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 passage 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 . "