Chapter 35: Building Momentum

After the arrest, Zhu Yu and the two players parted ways at the alley entrance.

Before leaving, the young player suddenly took out a stack of parchment from his arms and handed it to Zhu Yu.

"It can be seen that the identity you drew in this dungeon is not ordinary." He said, "These are the intelligence I have been investigating and compiling during this period. Perhaps it will be more valuable to you than to keep it with me."

Zhu Yu took it, flipped through a few pages, and took a quick glance. He discovered that it was actually an investigation report on the spread of plague in several cities. The records were very detailed, almost accurate to the number of new infections and death rates each day, like a densely packed statistical file.

Although Zhu Yu had no idea how the other party obtained the information, he knew that it must have taken a lot of time and effort to organize the information in such detail.

She put away the parchment and said solemnly, "Thank you."

"Good luck."

The young player nodded and left with Arila.

***

On the other side, 996 also rushed over. Zhu Yu looked at him and quickly reached a consensus.

"Ilos is not Arce." Zhu Yu whispered, "This place is not under my control. The prison cells of the Inquisition are unreliable. The jailers can be bribed by throwing a few gold coins."

"You mean, we should take him back to the hotel first?" 996 asked.

"Well, hold on for now, and then see what happens."

The two men took the alchemist back to the hotel and imprisoned him in a secret room below the guest rooms.

After everyone was settled, Zhu Yu walked in, pulled over a chair and sat down.

The alchemist was tied to a chair with his hands behind his back. The flickering candlelight made his face appear bright and dark.

"That's enough. There's no point pretending to be unconscious." Zhu Yu leaned against the window and slowly flipped through the parchment. "You are from the Royal City. I believe you also know the methods of punishment used by our nobles. Why? Do you want to personally experience the interrogation methods of the Draka family?"

The other party had originally lowered his head, but after hearing Zhu Yu's threat, he finally slowly raised his head and said in a hoarse voice:

"What exactly do you want to know?"

"I want to know," Zhu Yu's eyes were sharp, "what was your purpose in contacting the governor of Arce town privately? And why did you switch my wine during the libation ceremony this time?"

The alchemist raised his eyelids slightly, with a hint of sneer on his lips:

"Miss Draka, I think you already know the answer to this question, right?"

"The goal is very simple." He uttered a few words slowly, "That is to infect the entire town of Arce and the people of Iros with the plague as quickly as possible."

"Of course, if this action is discovered, we can just go with the flow and frame the wizards for the crime. They will take the blame."

Zhu Yu's eyes turned colder. She stopped asking why the other party did this and asked directly:

"Who's behind you?"

"You should have guessed it." The alchemist grinned. "Only the royal family in the entire Kingdom of Lodevia can do this kind of scale and resource allocation."

George stood in the corner of the room without saying a word, until this moment he finally lost his temper and spoke:

"You said... the royal family asked you to do this?"

The alchemist snorted coldly but did not deny it.

George's face turned livid in an instant.

"Do you know what you just said?" he asked angrily. "Do you know who you are accusing?"

"He is not wrong." Zhu Yu paused and looked at George: "You don't really believe that a mere alchemist like him can decide this matter, do you?"

George clenched his fists, his Adam's apple rolled up and down, and after a long time he whispered:

"I have to go back to Villanova."

Zhu Yu: “Are you sure?”

"I have to find out what happened." George raised his head with a firm look in his eyes. "Something must have gone wrong in the royal city during this period. As a member of the Royal Knights, I can't pretend that I know nothing."

"No, you can't go."

Zhu Yu interrupted George.

George frowned, obviously not understanding: "Why? If something really happened in the royal city, I can't just stand by and watch."

Zhu Yu did not answer immediately, but lowered her head to read the plague investigation materials given to her by the young player.

She pulled out a few pieces of parchment, walked up to George, and handed them to him: “Take a look at this first.”

George looked down at the densely packed numbers and records, his brows furrowed tighter and tighter:

"Is this... the infection statistics for each town?"

"Do you see what's wrong?"

Zhu Yu stared at his expression and asked.

George didn't respond immediately, as if he hadn't found the key point yet.

Zhu Yu turned around and handed the pages to Maggie: "Take a look."

Maggie took the parchment, glanced at it, her pupils shrank suddenly, and she couldn't help but whispered:

"...the number of infections and the speed at which they occurred have far exceeded the records of several major plague epidemics in history."

"That's right." Zhu Yu nodded, took out another larger piece of parchment and spread it out on the table.

"And look here—"

She pointed to the towns marked with red dots on the map and said, "These cities and towns where the epidemic broke out are densely distributed along a main trade route. The final intersection is here."

Her fingertips finally stopped at one place - Villanova.

The candlelight cast a trembling shadow on the map, and the red ink looked like a bloodstain.

"Villanova." George whispered the city he was very familiar with.

"That's right. Judging from the timeline, spread speed, and distribution direction, this plague most likely started in the Royal City."

Zhu Yu said softly, "It's just that the news was blocked at every level, so it couldn't be spread in time."

George froze in place.

His fingers were tightly clenched around the parchment, his lips were trembling slightly, and he couldn't utter a word.

In fact, Zhu Yu was 100% sure that the source of the plague was Villanova, because when she came to this conclusion, the long-lost system prompt sounded in her ears:

[Main quest progress +20%, current unlock progress 40%]

Zhu Yu retracted his gaze and looked at George: "This is why I don't let you go back to the royal city. You are a member of the Knights. Going back is not to find out the truth, but to die."

George had a complicated expression, with hesitation and pain in his eyes.

Just as he was looking at Villanova's position with disbelief on his face, the alchemist who had been sitting quietly beside him suddenly laughed out loud.

He looked up with a hint of sarcasm on his face, "You don't think the royal family only sent me to do this? How naive."

George looked up suddenly, as if struck by lightning.

"What do you mean?"

“What do you mean?” The alchemist sneered, “I am just one of the pawns. From the beginning, this plan was not something that could be accomplished by me alone. What you see is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Zhu Yu frowned and whispered to himself, "So... the plague spread so quickly this time because someone was deliberately pushing it behind the scenes?"

[Main quest progress +20%, current unlock progress 60%]

The reminder tone in her ear rang again, almost confirming her guess.

The whole room suddenly fell into silence.

Zhu Yu couldn't help but clench the parchment beside her. Her expression was calmer than ever, but deep in her heart, an unprecedented anger was burning.

She could not accept that this disaster that swept the entire city and claimed the lives of countless civilians was actually a "tool" controlled and precisely deployed by someone.

And it was clear that she was not the only one in the room feeling terrified and angry.

Maggie walked up to her with a tense look and asked in a low voice:

"Miss, now...what should we do? How can we stop them? There are so many people involved, and the manpower we have is simply not enough..."

"We don't need to start right away." Zhu Yu interrupted her, speaking calmly, "We have to take the initiative first."

She stood up and turned to George and said, "Go contact the people of the Inquisition immediately and tell them that I have locked on to the key person. However, this person is involved in the secrets of the Royal City, so I cannot hand him over for the time being. When I return to Arce Town, I will hand him over to the town's Inquisition for processing."

George was startled when he heard this: "They won't object?"

Zhu Yu shook his head: "No. You are a member of the Knights Templar, and I am a Knight of Light. We have the right to temporarily take custody of criminals on behalf of the Inquisition."

"...I understand." George nodded and left quickly. Zhu Yu then looked at 996 and said, "Tomorrow morning, please go to the main altar to collect the hourglass of Helis on my behalf."

"Hourglass of Helles" is one of the three alchemical relics of Dionysus, symbolizing [time], and has a certain degree of brewing acceleration and time reversal effects.

According to the festival tradition of Ilos, after the end of the Dionysian Festival each year, the top three contestants can each hold an alchemical relic for a period of one year.

"And," Zhu Yu added, "please ask the chief priest to lend us the 'Dionysus's Pot' in my name."

996 thought for a moment and agreed:

"You have just prevented a disaster for the city of Ilos. I think the chief priest will not refuse this favor."

Zhu Yu nodded and looked at Maggie again.

"Maggie, go write an urgent letter to Betty, telling her that we plan to return to Arce Town in advance and ask her to arrange for us to pick us up. We will set off tomorrow after we get the hourglass and the wine jug of Hermes."

Maggie: "Leaving so soon?"

"People in various cities are in a panic now. If we continue to stay here, we will be easily noticed."

Zhu Yu rubbed his brows, with a hint of fatigue in his tone, "Only by returning to our own territory as soon as possible can we stabilize the situation."

Maggie: "Okay miss, I'll get ready right away."

After everyone left the room, Zhu Yu was the only one left.

She sat in the candlelight, took out paper and pen, and unfolded the letter.

There was a familiar name written on the letter:

To Mrs. Janet, dear.

The pen tip paused for a moment, then she picked up the pen and wrote the first line of text.

Now she needs more eyes and ears, more manpower.

And those wizards who are hiding in different towns and seem to have no connection with each other are the ones who are most suitable for conveying public opinion and the truth.