Seeing Gehrman Sparrow put on his coat, hat, and pick up his cane, Danitz finally remembered that he seemed to have been forgotten.
He coughed and, under two gazes, spoke:
"I... do I need to come?"
Better not... Who knows what would happen! Earlier, we just made a temporary stop at Port Westi, and we encountered a rather bizarre incident. Last night, I brought Gehrman Sparrow to visit the rebel contact, and we ended up triggering the Sea God's curse. Today, going with this lunatic to investigate Latitia and those archaeologists, who knows what will happen! Danitz glanced down at his left arm, which was still in a splint, feeling that in just these past few days, he had experienced more than in the previous few months, or even half a year.
"You can stay here, but someone will come to investigate later," Ailain chuckled.
Someone's coming to investigate? Then the great pirate "Flamer" gets caught and turned into pounds? Danitz frowned and gave a dry laugh:
"Opportunities to make money from the military without getting a bounty on my head don't come often. I'm very willing to try."
"The only problem is, you'll have to wait a few minutes for me to do some disguising. Captain, I don't want to cause any unnecessary misunderstandings that might put you in a difficult position."
If I don't disguise myself, this great pirate going to operate with the military and the church will just be tackled on the spot, arrested, and brought to justice... Danitz imagined the scene of himself being thrown down, a knee pressed to his back, struggling like a catfish.
Ailain thought for a few seconds, took an iron-black mask from his inner pocket, and tossed it over:
"Just put it on. I'll explain the rest."
Hmm, no need to waste time on a disguise that wouldn't do much good... Klein remarked internally.
He didn't say anything, turned the handle, and walked out of the room.
Ailain followed closely behind, and Danitz hurried after them, putting on the mask and coat as he went.
Out on the street, which was puddled with water and devoid of passersby, Klein pressed down on his hat and asked:
"How do we find them?"
Ailain smiled and said:
"We'll search district by district.
"My Beyonder profession has some traits. As long as I see a real person, a photo, or a sketch, I can firmly remember the target's appearance and gain an extra level of supernatural intuition. Hmm, I can also detect abnormal factors and grasp faint traces. Combining these two things makes for a pretty effective search."
Sequence 8 "Sheriff" of the "Arbiter" pathway... Klein nodded thoughtfully and asked as they walked:
"Do you have any of their belongings?"
——The notice Danitz had posted the night before came with a portrait of Latitia, made by Klein using a ritualistic magic where he prayed to himself.
"No," Ailain shook his head. "We haven't tracked their previous movements. What we can confirm is that they only returned from Simiam Island around 3 PM yesterday. After two o'clock, no passenger liners left port. This morning, due to the weather, it's also been entry-only."
So Latitia and the others haven't been able to leave by ship... Klein understood what Ailain meant.
Danitz suddenly gave a derisive laugh:
"That doesn't prove anything. Maybe they already left Bayam yesterday afternoon and went to another city on the island."
Blue Mountain Island is the largest island in the Rorsted Archipelago. It's very big, rich in forests and mineral resources, so there are many cities on the island, built around the fertile land and massive mineral deposits.
For the sake of this wealth, the Loen Kingdom first bribed the native chieftains, then used military force, and finally directly established a governor-general's office. In a relatively efficient manner, they opened up wide roads connecting the various cities and completed several important railways—a project pushed forward by establishing corresponding railway companies and selling shares on the Backlund Stock Exchange.
Of course, these grand projects were accompanied by the deaths of many locals. The harsh construction environment, excessive work, near-slave treatment, and meager wages meant that corpse after corpse was buried beneath the roadbeds and railway sleepers.
To this day, a large number of locals still resent the railways, believing that they have devoured countless lives, brought endless suffering, and are a symbol of evil gods and demons.
Ailain turned his head to look at Danitz and said:
"If they left by land, there's nothing to worry about."
"Why?" Danitz asked back in confusion.
It was simple. Those roads pass through the jungle and are directly threatened by the rebels. The vast majority of rebels are followers of the Sea God. So, how would Latitia and her group, who caused Cavitua to be on the verge of collapse, dare to travel through these areas at night? If they dared, it would mean only one thing: they didn't realize how severe the consequences of their actions in the Sea God's ruins on Simiam Island would be, thus negating the suspicion that the Moss Cultivators or the Element Dawn had other motives... Klein suppressed the urge to shake his head and followed Ailain as he turned into another street.
Ailain didn't explain further. He simply took out a notice and handed it to Gehrman Sparrow:
"The main target is this woman."
I drew this woman... Klein glanced at it and tossed it to Danitz.
Just then, they heard sounds of a fierce fight coming from a house on the side.
"Found them?" Danitz asked the question Klein wanted to ask.
"Probably not," Ailain shook his head. "According to the plan, upon discovering the main target, the first reaction is to release a red smoke. As soon as that happens, everyone is to converge on that location. If we encounter another wanted criminal and it's a type we can't handle ourselves, we release orange smoke, and the surrounding teams will come to support. If it's just an ordinary pirate or criminal, we handle it ourselves. Let's wait and see. Maybe they didn't have time to put out the smoke... "
As he spoke, the glass on the third floor of a street-facing house shattered with a crack, and a bear-like brute jumped down, darting into the distance at incredible speed, like a cheetah.
At that moment, a huge shadow loomed over him, and a "rat-a-tat-tat" sound came from above.
The brute's body was almost torn apart by machine-gun fire. He collapsed helplessly onto the street, blood gushing out, staining the ground red. If the residents hadn't been forbidden to go out, screams would surely have erupted one after another.