Witch, Fireball and the Evil God of Steam

The Empire’s border has been quite unsafe lately!

So unsafe that Ethan was called to a meeting after just less than four hours of sleep. There was a blackboard that appeared from who knows where in Ave’s living room, covered with documents sent from Gear City. She even prepared place cards with the code names "Top Wolf" and "Chicken Keeper."

But before the meeting could begin, Lady Rose had to clarify one thing.

Her beautiful eyes were full of doubt. "Why are you gnawing on hard bread again?"

Unconsciously, Ethan seemed to have become inseparable from hard bread, as if it was meant to be in his hand.

"Because I came without having breakfast... huh? Is breakfast not allowed during the meeting?"

"Breakfast? It’s almost afternoon now!"

Realizing Ethan was distracting her, Ave continued, "I didn’t say breakfast wasn’t allowed in the meeting. I’m just asking why you only eat hard bread. How much do you like hard bread?" ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

To the unknowing, it might seem the conditions at Ximu Town’s Reception Bureau intelligence station were terrible, and she, as the station chief, was mistreating her subordinates. If this got out to acquaintances in the capital, the Margaret Clan would surely be disgraced by her.

"Report, Lady Rose, because last time I went to the shop, they were holding a buy ten get three free promotion, and I ended up buying too many!"

Fortunately, Miss Keroy is never picky about food; she happily eats whatever she’s given. Ethan even noticed once that if there’s no food, she would eat tree bark.

Ave rubbed her forehead. This buy ten get three promotion was clearly because the hard bread wasn’t selling well, yet this guy acted like he found a treasure.

It seems she’ll have to invite him over more often to improve his meals in the future.

"This morning, the Reception Bureau in Gear City sent a letter advising us to temporarily halt all investigation work and warning Ximu Town’s residents not to leave town lightly."

"What happened this time?"

Ethan felt a tightening in his chest. Big events had happened in Ximu Town these past few days more than in the past two years. Could it be that Miss Becky and her seven old butlers won the team resurrection match and are coming to shoot ’Becky’s Revenge Season Two’?

"A few days ago, a Reception Bureau investigator witnessed the whereabouts of two ’Dream Erosion’ members at the Empire’s border. They seem to be attempting to enter the Empire through a border town."

The sound of chewing stopped. A pale Ethan handed the remaining two-thirds of his hard bread to Miss Keroy, who accepted it without hesitation and swallowed the whole piece, puffing out her cheeks.

"Are you talking about that Dream Erosion?"

Ethan felt he had to add periods between the words to emphasize the severity of the issue.

"What else?"

Ethan knew that, according to the trope, he should now have a flashback.

The first time he saw Dream Erosion in the ’Horned Owl Beast Daily’, it left a deep impression on him. It was a murder case in Gear City, and the victim was the deputy director of the Reception Bureau. He died at his mistress’s house. Their bodies were cut into 316 pieces by some sharp object, scattered throughout the crime scene.

What’s worse, ’Horned Owl Beast Daily’ included moving pictures, like an old black-and-white movie, allowing Ethan to witness the upscale apartment filled with blood and human tissue from a first-person viewpoint.

The case occurred shortly after his arrival, leaving an indelible shadow on his young mind.

Since then, Dream Erosion occasionally appeared in the ’Horned Owl Beast Daily’, and each appearance was accompanied by a high-profile case. No one associated with this organization ever survived, even if they hired the best local guards and reinforced their manor’s defenses to the extreme. It only added a few or dozens more corpses to the scene.

The victims of Dream Erosion were usually found dead in creatively gruesome ways.

The crime scenes were seldom seen even in B-movies.

If one had to describe it, the gap between Miss Becky and Dream Erosion was as wide as that between a small business owner and a Fortune 500 company.

Over time, the concerned citizens who read the papers like Ethan began to raise a question.

Why is there a group of murderers targeting Empire nobles, department officials, and church leaders, yet no one can apprehend them?

At least in Ethan’s two years in Ximu Town, no Dream Erosion member had been caught or killed.

Consequently, a theory began to spread among the populace.

Each member of Dream Erosion is a Saint who worships the Evil God, so wherever they go, it’s like the Evil God descends to bring disaster upon the world.

And now, two such evil Saints appeared simultaneously at the Empire’s border?

Ethan had a foreboding feeling and trembled as he asked, "Could it be that all these files sent are meant for us to take on those homicidal maniacs?"

"Of course not. After receiving reports, the Empire is mobilizing an elite Knight Order that will be heading to the border soon. Our task is to assist them in understanding the local situation while we wait in town. In hindsight, the witch hasn’t touched Ximu Town, probably due to news about Dream Erosion."

"That seems likely!"

Ethan immediately agreed. "By the way, such big shots like those in Dream Erosion wouldn’t trouble us common folks, right?"

"Hard to say."

"... What do you mean by ’hard to say’? I recall ’Horned Owl Beast Daily’ never reported them slaughtering civilians."

"But they are pursuing the Reception Bureau people."

Ethan’s expression immediately became serious, "Lady Rose, I have a plan. I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to say?"

"Go ahead."

"Is there an option where we first resign from the Reception Bureau, return to ordinary resident status, and then re-register Ximu Town’s intelligence station after those homicidal maniacs leave?"

"Resigning won’t help. Gear City branch received news this morning that a researcher fired from headquarters several years ago was killed at Fireplace Bay. In fact, many retired or career-changed former Reception Bureau investigators have been assassinated."

Seeing Ethan’s increasingly grave expression, she added a crucial piece of information, "But they were mostly A-level investigators. I suspect there’s something more to these cases, so I asked the branch to send all related files over. With nothing to do before the Kingdom Army arrives, we can pass the time by going through these files."

Ave’s obvious dark circles were telling enough.

Ethan could guess with his toes that she must have been too excited to sleep after receiving the files and got up early to investigate.

As a B-level investigator at Ximu Town’s intelligence station, she technically had no authority to review these files, but such is the power of Margaret.

"What clues did you find?"

"Three years ago, there was a severe containment failure at the Reception Bureau. To suppress the riot of the contained items, the former director led a team into the quarantine area and died inside."

"I’m aware of that incident."

The former director was the author of the ’Cursed Items Encyclopedia’, and he died at 33.

"The former Reception Bureau investigators targeted by Dream Erosion were more or less involved in that containment failure."

Ave stared at the case summaries pinned to the blackboard, lost in thought.

Compared to a terrorist attack, this seemed more like a calculated settling of scores.

Settling scores with those A-level investigators who survived the containment failure.