283 Unease (1/2)

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”Alright, we're done here. You guys can release them, it's time that we return home.”

Raven told the Elites who readily obeyed his order and released the captives.

Not all of Lucy's puppets died when she lost consciousness, some managed to live through the ordeal but became too weak to resist afterwards. To this, Raven was struck with a wonderful idea. One by one, he planted a slave seal to each of them, effectively increasing the numbers of his spies inside the Black Curtain Guild.

Since they were reduced to a very weakened state due to Lucy's Poison Laws, they couldn't resist Raven's will at all, resulting to them being branded by a Slave Seal.

There were at least 20 people who survived, counting the prior slave Raven had, he now have a total of 21 people who will serve as his spies from now on. After making sure that they were properly branded and briefed about the plan, the slaves were released and started making their way back to the guild.

Raven and the team had already squeezed out information from the slaves but failed to discover nothing, the same goes upon inspecting the deepest parts of the underground cave. In the end, they could only take their time and return back to the kingdom so that they could squeeze out information from Lucy herself.

The way back to the Kingdom was relatively peaceful. Aside from a few injured, they didn't lose anyone from the team of Elites which is a cause for celebration. The group took their time, resting properly on their way back since there is no reason to be in a hurry after all.

It took them a day to get back, their return was welcomed by the Golden Knights, who immediately summoned the team back at the palace to complete the report.

Of course, thanks to the Skynet Array, the King and the rest already knew the results of the battle were but still they have to meet the person they brought back.

On their way to the palace, Old Lee noticed that Raven appeared to be in a deep thought. The old man was puzzled so he decided to ask him: ”Is there something wrong, Young Raven?”

Raven was of course, surprised by this sudden question as he himself didn't realize that he was locked on a deep thought. He gave the old man a smile and said: ”It's nothing, Professor Lee. I guess I'm just shocked that this mission was easier than I initially thought. I guess I was worried for nothing and underestimate our strength together, everything went well in the end.”

'Yes…' Raven's thoughts continued inside his mind, 'Everything went well…too well in fact that it's so uncomfortable.” The old man knew nothing of his inner thoughts, but knew that Raven has his own worries.

”One cannot be too prepared when it comes to a decisive battle, Young Raven.” Old Lee stated, ”In fact, it's better that it ended up this way, at least this shows just how much you care about the people around you.”

Raven smiled and nodded towards the Old Lee's words. He then decided to throw this matter on the back of his head for now since there are more pressing matters to attend to.

***

After finishing up the reports of the battle and securing Lucy's imprisonment. The team and the Elites were released and were allowed to return to their homes. The Elites were rewarded due to their performance, the team didn't receive any since they don't need any.

Resting on their respective homes, a day went by and Raven returned to the palace along with Luis since Lucy's interrogation will happen today.

Due to the restrictions that Raven placed on her, Lucy was effectively reduced into a mere mortal. Raven watched as the interrogation went and by using all means possible, they managed to squeeze out important details from her.

According to what she said, the reason why they want to build a camp near the Kingdom is due to Lucy's talent in Poison Laws. She has a special poison that could supersede one's very consciousness, allowing her to push her will and desires for them to follow. All she had to do is to catch a few people who wandered to close to the camp, poison them and have them return.

Those who were poisoned will become predators that will attack whenever Lucy decided, each of their victims would get infected and a cycle will repeat until they could effectively create a pseudo organization inside, and then it will be the Mort Family all over again.

Due to the reports of the battle against her, the interrogators knew that what she said was the truth. Fortunately, the guild didn't account on Raven and his team's existence at all. They underestimated the growth of these kids, who crushed their plans before it even bore fruit.

Still, even after all this, Raven wasn't satisfied.