"Patch me through, now!"
No sooner had Manstein shouted the order than a hazy virtual screen popped up in front of him. On the other end was a young man with black hair and dark eyes, rainwater streaming down his face. The background was pitch black, but the howling wind and crashing thunder made it clear — a raging storm.
"Cassell Academy Executive Division, Huaxia Branch, S-Class Operative Cheng Shuangfan reporting!"
"Speak!"
"...We've sent coordinates to HQ. The industrial park is nominally invested by the Chen family of Huaxia. Two hours ago, we began observing abnormal thunderstorm activity—"
The screen jolted violently. A sudden cacophony and loud crashes interrupted the call.
Manstein frowned and turned to an analyst. "What's going on over there? Interference?"
The analyst, sweating, responded, "Even if it's intense lightning, most electromagnetic interference should be low-frequency. It shouldn't affect high-frequency comms... unless it's a weather anomaly caused by a super-level Kotodama...?"
The uncertainty in his tone deepened. Manstein immediately cut in: "Norma, retrieve satellite weather records!"
A moment later, a satellite image appeared. A black vortex-shaped cloud cluster hovered over southern Huaxia — small in area but incredibly dense in rainfall and wind, absorbing clouds from all directions like a storm vortex.
"Bloody hell..."
Manstein nearly cursed aloud. He wanted to scream at someone — how could something this huge erupt without warning? And now they'd lost contact with their Huaxia division?
"Apologies!" Cheng Shuangfan's feed came back. Despite the background noise, he shouted, "We've encountered unexpected conflict outside the zone!"
"What conflict?!"
"We ran into obstruction from local Huaxia noble houses. Their encirclement was well-planned — we couldn't penetrate the perimeter."
Then more noise — unmistakable gunfire.
Manstein's expression twisted. He could now tell: that noise came from inside the industrial park.
"Wait... you're not in a firefight with Huaxia nobles, are you?"
Cheng Shuangfan shook his head. "No, no! Not us! The gunfire's from inside the park. There are likely dead servants present! We're trying to negotiate joint intervention."
"Then why are you being denied entry?"
"...They claim the Secret Party is responsible for all this."
A heavy statement. "They jointly accuse the Gattuso family and Sigurd family within the Party of orchestrating this, and say they've apprehended a key witness."
Manstein stared wide-eyed. It was like a massive pot of boiling shit had been dumped straight onto their heads.
Silence fell in the control room.
Elsewhere, Fujiwara Shin'nosuke spat blood, looking utterly hopeless as he was surrounded by Huaxia nobles and bound tightly.
He cursed his luck. He had driven like a god, chased down Chen's daughter almost to the end — only for her to vanish into thin air.
Trying to sneak in past the noble blockade had also failed. He ended up soaked and stumbled into a swarm of black-clad dead servants.
Terrified and exhausted, he ran — only to be captured by the noble youth hunting those same undead.
"What else do you want from me? I've told you all I can," he muttered. "And if it's top-secret stuff — I wouldn't know."
He wasn't bluffing. As a low-ranking contractor, he only did what he was paid to do.
Thanks to his compliance, they hadn't tortured him — but they interrogated him non-stop about the Gattuso family's true motives.
He thought: Did they really just send so many bodyguards for one heiress? Hell no.
The Gattusos must have known what Chen was doing and wanted in on the dead servant experiments.
Looking around at the sheer number of Huaxia nobles, he realized something had gone terribly wrong for both the Chens and the Gattusos. The nobles were never in on the plan. Now that they'd uncovered the experiments, exposure was inevitable.
The Chens would be finished. The Gattusos? To stay clean, they had to act first — they had to leverage their director status and deploy the Secret Party's Executive Division.
With the Huaxia nobles looking the other way as usual, the final report could just conveniently omit the Gattusos' role.
"I am Cheng Shuangfan, S-Class Operative, Huaxia Branch," said a man approaching to negotiate. "You claim to have a witness, but without admissible testimony or evidence, this accusation is invalid."
Fujiwara Shin'nosuke shouted with all his might:
"I testify! The Gattuso family, internal Secret Party members, and the Chen family colluded in inhumane dead servant experiments. They're now trying to interfere and cover it up!"
Panicking and drenched in cold sweat, he thought: If I don't speak up now, they'll toss me under the bus to take the fall!
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][www.p@treon.com/euridome]
[Thank You For Your Support!]