Lord Of Puppets

Chapter 204 204 – Crow Watchers.

[11 days ago – Maw city – Knight Captain Office.]

"So…. They escaped?" – asked knight captain.

"Yes sir… The Silver Talons escaped before we got there…. However, they also seem to killed few knights that were sent after them… Alongside few farmers who they had stolen food from and silenced so they wouldn't be exposed too early."

"Still… Based on the pattern, it seems that they may had already escaped our territory… But we don't know which territory they had entered after."

"The Mo'vik or Mo'vur terrify they escape into."

"…"

"Inform the lord."

"The one who should make decision in this situation is him."

"So… Do we stop the chase?" – asked the knight.

"Do we have any authority there? Nope…" – said annoyed knight captain as he cleaned the pen.

"We cannot really deploy a soldiers after them."

"…"

"But still, the bounties by now should had already spread around."

"But again… We don't have any idea who they are."

"We had our people look through the camp and what not… But it was ravaged."

"We don't know if golems came there or not. There is also very good chance that some wild beasts or some greedy bastards took anything valuable that was left."

"However what worries me the most is that we couldn't find any traces of the golem specialist."

"We still don't know if he worked with them or not."

"But then again… He is currently 'missing'."

"…."

"And there is problem."

"He held high ranking position within that newly established magic tower… So, I don't know if we can really HUNT him without evidence."

"We don't have evidence that he is dead."

"Nor we have evidence that is working with them."

"…"

"In short the situation is bit fucked."

"…"

(Well, there is also that thing regarding the monsters.) – thought the knight captain.

(We found nothing.)

(We did needed to split up adventurers everywhere AND we also had some of them going away, since some monster trouble in neighboring territories did happened.)

(But overall? The accidents that DID happened were just small.)

(There was no massive accidents which would need special form of attention.)

"…"

(And there were also no more wyvern attacks.)

(We looked everywhere for weeks, but nothing happened.)

(Not only that, there is also this problem.)

(South.)

(This place is close to the boarders… But not close enough.)

(There are few territories between us and neighboring kingdoms.)

(So does that mean the attack came from the neighboring territories from the south?)

"…"

(Nah… Something is still not adding up.)

(If the attack really came from so close, then why weren't we informed of these creatures?)

(We would had at least received a heads-up waning or something before the incident every happened.)

(Not only that, I've looked through the number of requests that were posted by the adventurer guild…. And there was nothing about wyverns recently.)

(That means our neighbors didn't knew about wyverns' existence?)

"…"

(Or maybe…. Or maybe they were the ones who sent them here?)

"…"

*Sigh*

"Shit is getting complicated…" – said the knight captain out loud to himself.

"…"

(There is also dungeon.)

(Whoever was behind it all has some plans regarding it… Or maybe they are using it as distraction?)

(According to the adventurers, the guild master wanted the dungeon to be destroyed, since as of right now, there are not enough people to handle the dungeon taming process nor the adventurers had time to currently handle this task, since there was monsters still running rampant.)

(A valid reason.)

(However, that guy Arthur wanted the dungeon to be tamed no matter what, since it would benefit the whole empire, since they could possible upgrade their golems using that dungeon.)

(Also a valid reason…. If anything, his reason was far more valid.)

(He apparently even had even once a conflict with guild master, wanting the dungeon not be destroyed no matter what.)

"…"

(Is he really working with the Silver Talons?)

(It really doesn't look like from my point of view.) – thought the knight captain as somebody suddenly began knocking on the door.

"…"

"Come in." – said the knight captain before moments later a maid entered the room.

"Em… Excuse me sir… But the lord wishes for your presence urgently." – said the cat beastwoman.

"…"

"I understand." – said the knight captain as he stood up.

(Is it related to the attack on the dungeon?) – thought the knight captain as he then headed to the lord's mansion, where the man was eagerly awaiting the knight's arrival at his office.

"...I've received a letter." – said the lord with concern expression.

"And…. It is quiet important one."

"…"

"Should I be worried?" – asked the knight captain.

"Well… I don't know." – replied the lord as he held the open up letter in his hand.

"Did you ever heard about the squad of soldiers and knights by the name of Crow Watch?"

"…Em…. No?" – replied the confused yet alarmed knight captain.

"…"

"Simple put, they are special army that works for two people." – said the lord.

"The emperor or the newly appointed duke ,Arthur Mifioria."

"This army was forged after the empire was formed and it is still growing army."

"Simple put, they are top elites of our empire."

"They are usually sent on the dangerous missions here and there."

"There are quiet lot of nasty rumors going around them… But the fact remains that whenever they do their job, they finish it perfectly."

"Simple put, they are somewhat special weapons of the empire."

"…"

"And that very special weapon is coming here." – said the lord as he handed over the letter to the knight captain.

"Their reasoning?"

"They want to take over the dungeon."

"!?"

"Wait, hold up! What the hell do you mean they are coming here and want to take over the dungeon!?" – said the knight captain.

"It is as I just said. It is written here if you don't trust me." – said confused lord.

"But isn't that place involved with-"

"I fucking know!" – shouted the lord at the knight before he could finish speaking.

"I know everything! I'm not dumb!"

"But right now?"

"People who have backing of both the emperor and the duke."

"One of them sent them here and they want the dungeon."

"That is just the end of the story…. I'm… Outranked completely here and can't say anything."

"…"

"But still… Isn't this a good thing?"

"I mean, many adventurers already left since monster problems started occurring again and again."

"Not only that, the guild master operation was about doing large scale attack, which would overwhelmed completely golems and keep casualties to minimal, right?"

"But with their support we should be able to take down the dungeon for good?"

"I mean, they want to tame it, but with them possible helping out, we can do it."

"…"

"I mean…. If you are really that strong… Then it maybe will work out?" – said the confused knight captain.

"But still… I can't say that the timing is bothering me a bit…"

(It says here they will be coming here around next week… Or maybe even early?) – thought the knight captain as he continues reading the letter.

(But isn't that still too early?)

(Based on what is written here, they seems to know about the dungeon AND considering that they want to tame it would hint at them fully knowing about the dungeon's value to the empire.)

(So does that mean that the emperor or the duke are really ones behind them?)

(But we kept the issue regarding the value hidden just in case.)

(Only some of the adventurers, soldiers and craftsman who worked alongside that golem guy knew about the dungeon's worth.)

(So how did they found out?)

One week later, the Crow Watchers arrived at the Maw city, just as the letter mentioned.

And upon their arrival, they were both greeted and taken to the lord's manor where both knight captain and the territory lord were awaiting their arrival.

"My name is Drumhan Kordin." – said the man in black armor as he sat on the sofa and took off his helmet, revealing his human adult face with short black hair and brown eyes.

"I'm the leader of the second squad of the Crow Watchers."

"Thank you for your time, lord Vincent and mister Kurwin."

"No! There is no problem whatsoever!" – replied the lord.

"If anything, I'm grateful that you had come."

"This territory… Well, there is lot of trouble going, which are just popping up left and right."

"But still… I wasn't expecting you to suddenly come here… I mean, I wasn't expecting you to be here this early and everything!"

"I-I mean…-"

"…"

"May I?" – said the knight captain as he taken over.

"What the lord means to say is that we didn't expected you to come here anytime soon…. Not only that, but we haven't even made any request yet."

"Yet… Based on the letter we had received, it seems you knew about the dungeon beforehand?"

"That is correct." - replied the black armored knight.

"We received the news about the golem dungeon and were informed about the request regarding the golem specialist."

"Us and Arthur Wirmur who was sent here was keeping a close contact with us via this." – said the man as he pulled out a magic sphere from underneath his coat.

"!"

(Communication sphere?) – thought the knight captain as he recognized the weird orb device that was held by the man.

"We were involved regarding the matter and told to be on standby just in case." – said the black knight.

"However, we didn't accompanied the researcher, since our presence would be…. Too 'eye catching', if you get what you mean."

"Not only that, there may not had been any need for us to even step up."

"So, we were ordered to be on standby, until Arthur Wirmur suddenly requested us to go here upon confirming the news."

"However, afterwords? We had completely lost contact with him."

"So… With a that being said."

"Where is Arthur Wirmur?"