63 The Truth 5 - Findings and Investigation (1/2)

When Felix heard the message, he remembered how he met Harrison.

He was someone Felix had met a few years ago after the war, their first exchange was about him giving a proposal to form an alliance. Given the time and position he was in, Felix had doubted everything he said was true, if Harrison had not provided the list of the Naga's employed Cultivators, along with the proof of being a Naga official; Felix would have backed out.

His proposal was to make a secret alliance made for his desire for revenge on the Naga clan, the ones responsible for causing him and his former friend Wade to suffer as slaves for their own amusement.

Between the two of them, Wade had fallen too far into his madness and anger, so he could not be saved nor trusted to be part in any of Harrison's plans. While Wade was making a name for himself through constant bloodshed, Harrison made a new identity from being a mercenary and masqueraded as a merchant, amassing fame for over two years.

He also heard that Harrison excelled in the field of administration and the Naga's elder caught wind of his abilities, eventually he was sought out and was given a position to handle the Naga's subordinates. During the war, he started learning their entire social order, members, along with the Naga's clan family members be it the main or the branch.

When the war ended the Naga's took the opportunity to expand their wealth and influence by reaching out to the clans for 'fair business', Harrison happened to be the one in charge of dealing with the Boars.

When he encountered them he reached out to themfor his proposal, as one of the clans with the strongest military strength, he made the obvious choice. Since they have not been influenced by the Naga's such as making an alliance.

And the one he reached out for his proposal was Felix himself. At the time, Felix was responsible in dealing with outside affairs due to his retirement, he was very skeptical in believing an outsider was willing to give away valuable information, so he hasn't told the elder about their exchange nor their relation and only told the information he was given.

When he heard of his name, Felix did his own digging and found everything about him along with everything he said was true.

Harrison had already proven his worth and loyalty by telling Felix about the movements of the Naga clan through the messenger hawk, he also included other clans involvement through his position and connection so they began their interaction on secret.

Because he aimed to gain a higher position, Harrison had to send all further information in the form of gossip, from from bars or taverns of Mordan City.

Felix had then integrated some of his subordinates in Mordan city, and remained hidden within the Naga clan and collected the information, which continued on until this day.

To make sure the information was valid, Harrison informed them to meet his messengers in specific locations and find them themselves, he also told them to look for about five people in total. To tell the real information from the fake, the messengers must say the exact same thing, word for word. If the rumors they heard do not match, then the person they found was a random drunkard who was informed about the gossip.

Eventually Harrison gained the position of chief of staff and had more people to use, but at the same time he had to be wary as to not draw unwanted attention. When he saw the increasing piles of dead bodies of non - Cultivators from the Naga's cruelty, he took the opportunity to expose the Naga's inner conflict by hiding written information within the victims body.

Since he was in a position where he had to deal with most of the Naga's dirty work, him writing anything was easy and making it appear as a report can be pulled off without suspicion, especially giving information leaks being ripped to shreds before the Naga's.

Due to the storm, he had to delay in providing information to the outside, and it just so happens the three Assassins were the ones Felix employed to gather the messages for him.

Because of the delay, the three had found out about the slave market and used it as a shortcut to get near the Boars clan, since they had some time Harrison told them to do a job for him when they left.

So them meeting Felix in the slave market was pure coincidence, since they planned to send the message back to him at the Boars clan. Felix on the other hand had a bad feeling when he heard this, his intuition was warning him about the members of the Naga clan in the slave market, but he had to put it aside as he had to focus on his clans future at the moment.

'Is this really from Harrison?'

It was not as though Felix did not trust the leader, since he had employed her grouped for a while now, they were well acquainted. Harrison on the other hand had to many subordinates that may also be watching him in secret, so he had to be sure it was him giving the information.

'The information was secretly hidden from within the corpses, dropped from the usual spots near the Naga's borders, it definitely from him. With his rise in a position, information gathering about the Naga had been more dangerous for us to retrieve. At the same time the Naga's Elders have him around everyday, so we had to be more patient until he gave the que for the latest information.”

Being a chief of staff means Harrison had full responsibility of over all of the subordinates and promote them for the Naga's use, he also had the responsibility in handling all of their dirty work like disposing of bodies, having clear access to hiding information for them to scavenge.

As they spoke about the information, no one mentioned about finding Stigma when he left the scene. The reason was simple, the three were still inside Mordan City and checked if Harrison could give his usual way in dropping information.

As they were in Mordan City to find Harrison's signal for information leaks, Stigma was long gone when the gates opened. If he had stayed for a day longer, those three would have met him sooner than expected.

When they summarized other events, Felix became silent and asked them about the request Harrison sent them to do, unfortunately they signed a nondisclosure agreement so he had to give up in finding out.

'Don't involve Stigma into this, understand....'

'We know, the boy is going to be our new recruit so why bring him into danger like this, he should not be involved.'

'.....Let him go by my clan before you take him, he has abilities that may, help us...'

'Alright.'

The leader was well aware of the danger Felix's clan was facing, so she didn't say anything else. Just the thought of Stigma's ability to think calmly under pressure had put her mind at ease, she wasn't the type to put anyone in a dangerous situation, even testing a child with potential.

Felix on the other hand was having his mind wonder about one subject from the message.

'Who was the real child.'

Asking the leader would not make a difference, since her job was to only deliver the messages from Harrison to Felix.

'Adopted means the child is not the correct bloodline, that would mean the child they had is not born from the marriage alliance.... if the Naga's had another child and replaced the original. Wait, that would mean the failure would mean the child between the alliance, and to make sure the alliance would succeed and further grow, they had replaced him with another child with talent from the same father to strengthen the alliance. If that's true then they have been lying since ten years ago!'

Slowly the information Harrison sent him about the families internal struggles have been carefully placed like a puzzle, revealing him an almost complete picture. Each time he connected all the information from his findings and investigation, Felix's fist started to tighten from the succeeding revelation.

There was however one problem he had to face to make sure the alliance is finally broken.

'Who and where is the child and how can I expose them!' While Felix was planning his future plans, the leader tapped his shoulder and mouthed out the next word, the contents were enough to make Felix believe there was a storm brewing and it was drawing near.

'The part about the Panther's looking for you is true, we were told to send a message that they are seeking you.'

***

While Felix and the leader wer busy having the silent discussion, Stigma was currently enjoying his time as he was washing Kirin with soap. It's fur was covered in dirt and dry blood, so it looked like the time Stigma had it removed from its deceased mother.

But after a few rinses, the cute little wolf started to look more appealing to anybody. It blue fur shined under the light and made Stigma huge it.

Both him and Kirin had only used water to bath themselves until now, but even using water has it limits to someone like Stigma who lived in a city where having a shower was one of the ways to bathe, especially when he found out that the route he took had no streams passing by.

Living outside of nature was what made Stigma avoid taking long bath, the danger of having a predator hidden in the woods got him nervous, the wolves were a clear example.

With the following events that had happened yesterday, Stigma didn't had time nor the people to trust when he was trying to relax when he got to the market. Dusk was only a walking wall that needed orders, Hilda can only warn him, and Kirin was separated from him, so he was led to buy a slave to keep watch while he relaxed.

But with three to four people inside, Stigma would take his time and relax and clean Kirin's fur, not only that he was going to begin reviewing what he had and experiment.

Not only that, the knowledge passed on from the Demons had fully integrated when he fell asleep yesterday, but he didn't have no time to use it.

'But now, Essence Reader!'

[Name: Stigma Falsus

Age: 10

Rank: Unique (I)(Early stage)

0 / 10000

Strength: 150

Agility:170

Vitality: 250

Zen Reserves: 1700 / 1700

Skill:

Essence Reader(V) 5%, Poltergeist (III) (1) 60%, Soul Eater (V) 0%,Taboo(III) 45%, Demon's Soul 5%

*

Current Souls Absorbed:

Soul of Impurity (I), Wolf Soul (II), Snake Soul (I), Stag Soul (I), Bear Soul (I), Eagle Soul (I), Bull Soul (I), Boar Soul (I), Monkey Soul (I), Cheetah Soul (I), Rabbit Soul (I), Rat Soul (I), Goat Soul (I), Bat Soul (I)

*

Pure Energy: 220%

Grudge Energy: 104%

Wrath Energy: 140%

Fire Energy: 104%

Earth Energy: 103%

Water Energy: 20%

Lightning Energy: 30%

Light Energy: 4%

***

Stock Piled Souls:

Soul of Wrath:(Complete - 100%)

Tiger Soul: 30%

Snake Soul: 80%

*Familiars:*

1. Dusk (I)(1) (270 / 2500)

2. Brunhilda (I) (300 / 3000)

3. Kirin (I) (180 / 2000)