After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

One is to tell him nothing.

Second, tell him everything.

The guild chose the second option.

A huge amount of documents of all kinds were pulled into the study by a cart and dumped into the study like garbage.

There was so much room that tables and other things could no longer fit, and they were piled up like a small mountain on the floor in the middle of the room.

The meaning is clear: Ain't you, Aize, going to investigate us? Then let you investigate to your heart's content.

It would take an average person several months just to go through all of this, let alone find the problem.

And as expected, all the important content that is truly related to the incident has been eliminated before it is sent over.

Even if you really spend a month or so to read all of these, you won't gain anything meaningful.

That’s what they’re thinking.

Unfortunately, Aize is not an ordinary person.

When putting pressure on Arthur, all possible responses from the opponent were taken into consideration.

Their current clever approach has only dug a big hole for themselves.

"call--"

Aize closed the notebook in front of him and let out a long breath.

From last night until now, in more than ten hours, he has found all the necessary information from this pile of books and recorded it.

Next, I just had to wait to check the guild’s water meter.

Thinking of this, he looked out the window with a little fatigue.

Unlike the previous sunny days, the sky today was unusually gloomy, with thick dark clouds completely occupying every part of the sky, making it look like it would rain at any moment.

Aize, who still has a bit of a homebody nature, usually likes cloudy days.

But not now.

The sunlight that serves as a protective umbrella has weakened, which means that the heavily infected areas will fall into eternal night, and the blood slaves will become more active.

Therefore, even during the day, it is difficult to say that the defense line is 100% safe.

Thinking about it, I have been in the capital for several days, but I have been focusing on paperwork and have not put much energy into the defense of the palace that maintains life.

Of course, this is because Elena is excellent and Constantine is trustworthy.

But after all, the matter is of great importance and cannot be taken lightly.

It would be better to conduct a quick inspection and plug any loopholes and weaknesses that can be found as soon as possible.

With this thought in mind, Aize locked his notes in the drawer.

He stood up, stretched, walked out of the study and went outside.

The so-called Royal Palace Security Zone, centered on the Royal Palace, encompasses several surrounding streets, forming a nearly circular area protected by a defense line.

The residents of the royal capital who successfully fled here accounted for about a quarter of the total population, about 5 people.

With so many people crowded into such a small area, even though most of the palace was open, the space was still extremely narrow.

The lucky residents can still squeeze into a building with its doors wide open to shelter from the wind and rain.

And even more people can only squeeze under makeshift tents and survive on the relief food distributed every day.

Although the palace had sufficient food reserves, it still had to feed so many mouths, and no one knew how long this disaster would last.

Therefore, the contents of the rations were very ordinary, just thin porridge, just to ensure that people would not starve to death.

In such a living environment, most people are in a daze and often find a place to sit for the whole day.

Like skinny statues, they did not respond to anything except the distribution of food.

It's not a happy sight.

But this is the situation, there is no better choice.

"Um?"

In this bleak scene, Aize saw some interesting scenes.

"Here, take it."

"Thank you, big sister!"

A skinny, ragged mixed-race boy took a rather large piece of dried meat, put it in his mouth impatiently, and swallowed it without chewing it twice.

The person who handed her the piece of dried meat was Hecate, who came to the royal capital with Aize and others.

Since she joined the team temporarily, she did not have a formal position in Aize's team, so she was not directly incorporated into the command level like Constantine.

In the past few days, she was said to have been acting independently, entering the infected area alone to clean up the blood slaves.

Other warriors, even the elite knights, had to form a team before they dared to do this.

And because it was cloudy today, we didn't go on a crusade for safety reasons, so we were able to see her here.

The little boy left contentedly, and Hecate stood up and turned to Aize.

"Isn't this Lord Aize? How did you find time to come here despite your busy schedule?"

"It's just an inspection. Don't make it sound like I have a lot of free time."

Aize scratched his hair, walked to her side, and looked in the direction where the mixed-race boy disappeared.

"Who is that child?"

"He seems to be a mixed-race orphan wandering around the city. His food rations were taken away, and he hasn't had anything to eat in two days."

The living conditions of mixed-race people are still very bad, even in the once prosperous capital.

Heidi was a leader who did not discriminate against mixed-race people, so she allowed them to enter the safe zone for refuge.

But others may not think so.

In a situation where supplies are scarce and people are uneasy, the original malice will naturally be magnified, and the royal palace does not have much power to maintain public order.

This kind of thing is expected to happen.

Aize sighed softly and looked at Hecate:

"That piece of jerky is your quota, right?"

"Yes."

"Give it to him, what will you do?"

"I'm half succubus, which is a bit of a benefit at a time like this."

Succubi feed on the spirits and emotions of other species, and therefore do not require normal food to survive.

Some human scholars believe that these two things are essentially fragments of the soul, and succubus are dangerous creatures that feed on souls.

Those who are overly obsessed with succubus to the point of losing themselves and becoming complete slaves, or even losing their lives in "overly deep" communication, also suffer from the drying up of their souls.

Of course, this is just a guess.

Even by the standards of this world, the study of the soul still falls under the category of metaphysics.

In addition to the characteristics of the succubus, scholars who study this thing are not very welcome and are believed to have ulterior motives.

The succubus's love of pleasure makes them not care about these things.

The research has been on hold.

But in any case, from the results point of view, in a place where a large number of humans gather and strong emotions are emitted, it is not a big problem for the succubus not to eat.

Although the emotions exuded in this environment are a bit difficult to resist in terms of taste.

Aize shrugged:

"Looking at you, I thought your succubus bloodline had no effect on you."

Because of their need for emotions and energy, succubi tend to have very...abstract personalities.

Since any emotion is food to them, succubi have no concept of family, ethics, love, and morality in the human sense.

Moreover, they are particularly extreme and active in some aspects, and their desires are ridiculously strong.

But Hekate, at least on the surface, is not like that at all.

However, Hecate put her hands on her hips, smiled bitterly and sighed.

"If that were the case, I wouldn't have to live such a hard life."

Aize blinked.

Hard?

Which aspect?

How hard is it?

Does it refer to the succubus's uniquely strong desires that can't be vented?

Or is it that we are born with different views on love, which requires a lot of effort to correct?

Out of pure and innocent curiosity without a trace of personal desire, Aize subconsciously made an association.

……

……

Feeling a bit bad.

It's better not to think too much.

After all, she herself emphasized that one should not regard herself as an ordinary succubus, and it would be too rude to delve into these things.

Anyway, she is indeed different from the pure-blooded succubus that Aize has seen, and they can communicate normally, so that's enough.

While Aize was pretending to play poker and thinking about some outrageous things, he didn't understand the mess of elements inside the mixed-blood mercenary and asked again:

"Compared to these, you should find me something to do."

"Hmm? What?"

Hecate pressed his shoulders, stretched his arms, squinted his eyes, and looked bored:

"I finally wanted to take this opportunity to prove myself, but so far, all I've been dealing with are these trash monsters that don't feel like chopping them up. You didn't come to the capital just to deal with these things, did you?"

For mercenaries, strength is paramount.

Even now that he was about to give up this identity and work for Aize long-term, this way of thinking had not changed much.

Even putting this aside, Hecate also wanted to repay Aize for pulling her out of the slave den and avoiding the worst outcome.

Regardless of which of the purposes is being pursued, the current results are far from enough.

From the perspective of strength, Hecate, as a legendary mercenary, has the top combat power in this world.

Compared with Constantine, if we only look at direct close combat ability, Hecate is even stronger.

In order to make such combat power play an appropriate role in the current situation... well, you don't say it, it seems that it really exists.

Aize showed an inexplicable smile:

"If that's the case, I have a good opponent for you."

Hecate nodded without any hesitation:

"No problem, just give me your orders."

"Let me be clear, this isn't going to be easy. Not only is the other party very powerful, but you also have to do it stealthily so as not to cause a commotion."

This made Hecate frown:

"...It should be fine, but why? And who is the target?"

"A top adventurer, are you sure?"

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Aize decided to add a little extra material to the next task of knocking the guild.