Chapter 16: Secret Agent_2

"You once said that the holy artifact is guarded by the imperial mages, adorned with dozens of seals, and can only be held by those with royal blood,"

"Yes."

The elf scout nodded, and then she stood up, reaching out to touch the white pearl. However, before her fingers even touched the pearl, she was thrown back as if hit by something, hitting the wall hard.

No wonder those fat wizards were having such a difficult time. It seems the imperial mages truly are skilled.

Duanmu Huai glanced at the elf scout struggling to get up, narrowed his eyes and nodded, and then started to ponder.

"...your aim is surely not just the holy artifact."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Sir Knight."

Although the elf scout seemed calm, the next words from Duanmu Huai made her falter.

"Elisa, she's one of your protection targets too, isn't she?"

"......"

"She's of royal lineage, correct? And could potentially even inherit the Empire?"

"............"

The elf scout didn't answer, but often, silence is confirmation.

I knew it.

Eyeing the still stiff elf scout, Duanmu Huai gave a slight harrumph. He hadn't anticipated this at first, but after listening to the elf scout's explanation and considering his own gaming experience, it wasn't hard for Duanmu Huai to reach this conclusion.

Firstly, the intensity of the pursuit of Elisa by the Evil God Cultist serves as the best evidence.

Demons ordinarily live in the subspace. However, they are incapable of influencing the real world through it. They can only deceive psychics, making them use various blasphemous rituals to blur the boundary between reality and subspace, enabling them to enter the physical world.

In this circumstance, every Chaotic Demon that enters the real world can be considered a highly precious and cherished "rare breed".

Still, in the pursuit of Elisa, the followers of the Brutal God even dispatched a high-level demon, the Bloodthirsty demon!

Although it isn't at the level of the Lord of Demons or a Great Demon, the Bloodthirsty demon is considered to be a very rare high-level demon in the early stages.

For a mere Lord's daughter, is it really worth it?

So, there is only one answer: she isn't simply a Lord's daughter. Otherwise, there is no way she could survive when the Lord had been killed.

However, after listening to the explanation of the elf scout, Duanmu Huai immediately connected all the clues. It's clear that Elisa might not be the daughter of the Lord's couple, but the Emperor's kin. For some reason, the Emperor hid her identity, entrusted her upbringing to a couple of Lords, and as for the holy artifact, it deepened Duanmu Huai's suspicion - according to the elf scout, this object could only be touched and taken by those of royal lineage, so it is usually found in royal territories.

But this is the borderland here. Would the Empire go to such lengths to send a royal member here to retrieve the holy artifact?

In other words, from a different perspective, as long as Elisa is a royal member, doesn't this territory become a royal territory?

In this way, it's reasonable for the Emperor to place the holy artifact here.

Although the elf scout didn't answer Duanmu Huai's question, judging from her reaction, his guess was mostly correct - after all, Duanmu Huai had too much experience with similar plotlines.

Of course, it could also be possible that the elf scout is a cunning, crafty actor playing a trick on him.

Regardless, neither has anything to do with him.

After all, as soon as the holy artifact appeared, Duanmu Huai scanned it, but there were no reactions from the system...It was somewhat disappointing.

"Nevermind, these matters have nothing to do with me."

Duanmu Huai pondered for a moment and then put the matter aside.

"There is one last thing I need to ask you."

"…What is it?"

"Do you know of any haunted places nearby?"

"…?"

Duanmu Huai wasn't planning to get involved in any Imperial wars. His target was only the Chaos Evil God and the Evil God Cultist. The internal disputes of a medieval-level civilization held no interest for him. Even though Duanmu Huai was sure that this was a main plotline, enhancing his own power was of the utmost importance at the moment.

Currently on this planet, followers of the Brutal God and the Filthy God exist. While dealing with the Brutal God was manageable, when it came to the Filthy God who played with viruses, Duanmu Huai did not have specific resources to counter them. So, what he needs to do now is to explore as many ruins and relics as possible, using "Soul Awakening" to collect Soul Cards - preferably power against the Filthy God's virus-infected followers.

Luckily, perhaps it was because they were frightened by Duanmu Huai's slaughter in the temple, the Ratmen and the cultists never showed their faces again. Captain Kado took the opportunity to strengthen the defense in the castle with his soldiers until reinforcements arrived. Only then, could they breathe a sigh of relief.

The leader of the reinforcements seemed to be an old acquaintance of Sir Kado. Their first encounter went smoothly, and thanks to Kado's introduction, Duanmu Huai greeted him in return - which was reciprocated with quite a bit of courtesy.

Duanmu Huai had to admit, he felt like he fitted in with this world rather well now.

In the world before he crossed over, he was easily mistaken as a criminal by passerby whenever he went out. But, in a world where might makes right, his body frame and appearance were much more accepted. After all, according to traditional gaming storylines, when generals of a reinforcement army learn that the protagonist single-handedly defeated an entire Ratman Army, disrupted the Evil God's ritual, and even eradicated plague apostles, they would assume exaggeration.

After all, the majority of protagonists are regular people, usually, they aren't considered to have any special abilities.

But Duanmu Huai was different, just he standing in front of you, his majestic 2.5 meters tall Judgment Court Power Armor and his fierce face, make it more believable that he defeated the Ratman Army alone. If someone claimed that he eradicated an Evil God, people would probably believe that too.

It goes to show that sometimes, such looks can be advantageous, at least, avoiding many conflict-driving misunderstandings.

No one would dare to mess with someone who looks so formidable, right?

Humans are still visual creatures after all.

After the reinforcements arrived, Duanmu Huai bid farewell to Elisa and left The City of Silver. Even though Elisa was reluctant to let him go, Duanmu Huai would come back...

After all, for players, finishing the side quests before advancing on the main quests hasn't done any harm, right?