Supreme Magus novel Chapter 154

Contrary to Lith’s expectations, Colonel Varegrave didn’t raise objections to his proposal, allowing him to start studying the mana blocking parasites. The only issue was that many preparations were required, and the safety measures were much stricter than before.

Most of the victims had turned extremely violent, so they needed to be hands and feet strapped to the stretchers to avoid escape attempts.

Everything that regarded the magical community needed the Mage Association permission, so Captain Kilian was assigned to him as escort and assistant whenever he came in contact with one of the patients.

There were a couple of reasons behind Varegrave’s meek attitude. After speaking with Professor Marth, he had been able to put his wounded pride aside and admit to himself how wrong he had been doubting Lith’s loyalty to the Kingdom.

Second, and most important, he was dealing with an internal investigation that had exploded between his hands out of the blue. After Lith had killed the traitorous lieutenant Vickas and his two accomplishes, the cogs of fate had started to move.

With the tight discipline the encampment was operated with, the sudden disappearance of middle level officers couldn’t go unnoticed for long. By the end of the first day, the military personnel were on alert, looking for three possible deserters.

The worst case scenario was that one of them, if not all, had been infected, and had decided to attempt escaping from the quarantine zone to see their families one last time before their demise.

Varegrave couldn’t take any risk, if the plague spreaded in the rest of the Kingdom, the whole world would have been in danger. Their living quarters were tooth comb searched looking for any clue about their intentions or destination.

By the following day, the situation turned even worse. By checking their military records and work schedules, Varegrave discovered that all three of them, at the moment of their disappearance, were on patrol duty in the sector where Lith’s tent was located.

Normally he would have considered it to be a coincidence, but after what happened to his sworn brother Velagros, he couldn’t dismiss the idea they were traitors sent to finish the job.

Varegrave asked for Kilian’s help, and both had their most loyal men search every place the three missing officers had been seen at, looking for clues.

The good news was that thanks to Small World, escaping was far from easy, and all the guards at the checkpoints, the only ways out the quarantine zone, were all elite veterans of proven loyalty.

Even if one of them was a traitor too, in an eight men team it would be impossible for him to help his accomplices without the others noticing. Also, according to the Ward block security, they had been seen going in, but never got out.

Being Lith safe and sound, he couldn’t be their target. The thorough search of the encampment lead to the finding of a hidden stash and most of the magical items that once belonged to the three lieutenants.

The stash contained incriminating evidence against three powerful noble families and two of the missing soldiers, marking them as potential traitors against the Crown.

According to a letter found inside the stash, lieutenant Vickas had been approached by his foster father, Duke Selimar, who had asked him to betray the Kingdom in exchange of the promise of becoming his heir.

Vickas explained how he had pretended to accept, while gathering evidence to bring down the noble faction. According to the letter, he had only managed to identify two more, and concluded saying that if anything happened to him, it was likely he had been discovered and killed.

Varegrave was moved by Vickas’ brave selflessness, cursing himself for not being a leader capable to inspire trust. If Vickas had come asking for his help, maybe things would have ended differently.

The final nail in the coffin of Varegrave’s hopes for a happy ending, was that all the magical items retrieved now lacked any imprinting.

That could mean that their owners were dead.

Discovering how deeply rooted was the noble’s faction grasp inside the military ranks, Varegrave entrusted all the gathered evidence to Kilian, letting the Queen’s corps do the rest.

Unbeknownst to Lith, his plan had worked almost flawlessly. It had been him forcing Vickas to write the letter on his notebook, to collect all the magical items and putting them were they could be found.

Last but not least, he had found the hidden stash each lieutenant had and put everything together in a single one to make the cover story he had devised work. The only flaw was that he had no idea how to explain the disappearance of the three dead bodies.

Considering the matter of the other three parasites resolved, Lith started to examine several infected from the mana blocking parasite looking for the perfect specimen. He was determined to find the worst case of infection possible and use it for his work. _{freēwebnovel.com}