Who says the Magic Cyber ​​Police can't overthrow the Heavenly Gang?

Page 273

She sensed the faint feedback coming from inside the door, and a slight smile appeared on her lips, as if she knew what those dragon-horned giant rats were talking about.

With a series of heavy footsteps, the wooden door was slowly opened, and a short young girl appeared in the doorway. Artemis blinked, but did not speak immediately. Instead, she looked into the room first.

Sure enough, the mouths of the several large rats from before were stuffed full of wood, and as if they had been knocked unconscious by deep throating, they all clutched their stomachs and collapsed to the ground.

The ground was covered with all sorts of unfinished wooden carvings, which were probably the human heads and hands that the rats had mentioned earlier.

"Huh? Could it be that those little creatures were your companions?"

The young girl stepped back, making way for the doorway. Artemis looked into the room through the widened view and saw that the wooden shelves around the room were filled with all kinds of wood carvings, each with a different expression and lifelike appearance.

"Yes, I apologize for the sudden visit and for disturbing you."

Ateliers didn't deny it. She moved her hands, which had been pressed together, upwards a short distance, forming a mage's salute. She looked up at the young girl, a glint in her eyes, then looked at her plain, dirty apron with surprise and asked:

"A mid-level mage robe made by the association?"

"...Huh? It's a colleague? Or a senior colleague?"

The young girl also looked surprised. She wiped her sawdust-covered hands on her apron and quickly gestured, saying:

"Please come in, sir!"

……

After some questioning, Artemis received a very unexpected answer: this young girl named Sasa was actually sent by the legendary mage Orianna to guard this house!

However, while she was called a guardian, Sasa's real duty was to mass-produce wooden sculptures of Emperor Pova for Lady Oriana, based on the statue of Emperor Pova in this room. It was said that Lady Oriana had a past relationship with Emperor Pova and now often kicked Emperor Pova's head like a ball...

In fact, Sasa was not clear about the details. As a student of Qing Teng Academy, the reason she was able to get involved with Orianna at the mid-level was entirely because she came from the Alice Welfare Home, had a clean background, and was very talented, making her very suitable as a candidate for training by the Mage Association.

As for the Titans, she and everyone else here thought they were just ordinary bloodlines like those of blood warriors. So even though Latis wrote "may have Titan blood" in the resident files, no one took it seriously.

"So I found this house very quickly. At that time, the place was about to be demolished, so I spent a little money to buy it."

Sasa explained her origins, and as she watched Ateliers lift them up by their tails, a hint of embarrassment crept across her face. She continued, "..."

"However, I've only been here for a few months at most, so I have absolutely no idea about those villains you mentioned from a few years ago."

"I see."

Ateliers pressed down on the giant rat's belly and pushed it hard. With a bang, the giant rat vomited up a failed wooden carving with a missing head. Then, the giant rat shook its head dazedly and slowly woke up.

"...Squeak? The mouse is still alive?...Boss, it's her, it's her! Squeak!"

When the giant rat saw Sasa sitting to the side, it trembled with fright and frantically began to spin its obese body.

"The mouse's throat is about to be stabbed raw! That hard, long, and thick thing, she just held it down and shoved it into the mouse's mouth! And while she was stabbing, she kept saying things like, 'Little thing, you've come at the perfect time to eat my big wooden carving!' It chilled the mouse to the bone!"

Artemis tried hard to keep her expression straight, looked at Sasa who was blushing, coughed lightly, and put the giant rat back on the ground.

"Little Mouse, go hide outside for a bit. Boss, call Little Mouse if you need anything!"

The giant rat scurried away in a flash. The half-elf sat down in a chair with a serious expression, nodded as if he hadn't interacted with the rat, gestured for it to proceed, and said:

“Miss Sasa, I’d like to ask, when you took over this house, was there anything else noteworthy inside besides these large wood carvings…”

"W-what big wooden carving?!" Sasa's face fell instantly, and she covered her head in despair.

……

Artemis emerged from Latis’s former residence, loosened her hood, and let the cool breeze cool her taut, feverish head.

Then, she took out a statue of Emperor Phowa, examined it for a while, pondered for a moment, and threw it into the interdimensional gap.

"I'll hand it over to my older brother to study when we get back..."

According to Sasa, this is the original statue of Emperor Powder left by the previous owner. After her painstaking copying, the face has been completely engraved in her mind. The subsequent carving does not need to follow the original. Therefore, when Sasa heard that the original owner of this house was the half-elf's current lover, she handed the original over to her.

"However, Emperor Powdal is indeed very little known to ordinary people, perhaps because he left no legacy or because of the great distance in time..."

Artemis pondered the existence of this Latis ancestor and then connected it to Orianna.

"It seems that lady didn't know I would be passing by my elder brother's former residence... Hmm, she probably doesn't even know my elder brother yet. Eh, Lady Orianna and Emperor Pova have a past... Thinking about it, could the Mage Guild's quest to investigate clues about ritual magic be Lady Orianna seeking revenge for Emperor Pova's descendants?"

"No, no..."

She quickly raised her hands and patted her cheeks to correct her thinking.

"Foolish elf, Lady Oriana isn't like you, obsessed with love. She must have some ulterior motives... Hmm, as my elder brother's good elf, I only need to focus on things related to him. These underlying issues have nothing to do with my resolve."

Artemis nodded, her gaze shifting to the tallest of the sparse, withered trees in the town. With a tremor of "Tree Leap," she appeared at the top of that tree.

The rats in her consciousness followed her instructions and moved stealthily. The half-elf's slender body swayed among the branches, her figure concealed by the "invisibility spell." Looking at the few conspicuous buildings in the town, Sasa's introduction just now came to mind.

Daoguan Town, as one of the larger towns in Dragon Horn Territory, has a permanent population of over a thousand. As the first town on the main trade route bordering Senhai Territory, it also features many buildings that are not found in ordinary villages.

For example, the Knights' Hall, which belongs to the Church of Light, is located on the edge of the town square. Any outsider entering the town will restrain their negative emotions under the prestige of the Church of Light. The existence of the Knights' Hall alone is enough to add a force to the maintenance of order.

A three-man knight squad is permanently stationed in the Knights' Hall. Apart from handling the private laws of the gentry, which are beyond their jurisdiction, they are responsible for the vast majority of the official order maintenance work. However, they are in fact just prospective knights of the Church, selected from the residents of Dragonhorn Territory and trained locally.

Due to the long distance from the Wilderness Territory, there are only two or three official knights in the entire Dragonhorn Territory who travel between towns to handle more difficult matters, which is also a way for them to cultivate themselves.

There are also halls and surrounding facilities used to gather magic apprentices. Before the arrival of the guide, apprentices from nearby villages would gather here, and they would usually bring most of their family's wealth, some of which would be spent in the vicinity.

Now, the guide has not yet arrived, and the last batch of apprentices before autumn and winter have gathered here, meditating and cultivating while preparing for the upcoming extradition trial under the guidance of the priests of the temple.

The priest who was guiding the apprentices was the same priest who, at the instigation of the Dragonhorn Lord, had conspired to brand Latis with the blasphemous mark several months earlier. With the evil city lords and tyrants temporarily out of reach, this was the most conspicuous target.

According to Sasa, in the neighbors' words, the priest was no longer the ascetic priest under the Church of the Goddess. In the seemingly arduous but actually risk-free job of receiving apprentices, he had become increasingly detestable.

"Revenge doesn't always start from the bottom and end up the top."

As Artemis listened to the reports from the giant rats in her consciousness, she stood on a branch and took a light step forward.

Then, her body plummeted to the ground. As gravity propelled her body rapidly forward, she squinted her eyes and unfolded her body like a sugar glider.

"call……"

The sound of her calm breathing was clearer than the sound of the wind whistling past her ears. Atelier's pointed ears were almost pressed against the sides of her head by the wind, as if it would break her body...

However, this fierce obstacle only made her eyes shine even brighter. Under the sunlight, her azure pupils were like a pair of cold iron blades about to be drawn, captivating and mesmerizing!

'There are also those from high to low!'

Keng!

The wings of "Flying" left two crisp trails behind Ateliers, like the afterimage of a drawn sword, and swiftly sent her swooping down!

The half-elf's sharp arc pierced through the tall lintel of the magic temple, swept across the wide hall, crossed the empty corridor, and shot straight towards the priest's resting room.

"Sonik!"

The half-elf's furious shouts echoed through the corridor.

Sonik, who had become bloated from indulging in worldly greed, suddenly awoke and stood up from the luxurious, wide sofa. With a creaking sound, several large rats seemed to be startled and quickly left the vicinity of the sofa.

Sonik, however, paid no attention to these beasts that he usually loathed.

"Who...! Who's calling my name?"

A sense of panic instantly filled his heart. Before he could even guess which of the people he had persecuted had come seeking revenge, he saw his room door suddenly burst open.

Two steel-like vines pinned him to the wall instantly. Before he could even activate his long-dormant high-level magic, an old boot slammed into his abdomen like a giant hammer striking a bell.

"Sonik, do you still remember Latis?!"

In the ghostly shadows of the hood, a pair of cold blue eyes filled Sonik's blurred vision. A hoarse, struggling sound came from his throat. The panic of impending death made his whole body go cold instantly. Just when he thought he was about to meet his end, healing magic, with a pure life force, kept him alive again.

"Do you even remember my Latis? You damned bastard!"

The blue-eyed phantom spoke again, and Sonik shuddered, knowing that the evil he had done was finally about to be punished.

Chapter 278 Elf Side Quest 8. The Mysterious Noble

Good news: the priest of the Hall of Magic Apprentices was not bound by any secret soul contract, so during the interrogation he spilled everything he knew and remembered.

Bad news. Too much was revealed, and Artemis felt like her head was about to split open after hearing it all.

"The bribes you have received from lords of various ranks so far can be categorized as follows..."

Artemis rubbed her head, looked at the words recorded on the leaf, and said in a cold voice:

"The first category is biological, including women and men aged ten to sixty, domesticated animals such as goats and dogs, and monsters such as slimes, forest wolves, and goblins... What are these? Consumables for ritual magic?"

"How could I possibly be capable of performing ritual magic..."

Sonik knelt limply on the ground, two vines wrapped around his arms and suspending him, while dozens more vines crossed and bound him in the air. He trembled, struggled for a moment, and said with fear on his face:

"Yes, it's silver plating material..."

"……what is that?"

Artemis frowned slightly. A vague feeling told her that if she asked him to explain, she would hear something disgusting. So, after noting the classification on the leaf, she simply added a twining vine.

"I...can't...breathe..." Sonik, whose vines were now even tighter, opened his mouth wide and let out a sharp gasp. He looked at the half-elf in his hooded robe with fear in his eyes, but the half-elf remained unmoved and continued reading.

"The second category is property."

Artemis stroked her chin, pondered for a moment as she looked at the writing on the leaf, and said:

"There are thousands of gold white coins in total, along with a large quantity of items: palm oil, various clothing, handcuffs, ropes, whips... Why send so many instruments of torture? And a phantom dragon... What is a phantom dragon?"

She glanced at Sonik, whose face had turned a deep purplish-red, hesitated for a moment, and then continued reading.

"The third category, honorary titles... The capital actually bestowed upon you the noble title of baron? And there weren't even any assessment requirements?"

"...Yes! Yes!"

Sonik suddenly widened his eyes and began to struggle, swaying in the air as he shouted:

"I am a nobleman! Commoners have no right to judge nobles!"

Ateliers put away the leaf, looked up at Sonik, who was struggling and being bound more tightly, smiled, and said:

"I am not here to judge you."

"Let me go...I am...a nobleman!"

Sonik didn't react for a moment, still swaying his body, staring with his eyes bulging from lack of oxygen, and vaguely defending himself.

“Trial is something only a neutral person in the position of justice is qualified to do.” Artemis pursed her lips, slowly opened her hands, and said softly:

“But I am not acting for justice at this moment, I am acting only for my lover, so this is not a trial, but a belated revenge.”

She took a breath and clenched her fist tightly.