Chapter 153
Chapter 153 Strongest Sage, Hypothesizes
"The reason why this raid was found out . . . ?"
Eiku seemed dumbfounded to hear me .
"Yes . Do you have anything in mind yourself?"
"I do not . I never even took the letter out of the mithril case until I met Mathias . The only possibility is if the information was leaked in the capital, and someone brought it here to the dungeon city faster than me . . . "
Eiku took the paper from the king to me in his hand .
"No, I don"t think that was the case . The fact that this was sent through a secret agent means that this entire matter was treated as an absolute secrecy, right?"
"That"s right . "
"Then, if there was someone who stole this information, that someone must have infiltrated quite deep into the kingdom"s inner circle . . . . And I really don"t think someone like that would take the risk for the sake of this small fry . "
If that someone had enough intelligence gathering capability to know the inner workings of the kingdom, they would have known that that level of blockade was meaningless .
Thus, that capital mole would have told the city ruler to escape instead of barricading himself .
How would anyone profit from this fool after he lost all power .
"That"s certainly true . . . Then, what did Mathias-sama think have happened?"
This room is very luxurious for a hidden room .
There"s expensive looking chairs, desks and even a fireplace .
It must have been used for all secret meetings they had done so far .
"This . "
I took a letter from the fireplace .
The corner is slightly burnt, but the content can still be read .
"Letter . . . Is it . The content is . . . "
"Looks like I guessed right . "
I opened the letter I got from the fireplace .
The letter pertained to the matter of the city ruler"s execution and that the executor would arrive either today or tomorrow .
And the last pa.s.sage is an instruction to burn the letter once it"s been read .
The sender probably wanted to hide the existence of this letter .
Unfortunately, looks like the city ruler wasn"t even capable of burning things, the sender"s consideration is in vain .
"I see . . . But where was it leaked . . . "
The sender"s name isn"t written on this letter .
However . . . there"s enough other info to pinpoint the culprit .
"Rather than leaked, it"d be more correct to say that the letter had been spied on . "
I observed the mana reaction--of the burnt letter .
Yup, no mistake about it .
"Spied on? Through the mithril case?"
"It"s relatively easy to do that if the case isn"t magically protected . "
" . . . Is that true in Mathias-sama"s case?"
"I can do it sure . . . but not this time . There"s no doubt, it"s demons . . . . Since I can sense demon"s mana from this letter . "
I activate detection magic once again .
. . . It really is demon"s mana .
" . . . It can"t be, demons were giving orders to the city ruler!?"
Eiku asked me in blank amazement .
He must know how the demons were lurking in the kingdom"s inner circle considering he"s a secret agent of the kingdom, he"s probably worried that it might be the case too here .
However, fortunately or unfortunately, his conjecture is wrong .
My expectations of demons had all been betrayed so far, but I"m pretty confident this time .
I"m sure that demons aren"t that stupid .
"They would have advised a better plan if that was the case . "
"In other words . . . ?"
"Demons were close by the dungeon city for other purposes, and they helped the city ruler as an extra while they were here . Of course that means they have a main objective . . . And there"s only one reason anyone comes to a dungeon city . "
I pointed at the ground as I said that .
To be more precise, at the dungeon below the ground .
"Looks like those demons have some business in the dungeon . "