Chapter 312: Fake Town

Perseus POV

"So this is where the homunculus is...damn, it's more secure than I thought despite them lowering their guard."

I stood atop the hill, gazing down at the peculiar town spread out below me. The kingdom's relocation of the homunculus to a fake town was really interesting, this town...Now, as I observed the fake town from a distance, I couldn't help but marvel at the illusion they had created.

At least it was relocated to the western continent and close to home.

A town full of hired mercenaries, and no one suspects a thing. The kingdom must have invested significant resources into this deception.

The way everyone was acting, the physical bodies of everyone...everyone was fit to fight, of course, there are civilians as I can see them being less tense compared to others, but the majority can't fool me, they aren't great actors, but it's more than good enough to fool any tourist.

Leilah can pinpoint who exactly the homunculus is and where they're at, but I will need to snoop around to access the strengths of the mercenaries.

The sun dipped beneath the horizon, casting an eerie glow over the fake town. The mercenaries were doing their business, completely oblivious that they were mere pawns in a grand scheme.

A scheme that is the homunculus, a being powerful enough to delay and take on the demon lord on its own, though the homunculus won't win and will come nowhere close to being victorious, it's still a great feat to be something that can go head-on with the demon lord, a being that only the heroes can kill.

These mercenaries know that they're hiding and protecting something, but I doubt they know its full extent. If they discover me snooping around, they won't hesitate to eliminate me since it's their job.

As I continue to watch from my hidden vantage point, I noticed how the mercenaries moved through the town, their stances strong and their weapons well-kept. They were on guard, ready for any potential threat, just confirming my suspicions of this all being a town of deception.

Their arms barely left their sides, as if they were trained to draw out their weapons at any time. I can also see bells in their belts, probably some magical bell that is used to alarm people if rung a certain way. I can sense a small mana source inside them, but I've never seen that kind of bell before.

I can put them into a sense of panic...I need to break their formation and make them act rashly, no matter how calm a person can be, there's always a breaking point, maybe it's different for the homunculus who was biologically engineered, but for regular people, giving them some sense of panic day by day will work.

Besides, I can't go against the whole town, even with Ruka's and Buddy's help. With Leilah's, I can, but Rowan will be brought along for the investigation, and I rather not have Leilah's powers be revealed as the cause of death.

Leilah's power is the easiest to use to kill everyone here and even the homunculus, but her powers leave the most trace, Lilith said that she's willing to help me by firing one arrow, not at full power because it'll destroy the whole town to bits and that would be considered as abusing her power, so only one arrow.

Over the course of several days, I continued my mission to eliminate the mercenaries in small, calculated groups. Each night, under the cover of darkness, I struck with precision and efficiency, taking down those who posed the most threat, some I used my powers to order them to kill themselves.

And some, I killed while donning the illusion of being their own comrades and made myself seen on purpose.

I can't take on the entire town at once, but I can weaken them, and make them question their safety and trust.

The more they feel threatened, the more likely they'll expose their weaknesses, and it worked. I even overheard them talking about reporting this incident to Reiner, but some shot it down and asked to find the inside men instead before going to report it.

What if the person they sent to report the incident will never even arrive at their destination?

Calling using the communications crystals isn't an option since it can get tapped and the trace of magic will reveal their location.

So they're now gonna resolve the issues by themselves, the kingdom has sent over the greatest scouts and investigators in case inside men were discovered after all, and even more so after the kidnapping of their king.

Their goal is to isolate themselves as much as possible, sending people out to get help might have assassins waiting by the side of the road, and teleportation won't work since the town is under a dome of spatial disruption to stop teleportation, to stop someone from coming in and at the same time going out.

I then went to our nearby hideout, which was on the side of a mountain, I slam my fist on the entrance and call out to Lilith to open her hideout and she then did as the rocky sides open up some sort of cool magical entrance.

She made this hideout here as it's apparently a national protected forest, so the mountain won't be damaged and the hideout will never be found as she made it so hidden that she can even hide from the gods.

At least the hideout was luxurious and didn't have rocky beds, so I can rest easily here, though it's more of a large 1 person apartment as the bedroom and living room are mixed together.

"You should start doing your jobs as goddesses instead of hanging out with him." Ruka said as I got in, "He isn't that good."

"I do though, I only come here when I'm free." Maple replied, "Besides, I'm here to hang out with my sisters, not just him."

"And I don't usually do my job properly anyway." Lilith scoffs, "I got a lot of spare time, that's why I had that disguise. Anyway, how long are we gonna keep doing this?"

"Just a week or 2 more. The town will start losing their shit soon."