Ch.120120. Main Scenario – Slaves

A week had passed since Gilbert placed a request with the Wild Rose. It seemed that gathering information was taking quite some time, perhaps because they were the kind of organization that charged an advance fee of 30 gold. Even the Wild Rose, who would normally deliver ordinary information quickly, had contacted him saying they needed more time.

Well, they’re that kind of bastards after all.

Gilbert thought of the Slaves and clicked his tongue in disgust.

The most frightening thing about them was that even their own members didn’t know who their leader was. The meticulous leader of the Slaves had never once appeared in public.

Moreover, he was so vicious that whenever someone tried to take advantage of his hidden identity by posing as the leader, he would invariably send assassins to murder their entire family or sell those with attractive faces into slavery.

There was even a story that when a slave trader appeared pretending to be him, he had the man’s family’s bellies slit open and torn apart right before his eyes.

Gilbert himself didn’t know the leader’s identity either. To begin with, most users playing Tactical Combat weren’t even aware of his existence.

Gilbert himself only learned about the Slaves having a leader when he was working on the slave trader achievement quest.

Curious about who this person might be, he had struggled to uncover the identity during that playthrough, but couldn’t catch even a shadow of the man until the end of that run.

So although he had entrusted the Wild Rose with this request, he didn’t expect to catch the man this time either. All he wanted was to find the location of their main headquarters and annihilate the Slaves.

Gilbert closed his eyes and began organizing his thoughts.

To catch them, he first needed to gauge their scale.

Although he had commissioned the Wild Rose, there was no way they could determine the full scale of the Slaves, which operated as a cell organization. So he needed to recall his memories from when he played the slave trader route.

As he remembered, they were divided into seven branches centered around a main headquarters.

Among them, Gilbert had belonged to the 3rd Branch.

He remembered its location clearly, so finding it wouldn’t be difficult.

However, the other branches and central headquarters were more ambiguous. While there was communication between branches, they frequently changed locations, so he didn’t know where they might be situated now.

The reason Gilbert knew the location of the 3rd Branch was because he had pinpointed the place based on timing. Verification would be necessary, but if Tactical Combat’s settings hadn’t changed, the 3rd Branch should still be there.

He wanted to raid the 3rd Branch immediately, but stirring things up would only make them hide more thoroughly, so taking them all down at once was the orthodox approach.

If Gilbert were moving alone, it would be impossible, but he had Seraphina as a very reliable backer firmly in place.

Since she had personally issued this extermination order, he could receive her full support.

The only concerning point was that the Slaves had close relationships with the imperial power structure. If they learned that Seraphina was making a move, there was a good possibility it would reach their ears.

In the end, the most important aspects of this operation were speed and secrecy. The correct answer was to capture them with as few troops as possible.

After roughly formulating a plan, Gilbert sought out Seraphina. Like before, she was doing paperwork.

“Disciple. Judging by your expression, it seems you have something to tell me… Am I correct?”

“Yes. I have something to discuss with you in confidence.”

“Don’t worry. This is a place where even bird songs are not easily heard.”

It was a code phrase.

A euphemism meaning the room was thoroughly soundproofed.

Though currently a student and student council president at the academy, she was still an imperial princess.

And not just any princess, but one close to being the crown princess—a central figure in imperial power.

Even within the academy, Seraphina’s political opponents monitored her every move and reported to their superiors. And those superiors reported to those even higher up.

The reason Yanik stuck so closely to her side was not only for protection but also to filter out such malicious elements. While his combat abilities were somewhat lacking, his tracking skills were unparalleled.

Having served as the captain of the empire’s famous Ranger Unit, he was an expert at finding people and traces. For this reason, Yanik had become the princess’s closest confidant and the knight guarding her side.

“So what did you want to tell me?”

Seraphina asked, having dismissed all the maids attending her. Her eyes confirmed that Gilbert had brought some information.

“First, I requested information about them from an information guild in the back alleys. Though they haven’t collected precise information yet, I was able to learn about their identity.”

“Is that so? I have also received reports from my intelligence department. It would be good to compare.”

“That’s fortunate. According to what I’ve heard, they are a large slave trader group called the Slaves. However, because they operate as a cell organization, gathering information is difficult.”

“The Slaves… This matches what my intelligence department reported.”

Seraphina’s expression turned bitter.

Her capable intelligence department had begun collecting information as soon as she gave the order and had recently submitted a first investigation report.

Their report also indicated that they appeared to be a slave trader group called the Slaves, as Gilbert had mentioned. Their scale far exceeded what Seraphina had predicted, and if they had been discovered any later, they might have grown to an unmanageable size.

If that day hadn’t been a covert operation…

Seraphina quickly shook her head. It was a hypothesis she didn’t want to consider.

“I had no idea such trash existed in places beyond the empire’s sight.”

“It’s not too late. We just need to root them out completely.”

“Even so, this happened because of my lack of virtue.”

She loved the empire’s subjects as much as she loved the empire itself.

Seraphina never forgot that the Infractus Empire existed because of them.

That’s why Seraphina now felt a heavy responsibility—for having overlooked these petty criminals engaged in human trafficking until now.

“Your Highness.”

“It’s alright. As you said, we just need to sweep them all away.”

“That’s correct. And I have one more thing to tell you.”

“Speak. I am always willing to listen to what you have to say.”

“As you may already know, they operate as a cell organization. No one knows exactly how many they are. However, the fact that they’ve grown their influence so rapidly suggests that there might be a leadership group controlling the Slaves.”

Gilbert had decided before coming here to release some information under the guise of speculation. The longer they waited, the more difficult it would become to strike against them.

He needed to set the stage for Seraphina to make a decision and take command of the situation.

“I think so too. Though they operate as cells, they’ve been conducting business while evading the empire’s eyes. There might be corrupt informants within the empire.”

Seraphina took a sip of tea to moisten her throat. Her eyes began to burn with anger once again.

Gilbert, quietly observing her, gulped.

As expected, geniuses were different.

With just a few words from Gilbert, she had already grasped what he was trying to say and inferred even more.

And quite close to the truth at that.

“I know what you’re requesting. You mean we need to take them all down at once to completely clean them up, correct?”

“Exactly. And as you’re concerned, there might be informants. We need to keep this operation confidential.”

Seraphina’s fingers tapped on the armrest.

“It’s difficult. If we use too many people, we risk being discovered in advance. We can only move with a small, elite force we can trust.”

It would be good if she could mobilize Briana, but there were too many eyes on her.

If she suddenly disappeared, it would raise suspicions.

Seraphina didn’t have many options.

After being lost in thought for several minutes, she looked at Gilbert, who had been maintaining silence.

“I have a task for you.”

“Command me.”

“Select trustworthy students from the academy. Form a special detachment.”

“The students, Your Highness?”

“Yes. We’ll have to catch them using students under the pretext of field training.”

“Won’t their skills be insufficient?”

“Even so, catching them is the priority. Even at this moment, subjects are suffering. As students of Demeia Academy, we cannot turn a blind eye to suffering subjects. And I will also make preparations.”

Yanik, who had been standing quietly behind her, nodded at Seraphina’s glance.

It seemed she had a private military organization that no one knew about.

“That proposal is for a reserve force in case the troops I’ve prepared are insufficient. So don’t worry.”

“How could I doubt Your Highness? I spoke only out of excessive concern.”

“Even such words are important to me. So do what you can.”

“Understood, Your Highness.”

After that, Gilbert continued discussing the Slaves with Seraphina. Although they couldn’t make concrete plans without specific information, it was very helpful in establishing the basic framework.

***

Three days after Gilbert met with Seraphina.

The Wild Rose contacted Gilbert.

They had obtained the information.