Chapter 133: A Mysterious Woman
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
"Anfey, I took an assignment at mercenary union," Suzanna said as she pushed the door open.
Anfey and Christian looked at each other and asked in surprise, "What assignment?" With any common sense, Anfey should be the one making decisions on what kind of assignments they would take. Suzanna could give suggestions, but not make decisions for Anfey. In this case, the assignment must be special or she had some special reasons.
"Someone is buying a lot of seven-winged magic flies. He gave a really good price. I took an assignment from him. We need to kill fifty seven-winged magic flies."
Anfey was shocked for a second, since this assignment was nothing special. He could not think of any reason Suzanna had to do it.
Suzanna saw Anfey and Christian give her a weird look. She hesitated a little before she said, "Anfey, we cannot keep doing things like this. Have you seen what everybody is doing every day? Besides practicing magic, they have being fooling around with those girls, or going out in groups. The morale in our legion will be gone if they keep doing it."
Anfey went quiet. What Suzanna said was true. Of course, not everyone lost focus and totally relaxed. Riska, Blavi and a few others still worked very hard. Only some people, who lacked willpower, abandoned their lives to pleasure.
"Anfey, don’t blame me for making a decision without you. I have mentioned a couple of times to you. You were busy day and night. You were never in the hotel to see what is happening to our legion. It is getting serious. You can ask Christian about it if you do not believe me," Suzanna said in low pitch.
"Suzanna is not exaggerating," Christian said, smiling bitterly. "But it is a personal preference. We are not in a position to tell them what to do."
"In fact, it is all good. At least it allows us to know who in our legion would be able to further their magic skills. In other words, I could tell who wishes to go further with their magic skills," Anfey said slowly.
Dedication is crucial for being successful. When Anfey had just come to this world, besides sleeping, he had dedicated the rest of his time in physical fitness training and martial arts basic training. After he followed Saul to the Saint City, he spent most of his time learning magic and reading magic books. When they had to flee, Anfey forced himself to only sleep three hours a day. In terms of dedication and hard-work, no one was comparable to Anfey.
Christian, Blavi and several others worked very hard as well, but they would reach different levels of success. There was a story about nine sons of a dragon. Each of the nine had different personalities and reached different levels of success. They all learned magic from Saul. Each one of them had different desires. Some were willing to work hard, and were able to bear the loneliness, while some were strict with themselves. Therefore, some of them became senior mages at 60 or 70 years old, and some became archmages around 50 years old. Talent contributed to their success, but it was not decisive.
"I am glad you are not blaming me for taking the assignment." Suzanna heaved a sigh of relief.
"Actually even if you did not take the assignment, we need leave White Mountain City for a short time." Anfey smiled. "I will have Christian tell you about it."
"Huh?" Christian did not expect it.
"Suzanna, I have visited Band of Brother mercenary group. I wanted to send the girls there, but they did not take them. They said it is not a good time, and they would not be able to take good care of those girls," Anfey said.
"Band of Brother mercenary group has a few thousand mercenaries. How come they couldn’t take care of twenty girls?" Suzanna asked a rhetorical question.
"Maybe because those female slaves are from Maho Empire, Band of Brother mercenary group did not want to take a side yet at this sensitive time." Anfey smiled. "Or they may have different ideas on this issue inside their mercenary group. Entos is the student of our professor. He went back to help the professor. It was obvious he was on the side of Maho Empire. However, maybe someone took advantage of Entos not being in the legion to give a totally opposite suggestion that Band of Brother mercenary group needed to cut off any connection with Maho Empire."
"Stupid," Suzanna said with anger.
"But they allowed us to rent a town from them." Christian smiled. "Suzanna, Anfey and I were just discussing what time we should move to that town."
"What is the name of that town? How much is the rent?" Suzanna asked.
"It’s called Moramatch. We signed a three-year lease with them. It’s one hundred gold coins a year. We have already paid one-year’s rent." Christian said.
"Most towns in the Country of Mercenaries are ghost towns. They just provide stops for merchant caravans and mercenaries. There is a small population in each of those towns. How much tax can we collect there?" Suzanna smiled bitterly. "We definitely will lose money on this deal."
"It’s ok. I never expected to make money from it anyway," Anfey said.
Suzanna could not help rolling her eyes at Anfey. She knew Anfey had money, but they were the savings of Archmage Saul. Anfey seemed fine to squander Saul’s family fortune.
Someone knocked on the door, and Black Eleven walked into the room with big strides.
"Any good news?" Anfey gave a half smile.
"What?" Black Eleven was shocked for a second. He rubbed his face. "How did you know? I usually have a poker face and do not show my feelings."
"You did not show it on your face. You walked faster than usual. Your steps seemed lighter as well. Therefore, I guessed you had something urgent and which also made you feel happy."
"Every time before I come to see you, I tell myself to be cautious and act normal. However, you always can find a way to make me lose my confidence. I wonder if we were enemies before." Black Eleven shook his head helplessly. "Did you hear anything?"
"About what?" Christian asked in surprise.
"A few things. Let me start from the very beginning." Black Eleven took a seat and cleared his throat a little bit. "Arlanga was attacked."
"Don’t tell me this little thing even caught your attention," Anfey said.
"I haven’t finished yet. Anfey, it’s rude to interrupt," Black Eleven complained. He did not have good impressions of Anfey and his legion at the beginning. He thought they were merely kids who had to flee. After being together with them for some time, he was able to appreciate these "little kids" more. What surprised him the most was Anfey’s intelligence. He received orders from the king to cooperate with Anfey. In fact, he was asked to assist Anfey. Subconsciously, he did not think he was lower than Anfey in terms of their positions. He had been watching the legion as a leader. He did not talk to Anfey like Anfey was his supervisor. He talked like they were fellows without his callous face.
"Proceed," Anfey said.
"Do you guys know who killed him?" Black Eleven asked.
"It’s a woman." Black Eleven glanced at Suzanna. "Suzanna, you’d better not go out anytime soon. Right now, patrols are searching for that mysterious woman everywhere. You are a powerful senior swordswoman and a stranger to them. They would easily suspect you."
"Huh?" Anfey was shocked for a moment before he started to talk. "How did you know it’s a woman?"
"Shinon told me." Black Eleven smiled. "Do you know Shinon? He was blackmailed by Arlanga before. He said when he tried to commit suicide one day, a woman with a cosmetic fragrance and girly voice save him. That woman had a mask over her face. She asked for a bronze coin from Shinon to agree to work for him. The second day, Arlanga was attacked. Hahaha…that woman had a famous nick name, Judge."
"I wonder, what did you do before you became a professional investigator." Anfey shook his head.
"What do you mean?" Black Eleven asked.
"Allow me to use an example to explain to you. Imagine if someone hurt you and you wanted to take revenge on him, and you were never able to do it for some reason. Finally one day you met someone who could, and that person volunteered to help you. Would you tell others about his looks and identity? Do you want to see him on the wanted list of mercenary union and patrol?"
"Me…No, of course not." Black Eleven smiled bitterly.
"Neither would Shinon. I think if Shinon said she had a girly voice, then the real killer should have a coarse voice. If Shinon said it’s a woman, I think it must be a guy." Anfey smirked. "Shinon tried to cover for him."
Black Eleven blushed a little bit. He felt he should not be criticized by Anfey, since after receiving the news that Arlango was killed, he also got a few more important messages. He had to rush to the hotel, so he had no time to give the information any thought, especially on those nobodies. With his experience, it was not difficult to figure something fishy was going on.
"I think what Anfey said makes sense." Suzanna smiled. "What happened to Shinon?"
"He was taken away by patrol, but he changed his story. He said he dreamed of a woman who killed Arlanga but refused to admit hiring her to kill Arlanga. He said it was just a dream. The officer did not want to give Shinon a hard time. They did not have any evidence anyway. The officer could not make a judgement based on his dream. I heard Shinon was released after being interrogated for half a day. It is not a big deal that Arlanga was attacked, but Storm mercenary group finally made a move. They claimed that Arlanga was not killed out of revenge. They said they had been in charge of the security of Arlanga’s house and Cloud Chamber of Commerce. I heard the security was so high that even a senior swordsman was not able to hurt Arlanga. Therefore, they think Arlanga was killed with some scheme by other mercenary groups. They should have already sent mercenaries to White Mountain City," Black Eleven said slowly.
"I meant to ask you yesterday. What kind of business does Cloud Chamber of Commerce do?" Anfey asked.
"Arms and magic crystals. Their inventory of magic crystals at Cloud Chamber of Commerce was not the largest, but they have the best sale for arms in the White Mountain City."
"I see. For certain items, it’s better to have the control." Anfey’s comment was confusing to everyone.