Chapter 489: War
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
"Master, we lost thirty-one elves, five druids and fifty-two mercenaries in total by dusk. The southern town seemed just—" a druid reported.
"F*ck off!" Manstuly yelled in anger.
The druid who had just come in to report to Manstuly trembled with fear. He immediately left the room after Manstuly asked him to f*ck off.
Beside Manstuly, Mourtta and Hotchbini were sitting to the left of him in the room while three male elves sat to the right of him. None of them looked too good.
Mourtta liked to hide his weakness so he always pushed his wife, Hotchbini, in front of him. In fact, he was just as good as Hotchbini. Manstuly was definitely as good as Mourtta and Hotchbini. He was the leader of the wolf druids. The three male elves were the elf pharaohs. They were definitely a group of powerful, intelligent people. However, they did not seem to know how to deal with Anfey when faced with his cruel and bloody killing.
This magical world was different from the civilized world with high technology. In the high-tech and civilized world, each individual's ability was very limited. Anyone who wanted to make accomplishments needed the collective efforts of others. In this magical world, one person's power, even though it couldn't be unlimited, could cause irreversible changes to society. Anfey had only taken one day, by himself, to turn around Blackwater City and make people in Blackwater City worry.
They thought of having a group of top powers surround Anfey, but they did not think it would work since Anfey would not be stupid enough to fight directly against those top powers. On top of already being fast, Anfey could release Instant Transportation. Those top powers would not even be able to chase after him. They thought about setting traps for Anfey, but the tragedy at dusk had proven that would not work either. To prove whether setting traps for Anfey would work had cost the elves a lot.
Katyusha had been the second best Sunset Archer. The Silent Arrow she had always practiced with were not that effective against swordsmen, since they were all very fit. However, whenever she had fought against archmages, her silent archery caused fatal threats to them. The magic arrows she had brought with her were accumulated by elves over time, a few of them senior level magic arrows. With her magic achievements, and the amount of arrows she'd had on her, everyone had thought Katyusha could definitely kill Anfey when she left. They had thought she could hurt Anfey even if she could not kill him. Nobody had thought such a hopeful top power could be killed by Anfey in the blink of an eye. It was a huge blow to them.
"I finally believe there is an heir to the Saints," the elf pharaoh in the middle asked in a low pitch. "Master Manstuly, what I don't get is why you still wanted to attack Suzanna if you already knew Anfey's teacher was a mysterious Saint, and if the legend about Anfey was discovered about a year ago. Isn't it not wise to make an enemy with a potential Saint?"
"Master Anderson, in fact, it was my idea." Mourtta smiled bitterly.
"Okay, could you tell me why you did that?" the elf pharaoh asked.
"I do not think there have been any Saints, neither does Master Manstuly," Mourtta said.
"Are those all your reasons?" the elf pharaoh asked.
"No," Mourtta shook his head. "Back then, Anfey did not stand out as much as he does now. I worried about his sophisticated plans. He stationed himself in Moramatch Town and seemed to be really interested in the Country of Mercenaries. I thought he would be a problem in the future."
"That is why we thought we could not let him grow stronger," Manstuly added. "We had to destroy him."
"His sophisticated plans?" another elf pharaoh asked. "I do not quite get it."
"You know about the conflict between Tiger Tawau's mercenary group and Glory mercenary group, right?" Mourtta asked.
"Yes," the elf pharaoh said.
"In fact, Glory mercenary and us have been set up all the way from the beginning. We all know Shanteler and Davidson from Glory mercenary group were killed in a conflict, but we did not kill them," Mourtta said in a low pitch.
"Then who killed them?" the elf pharaoh asked.
"Anfey did," Mourtta said.
"Anfey?" The elf pharaoh shook his head. "I don't think so. I have carefully read the report about Anfey. When you had the conflict with Glory mercenary group, Anfey was still pretty weak. Even though Suzanna worked for him, those few young guys would not be able to pose any threats to Shenteler and Davidson. Davidson was a senior swordsman. In addition, Shanteler and Davidson had many guards with them. How could Anfey and Suzanna kill them?"
"I don't know how Anfey did it either," Mourtta smiled bitterly, "but I am sure he was part of it."
"Really?" the elf pharaoh asked.
"If you are interested in it, I can tell you all I know," Mourtta said in a low pitch. "In fact, from the very beginning, Hotchbini and I felt something was not right, but back then we already had conflict with Glory mercenary group. Later, Shanteler and Davidson were killed. We had to continue the fight with Glory mercenary group even though we knew there was something fishy about it. In addition, we could not explain what happened. Hotchbini explained it to Shanteler. Unfortunately, Shanteler doubted us. Those antsy Glory mercenaries were not patient enough to listen to our explanation after Shanteler was killed. Since the fight had to happen, we had to try our best."
"After the fight, I did an investigation on it for a long time, but could not figure out what was wrong with it." Mourtta paused a second before he continued, "But, a person suddenly caught my attention."
"Anfey?" the elf pharaoh asked.
"Yes," Mourtta nodded. "He set a trap in Cross Valley and wiped out a Griffin Aerial Unit."
"Did you suspect him because of that?" the elf pharaoh asked.
"Master Anderson, no one was born a supreme power. First of all, he needs time to grow and there is always a way to trace the growth. Taking Anfey for example. Every time Anfey did something big or showed in public, his power increased significantly more than before."
"We agree with what you said, but…" Anderson said.
"Master Anderson, bear with me with a long story." Mourtta heaved a slight sigh. "I am a victim of Anfey so I know better than anyone else. The setup he had for Glory mercenary group and me was so well and cruelly planned that I could not fight back even though I knew I fell in traps. This is the characteristics of Anfey. When Anfey gained his fame by wiping out a Griffin Aerial Unit, I felt there was similarity between those two events. I just wanted to give a try so I targeted Anfey and did an investigation on him. I did find out a lot of information about him."
"What did you find out?" Anderson asked.
"Before Shanteler and Davidson were killed, Anfey and his fellows came to Blackwater City and stayed in a hotel, named Tuna Hotel. Anfey seemed to be very active and always came home late at night. What was he busy with? The main reason Glory mercenary group and us had the conflict was because a younger brother of Davidson was killed at a mercenary's home. Davidson said it was my mercenary. When I did the investigation, I found someone saw a beautiful swordswoman with black hair and black eyes and a young mage on the street that day. Later, I found a painter and a few people who had seen Suzanna before. I asked that painter to draw Suzanna and showed it to the people who saw them. They were sure the girl they saw was Suzanna. Was it just a coincident?" Mourtta said in a low pitch.
"Besides, Anfey is a student of Saul's. His luck did not seem to be too good. He ran into trouble a couple of times in the Maho Empire. What surprised me was Yolanther's attitude towards Anfey. He never punished him for his mistakes but always rewarded him for any achievements he made. There is no point for me to talk about what kind of person Yolanther is. The key is: why did he liked Anfey so much? Could it only be he is a student of Saul? Could it only be he showed his talent?" Mourtta asked in a low pitch.
The three elf pharaohs fell into silence. Mourtta had made it very clear. If they continued to doubt Mourtta's judgement, it would be no different than doubting their own intelligence. Yolanther had been ambitious of making the whole Pan Continent concur. What kind of people would Yolanther think important? It seemed to be self-explanatory.
"I have an idea." An elf pharaoh suddenly looked very excited and proud.
"What is it?" Everyone got interested in it.
"Anfey has been an ally with Glory mercenary group, but he is an assassinator," the elf pharaoh said with a smile. "Anthony has treated Shanteler and Davidson as his own brothers. If we tell him that Anfey actually killed Shanteler and Davidson, hehehe, do you think Anthony would forgive Anfey?"
This was a good idea. Manstuly, Hotchbini and few others all looked excited. Only Mourtta shook his head without any excitement, "It would not work."
"Why not?" the elf pharaoh asked.
"Would Anthony think we are trustworthy? Besides, we do not have enough evidence to prove Anfey killed them," Mourtta said with a bitter smile.
"We have to give it a try," Hotchbini said in a low pitch. Her eyes were red. She had three sons killed by Anfey so far. She tried to control her emotions in front of the others, but she had cried many times by herself. She knew Mourtta shed his tears as well. Unfortunately, the path to the throne was always thorny. They could not turn around now, not even stay where they were. They had to continue on that path no matter how much it would cost them, even if the few sons they had now could be killed in the war.