For the Eight Fingers, this was simply a nightmarish evening.
As a massive organization that dominated the underground world of this country, the Eight Fingers had always been confident in their strength. But never in their wildest dreams did they expect something like this to happen!
What on earth is going on?
Seated around the round table, the leaders of the Eight Fingers had lost their usual composure and were becoming restless and uneasy. One of them slammed the table heavily and shouted in anger.
"Calm down, everyone’s losses are severe, this isn’t just an issue for one person."
A blonde woman furrowed her brows and spoke softly, and upon hearing her words, another person sneered.
"Silma, I heard your magic potion plantation was burned to the ground?"
"That’s right."
Hearing this, the blonde woman named Silma narrowed her eyes slightly.
"Although it’s hard for me to say this, but... from today onwards, I fear black powder will be difficult to circulate anymore. And you are in the same situation, aren’t you?"
As she spoke, Silma glanced at the person who had provoked her.
"I heard your weapons warehouse wasn’t left with even a single hair? You haven’t forgotten, have you? That was the weapons arsenal of our Eight Fingers."
"That wasn’t my negligence!"
Faced with Silma’s accusation, the man who had previously sneered immediately twisted his expression. But before the argument could continue, others began to speak up as well.
"My casino is done for! Not only the casino, but many nobles playing in the casino were injured! Dammit! I don’t even know how much compensation they’ll demand!"
"The treasury is completely buried underground, who knows how long it’s going to take to dig it out..."
"Enough!"
Hearing the complaints, a tall man in a black robe slammed the table heavily.
"Is this really the time to be talking about these things? Haven’t you noticed the problem? Let’s ignore the losses for now... but in just one night, the culprit who severely damaged our Eight Fingers... who are they?!"
Upon hearing this, the previously bickering crowd immediately fell silent. Indeed, losses can be tallied later. The pressing issue now is to find out who their enemy is!
Quickly, someone voiced their thoughts.
"Could it be Princess Lana and the others? I’ve always heard rumors that Princess Lana wants to ally with some nobles against us..."
"I don’t think so."
However, someone quickly shook their head.
"Today’s attack involved many nobles, even injuring quite a few. If this is Princess Lana’s doing, it would surely provoke strong dissatisfaction among the nobles. Besides, our intelligence network within the Royal Palace shows no signs of movement from Princess Lana. With the Kingdom’s power, if they wanted to completely annihilate us Eight Fingers, they would have acted immediately after the attack, not remain inactive as now."
"That’s true..."
Hearing this, the others also nodded in agreement. Indeed, the attack seemed rather anticlimactic to them. To capture all of Eight Fingers’ secret bases at once indicates the opponent’s strength is unimaginably powerful. If they wanted, they could have easily wiped them out at that time.
But now everything seemed normal, the Kingdom’s army showed no signs, and no one took the opportunity to create trouble for them, leaving the leaders of Eight Fingers perplexed. Honestly, if they were in the attackers’ position, they would have intensified their offensive and taken them down at this point.
But... what exactly is happening now?
Those confused aren’t just the attacked Eight Fingers, but another group as well.
"Is the intelligence reliable?"
A robust woman in armor strode over, sat down heavily on the table, and stared at the petite figure opposite her.
"The source is reliable."
Opposite the sturdy woman sat a small figure wrapped in a red cloak, wearing a white mask. Her voice sounded somewhat muffled through the mask, but unexpectedly reassuring.
"We can confirm that the attacked locations were all secret bases of the Eight Fingers."
A blonde girl sitting nearby also spoke up, her appearance no different from a regular warrior, with a uniquely shaped longsword placed beside her. As she spoke, she glanced toward the corner.
"Tia and Tina have both confirmed it; some locations we had already identified and others we are still investigating."
"Damn it! What do we do now?"
Hearing the blonde girl’s response, the robust woman slammed the table heavily.
They were not ordinary adventurers. In fact, the five women present were members of one of the three Golden Grade teams in the Re-Estize Kingdom, "Blue Rose". The blonde girl with the peculiar longsword was Radis Aelbeidne Tro Atinder, the captain of Blue Rose.
Additionally, she was a descendant of one of the famous Thirteen Heroes in history.
Radis was currently secretly investigating and dealing with the "Eight Fingers", the evil organization controlling the nation’s underground world, at the behest of Princess Lana.
Everything had been going smoothly, but the unexpected events tonight disrupted their plans.
"Who could it be? Could Her Royal Highness be acting impulsively out of impatience?"
The robust woman shook her head and spoke, but Radis shook her head.
"There’s no movement from the Princess’s side; this attack is unrelated to Her Royal Highness."
"Then who did it? To wipe out all the Eight Fingers’ secret bases at once, they must know a lot about the Eight Fingers."
"I’m not sure about that either, but Tina and Tia have made some discoveries."
Saying this, Radis clapped her hands, and in a flash, two girls with identical looks, dressed in ninja-like outfits, appeared before them.
"Tina, Tia, could you please report?"
"Okay."
The two ninja girls nodded and one of them spoke up.
"According to our investigations, all secret bases were destroyed by Burst Magic."
"Burst Magic? So, the attacker of Eight Fingers is a Golden Grade Archmage?"
Burst Magic is among the most powerful spells right after Dragon Break Slash and Collapse Spirit Slash, impossible for non-Golden Grade adventurers to cast. Upon hearing the report, the robust woman immediately had an idea.
Of course, she would never imagine someone like Megumin, who maxed out all her points on Burst Magic and abandoned everything else, existed.
"The current Golden Grade spellcasters known to the Kingdom are not in the capital, and the attack times on eight locations are almost simultaneous, making it difficult to pinpoint."
"You aren’t suggesting there were eight Golden Grade Archmages acting together, are you?"
"It’s possible that they used highly advanced Teleportation Magic."
This era had Teleportation Magic, but long-distance single-person teleportation was limited—certainly not as versatile as Fang Zheng’s anywhere-anytime teleportation.
"Speaking of Burst Magic... it reminds me of a rumor."
At this point, the masked girl suddenly spoke up.
"A few days ago, news from the Adventurers’ Guild spoke of a team that vanquished a Vampire wreaking havoc nearby and was promoted to Black Obsidian Level."
"Oh, you mean that... wait, if they destroyed the Vampire, why were they only promoted to Black Obsidian?"
The Blue Rose Squad members had heard of this but were busy gathering intelligence on the Eight Fingers outside the city. And that Vampire had killed five Bronze Rank adventurers, confirming its strength. Even if originally White Porcelain Rank, the team managing to destroy the Vampire should have been promoted above Bronze Rank!
"The Vampire was destroyed by a companion of the team, not the team members themselves. The team members only defeated adventurers turned into Vampires."
"I see."
Hearing this, the crowd nodded. Though termed Bronze Rank adventurers, being transformed into Vampires would significantly weaken them. Of course, typical White Porcelain Rank adventurers couldn’t handle such Vampires. But everyone here knew that adventurers’ ranks didn’t necessarily equate to strength. If the team was strong enough, defeating a few Bronze Rank adventurers turned Vampires wasn’t strange.
They themselves could easily achieve that after all.
"By the way, what’s up with the person who destroyed the Vampire?"
"He’s a companion of the team but didn’t officially become an adventurer, so his evaluation was separately tallied, not counted with the team."
"What an odd guy."
Hearing the masked girl’s answer, everyone shrugged, but shortly after, Radis curiously asked.
"But what does this have to do with what we’re discussing?"
"It has everything to do with it."
Saying this, the masked girl extended a finger.
"I heard there’s a girl in that team who loves using Burst Magic."
"Is that so?"
Upon hearing this, everyone’s expressions changed.
A girl who really loves using Burst Magic—normally they’d just listen casually, but in the current situation... it was quite concerning.
"Do you think that girl attacked the Eight Fingers? Why?"
"We’re not entirely sure, but we can be certain that the girl might be connected to the attack on the Eight Fingers’ secret base. And... even if she isn’t, the Eight Fingers wouldn’t let her off easily."
Facing Radis’s assessment, everyone couldn’t help but become serious. Just as Radis said, if they could get this information, the Eight Fingers surely could too. And after all, they were just a five-member adventurer squad, incomparable to the Eight Fingers’ nationwide intelligence network.
Not only that, unlike them, the Eight Fingers were a dark underground organization, and these people act without restraint. Once they find out, whether it’s related or not, they’d likely come knocking to interrogate.
"Anyway, we must be prepared. The original plan is no longer useful; we need a completely new one."
Thus, under the pitch-black night, many people stayed awake all night.
But this did not include Fang Zheng.
He didn’t care about these trivial matters, he slept soundly until dawn, and then brought breakfast to the guest room... At this moment, the girl saved by Fang Zheng and the others had already woken up. However, now the girl was like a doll, just sitting there dazedly, completely unresponsive to Fang Zheng’s arrival.
"How are you feeling? Are you okay?"
"............"
The girl did not answer Fang Zheng’s inquiry, just like a wooden person, though that was normal. Her physical injuries had healed, but her mental trauma wouldn’t recover so easily.
Of course, if Fang Zheng had studied Enchantment School spells, he could resolve this through brainwashing or memory manipulation.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t.
"Here, have something to eat."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng placed the breakfast in front of the girl.
"You slept all night; you must be hungry. Eat something first before we talk."
"............"
Looking at the steaming food in front of her, the girl finally moved. Though it seemed her mental trauma was not yet healed, at least her human survival instincts were still functioning.
Fang Zheng watched as the girl picked up the spoon and put it in her mouth... The next moment, she devoured the food as if she were a ravenous ghost.
After a moment, the girl put down the spoon, and her plate was already empty.
"You seem to have some spirit left. Anyway, have a good rest first. You’re safe here, no one will harm you. I’ll find someone to accompany you. Rest well for a few days, then we’ll consider what’s next."
"...Than...Thank you..."
Whether it was due to not speaking for a long time or some other reason, the girl forced out two words after hearing Fang Zheng speak.
"No need to thank me, you’ve made your choice, and this is the result... It doesn’t seem so bad now, does it?"
"Ugh... ugh ugh...!"
Hearing this, the girl suddenly lowered her head and began to weep, covering her face.
"Why... why didn’t you come... sooner... why...!"
As she spoke, the girl reached out and tightly grasped Fang Zheng’s clothes. Fang Zheng did not speak, only gently stroking her head.
"...Ugh... ugh..."
After a moment, the girl finally loosened her hand.
"I’m... sor... ry."
"No need to apologize, whatever you’ve been through, it’s all in the past. You’re safe here, and we’ll protect you..."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng took out a handkerchief.
"Wipe your eyes. It’s rare to be so cute; it wouldn’t be good to cry until your eyes are swollen."
"But, but..."
Looking at the handkerchief in Fang Zheng’s hand, the girl appeared somewhat afraid.
"Such a beautiful handkerchief, for someone like me..."
"If it’s not used to wipe a girl’s tears, then the handkerchief is useless."
Saying this, Fang Zheng picked up the handkerchief and gently wiped away the tears from the girl’s eyes.
"Alright, anyway, make sure to rest well... Oh, by the way, can you tell me your name?"
"I... My name is... Ki... Kiare..."
"Kiare, huh? It’s a nice name. I’m Fang Zheng. You can call me whatever you like."
"Mr. Fang... Zheng..."
"That’s right, now that you’ve eaten, you can rest well, close your eyes and get some sleep, and recover your energy."
"Yes..."
Upon hearing Fang Zheng’s words, Kiare obediently closed her eyes and lay back on the bed. Fang Zheng watched her fall asleep again before leaving the room.
Outside the room, three girls were waiting there.
"I can’t believe it, you’re such a flirt, always charming girls!"
Megumin glared at Fang Zheng unhappily, but Fang Zheng merely glanced at her and shrugged.
"So do you want to try it too?"
"Are you kidding! No way!"
At this, Megumin’s face turned red, and she shouted. Fang Zheng let out a chuckle and turned to the Priestess of the Goddess.
"You stay with her today. Her physical injuries have healed, but it won’t be easy for her mental trauma to recover. As a fellow girl, having you there could make her feel safer."
"Understood, Sir Knight."
The Priestess of the Goddess nodded, and Fang Zheng looked over at Ais.
"Ais, did you take care of the old mice last night?"
In response to Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Ais held up her hand.
"Five."
"I thought so... Alright, you can go rest too. We might have even bigger trouble coming."
"Got it."
With this, Ais nodded and returned to her room. Fang Zheng then grabbed Megumin.
"You are not allowed to go anywhere today, you stay here."
"Why?"
"Because today... if everything goes as expected, we should have a big game to play."
"A big game?"
Hearing this, Megumin, who had been puffing her cheeks in anger, was taken aback and looked at Fang Zheng.
"What do you mean?"
"You’ll see. In short, don’t go anywhere today, stay here and wait for my command, understand?"
"Ugh..."
"If you’re unwilling, be careful or I’ll drug you again."
"Ugh..."
Perhaps recalling the taste of the potion from last night, Megumin’s face turned sour.
"Fine... I won’t go out."

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