Chapter 63 - The Mysterious Painting

"How much of them are fake?"

Deputy team leader Bray asked, taking a deep breath.

"Probably everything. Even the five people that were captured four months ago were probably mere baits. I'm not even sure if they really planned to attack the capital. Apparently, that too was fake."

The other woman in the hall, that was a support mage according to Rai's words, said something for the first time.

"Are you sure? Have you... checked them carefully? The intelligence network might have had some mistakes? There might be some mistakes but... but the whole thing..."

Deputy team leader Bray closed her eyes as she pressed her forehead.

"You mean... everything that we have been doing for the past few months were for nothing..."

Silence filled the hall. The mood became heavy. Everyone looked really disappointed.

It was understandable. Everyone had worked hard, hoping that they could finally find out Philomns' plans, but they now knew that they have been fooled.

Even Kairen, who had just joined the unit, felt disappointed and frustrated.

How could a mere terrorist group fool the strongest military and intelligence organization of the country? It was truly ridiculous.

"Why are you explaining us all these now?"

The one who finally broke the silence was... the sleepy uncle?

'What was his name again?'

Rai had explained about all of the members of the unit before, but Kairen couldn't remember their names. He only knew that the man he called "Sleepy uncle" was a talented aura wielder.

Team leader Dains picked up a chair and sat down on it. He leisurely leaned against the back of the chair in a comfortable position and crossed his legs. He then looked at the others and opened his mouth.

"Though the information was fake and we were fooled, our efforts weren't completely for nothing."

"What do you mean?"

Team leader Dains asked a question instead of answering that.

"Why do you think the data were left on that building?"

"To mislead us?"

"That's right. They wanted to mislead us. Those five people were only baits to make us think that they were planning to attack the capital."

Deputy team leader Bray continued his words while sitting down on a chair as well.

"They want to distract us from their main goal. It must be something that is easy to notice if they have gone that far just to draw our attention to somewhere else... What exactly are they planning to do?"

Team leader Dains tapped on the table with his finger. He didn't answer the deputy team leader's question again and said something completely unrelated.

"They've been quiet these days. Their only activity in the past few months was the incident in Bordkly. They were quiet before and after that. We couldn't find anything about them in the meantime except this fake info. They clean their footsteps and don't leave any traces behind."

When the team leader's words reached that point, Kairen interrupted the conversation.

"But didn't they attack Mr.Rhoads recently?"

Everyone's gaze turned to Kairen at that moment. The look in their eyes seemed to say "Oh, this dude was here as well?". Kairen could feel his face heating up and he lowered his head slightly.

'Man, why do I get embarrassed whenever people look at me these days?'

He thought he was being too sensitive these days. Kairen rubbed his nose and looked at the team leader's eyes. That simple move used up a huge amount of his energy.

The team leader nodded his head.

"That's right. It was a reckless move from them. It is surprising that they acted so hastily and thoughtlessly... Actually, I've gathered you all here to tell something about that."

He paused for a moment. It was so that the other members could also sit down on a chair. Team leader Dains opened his mouth once again after one minute when everyone was seated.

"As you know, they were after a painting. The painting that they were looking for was in that man's position, so they attacked him."

He paused and picked up a paper that was buried under the pile of the documents. He pushed aside all the other papers and placed the single paper on top of the table.

"A scanned copy of that painting?"

"That's right. It's a copy from that painting."

Everyone leaned forward to take a better look at the picture.

'A ruin?'

The painting seemed to show a half-ruined building. It was unclear where it was as the painting was old and damaged, but it sure looked like it was a painting of an old place.

Prices of stone and shattered brick was surrounding a huge, broken pillar of stone. The floor was cracked and the tiles were smashed into pieces. A wall was seen in the back, also broken and destroyed.

"Why were they... after such a thing?"

Rai muttered that under his lips, but his low voice was loud enough for everyone to hear in the silent hall.

"The intelligence branch examined it a lot in case it had some kind of hidden meaning, a code or a secret, but there was none. Its materials also aren't what Philomns would be interested in. Philomns is a terrorist group, they definitely aren't low in money to the point that they would want to steal and sell an old painting."

"So... They are after this... place?"

"Probably. We searched for the possible locations of this place throughout the country. There were three ruins similar to this place in Hainston."

He once again placed a map-like paper on the desk with three locations marked with red on it.

"Furthermore, suspicious activities were detected near these places and other similar ruins in Hainston and Bordkly after observing them for a while."

No one said anything even after the team leader was done talking. Everyone seemed to be deep in thought. Team leader Dains opened his mouth again after a few moments.

"I believe, there are things we need to check in these locations."