"Aurora Order?"
Audrey, who had been hesitant, suddenly had a flash of insight. Yes, Mr. Fool originally wanted his follower to take action. But for a task worthy of a god's follower, this ambassador must be no ordinary person! Even though Mr. Fool changed his mind, he specifically asked the Aurora Order to step in. And behind the Aurora Order is a god! Although it's an evil god, it's still a genuine god!
Then, what about the ambassador? What kind of force stands behind him? It's certainly the Intis Republic, but it must be more than just that. Otherwise, it wouldn't be enough to warrant Mr. Fool's involvement. The only possibility is that another evil god is involved! Mr. Fool's decision to let Mr. A handle the task might even be related to a divine-level confrontation!
And now, she had the fortune to be involved in this…
The hesitation in the young girl's heart was instantly replaced by excitement. She decided to accept this task—no one could stop her!
"Mr. Fool," Audrey thought carefully and cautiously responded, "I can try to complete this mission, but I can't guarantee success."
She was eager to be part of it, but she didn't want to make any promises without doing further investigation first.
"What reward do you expect?" Mr. Fool nodded slightly, smiling as he asked.
"Hmm…" Audrey hesitated for a moment, then said, "We can discuss the reward after the mission. If I fail, I'll bear the costs. Besides, I still owe a bounty to one of your followers. If the mission is completed and the expenses don't exceed that bounty, then I won't need a reward."
She was referring to Qilangos bounty. Although it was Mr. Fool's follower who killed Qilangos, the reward ended up in Audrey's hands since the follower couldn't reveal themselves.
"Ten thousand gold pounds, even half of that would be 5,000."
Mr. Fool suddenly felt a little envious. Too bad he couldn't show his face, otherwise, he could've claimed that 5,000 pounds. But unfortunately, poverty had limited his imagination. Qilangos bounty wasn't 10,000 but at least 30,000! If he split it, he could've gotten at least 15,000 pounds!
Of course, whether it was 5,000 or 15,000 pounds, it didn't make much difference to Klein since he couldn't claim the money anyway.
"Miss Justice," Emlyn suddenly spoke, "it would be best if an unfamiliar Beyonder handled this matter."
"I understand," Audrey solemnly nodded. Mr. A was a member of the Aurora Order, and although he was likely to accept the task due to his financial difficulties, there was always a chance he might turn on his client. The best approach would be to have an unfamiliar Beyonder carry out the mission. Though there was still a risk of being traced, if that happened, Audrey could always inform the righteous god's church.
After the exchange among the members ended, Klein declared the Tarot meeting over for the week.
Once he had sent off Miss Justice and the others, Klein didn't leave the gray fog immediately. Instead, he sat in his spot, lost in thought.
"If Mr. A takes action, it should be foolproof, right?"
Although The Hanged Man's analysis made sense, even Mr. Fool himself wasn't sure if there were other evil gods backing the ambassador. His only reason for wanting the ambassador dead was that if he didn't act quickly, the next news headline might read, "Unknown detective found drowned in a sewer."
He had thought of asking Ashes to take action, but he still owed Ashes two favors, and Ashes wasn't even in Backlund at the moment. So, Klein really only had two options:
First, he could reveal his identity and turn himself in to the Church of the Evernight Goddess for protection. But this would undoubtedly subject him to questioning and possibly even being "dissected" for study, so that was a last resort.
The other option was to rely on the Tarot Club members. Ashes and The Hanged Man were both in the Sonya Sea, and The Sun was in the Forsaken Land of the Gods, so he couldn't count on them. The only one he could depend on was Miss Justice.
Since Miss Justice had brought up Mr. A, Klein had gone along with the suggestion of letting Mr. A assassinate the ambassador.
Because of Mr. Fool's position, he couldn't explain too much, so he relied on the others to fill in the gaps. And as always, The Hanged Man had provided impeccable assistance, elevating the matter to a "divine-level" confrontation.
From the current situation, everything seemed to be going smoothly.
"However…"
Klein sighed softly. Arranging for someone to assassinate the ambassador wasn't enough. Until the assassination was successful, the ambassador could still send people to kill him. So, he needed to find a bodyguard of sufficient caliber.
…
"Boom!"
Just as Alger returned to his body, he heard the sound of rushing wind around him. His expression darkened—danger was near.
After a brief hesitation, Alger rushed out of the captain's cabin. Upon reaching the deck, his face stiffened, and his eye twitched involuntarily.
He saw that the three Silver Knights summoned by Ashes were standing by the ship's side, pulling out enormous arrows like iron spears and firing them with dragon-hunting bows at a distant ship. The whistling wind he had heard was the sound of the bowstrings being drawn.
Alger quietly pulled out his telescope and looked over. The distant ship had already taken on a lot of water and was more than halfway sunk. Clearly, this wasn't the first "shipwreck."
Well, there was danger, but not for them.
"Clap!"
Alger heard footsteps behind him and instinctively turned around, only to see that Ashes had also come up on deck, looking at the distant ship and murmuring thoughtfully.
"Those ships…"
"Don't worry," Alger seemed to understand what Ashes was thinking and explained, "We're already at the edge of the Rosside Sea. No mail or merchant ships come here, let alone use this route. The only ones who would show up here are other pirates."
"No." Ashes shook his head calmly. "What I mean is, can you sail over those ships? I need to retrieve the dragon-hunting arrows."
Each arrow was precious, and he preferred to recover them if possible.
"…"
Alger's eye twitched. He had thought Ashes was worried about killing innocent people, but instead, he was concerned about reusing the arrows?
And—Alger glanced at the Silver Knights, who were pulling massive arrows out of seemingly nowhere. He couldn't figure out where they were hiding all those arrows.
Since it wouldn't take long to recover the arrows, Alger agreed to Ashes request and also managed to loot some valuable items from the wrecked ships. After doing all this, they finally set sail for the primitive island.
As they sailed through the safe route, the sea was calm. However, two nautical miles away from the route, a different scene unfolded.
Dark clouds gathered and pressed low, while tangible hurricanes raged, covering a vast area of the sea. Silver lightning illuminated the dense rain, which danced wildly in the wind. Occasionally, long tentacles would suddenly shoot up from the stormy sea, raising massive waves.
It looked like the end of the world.
This was the reason Alger was confident no one but him could find the island—because they needed to sail for six hours through a sea filled with lurking sea monsters and raging storms to reach the island! Even knowing the route, they could be sunk by a sea monster's attack along the way.
So, even for Alger, each trip to the island was a life-threatening gamble.
"We'll need to be careful from here on out," Alger reminded Ashes as he navigated the ghost ship along the route. "We could be attacked by sea monsters at any moment…"
Before he could finish, the roar of cannons erupted around them.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The cannons on the left side of the Blue Avenger fired dozens of rounds without anyone manning them, hitting a massive sea monster with an octopus-like head, which had been advancing toward them with ill intentions. The creature shrieked in pain and retreated back into the depths.
"Just as I said," Alger took a deep breath and shook his head. "It's dangerous here, and we must stay alert."
Alger felt a bit relieved.
He was thankful that the Blue Avenger was a ghost ship that didn't require a crew to operate. Otherwise, there was no way he could've survived this sea alone.
Of course, Alger subtly glanced at Ashes. Ashes could also be considered a second line of defense. The three Silver Knights he summoned were at least as powerful as Sequence 6 or even Sequence 5.
As for Sequence 4? That was the realm of demigods, and Alger didn't believe the Silver Knights had such strength.
"Need any help?" Ashes suddenly asked.
"No, not for now," Alger shook his head with a smile. "You wouldn't want to waste those arrows, right? I can't help you recover them in this area, so I'll handle it myself."
"Alright." Ashes nodded slightly and didn't press the issue.
In fact, Alger had his own reasons. Although this was a transaction—trading the island's coordinates for Ashes help—Alger knew he needed to demonstrate his value. If Ashes had to handle everything, what would be the point of having him around?
Another volley of cannon fire resounded as dozens of rounds fended off another incoming sea monster. However, Alger didn't feel relaxed; instead, he grew even more tense.
Though the Blue Avenger could carry more ammunition due to its ghostly nature, even a large stockpile could be depleted at this rate. If they continued like this, they would reach the island safely, but what about the return trip?
Alger instinctively touched his pocket, where he kept a few charms for calming sea creatures. These charms could make the sea monsters stop attacking the Blue Avenger. However, he considered these charms a last resort—not because they didn't work, but because they were expensive.
So, Alger preferred using the cheaper cannonballs first.
But if things continued like this, even using all the charms might not guarantee their safety.
And when that time came, Ashes would have to step in.
There was no doubt that Ashes intervention would ensure their safety—his Silver Knights had already proven that. But Alger wanted to avoid relying on him.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to conduct an experiment," Ashes suddenly said, looking at a sea monster approaching from a distance.
Alger was a bit surprised but nodded, "Go ahead."
He had already been prepared to fire the cannons, but since Ashes wanted to experiment, he was willing to wait and see what he had in mind.
The next moment, Ashes pulled out an object from somewhere.
Alger focused his gaze and saw that it was a glowing skull.
Then, he watched as Ashes walked to the stern and threw the skull far into the distance.
"…"
Alger was speechless.
He thought the skull would be some kind of magical item, but Ashes had casually thrown it away.
Wasn't this supposed to be an experiment? What kind of experiment was this?
Before Alger could process what had just happened, he suddenly heard the roar of a sea monster nearby.
Looking over, he saw countless tentacles emerging from the sea around the ship.
Several sea monsters with massive eyes surfaced from the depths. Ignoring the ghost ship nearby, they madly swarmed toward the direction where Ashes had thrown the skull.
"Huh, it really works," Ashes rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
[Enemy-Attracting Skull]
[A skull imbued with the scent of souls. A gift from the mentor of the Abyss Church. When shattered after being thrown, it disperses and attracts nearby enemies to its location. However, it doesn't work on all enemies.]
If this were on land, the skull's effect wouldn't be as pronounced. But at sea, its range was unexpectedly large, drawing in sea monsters from over a mile away.
Of course, it could also be that these sea monsters had a particularly keen sense of "smell."
"That skull can attract sea monsters?" Alger immediately understood the skull's purpose and instinctively had a bold idea—could it be used to lure enemies?
For instance, if they attached the skull to an arrow and shot it onto another pirate's ship, would it lure sea monsters to attack the other pirates?
This idea flashed in his mind but was quickly dismissed as Alger focused on navigating the ghost ship away from the area.
With so many sea monsters around, who knew if they might suddenly change course and attack the Blue Avenger?
Better to leave while they were distracted by the skull.
(End of Chapter)