—The third operational meeting has officially begun!
The meeting's theme was how to expose Nighold's ugly face and rescue the children he had kidnapped.
"Damn it! Tomorrow I'll set fire to his entire hideout and burn it down!"
Upon hearing that one of the children was an orc, Lilith became particularly agitated, as she was also an orc and naturally could not tolerate such a thing.
but……
Doing that would affect the children.
Without a doubt, I rejected Lilith's idea. To be honest, setting fire to his hideout was indeed a feasible solution, at least it would be very satisfying.
However, speaking is just speaking. We still need to think of a feasible way to save all the children he kidnapped at once. Most importantly, we need to let everyone in the guild see that this so-called sunny and cheerful man is actually an ugly human trafficker behind the scenes.
"How about... seeking help from the local government?"
Katya, who had been living with the Albad family for several years, would immediately think of this, since child trafficking is generally under the jurisdiction of the government.
“It is indeed feasible…but I suspect Nighold has accomplices in the government, so…it probably won’t work.”
Judging from the dragon carriage that day, Nighold definitely had accomplices in the government; otherwise, the guards standing watch at the city gate would have noticed those children.
Even if Nighold doesn't have any allies in the government, he must have some nobleman backing him up.
For some reason, I always tend to think of nobles with a perverse fondness for elven children.
But such nobles do exist. Lord Cypriano Albad, the patriarch of the Albad family, was such a person, a guy with a peculiar taste for elven children.
However, the lord simply liked the elven children and wouldn't do anything strange or unusual.
"If that's the case, why don't we just lead the whole guild to take down his base?"
Lilith's method is feasible, but how do we convince everyone to go to the villa?
Moreover, a treacherous fellow like Nighold would have immediately moved the children to a different place after I discovered his despicable behavior.
If we rashly lead the guild to Nighold's house to demand an explanation, and fail to find the so-called kidnapped child, then the blame will naturally fall on us.
No... this method won't work either.
"Ugh... this won't work, that won't work, why not just go up there and beat him up, then torture him into confessing?"
"To be honest... even Lilith might not be a match for Nighold!"
"Ha! I've inquired about him! He's just a master-level swordsman!"
Even so, his "Sun God Style" swordsmanship is too troublesome.
Yes, judging from his fight with him, Nighold's strength did not reach the level of a Sword King, but his "Sun God Style" swordsmanship, which focuses on the strongest strike, is indeed very troublesome.
Rashomon couldn't even last half a second under his attack, and that guy was very likely hiding his strength. Even if he was just a master swordsman, "Sun God Style" was definitely not his trump card.
"The Sun God School? No wonder they use such a greatsword..."
Just as I guessed, Lilith's strength is definitely not weak. She can even fight back against Agatha, who is at the Sword King level. However, Agatha is ultimately just "Severing Water Flow". She is good at assassination and is not suitable for a protracted battle.
This is why she ultimately failed.
But the "Sun God Style" is different. This kind of swordsmanship, which involves mastering a few simple moves to their peak, is so powerful that even tough monsters cannot withstand it, let alone Lilith who attacks with her bare hands.
In other words, "Sun God Style" is the kind of swordsmanship that can kill enemies of a higher level.
"Meow~ I have an idea!"
At this moment, Julius finally spoke, crossing his arms over his chest and tilting his head back at a 45-degree angle, looking like it was a piece of cake.
Tell me about it.
“We can focus our attention on Nighold’s two accomplices. It seems that all of Nighold’s actions were carried out by those two on his behalf!”
--yes!
It seems the focus of the meeting was on Nighold from the very beginning, and I completely overlooked the two accomplices who were transporting the children.
"As expected of Julius! You're truly something!"
"Hmph! Of course, I am Lord Julius, who knows everything!"
Uh... Julius! Your nose has gotten longer!
"I really can't stand his pretentious attitude..."
However, the method proposed by Rius is indeed feasible!
~~~
The third operational meeting has now concluded.
The end result was that the focus shifted to those two accomplices.
Judging from the conversation at that time, this was not the first time Nighold had asked them to kidnap children, which means that the two accomplices were Nighold's "source"!
If we catch those two guys, they will not only confess to Nighold's affair, but we can also rescue more children they have kidnapped!
And so, having seen what the two looked like, I was put in charge of keeping an eye on them.
To my surprise, these two guys were staying at the same hotel as us. Probably for convenience, this hotel, which was not too far from the commoners' and nobles' areas and was in a relatively secluded location, became a good place for the two to hide their identities.
However, what surprised me most was that it saved me the trouble of searching for them everywhere. It wasn't that the two of them were staying at the same hotel as me, but also at the same tavern I frequented.
The next morning, while having breakfast, I immediately recognized the two guys eating not far away. I don't know if it was because I had restricted their movements with "Mud Swamp" from the beginning, which caused them to pass by me without recognizing me.
So I decisively had Lilith memorize their scents to make it easier to track their movements later.
Strangely, the two men never left the inn, except for going downstairs to the tavern for meals at mealtimes. For the next few days, their movements were basically limited to the inn and the tavern.
"Did they quiet down a bit because I discovered their despicable behavior?"
This possibility certainly exists, after all, it involves the heinous act of kidnapping children.
But based on observations over the next few days, the two men went to a place that resembled an underground bar almost every day.
Located deep in the alleys of the working-class district, although there were some vendors passing by from time to time, no one except the two of them entered this place that looked like an underground tavern.
Furthermore, an unpleasant odor wafts out from inside, like that of some kind of animal. Unlike the wild scent emanating from Lilith, it smells more like a gathering place for cats and dogs.
—This is indeed a very suspicious place!
But each time the two came out, they didn't bring any of the kidnapped children with them. Instead, they went in empty-handed and came out empty-handed.
In short, I plan to take Lilith to find out for myself. Whether it's the place where the two of them are holding the children or not, it's definitely not the so-called underground tavern.
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