“What do you want to know, my lord?” The merchant bowed.

“Who are the members of this cult?” Red asked.

“This…” Emer hesitated. “I only know of a few. I have interacted with plenty of servants, but tracing them back to their masters was always hard… N-Neither did I have any reason to, as my brother was aware of their identities, unlike me.”

The youth raised his eyebrows. “Who do you know?”

“T-There’s Loras, of the city guard, who you already met.” the old man said. “Other than that, I know of Nikon, from the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“A mercenary?”

Emer nodded. “You could say that. He doesn’t really do much in the way of jobs, though, and most of the time he just poses as a bodyguard around the city and manages his own group of mercenaries… W-Whenever I needed to transport some sensitive goods, though, I would always need to talk to him.”

“What’s his cultivation level?”

“I-I don’t know for certain, but I have heard others speak he is in the Late Lesser Ring Realm.”

Red frowned. This was even stronger than the cultist he just killed and it spoke to the strength behind their organization.

While he had managed to kill Cassemir, the youth wasn’t so haughty as to think he could assassinate his companions with the same ease. Even now, he knew that killing Emer’s brother would have never been as easy if the mad hadn’t lowered his guard. He looked down at Red’s initial Lesser Ring Realm cultivation and his savage appearance, allowing the youth to approach and put in motion his assassination attempt.

It wasn’t like Cassemir was being super arrogant, either. How could he have guessed someone who had just broken through to the Lesser Ring Realm would have such a strong Spiritual Art as the Gale Breath that could be executed with a simple breath? It was blood magic, after all, and even to demonic cultists, it was a rare sight.

That being said, even with his Gale Breath, Red wasn’t confident in his chances of killing Cassemir in straight up combat. He still remembered the pressure he felt in the presence of that strange demonic aura, whose effects he couldn’t quite fathom.

Not to mention, this was just the cult’s strength on the surface.

Red looked at Emer. “Do you know if there are members of your cult in higher positions within the city?”

Emer shook his head with a helpless expression. “A-As I said, my lord, I had no way of knowing.”

“Do you have at least a guess?”

Even if the merchant was unfamiliar with the members of the cult, he knew about their operations. If anyone could make a guess as to the pull necessary to accomplish those, it would be this old man.

Emer hesitated. “… If I had to guess, I think the cult might have members in all kinds of influential positions in the city, maybe even in the palace.”

Red frowned. “They’re close to the King?”

“I-It’s just a guess, my lord! I-It’s just that… Mistakes and leaks are bound to happen with an operation of our size, but the members of our Infernal Cult have always been efficient in making sure these don’t spread to the wrong ears.”

“What kind of operation are you speaking of exactly?”

“W-Well, I can’t say to know much outside of what I was directly involved in… They have been converting city-folk and even people of importance to our Nine-Star Cult, but I was only involved in smuggling demonic ingredients and treasures into the capital.”

Red sighed. “So you don’t even know what the goal of your cult is?”

“O-Of course I do, my lord!” Emer nodded. “The blood Moon appeared in the sky, so we are obviously trying to pave the way for the Infernal Emperor’s influence to spread to this world.”

The youth said nothing. He wasn’t quite certain how subverting a kingdom could help the cult achieve their goals, but it was foolish to think they were doing it for no good reason.

“So that was the reason you didn’t want your escorts getting near your cart during your trip back to the capital?” Red asked. “You were smuggling demonic goods?”

The merchant nodded with some embarrassment. “T-That’s the case, my lord. However, it wasn’t just that. Most demonic merchandise I bring is sealed with talismans to not be detected, but this time, there was something weird about them…”

“What do you mean?”

“W-Well… I don’t really know what I’m carrying most of the time and I know better than to ask. B-But this time, the task was especially strange.” Emer’s expression paled as he recalled these memories. “I was told to just carry one item. A big, ornamental strongbox. The problem was that as I was travelling, I started to hear noises from inside the box… Scratching noises.”

Red frowned. “I assume that is why you told the mercenaries to stay away from the cart.”

“T-That’s right.” He nodded. “At first it was just small noises, but as we got closer to the capital, they got louder. I also started to hear thumping noises, like someone was trying to break through… I was terrified when I noticed the seals on the strongbox were starting to break apart, so I decided I needed to do something before I attracted any more suspicion.”

“… You opened the box.”

“W-Well, it’s not like I had any choice, my lord. It was gonna open on its own, at that rate, so I just thought... I just thought…”

The merchant trailed off. He didn’t have a plan by then, and was just too desperate considering the consequences of losing that item. Maybe he thought he could deal with whatever was making the noise inside the strongbox. Maybe he thought it was just a small monster that he could bind and lock inside the box again.

“What was inside it?” Red asked.

Emer shivered, as if just remembering the image was enough to make him afraid. “I-It was… It was an arm.”

“… An arm?” Red was puzzled.

“Y-Yes.” The merchant nodded. “It was a disembodied arm a-and-… It just flew off as soon as I opened the strong box.”

This time, it was the youth who couldn’t help but feel a shiver up his spine.

‘A disembodied arm…’

He couldn’t help but feel like this sounded a bit too familiar to him.

“What state was the arm in?” Red asked. “Was it decomposing?”

Emer’s eyes widened. “T-This… How do you know that?”

The youth’s frown deepened. This story was far too similar to the decomposing head Red had found seven years back in the possession of a cultist of the Chaos Dragon. A merchant, just like Emer in front of him.

‘The death of those mercenaries... Could it be connected?’

“Who gave you this strongbox?” he asked.

“I-It was a delivery, my lord.” Emer shook his head. “I just picked it up from a guild in a small town not too far from here. No one’s name was attached to it other than my own.”

Red sighed. He didn’t feel like this was a coincidence, but he doubted investigating this matter was wise, and neither did he have time to do it.

The rest of the story was easily explained. The merchant panicked and wanted to pass off the blame for losing the item in the strongbox to the mercenaries, but they weren’t having any of it. It was only by a “miracle” he stumbled upon Red to save him.

The youth questioned him about some other matter regarding this cult of his, but the merchant knew less than he expected. Cultists didn’t mingle together often, to avoid suspicion, and most of them were bound by blood oaths of loyalty to their masters, so even if they wanted to betray their Nine-Star Cult, they would first lose their lives.

Emer had a similar oath to Cassemir, but with his death, the oath became void. Red now understood why the merchant didn’t lament his brother’s death too much - their relationship was more akin to a master and his slave.

“T-There’s something else you should know, my lord.”

Red looked over at the merchant. “What is it?”

“Our Nine-Star Cult isn’t the only cult in the city…” Emer hesitated. “The Serpent’s World Cult also has a heavy presence in the capital, and while we aren’t necessarily enemies, our relationship with them is not the best.”

“Serpent’s World?” Red was unfamiliar with the term. “Which archdemon do they represent?”

“T-They represent the Myriad Desire, my lord.”

The youth frowned. No archdemon ever represented good news to mortals, but some were worse than others.

As their name implied, Myriad Desire was an archdemon of pleasure and seduction. Their believers were adept in the arts of charming, being capable of casting powerful illusions and even brain washing the minds of other cultivators. These skills made them perfect spies to infiltrate other organizations, even more so than the proud believers of the Infernal Emperor.

One prevalent demonic cult was already a recipe for disaster in any city, but two of them? This was a major crisis brewing underneath the surface that no one in Carlhanne seemed to be aware of.

‘What do they want in this place?’

Of course, Emer knew even less about this rival cult than of his own cult, so Red was unable to gain any useful information. After clarifying a few more of his own doubts, the youth shifted the topic to something else.

“Who do you think your cult is going to send?” Red asked.

Emer hesitated. “This… I can’t know for sure, but if I had to guess, they will either send Captain Loras or Nikon.”

‘Of course, the only two people they know for sure I will be aware of.’

The youth turned around, looking over the documents at Cassemir’s table. There were plenty of miscellaneous books and also a lot of letters and contracts. Unfortunately, Red wasn’t able to find anything suspicious about the contents of these documents.

That wasn’t surprising, considering they could communicate through their minds. Who would risk sending compromising letters in that scenario?

Red looked back at the merchant. “Do you know anything about the Chaos Dragon cult?”

“I-I’m afraid not, my lord.” Emer shook his head. “All I know is that they are… Q-Quick to anger.”

“I see.”

‘It seems I will need to figure out this deception myself.’

He looked down at Cassemir’s corpse. He drew his breath in, drawing the remnants of his Gale Breath that lingered in the air back into his lungs. Even then, the smell of blood was strong, and that was not just because of the bleeding corpse on the ground.

‘I need to tidy this up before anyone sees it.’

“Send the maid over to clean this and cover the body. Make sure she uses some strong perfumes, too.” Red said.

“At once, my lord.” Emer bowed and turned around to leave.

“Oh, before you go.” The youth said before the man could exit the room. “Make sure both of you stay inside the house. If anyone from your cult catches you wandering about, they will probably kill you.”

The merchant shivered and nodded before leaving the office.

Red was left alone in the room, looking around with some hesitation.

‘What have I gotten myself into?’

It was a conspiracy, an enormous conspiracy, and Red, an outsider, barged into the middle of it with no knowledge of it. The only way he could live now was to wade through these dangerous waters all the way to the other shore.

“I need your help.” Red said out loud.

Aurelia snorted, her figure manifesting by his side. “You sure only know how to talk when it’s convenient for you!”