583 Contingency Plan (2/2)

With the hair and button, Klein could use divination to lock onto the location of the Black Death up to a certain amount of time. This way, as long as Mr. Azik was willing, he could bring him to Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy.

Sigh, I originally thought I wouldn't need Mr. Azik's help. I thought I could succeed just by myself, alone. Ultimately, I fell just short... Klein sighed and felt a blow to his self-esteem.

This was one of the reasons why he didn't seek Mr. Azik's help in the beginning. The other reason was that he wasn't certain that Tracy was in possession of the ancient chronicles related to Death. If she really didn't have it, it would be rather awkward to have Mr. Azik make a trip for nothing. Furthermore, he was worried that even with Mr. Azik's help, that he would still need to act as Helene to find the Black Death and Tracy. He still needed to wear her clothes and use himself as bait

That would be too embarrassing to do it in front of someone he knew!

In fact, if it wasn't to obtain intelligence and solely to eliminate Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy, it would've been a lot simpler. Once I swim back to Bayam and go above the gray fog, I simply need to lock onto their location and use the Sea God Scepter to create a storm...

This isn't to say that a huge area-of-attack blast will definitely kill Tracy on the spot, but it will attract Sea King Jahn Kottman's attention. When the time comes, the Black Death's location would be exposed to the Church of Storms... Sea King will happily take down Ailment Maiden...

Klein shook his head with self-deprecating mockery. With his Seer's spiritual intuition guiding him, he rapidly swam towards the shore.

On the Black Death, Tracy removed her layers of defense and walked to the diamond-inlaid bangle, in her damaged, bloodstained clothes. She bent down to pick it up.

What a cautious attacker. I might not even be comparable to her back when I was an assassin... No, him... Tracy suddenly clenched her teeth.

This wasn't because she nearly died at his hands, but because he had sensed that the man had done something to Helene.

According to the way Emperor Roselle put it, she suspected that there was something green[l] growing on her head.

”Helene, are you really that cold and heartless? No, perhaps she was forced.” Tracy turned her head to look at the nasty wound on her left shoulder as she felt the heart-wrenching pain.

If not for the strengthening of her physique brought about by the Assassin and Instigator Sequence, with a significant enhancement in subsequent Sequences, just that one blow alone could've made her lose her entire arm. She would be like those pirates who had their arms blown off by rifles.

As the blood flowed and stained her vision red, Tracy got the blonde female attendant to enter and use her abilities to help her deal with her injuries while instructing the surrounding pirates who had their eyes fixated on her to search for any items the attacker had left behind.

Unfortunately, the pirates informed her that all of his clothes had been automatically destroyed.

This made Tracy recall the snap the enemy had made before he left. She sighed once again.

”How careful.

”Furthermore, he's not one bit greedy. If he had taken the bangle, then I wouldn't need to worry about not catching up to him.”

Tracy waved her hand, motioning for most of the pirates to leave, leaving behind Wormtongue Mithor King and a few high- ranking members of the crew.

”Third Mate, go to Bayam again. Perform a thorough investigation to figure out where the Resistance found that Helene,” Tracy ordered in a solemn voice.

With great difficulty, Mithor retracted his gaze from his captain's chest ”Alright!”

Tracy thought for a moment and added, ”Spread this matter. Say that I'm seriously injured and will not be able to recover anytime soon.

”Also, First Mate, immediately set sail. Don't stay here any longer.”

As she issued orders, silence was quickly restored around Tracy.

Only at this point did she have the time to figure out which faction the attacker came from, why he would attack her, and what motives he had...

Unfortunately, the more Tracy thought, the more puzzled she became. She had no idea what the truth was. Although she had many enemies, none of them possessed similar powers.

Finally, she found a clue as she muttered to herself, ”Creeping Hunger?”

In the middle of the night, in a private harbor on Blue Mountain Island.

Standing by the receding and advancing waves was a female figure. She was none other than Klein, who was still disguised as Helene.

He circled under the water and quickly came onto shore. He infiltrated the house of a nearby fisherman and got some tattered clothes to change into before changing back into Gehrman Sparrow.

Leaving behind the rather expensive dress as compensation, Klein rapidly left the private harbor and returned to the City of Generosity, Bayam, before daybreak.

He wasn't in a rush to meet up with Danitz. Instead, he found a random motel to stay in. He used a ritual and brought back Azik's copper whistle, other mystical items, and cash back to the real world.

After confirming that he could divine the location of the Black Death, he blew the copper whistle.

[1] A Chinese saying of being cuckolded, wearing a green hat