A New Villain Emerges? (2)

It took nearly a week to arrive in the town of Praset, and during that time, Olivia received three more reports about possible sightings of Ang Anino.

The mayor was known to be in the pocket of the syndicate and stated that a shadowy figure raided his vault.

An earl who was a staunch supporter of the king was found in his home… drained of fluids, and looked like he was turned into a mummy. Most of his possessions were gone, and the reports indicate spider venom inside the earl. Eyewitnesses report that a shadowy figure was seen around the earl's house.

The owner of Forbidden Desires claims a shadowy figure came and kidnapped one of their top entertainers, Furry Lipz.

What is their plan, Olivia thought as she looked over all the reports and stared at the map. Ever since taking over the investigation, she has had an uncomfortable feeling in her chest, and over the past week, she realized that for the first time, she was feeling irritation, albeit minor annoyance, but she was genuinely feeling irritation, and she didn't like it, not one bit.

The fact that there was someone out there that was able to evade her irritated her. After months, she still couldn't figure out what Ang Anino meant, which irritated her.

"Princess!" A man abruptly entered her room. "One of our scouts reported that one of the bandit camps there were assigned to observe just came under attack from a horde of spiders." The man finished as he saluted.

"Knight-Commander Logan, gather everyone and prepare to head out. Inform the scouts to try to save a few bandits if they can, but not at the cost of their lives." Olivia calmly said as she got up

"At once, princess." Logan, the knight-commander said before saluting and turning to leave

Suppose only Olivia was more observant of her surroundings than more focused on the reports. In that case, she might have spotted the spider no more significant than the size of a fingernail, hiding in the corner, observing everything.

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Bandit camp, outskirts of town

As Olivia stepped out of the carriage with her royal guard surrounding her. All she could see was death and destruction, this mid-size camp, which held roughly 30 bandits, was destroyed. Red blood splattered everywhere, with green ichor mixed in throughout the center.

Unsurprisingly there were no bodies left, neither the bandits nor the spiders. They're organized, she thought.

Throughout history, spiders, while the legends of nightmares, were rarely seen. The occasional spider would appear above ground, or a nest was discovered near a town, and the guilds would quickly clear them out. Still, there have never been reports of spiders overwhelming bandit camps or attacking specific people within a city.

If this Ang Anino was truly controlling these spiders, things might take a turn for the worst. What if they decided to attack a major city or the capital itself?

Looking at the five surviving bandits, Olivia thought to herself, and their goal is not to conquer; no, it's something else.

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(Vorbeck's POV)

"Who knows the most?" the woman with blue hair coldly asked

"I do," Vorbeck said as he raised his hand

"Tell me what happened, and as the princess, I give you my word that you will be free to go." She calmly said as she 'warmly' smiled at him

Vorbeck was momentarily stunned. He had never seen such a beautiful girl before, even the countless girls and women he had 'bedded' back paled in comparison to her beauty, and she offered to let them go if he answered her questions.

With a shit-eating grin, he began to tell the tale of what had happened earlier. Everything was calm, and then suddenly, those spiders started showing up and attacking them. He even detailed how he slew more than six spiders before he was captured by one of the scouts.

"Do you know if anything of value was taken?" She asked after a moment, batting her eyes at him

"I would have to look around and see." Vorbeck said as he was drawn into those eyes

"Knight-Commander, escort this gentleman around the camp." She turned to the tall man behind her before turning back to him, "You will look around and tell me if anything of value is missing." She demanded

"Of course." He nodded his head rapidly

It took over thirty minutes, but after looking around, he noticed that the captain's chest was missing. When she asked what was inside the chest, and he responded that only the captain knew, she sighed, and after a moment, she looked at all of them and said there were free to go.

Eyes wide in shock, Vorbeck couldn't help but look at the tall man behind her, and as he slowly got up and turned around to leave, he half expected an arrow in the back, but to his surprise, he made it to the forest edge, without being attacked.

"What now?" Peter, one of the bandits, asked

"There's another camp a few miles from here. Let's head there and regroup." Vorbeck said as he looked east…. And saw a massive spider.

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(Logan's POV)

The screams could be heard almost immediately after the bandits entered the forest, and Logan couldn't help but shudder as he looked at the princess, turned around, and headed to the carriage.

"Princess, you knew there were spiders in the forest?" He cautiously asked as he followed her

"They left us five prisoners to question." She calmly stated without turning around. "The wardens were just claiming them back," She finished.

"Princess, what do you mean, left us?" He asked with confusion

"Do you think that our scouts were able to capture five bandits without being killed themselves?" she rhetorically asked before continuing, "If our scouts rescued at least two or maybe even three, then I would have bought it, but we sent out five scouts, and they secured five bandits, that's hard to believe." She paused as she climbed the carriage, but she looked around the area again before entering. "No, they wanted us to question the bandits. They wanted us to know they were after something and had acquired what they were looking for."

The knight commander shuddered as he listened to the princess; the way she knew things were very unnerving, making him doubt the plan…..