Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 423 The Opponent is a Hero

Winter considered herself a gentle and considerate wife. After Ethan rested due to exhaustion and other issues, she washed up, changed her clothes, and left the house that very night.

Today is the day the hero arrives in the capital.
This is the downside of being too famous. After parting ways with the main force outside Gear City, he suffered many setbacks along the way. Especially after the rumors of "the return of the hero" spread, airship ports in various cities set up strict checks, so Solan could no longer take regular transportation.

He had to learn from scratch how to deal with the underground forces of the Silver Empire. Along the way, he stumbled and changed many ways of entering the city. Sometimes he was buried in haystacks, and sometimes he had to disguise himself as a corpse and hide in a barrel to be transported into the city. When Winter saw Solan that night, he was stretching his wrists and poking his head out of a box of frozen fish. You could smell the fishy smell emanating from him from a distance.

The "delivery" location was in the western suburbs of the capital, a stronghold of the black market and a gathering place for intelligence brokers.

Another familiar face was also waiting here.

"Zophie!"

Solan was extremely surprised to see the assassin master who came to greet him. He was stunned for a long time before he quickly went up to give the other party a warm hug. However, his actions were naturally dodged by Zoffy. The aloof man glanced at Solan with disdain and pinched his nose to remind him not to have any physical contact with anyone until he had cleaned the fishy smell off himself.

Solan chuckled awkwardly. The last time he heard about Zoffy was from Lance's description. They had been ambushed by Ilya, and after Zoffy lost his ability to resist due to poison, he was taken away by the Imperial Army and disappeared without a trace.

"Who is this……?"

"Oh, I forgot to introduce her. Her name is China, and she's a member of the resistance."

Solan explained.

Unlike Solan, who hid in a frozen fish, Qina hid in a huge ebony container all the way—a spellcasting container commissioned by a nobleman in the capital. Because it was related to black magic, it could only be transported to the capital through the black market.

Solan recounted his encounter with Qina.

While Evelyn led the resistance in a great evacuation, she slipped away from the troops alone and found Solan on the way.

China was once a "purchasing agent" in the resistance, so she maintained close ties with the black market for many years. She took the initiative to help Solan make contact with the black market, and she helped a lot along the way.

"Thanks to China, otherwise I really wouldn't know what to do."

Solan scratched his head.

As a hero, he has always been an upright person and only uses upright means of transportation. Before Qina found him, he was already considering walking from the wilderness of Gear City to the capital. If that were the case, it might be several months before he met Ethan and the others again.

"You should know your situation, right?"

Zoffy asked coldly, never giving China a kind look from beginning to end.

Reims is now secretly gathering strength, and the arrival of the harvest festival provides the perfect cover. Their ultimate goal is to one day storm the palace and confront Henry VI.

Everyone must be prepared to risk their lives. He didn't understand why Solan was bringing such a young girl with him.

Once involved, China will most likely not have a good ending.

"I need to find my sister!"

Upon hearing this, Qina firmly replied, "This has nothing to do with Mr. Solan. I came to the capital on my own initiative, and that is also the reason why I joined the resistance."

Although most of the rebels were people driven to desperation by life, there were also people like her among them.

Unable to provide the truth to them, the detectives at the police station had no choice but to rely on the black market and other "evil and unlawful" forces.

"You don't need to worry about me, I will investigate and find out the truth myself."

Over the years, Qina has never given up searching for her sister.

Just days after the murder of Grand Summoner Hetia, the Gear City intelligence merchant, who always kept her mouth shut, decided to leave the troublesome Gear City. She had always referred to the other party as her teacher. On the very night the other party left, Qina received a letter that mentioned an unfamiliar name.

Blood Duke, Mir-Bloodthorn.

In the letter, the teacher expressed his apologies to her and explained why he had kept the matter a secret from her for so many years.

This is related to the deceased Grand Summoner Hetia. The Bloody Duke of the Imperial Capital was the Hetia family's backer in the capital. According to the information he obtained through the black market, Hetia's father was the last person that Sister Qina had contact with before her disappearance.

Although the truth sounds cruel, her sister may have died many years ago.

From an outsider's perspective, continuing the investigation would only lead to certain death, and it's not worth it.

Behind the Bloody Duke stands the entire empire.

The Bloodthorn family has close ties with the Queen and is also a supporter of the First Prince. With Qina's strength, she is simply not enough to shake them.

He had always hoped that Qina would give up the investigation and put the matter behind her, as if her sister had never existed. However, Qina's persistence was unexpected. Before leaving Gear City, the man hesitated again and again, but finally delivered the letter to the rebel camp by Red Falcon.

He knew this would most likely harm China, but he did it anyway.

He considered it a way to put his mind at ease.

"Wait a minute, China."

Seeing that Qina was about to leave, Solan suddenly called out to her. Facing Qina's questioning gaze, he said, "Do you remember our agreement? You brought me to the capital, and I'll help you find out the truth about your sister!"

Despite reeking of fish, Solan exuded the air of a hero.

After saying that, Solan turned to Winter, who was more than ten meters away from him.

Since they met, Winter has maintained this safe distance to avoid going home smelling fishy tonight.

"Ms. Winter, isn't Mr. Ethan here?"

"He's not feeling well today."

Winter said, "I can pass on your message to him."

"That would be wonderful. Please tell Mr. Ethan that I will meet with him after I have found out the truth for China!"

Winter nodded.

But she felt that Solan's most urgent task was to find a place to take a bath and clean himself up.

..............................

The next day, early in the morning.

"Blood Duke, Mir-Bloodthorn."

Ethan leaned against the headboard, silently reciting the name Winter had mentioned. He had heard of this family from the prime minister. Like the Simpler family, they were both ancient noble families in the Silver Empire, having once received the "Spark" from members of the royal family.

For reasons unknown, the Bloodthorn family has always maintained close ties with the queens of the empire throughout history. Thanks to this, they almost always emerge victorious in the struggle for the throne, and the current Bloodthirsty Duke, Mir-Bloodthorn, is no exception. He is a supporter of the First Prince and has greatly assisted the young prince in securing the ownership of the underground arena. But what truly intrigues Ethan is the origin of the title "Bloodthirsty Duke."

In the Silver Empire, titles of nobility are often associated with one's actions, and the name Mil-Bloodthorn sounded like something to be trifled with, making him think of the Bloodthorn family as a group of perverted killers who enjoyed murder and bloodshed.

However, the prime minister gave an unexpected answer to his question.

The truth is quite the opposite. The Bloody Dukes were much more low-key than the Simplers. At least during the Chancellor's tenure, they never dragged their opponents to the capital's square and tortured them like the Simplers did. Those who offended the Bloodthorns usually ended up disappearing without a trace.

The title of "Bloody Duke" is hereditary. Every heir of the Bloodthorn family inherits this title upon assuming the position of patriarch. Its origins can be traced back to the time when Henry I established the empire. At that time, many things were a murky affair, and in fact, even the prime minister did not know the origin of this title.

"Should we infiltrate the Bloodthorn family's territory to investigate?"

Winter asked, since she had recently been in contact with the Queen of the Empire, "We can split up."

According to her observation, the Queen had a very distant relationship with her children. Since the crown princes grew up, she had almost never asked about their lives. Correspondingly, the third princess actually knew very little about her mother.

In the Silver Empire, the situation where Princess Sophia was dragged into a room and spanked with a slipper, as happened there, would not occur.

"Infiltrating and investigating, huh..."

"Aren't you the best at making friends?"

Winter raised an eyebrow. “Make friends with Mir-Bloodthorn, visit their home as a VIP, and stay for a few days.”

Ethan's face stiffened; they had indeed moved into the palace as friends of the Third Princess.

"Or you could help Solan and the others infiltrate the Bloody Duke's manor."

She felt that the young hero was full of a sense of justice, and his personality was just like the protagonist in those classic stories. However, the case of infiltration and investigation was the area he was least good at. Given Solan's personality, if he saw injustice during the investigation, he would draw his sword and stand up, which would undoubtedly lead him to walk into a trap.

The autumn harvest festival celebrations were in full swing, and Ethan, the consultant, didn't need to worry about any of the details.

After breakfast, he left the palace alone.

Unlike Grand Duke Ash, Mir-Bloodthorn rarely appears in public and never invites strangers to his home, making it extremely difficult to get to know him.

Clearly, he wasn't the only one eyeing Mir-Bloodthorn. While Ethan was loitering around the Bloodthorn family as a bystander, he encountered a familiar figure. Although she was still wearing the ball mask given to her by the underground arena, her signature red hair gave her away from more than ten meters away.

Even those with sharp eyes spotted Ethan just a few streets away.

"Moriko!"

With a bread bag in her left hand and waving her right hand at him, Bi'an walked straight toward him.

This is all Xiao An's responsibility.

Thanks to this keycap, he has been downgraded from "Old Sen" to "Senzi" among his friends.

"Moriko, you're not a decent person!"

After meeting, Bi'an couldn't help but complain, "I heard that you and Lin Dong sneaked into the palace. You two are eating and drinking well in the palace, while I'm left outside eating bread every day."

"It wasn't just about eating bread, was it? Didn't you go to a fancy restaurant yesterday?"

"how do you know?"

"I met you in the underground arena."

Upon hearing this, Bi'an blushed. She knew that it was dishonorable for her to go there and bully "kids." It was like a world champion participating in a youth competition and then crushing a kid's competitive dream with a single punch.

"Making money is understandable."

The pale-faced man on the other side weakly protested, "You saw it, I didn't touch anything."

"What are you doing here? Did the Blood Duke offend you?"

Ethan observed the other side for a while. She had a clear goal and had been lingering outside the Bloodthorn family's manor, looking like an experienced criminal scouting the area before making a move.

"Oh, the man in the black cloak next to the First Prince invited me here."

Bi'an opened the bread bag and handed Ethan a hard loaf of bread. The two of them casually found a chair on the street and sat down. "He said that someone might be planning something against the Bloody Duke soon, and asked me to secretly protect the Duke's safety... Wait a minute, they're not talking about you, are they?"

The other side frowned.

The man in the black cloak never mentioned that his opponent was Ethan.

"If it were you, then you'd have to pay extra!"

The other side spoke with righteous indignation, slapping his own thigh, "Senko, name your price, we'll split it 50/50 afterwards."

She instantly came up with a solution in her mind.

For the first three days, she pretended to wander around the manor. After the other party paid and she and Ethan finished their evaluation, she had Ethan take action on the fourth day. This way, not only could both parties achieve their goals, but they could also make a lot of extra money.

"The person they're warning you about isn't me."

Ethan only decided to take a stroll around this area early this morning; the First Prince and his confidants probably don't have the ability to predict the future.

He gestured towards a spot not far away, saying, "The people they should be wary of are them."

Two more "unrelated individuals" appeared.

The young hero Solan, wearing a helmet that concealed his face, still stood out among the commoners. As he spoke with the Other Shore, Solan had already attracted the attention of many, including the guards of the Bloodthorn family.

The girl following behind Solan should be the Qina that Winter mentioned.

In fact, after hearing Winter's description, he felt that the letter left by the information broker was somewhat suspicious.

Because I'm leaving Gear City, I'm planning to put an end to something on my mind.
For an intelligence dealer who has been operating in the black market for many years, this is a bit far-fetched. Moreover, if Qina falls into the hands of the Bloodthorn family and reveals the intelligence dealer under duress, he will only be able to live under the Bloodthorn family's pursuit from now on.

Now, he can make a fortune from the nobles by simply reselling the intelligence to the Bloodthorn family.

"Anzi".

Ethan said, "This time your opponent is the hero of this world. Are you ready?"

(End of this chapter)