Date- 4 April 2321
Time- 02:43
Location- Central Region, unknown
Skipping the small talk Karl asked three semi-demigods who just returned from Sun blossom city, “Bring out Mike’s Corpse.”
“Yes, leader,” the Semi-demigod in charge answered, and using his storage card he summoned Mike’s Corpse out.
But as soon as Mike’s corpse came out of the storage space, it turned into a translucent slime monster. And then it dispersed as any summoned monster would once they were out of soul energy leaving behind a broken ego gem.
“What the fuck? Where is Mike’s corpse?” Karl furiously yelled at the semi-demigod in charge even though he knew that his men had been deceived by the boy.
“Leader– I am sorry, I got deceived by the boy,” the semi-demigod in charge had no idea what was going on but knew he had messed yp big time so he did not dare to explain his mistake to Karl, instead chose to ask for forgiveness. Seeing him apologize, the other two also mimicked him.
“If you were not needed, I would have your head for this,” Karl said then gave the three semi-demigods a chance to redeem themselves, “Go gather a half dozen Liches from the cemetery, return to Sun blossom city, disguise yourself as demon worshippers if you have to, just get me the boy at any cost.”
“Thank you, leader. We will not let you down,” the three semi-demigods thanked Karl for his mercy and followed through with his command.
…
Date- 4 April 2321
Time- 02:52
Location- Southern Region, Blossom District, Sun blossom city, Sewer
“Senior Nine, we have stalled enough. We need to inform the team so they can extract Madam Song and Aba Windsor out of the southern region before the southern emperor learns of the boy’s death,” This was the second time Number Ten had reminded Number Nine to report to the team leader at the last minute. But Number Nine showed no signs of reporting the failure of the mission to the team leader.
Time was of the essence here, Number Ten wanted to report to the team leader himself but the protocol dictated that in a situation like this member with seniority will be in charge and call the shots. So, without getting Number Nine’s approval he could not report the failure of the mission to their team leader. He could try to go over Number Nine’s head and report to the team leader anyway but having failed a mission he did not want to add insubordination to this rap sheet. Therefore he could only urge Number Nine to act fast.
“I heard you the first time, so shut up,” Number Nine snapped at Number Ten. Having more experience than her junior she knew that time was of the essence here, she should report the new development back to their team leader at the latest but she did not know what to report. Except for Agatha claiming that the boy was dead, Number Nine did not know anything for sure.
From the start to the end of the mission, nothing made sense. When she, herself, was still in confusion about what transpired, how could she report anything back to her immediate superior? In the wake of the botched-up mission, Number Nine did not want to make any more mistakes. So Number Nine thought really hard before writing an official report to their team leader.
[Team Leader,
Package Destroyed. Mission failed.]
[Number Nine,
Initiating plan B. Will you be joining us?]
[Team leader,
Staying behind with Number 10 to address the mission aftermath.]
[Number Nine,
Okay. Keep me updated.]
“Senior Nine—” Number Ten was once again about to remind Number Nine to report the failure of the mission but was interrupted by her instead, “I sent the report to the team leader through a secure channel, so stop being on my case. And Find out who was the third party that assassinated the boy?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Number Ten agreed to Number Nine’s arrangement but he did not know where to start. If not for the poison and weird mask creature killing the slime demon, they would never have known that there was an unknown third party lurking in the shadows during their confrontation with Circle’s demigods.
While Number Ten was busy scouring for the clues left behind by an unknown third party, Number Nine reached out to Agatha to get her perspective on what happened, “Agatha, could you tell me what happened? And why do you think that slime demon was the original body of the boy?”
“I don’t have time for this. I need to go save my princess,” Agatha who had already gone over what transpired over and over again, was done mourning for the dead and decided to take action to save Aba from the Southern Emperor’s clutches.
“About that, don’t worry. Our team is already taking care of it as we speak. Going there right now will only complicate the situation. So why don’t we stay here and help us uncover the unknown third party that killed the boy?” Number Nine advised Agatha against returning to sky blossom city to rescue Aba Windsor as her team was already on it.
“Yeah, right,” Agatha scoffed at Number Nine and prepared to head to Sky blossom city to rescue her princess but her path was blocked by Number Nine who seemed to set on stopping Agatha from leaving.
“Agatha doesn’t be silly, even though you are doing a good job of hiding the toll of activating Heaven’s sanctions on your body, you are in no condition to move around let alone fight. How about you sit this one out? I know you don’t trust us but I am asking you to trust Madam Asong. Do you really believe she will let anything happen to her niece?” Number Nine tried to reason with Agatha and everything she said was true. Especially the part about the cost of activating heaven’s sanction card eating away at Agatha’s body. Though Agatha tried to hide it, with time her condition was becoming more obvious.
