Chapter 1378 - Rewards and Punishments (1/2)

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

Five days later, Farrina and Joe received information from the First Army’s liaison en route.

The Army’s commander-in-chief, Iron Axe, had requested to meet them.

After going all the way to Cage Mountain, they walked into a conference room and discovered there was more than one person inside. The epaulets on their shoulders revealed that they were all high-ranking officials of the First Army.

Joe swallowed his saliva in nervousness.

Farrina remained calm and gave a military salute. “First Transport team, second vehicle convoy member, Farrina, is here to report.”

Iron Axe and the others smiled and returned the salute. None of them had any airs.

This surprised her slightly.

The Hermes Church’s style instilled in her the habit of ignoring the hierarchy disparity, causing her to always handle affairs bluntly. She never expected for the high officials of Graycastle army to do the same, to the point of surpassing the Hermes Church.

The reason for her calmness was her clear conscience, but that did not indicate that she had forgotten she used to be a ‘scapegoat’ for the Judgment Army—It would be nothing strange if she suffered from a cold shoulder.

But no one showed any contempt. Even the Church had never been so friendly towards their non-parishioners.

“What is the reason… for informing me to be present today?” Farrina’s gaze landed on Iron Axe.

“Do you still remember the Everwinter Knights you captured a few days ago back in Sedimentation Bay?” Iron Axe got right to the point. “We have already confirmed their identities, as well as the crimes they have committed.”

Farrina suddenly realized something. “Are they very important to the First Army?”

“Yes and no.” Iron Axe replied, “They are nothing when it comes to the entire war situation. But to the people that have offered their lives for the war, their imprisonment means that criminals will ultimately not escape from punishment. In a sense, this will comfort those who have sacrificed themselves.”

After that, Farrina listened to a story involving blood.

In the beginning, news of the intruder did not capture the attention of the higher-ups since such occurrences of refugees deceiving their way through the barrier were encountered three to four times a day. They were either unimportant nobles or wealthy merchants; their reasons for escaping were either due to crimes or afraid that their assets would be plundered.

According to Lorgar’s report, the two Everwinter Knights belonged to the former, but due to the mixed and rich smell of blood on them, the interrogators investigated even more meticulously.

After a few psychological games and taking separate statements, the younger brother caved in and revealed everything they had done. A few months prior, the two brothers were ordered by their feudal lord to capture refugees, but since the elder brother had a grudge against Graycastle, he turned the capturing into hunting.

If it had been an ordinary murder case, the treatment would had been the death penalty or mining for life. But the matter of “hunting refugees” was too severe that the person-in-charge kept it in mind. In the end, the case was handed over to the Intelligence agency, where Hill Fawkes was tasked to investigate.

The case had two large blind spots. Firstly, the First Army was unsure who had sent the information and only knew that the deceased worked for Black Money. Secondly, the party’s willingness to kill others. Even if murder was involved, the two might not have admitted it. In other words, even if Nightingale was present, it was impossible for them to link the information to the two through interrogations.

The only breakthrough was the smell of blood as mentioned by Wolf Girl.

It was a pity that Lorgar could only verify the diverse variety in the blood. She was unable to accurately pinpoint the timeline of the blood—In the end, her sense of smell was an added advantage due to her mutation. Although she was not affected by God’s Stones, she wasn’t able to surpass the limits of her physiology.

In the end, the final decision was obtaining assistance from the Witch Union, who sent Vanilla and Broken Sword.

With Broken Sword’s augmentation, Vanilla found the same pheromones on Talos Murray’s armor and on the secret letter. Although it was only a droplet, it was undoubtedly considered concrete evidence.

If the two had never met, how could the bloodstains contain the same pheromones?