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nThe soldiers stepped away from their leader, who only gritted his teeth.

n“What is the meaning of this?!” he shouted. “I don’t consent to this.”

nThen, everyone heard the sound of scraping bodies on the ground, and without anyone noticing, the younger Inquisitor arrived behind the leader, who quickly turned around to face him in fear.

n“Your consent isn’t relevant,” the young Inquisitor said as his hand threateningly stretched towards the bald man’s head.

nAt that moment, Mana gathered around the man’s head.

nHe was trying to kill himself with his Affinity!

nBut, of course, he didn’t even have the power to kill himself in front of an Inquisitor.

nThe Inquisitor’s hand reached the man’s head in an instant, and he became unconscious.

nThe soldiers looked with shock and fear at the Inquisitor.

nAnd then, two other soldiers tried to kill themselves.

nBut, just like the bald man, these two also became unconscious as soon as they showed an inkling of resistance.

nNone of them could escape.

nInquisitors were very good at their job.

nAfter that, everyone became silent out of fear. One comrade after the other had become unconscious, and the soldiers feared that they would also fall victim to the Inquisitors if they showed any sign of resistance.

nTo these soldiers, these Inquisitors were some of the most terrifying existences they had ever seen.

nPeople just became unconscious in their mere presence!

nOver the next five minutes, the younger Inquisitor’s hand remained on the bald man’s head, both their eyes closed.

nThe older Inquisitor kept watch while his younger colleague was doing his job..

nEventually, the younger Inquisitor opened his eyes and stood up.

n“There is a barrier in his mind,” he said.

n“Follow protocol,” the older Inquisitor said.

nThe younger one nodded and summoned several more chains, which he then put on every other unconscious person, including the superior and the officer.

nIn the end, eight people were attached to the chain.

n“Anyone else?” the older Inquisitor asked, glancing at Shang.

n“No,” Shang said.

nThe older Inquisitor nodded. “The Grand Inquisitor has been informed. The Inquisition officially assumes command over the northeastern region. All soldiers are to be stationed inside their outposts and towns. Any soldiers leaving the confines of their outposts or towns will be killed or apprehended.”

n“Three Circles have been sent to isolate the nearest town. Nobody is allowed to leave or enter. Every other outpost will also be guarded by one Circle each. You all will comply with the orders of said Mages.”

nThe Inquisitor looked at all the soldiers. “You will enter your outpost immediately.”

nThe soldiers quickly saluted out of fear and ran to the outpost they had built just two months ago.

n“You will come with us,” the older Inquisitor ordered Shang.

nShang nodded.

nAfter that, the two Inquisitors lightly stepped forward, but their speed was already quite impressive.

nShang charged after them in silence.

nA couple of minutes later, they arrived at the nearest town.

nShang could already see several Mages stationed around the town in a big circle, and he could also see three corpses lying between the Mages and the town.

nThe Mages obviously weren’t joking around.

nThe older Inquisitor looked at Shang. “I will be responsible for investigating this town. You will follow him back to the Storm Eagle Zone,” the older Inquisitor said, gesturing to his younger colleague dragging the eight unconscious people.

n“The Grand Inquisitor has ordered for your return. Your mission ends here.”

n“He also told me to tell you that your work has been exceptional and that you have been a great help to Greenwind County.”

nThe older Inquisitor’s voice didn’t sound happy or excited. He only relayed the words with a robotic voice.

nShang only nodded.

nThen, without saying anything, the older Inquisitor entered the town, and the people inside the town would learn to fear him.

n“Follow me,” the younger one said as he accelerated towards the south.

nShang didn’t say anything and only wordlessly followed him.

nObviously, these Inquisitors weren’t the talkative kind, which was why Shang didn’t annoy them with questions.

nAs Shang traveled towards the south in silence, he had time to replay his two-month stay in the battlefield in his head.

nBy now, the plan of the traitors also became clear.

nThe superior had, over many years of hard work, managed to assume command over an entire region.

nIn order to steal all the resources and make the land useless, he slowly added more and more traitors into the ranks.

nTwo of these traitors had been the officer, Lance, and a masked man, One.

nOn the surface, their job was to build an outpost and to make the land habitable and rich in opportunities to earn money.

nBut, in truth, their job was to eliminate all the loyal soldiers and slowly fill the ranks with traitors.

nIf all the traitors had been sent to this place at the same time, some questions would have been brought up. After all, traitors often had an unknown history.

nFilling an entire outpost with only people with unknown histories?

nThat would have been too suspicious.

nBecause of that, they had to do it slowly, one wave at a time.

nThe first innocent soldier they had killed had been one of the students that had accidentally attacked a Mid General Stage beast.

nThe officer had given the command with the reason of teaching the students a lesson, and One had enforced it by assuming command of the group and stopping them.

nThe second innocent soldier had been one of the Scumbags. He had reported something, and the officer had killed him. According to him, the Scumbag had lied.

nNext, three soldiers died while delivering the goods to the town.

nThe group consisted of one traitor and three innocent people.

nThe person with the Space Ring had been the traitor, and he had stealthily put resources into the innocent soldiers’ pockets.

nThe soldiers had no idea how these resources got there, but the guards of the town, which were probably also traitors, didn’t care and killed them.

nAfter that, it was time to deal with Zero and four other soldiers.

nThe traitorous leader of the Idealists picked four innocent soldiers to go with Zero to a place that would soon be attacked by Duke Mithril’s hidden forces.

nAs insurance, One gave Zero a way to contact him. Like that, One would gain the trust of everyone around him. After all, he had done more to save his comrades than necessary.

nThe lower timeframe with the new signal wasn’t actually important. The chances of this bit of time making a difference in the outcome were minuscule, and the additional payoff was worth the added risk.

nThe reason why Shang had suspected the leader of the Idealists of being a traitor was that four loyal soldiers had been sent with him.

nIf the leader were innocent, he wouldn’t know who was and who wasn’t a traitor, and with the number of traitors, the chances were high of at least one person betraying Zero during the attack.

nBut all four soldiers had resisted.

nWhen the officer and One noticed that everyone had returned, they realized that they couldn’t be as subtle anymore.

nSeveral people were already suspecting the officer, and if one traitor fell, everyone could fall.

nSo, they concocted a scheme to deal with Zero and Two, two of the most powerful loyal soldiers.

nAfter dealing with those two, the officer and One could slowly whittle down the remainder.

nSure, the officer would have been sent somewhere else to keep up appearances, but that didn’t matter.

nThe superior would have simply given someone a temporary leadership role.

nAnd which two people would everyone want as their new superior?

nOne or the leader of the Idealists.

nBoth were good choices.

nEveryone else would believe that all the traitors were gone. After all, so many had already died, right?

nOn top of that, they now had a leader everyone trusted. They voted them into the position themselves, after all.

nAnd like that, the outpost would have been slowly overtaken by the traitors.

nSadly, Shang had ruined their plan by luring every traitor into a trap.

nAll of them had gathered, and the most crucial and important person, the superior, had shown in front of the eyes of the Inquisitor that he was a traitor.

nHow?

nDuke Whirlwind’s Emblem.

nShang had thrown it to him.

nSomeone of the superior’s standing could tell the difference between a real and fake one.

nIf he said it was real, he couldn’t get rid of all the witnesses. If he said it was real and killed Shang, everyone would have scattered, fleeing for their lives, and if only one of them survived, everything could potentially crumble around the traitors.

nThis was a huge risk.

nSo, of course, the superior said it was fake. He would execute Shang, let the officer heal himself, and lastly, they would all kill the surrounding soldiers.

nWith all of them working together, nobody would be able to escape.

nThen, they would simply frame everything to look like they had died to some random Late General Stage beast that found its way here.

nThe superior had been called to deal with it, but when he arrived, over half the soldiers had already died.

nHow tragic.

nBut, in the end, Shang had outsmarted them.

nIt wasn’t easy, and there had been a lot of unknown factors, but Shang had managed to get the best result possible.

nAll traitors survived, and they all were in the Inquisitors’ custody.

nShang hadn’t killed even a single traitor.

nHe had only done his job.

nFind the traitors and report them to the relevant authorities.

nThat was it.

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