“And you say that with a straight face?”
“You wouldn’t.”
Rachel got up from the sofa and sat back at the desk. She resented being stuck with more work, but Abyss looked too swamped to ignore.
“I’ll take a look.”
She dove back into the documents, grasping their contents.
Most were materials on the Second Prince’s faction nobles. When Rachel first received them, she’d thought they were a list of nobles Paris Emporus kept a close eye on and targeted. Quite a few overlapped with those who’d died in previous rounds.
“So what are these documents now?”
“Lists of nobles the Third Prince’s faction and Daimon will likely target first.”
Rachel was stunned.
She’d told Abyss about the Second Prince’s nobles dying, but hadn’t specified who.
Yet Abyss had guessed about eighty percent correctly on speculation alone.
“That reaction means most overlap, huh.”
“Yeah. But you could’ve just asked me.”
“Blindly accepting information isn’t my style.”
He doubted and investigated any intel he received, only trusting it after thorough review.
Even with his truth-seeing ability, he kept doubting Rachel because that’s how he’d always lived.
“No wonder the Baron finds you such a pain. So, do you believe me now?”
“Honestly, I believe your stories, but not you.”
Rachel sighed at Abyss’s response.
“That’s so you.”
But that was precisely him, so she didn’t complain.
“Fine. Our goals align, so we teamed up.”
“But I do have a way to fully trust you.”
“What?”
“Come work under me. Then I’d...!”
Rachel hurled a bundle of papers marked for shredding at Abyss’s nonsense.
He tried dodging from his seat, twisting his head away, but took every hit.
“Shut up and sort these papers.”
After that, Rachel and Abyss buried themselves in paperwork for quite a while.
About an hour later? Rachel’s stomach churned.
Glancing at Abyss, he didn’t seem to be using any artifacts. She looked toward the door, and at that moment, it swung open.
“Boss!”
The one who burst in, bellowing for Abyss, was Harpy. She gave Rachel a quick nod, then turned straight back to Abyss.
“What’s up?”
“The Baron made a massive donation to the Lux Church and requested protection.”
“What?”
Even Abyss hadn’t anticipated this. Neither had Rachel.
“He’s already under surveillance in the name of protection, isn’t he?”
“He claims he fears the demon targeting him and volunteered to stay at the temple.”
Originally, the plan was for the Baron to live normally while holy knights monitored him. But now he’d donated to the temple and wanted to move in.
“And the temple?”
“They accepted. A letter should arrive at his estate soon. Monitoring him in his own territory is harder than in the temple’s domain, after all.”
Hearing their exchange, Rachel grasped the Baron’s intent.
“He plans to retrieve the evidence.”
“True, he’s not one to give up easily.”
She’d expected resistance, but not him charging straight into the temple.
Priests and holy knights were human too—they made mistakes. Especially against someone as scheming as Paris Emporus.
With his experience dealing with countless people as a merchant, he might just slip through their guard and steal the evidence unnoticed.
“We still haven’t pinned down his next venue...”
Abyss muttered, stroking his chin.
They knew Paris Emporus ran illegal slave markets and gambling dens from the shadows, yet couldn’t prosecute him for a reason.
The near-perfectionist Baron used proxies for his illegal operations, ensuring they couldn’t be traced back even if exposed.
He chose desperate people who’d never betray him for money, so Abyss’s discoveries and reports on the gambling dens had always come to nothing.
Reporting the Baron’s crimes without ironclad proof was pointless.
Besides, the royal succession struggle between the Second and Third Prince factions hadn’t intensified yet.
The Second Prince’s nobles—who didn’t even know who the Third’s were—wouldn’t move against Paris Emporus just yet.
Even if they wanted to, a sloppy attack would only give the Third Prince’s side justification, so Abyss needed to send them solid evidence.
“About that venue, I have a hunch.”
Rachel spoke up, catching Abyss’s mutter. He looked up at her.
“The letter.”
Realization dawned on Abyss at her words, and he ran a hand through his bangs.
“The Baron wouldn’t miss inviting the Third Prince, right? And Damian’s no saint—he wouldn’t attend a plain party.”
Whether gambling or slave trading, it had to be something thrilling enough to pique Damian’s interest for Paris Emporus to invite him, and for Damian to go.
Rachel’s hypothesis rang true, and Abyss cheered inwardly.
Just then, the artifact in Abyss’s ear glowed. He touched it.
An agent’s intel came through, and Abyss’s eyes turned to Rachel. The communication ended soon after. He rushed at her.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Rachel freaked out as he scooped her up in a princess carry.
“You were right. The location in the letter is where the slave market opens! Harpy, when do you think the temple’s letter will reach the Baron?”
“Tomorrow, probably.”
“Not bad. Once he’s in the temple, the Baron will deliberately cut off outside news. Wouldn’t want the temple interfering.”
“Why’s that?”
“We can use it.”
Rachel shuddered at Abyss’s sinister grin. He looked so devilish, she thought a real demon couldn’t compare.
“So my plan is...!”
Abyss laid it out. Rachel nodded; it wasn’t bad.
***
“A reply has arrived.”
The newly hired steward entered Paris Emporus’s office with two letters.
No need to ask where they were from. He’d ordered immediate notice for replies to exactly two.
One from the Lux Church, one from Damian.
The white envelope stamped with Lux’s symbol was from the temple; the ornate red one with gold leaf was from Damian.
Paris Emporus took out his paper knife and neatly sliced open the top of the red envelope. He pulled out the letter and checked its contents.
“I thought the previous steward had the letter stolen...”
It expressed the Third Prince’s intent to attend the party.
The neat handwriting wasn’t Damian’s—it was well-known the Third Prince hated writing or reading and often had subordinates pen his letters.
Thanks to that, Paris Emporus accepted it unquestioningly as the Third Prince’s reply.
“I’d rather it had been taken by a holy knight or priest.”
All in all, the situation had gotten messy, leaving him in a bind.