Chapter 1582 (1/2)

Edraine had been extremely careful with her planning. The more information she had gathered the more hesitant she had become. What they did now would leave some traces. And what Edraine began to worry about was who would be the one who would come to silence unwanted snoopers.

Lady Iellaya strode forward confidently, following the heavily armed guards into the depths of Military High Command’s prison. They were hemmed in by heavy stone blocks the size of a normal dresser. Even worse, the ceiling was oppressively low, so everyone who passed through this place had the impulse to stoop. Here, the worst and most dangerous criminals in the Nexus were kept under lock and key. Of course, the open secret of this place is that most of those terrible criminals were soldiers who had simply killed too many people too blatantly to ignore.

But the Nexus might be relatively lax most of the time, but its justice was harsh. Once the criminals were sent here, they would never escape alive, not without significant help. The guards here possessed enough power that one could pin down Lady Iellaya and two would probably be able to overcome her in a short while.

Their quiet capability added extra tension to the air as they proceeded down the stone hallway. Expressionlessly, the duo of guards held a torch aloft and continued forward. The flames licked eagerly at the stone ceiling.

But luckily, it did not appear that this place was designed for someone of Edraine’s caliber. She moved in Lady Iellaya’s shadow without revealing a hint of her presence. Or rather, her image constantly annihilated any signs of its own passage, leaving nothing in her wake.

After some investigation, Ocativus and Lady Iellaya had discovered that no one had ever visited the ‘corrupt’ Overseer of the Sixth Cohort. In the entirety of that individual’s stay in this horrible jail, no one proceeded to the deep cell surrounded by heavy stone to either interrogate or visit the disgraced Overseer. Considering the political clout required to have someone assume the position of Overseer… it was impossible that the Overseer had no allies remaining.

To Edraine’s mind, there were two possibilities. The first was that the Overseer had truly pulled the wool over his allies eyes for her own personal gain. But based on the research that she and Octavius had done, that was almost impossible.

The second possibility, then, was that the Overseer had been tossed aside by her former allies. Which implied that the core of this conspiracy was powerful enough to buy them off or intimidate them into silence.

Lady Iellaya did remarkably well keeping her expression even as they approached the crucial intersection. She had requested permission from Military High Command to visit some old Nether Heralds that were held captive here; considering that she would soon be heading to the Fifth Cohort, it wasn’t a particularly strange request.

Except for the fact that Lady Iellaya was the leader of an entire frontline; she was undoubtedly familiar with Nether Beasts of all types. But Edraine and her cabal had no choice; they needed access to the Overseer.

There was a breeze that rustled the still, stone halls filled with heavy air. It was the sort of air that hadn’t been touched by wind in centuries. Just as the guards paused to glance backward from the strange anomaly, Lady Iellaya sneezed and rubbed her nose. Sensing the guards’ gazes, her eyes turned sharp.

“...what the hell are you lookin’ at, soldier?”

Pressing their lips together, the guards turned away. And in those few interactions, Edraine arrived before a small wooden door far down the hallway. There was the sound of an aluminum can being crunched to a flat disc and then Edraine brushed away the remnant dust from the deceased guard and opened the door.

Within, a shriveled, green caterpillar woman sat in a wooden chair. Her antenna were limp and feeble, her body ancient and weak. Other than the woman and the chair, there was nothing else in the small cell. When Edraine arrived, the woman’s milky white eyes shifted upward. And then she smiled.

“I’ve waited for someone to come here a long time,” The woman whispered. She gestured to the surroundings. As Edraine’s eyes adjusted to the lighting inside of the room, she could see that every inch of the cell’s walls were covered in dense lines of script. Even the floor was crisscrossed with words. “I believe you’ll find everything you want here. Every secret that I have… I only ask for one thing in exchange. That you kill me so I can finally escape this wretched world.”

Edraine’s eyes flicked around, scanning through the words until she found the information she was seeking. There was a portion of the text dedicated to the caterpillar’s home world, some explanation of her insights into her image, and also an entire wall that appeared to be a auto-biography.

Her lips curling upward, Edraine skipped to the end of the biography. As she hoped, there was the information regarding her time as an Overseer. When her eyes reached the few lines pertaining why she had been betrayed by her supporters, Edraine frowned; they would need to do some more investigating in order to verify the former Overseer’s claims.

Then Edraine turned back to the caterpillar and nodded. “...I will do as you wish.”

Edraine didn’t bother to mention that she would have slaughtered the woman anyway, to prevent news of her visit from leaking. It seemed more merciful to allow this woman to believe she finally had control over her fate.

*****

The shade gripped the limp body beneath it, maintaining their floating position as best as it could. Its hold upon the emotional tether shook slightly. Honestly, it was quite annoyed that it not only had to keep itself from slipping downward, but also protect this inert body.

Yet its subconscious urged the shade to protect this floppy humanoid. And when the shade looked down at the face of the humanoid, it felt its nonexistent heart soften. Yes, it was an exhausting task. But it would never to refuse to protect this humanoid. And when it looked at its face… there was just something so familiar…

The shade shook itself. Its attention could not waiver. There was work to do. The longer it procrastinated, the longer it would need to suffer underneath this weight.