112 Chapter 112: Travesty

The entire fox-kin stronghold was frantic, everyone was trying their best to find the human girl… Remarkably, even the clan heads had mobilized their elites at Musashi's orders.

Caesar, who was just one person, wasn't capable of searching the entire stronghold himself, thankfully, with the fox-kins' fast mobilization, news of the girl's whereabouts soon reached his ears.

"Sir, W-we've found the girl you're looking for… at least, we think so" An average looking guard anxiously reported to Caesar.

"Bring me to her" Caesar replied without a hint of emotion, to which the guard gulped a mouthful of saliva and began walking north, out of the mansion.

They took a few turns and about 5 minutes later, they approached a relatively large tent, it was currently surrounded by a few dozen soldiers and Musashi, himself, was present.

Once they caught sight of Caesar, the atmosphere turned even more gloomy. The guards were too ashamed to even look him in the eyes, while Musashi just shook his head with furrowed brows.

Seeing their reaction, Caesar's dark premonition was turning out to be more and more likely, alas, his footsteps didn't stop, he soon reached the white tent and pulled back the flaps to step inside.

A foul stench immediately assaulted Caesar's nose, he furrowed his brows and looked down, the entire tent was filled with blood. He could see splatters of blood on the side of the tent alongside a few rips… It was clear she resisted.

Lying in the middle of the tent, was an unrecognizable body, her face and limbs had taken drastic damage and it would appear they used some sort of crude torture techniques on her.

The blood was extremely fresh, as it had happened within the last hour, Caesar stroked his chin and calculated, 'it should've taken them about 20 minutes to get here, not to mention the amount of time they spent in here… they couldn't have gone far' he thought inwardly and rummaged through the body.

Seeing the massive amounts of cuts, Caesar's frown deepened, soon, he found a white envelope under the girls dress. He grabbed the envelope and delicately opened it, revealing a small letter.

-"Dear Caesar, at at the very least, I think that's your name… Anyhow, I just wanted to thank you for keeping my property safe, I mean, 'it' failed a mission and thought 'it' could live? Haha, her screams of indignation brought shivers to my body… if it was before, perhaps it wouldn't have even had a reaction. So I have to thank you for the joy you've brought me. On a different note, man does Ahri look good in the bath, those curves, and supple lips, oh my, I can't wait until I get a taste"-

After reading the contents of the letter, Caesar directly crushed it, the smile on his face disappeared and a burst of loud laughter escaped from the tent.

The ominous feeling the laughter contained made those waiting outside of the tent sweat profusely, after a few seconds, the laughter stopped and Caesar walked out of the tent.

He looked at the back of his wrist as if he was looking at a watch, "I've spent quite a bit of time here, I suppose I should speed up the process…" he whispered indiscernibly and raised his eyes to look at the fox-kin currently looking at him.

"Strip" he ordered.

Musashi and everyone present widened their eyes in surprise, "why are you suddenly ordering something so strange?" one of them couldn't help but ask.

Caesar took a step forward and looked at his long fingernails, "the lass had remnants of skin under her nails, alongside the obvious signs of resistance… whoever did this, would naturally have some fresh scratch marks.

Musashi nodded in realization, "but wouldn't the perpetrators have already left?" he asked.

"Hiding in plain sight is sometimes the best place to hide, alas, I'm tired of being nice, I won't repeat myself a second time" he replied.

The fox-kin guards around them all looked at Musashi for confirmation, it was clear they still weren't fully willing to be ordered by Caesar.

Musashi nodded his head and the fox-kin started to take off their clothes, of course, they left their undergarments on, no one wanted to see their family jewels.

Soon, a few dozen semi-nude guards were standing next to the tent, shivering from the cold breeze, all of them were hugging their shivering bodies.

Caesar scrutinized each and every one of them until he reached the final two, they were hugging their body like the rest, however, even in this cold weather, a few beads of sweat streamed down their faces.

"Put your arms out" Caesar ordered with squinted eyes.

"S-Strategist, what do you mean? I-it's very cold out, you see?" one of them answered with a fear-stricken tone.

Caesar didn't bother playing games with the two and grabbed their arms himself, he tugged with his abnormal strength, and soon, everyone present could see nearly indiscernible scratch marks on their forearms.

"It's not what you think!!! I swear, p-please believe me, I-I have an itching problem" one of them cried out in horror.

Caesar didn't spare the two another glance and looked at Musashi, "please order Faust, Leo, Khan, and Ahri to the meeting room. And if you wouldn't mind, order Falthor and Soka to go there as well.

Musashi was brought back to reality with Caesar's words, he looked at the two shaking guards with disgust before nodding his head, "as you wish…" he paused for a second.

"What are you going to do with these two?" he asked after a few moments of hesitation.

"Being a spy, no, even being a traitor requires a strong mental fortitude, however, without appropriate repercussions, they will start becoming comfortable… thus, you need to strike fear in their hearts, and even without doing anything, they will make mistakes on their own" Caesar explained with a chilling smile.

"Though, I am in no rush, in the next weekly training session, or even at the tournament, is probably when I will give the lesson, until then… I'll be asking Rakan and Charlie to keep watch on them" Caesar's words continued after a short pause.

Musashi just nodded his head in agreement, although he was the clan leader, at this time, it felt as if the roles were reversed…

Seeing Musashi quickly agree to the matters he suggested, Caesar walked past him and headed towards the meeting room, but before leaving, he glanced at the guards surrounding the tent one last time.

"These are surely not the only two that committed this atrocity, if that was the case, Ronny would have told me that only two took the lass… The least you could do is immediately report any suspicious behavior amongst your colleagues, also, give the girl inside a proper burial" Caesar said as he walked away without awaiting their reaction nor reply.

'not only are there spies but also some sort of spying devices or magic within this stronghold. Going off what the letter stated, it's clear he was watching and listening in, as he was capable of handing them a letter within a few hours, or perhaps, he instructed them to write the letter, however, there were no writing utensils within the tent' Caesar was in deep contemplation as he walked toward the meeting room.

'The part about Ahri's body was most likely just a ploy to enrage me, if whoever wrote the letter truly saw her body, they would mention the aspects one would only know if you saw her naked, such as the birth spot under her left breast, alas, he only mentioned a few simple features.'

Caesar swiftly brainstormed a few feasible ideas as he walked, if the person who wrote the letter knew that Caesar could learn so many things from a simple letter, he would most certainly not have written it!

'I captured the assassin about 24 hours ago, meaning the person who wrote the letter is either in the stronghold, or it further solidifies my theory that there is some sort of talking device or magic they use… if we can rummage through those twos belongings, we could perhaps figure out what the device is, then we can search through everyone's' belongings, easily pinpointing the spies within'

Caesar soon constructed a plan within a mere few minutes of brainstorming, this was only possible due to the amount of information gained from the foolish letter he obtained. Whilst thinking, he reached the meeting room and walked inside.

He grabbed the folded map resting next to Musashi's chair and spread it out on the long table, he examined the smaller clans located next to the fox-kin while also constantly releasing his mana inside the room, trying to sense if something was spying on him… although unlikely, since Musashi would have probably already sensed it, it's better being safe than sorry.

About 25 minutes later, the meeting room door open and a few familiar faces showed themselves, these were naturally, Musashi, Faust, Leo, Soka, Falthor, Khan, and Ahri, the only few he could trust within this damned clan.

"Welcome, I have a few things I need you to do for me" Caesar spoke straightforwardly right as they entered the room.