Out of Control

But what truly caused the situation to spiral completely out of control was the sixth attack.

That evening, three imperial Adjudicators were ordered to head to a chamber of commerce stronghold in the Inner City to verify intelligence. Vina led the team herself, and the kingdom had also arranged for a squad of Imperial Guards to accompany them.

Logically speaking, such a lineup should have been more than enough to handle most trouble.

But the problem lay in the word "most"—the enemy still targeted them regardless.

The location was less than two streets west of the embassy.

During the day, the area was bustling with people, and even in the evening, many shops remained open. They never expected that the attackers would choose to strike at such a time in a place with such a complex flow of people.

A cargo carriage at the end of the street suddenly lost control, charging wildly into the Imperial Guard formation.

Just as the Imperial Guards scattered to avoid it, the surrounding shops exploded simultaneously. Several dark magic spells rained down from above, instantly throwing the entire street into chaos.

Vina drew her sword immediately. The moment her short sword left its scabbard, it shattered an incoming Shadow Arrow.

“Protect the wounded, fall back! Call for reinforcements!”

Her reaction was swift, but the enemy's goal was not to cause chaos; it was to kill.

Just as one of the Adjudicators released a signal magic spell, the ground beneath his feet suddenly split open. Black chains snaked out from the cracks, binding his legs and dragging him bodily into the shadows.

His scream cut off halfway.

Another Adjudicator tried to rescue him, only to have his chest pierced from behind by an assassin hidden on the rooftop.

Vina spun around and unleashed a slash of sword light. As she forced the assassin back, yet another Adjudicator was engulfed by fire magic.

“Bastards!”

Vina's eyes turned red. Her mana and aura erupted fully, and a silver-white light flared on her short sword.

The battle technique 【Sky-Rending Slash】 swept out, slicing the shops on one side of the street clean in half.

But those dark figures seemed to have anticipated her move, retreating a step ahead and leaving behind only shattered afterimages.

In the next instant, a silent wind blade struck from behind.

Vina twisted her body violently, but she still failed to dodge it completely. Blood splattered from her shoulder, and she was sent flying dozens of meters like a broken kite.

By the time Napa arrived at the scene, the attack was already over.

Three Adjudicators were dead, and Vina was critically injured and unconscious.

The entire street was cordoned off. The surrounding civilians were in a panic, and the Imperial Guards and City Guard were busy evacuating the crowd to contain the spread of chaos.

Standing in the middle of the street, Napa stared at the three bodies covered in white sheets on the ground, gritting his teeth. The mana inside him surged wildly, showing faint signs of spiraling out of control.

An Imperial Guard officer beside him quickly whispered a reminder:

“Lord Napa, there are still civilians here.”

Napa closed his eyes and took a deep breath, suppressing the urge.

“Send the wounded back to the embassy and notify my teacher.”

By this time, the temporary treatment center on the second floor of the Foreign Embassy was starting to run out of space.

Several guest rooms originally used to house the wounded had been completely cleared out, and temporary beds were set up in the hallways. The glow of recovery magic barely stopped as warlocks and kingdom healers took turns casting spells, their numbers having increased significantly.

When Vina was brought back, Venus was standing beside Noah and Leah's sickbeds.

Hearing the commotion, she turned to look.

On the stretcher, Vina's face was deathly pale. There was a bone-deep wound running from her shoulder to her back, with distinct traces of wind-element mana still lingering on the edges, continuously tearing at the flesh that had just been repaired by recovery magic.

The accompanying warlock was drenched in sweat.

“Lady Sage, Inquisitor Vina has lost too much blood, and there is still residual mana left by the enemy in her body. We need to treat her immediately.”

She took half a step aside, watching Vina being carried into the innermost room.

Afterward, three more bodies were brought into the embassy... Venus stood at the end of the corridor, remaining motionless for a long time.

In just a dozen or so days since the imperial delegation entered the kingdom, six people had died, more than ten were severely injured, and now even Inquisitor Vina was critically wounded and unconscious.

This was no longer a simple series of attacks; it was a repeated slap in the face to the empire.

More than that, it was a blatant, reckless provocation of Venus's bottom line.

Late that night, an extremely strongly worded protest document was delivered to the palace.

In the document, the imperial delegation rarely used highly aggressive terms such as "gross negligence," "inability to guarantee basic safety," and "extremely low efficiency."

The final sentence was a naked insult.

—If the Kingdom of Kajinson cannot fulfill its duty to protect the visiting delegation, the empire will have no choice but to fully re-evaluate its diplomatic standing with the kingdom.

After reading the document, the old King's face turned livid.

The officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stood in the study, all of them as quiet as cicadas in winter.

Duke Sebas was also present. He took the document, read it through, and furrowed his brow tightly.

“Your Majesty, the empire is truly furious this time.”

Slapping the document onto the table, the old King barked,

“I know! Of course I know! I'm not blind!”

If it were just private complaints, there would still be room for discussion.

But once an official document was on the record, the nature of the situation changed entirely.

The empire was telling the kingdom that their patience was reaching its limit.

Standing by the window, Hogg did not participate in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' discussion regarding remedial plans. What he wanted to know more right now was who on earth possessed the capability to orchestrate these incidents.

Who exactly were the attackers?

How did they manage to evade the kingdom's deployments time and time again?

And why did they know the exact routes and schedules of the imperial personnel?

Could it be...

A bold conjecture gradually surfaced, causing Hogg's heart to grow a bit heavier. In the end, he could only shake his head and force himself to shelve the thought for now.

The most urgent matter at hand was to stabilize the emotions of the imperial side first.

Early the next morning, the number of patrols on the streets of the royal capital increased once again.

A squad of the City Guard could be seen almost at every short interval, and temporary checkpoints were set up along all major streets in the Inner City. The Imperial Guards also expanded outward from the palace, incorporating the entire route between the embassy and the palace into their key defense zones.

Marz was temporarily reassigned to the Intelligence Department, compiling the locations of the previous attacks and the routes of the personnel overnight.

Sitting behind a pile of documents, the skin under his eyes was dark; he hadn't been able to sleep for several days.

The map in front of him was covered in dense markings.

The more Marz looked, the worse his expression became. All the analytical data was telling him one thing—this series of attacks was highly likely related to the kingdom itself.

These attack locations seemed scattered, but if one overlaid the movement routes of the imperial personnel with the shift change times of the kingdom's patrols, they would find that every attack happened to occur exactly at the nodes where reinforcements would have the hardest time arriving.

It wasn't that the areas were completely unguarded, but rather that the defense was at its most easily disrupted.

This proved that the enemy wasn't just relying on luck. They knew the routes, they knew the schedules, and they knew the strength of the escorts on both sides.

Marz put down his pen and rubbed his temples.

“This is truly going to be the death of me.”

Meanwhile, Napa led a squad of high-level professionals to patrol the area surrounding the embassy. Along the way, his expression shifted constantly; everyone he looked at seemed like a suspect.

The City Guard Captain beside him asked in a low voice,

“Lord Napa, do you think they will strike again?”

Without turning his head, Napa replied resolutely,

“Yes.”

The City Guard Captain's face turned pale.

“There are already so many people patrolling now, those people...”

“Having more people doesn't mean it's useful.”

He stopped walking, his eyes still scanning everything around him without a moment's pause.

“Since the enemy dares to strike repeatedly within such a short period, it means they don't take our preparations seriously at all. Most of what we are doing now is merely damage control.”

These words were somewhat harsh, but they were the truth.

Angela had no harvest on her end either.

She had lain in wait along several key streets for several consecutive nights, but let alone the attackers, she hadn't even spotted many suspicious figures.

The occasional sneaky characters she caught were merely petty thieves taking advantage of the chaos, or drunkards.

It angered Angela so much that she nearly hung them from the streetlamps on the spot. After experiencing several failures, she furiously grabbed the assisting intelligence agent beside her and questioned,

“What is going on?! Did these bastards sprout out of the ground?!”

The intelligence agent groaned inwardly, only able to stand there dumbfounded as Angela shook him back and forth.

There was nothing he could do... after all, she held a much higher rank than him.