Royal Spy

In fact, Duanmu Huai had been suspicious of the elf scout ever since they were on their way to the temple.

As a scout, she seemed to know far too much.

Of course, scouts specialized in gathering intelligence, so it was not strange for them to know certain secrets.

But when she opened the seal, Duanmu Huai knew there was definitely something wrong with this elf scout's identity.

The reason was simple. Everyone knew that bank vaults held large amounts of valuables and cash, and those with connections might even know which way the vault doors opened.

But not just anyone could possess the key to a bank vault.

When he saw the elf scout recite a few incantations and open the seal, Duanmu Huai knew something was wrong.

If this seal had been so easy to open, had the God of Filth's followers been wasting their time here playing campfire barbecue?

"All right. Tell me your true identity, Elf."

Duanmu Huai gripped his Chainsaw Sword and stared coldly at the Elf. He was exceptionally calm right now. As a player, Duanmu Huai had experienced this sort of thing far too often.

For example, after they painstakingly escorted a non-player character to a designated location, the other party would suddenly transform into the final boss.

Or after they painstakingly escorted a non-player character to a designated location, the other party would suddenly turn around and decide to destroy the world.

Or after they painstakingly rescued a non-player character, the other party would reveal their true colors the moment they got out, then spread a viral plague across the entire world.

Honestly, after seeing it often enough, players became numb. No matter how dramatic the twist was, people got used to it after it happened again and again.

So in the later stages, whenever a non-player character suddenly transformed into a boss, players would basically just silently pull out their weapons and start fighting.

They could not even be bothered to say another word, much less pretend to be shocked.

They might even feel a little excited.

After all, one more boss meant one more loot box to open!

That was why Duanmu Huai remained so composed.

Even if this elf scout were actually an agent of the God of Deceit or the God of Desire, he could handle it calmly. He had seen too many storms to be rattled.

No matter how dramatic things became, it would be difficult to stir any emotion in Duanmu Huai.

"I really am a scout, Sir Knight."

Feeling the cold blade at her neck, the Elf swallowed and spoke. She had clearly seen how this sword had split the Apostle of Plague in two. She did not think she possessed the same ability to withstand blows as the Apostle of Plague.

"At the same time, I am also a Royal Spy."

"Explain it clearly. What exactly is going on?"

Duanmu Huai did not lower his Chainsaw Sword. This elf scout was clearly not as simple as she appeared, and he wanted to know her true identity.

"I did not deceive you, Sir Knight."

The Elf hesitated, then decided to tell him everything.

Only after listening to the Elf's account did Duanmu Huai understand what had happened.

At the root of it all was still a mess of political debts.

When Elisa had introduced things to him earlier, she had mentioned that the sudden death of the Empire's ruler had thrown the entire Empire into a struggle for power. The elf scout's intelligence was more detailed, however, because she was a Royal Spy—a spy loyal only to the Emperor.

According to the elf scout, the Emperor's sudden death itself was highly suspicious. He had suddenly died of a violent illness while assembling a great army for an expedition against foreign races.

Huh? Why did that sound so familiar?

In any case, after the Emperor died, the expeditionary army suffered heavy losses and had no choice but to retreat to the Empire. Meanwhile, his heirs began secretly fighting for power, vying for the throne of the next Emperor. Of course, all that was too far removed from the present. They should talk about something relevant.

Namely, why the elf scout had appeared in Silver City.

The reason was simple: the lord here was a loyal royalist. During the Great Expedition, he had provided most of his territory's regular army to the Emperor. This was also one reason Silver City's internal defenses had been so weak that the Ratmen and Evil God Believers had managed to breach it. Though this was a borderland, it did not border any other nations. It was surrounded only by wilderness and desert, and no one had expected the Evil God Believers and Ratmen to dare attack the city.

This Holy Relic called "Water God's Gift" had been bestowed upon the lord by the Emperor as a reward for his loyalty. Normally, Holy Relics would only appear within the territories of royal descendants, so having this relic here was equivalent to possessing an imperial warrant. At the very least, it could help the lord resist political threats and trouble.

Of course, the Emperor was no fool. He would not simply give away something as precious as a Holy Relic and then ignore it. So he had dispatched Royal Spies—the elf scout among them—to secretly infiltrate this territory and watch over the relic's whereabouts, ensuring that nothing went wrong.

And, as it turned out, something had indeed gone wrong.

The main reason she had revealed this information to Duanmu Huai was that the Emperor was already dead. These Royal Spies answered directly to the Emperor, which meant that once he died, they became rootless drifters with nowhere to go and no superior to contact.

By Empire tradition, before the previous Emperor died, the next heir should have been informed of these spies' existence so authority could be transferred. But... who could have expected the Emperor to die so suddenly?

However, there was still one problem.

"You said before that the Holy Relic was protected by Empire Mages, with dozens of seals placed upon it, and that only those of royal blood could possess it."

"Yes."

The elf scout nodded. Then she stood up and reached toward the white pearl. But before her fingers could touch it, she seemed to be struck by something and was sent flying backward, slamming heavily into the wall.

No wonder those Fat Warlocks had worked so hard. It seemed the Empire Mages had some real skill after all.

Duanmu Huai glanced at the elf scout as she struggled to her feet, narrowed his eyes, and nodded. Then he thought for a moment.

"...Your objective probably was not just the Holy Relic, was it?"

"I do not know what you mean, Sir Knight."

Though the elf scout appeared calm, Duanmu Huai's next words broke through her composure.

"Elisa. She was one of the people you were assigned to protect too, wasn't she?"

"..."

"She has royal blood, right? She might even inherit the Empire?"

"..."

The elf scout did not answer, but many times, silence was confirmation.

I knew it.

Duanmu Huai gave the rigidly silent elf scout a glance and snorted. He had not considered this possibility at first, but after hearing the elf scout's account and combining it with his gaming experience, it was not difficult for him to reach this conclusion.

First, the strength of the Evil God Believers pursuing Elisa was the best evidence.

Demons usually lived in Warp Space. However, they could not influence the real world directly through Warp Space. They could only tempt Psykers into using various blasphemous rituals and similar methods to blur the boundary between reality and Warp Space, allowing them to enter the real world.

Under such circumstances, every Chaos Demon that entered the real world could be considered an extremely precious and rare specimen.

Yet in order to capture Elisa, the God of Tyranny's fanatics had even dispatched a high-ranking Demon like the Bloodthirsty Maniac!

It was not a Demon Lord or a Greater Daemon, but in the early stages, a Bloodthirsty Maniac was already considered an exceptionally rare high-ranking Demon.

Was it worth that much for the daughter of an ordinary lord?

Then there was only one answer: she was not merely a lord's daughter. Otherwise, there was no reason she could have survived after the lord had been killed.

However, after hearing the elf scout's explanation, Duanmu Huai immediately linked all these clues together. Clearly, Elisa might not have been the daughter of the lord and his wife at all. She could have been the Emperor's blood relative. For some reason, the Emperor had concealed her identity and entrusted her to that lordly couple to raise. And that Holy Relic only deepened Duanmu Huai's suspicion—according to the elf scout, only royal blood relatives could touch and take it, which was why Holy Relics normally existed only in the territories of royal family members.

But this was a borderland. Was the Empire really supposed to send a royal all the way here to retrieve the Holy Relic?

Looking at it another way, if Elisa were a member of the royal family, then would this territory not effectively be royal territory?

In that case, it would be perfectly reasonable for the Emperor to place a Holy Relic here.

Though the elf scout did not answer Duanmu Huai's question, judging by her reaction, his guess was almost certainly correct—after all, Duanmu Huai had encountered far too many plotlines like this.

Of course, it was also possible that this elf scout was extremely cunning and merely putting on an act for him.

Either way, it had nothing to do with him.

After all, Duanmu Huai had scanned the Holy Relic the moment it appeared, but the system had given no response at all... which was somewhat disappointing.

"Forget it. This has nothing to do with me."

Duanmu Huai thought it over, then put the matter out of his mind.

"One last thing I need to ask you."

"...What is it?"

"Do you know anywhere nearby that's haunted?"

"...?"

Duanmu Huai had no intention of involving himself in some Empire civil war. His targets were only Chaos Gods and Evil God Believers. He had no interest in the internal turmoil of an Empire with a civilization level equivalent to the Middle Ages. Though Duanmu Huai was certain this was a main plotline, improving his own strength was more important to him right now.

There were followers of the God of Tyranny and the God of Filth on this planet. The God of Tyranny was manageable, but Duanmu Huai currently had no especially effective means of dealing with the God of Filth and its virus-based tricks. So what he needed to do now was visit as many Ruined Remains as possible and use "Soul Awakening" to gather soul cards—preferably powers capable of restraining those walking virus reservoirs serving the God of Filth.

Fortunately, perhaps because Duanmu Huai had frightened them badly in the temple, the Ratmen and cultists never showed themselves again. Knight Commander Kado took the opportunity to direct his Pawns in reinforcing Rook's defenses, and only when reinforcements arrived did they finally breathe a little easier.

The leader of the reinforcements seemed to be an old acquaintance of Knight Kado. Their first meeting went fairly smoothly, and Duanmu Huai greeted the man as well under Kado's introduction—the other party was also quite polite to Duanmu Huai.

Duanmu Huai had to admit that he seemed to be better suited to this world.

In the world before he crossed over, passersby would easily call the police whenever he went out. No one who saw him thought he looked like a good person. But in a world where strength was respected above all else, his build and appearance made him easier for people to accept. After all, in the usual webnovel formula, when a reinforcement commander learned that the protagonist had single-handedly cut through an entire Ratmen army, ruined an Evil God ritual, and destroyed an Apostle of Plague, they would assume the story had been exaggerated through retelling.

After all, typical protagonists looked like ordinary people, and most would not be thought to possess any special ability.

But Duanmu Huai was different. Just by standing before someone, with his two-and-a-half-meter height, fierce Inquisition Power Armor, and terrifyingly vicious face, people would believe him even if he claimed to have wiped out an entire Ratmen army—or even destroyed an Evil God.

It had to be said that looking like this had its advantages sometimes. At least it spared him plenty of those conflicts where someone tried to provoke a hidden powerhouse.

He looked like a ruthless man at a glance. Who would dare come looking for death?

Humans were visual creatures, after all.

After the reinforcements arrived, Duanmu Huai bid Elisa farewell and left Silver City. Though Elisa was reluctant to see him go, it was not as if Duanmu Huai would never return...

After all, whenever players arrived somewhere new, they finished the side quests before tackling the main quest, didn't they?