Remedy

Tonight might be even more crucial than subduing Adel. Adam rubbed his brow. Tonight was going to be a major event.

Among so many mutants, there may be some reckless fools who disregard the mystery I've built around myself and attack me outright. Adam narrowed his eyes. "That's when presence will be the key."

"I need to intimidate everyone the moment I appear." Adam frowned. He did not have many trump cards. Apart from the Tears of God Ritual, he had only subdued Adel so far.

Especially since Adam was not in particularly good condition right now. If anything unexpected happened, he might not be able to handle it.

"What would intimidate mutants?" There were plenty of things mutants feared, such as the Church or various things that restrained them.

But there were not many things capable of completely cowing all of them the instant they appeared.

"Either a mutant's corpse or a priest's corpse. Death is the best way to intimidate people." Adam's expression darkened.

"Priests are difficult to target. Even if I succeed, it could easily trigger a large-scale response from the Church. It wouldn't be worth it."

"And the easiest mutant to target is Adel." Adam rested his fingers on the windowsill and gazed into the distance as he slowly considered it.

First, Adel was not particularly wary of him, and he was injured. Killing him would not be difficult.

Second, although Adel had fallen into a fervent state, Adam had revealed quite a few flaws during their earlier contact. If Adel came to his senses, Adam might be exposed.

Lastly, Adam did not like the man.

However, dealing with Adel this way would also bring problems.

First, while it could intimidate the gathered mutants, it would also make them suspicious. He had promised Adel a ritual, only to kill him immediately afterward. That would ruin his credibility and set a bad precedent. In the future, it would be difficult to make those mutants work wholeheartedly for him.

Second, driven by the feeling that the death of one would grieve the others, those mutants might grow dissatisfied with his control and choose to resist or flee. If he could not handle that, it would create even bigger problems.

After weighing the pros and cons, Adam first removed the influence of his personal preferences, then rejected the idea of using Adel's corpse to intimidate the other mutants.

"I still have too few trump cards." Adam felt rather helpless. The drawbacks of his own weakness were simply too significant.

"My current strength is all an act, so I must preserve my mystery." Adam had done many things, all for the purpose of maintaining that mystery.

For example, he had not ordered Adel to bring people over one by one, but had told him to summon them all together. The purpose had been to make himself seem powerful and successfully bluff Adel.

"Looking at it now, I made a mistake there." Adam reflected on himself. Adel had already fallen into the trap at the time, so there had been no need to keep maintaining his mystery afterward.

Just as people who fell for a scam would deceive themselves into making it real, Adel had been the same. By then, the only thing left in his eyes was likely the Tears of God Ritual Adam had mentioned.

"In seeking perfection in concealing myself, I ended up leaving myself a difficult problem." Adam learned another lesson, then turned and went downstairs.

Still wearing a preoccupied expression, Adam said he was going out to clear his head.

Yalis and Maggie, concerned for their nephew, naturally agreed.

Adam walked through the streets toward the slums. Since he had identified his own mistake, he naturally had to find a way to remedy it.

"Track Adel down, subdue more mutants beforehand, then divide the gathered mutants into ranks." Adam already had a solution.

"Those with vested interests and those without." Adam narrowed his eyes. "I could even pass on part of the Tears of God Ritual and use it to divide the mutants."

"Then, in order to preserve the interests of that hierarchy, those who benefit from it will support me."

"When the time comes, even if there are reckless fools, the conflict will not be between me and them, but between them and those with vested interests."

Adam quietly arrived by the river, dug his outfit out from behind a tree, and hurried toward his destination.

"Adel's notes recorded that before returning to Roa, he wandered the forest for several months. Only after he made contact with other mutants did he return to live in Roya City."

"That means the mutants Adel knew had once been active in the forest."

"They may even have been lumberjacks or residents of the slums." Adam made his guess. It was highly likely. The forest was vast and sparsely populated, making it suitable for mutant activity.

But apart from trees, there was nothing else in the forest. Go any deeper, and one could even encounter Roa's garrison patrols.

Therefore, unless they were mutants from the slums who entered the forest to deal with certain matters, mutants from elsewhere had no reason to travel so far into the woods.

"As for mutants in the slums—or rather, people in the slums—they generally only have three paths. They can form gangs and live by exploiting others, work in other districts, or become lumberjacks. The slums were originally housing built by lumber workers. That area has the most lumberjacks and supplies nearly all the timber for the South District."

"As for gangs, their backers are almost always nobles of one kind or another. If an unidentified gang force truly appeared, it would either be secretly absorbed by the nobles or reported directly to the Church to eliminate a rival."

Adam recalled the black-smoke werewolf he had seen at Baron Mansla's estate. Perhaps that was how the creature had been drawn into the baron's faction.

"Therefore, lumberjacks are the most likely possibility." Most mutants wanted to hide themselves, and a job like lumberjack, with little contact with outsiders, was the most favored profession among them.

Not every mutant was like Adam, daring enough to infiltrate a church and work there. They had an instinctive fear of the Church.

"There are too many people in the slums during the day." Adam could not find an opportunity to change clothes. If one ignored the filthy, disorderly surroundings and the famine-stricken faces, the bustling traffic here hardly resembled a slum at all.

"Does transporting timber really require that many carriages?" The slums were the largest timber production area and the largest market for cheap labor.

And as the most prosperous city nearby, Roa often received people from surrounding towns and villages. The slums were often their first stop.

"Perhaps they're transporting various goods bought from the towns?" Just as Adam was about to think further, he caught a familiar scent.

Limping along on an injured leg, Adel was making his way home. If Adam had not possessed sharp senses, he might not even have noticed the two people following behind him.

"If everyone is summoned together, the target is too obvious, so he's bringing them separately to his home. Adel is indeed cautious." Though in a place with as much foot traffic as the slums, caution was often unnecessary.

Many mutants lost their vigilance because of that. But for them, one lapse could cost them their lives.

Adam did not follow immediately. Instead, he wandered around the area once more and, after confirming that no other mutants were following Adel, headed for Adel's house.

"Four people—no, five different scents. He has gathered at least five people in his house now." Adam carefully sniffed the air, judging the number of people gathered at Adel's home.

Without hesitation, Adam quickly changed into his outfit.

Adel's network was broader than Adam had imagined. Or perhaps the mutants living in Roa were more closely connected than he had expected.

If he had truly waited until nightfall, there might have been even more mutants gathered than expected. Intimidating and subduing them then would have been extremely difficult.

Adam closed his eyes and adjusted his emotions before walking toward the wooden house at an unhurried pace. His undisguised footsteps immediately put everyone inside on guard. They all turned to Adel, as though asking whether he had invited someone else.

"I invited Jin before, but he refused." Adel's expression turned strange as well. Jin was the strongest mutant he knew, so he had gone to him first.

Jin had seemed interested but chose to refuse. Had he reconsidered and agreed after all?

"Good day, everyone." Adam reached out and pushed open the door. The sunlight behind him was blocked, seeming to form a halo around him, while his shadow spread into the room. His calm voice rose with that encroaching darkness, and an indescribable presence completely intimidated the mutants.

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