CHAPTER 27-Conspiracy

Ray returned to his room and lay on his back, with his arms behind his head.

He had quite a lot of things to do.

'Firstly, there are still enemies hiding in the palace… But I did everything until now anonymously either way…they won't suspect me of knowing anything...'

'Then there's that slave, the east duke, and the north duke's wife's illness…'

'But first… Dream World!'

Immediately he appeared in empty blank space.

*Snap*

The moment he snapped his fingers, land appeared beneath his feet and clear blue sky without any clouds and a bright sun appeared and filled the emptiness.

'This feeling never disappoints me. It's like I am in control of everything…'

This was his dream world. He can do whatever he wanted here, but he thought he would come up with an elaborate plan for building this world later, and snapped his fingers again, replicating the palace in the center.

'That should be good enough… now let's travel.'

Focusing his thoughts, his surroundings phased into nothingness and his soul left his body.

He floated all the way to his mother's room and phased into her dream.

'Hmm. Empty. She isn't having any dreams…'

He decided to pull out any tiny feelings of guilt or wrongness in what she had done earlier, and as he expected, he could feel some strands of guilt still there, though extremely small amounts.

'I have to eliminate these feelings completely before they grow and bite me back later…'

Pulling out all her negative feelings about their new relation, he eliminated them altogether.

Of course the Dream World skill couldn't affect the physical body, but people's dreams were connected to their subconscious mind, and with Isis' mind being vastly inferior to Ray's he could tamper them slightly. Of course the suggestion he used on her also helped.

Finishing his task, he returned to his body and woke up.

'One task done, now the next one…'

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In a room, a person wearing a black cloak and a mask was sitting on a lavish looking chair, looking down on a few people who were kneeling down.

"So? Did you find out how so many people knew about the slave?"

There was a tinge of annoyance and hidden anger in the voice that made the people kneeling below tremble.

A man with dark skin raised his head as he said, "I asked around the city. It seems that a rumor started appearing around town about the slave…"

The man on the throne locked his eyes onto the person that had just spoken.

"Oh? And what else did you find?"

"I asked around to find how the rumor originated and after talking to a lot of people… it seems…"

Seeing that he was hesitating from speaking, the man on the throne spoke coldly, "Tell me… what did you find?"

"It seems this matter is related to the East Duke…"

Immediately the coldness in the man's eyes disappeared and was replaced by a glint of seriousness.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes… it seems a man disguising himself was roaming around asking about an expensive slave that was going to be sold off…"

"How does this relate to the East Duke?"

"Some people saw the man drop the insignia of the East Duke…"

"Hmm? Will someone who was trying to disguise himself really just be careless and drop the insignia for people to see?"

"Not intentionally it seems. This happened in a bar around the central part of the city. He was pretty drunk and got into a physical fight with a few high rank adventurers…"

"Continue."

"We know how hot tempered the adventurers could be, and a lot of people joined in to fight this person…"

"So he must have been pretty strong… to hold off a lot of adventurers…"

"Yes, but since he was drunk, it seem like he dropped the insignia. After that he immediately picked it up, threatened them to keep quiet about what they had seen and left."

"And how did you get them to speak? Adventurers could be very stubborn sometimes…"

The dark skinned man looked sideways to a woman kneeling beside him, who understood the meaning of his gaze and replied.

"It was me. I read through their memories. It's exactly like he said. I could also see the face behind his cloak from the memories of some people. It seems like he stopped to eat at a restaurant, and had revealed his face."

"So do you know his real identity?"

"No. It seems like he was using a high tier disguising artifact. The aura of an artifact was surrounding his image when I tried using recognition on him."

"Hmm… What about the people that you questioned?"

This time the dark skinned man replied again.

"No longer with us."

"Good. Now you are the new leader of the squad. Take as many people you want, and find more traces and clues that you can. When he came here, how he came here, how he left and if you find him, do not kill him. Capture him alive. Now go."

"Yes, Leader!"

With a flash, everyone kneeling disappeared, leaving two people in the large room.

The man sitting on the throne moved his eyes sideways looking at the female figure standing there since the beginning.

"So your name is Claire?"

"Yes master."

"Do you feel your connection to your new master? Do you still feel emotions against us even though you can take no action? Speak honestly!"

"No master, I only feel compelled to do something if master orders me something directly. I can feel no connection otherwise."

'It seems like the S ranked enslavement is working alright. As long as she is given a command she cannot help but obey me. But we cannot feel any connection otherwise…'

At this moment, the small specially crafted black communication device in his hand started ringing.

He looked at it and immediately accepted it.

"Number 1!"

"How many times have I told you to call me 'Sir'? You are the youngest of us, Number 14, and should already learn to respect us."

The man sitting in the throne, who was revealed to be Number 14 smiled, not worried.

"Well, technically all fifteen of us are similar in ranking, even if everyone else is my senior; we only have to address the vice-leader or the leader as 'Sir'!"

A sigh could be heard from Number 1 on the other side of the communication device.

"You… Anyway, I heard you were ambushed while bringing the slave I asked you to?"

"Yes yes, but it's a greater problem than you think."

"What do you mean?"

"The Eastern Duke seems to be involved."

"What? Why? How did he even know about the slave?"

"Don't ask me, I sent people trying to figure that out."

After that, he proceeded to explain everything that had happened in detail.

The insignia, the presence of an appearance changing artifact that was extremely costly and could only be afforded by a marquis or above, the threat to keep the insignia a secret, depicting a sense of secrecy, everything pointed to the Eastern Duke really being involved.

"Vice-leader wouldn't be pleased…"

Number 14 shook his head and looked at the slave standing beside him before saying.

"And what about this slave?"

"Who is her master now?"

"Well… the buffoon that led the squad to bring her in the morning was. Now he is not. He wasted one of my precious artifacts so I killed him, and used the S rank slaver under me to transfer the ownership to me. Now I can make her do whatever I want…hee hee…"

The tone of Number 1 on the other side immediately turned a bit serious.

"Don't even think about anything funny. She will be the new Number 15…"

"What? Why?"

"What do you even mean why? We already needed her for the plan and there's a seat empty. Furthermore the vice-leader let me decide who gets the position."

"But a slave?"

"This is better. At least we can control her completely."

"Alright alright, I won't question you anymore, so do I bring her to the meeting tomorrow? And do I need to tell her anything about our group?"

"Bring her tomorrow along with your S ranked slaver, and no don't tell her anything. She only needs to do as we tell her."

Number 14 nodded.

"But why bring my slaver?"

"Of course to transfer her ownership to me. I have to give her the orders after all…"

"Wait did you not have the two SS ranked slavers? Why bring mine that is clearly weaker?"

"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask. They are not under me, and are currently under missions given directly by the vice-leader."

"Alright."

"Bring her tomorrow. We'll talk then. And try to find more evidence."

Without waiting for a reply the device was cut off.

Number 14 shook his head, sighing.

"That old man…"

Meanwhile Claire was intently listening to everything that was going on, standing there waiting orders from her 'master'.