Chapter 228: The Witches’ Queen

The moment Dorothy said this, the Great Witches present fell silent for a while. However, no one showed a shocked reaction. They frowned and exchanged glances with one another, displaying more confusion and incomprehension than anything else.

Arachne also frowned, then gave Dorothy a derisive laugh: “Dorothy, this hearsay intelligence of yours is certainly detailed enough. Did you really not seriously think about it before bringing something like this to report at Her Majesty’s tea party?”

The reactions in the hearts of most of the Great Witches present were more or less the same. When such a blatantly counterintuitive element appeared in someone else’s retelling, an ordinary person would naturally begin doubting the authenticity of the intelligence itself.

They were all Great Witches, outstanding Transcendents blessed by Moilai. They all possessed an understanding of Moilai’s Blessing far beyond that of ordinary people and were experts in this field. When it came to their knowledge of Moilai’s power, each of them possessed a considerable degree of confidence.

Since ancient times, Moilai’s Blessing had never appeared on a man, nor had there ever even been any records of such a thing.

Rumors in the Underworld were already a mixture of truth and falsehood, inevitably embellished in the retelling, while the intelligence network they had established in the Empire was also extremely limited. Sometimes, the intelligence gathered by the personnel they had planted there had already been retold through several intermediaries, and combined with the limitations of long-distance correspondence, the information was inevitably incomplete.

At first hearing, it indeed sounded very much as though Dorothy had mistaken some inexplicable rumor for genuine intelligence.

Only Dorothy herself, who had directly overseen the collection of this intelligence, knew how reliable the sources actually were. She calmly explained:

“At first, I also treated it merely as an unrealistic rumor, but the intelligence I gathered from several independent sources showed an unusually high degree of consistency on this particular point. Moreover, when combined with the incident you previously mentioned creating in Old Ailand City, Arachne, Werewolves appeared in both incidents. That seems a little too coincidental.

Also, I remember you once mentioned, Arachne, that the Parasite you implanted inside that Saintess of the Church of the Creator was suddenly eliminated. Let me ask, while they were being hunted throughout the entire city, could they really have obtained a toxin capable of killing your Parasite so easily?”

The disdainful smile on Arachne’s face immediately disappeared, and she frowned again.

At the time, one of the Earl’s conditions for the transaction had been that she was not allowed to kill Saintess Weiss Rogers. Combined with the circumstances of the setup at the time, the amount of blood mist she could infiltrate into Weiss’s body had been extremely limited, so the Parasite she implanted inside Weiss had actually been very weak in activity.

But even so, that kind of Parasite was not something an ordinary toxin could kill. She had once considered the possibility that Weiss Rogers just happened to possess medicine capable of dealing with the Parasite, but thinking carefully about it now, that possibility really did seem somewhat too low.

If it had been Second-Tier Cursed Blood, then relying on overwhelming dosage, it truly should have been capable of eliminating the small quantity of Parasites she had implanted.

“Furthermore, consider this. Earl Foyle had built up that degree of power within the Empire. Even if the Noren Church or we ourselves wanted to eliminate him, it would still have required some effort. Assuming he truly was killed by one of his own subordinates, then that subordinate……should at least have possessed some unusual cards in his hand, shouldn’t he?” Dorothy said.

After hearing this, Arachne had no choice but to reconsider the matter again. She had previously also heard intelligence claiming that the Earl had been killed by one of his own Cadres, but she had not accepted it immediately, precisely because something like that sounded absurdly unlikely, as ridiculous as someone saying that one of them could assassinate the current Queen.

But if she considered the matter under the assumption that it was true, then there must necessarily have been some factor that even Earl Foyle had failed to anticipate, resulting in Earl Foyle’s defeat.

“When something is abnormal, there must be a cause?” Queen Alice spoke again.

“As expected of Your Majesty!” Dorothy lowered her head toward the Queen, “That is exactly what I wanted to say. A Blessing appearing on a man is indeed inconceivable, but isn’t that strange element itself precisely what makes it worth paying attention to?”

Dorothy understood very clearly that in intelligence work, bizarre and even absurd pieces of intelligence did sometimes appear. Most of them might simply result from rumors becoming distorted through retelling, but there was also a relatively small probability that some unexpected truth really did lie behind those peculiar reports.

In fact, regarding Earl Foyle’s death, if it had not been caused by the Noren Church deliberately targeting and destroying Moirland’s channel for extracting wealth and gathering intelligence from the Empire, and had instead merely resulted from an assassination between noble factions or an Underworld vendetta, then there would have been no need for the Witches’ Assembly to investigate deeply.

Earl Foyle possessed value to Moirland as a whole, but that did not mean there was any affection between them. They had no reason to pay a cost and travel thousands of miles merely to avenge Earl Foyle. As long as they confirmed that the matter had not been directed at them, there was no need to investigate it all the way to the bottom.

But if there truly was a man in this world who could possess Moilai’s Blessing, then for Moirland, a nation now founded upon exclusive worship of Moilai, it could not be ignored.

“……Leave the investigation to Nemesis.” Alice gave the order after a moment of silence, “And find a replacement channel as well.”

Arachne abruptly came back to her senses and was just about to speak to the Queen when Dorothy beat her to it, respectfully bowing toward the Queen within the mist: “Your Majesty, please leave it to me. I swear I will not betray Your Majesty’s trust.”

That bitch! Arachne glanced at Dorothy and immediately realized the other woman’s intention.

There were only two leaders of the Nemesis Agency’s two forces, Arachne and Dorothy. If Queen Alice wanted an investigation conducted in the Noren Empire, she could only assign the task to the two of them or to one of them.

To Dorothy, investigating the Earl’s death was secondary. Reestablishing a new sales channel was her true objective.

Everyone had seen how much Arachne herself had profited from her dealings with the Earl over the years. Now that the Earl was dead, Dorothy naturally felt that it was her turn to seize the opportunity.

“Your Majesty, this kind of matter should still be entrusted to someone with more experience. Investigating Earl Foyle’s death should rightfully be handled by me, who once maintained contact with Earl Foyle, and establishing a new channel should likewise be entrusted to me, who has already established one before.” Arachne immediately followed up, likewise saluting Queen Alice.

“Arachne, the efficiency of your investigation into Earl Foyle’s death doesn’t seem particularly convincing, does it? Not to mention, you just caused such a major incident in the Empire, and the Noren Church is currently hunting you intensely. Without Earl Foyle’s help, I’m afraid your movements in the Empire won’t be quite so smooth now.” Dorothy smiled toward Arachne.

“That wasn’t the first or second operation I conducted over there. The bounty placed on me by the Noren Church is a form of glory. Dorothy, not everyone is like you, shrinking back in fear when it’s time to show loyalty to the Kingdom.” Arachne retorted.

“If you truly were loyal to the Kingdom, you wouldn’t have acted on your own so many times. Stop using the Kingdom as an excuse to satisfy your bloodthirsty urges!” Dorothy’s tone suddenly sank.

At this moment, Queen Alice suddenly spoke: “This mission will be carried out by both of you simultaneously.”

All the other Great Witches present turned their gazes toward the Queen within the mist at the same time.

“I grant both of you Level-Two Operational Authority. You may choose to carry it out jointly or act independently.” Queen Alice continued ordering.

Level-Two Operational Authority meant that both Arachne and Dorothy were permitted to personally travel beyond the national borders and lead forces in carrying out missions, and were allowed to use the power of the Labyrinth at any time to maintain cross-border contact with Alice.

When necessary for the mission, they could independently organize certain operations that would not draw investigation from the Noren Church, but they absolutely could not openly conduct military operations unless they received further authorization.

The open hostility between Arachne and Dorothy was obvious to anyone with eyes. In truth, the tea party rules established by the Witches’ Assembly also encouraged disagreements to be brought openly onto the table and resolved there.

This time, Queen Alice seemingly preferred to make use of their competition to resolve the problems caused by the Earl’s death as quickly as possible.

“I shall respectfully obey your command, my noble Queen.” Dorothy immediately bowed respectfully.

Being allowed to participate directly in this matter already meant that she had achieved the objective of making this proposal.

Arachne also understood this. The reason she had not immediately reported the matter was partly because her intelligence collection had been insufficient, but also because she had anticipated that Dorothy would interfere.

However dissatisfied she might have been with this outcome, she ultimately could not oppose the Queen’s command: “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“By the way, Your Majesty.” Dorothy added at this moment, “Since we’re carrying out an intelligence operation of this scale in the Empire, should we also investigate the situation of the prisoner Lamia while we’re at it?”

“Lamia……” Queen Alice, who had been issuing orders calmly throughout, seemed to show a slight fluctuation in her tone upon hearing that name, even displaying a rare moment of hesitation.

The Great Witches present all actually knew that the apostate Lamia was very special to Queen Alice.

“She is still being detained by the Noren Church. The risk is too high. We will not consider it for now.” Queen Alice gave her decision.

“Understood.” Dorothy respectfully lowered her head toward Queen Alice in response.

“Regarding this resolution, do any of you still have counsel to offer?” Queen Alice swept her gaze across all the Great Witches from within the mist.

“……” No one raised an objection or offered any additions, nor did anyone introduce a new topic.

“Then this tea party ends here.” Queen Alice announced the conclusion of the gathering.

The other six Great Witches lowered their heads and saluted the Queen one after another. The drifting mist enveloped them one by one, and very soon their figures faded and blurred within it until they disappeared completely.

Only Queen Alice remained beside the tea table. As the mist flowed and the others vanished, her own figure instead became faintly more visible, vaguely revealing the appearance of a young girl with long golden hair.

The Queen, whose appearance was abnormally young, silently extended a hand and picked up the teacup within the illusion. From beginning to end, none of the Great Witches seated there had attempted to drink the tea placed before them.

Alice took a sip of tea alone and thoughtfully observed her own mist-shrouded reflection within the teacup.

A man blessed by Moilai……could such a person truly exist?