Wizard: I Add Points and Hunt Monsters

’The Ernst Clan, the Glory Society, the Demon Clown, them...’

As Wei’en read the letter, he began to suspect a connection. The recent events in the Caster City State and the letter’s contents seemed unrelated on the surface, but he sensed their root cause might be the same.

’A letter...’

Wei’en suddenly remembered the other letter he’d taken from Collins and his men yesterday. He retrieved it from his Space Ring and glanced over it.

"...Tell Nicole I’ll be arriving at the port on the evening of the 19th. Make all the necessary preparations before then. I don’t want to show up to a mess."

"I’ve already found a helper in Caster. He’ll come find you... And a word of warning: you’d best not provoke him. If you end up dead, don’t blame me."

"And one more thing. You’d better pray this operation gets me what I want. Otherwise, Captain Isabella will be sure to teach you Vasquez People the meaning of despair. —Black Jack, of the Black Pearl."

’Black Jack?’

’Someone from the Black Pearl is coming to Caster?’

’The 19th... isn’t that today?’

As Wei’en stared at the letter, he felt he was beginning to understand some things, yet even more questions flooded his mind.

’So the Vasquez People came to the Caster City State to get something... and that something was specifically requested by the Sea Emperor, Captain Isabella?’

’Is that why they were digging that underground tunnel in the Basil District?’

With this in mind, Wei’en spread out a sheet of parchment and began to scribble notes and diagrams. Flashes of recent events, along with information he’d acquired through the panel, ran through his mind.

’The beginning... no, it didn’t start with the Abyssal Sect and the Bone-Eating Mother Worm. It must have been the case at Ceres Manor, even before that.’

’In that case, the Ceres Clan were the victims. The ones on the Black Pearl... no, the ones involved from start to finish were the Vazquez Race.’

’To be precise, it was the Vazquez Race from the Black Pearl who went to the Ceres Clan to steal that Divine Statue of unknown purpose.’

The reason Wei’en considered this case the true beginning of everything was Old Ceres.

He recalled being chased by Collins and his men; the secret passage they had used led to one destination: Nocturnal City.

Wei’en had been suspicious even then. The secret passage’s exit didn’t lead out of the manor grounds, but all the way to Nocturnal City.

If he had been the one to choose, he would have built the exit closer to the core of the Caster City State, preferably near the Dumitru District.

After all, the Dumitru District was the heart of the Caster City State, and the closer one was to the center, the safer one was supposed to be.

This suggested that Nocturnal City offered the Ceres Clan a greater sense of security than their own manor’s surroundings.

Therefore, either the Ceres Clan or Nocturnal City must possess something that both the Vasquez People and the Black Pearl coveted, which explained why the incident at Ceres Manor had occurred.

Then came the Bone-Eating Mother Worm incident, which exposed the clandestine Abyssal Sect and the Bone-Eating Worm parasites that had infested nearly the entire city-state.

Following that, the discovery of the City-State Array in the Natali District further confirmed that both the Desire Sect and the Abyssal Sect were involved to some degree.

’Nocturnal City...’

’Is the mastermind using Nocturnal City as a nexus to connect all the different factions?’

Wei’en mentally reviewed the situation in each of Caster City State’s districts. To the west lay the Basil District, the primary area of operation for the Black Pearl.

Moving eastward from there was the Natali District, home to the City-State Array, which was handled by Nocturnal City and the Desire Sect—and their affiliated nobles, he mentally added. The far eastern districts of Laos, Ruer, and Yidrisu were also the Desire Sect’s responsibility.

’They have positions in the west, north, and east. Is only the south open?’

’Then their target is...’

Wei’en frowned slightly. ’The central region of the city-state?’

He was no student of military strategy, but this was a classic "surround on three sides, leave one open" gambit. Whoever occupied the center was the true target of the mastermind’s siege.

In the central area, the only possible targets were the Dumitru District, the Council, and the Dawn Church. Which one, specifically, he couldn’t be sure.

Wei’en wrote down all the information he had gathered on the parchment, marking the positions of the various factions and other suspicious points on a simple map of the city-state.

There were two questions now that he couldn’t understand.

First, among all these factions, the goal of the Black Pearl, represented by the Vazquez Race, was different from the others.

This was clear from the lack of parasites in the Basil District and from Black Jack’s letter. The Vasquez people were treating the Basil District as their own private domain.

Or, to be more precise, a springboard—a starting point from which to go and retrieve something.

’What on earth could be so alluring that they’d be willing to give up their advantage at sea and land in the city-state just to seize it?’

’At the same time, the mastermind must know the Black Pearl’s objective. Are they planning to make a move in the west?’

’Or is it just to pin down the Black Pearl, eliminating any possibility for those in the city’s core to escape by sea?’

The second question was the death of Director Ales. This was what puzzled Wei’en the most.

He was the Director of the Secret Investigation Department, after all. He had hundreds of Extraordinaries under his command, including plenty of powerful department heads and captains, and possibly even another Director Level individual...

Even if Matteo of the Abyssal Sect was strong, could he really have turned the tables while besieged by so many people, especially with the Secret Investigation Department’s home-field advantage?

’How could Ales have sacrificed himself so easily?’