Xia'an frowned slightly.
But she quickly realized the logic behind this action.
Walls had ears.
Besides, there weren't even any walls here.
The two immediately re-established the Mental Channel they had used during the battle.
“Listen closely to the intelligence I am about to tell you.”
Elias's first words cut straight to the chase.
“Do not report it through the Hastings Port Branch channels.”
Xia'an's eyes darkened instantly.
“You suspect we have an internal issue?”
Xia'an questioned back through the Mental Channel, her tone carrying a hint of interrogation.
In truth, she was well aware of the possibility.
But even so,
as a member of the Seventh Agency, she wanted to do her best to defend her branch in front of an outside informant.
“No,”
Elias shook his head, his tone cold and certain.
“I don't suspect it.”
“I am certain that Wayland Capital's money is far thicker than your branch's walls.”
Xia'an fell silent.
Elias gave her no time to digest his words, nor any opportunity to argue.
He quickly summarized the details: the bizarre situation at the Wayland Shipping office, the sanatorium, the strange state of the suicide bomber's remains, the use of the dream demon curse to prevent the keepers from leaving their posts, and the news of the Octowin sailing toward Moon Bay.
In just a few sentences,
the sheer volume of information was staggering.
The more Xia'an listened, the paler her face became.
The massive influx of information temporarily threw her thoughts into disarray, but she quickly seized upon a contradiction.
“That's not right!”
Xia'an countered urgently.
“Regarding the attack on the Wayland Shipping office, we already completed our preliminary investigation and evidence collection this morning.”
“The results have already been circulated throughout the entire branch.”
“The person who charged into the lobby and triggered the explosion was confirmed to be a cultist from the Mist Veil Society!”
“The spirit-measuring traces pointed directly to them.”
“Oh?”
Elias wasn't surprised at all to hear this result.
Instead, he looked at Xia'an with interest.
“And yet, I was at the scene when the explosion happened.”
“I watched that suicide bomber die right in front of my eyes.”
Elias's voice was steady, devoid of any unnecessary emotion.
“His name was Oliver Brown.”
“You can look up his background file.”
“But I can assure you with one hundred percent certainty that his physical remains contained nothing but pure spirituality.”
“There was absolutely not a single trace of negative spirituality.”
Xia'an froze.
Her brain temporarily short-circuited.
“Are you saying...”
“In other words, the people at Wayland faked it?”
Elias finished the grim conclusion for her.
“They fabricated the scene before you arrived.”
“And pinned the blame on the Mist Veil Society.”
Xia'an fell into deep thought.
“So, the attack on the office was a self-directed show?”
Xia'an muttered to herself.
“But why would they do such a thing?”
“Bombing their own office and killing their own employees just to turn against the Mist Veil Society?”
The motive made no sense at all.
Elias's mind was also racing.
Countless clues clashed and connected in his head.
Suddenly, a spark of inspiration hit him.
“Is the Octowin a military-grade warship?”
he suddenly asked.
“Yes,”
Xia'an immediately gave a definitive answer.
“Furthermore, based on my deductions from existing intelligence, the agreement reached between the Wayland Chamber of Commerce and the high-ranking members of the Council only goes as far as sailing this warship into the waters of Moon Bay.”
“Using it as a military deterrent against the active cultists in Hastings Port,”
Xia'an explained in detail.
“Because that warship is equipped with an extremely terrifying weapon.”
“A war machine capable of rivaling a Scale Seven 'Dawn Herald' spell.”
“The Sunburst 305mm cannon.”
“Heavy naval artillery of this caliber is subject to extremely strict firing control protocols in the Kingdom of Velen.”
“It is equivalent to a strategic-strike weapon.”
“Even if they sail the ship here, they can only use it as a deterrent at most. They could never easily obtain firing clearance in an inshore civilian port.”
“What?!”
Before Elias could even register his shock at the ridiculous caliber of the artillery,
inside his mind,
Old Ed's jaw had already hit the floor.
“Kid!”
The old ghost's voice exploded in Elias's head, giving him a slight headache.
“If we make a reasonable guess based on that name,”
“that Scale Seven spell is definitely 【Sunburst】!”
Old Ed's voice sounded strained.
“If they've really transferred that kind of destructive power onto a ship...”
“This thing indeed...”
Old Ed paused.
“...indeed serves as a massive deterrent!”
“We're talking about something that can vaporize half a city block in an instant!”
“Just hearing the name makes me want to piss myself.”
Old Ed lamented the existence of this ultimate weapon with lingering dread.
“Assuming you still had the physiological function to do so,”
Elias added dryly in his mind.
He looked out at the sea-folk in the distance, who were continuously surging forward and crashing against the runic barricades.
“However, I don't believe they brought the ship here just to act as a deterrent,”
Elias said unhurriedly through the Mental Channel.
“If we look at the self-directed tragedy they staged at the Wayland Shipping office earlier today,”
“it's not enough.”
Xia'an frowned.
She didn't quite understand what Elias was getting at.
If a deterrent wasn't enough, what else did they want?
Did they actually dare to fire upon a civilian area?
But before she could ask,
Elias proposed a chilling hypothesis.
“But what if...”
“...we factor in tonight's sudden, unprovoked sea beast invasion?”
Xia'an was stunned.
She then followed Elias's line of reasoning.
The further she thought, the paler she grew.
Cold sweat dripped down her temples.
“Are you saying...”
Xia'an instinctively gasped.
“They want the Octowin to intervene directly?”
“To purge the sea-folk?”
“They want to use this opportunity to force a full-scale war with the Mist Veil Society?!”
“No,”
Elias shook his head, flatly rejecting Xia'an's speculation.
“You're giving capitalists too much credit for having a sense of justice.”
“What they want is firing clearance.”
Elias's gaze was as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice.
“Simply and purely, firing clearance.”
Elias began to piece together all of tonight's clues in Xia'an's mind.
“Think about it.”
“First, the attack on their office to create a false narrative.”
“And now, a large-scale sea-folk siege to induce absolute panic.”
“They start by making their company the victim, and then they let the citizens of Hastings Port become the victims.”
“They are using civilian lives to pave the way for 'legal clearance to fire.'”
Elias's voice echoed in Xia'an's mind,
frighteningly calm.
It carried a cold, detached rationality unique to an outsider.
“They aren't here to win.”
“They are here to make you, the Seventh Agency, and the Council of the Kingdom of Velen believe that you are about to lose.”
“Just think.”
“As long as Hastings Port is thrown into absolute chaos,”
“as long as the defensive lines collapse and enough citizens die in this sea-folk invasion,”
“and as long as the Council back in the capital feels that if they don't fire, the entire port will fall and they will carry the eternal infamy for it.”
Elias exhaled a breath tainted with the smell of blood.
“When that moment comes,”
“firing the Octowin's main battery will no longer be a disaster orchestrated by the Wayland Chamber of Commerce.”
“Instead, it will be viewed as an emergency measure taken to save the city and serve the greater good.”
“Everything will fall perfectly into place.”
Xia'an finally understood.
She felt a deep, bone-chilling dread.
The calculations of politics and capital were far more cold-blooded and despair-inducing than any monsters crawling out of the sea.
In response, Elias offered the most practical advice for their current situation.
He wanted to place a lock on the Octowin's firing authorization.
“Report this to your superiors,”
Elias instructed rapidly.
“As an informant, I would like to offer a few recommendations.”
“First, no matter how dire the situation becomes, direct bombardment of sensitive coordinates must be strictly prohibited.”
“Second, any firing of the cannons must have its spiritual trajectory meticulously recorded by official authorities.”
“Third, the Seventh Agency must immediately station high-level observers on board to supervise.”
“Fourth, any strike target must be double-checked and confirmed by the Seventh Agency. They must not be allowed to fire at will under the guise of clearing out the sea-folk.”
“As for what those sensitive coordinates are?”
Elias looked out at the dark, distant sea, and the isolated tower looming faintly in the night.
“The lighthouses of Moon Bay, of course.”
“And the unknown underwater ruins at the center of Moon Bay.”
Elias's logic was simple.
If they couldn't stop this warship, armed to the teeth, from firing,
then they would use rules and procedures to bind it in heavy shackles.
The moment it fired, it had to leave behind indelible traces and evidence.
They could not allow the Wayland Chamber of Commerce to recklessly achieve their ulterior motives and walk away scot-free.
Having heard all his analyses and suggestions, Xia'an gave Elias a deep look.
She nodded solemnly.
“I will contact Ms. Cecil.”
Rate on N.U.
