In the shadows, Leon moved like a ghost, weaving through the alleyways without pause.
Every so often he stopped to get his bearings, then turned left, turned right, weaving his way along at a steady jog for a full hour before finally coming to a halt in a rundown district filled with crumbling walls and broken ruins.
Based on the covert tracking and investigation he had been doing these past days, the merchants doing business in the black market, a portion of the carriages going in and out, followed precisely this route.
So this was very likely the route they had to use for transporting smuggled goods.
What kind of necessity would drive them to use a single route this frequently? Obviously... these guys needed a warehouse to store the premium goods they were smuggling in from outside.
That transfer warehouse... was it that one over there?
He glanced around, then lightly leapt onto the rooftop of a ruined building, using a half-collapsed bell tower to conceal his silhouette. He narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze on a dilapidated church not far off.
That had to be it. In just three days, there had been as many as seventeen carriages going in and out.
Glancing at the carriage ruts left on the cobbled ground, Leon grumbled inwardly:
If this is normal traffic, I'll eat my hood.
But... with this much activity, the Ganesha Familia's military police patrol so heavily, and they haven't noticed a thing? Meanwhile the black market's business is getting hotter and hotter...
Unless every single one of those patrol officers is blind, there's only one explanation...
As he mulled it over, another carriage pulled up at the church entrance. A cold smile tugged at the corner of Leon's mouth.
There's a mole, folks.
Only a mole could cover up operations this big. Though, to be fair, the location of this transfer warehouse had been picked to be plenty remote...
Leon watched with his peripheral vision at measured intervals, doing his best to minimize the risk of being spotted, while analyzing the question of why the warehouse had been placed here.
He refused to believe the other side had picked this spot just for convenience or cheap rent. There had to be some more important calculation behind it, something he wasn't seeing yet.
Not enough intel to analyze. Tch.
Leon's expression suddenly jolted, his pupils shrinking, his spine tensing on instinct.
He yanked his body back behind cover, leaving only one eye exposed, fixed on the figures emerging from inside the church.
Well, shit. I said they didn't pick this place at random... so that's what's going on...
At the church entrance, the one chatting with the merchant who had come to pick up goods was a cat-person with a sleazy grin and an arrogant air.
The real kicker was the earring in his cat ear. One look and you knew this wasn't any well-meaning feline.
Besides him, several other distinctly unfriendly types stood at his side. With Leon's eye for it, he could tell at a glance these were all Adventurers of considerable skill.
None of that was the real issue.
What really made his heart sink was the striking Familia Crest on their equipment.
Evilus... Rudra Familia...
So the transfer warehouse is being guarded by Rudra Familia?
This just got tricky...
Those Adventurers carried a seasoned, ruthless air in every movement. One look told him they were genuinely dangerous.
All of them Lv. 3... is Rudra Familia really this strong?
Leon's face shifted between expressions as he wrestled with the situation internally.
Head-on assault? Pull off a textbook infiltration and kill everyone who sees me?
Clearly not going to work.
Even though he was Lv. 2 now, with his broken baseline abilities, his skills and magic, his Development Ability, and top-grade equipment backing him up, he might be able to use Instant Cast magic across the level gap to take out one or two by surprise... but the moment the others reacted and a group of Lv. 3s came at him, he wouldn't have a sliver of a chance of surviving.
This wasn't a fair one-on-one duel, it was a life-or-death fight of one against many, and on top of that... he was at a level disadvantage.
Leon had never heard of anyone who could flip the table on multiple opponents while at a level disadvantage.
Pulling off a one-on-one upset across levels was already enough to earn you a "future's bright" tag.
One against many, from a disadvantaged position? That kind of comeback only happened in dreams.
Maybe... one day I'll be able to, who knows. But right now I'm just a Lv. 2 fresh out of the gate. I don't have the foundation to pull off something that ridiculous.
Leon sighed in his head and frowned again.
Brute force is off the table, so I'll have to outsmart them.
Thinking of his cheat, which could pass even a god's scrutiny without a flaw, Leon raised an eyebrow as a plan clicked into place.
The corner of his mouth curled up in a sly arc, and his figure melted quietly into the shadows.
...
...
In front of the church, the cat-person was grumbling at his "paymaster."
"Hey, do you people have any sense at all?"
The cat-person's tone was nasty, his eyes downright vicious.
"Next time you come to pick up goods, could you switch up your route? There are plenty of roads, but you insist on piling onto the same one! Not conspicuous enough for you? You won't be happy until you drag those self-righteous bitches here?!"
The merchant, wearing a top hat and tailcoat with a gut sticking out, used his cane to direct his men to haul goods into the church, then shot the cat-person a contemptuous sidelong glance and sneered:
"A lowly Adventurer like you knows nothing about business. For merchants like us, time is money. We're supposed to skip the fastest route because of some paranoid suspicion of yours and take a huge detour? Do you take me for a fool?"
"You..."
The merchant scoffed coldly, his face filled with greed:
"Hmph, the profits in the market right now are beyond what you could imagine. With margins this high, I'd rather drop dead than waste time on a detour."
"..."
Then his tone pivoted, a touch of arrogance creeping in:
"Besides, isn't that what Evilus is for? It's precisely because we trust your strength that we invested real money in you, and a lot of it. Now you're going to let us earn big. That's how you pay us back!"
"..."
The cat-man's teeth itched at the merchant's greedy expression, but the man was a major backer of the Familia. He couldn't risk making a move. If it wrecked the Familia's and the Evil Gods' plans, that was a pot he could never hope to carry.
In the end he could only swallow the urge to slap the man's face a few times and turn his head away in anger.
Out of sight, out of mind.
...
The merchant's men worked quickly. In under an hour the carriages were fully loaded. Under the merchant's repeated urging, the convoy hurried off.
"Damn shady bastard! If it weren't for the bigger picture, there's no way you'd be getting away with that attitude with me!"
"Tch!"
The cat-person cursed under his breath and viciously kicked a chunk of rubble by his foot sailing through the air. He shoved his hands in his pockets, craned his neck, and barked sharply at the guards staying behind:
"All of you, stay sharp! Watch close, and the moment anything seems off, report to me!"
"Yes, Boss!"
His subordinates answered in unison.
With that response, the cat-person scowled and turned to head back into the church.
Not a few minutes after he was gone, a figure appeared behind the guards like a wraith, utterly silent.
The newcomer was dressed all in black, hooded cloak over his head, face covering pulled up, wrapped tight from head to toe.
"Who goes there!?"
One of the guards snapped to alertness, barking out the challenge.
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