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Chapter 12: Silver Powder, the Start that Arrives at the Door

This was an unremarkable tree, a common type native to the United Kingdom. Tilysha wasn’t referring to the plant itself; she raised her hand to reveal the area she had just been wiping for her companions to see.

There was a small, faint mark that was not easily noticeable in the night.

Edwina crouched down, scrutinizing the flaw she hadn’t noticed before.

“This is… silver powder? Some kind of potion?”

“It shouldn’t be; this stuff is interesting, though…”

Not elaborating too clearly, Vilyric lightly rubbed her fingertip on it, picking up a bit of silver dust and presenting it to Little Dragon Daughter.

Xiao Guang, as a pureblood giant dragon, had an incredibly keen sense of smell and could easily discern the deeper meanings behind each scent; it was one of her abilities.

Working in perfect harmony, the giant dragon didn’t mind being treated like this as she immediately sniffed a few times at the smooth, fair fingertip of the black-haired girl, then smacked her lips.

“Master, it smells like the secretion of some organism, very unfamiliar; it should be from a creature I haven’t seen before.”

“Secretion from an organism, huh…”

Vilyric nodded and wiped her finger clean.

This powder had a lingering essence similar to the laws; although very faint, it was unmistakable. Since it was secreted by a living being, it was highly likely that it came from a powerful life form that possessed similar abilities—specifically, a mythical species.

She wasn’t sure if this unknown powder had any connection to Edwina’s situation, but since both had appeared in the same area at the same time, the possibility was still high.

“It seems we can’t find any more valuable information, it’s about time we head back to the inn; we can deal with the rest tomorrow.”

Although this matter felt puzzling, especially with the powder left by the suspected mythical beings raising Vilyric’s interest, she wouldn’t stubbornly pursue leads that didn’t have much connection.

Right now, the primary issue in Demon Town was still the intensifying conflict with the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons. Although Vilyric had come here for this matter, she hadn’t yet figured out whether to get fully involved and what stance to take.

As for her relationship with Liliya, she naturally ought to help the United Kingdom. However, this time was different from that with the Beast Kingdom; although the magical beast war was on the verge of breaking out, the intel she had gathered recently indicated that humans were their own worst enemy—if they got struck, they could only blame themselves.

But as things stood, the collection of information was still far from sufficient. It would be best to wait for further insight from multiple perspectives, especially from the magical beast side, before making an actual decision.

If it really became troublesome and hard to decide, simply following Lester’s advice to walk away without helping wouldn’t be a bad option.

After returning to the inn, the girls each went back to their rooms to rest, and during this time, nothing particularly noteworthy happened.

A night passed in silence.

The next morning, as Vilyric woke up from her bed, she heard a large number of footsteps and the clattering of armor coming from the street below.

She woke up Little Dragon Daughter, and just as she was about to head out to check, she discovered Leila, Renée, Edwina, Tilysha, and others standing in the hallway, their gazes fixed downwards; many other guests were also lingering at their doorways, whispering amongst themselves.

In the inn’s lobby, a group of fully armed royal soldiers was lined up at the door while the innkeeper was conversing with a casually dressed middle-aged man.

“What’s going on? What happened?”

Seeing the black-haired girl and the giant dragon, who was stretching and yawning, Edwina and the others quickly gathered around. The clever and reliable Miss Leila swiftly explained.

“Milady Vilyric, from what they’re saying, it seems that yesterday monsters from the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons disguised as humans infiltrated the city, and for some reason were discovered by demon hunters; they’re now conducting a citywide search, and we’re being inspected room by room.”

The Priestess was taken aback.

“Monsters infiltrated the city? Is it really necessary to make such a big fuss over a few monsters?”

Monsters were simply a general term used in the United Kingdom; it didn’t refer to a specific species, and basically any magical beast could qualify as a monster. So one could also understand monsters as magical beasts that had reached a certain level of power.

Powerful magical beasts aren’t necessarily monsters, but monsters are always difficult to deal with.

That was about the gist of it.

But even so, to conduct a full-scale search just for a few monsters seemed excessive.

“Yeah, we think it’s very suspicious. And we’ve heard that this isn’t the first time; the scale of searches has been increasing over the past month, all for those monsters that snuck into the city. Do you think last night…”

The Priestess shook her head, not allowing Leila to continue; not out of any taboo, but because they, as outsiders, currently knew too little about the situation, making random speculation pointless.

While the conversation was happening, it seemed the negotiations downstairs had also come to an end.

Although prying into guests’ privacy was clearly not allowed, the military searching was something the innkeeper had no way to truly stop, and judging by the situation, these people were obviously carrying search warrants. According to the laws of the kingdom, resisting execution in such circumstances equated to treason.

The innkeeper had to step aside helplessly, and those soldiers began entering each guest’s room, turning over everything in search.

This rough action made Vilyric frown.

If it was just searching the rooms, it wouldn’t matter; after all, her things were mainly in her item pouch, and outside were just some disposable items. Edwina and the others also had their storage tools; Leila and Renée received theirs from the Wing Emperor before their departure, while Tilysha had one hand-made by the considerate Life Goddess, and its quality wasn’t low.

But could such actions be something the normal royal army would do?

Ruthless, boorish behavior, tossing bags on the ground like trash, scattering their contents everywhere, even chairs and teacups were deliberately knocked over; it felt more like a display of violence than a search.

It reminded Vilyric of the time she witnessed bandits charging into a village to rob them.

“…”

Not to mention a border stronghold like Demon Town; even in a second-tier city like Flame Dragon City, the soldiers’ quality wouldn’t sink to this level. At least the guards she encountered upon entering the city previously hadn’t acted like this.

Though they checked thoroughly, they wouldn’t recklessly lay hands on things and even had female soldiers specifically responsible for the inspections.

Watching the travelers being so rudely invaded yet standing silently with anger in their eyes, she exchanged looks with Edwina and the others, who also showed signs of indignation, and Vilyric couldn’t help but smile wryly.

It truly didn’t give one a moment’s boredom… even though it was just the second day since her arrival.

The girl walked forward casually toward her room.

“Stop!”

For inspection, all guests in the inn, including the staff, had been gathered in the hallway. Naturally, Vilyric’s movement immediately drew the attention of the soldiers who were watching the crowd closely.

One of them, seemingly the leader—previously seen negotiating with the innkeeper, dressed in casual clothes without any official armor or uniform and not holding any visible weapon—stepped forward and waved to block her.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Although this guy looked expressionless, acting all businesslike, Vilyric could sense he was actually sneaking glances at her body with the corner of his eye, not in a scrutinizing or cautious manner like he thought she was an enemy, but with a gaze filled with authentic male **lust.

Ah… this is truly…

 

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