Chapter 13: The Unveiling of the Hyena Squad

The evening breeze swept in from the balcony, carrying the faint scent of bellflowers.

Elara leaned against her headboard, perusing the spatial magic documents she had borrowed from the guild.

On the balcony, Hilvyn rested her chin in her hands, gazing idly at the wind chimes hanging from the eaves, her fingers aimlessly fiddling with their pendants.

She turned back and asked, “Master, I’m a B-rank adventurer now. I can use a codename. Could you help me think of one?”

“I’ve already thought of it,” Elara replied, looking up.

“Tell me, tell me!”

“In my hometown, there’s a plant called Bai Zhi.”

“Though I don’t know what it is, it sounds beautiful.” Hilvyn repeated the name, savoring the words.

“Tonight, I still want to hear the story of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven.”

“No problem.”

The faint tinkling of wind chimes sounded like distant chatter.

Suddenly, the clatter of hooves echoed from downstairs. Hilvyn looked down, then turned to Elara. “Master, the City Guard is here.”

Elara paused, closing her book.

“Change your clothes. We’re leaving.”

“Where are we going?” Hilvyn asked, perplexed, as her hair shifted to black.

“You’ll be pleased.”

The City Guard soldier, sent to deliver a summons, had barely knocked when the door opened.

“Lady Black Rose, Guild Leader Sevia requests your presence at the guild. Now.”

“Let’s go.”

Elara addressed both the City Guard and Hilvyn.

Hilvyn remained uncharacteristically silent the entire way.

****

By the time they reached the guild, dusk had already settled.

The guild hall was bustling with people—not only curious adventurers but also City Guards maintaining order.

The focus of the crowd was the Hyena Squad, standing in the center.

Pete, Lina, and Victor were surrounded by several guards.

Guild Vice-Leader Sevia stood before the central counter. To her left, the Garrison Captain and representatives from the Golden Road Merchant Station stood side-by-side.

To her right, squeezed behind them, were the guild staff, also watching the spectacle.

“Black Rose.” Seeing Elara enter, Sevia gave her a slight nod. “Over here.”

Elara and Hilvyn pushed through the crowd, joining the front of the guild staff.

Serene peered over from among them, waving at the two.

Elara nodded in response, while Hilvyn smiled and waved back.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Sevia’s gaze returned to the three, settling on Pete.

“Pete.”

Sevia’s voice was not loud, yet the chattering adventurers instinctively fell silent.

The hall became so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

“Yesterday’s mission: you ran aimlessly through the forest with the injured party, delaying the optimal rescue time.”

“I… we got lost.”

“After so many missions, you still get lost?”

Pete blurted out the excuse in desperation, only to find himself unable to justify it further.

Sevia then spoke, not just to Pete, but to elucidate the case for everyone present.

“Your squad departed from the north gate towards the mission location. Instead of heading south towards the city gate, you traveled east, where you ‘coincidentally’ encountered Black Rose and her companion.”

Sevia’s tone grew heavier, each word enunciated distinctly.

“Your companion was bleeding to death, yet you walked at a leisurely pace.”

“We were all trying our best to walk quickly! Guild Leader, you! You can ask Black Rose if you don’t believe me! She saw it!”

Elara closed her eyes in exasperation.

‘When people know they’re about to die, they truly grasp at any straw of hope.’

“You forgot one crucial detail.” Sevia ignored him, gesturing to the Golden Road Merchant Station representatives.

The merchant station staff projected a recording stone onto the ‘projection cloth.’ Everyone saw the image: a trail of blood drops stretching out.

“This is the injured person’s blood,” Sevia calmly explained. “Would moving quickly with an injured person leave such a dense trail of blood?”

Sevia’s eyes were icy cold. She let out a sneer, a mocking curve forming on her lips.

“Heh, the fastest you walked must have been during your encounter with Black Rose and her companion, until you left their sight.”

Pete’s eyes widened, his body trembling, unable to utter a single word.

This was a new recording stone, captured by the guild during the day.

When the footage showed the blood trail congealing into a pool, several gasps rose from the crowd.

“Damn, they didn’t seem urgent at all. They even stopped for a while.”

“Did their teammate provoke them? They wanted him to bleed to death.”

“Cough, cough.” Sevia cleared her throat twice, and the hall instantly fell silent.

“After you encountered Black Rose and her companion, the distance to the city gate, which a normal person could walk in just one hour, took you over an hour. We’ll set that aside for now.”

Sevia changed the subject, preparing to discuss the next matter.

The Golden Road Merchant Station staff replaced the recording stone.

The projection cloth displayed a pitch-black scene with three indistinct silhouettes. Periodically, the glow of magic illuminated Victor’s face.

It was Elara’s recording stone.

Pete, Lina, and Victor’s eyes nearly bulged out. Even Victor, usually the calmest, felt his chest heave violently.

“Th-this… this is fake! This is! It’s…”

Lina’s voice was shrill, startling the nearby City Guards. She was on the verge of collapse, even though Sevia hadn’t said anything directly to her.

Sevia ignored her.

“Last night, the three of you returned to the scene and used magic to damage the area, to mislead guild investigators and make it appear as though the battle was fierce.”

She was no longer questioning the three; this was merely a declaration of their crimes.

The Golden Road Merchant Station staff handed a stack of parchment to Sevia.

“In the past three years, the three of you have sacrificed four vanguards. Each time, you three only sustained minor injuries, and this time, you were completely unharmed.”

Sevia flipped through the parchments.

“The Golden Road Merchant Station’s insurance records show that the beneficiary for the insurance payout of each of these four sacrificed vanguards was always the three of you.”

Combined with what had been stated, most of the onlookers now understood the crimes committed by the Hyena Squad.

“This is monstrous!”

Someone in the crowd couldn’t help but exclaim.

“Indeed, once or twice is an accident, but four times…”

Immediately, a chorus of condemnation erupted.

Pete’s lips trembled uncontrollably, his face as pale as Hilvyn’s.

He abruptly looked up, staring at Elara.

Elara met his gaze.

Elara’s exquisite face wore an expression of disdain, her eyes looking at him as if he were an insignificant corpse.

This look was more unsettling than any words.

“No, it wasn’t me!” Lina suddenly exploded like a shrew, screaming, “It was Pete! Pete forced me to do it!”

As she spoke, she lunged to grab Pete, but a City Guard quickly seized her, restraining her and pinning her to the ground.

“It’s all your fault! All your fault for saying it was quick money! All your fault—”

Her face was smeared with saliva and tears, caked with dust, a picture of utter disarray.

‘As expected, a selfish shrew,’ Elara thought, glancing at Hilvyn beside her.

Hilvyn frowned, watching Lina’s outburst, but her eyes held no concern.

‘Good.’

“You goddamn…” Pete’s neck flushed crimson as he glared at Lina, his eyes wide with rage.

“Enough.”

Sevia’s voice was not heavy, yet both Pete and Lina, along with the commotion in the hall, instantly quieted.

She gestured with her eyes to the Garrison Captain.

The Garrison Captain waved his hand. “Take them away.”

“Yes!” Six guards stepped forward, escorting the three, who now looked like dead pigs, out of the hall.

The footsteps outside gradually faded, and the hall remained silent for a few seconds before erupting in a buzzing clamor.

“They’re not human.”

“Four lives…”

Elara tightly gripped Hilvyn’s hand, looking at her.

“It’s over.“