Chapter 560: Make Them Pay

Racing down the streets towards the closest fire, the one at Tina’s bread factory, a myriad of thoughts swirled around Eris’ head.

She was well aware that while the publicly advertised purpose of the Rising Phoenix Guild was the provide opportunities to the least fortunate children in Misty City, it also had a hidden purpose of investigating a suspected criminal, or possibly even foreign enemy organization that had infiltrated the kingdom.

Random sweeps of the city along with covert stakeouts and stealthy observations had turned up evidence that everything from Darr Kingdom sugar to Zilon Kingdom weapons were being smuggled in both through land and river routes.

Much of these illegal goods were being sold on a kind of underground market, either to civilians or to criminal gangs.

However, while this seemed to indicate that all this activity was just about making dirty profit, digging deeper into the operation had revealed more and more evidence that a bigger, more dangerous plot was being carried out in the shadows.

Money was changing hands in the dark, and weapons were secretly being stockpiled, all while disaffected civilians and young, impressionable children were mysteriously ’disappearing’.

There were even a few shady figures who had moved into Misty City recently and blended into the background, as if just waiting for an opportunity to strike.

It looked like the prelude to an uprising, though given the limited scope and scale, that couldn’t possibly be the ultimate objective.

With the number of powerful masters and soldiers in Misty City, there was no way for even couple thousand Mortal Realm malcontents to stage a successful rebellion.

Even if there were a handful of hidden Initiate-Realm Cultivators pulling the strings from behind all this, that wouldn’t be nearly enough to shake the foundation the Balfour Family had in this city.

That said, causing chaos at an opportune moment, distracting the local forces and weakening the city’s defences... that was more than doable.

Eris’ grandfather, Elliot, had presented conclusive evidence of this shadowy threat lurking in Misty City over a month ago, and at the time he had requested permission to launch a full-scale purge, but Celestina had said no.

This wasn’t because she didn’t see this lurking force as dangerous, quite the contrary, in fact.

Not long after the Rising Phoenix Guild had been established and the covert investigation of this shadowy organization was initiated, Celestina had quietly communicated her findings to a few other nobles and leaders in the South-East Province she knew she could trust and urged them to launch similar probes.

The results of these probes had been... disturbing, to say the least.

Whatever this organization was, there was evidence of its tentacles extending throughout the province and even beyond.

On Christina’s 16th birthday, Audrey Carlson and Olivia Roth had brought letters from their families confirming this threat had also appeared in Iron Rock and Amherst.

This wasn’t some minor conspiracy against one family or one province, but rather a broad effort to undermine the security of the Rockwell Kingdom as a whole, and it had obviously been going on for years.

Acting against this hidden threat in only one place would just cause it to go further underground.

They needed to understand what this organization was doing, and why, before they attacked; otherwise, they ran the risk of it simply reconstituting itself in an even more covert manner.

This, naturally, left everyone in the upper echelons of the Balfour Family feeling nervous, like they were at war with an invisible foe, one that they had to contain, but could not yet eliminate.

Then, of course, there were the village attacks up and down the Lorren, the ones Christina had set out with the army to try to stop.

The fact that such attacks were also happening in the Darr Kingdom caused Celestina even more anxiety, as it meant that whoever was behind this organization was ambitious enough to target not just one, but at least two Mid-Sized Kingdoms at once.

Who knows how far this organization’s reach extended?

Regardless, the consensus among the Balfour Family’s leadership, as well as that of the Royal Family and several other close allies in the Rockwell Kingdom, was they needed to continue feigning ignorance until all the pieces were in the right place and they could wipe out this disease all at once.

It was a solid plan, a well thought out plan, a plan that everyone felt had a good chance of success, but as in any kind of war, plans are just plans.

The Balfour Family was willing to be patient, to take small actions against the enemy to keep them off balance and to delay them slightly, but it seemed the enemy wasn’t nearly as accommodating.

Multiple fires and acts of terrorism throughout Misty City?

That was definitely not something the Balfour Family could remain quiet about, especially not Eris who couldn’t stand the idea of not hitting back when the enemy was literally standing right in front of her.

She had been restraining herself this whole time, but now that the enemy had made the first move, she saw no reason not to respond in kind, which was precisely why she hadn’t simply fallen back to the Guild and let the adults handle this their way.

These hidden enemies wanted to do her and everyone she cared about harm, so she was going to make them pay for it.

That said, fighting back against an invisible enemy that had been covering its tracks for years was never going to be that simple.

By the time Eris and Commander Basil, the High-Rank Spirit Initiate in charge of her bodyguards for that day, arrived at the Bread Factory, those responsible for the damage had either escaped or been subdued already.

"Jake!" Eris called out to the older boy who was technically in charge of the factory.

Turning around, the young man saw who it was and breathed a sigh of relief, not because of Eris’ presence per-say, but because he knew wherever she was, powerful masters from the Balfour Family would not be far behind.

Running over, Jake immediately asked, "Eris, do you know what’s going on?"

Eris opened her mouth to say something, but then paused, realizing that while Jake was a friend, he wasn’t privy to as much information as she was given her status as Celestina’s Second Disciple.

As such, the young girl could only shake her head, "Sorry, I’m not sure. I was just in the area and saw the smoke, so I rushed over to investigate."

Glancing around, noticing the damage which had been done already, Eris asked, "What happened here, exactly?"

Turning back to the factory as well, Jake let out a long sigh and shook his head, "It all happened so quickly, I don’t really know where to start."