The two of them suddenly thought of a possibility.

So, Emilia immediately understood Mr. Apodale's feelings.

******************

"Any door!"

After the second teleportation, they arrived at an empty room on the third floor of a hotel.

Their destination was just across the street—from this vantage point, they could even see the top of the Witch Grocery Store.

However, just as Emiya was observing her surroundings, the top window of the Witch Grocery Store suddenly opened inward, as if some invisible person had slammed against it. They even saw with their own eyes the broken door latch fall to the roof and be pulled all the way to the door of the Witch Grocery Store by gravity.

Sig hadn't reacted yet. She stared at the source of the sound in astonishment and whistled loudly. "—So a paladin can actually just barge into the doors of single or even married people of the opposite sex and solve any problem with just their face and genitals?! I thought this was all just poetic art! It's really that big of a deal?"

Then, she blinked and finally reacted: "...Wait a minute! Did Lord Apodale break his oath just like that?! This is too hasty!"

"Haha." Emilia sneered insincerely, "Then, I have another question.

"Mars, can a paladin destroy other people's property without reason?"

"Destroying property without reason is, of course, the most taboo of taboos. At the very least, it requires solid evidence and unforgivable evil to do so. Even if a paladin were to break his oath, they probably wouldn't be willing to do so for such a foolish reason." Mars said with a dark face, "--Of course, there is one kind of property that a paladin would not break his oath even if it destroyed..."

"—That is his own property."

The last transmission went smoothly and without any incidents.

There's just one problem.

The place they arrived at looked very familiar. Their target wasn't the top of the Mage Tower, but the bottom.

Just a few days ago, when they had just arrived in Baldur's Gate, they had entered a teleportation array and met Lady Adrian, the only high-level harpist in Baldur's Gate.

At that time, they met each other in a secret room that was very much like a high-level harpist.

This time, Team Emia returned to the secret room. Just like before, Miss Imoen and Lady Adrian sat at their small table, smiling broadly.

The only difference is that this secret room is now filled with countless boxes.

"Ah, look who this is." Imoen said with a smile, seemingly oblivious to everything. "The great hero who saved the Flaming Fist has arrived—if your achievements were more traditional, perhaps you would have held high positions in the Flaming Fist. Now, perhaps Emiya will take over Karl Ora's position?"

"I have no interest in this kind of power, and that doesn't seem to be the issue today!" Emiya took a deep breath and spoke word by word. "—I seem to have received an invitation from Grand Duke Violet, one of the Four Dukes of Baldur's Gate, to go to the Witch Grocery Store. So, I followed her instructions step by step. Now, why am I here?"

"Hmm? Isn't it obvious?" Imoen smiled reservedly but brightly enough, like a summer flower. "Because Imoen of Candlekeep, Lady Adrian, High Harper—"

"That's Grand Duchess Violet of Baldur's Gate."

Yin didn't care about such things at all, but the expressions of the remaining three people were extremely interesting.

Even though Emiya had already anticipated this fact, she still felt a little tight in her chest and short of breath at this moment: "Is there any need to hide this kind of thing from us?"

"It was indeed necessary back then." Imoen reached out and tapped his forehead. "Mr. Emya, please think carefully about the circumstances under which we first met. Back then, you were just an adventurer passing through Baldur's Gate, seeking guidance! It seems unnecessary for me to tell you everything."

She covered her face with her hands, revealing only half of her features. Her lavender pupils seemed to glow between her fingers: "I have different faces for different people. I don't say what I shouldn't say, and I keep things that shouldn't be known firmly locked in my heart."

"Now?"

"Now, because you have stepped into the center of the stage." Imoen took out four amulets from his waist like a magic trick and threw them to the Emiya team. "Take them. This is a token of gratitude for your hard work over the past few days."

Yin's eyes suddenly lit up, and he took the lead in holding the four amulets in his arms.

The four amulets were made of ordinary silver necklaces, but the bottom was a black tourmaline covered with runes.

Yin recognized it immediately: "Anti-detection amulet?"

The so-called anti-detection amulet is as the name suggests: it can prevent the wearer from becoming the target of divination spells, and also prevent the wearer from appearing within the effects of divination spells.

"This amulet is one of those subtle treasures..." Imoen wiggled her fingers. "When it works, you don't even know it's working. When you're caught by lack of it, you don't have time to regret it."

"Ordinary adventurers have absolutely no use for this kind of thing, but congratulations! In my opinion, although you haven't embarked on an adventure for a few days, you have already saved yourself more than ten years of detours compared to others—"

Imoen sighed. "I estimate that what you did this time will be thoroughly investigated by that God-like Society in a few months at most. If you don't want to be hunted down and killed, from now on, this amulet will be something closer to your body than your underwear—you can't take it off even when you sleep."

"In order to raise these necklaces for you fools, I went all the way to Waterdeep and did hard labor these past few days. I finally collected the necessary amount from the Harpers' headquarters."

The so-called hard work of a great wizard naturally cannot be physical labor.

Emilia's lips moved: "Miss Imoen..."

"Stop, let me finish what I'm saying." Imon smiled and waved his hand, "Then, it's about cashing out your nearly one million gold coins."

The Archmage stood up leisurely and pointed at the boxes in the room. "The items here have completely drained my savings. It will take me a long time to deal with them."

The wizard's hand floated in the air like a ghost, prying open the treasure chests one by one, and countless gold, silver and treasures appeared before them without any reservation.

"Rubies and ruby ​​dust of varying value. These gems will have countless uses in the future, costing approximately 300,000 gold coins. Sapphires and emeralds are less valuable, costing 50,000 gold coins each."

"A box of ivory, a total of 30,000 gold coins. If you and Xige can break through to the sixth ring in the next few days, you'll have more to use when casting trigger spells in the future."

"Ten jade rings, 1,500 gold coins each, a total of 15,000 gold coins. If you continue to advance on the path of magic, the powerful spell of body transformation will be useful."

"Silver isn't worth much, but unfortunately it's used so often. Ten thousand gold coins. Platinum is used less often. Ten thousand gold coins."

"You may not have much use for the various diamonds, but from what I've observed, you'll likely be visiting various churches in the future. If you venture into the wilderness, those poor churches won't be able to find even a handful of diamond dust even if they dig deep. So you might as well bring some for yourselves, about 200,000 gold coins."

"And then, fifty kilograms of adamantium ingots, worth twenty-five thousand gold coins. Mars, these, combined with the previous ones, should be enough to make two sets of full-body plate armor made entirely of adamantium. Tsk, tsk, I don't know how many such extravagant armors there are in Faerun."

"Next, we need the materials needed to copy the scrolls and spellbooks, which will cost approximately 100,000 gold coins—"

All in all, it was almost exactly the 750,000 gold coins that Flame Fist offered for the 500 sets of armor.

This is already a huge number that can be regarded as a mountain of gold and silver.

But what is more valuable is the thought behind the preparation of money.

Miss Imoen brought them more than just money and property.

If the purpose is simply to cash in, it is entirely possible that the middleman has simply brought in some other valuable gems, which may also be of amazing value, but the only thing that can really make a difference is the value itself.

Ai Meng brought almost exclusively spellcasting materials, all of which were hard currency that could be easily circulated in every corner of the world. In fact, what was laid out before Emilia was the most expensive consumables commonly used by spellcasters.

The effort and hard work involved cannot be represented by money alone.

"——Sister Imoen!"

Sig jumped up in excitement and rushed directly to Imoen, jumping into her arms and rubbing her face: "You are the best to me!"

"Even my sister came out when she saw the money." Imoen sighed and put her arm around Sig's waist, patting her on the back. "You better not call me an old witch behind my back."

"...Ha...haha, how is that possible?" Sig laughed, "How could I be so heartless!"

"Heh, if you believe five out of ten of a bard's words, then he's a well-known figure in Faerûn." Imoen put Sigurd on the ground. "Well? I don't think I can do any better."

Emiya took a deep breath and bowed with Mars: "Thank you for your help."

"However, don't be too happy too soon." Imon looked towards the east of the city and sighed. "Although we have won a great victory today, it's a pity that this is only a temporary victory..."

"I don't think Yar Valakn will surrender and let years of hard work go to waste. I've seen plenty of people like him. When things are going their way, they hypocritically embrace authority and act recklessly. But once they're at a disadvantage and there's no hope of a comeback, they immediately drop their polite mask."

"Maybe... tomorrow." Imoen stood up and stretched. "I don't have to sleep tonight."

"Uh..." When it comes to the word sleep, the gossip fire naturally burns uncontrollably.

Sig asked quietly, "...that letter, the letter to Mr. Appledale...?"

"Ah, that letter. That's the most precious gift I gave to my main character." Upon hearing this topic, Imoen's face was immediately filled with a gloating smile.

She clapped her hands together, pointed to her head insincerely, and said, "I imagine I must be very happy right now. After ten years, this precious reunion with Apodale is going on so... passionately."

"She keeps me busy every day, so of course I have to repay her a little."

As if in response to her words, the entire building even shook slightly due to the influence of an unknown force.

Replay of Eighty-Five Devil

Light incense, pour blood, and praise his name.

It is said that the true form of this world is like an egg. The Material Plane, where mortals live, is the yolk of the egg. The Astral and Ethereal Planes are the whites, directly adjacent to the Material Plane. Gods, angels, demons, and other creatures reside in the Outer Planes, adjacent to the Astral Plane. And connected to the Ethereal Plane are the Inner Planes, the home of the elementals.

Traditionally, traveling between different worlds is a matter of whether it's easy or difficult. However, regardless, Hell, where the demons reside, is relatively isolated from the material plane. Communicating with Hell from the material world is no easy task.

However, difficulty and ease vary from individual to individual.

Now that demons have begun to walk freely between worlds for some reason, communicating with Hell only requires such a simple ritual.

At this moment, Raphael was in no mood to lament the devil's progress.

The demons of the Nine Hells are a very strange and contradictory group.

On the one hand, they do work hard for the goal of a bloody battle, but they are absolutely unwilling to work for this goal in vain. In order to fight for their own interests, they want to make their superiors bleed or even lose their heads at any time and place, and at the same time they don't care about slightly damaging the progress of the bloody battle. Of course, in order to prevent their subordinates from doing such things, the devil's superiors also have to wield the stick of power and force their subordinates to do their best.

The intrigues and struggles for interests among each other are the main theme of the devil's life.

Even if the phantom that appeared in the form of a light curtain on the opposite side was the devil's own father, the devil archduke Mephistopheles.

Despite his notoriety on the Material Plane, Mephistopheles was polite at this moment. "Raphael, it's only been a few days, and you've contacted me again. I truly hope this is simply out of fatherly affection, and not another case of my dear child causing trouble that I have no choice but to report to him."

"You are as wise as ever..." Raphael said before his father could lose his temper. "The situation at Baldur's Gate is indeed changing, but it's not all bad news."

"Then I'm all ears."

"Thank you for your patience." Raphael bowed his head humbly. "First, our last contact with Archdruid K'ha of the Sharptooth Forest was over ten days ago. After agreeing with us to capture the Friendly Arm Inn, he disappeared. According to the Valakon family, the competition in the forest seemed to have turned into a full-scale fight. K'ha's rival druids contacted the village of Hollowhorn, and the villagers there were actually a group of bearmen."

The corner of Mephistopheles' eye twitched. "A common lumberjack settlement in the Sharptooth Forest is actually made up of the strongest group of beastmen?"

"If you don't count the so-called dragon-transformed people who only exist in legends, then yes. The Red Moon Group, which Valakan worked so hard to recruit, were nothing more than a bunch of weaklings who bullied the weak and feared the strong. After realizing that all their fighting methods were ridiculous against the bears, they immediately retreated. Unfortunately, no news has been heard from the Sharptooth Forest since then. We also learned that the previous attack on the Friendly Arm Inn also came to nothing."

"...Looking at it all together, it's quite interesting." Mephistopheles pondered for a moment. "I remember that, as a gesture of sincerity, you delivered the Hell Enlightenment Orb to the Shadow Druid ahead of time."

Raphael's head suddenly lowered even more: "...Yes."

"Well, there are many possibilities. The most likely one is that the Shadow Druids simply abandoned us. They took the benefits, cleaned up our hidden agents, and immediately cut ties with us," Mephistopheles replied. "Pretend the Shadow Druids' collaboration with us never happened... And what can we do? Concentrate our forces on a large scale and attack the forest? We've exposed our own strength and our own existence, and thrown the druids we supported into the Styx, but gained nothing. Shadow Druids willing to cooperate with the devil and be accepted by the forest are not that easy to find."

Mephistopheles' image suddenly blurred. "Raphael, the situation is simple—you tried to trade sincerity for closer cooperation, but these Shadow Druids are nothing but insects, living in the darkest corners of the world. They abandon even fellow druids without hesitation, and only resort to the most brutal kidnapping and threats to expand their power. They are the loneliest, most untrustworthy fools in the world. You took a risk, but the result is a crushing defeat."

"You succeeded in gaining Zariel's support, but what good is that?"

Mephistopheles sighed and said, "Every devil tries to take risks, hoping to get the most enticing rewards with the least effort. But no matter what, I only look at the results. Whether you misjudged the size of the risk or were simply unlucky, it makes no difference to the Nine Hells. Okay, now I know you messed up the first thing, what next?"

Raphael opened his mouth, but decided to argue: "Not necessarily..."

"Yes, of course there are other possibilities." Mephistopheles sneered, "There is also a possibility that has always been low, but can never be ruled out." Mephistopheles said coldly.

"From a remote corner of Faerûn, a band of fledgling adventurers emerged. They were young and reckless, but their skills were worthy of their teachers' guidance. With the help of courage and luck, they overturned our carefully crafted plans. Even the successfully appointed Archdruid fell to them for various reasons. If Korhal were even more unlucky, he might even lose the competition ritual that he must win and fail to become Archdruid. In the end, the adventurers earned the gratitude of the new Archdruid and might even have slept with him. Since this is in Faerûn, the druid might even have changed his shape—"

Mephistopheles said these words in an almost mocking tone, then suddenly paused.

Then the silence turned into the most violent roar.

"Raphael! 'The devil has immeasurable wealth and power.' This nonsense is nothing more than propaganda used to deceive mortals and instill fear. Our resources are limited! If you use them to prepare for every eventuality, then the dispersion of your forces will only make all your plans as weak as a hut made of straw. Even the sea breeze from Baldur's Gate could sweep your refuge into the Sea of ​​Swords!"

"You're trying to use this possibility as an excuse, but you might as well keep exploring it! All your setbacks are because of the adventurers. Next, these adventurers will go to Eltoril and execute Eltoril's Supreme Observer in the streets, and even behead the complacent fallen angel Zariel! Is it because I didn't read fairy tales and sing lullabies to you when you were a child, so you want to make up for it in the material plane?!"

"If the message behind them fails, it means they're not afraid of assassination. Destroy them head-on. Isolate them and leave them besieged and killed in a helpless environment. Do you even need me to teach you something like this? A conspiracy without the power to back it up is nothing but a joke! If they're not important enough for the current goal, don't waste your energy on them just for the sake of face!"

"Do you think I don't know what you want?"

"Smartly utilize the resources at hand, constantly weighing various possible risks to achieve the best results. But how can you achieve this? If you don't know the answer, if you still need me to teach you, then you should return to the bloody battlefield, take off your exquisite clothes, pick up sword and shield, and fight to the death with the mindless demons!"

"The last bad news is, are you still alive?"

Mephistopheles' voice raged through Raphael's ears like the flames of hell. "Do you think I don't know what you're trying to do? You're unsure of your next mission, and you want more support! You might even want the great All-Knowing One to intervene—perhaps to get accurate intelligence from him, or even direct support from him."

"That's impossible! The dead accuse the dead, the dead accuse the dead. The title I worked so hard to create is not meant to be used on some random young adventurer!"

"Not to mention toiling for the Lord! The Lord is merciful, omniscient, and almighty. He can grant you everything you desire. But you must think clearly. With the Lord's power, even an ant can kill an elephant. What is the meaning of your existence then? You struggle in the material plane, not only to complete your mission, but also to prove your worth, to prove that you are irreplaceable in this position by your colleagues! Do you need to ask the Lord for everything? Does the Lord's justice and greatness need you to prove it? If you have to ask the Lord for everything, then what is the point of you?!"

"Eltoril has already risked exposure to provide you with support twice! Why don't you ask Zariel for a third time? And this mission itself has already been promised by our Lord! If you ask for it a second time, our Lord will also show mercy, but you will also be abandoned - before you continue speaking, you'd better think carefully!"

Raphael clenched his fists tightly, his head drooping lower and lower: "You misunderstood, father."

"Oh?"

"Actually, our plan had some setbacks, but the most crucial part went quite smoothly. All of these setbacks also successfully distracted the target. I'm just worried that I can't risk the perfect outcome for my Lord, so I want to minimize any unexpected events. If you don't think this is necessary, then you can just wait in hell for good news."

"Oh, I hope so."

After saying the last sentence, the shadow of Mephistopheles disappeared into the air, but Raphael still maintained a respectful posture and did not move at all.

Until a few minutes later, the originally gentle and elegant demeanor disappeared in an instant.

Raphael angrily threw the incense on the table against the wall and cursed, "Bah, you old bastard full of lies! What's my value?! Isn't it because Eltoril is under Zariel's control, while your progress is slow?! If you were willing to put in more effort like Zariel, we would have accomplished this long ago!"

At this moment, Raphael froze for a moment, frowning and turning towards the void, as if someone was talking to him: "...What, the Druid of the Sharptooth Forest is finally willing to see you?"

Author's Note: I do have some creative ideals. For example, I wanted to make the villain organization's operations more vivid, rather than a program that follows a completely stereotypical approach. This chapter is essentially my assessment of the book's demonic logic. Your feedback is welcome.

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