CH 428

“The situation is complicated and the stakes are high so I can’t reveal too much right now, so Claire, it’s best if you can tell me what happened in Yellowstone in detail so that we can conduct follow-up discussions.”

Claire knew about the missing holy sword, but because of the plague and no results from the church investigators, she nearly forgot about it.

They thought that once they saved Caesar and found the crucial black core, everything would be over, but it looks like it was just the beginning…

“You didn’t know yet, right? Your grand marshal already rushed back to the city and is preparing for a counterattack, but if the rebels actually have the holy sword, then your plans may have to be modified… so sharing this information is crucial! Who was controlling the living dead? Who were the enemies you were fighting with? Claire, you have to tell me! … Since you handed the black core over to Saintess Snow, that means you trust the church and since I’m a Saint from the church, you can trust me!”

“I do trust you, but…”

Actually, Nick was right.

What happened in Yellowstone wasn’t a big secret anyways, it was complicated now and Claire should be exchanging information with Nick, but she felt like things weren’t that simple. Some things could be said and some couldn’t, and she was afraid of saying the wrong things so she was hesitating.

“Actually we…”

Claire opened her mouth, but stopped again.

It would be nice if there were someone to help her take care of Nick… thinking about it, she suddenly saw someone and a light bulb lit in her head.

“Nick, the battle earlier was too awful, I get a headache just thinking about it… can you let me rest for a bit?” Claire held her head and pretended to have a headache.

“No problem. But this is important, we need to hurry…”

“If you want to know what happened, I can call someone else to tell you.”

“Someone else? Who?”

“Lin Xiao! Come here!”

“Ah? … Him again?”

“Tom… uh no, Captain Claire, do you need something?”

It was different now, Claire was held in regard so it wasn’t convenient for him to call her by a nickname and had to show some respect.

It was also quite useful in quelling some of Claire’s anger as she heard him obediently calling her by her title, she gently coughed and ordered him, “Lin Xiao, I’m tired, so you can tell Saint Nick about what happened in Yellowstone.”

“Oh, okay.”

Lin Xiao nodded and put on a harmless smile.

Who was this guy? Why does Claire allow him to talk with her so familiarly? As a normal investigator, does he know even more than Claire?

“Hehe, Saint Nick, don’t worry, I’m the best at making up… uh no, telling stories, I’ll definitely tell you everything that happened in detail!”

“Hmph, let’s hope so.”

Since it looked like Claire didn’t plan on continuing interacting with him, Nick could only endure it and waited for Lin Xiao to satisfy him.

On the other side, Claire perked her ears up while walking and was curious as to how Lin Xiao would recount what had happened.

Compared to herself, how is his eloquence?

It’s probably a difference between the heavens and the earth.

Since she had only interacted with him for a short time, she hasn’t seen all his capabilities, but Lin Xiao’s companion, Rosie, was fully aware of where he excelled.

When Rosie saw Lin Xiao talk to Nick, she felt schadenfreude as she covered her mouth and snickered.

“Saint Nick, I’m not going to lie to you, this time we’re up against a mysterious organization!”

“What organization?”

“The enlightenment Society!”

“W-what?” Nick almost choked when he heard it but he continued asking, “What is that?”

“I’m not sure either, but this is what happened…”

Lin Xiao told Nick everything, Darkness, the enlightenment society, the living dead and the black core, he even told him about Caesar and the cure, the only thing was that he changed some of the details.

Interweaving lies between the truth, was Lin Xiao’s specialty.

He didn’t mention anything about them massacring the living dead to force Darkness to reveal himself, or him injuring Darkness, and then forcing him to die in Yellowstone.

Lin Xiao described everything as coincidences, they coincidentally broke through the living dead and met up with Caesar, then coincidentally killed Darkness with Caesar, everything was mostly true and made sense, but quite different from the full truth.

“Were they all coincidences… you guys are really lucky.”

“Yes, if it wasn’t for our luck, we might have all died to the enlightened society!”

“Then what do you know about them?”

“What would I know? But it feels like they’re some kind of cult… you’re a Saint, do you not know anything?”

“Me? … I-I only know a bit.” When Nick was suddenly questioned, he couldn’t lie and awkwardly admitted it.

“Why are you asking me if you already know? Why don’t you tell me what kind of organization are they? What are their goals?”

“That…”

Nick scratched his head and didn’t know whether he should talk about the information he had or not, while Claire opened her mouth in shock and almost gasped.

What the hell was Lin Xiao talking about? His story was completely different than what she had experienced! … No, it wasn’t completely different, but the way it was told made it quite different.

In Lin Xiao’s story, he was just an obedient child and Claire made all the decisions. He himself didn’t do much, and the heroes were Yao Zi and Caesar!

He minimized his own presence and pretended to not know anything about the enlightened society, then turned the tables on Nick and started interrogating him for information!

Nick completely fell for it and Claire only saw it because she was looking in from the outside, otherwise, she would have also fallen for it!

Why was he trying to dupe Nick? Was there something wrong with him?

“Are they related to the holy light church? Are they one of your factions that branched out? What are their goals? Do they also believe in the Goddess of Light just like you guys?”

All of Lin Xiao’s questioning made Nick sweat and he didn’t know how to answer.

The reason Lin Xiao was deceiving Nick and then interrogating him wasn’t that he suspected him, nor was it because of how he treated him earlier, it was just after rational consideration…

Right now the enlightened were hiding in the dark and the holy light church wasn’t ironclad, so he didn’t trust anyone other than Snow, which naturally included Nick.

So he won’t tell Nick anything and pretend he doesn’t know anything which was safer and more suitable for him as an E-ranked investigator.

Another reason was that Saint Nick was a valuable source of information. He was the saint in the deep and dark city dioceses with a status comparable to Snow, so he surely knew a lot of secret information that even Snow didn’t know, so he wouldn’t miss this great opportunity to question him.

How dare a mere investigator question me? Nick had wanted to say that to Lin Xiao, but Claire has always been supporting him, so he was afraid of being rebuked by her, so he could just pick some simple information and hopefully satisfy him.

The Holy Light church once caught their spies, but they were all moving unilaterally and it was impossible to find the one behind it.

They also believe in the Goddess of Light, but they seem to be very superstitious with rumors of world destruction, named the original sin.

They are moving in different parts of the world, but are doing different things and their goals are unclear, it’s hard to find anything in common.

“So in conclusion, they are either crazily causing destruction or they’re playing a large game of chess?” Lin Xiao touched his chin and fell into thought.

“Hm, possibly.”

“Then what about this time? They spread the plague and turned the people into the living dead, do they want to attack the city?”

“Unlikely, if they wanted to attack they could have already done it, they didn’t need to hide the living dead army and use the plague as a front until you guys rushed in there and exposed them.”

“Right, so what’s their goal?”

“I’m guessing they… hey! Have you questioned me enough!?”

Nick realized as he got more into the conversation with Lin Xiao and almost exposed confidential information, so he quickly shut his mouth and maintained some distance from him.

Dies this kid know some magic? Otherwise, how did he become his underling and start reporting information to him?