novelxo
Chapter 112: Infiltration (1)
Mira and Sasori’s objective was in a walled off section in the city outskirts. Inside there were many storage facilities.
「So far everyone claims this is a warehouse for Melville’s most expensive merchandise, no one I spoke to even suggested something about ruins.」
They stood on the roof of a building outside the facility, looking at the entire area that was big enough for a small village to easily fit inside. Sasori’s voice was subdued and quiet, she had prided herself in being able to gather reliable information anywhere, so she felt disappointed in herself for not noticing they were hiding something more inside there.
「It’s still a conjecture, we have no concrete proof yet. And if we’re correct, I’m sure you would have reached a similar conclusion with enough time. You did find those black mist stones after all.」
Even if Sasori had not run into Mira in that store, she would have bought the black mist stones and investigated its origins, and eventually learned about the Graveyard of War Memorials. Not to mention that the reason they had marked the warehouse facility as a target so quickly was thanks to Sasori’s investigation.
With Mira cheering her up, Sasori quickly recovered herself and announced 「Get ready Melville, we’re coming for you.」
「They claim to have valuable items inside, place heavy guard without suspicion, and successfully hide what they’re truly doing. That’s essentially the opposite of my methods.」
Worthramble spoke behind the two, looking with an entertained gaze at the facility.
The group jumped down from the roof and walked towards the facility. The gates were wide open, with armed guards stationed on either side.
To the sides of the entrance, Mira saw what looked like parabolic antennas mounted on glass balls lined up along the wall. She had never seen those devices before, so Sasori explained they were magic sensing alarms. They walked straight to the main gates, but the guards did not react at all.
Moments later they were so close they could hear the guards talking with each other. The guards were talking about dinner. One was saying how he wanted to eat fried chicken until he dropped, another wanted a flavor rich ramen, and another wanted some pork cutlet with rice.
Then an odd sound came from Mira’s group. She turned around and saw Sasori averting her gaze.
「Well, let’s see if our magic signatures are hidden as well as your stomach rumbling.」
Saying that, Mira continued walking to the gate, Worthramble and Sasori right behind her as they crossed between the guards. Nothing stopped them, and the alarms were not triggered. Mira and her group had gotten inside safely.
「Amazing! They did not notice at all!」
Sasori laughed happily after walking right in front of the guards without them seeing her. fre(e)webnov(l).com
「Only because you didn’t do anything needless this time.」
Meanwhile Mira smiled teasingly while poking fun at the way Sasori threw a stone at someone before. The response was a silent pout.
「I wonder where the entrance to the Graveyard is.」
Trying to gloss over that event, Sasori switched topics.
Looking around again, they saw multiple brick buildings around. They were divided into groups of five, evenly spaced inside the walls. It was still night, but there were street lights everywhere so it was not too hard to make out the shape of the buildings. The ground was paved with flat stones, and further away they could see many guards patrolling the area. On top of that, they were shrouded in complete silence, which gave the lanterns bobbing on the guards’ hips in the distance a ghastly appearance.
「You said you saw a guard come out of a warehouse to sell the stones. Do you remember which building that was?」
Mira looked around, seeing that all the buildings were built identically and asked Sasori. If they searched them one by one trying to find the entrance to the ruins, it would be daytime before they finished.
「Hmm… I was watching the front gates that time so…」
If those stones had just been excavated and sent to be sold, then whichever building the guard left had the entrance. But Sasori was the only lookout so it was impossible for her to watch over the entire area, so she decided to just observe the people coming and leaving, since that was much easier to keep track of.
「I guess we have no option then.」
Mira muttered in a defeated voice, but then raised her head again and looked around.
「What happened, Mira? Is there an enemy?」
Seeing Mira act that way, she readied herself to fight just in case. contemporary romance
「No, it’s just that something’s been bothering me about the guards’ movements.」
She spoke as her eyes tracked one of the lanterns moving far in the distance. Sasori did the same, looking around and focusing on the movements of the guards.
A few moments later she suddenly said 「Ah, I see」, noticing the same thing Mira had seen.
After that the two jumped to the rooftop of a nearby warehouse, followed by Worthramble, and looked far into the distance.
「It might be worth taking a look.」
「Yeah, you’re right.」
「Ohh, that’s what you meant.」
Worthramble also noticed the same thing as Mira and Sasori. Their destination decided, they jumped back down and ran straight towards it.
The odd thing they had noticed was the guards’ patrol route. There were many guards there, enough to easily cover the entire facility, but for some reason ever since Mira’s group had gotten inside, not a single one had gotten anywhere close to them.
Maybe that was because they were still close to the front gate, so the couple guards watching the entrance could also watch over that area, or whoever was tasked with patrolling there had just passed through. But Mira’s suspicion was proved right when they went up to the roof and watched the light of the lanterns in a certain direction, giving them a target.
There were the guards on the entrance, and then a large unguarded area, with the rest all focused on a single spot. There had to be a reason why only that region of the facility was being protected like that.
When they reached the part of the facility under heavy surveillance, they began to peer through the small windows on the buildings to check what was inside. All that was only possible thanks to Perfect Suppression. Little light from the street lamps passed into the warehouses, but it was enough to show they were all filled with wooden crates. They looked like regular warehouses, only the amount of crates being different from the usual.
「Hm, this one looks different.」
「Yeah, this doesn’t look like a warehouse.」
After checking inside multiple warehouses, they found one that clearly stood out from the rest. There were no wooden crates inside, but tables.
That building was not used for storage, but as a living space. Mira looked inside with Life Sensing, and apart from the guards patrolling outside, she got two readings.
「Maybe it’s like a break room for the guards.」
Sasori guessed after looking through the window for some time. That was a very likely idea, given that the place had to be watched over the entire day and night, it made sense to have a place for them to rest and switch turns near their workplace. There were probably multiple places like that in key locations.
「That would make the most sense, but somehow I’m not convinced.」
There was one thing that had caught Mira’s attention, something that called into question whether this truly was a place for guards to stay in. There was some laundry hung on a corner of the warehouse. When Sasori asked what made her doubt the usage of the building, Mira pointed to it.
「Look at that, I can only imagine a female wearing those. Especially those panties. They have a bunny stamp behind, only a young girl would wear that!」
It was dark and hard to see, but Mira declared like a seasoned detective while pointing at a juvenile looking set of underwear. There might be some female guards there, but certainly no children.
「Are those… panties? And only girls of a certain age use them?」
The response to Mira’s confident discovery was completely unexpected.
「But of course… right?」