Chapter 401

The Spies’ Objective
It seems there are six spies in total that were captured this time.
Since we don’t even know who the leader is, I decided to question each one individually.
Now then, I wonder what the first one’s like?

(The first spy is a 31-year-old man. When he was found, he had a typical set of self-defense gear and a backpack filled with preserved food and such. Just from appearances, he looked like an ordinary traveler.)

“You’ve got sharp eyes to have spotted someone like that.”

(If you sneak around in a forest, anyone would find that suspicious.)

Yeah, that makes sense.
Anyway, let’s go meet him.

The spies were placed in individual cells inside the guard post.
My job is to meet with each of them one-on-one.
So the first man was brought in, but when he saw my face, he didn’t look even remotely surprised.
Why not?
Wasn’t I supposed to be their target?

“Hello there. Welcome to Vardmoi. How are you feeling today?”

I greeted him in a friendly tone, but the man just snorted and answered gruffly, clearly in a bad mood.

“Terrible. Why the hell are there more spiders in Vardmoi now? I thought there was only the silver one.”

The silver one… he must be talking about Talat back when he was a Frost Silk Spider.
So this guy doesn’t know about Talat’s current form as a Tarachunatos.
If I go through a regular line of questioning, this might take forever, so I’ll just cut to the chase.

“Let me introduce myself first. I’m Lily. Nice to meet you, Mr. Spy.”

At that, the man’s eyes went wide in surprise.
Hm? That reaction now?

“What? You’re Lily? You look nothing like the portrait we were given by the client!”

Huh?
A portrait from the client?
I glanced over at the Kiblinki Saltas, who nodded in return—so it looks like the man’s telling the truth.
That means he was sent to Vardmoi on someone’s request, but didn’t know what I looked like.
… Were they really targeting me?

“Umm, I’m pretty sure I’m the Lily you were looking for, though?”

“Hell no! The portrait the client gave us described a tall elf with blond hair! And the spiders you command aren’t even silver, right!?”

Alright, got it.
That portrait was clearly faked by someone who doesn’t know me.
They apparently knew about Talat, but only that “Lily” was an Elf, so they went with the generic image of a blond-haired elf.
By the way, I have black hair and I’m short, so I have nothing in common with the description this man had.

I asked a few more questions, but he clearly didn’t understand the target’s traits at all.
No wonder the Kiblinki Saltas couldn’t get any info out of him.

The remaining five spies also couldn’t recognize me as the target.
To be blunt, the whole spy team might’ve been a decoy.
Hmm, maybe they were sent as bait to probe Vardmoi’s defense system?
I’m guessing the existence of the Kiblinki Saltas has probably been exposed now...

What do you think about this chapter?