Chapter 183: Targeted

(I was dragged off to practice driving today; due to my sleep schedule, my writing time was cut short. Today’s update is a bit brief, but I’ll make up for it tomorrow or the day after!)

In the royal capital of Alastair, a dispatch from the front lines was carried by a warhorse all the way to the city gates. After presenting a special identification token to the sentries, the soldier responsible for the delivery was directed through a restricted passage toward the offices of the civil officials tasked with processing military intelligence.

He placed the thick, wax-sealed, and magically encrypted cowhide envelope onto the official’s desk, offered a salute, and retreated to the side.

The official picked up the envelope and glanced at it. "A magical secret dispatch? And one specifically requested by the Fire Officer himself? Does this involve some critical military intelligence?"

The official looked at the signature on the envelope, then turned to the soldier waiting nearby, asking in a casual tone. He was on decent terms with Black Burn, and this letter was essentially a personal communication from him.

"Lord Rudolph, this letter carries a high security clearance. I have no authorization to know its contents, and it would be pointless for you to ask me. Besides, for the sake of my own neck, it is better that you do not tell me what is inside."

The soldier, who had been leaning against the wall, turned his back to Rudolph upon being questioned. He faced the wall, covered his ears, and effectively shut himself off from the world.

"You rascal, have you become this shrewd after working for Black for so many years?"

Rudolph chuckled, using the corresponding decryption key to peel away the magical seals layer by layer until he finally extracted the letter containing Black’s message.

"If I hadn't learned to be shrewd, I probably would have been finished off by Lord Black long ago," the soldier replied, his muffled voice suggesting that covering his ears was merely a performative gesture.

"Hmph, glib-tongued as ever. Let’s see what this fellow wants from me."

Rudolph shook his head and began to read the contents of the letter.

"A 'Prayer Communication Network'... capable of defending against mental attacks, and thus able to bypass the activation of the 'Darkness of Heaven' seal. The Lady of the Night, the Church of the Nightfall?"

As Rudolph read, his initially nonchalant expression gradually grew serious. He pondered the information Black had provided and the specific requests for investigation.

Setting the letter down, Rudolph began to contemplate the implications of these revelations.

"The thing itself is fine; the Blades of Night being better equipped to handle mental corruption is a good thing. But if they can bypass the 'Darkness of Heaven' seal, the royal family is going to be very uneasy..."

"Investigate the Church of the Lady of the Night, investigate the creator of the 'Prayer Communication Network'... fine. The Blades of Night haven't exactly kept the existence of this thing a secret, so it shouldn't be hard to dig up. But if you do find results, what exactly do you intend to do with them?"

Rudolph muttered to himself. Magic flowed from his mana core to his fingertips, and he tapped a specific spot on the heavy wooden desk. After a brief chime, he pulled open a drawer and retrieved several sheets of archived documents.

"Hmm... let's see. Oh? I hadn't paid much attention to this, but it seems this 'Church of the Nightfall,' which worships a deity I've barely heard of, has been developing quite well in the capital. Various guilds and ordinary citizens have taken to the faith, and it seems a large number of the Blades of Night are followers of this deity. No wonder..."

"The registrant is... Fang Stuart? It's him? This church appeared in the capital that long ago? It seems it only started growing rapidly quite recently. The Archbishop is... Wang Yu? Hmm?"

As the Church of the Nightfall grew, Wang Yu had not gone out of his way to hide his status as Archbishop. Few people knew it, but it was difficult to keep such things from the capital's intelligence networks. His title was clearly written on the three documents Rudolph had pulled out.

Rudolph flipped through the files, discovering that there was actually very little intelligence on this emerging church. Most of it had only been gathered recently by royal intelligence agencies due to the increasing number of people in the capital professing faith in the Lady of the Night.

After all, Alastair was not a theocracy; its primary faith was the Church of the Light. While the Church of the Light never rejected other denominations—the God of Light certainly wouldn't care if a believer also worshipped another deity—the fact remained that while the Church of the Light didn't mind, other churches did. It was an irritant.

Only a strange entity like the Church of the Nightfall could perfectly coexist with the faith of the God of Light...

After a moment of contemplation, finding no further information on the church, Rudolph focused his attention on Wang Yu.

"A member of the Blades of Night special operations unit appointed by Fang Stuart. The background check shows nothing—no birthplace, no prior deeds. It’s as if he just appeared out of thin air. His previous status was a commoner, and his strength is that of a formal knight... This is interesting."

A playful smile touched Rudolph’s lips. He felt he had discovered a noteworthy subject—one of his favorite hobbies was unearthing hidden, valuable information from mundane files.

"Hmm, his specialty is extremely high mental resistance, nearly immune to mental corruption. He made outstanding contributions during the Hell's Gate incident and the Academy invasion... and there's that lesser-known investigation into the blessed vampire. He did well there, too."

Rudolph studied the trajectory of Wang Yu, who had appeared in the capital as a nobody, joined the Blades of Night, and now seemed to be present at every major event, his status rising rapidly with each contribution.

"Incredible. This rate of advancement... is he another Uller?"

Rudolph marveled as he looked at the file. None of them had noticed such a unique individual in the capital before.

Wang Yu had always been low-key, never participating in aristocratic social circles. Aside from completing missions for the Blades of Night, he spent his time cultivating at home. Most of the time, he was like a transparent figure in the capital—he existed, but was rarely noticed.

However, with his repeated appearances at critical events, the traces he left behind were growing more numerous.

The Academy invasion could be seen as a turning point. Saving the Academy and helping the Kingdom recover the strategic-level artifact known as the "Silent Forest" was a resume rich enough to command attention.

The profit-seeking nobles were the first to realize Wang Yu's value, and now, the royal family was beginning to take notice of this peculiar individual.

The most recent piece of intelligence on Wang Yu was a somewhat vague report: Wang Yu had been among those granted entry to the Academy's Great Library during its final opening.

Something had happened in the library during that time; the next head of the Daniel family, young Daniel, had died within its walls.

The Academy and the Daniel family had reached a settlement, but because the Academy’s internal confidentiality protocols were so strict, the details remained unknown.

One wondered if this incident was also connected to Wang Yu. While it might look like a coincidence—after all, the Academy giving a spot to the man who saved it was logical—the fact that Wang Yu appeared in every major event made it hard to dismiss as mere chance.

"Archbishop of the Church of the Nightfall, powerful mental resistance, member of the Blades of Night... Ah, even if I claim you have nothing to do with the 'Prayer Communication Network' that Black wants me to investigate, it will be hard to convince anyone else..."

Rudolph stroked his graying beard with a playful smile, staring at the files on his desk, lost in thought. He hadn't expected Black's request to lead him to such an interesting discovery. It was a pleasant surprise.

"My apologies, interesting fellow. Since Black has asked for my help, I can't very well refuse. But I will keep an eye on you. As for how the royal family treats you, that’s none of my concern."

He chuckled to himself, bundled the files on the Church of the Nightfall and Wang Yu together, and wrote a brief speculation regarding the connection between the Archbishop and the "Prayer Communication Network." He tucked it all into his desk drawer.

With a fingertip pulsing with mana, he tapped the desk three times, and the information was transmitted to its destination.

"Alright, go back and tell Black that I’ve handled what he asked me to investigate. If he wants to know more later, tell him to have the royal family send a message directly; don't bother me again. Although this is quite interesting, my focus lately has been on that fellow in the city who has successfully assassinated several nobles."

Rudolph picked up the report he had been reading before the soldier arrived—a thick stack of files detailing the recent string of noble deaths in the capital.

"Understood!" The soldier stopped covering his ears and left without hesitation.

...

"Hmm, your spellcasting ability has grown a bit stronger now that the part of you that merged with the void has returned to reality. What about your wizard powers?"

Wang Yu sat at the dining table, watching the girl opposite him condense a highly complex spell structure in her hands. The intricate mana trajectories were dazzling, seemingly chaotic and complex, yet they followed distinct, mutually reinforcing paths.

This was the foundational spell model for a fifth-tier spell. For any mage to advance, they had to master these complex structures until they could construct them in an instant.

Because the construction of a foundational model was the simplest part of a spell at that tier, only by mastering it could one possess the basic ability to cast spells of that level.

"My wizard abilities have declined slightly, but there seem to be some extra changes in other areas. I don't know if it's good or bad yet, but I suppose I'll have the answer eventually."

Avia answered Wang Yu's question. No sooner had she finished than the stable fifth-tier model in her hands began to fluctuate, vibrating violently as the internal mana streams clashed and turned chaotic.

"Oh dear, Wang Yu, help me!" The girl scrambled, trying to dispel the construct, but if she lost focus and failed to maintain the current stability, the thing would explode just like Wang Yu’s old overloaded Weaver’s Book.

And given the power of a failed fifth-tier spell, the roof of this house probably wouldn't survive the blast...

"Hey, trying to attempt a fifth-tier spell that only an Archmage should use is a bit difficult, isn't it? But it looks like you were almost there. Your talent is truly terrifying. Keep it up."

Wang Yu picked up a silver needle from the table and poked the collapsing magical model in the girl's hand. The precious anti-magic material, mithril, plated on the tip of the needle, struck the exact corresponding rune under Wang Yu's precise control.

As the core mana rune shattered, the spell model in the girl's hands dissolved gently into basic mana streams.

"Phew, saved. A knight's eyesight and precise body control are truly powerful. I'm so envious." Avia sighed in relief, leaning back in her wooden chair.

"You, be careful. If that had actually exploded... and you have such strong wizard and mage talent, is it really greedy to envy a knight?" Wang Yu smiled and patted Avia's head.

"Hehe." The girl gave an embarrassed smile.

Just as Wang Yu was about to say something, his communication device signaled a new message. He glanced at it, and his expression quickly turned grave.

"That fellow who has been killing the nobles... he's appeared again."