novelraw Chapter 49 : Who Was the Mole?
Chapter 49 : Who Was the Mole?
Chapter 49: Who Was the Mole?
At that moment, the atmosphere at the scene abruptly became taut and hostile, as three guns were simultaneously aimed at Leon.
Father Auden calmly stood up and swiftly retreated behind a pillar in the hall, using it as cover while peering outside.
The boss, who had been sitting composedly moments before, was also caught off guard.
He quickly rose and retreated behind his three bodyguards, then angrily questioned the old shop owner: “What’s going on, Roddy? Explain this!!”
From the very start of this meeting, he had felt that something was off.
The old shop owner, known on the streets as Roddy, had recently supplied him with goods of extremely high purity and had guaranteed stable deliveries.
As a reward, he had handed over the business of a newly developed street to him to manage.
As one of his subordinates, the old shop owner had been riding a wave of success.
Yet today, he suddenly contacted him, saying that he wanted to retire from the supply business and introduced that Fenrir, claiming he wanted the boss to meet him.
The suddenness of it all naturally aroused suspicion, but he was genuinely interested in Fenrir, who had produced high-end goods within his territory that even he himself did not possess.
The Earl’s forces were expanding into South Harbor County.
Most of the core clients in South Harbor County were built up through his own local connections.
For the moment, everything seemed fine, but once magical potions made from higher-purity mana entered their territory, customer loss would soon become inevitable.
At such a time, the sudden appearance of a high-purity supply source guaranteed by one of his own cadres was, without a doubt, a timely solution to his urgent problem.
Cooperation with that Fenrir was crucial to him in his current situation.
After much consideration, he had still reluctantly arranged this meeting.
At the time, he had been inspecting the lending side of his business and had brought his people along.
Garcia, who had been reporting to him as a debt collector at the time, was among them.
“Everyone, put your guns down first! Boss, I’ll explain!” the old shop owner tried desperately to calm the disturbance.
“You don’t deny it? You knew from the beginning!?” the boss glared at the old shop owner, his voice rising several notches.
“There’s nothing left to explain, Boss.” Garcia continued staring at Leon with a ferocious grin.
“From the very start, this was a setup by the Inquisition! All the goods they gave us were bait!
“This kid is the inquisitor who messed me up at the tavern that day. He’s been investigating us for a long time already! You can bring my people in to testify! And old Roddy too—when I got screwed over by this kid at the tavern, old Roddy even contacted us and said the Inquisition was cracking down hard, telling me not to dig too deeply into it.”
“The Earl?” The boss was immediately convinced, his cheeks twitching.
“Old Roddy, don’t tell me you betrayed me!”
He knew that the Earl had influence within the Church, and he even knew that the Church’s forces in South Harbor County had already begun strictly investigating his business under the Earl’s influence.
Could it be that this so-called Fenrir had been bait laid from the very beginning by the Earl’s faction and the Inquisition, all to wipe them out in one sweep?
Leon keenly noticed the boss’s deep-seated hostility toward the Earl.
This seemed like something he could use.
“No, no, it’s just that things were urgent and I didn’t have time to explain,” the shop owner said anxiously.
“Everyone, please sit down first. I’ll explain everything to you slowly.”
In the current situation, a single accidental discharge would make the situation irreparable.
He had also completely failed to anticipate that Garcia, who had originally been handling debt collection, would suddenly appear here as a bodyguard.
“Boss, we’d better shoot this bastard in the hands and feet first, then listen to old Roddy’s explanation slowly,” Garcia said, grinning as he stared at Leon.
“Didn’t expect you’d fall into my hands so soon, did you, buddy?”
The humiliation of having his hand pinned through and being viciously beaten by Leon at the tavern had cost him all his face in the underworld.
Now that he finally had a chance to collect principal and interest together, this Inquisition mole would soon experience the most brutal side of the underworld!
But Leon was not nervous at all.
He calmly spoke up.
“If I were a mole, the moment a shot was fired, the people surrounding this place outside would’ve already rushed in.”
“Stop bluffing! No one could’ve followed us here. You have no backup!” Garcia licked his lips arrogantly.
“That’s true, I don’t,” Leon replied.
“Because I’m not a mole at all. Who says an inquisitor can’t get involved in this line of work?”
“Oh yeah? Then prove it,” Garcia burst out laughing.
“Prove that an inquisitor who pretended to be a mana dealer and infiltrated us isn’t a mole!!”
“I killed Caron Eso,” Leon suddenly said.
When he spoke those words, the only ones visibly shaken were the old shop owner beside him and Father Auden hiding behind the pillar.
“Oh, sure. If you could kill your own Director, that would prove you’re not a mole. Then go on, hurry up!” Garcia completely treated it as a joke.
“I already killed him,” Leon said calmly.
The old shop owner beside him kept a stiff face, not daring to speak.
Leon had not told him in advance that he would bring this up here.
Once the murder of Caron was mentioned, it could implicate the matter of him handing Leon over.
But the problem was—if this was said out loud, how many people would actually believe it, aside from him?
Under his mask, the boss revealed a suspicious expression, half-believing and half-doubting.
Of course he knew Caron Eso.
When that Director of the Hamel Inquisition had taken office, he had caused considerable suffering to his subordinates, making him extremely wary.
Fortunately, over the past ten years, the man had never seemed intent on uprooting his business entirely.
He had only occasionally cracked down on the lowest-level lackeys, and the two sides had maintained a delicate balance and tacit understanding.
That man was not someone who could be killed so easily!
“I have proof,” Leon said, reaching into his pocket.
“Don’t move!!” Garcia shouted harshly.
“What are you nervous about? You searched me before I came in. Are you all really that timid?” Leon said calmly.
He took out a ring from his pocket and held it up for everyone to see.
“There should be someone among you who recognizes Caron Eso’s family crest, right?”
As he spoke, he deliberately glanced toward Father Auden behind the pillar.
What he took out was Caron’s usual family crest ring.
Caron was the youngest son of a baronial family and always wore this ring.
Father Auden served in the Church and would certainly know Caron, perhaps even personally.
If someone recognized Caron’s ring, that would naturally be the easiest solution.
And even if no one did, Leon still had other plans.
The boss examined the ring carefully, then turned to the side.
“Father!”
Father Auden walked out from behind the pillar and returned to the table, gesturing for Leon to let him examine the ring.
Leon slid the ring across the table.
Father Auden picked up the family crest ring and examined it from all angles.
There was a faint trace of blood on it, but it was not Caron’s blood—it was deliberately smeared by Leon to enhance the visual effect.
“It looks genuine,” Father Auden reported to the boss in a deep voice.
Then he stared intently at Leon, carefully scrutinizing him.
Even through the masquerade mask, it was obvious that the boss’s expression had changed.
Even Garcia felt uncertain.
He had experienced this inquisitor’s madness firsthand, but he still could not connect the man before him with something as unreal as killing the Director of the Inquisition!
“Under the Earl’s influence, Caron Eso began conducting strict investigations and discovered the business I was secretly running. I had no choice but to kill him,” Leon said as he swept his gaze across everyone present.
“Now then, do you still think I’m a mole?”