Chapter 354: The Cat Girl is a Link, the Black Iron Command Bureau’s Arrest

Chapter 354: Chapter 354: The Cat Girl is a Link, the Black Iron Command Bureau’s Arrest

’Did that handsome guy hear the bell and is he coming to open the door?’

The Cat Girl wondered.

"Um, excuse me."

Lance’s voice came from inside the room.

"Could you please just leave the food on the cart outside the door? But..."

Lance’s voice suddenly trailed off, as if he’d been forcefully interrupted by something unexpected.

The Cat Girl’s ears perked up.

Although it was indeed the handsome guy’s voice, judging by the distance the sound traveled, he seemed to be quite a ways from the door.

At this thought, the Cat Girl understood everything.

The Golden Acorn Bell on her neck uncontrollably let out another "JINGLE."

"Ah!"

The Cat Girl quickly clamped her small hands over the bell, her pretty face instantly turning crimson, like a ripe apple.

"Could you please prepare food for one more person?"

After a moment, Lance’s slightly breathless voice came through the crack of the door again.

"Also, send over two fresh, seasonal drinks..."

"Thanks!"

"Right away!! I’ll go tell the kitchen to add to the order immediately!"

The Cat Girl shouted.

Then, she took off like a gust of wind.

’What the heck! Am I just part of your game?!’

The Cat Girl grumbled indignantly to herself as she ran.

’Aaaaaah!’

What she couldn’t stand the most was that, for a split second, she had actually wanted to join in.

...

Night fell outside White River City.

Due to the emergency evacuation of over a hundred thousand civilians and Low Tier Adventurers from the Underground City a few days prior.

To accommodate these people, the officials of White River City had urgently sectioned off an area here and established a massive, temporary refugee camp.

Moreover.

Due to the severity of the incident, the White River City Mage Association had directly dispatched a large number of High Tier Professional Mages to participate in the camp’s construction.

Empowered by Spells, the camp, which was originally intended only as a temporary shelter, was built with astonishing speed.

In less than two days.

This vast outer-city area had started to look like a proper town.

The Mages used spells that turned earth to stone to quickly level the land, even laying out wide streets and a network of crisscrossing alleys.

Rows of sturdy wooden houses sprang up from the ground, providing temporary housing for the refugees.

Due to the complex mix of people and the lack of effective suppression from the City Defense Army, the newly built outer-city area was somewhat restless at the moment.

In a crowded square on the eastern side of the camp, a riot seemed to have broken out. Flames shot into the sky as people fled in a panic.

And at the same time.

In a particularly dark alley on the western edge of the camp.

"THUD!"

With a loud crash.

Rein was sent flying from a parallel street, kicked hard into the alley.

Just as Rein was about to hit the wall.

The Wolf Lady, Ella, rushed over and used her back as a cushion. The two of them slammed heavily into the dead-end wall deep in the alley, finally stopping their momentum.

"Cough, cough..." Rein clutched his chest, coughing violently.

Just then, the sound of footsteps approached from the mouth of the alley.

It was Yasa, the newly appointed top wolf of the Black Iron Command Bureau.

After being injected with and adapting to the Scarlet Magic Potion, it had taken him less than two weeks to track down the location of the Werewolf Species who had escaped from the Dark River.

Truly worthy of a top wolf.

"Cough, cough, cough... So you’re the new top wolf fresh out of the kennel."

Rein leaned against the wall, steadying his breathing as he watched the approaching Yasa.

Despite being at a disadvantage, his face remained calm.

"To catch us in this camp, you sacrificed your own comrades without a second thought just to distract the guards. All to move forward with this capture operation."

In fact, with his keen counter-surveillance instincts, Rein had long since noticed a force in the camp trying to use various methods to slowly lure him and Ella away from the guarded outer-city areas.

But the luring tactics were too familiar, and this old fox saw through every one of them.

Tonight, he had actually planned to turn their own scheme against them, intending to lead these "tails" into the territory of one of White River City’s noble factions and use them to get his pursuers killed.

But.

He never expected the top wolf in charge of this operation to be so decisive.

After realizing the lures weren’t working, his opponent had just flipped the table.

He had brutally forced the creation of this opportunity for capture.

Looking at his opponent’s indifferent eyes, Rein knew that tonight, he was probably trapped in a desperate situation.

He took a deep breath, deciding to try and talk his way out, to see if he could find a breakthrough.

While hiding his hands behind his back to secretly give Ella a hand signal, he deliberately spoke in a condescending tone.

"Since you’re a top wolf who crawled out of the kennel, you should know my old code name in the Bureau."

Rein was trying to pull rank on him.

"If we’re really talking about seniority and former rank, I’m much higher than you..."

Behind Rein, Ella glanced back at the lame old man.

She was slightly surprised.

’Could it be that Rein had a high position in the Black Iron Command Bureau?’

However, Yasa’s reply in the next second left Ella stunned.

"Trash."

The word almost made Rein, who was still formulating his speech, choke on the spot.

"Top wolf of the kennel’s 347th class. Publicly recognized operational callsign: ’Mother Wolf’."

Yasa looked at Rein as if he were reciting a worthless, decommissioned file.

"Your record states that during missions, due to weakness and compassion, you frequently and severely slowed mission progress to rescue injured comrades..."

"You held multiple honors, but for unknown reasons, you were stripped of your post and demoted to the Third Legion."

Yasa tilted his head, as if trying to think of something more to say, but in the end, he gave up and could only summarize it with one word:

"Trash."

Rein’s old face instantly flushed beet red.

’My file... was redacted?’

And Ella, who had been hiding behind him, twitched her furry wolf ears upon hearing Yasa’s assessment.

A flicker of disdain crossed her face, as if to say, ’So you were that pathetic back in the day, huh?’

But this moment was also the opportunity Rein had been waiting for.

"Now!"

Rein suddenly roared.

His hidden left hand shot out from behind his back, and four [Silver Thorn Binding] Secret Silver Threads flew toward Yasa’s face.

And in that same instant.

Ella wiped the expression from her face and moved in concert, her legs exploding with power.

Her whole body shot forward.

She unleashed a whip kick, sweeping it straight for Yasa’s neck.

The coordination between the old man and the young girl was perfectly timed. An Ordinary Professional of the same tier, faced with such a surprise attack at close range, would have had absolutely no time to react.

However...

The one they faced this time was a top wolf who had fought his way out of that "kennel"—a breeding ground for monsters.

Faced with the incoming Secret Silver Threads.

In Yasa’s pupils, the [Magic Burst Vision] Specialty instantly activated.

On his retinas, the trails of Ether in the air used to guide the threads were magnified and became crystal clear.

With just a slight twist of his neck, the four deadly threads grazed past his ear and embedded themselves deep into the stone wall behind him.

Immediately after.

Facing Ella’s whip kick.

Yasa didn’t even try to dodge.

He actively puffed out his chest and met the kick head-on.

"THUD!"

Ella felt as if her right leg had just kicked a block of ore.

The immense rebound force made her entire leg go numb.

[Inner Bone Armor]

After taking the hit head-on.

Yasa’s five fingers clamped around Ella’s fair neck.

He squeezed.

With one hand, Yasa lifted the struggling girl into the air and slammed her against the nearby stone wall.

The wall cracked from the impact. Ella’s mouth opened wide in pain, but with her windpipe crushed, she couldn’t make a sound.

"THUMP!"

A dull thud suddenly came from above.

An instant later, a figure was thrown from the two-story roof nearby, tumbling into the alley like a broken sandbag.

The body hadn’t even hit the ground.

"WHOOSH!"

With a sound of something tearing through the air.

A silver-red crystal arrow shot into the alley.

The crystal arrow precisely pierced the chest of the falling figure.

It carried the body backward with it, until... "THWACK!"

...it pinned the corpse firmly to the stone wall just above Rein’s head.

"Tsk. So Repulsive Force really does significantly increase an arrow’s penetration power and speed."

A young voice, incredibly familiar to both Rein and Ella, drifted over..

First came the sound of someone landing, followed by footsteps approaching the alley’s entrance.

Moonlight spilled down.

The newcomer was none other than Lance.

He was dispelling the Crystal Longbow in his hands, looking at the two sorry figures deep in the alley.