The bishop is unfathomable.

Chapter 121 Locking on the Target

As Tingens spoke, his hands began to unconsciously cross, as if he were somewhat nervous and fearful.

"Three months ago, as usual, it was the time when the Sons of Dust needed to supply goods each quarter."

"Following my usual practice, I sent the goods list using special code words and communication methods, asking the other party to confirm it one last time."

"Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this will be an ordinary transaction, just like every other one before."

"but--

"But this time things have become complicated."

"They started buying other goods and were no longer solely pursuing arms."

Hearing this, Leon finally couldn't help but ask, "What do they want?"

"—Humans. Living people. Whether they are lizardmen, trolls, goblins, or real humans, as long as they are living, intelligent races."

Tingens answered rapidly, then lowered his head and continued, "To be honest, although the channels are limited—"

But goods like slaves weren't actually that hard to buy.

"Buying too much at once, especially for unclear purposes, makes it easy for the supervisory bureau and the inspection agency to take notice."

"I originally wanted to contact an acquaintance in the Southern Continent to ask if they could send it over."

"But in the end, due to cost and time constraints, I could only try to find a solution within the Empire."

"Time?" Li Wei seized on a key point: "Are they in a hurry?"

"Yes, it's urgent. Although the distance from the Southern Continent to here isn't far, many sea routes have been blocked due to the chaos of war, so we have to take a detour."

"In some places, armed shipping is even necessary to complete the mission."

"The round trip takes a long time, and I can't fool them when going through customs. After all, the influence I can exert can't affect the Empire's customs department."

"Considering the transportation time, the Children of the Dust wanted this shipment to arrive in Beldor last month, which I couldn't achieve!"

"I can only bribe the managers of places like homeless shelters, orphanages, and mental hospitals to make a few people who are ignored and uncared for disappear."

"Anyway, the Children of Dust didn't specify a particular age or requirements for the people they wanted; they only required that they be alive."

"I spent a week gathering the 100 men they wanted, stuffing them into the cargo crates that were originally used to transport weapons, and giving each man a bag of rations just enough to keep them from starving or thirsting."

"According to the plan, after the containers are delivered to Beldor and stacked at the Beldor container storage site, we will have nothing more to do."

"So I had Jack handle it. He was always in charge of transporting the goods in every deal with the Sons of Dust. I could only feel at ease with him around."

"Although the goods have changed and the need is urgent, the children of the sandstorm have not been late in receiving their money."

"I thought it would just be another deal like any other—but—"

"But a week later, just as I was contacting Hastings and looking for Jack, I received a box."

"There were three bloodstained nails in the box—and a letter in Jack's handwriting!"

"He told me to take these three nails to the Church of Radiance immediately, then told me to ignore his life or death, and finally told me to sever all ties with the Son of Dust as soon as possible and tell the patriarch the truth."

"But you didn't do that. Instead, you kept looking for him, didn't you? You didn't even dispose of those three nails as your son instructed in his letter. Instead, you carried them with you."

As Li Wei spoke, he took out the three blood-stained, inscribed nails: "Did the letter say what these were?"

"No—but judging from the way it was disposed of, it must have been something important to the Sons of Dust," Tingens replied somewhat dejectedly.

"You want to trade this?" Hastings's eyes sharpened. What was originally just a simple employment relationship now turned into a desire to terminate the partnership.

Li Wei shook his head and said with a hint of mockery, "But unfortunately, it seems that's not the case."

"At least during the time you were suffering from amnesia, when your luggage and personal belongings were scattered all over the place, this thing wasn't picked up."

"Of course, it's also possible that you were discovered in time, and the nearby patrols made the Sons of Dust hesitant to act."

"But if this thing is really important enough—those lunatics will do anything."

"I will have the agents and priests of the Church of Radiance examine the origin of this nail."

"Now, you should still have some clues that you haven't mentioned yet."

"For example, the Sons of Dust's stronghold, delivery addresses, and so on. And what were your plans when you first hired Mr. Hastings?"

Tingens, head bowed, continued, "It's almost exactly what you said."

"As for Hastings—I hired him simply to put him in the spotlight. A clever detective can always find some clues, even if they're unrelated to the case."

"As long as he alerts the Sons of Sand, he can at least lure them out; it would be even better if he could find them directly."

"But when I received Jack's last letter, all I wanted was to find him. At least to see him one last time."

Levi nodded, then looked at Hastings.

The other party has already asked all the questions they asked him to ask. Now it's up to the detective to connect the clues and find the loopholes.

Hastings pondered for a moment, then turned to Tingens: "Well then, my lord, I have one last question."

"The living people, the entire vanished caravan, and the young master."

"Current clues suggest that the Children of Dust lack specimens, or rather, sacrifices, for live experiments."

"You've been working with them for so long, is there anywhere around here that you can think of?"

Tingens closed his eyes, recalling the information from his dealings with the Children of Dust: "The delivery locations they set for the goods kept changing."

"However, in the past year, their address—do you have a map, Mr. Li Wei?"

"certainly."

Levi nodded, gesturing for Barney to fetch the map from the study.

Tingens took the map, traced his finger to Beldor, and then pointed to the area surrounding Beldor's territory.

"That's right, Lespon Territory, Graystone City, Cantras City, Comporo Territory—yes, yes, yes—so that's how it is."

Tingens seemed to have discovered something, and laughed somewhat self-deprecatingly.

Hastings walked to the edge of the map and looked around at the place names that Tingens had just mentioned. Apart from noticing that these cities and noble territories were all near the Beldor region, he didn't see anything particularly special.

Out of curiosity, Wag also went over to take a look, and the more he looked, the more something seemed off. So he took out a pen and, with Li Wei's permission, started drawing on the map.

Soon, several cities and noble territories were linked with Beldor.

The vertical lines intersect and combine to form a ritualistic array.

"This is the ritual of the Children of the Sands. I've seen a similar pattern before—I won't forget it," Tingens murmured to himself. "I should have discovered it long ago, I should have discovered it long ago—"