Lord Of Puppets

Chapter 200 – Suspects.

"..."

"Leader... I don’t mean to say anything, but why are we returning so late to the city?" – asked the party member C of the Silver Talons as he and rest of the group were heading towards the city.

"Well, are supposed to be having a ’meeting’ with dungeon master... A peaceful one." – replied the masked leader.

"We need to make sure we would ’encounter’ anybody heading towards the camp just in case."

"If we didn’t do that right, then our cover is blown."

"The question is now.... We waited long enough, but what sort of story are we going to make?"

"We can’t just admit that the golems attacked us, since we want the dungeon to survive and be captured by our forces."

"The fucking problem here is though, how will we make it believable."

"I mean, we planned on putting explosives around to make it look like the dragon worms came from the underground... But the fucking problem is that the golems stopped us in tracks before we could had set off explosives."

"That dungeon master... Did it not trusted us from the start?"

(We know that the monkey things are the eyes of the dungeon master, but these monsters straight up went around us and attacked us from the sides.) – thought the worried masked leader.

(We managed to escape unscratched, but the freaking bombs were left behind.)

(We hid them underground.... But there is good chance that the golems took them.)

(We didn’t set off the bombs, since we were ordered to have the peace talk finished... But if we knew that it would turn that way, we would had set off explosives right away.)

(If somebody were to go to the forest, they wouldn’t find any freaking holes.... And it would our story regarding assassins and dragon worms appear to be completely made up... Even though it is.)

(No matter how we look at this, we are fucked.)

"..."

"..."

"We are going to tell the city that the peace talk succeeds and the dungeon master agreed to our demands." – said the masked leader.

"By doing that, we will also manipulate things here and there, in order to make sure nobody enter the forest."

"The story will be like this."

"The enemy underestimated the golems and were forced to run away, however we had spotted them nearby, regrouping."

"We will make into a hunt situation where soldiers and adventurers will be just going around, hunting non existing assassins."

"With this, we should had bought ourselves enough time." – said the masked leader as the group finally started getting near the city gates.

"..."

"?"

"!"

"Hold it!" – shouted one of the guards near the gate as the group of adventurers approached them.

"Who are you and what is your purpose here?"

"I’m Meraz." – said the leader of the Silver Talons as he stepped up and shown his guild card to the pair of guards who approached and took the indentation card.

"I’m the leader of the B-rank party, Silver Talons."

"We were one of the parties that were dispatched to deal with the golem dungeon and we came back to bring an urgent news to the guild."

"..."

"I see." – replied the guard as he handed back the guild card.

"We were told to expect you."

"But we also informed that somebody should be with you.... Where is he?"

"..."

"There was... A situation."

"To be more exact, we are only able to explain the situation to the person with authority."

"..."

"Okay." – said the guard as he gave a signal for the gate to be open, allowing the group of adventurers to enter the city.

"The lord wants to speak with you directly; we will accompany you." – said the guard as he and 3 other guards walked alongside the B-rank party.

"I understand." – replied the masked leader.

"...."

(The city seems perfectly intact.... I guess the wyverns that came here were nothing more than a distraction, eh?) – thought the leader of the Silver Talons.

(Honestly, it is good... I mean, if the city was half wrecked after the attack, the clean up would be catastrophic.)

(But still... They have their guard up.)

(Against people especially.)

(Did they realized that somebody may had controlled wyverns?)

(Well, we did made the whole fake story about tamers.) – thought the masked leader as the entire group headed to the manor which was right in the middle of the city.

"We had brought the members of the Silver Talons per order." – said the guard who accompanied the group.

"!"

"Right this way!" – said the knight as the group was let into the manner... And their escort was completely changed from the soldiers to the knights upon entering the mansion grounds.

"..."

(What the hell is going on?) – thought the masked leader as the group was approaching the mansion entrance.

(Why are we now having a new escort?) – thought the masked leader as the group entered the mansion... But right as they did, the door was instantly closed shut by the escorting knights, alarming the entire party as exactly one moment later, adventurers and knights appeared in the main hall, surrounding the B-rank party.

"..."

"What is the meaning of this?" – asked the masked leader.

"Just drop your equipment on the ground and nobody will get hurt." – said the dwarven adventurer Randolf.

"If you try to resist, we will use force."

"..."

"I’m asking again, what is the meaning of this?" – asked the masked leader.

"An arrest." – replied the knight captain.

"You are suspected of murdering the guild master Amelia Smith."

"..."

"We didn’t do it." – replied the knight captain.

"Drop everything you have, or we will force you."

"If you are truly innocent, then fallow our orders."

"..."

(Welp... Shit.) – thought the masked leader as he then snapped fingers in both of his hands, instantly giving signal to the two-party members to throw something on the ground.

And right in the very next moment, a thick smoke instantly appeared and spread throughout whole main hall.

*Cough*

"W-what is this stuff!?" – said the confused knight as in the very next moment he and other knight guarding the door were stabbed in the neck, instantly taken down, before moments later the leader of the group swung down his dagger, unleashing a devasting hit... Which did not forced the door open.

"!"

(Barrier?!) – thought the masked leader as he saw some form of magic over the doors.

"GET THEM! FUCKING KILL THEM IF YOU HAVE TO!" – shouted the knight captain as the adventures and knights made their move... Only to then quickly realize that they couldn’t find the masked people anywhere.

"IDIOTS!" – shouted the mage as he used his wind magic to somewhat clean up the area... But as he did, the adventurers and knight realized that the masked adventurers were nowhere in sight.

"!?"

"Where are they!?" – shouted panicking adventurer.

"KEEP YOUR COOL!" – shouted Randolf.

"THIS PLACE IS COMPLETELY SEALED OFF WITH MAGIC!"

"THEY MUST BE STILL HERE!" – shouted Randolf, trying to somewhat regain the control over the situation... But right as he did, one of the knights noticed something near the wall.

A silver sphere which then extended limbs, forming a cross, before then blowing up, unleashing a powerful enough explosion to destroy the whole wall in an instance.

After the explosion, the entire Silver Talons party made their escape, quickly leaving the mansion, while dodging both knights and soldiers on their way.

"Shit! They are escaping! After them!" – shouted the knight captain as he alongside all other people tried giving chase after the fleeing suspects.

"FUCK!"

"WHERE ARE THEY!?"

"THEY JUMPED OVER THE FENCE!" – shouted one of the soldiers.

"THEN WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS WAITING FOR!? AFTER THEM!" – shouted the knight captain.

Suspects behind killing the guild master Amelia Smith.

Silver Talons.

Upon being confronted and accused of murder, the suspected escaped the mansion grounds by using explosives and murdering several people who stood in their way.

A massive hunt was organized where every single adventurer and soldiers in the city took part in... However, even upon hours of searching and having the city on the lockdown, the suspects were never found.

However, new victims were spotted.

A guards who were on top of a wall were found dead, with cause of death being visible done by some form of short blade.

It is suspected that the Silver Talons managed to escape the manhunt just in time.

The search party was sent after them... However, there was no results whatsoever.

The Silver Talons had went completely missing.

"But still, it does confirms my theory." – said Randolf as he and several adventurers alongside knight captain had a meeting.

"Yeah... You were right." – said the knight captain.

"They must had been the one who killed Amelia Smith."

"They went straight for the kill instead of trying to argue more."

"This is as same as admit to their guild."

"..."

"What about the guy who was with them?"

"Arthur."

"No clue." – replied human knight.

"According to the guards, they said that they can only tell ’information’ to the person with authority."

"..."

"So there is either chance that he was working with them.... Or he was killed by them." – said the giant adventurer.

"..."

"The whole story about dragon worms and tamers may had been a lie.... But the wyverns that came here were by no means wild."

"Somebody sent them here."

"A distraction... A means of taking us away from the golem dungeon."

"..."

"And if that is the case.... Then question remains."

"Why?"