Red was startled at the sudden mention of demonic cultists, though none of it showed in his body language.
“It’s not surprising that there are demon cultists in a city this large, much more so after that Blood Moon.” he nodded. “Unless you mean to say the problem is bigger than it seems.”
He already knew the answer to that, but he could only feign ignorance and ask questions that would be expected of him.
“Likely much bigger.” Leon nodded. “Cultists hidden amidst the population are something we have had to deal from time to time even before the moon turned red. Now, though, it is likely they have infiltrated positions of importance in the city.”
“You paint the wrong picture, Leon.” Lady Ilse cut him off. “These people were probably already in positions of power long before the Blood Moon. The only reason we know of their existence is because they deigned to make their moves.”
“Well… I do suppose we might have been too distracted with the conflict with the Empire to weed out these demonic roots.”
“And how did you discover this?” Red asked.
“Another friend of ours, Pierre, discovered something.” Leon said.
“He is not with us right now - he’s working as a city guard.” Emeric cut in.
“Indeed. I would have preferred to have him explain it, but we can ill afford to waste too much time on this.” Leon looked over at Red with a serious expression. “What I am about to tell you is confidential information with the guard, so it goes without saying that you shouldn’t reveal it to anyone else.”
Red nodded. “I won’t.”
“Good.”
The young master took a sip of his steaming tea cup and cleared his throat before continuing.
“You know of the implications behind the Blood Moon, right?” Leon asked.
“I do.” Red nodded. “It heralds the beginning of a possible demonic invasion.”
“Great, so this spares me from explaining a lot of the details. This is not the first time the kingdom has had to deal with a Blood Moon in its history, and in other times the work of eliminating these demonic cultists would be left to the Sects. However, their position has never been weaker than it is right now, and as we are faced with an Imperial Invasion, this particular Blood Moon couldn’t have come at a worse time for us.”
Red frowned beneath the mask. “You mean to say you are working as the kingdom’s officials to deal with a demonic cult?”
Emeric shook his head with a smile. “We are working for the kingdom, but not so much in an official manner.”
“What he means to say is that Leon has put it in his head that as young scions without strong ties to the court or great responsibilities, we can act outside of the capital’s official jurisdiction and not have our efforts hampered by any demonic collaborators.” Lady Ilse said with some derision.
“Well, that’s one way to put it.” Leon scratched his head. “But don’t think of us as vigilantes, though. We have the blessing of our families to pursue this matter on our own time.”
“Some of us do…” Lady Ilse looked over at Emeric with a smile.
The young master, however, seemed to play dumb as he devoured another biscuit.
“Does the kingdom not have anyone looking into these cultists other than you?” Red asked.
“They leave most of those investigations to the city guard.” Leon nodded. “However, other than the fact that we don’t exactly know whether we can trust them, we seem to disagree on the severity of the problem. The city guard seems to be mostly worried about imperial agents and nobility conflicts, and while they acknowledge these cultists could end up being a problem, there have yet to be any big accidents to prompt them to look into the matter more deeply.”
“Yet you seem to think otherwise. Do you have access to information they don’t?"
There was a brief silence amidst the noble trio at this question.
Leon was the first to recover his composure and speak. “We don’t have any more information they do, yet the way we interpret some vital information is how we differ.”
Ilse snorted. “Don’t beat around the bush. Just tell him.”
Leon sighed and continued. “A few weeks ago, the guard uncovered a hidden cult in the city. Seven people total, running an underground cult while using a grocery shop as a front. One of them was also an unregistered Lesser Ring Realm cultivator, as the guards came to discover once they tried to arrest them. Thankfully, they were wise enough to send two Lesser Ring Realm cultivators of their own in case of such accidents, and Pierre was amongst them. Unfortunately, although they managed to crush the cultists, they all killed themselves before being captured, so the guards couldn’t extract any information from them.”
“… Did you know what cult they were from?” Red asked.
“Memorabilia and symbols in the scene pointed to them being part of the Serpent’s World Cult.”
Red had learned of them before. Other than the Nine-Star Cult, this was the other organization that apparently made its roots in the capital. The youth had a rough idea which archdemon they worshipped, but out of a sense of self-preservation, he didn’t seek to confirm it.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Is that all?” he asked.
“No.” Leon shook his head. “The presence of a Lesser Ring Realm demonic cultivator was a surprise, but that wasn’t what caught the attention of the guard… They found a formation circle in the basement.”
Red frowned. “What kind of formation?”
“We don’t know. The guard contacted both formation specialists and demon experts from the sects, but none of them were able to give a definite answer. Their best guess was that it was a summoning circle, but that’s just from previous knowledge of how these cults acted. The truth is, no one in the city saw that kind of formation before.”
“Is that why you approached me? To analyze the formation?”
“Well, yes, and no.” Leon said. “I’m sure you’re a talented arcane script master, but unless you’re part of their cult, I doubt you could tell us more than we already know.”
“It’s the materials that worry us.” Emeric said. “Almost one hundred spirit stones worth of materials confiscated from that formation, yet no sign of transactions made within any of the city stores to account for it. Even in the black market, such large transactions would have raised a few eyebrows.”
“So you see, our worry about this matter isn’t so much the cultist’s plans, but how they got these materials in the first place.” Leon nodded. “The guard was concerned by this as well, but to them, once the matter with the cultists was resolved, their problem was dealt with and they could go back to their ‘real’ problems.”
Lady Ilse chuckled. “That’s the official reason as to why they didn’t pursue the matter. The truth is that they were scared of the repercussions of any such investigation.”
Red could only imagine. In the case these materials for the formation weren’t bought through official means, then the only possibilities left were contraband or some large power in the city cooperating to keep the transaction off the record. If it was contraband, that meant that the city guard had allowed cultists to slip in potentially dangerous magical items into the city - that or someone in the guard turned a blind eye to this. If they were bought with the help of a large power, that would lead the investigation to the royal court. This would raise an enormous scandal and probably yield them nothing of use.
With those concerns on top of them not considering the cultists to be a major threat, it was no wonder they wouldn’t pursue this thread.
“We can’t blame them for that.” Emeric said. “It’s not like they had any leads to begin with. Marina didn’t turn up with anything either.”
“Even so, the least they could do was an internal investigation.” Ilse shook her head as she set her teacup down and leaned back. “No one was willing to take responsibility over the matter.”
Leon smiled. “This is where we come in.”
The young woman sighed. “We haven’t made any progress either.”
“Which is why we need Master Viran’s help.” Leon turned to Red. “Do you see why we believe that higher powers might be involved with those cultists?”
“… You don’t think it could have been a mistake from the guard?” Red asked.
“You came into the city fairly recently and you saw the procedures to get through the gate. They are always very thorough, so either there’s another entrance into the city we don’t know, or they willingly allowed these highly valuable materials into the capital on purpose.”
“They could have been bribed.”
“I certainly do hope that is so, as the alternative would be much more troubling.” Leon shook his head with a troubled expression. “In any case, that is just one of the alternatives, and the other is equally worrying. Other official appeals to crackdown on these possible cults in the court haven’t been met with a lot of enthusiasm either. Many are worried about what a harder stance on investigations could mean to the economy and unrest of a city who are already suffering under Imperial threat. To them, since nothing bad has happened yet, they don’t see much of a reason to take any drastic measures. At least that’s what many of them claim - but some people could just as easily be using that as an excuse to hinder anyone trying to look into the matter in the first place.”
“That is indeed troublesome.” Red nodded. “Yet I don’t see how any of this concerns me.”
Leon chuckled. “It’s because you’re an arcane script master.”
“I am, but you said it was unlikely for me to recognize the formation, and I’m compelled to agree.”
“That is true, but there are other ways to identify a formation, aren’t there?”
Red frowned. “You want me to replicate it?”
“That is so.” The young master nodded.
“… You are insane.”
Replicating the formation wasn’t so much the issue for Red. The real problem was trying to replicate a demonic formation whose purpose he knew nothing about. It was both an extreme danger and also heresy of a great degree, and if any sect caught wind of this, he and his collaborators would be imprisoned without a doubt.
“I know how this sounds, but I can assuage some of your worries.” Leon said. “We have the permission of the Crystal Sky Sect to execute such a plan.”
This time, Red was truly surprised.
“How did you manage that?”
“My father is friends with the ambassador of the sect here in the city.” Leon said. “The Crystal Sky Sect is also concerned with the rise in demonic activity around the eastern part of the continent, but they aren’t allowed to act in the capital unless King Thomas explicitly asks for their help. However, if someone else is doing it on their behalf, then it’s another matter entirely.”
Red frowned. “If they know about the formation, couldn’t they replicate it themselves?”
“They claim their arcane script masters are all occupied with more important matters, and that such a task could take months of their time.” Leon said.
Ilse snorted. “That is to say that while they are concerned, they don’t care enough to divert their forces to deal with. That, and they also don’t want to risk the lives of their cultivators in case something goes wrong in the process.”
“Yet you are willing to risk mine.” Red looked over at Leon.
The young master shook his head frantically. “T-That’s not the case. We are planning to help in any way we can, and if the task ever feels too dangerous, you are free to back out of it!”
Emeric nodded. “Lady Ilse here also knows a thing or two about formations. I’m sure she can help.”
“Don’t speak for me, you bastard!” The woman threw a biscuit at him.
Leon cleared his throat. “In any case, I wouldn’t feel comfortable putting you in danger if it wasn’t for a good cause, Master Viran. I’m also more than willing to pay for compensation for the task.”
Red was silent in thought for a while before speaking up.
“… Why me?”
Leon scratched his chin. “Well, you are a talented arcane master, and while there may be more skilled masters in the city, they have ties to other factions. Even if I trusted them, I doubt I could convince them to do this for me.”
“You mean there is no one a duke’s family can hire to do this task?”
“You overestimate our means and underestimate the rarity of an arcane master.” Leon shook his head. “Besides, even if we had a choice, I would prefer to hire you.”
Red frowned. “Why is that?”
“Because I think you’re a good person.”
A heavy silence hanged in the air after those words. Ilse frowned with a pondering expression, while Emeric didn’t show any reaction as he sipped on his tea. Red, on the other hand, was truly perplexed.
“Nothing I have done could lead you to that conclusion.” he said.
Leon chuckled. “Yet, I still believe it.”
“Why?”
“Just a feeling.”
Leon’s fluctuation remained as steady as ever as he said that, which to Red meant he was a consummate liar or he was telling the truth. His companions didn’t show any surprise at this strange justification.
This all made the youth’s decision rather easy.
“I have decided.” he said.
“Really?” Leon’s eyes lit up. “You’re going to help us?”
“No. I refuse.”
Red got up from his chair and started to walk out the way he came.