As soon as the Human Emperor Banner came out, I became the Lord of the Old Ones

Chapter 292 Hess Belad

"Still no news from Jean-Jacques?"

Hess Belad rose from behind his large, red bone wood executive desk and paced back and forth in the room, which was covered with a thick wool blanket.

Despite the astonishing size of his office, it was still crammed full by the aura he exuded.

Even when the subordinates bowed their heads and served beside them, no matter how much they looked down at the entire city of Dawn through the floor-to-ceiling windows and breathed in the fresh air blown in by the powerful ventilation system, they could not eliminate the suffocating feeling of being squeezed under a giant rock.

"Not yet."

His subordinate stammered, managing only four words before he was drenched in sweat and had exhausted all his strength.

"Well……"

Ignoring his trembling subordinates, Hess Belad stood with his hands behind his back in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, like a hungry eagle, his eyes shooting out like javelins as he searched for his prey among the crisscrossing, maze-like city streets.

Of course, he gained nothing.

The last trace of a smile on Hess Belad's face disappeared with the passage of time.

Normally, although the chief engineer of Liming Heavy Industry is a burly man who is nearly 1.9 meters tall and weighs more than 300 kilograms, with muscles hanging from his hard bones, he is not intimidating.

On the contrary, his ever-present smile makes him seem like a silent, simple, and honest miner, which makes him approachable and trustworthy.

Five years ago, during a mining accident, he, who was already the chief engineer, risked his life to save ten miners from the constantly collapsing mine shaft.

Upon learning that there were no more trapped people deep in the mine, a relieved smile appeared on his smoke-stained face. The most wonderful moment was captured by reporters and touched everyone in Dawn City.

Only his closest confidants knew the immense and terrifying power hidden behind those sharp, chiseled smile lines.

Someone knocked softly on the door.

The trembling subordinates finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Two well-trained bodyguards, wearing tactical sunglasses and ear-mounted communicators, escorted a well-dressed but shifty-eyed man into the office as if he were a chick.

One of the bodyguards respectfully handed a thick stack of documents to Hess Belad.

Those were the testimonies of two witnesses, meticulously crafted route maps, screenshots from the Golden Iris Entertainment Center's surveillance video, and various pieces of evidence, including a list of stunt doubles and explosives to be manufactured.

Hess Belad flipped through the documents at a leisurely pace, occasionally pausing to think and calculate. After a while, he closed the documents, a smile returning to his face as he looked at the shifty-eyed fellow with a rather amiable expression.

The shifty-eyed fellow trembled even more violently than the first subordinate.

“John, you should know why I made you the deputy general manager of the Golden Iris Entertainment Center.”

Hess Belad gestured to his two men to release the man named "John" and let him walk up to him. He patted John on the shoulder affectionately, saying, "It's because you're clever enough to keep an eye on that cunning fox, Jean-Jacques."

“I remember reminding you last month that the situation in Dawn City has been very chaotic recently, and you should pay close attention to any unusual activity, especially Jean-Jacques’s actions. If there is any disturbance, even if you are overreacting, you should report it to me immediately.”

"Have you remembered what I said?"

The deputy general manager, named "John," swallowed hard.

It was as if he had swallowed barbed wire soaked in excrement. He nodded, his face pale.

"Then, please explain."

Hess Belair asked calmly, "Why was Jean-Jacques able to create a body double covered in explosives right under your nose? Were you aware of this?"

"I, I don't know!"

John shook his head vigorously. "Jean-Jacques hasn't shown any unusual behavior in the past month, no, several months. In addition, as the situation becomes more and more delicate, more and more people are coming to the Golden Iris Entertainment Center to gather information and look for a way out. I'm also extremely busy and simply can't keep an eye on my boss's every move all the time!"

"understood."

Hess Belad thoughtfully said, "It seems to be my mistake. I should have sent a capable assistant to share your workload earlier."

No, that's not what I meant—

John screamed as if his throat had been cut.

"And what about safe houses?"

Hess Belad didn't need his explanation and continued, "Judging from the surveillance video, he left the Golden Iris Entertainment Center alone and lightly dressed. Such attire is clearly not suitable for leaving Dawn City directly and trekking a long distance in the wilderness."

"Therefore, he must have prepared a safe house in the city, where he stored enough money, food, water, weapons and equipment, and even a means of transportation suitable for traversing mountains and rivers."

"Preparing so many things must have been quite difficult. You must have found some clues, right?"

John remained silent.

His body was covered in blood as if it had been drained by a mysterious force, and his face turned even paler than a dead man.

"Well, it seems I underestimated the general manager of our Golden Iris Entertainment Center."

Hess Belad sighed, then continued to pat John's shoulder gently, patiently explaining, "The double isn't important, the safe house isn't important either. What's important is why Jean-Jacques prepared these things."

"It's obvious that he's been planning for a while now to leave the Golden Iris Entertainment Center, escape Dawn City, and break away from our team."

"why?
"After thinking it over, I can only assume that he felt guilty and believed that staying in the team would put him in some kind of danger."

"The question is, what exactly did he see, hear, and secretly record within our team that made him so guilty that he believed we would harm him and secretly prepared to flee?"

The smile lines on Hess Belad's face disappeared again.

He was like a collapsing mine shaft, looming over John's head.

The gentle patting of John's shoulder turned into pressing both hands on his shoulders and kneading his bones.

“Think about it, think carefully, where is Jean-Jacques most likely to set up his safe house? Which area of ​​Dawn City does he usually like to go to? And from whom might he get help?”

The chief engineer of Liming Heavy Industry leaned over and said, word by word, "Whatever the information, the more you can recall, the better. This is very important to us, and especially to you!"

(End of this chapter)