Chapter 61: A Reckless Raid and a Disgruntled Informant

Time was pressing; only a short while remained until eight o’clock sharp. Moreover, she still needed to locate the meeting venue.

There was no time to send a telegram. Ella quickly weighed her options, concluding it would be more efficient to wait until the meeting concluded, gather sufficient information, and then report directly to Lyon.

With that thought, Ella’s figure vanished into the encroaching darkness.

****

“I’m absolutely fuming!”

The man before her suddenly slammed a fist onto the table, his shout echoing through the room. He then slumped onto the bench opposite, arms crossed, and muttered through clenched teeth, “That Quidar is truly an imbecile!”

“Ah, hahaha…”

Yuli offered a somewhat awkward laugh. This…

She seemed to have always held the same opinion.

However, if he had already finished his tirade, what was left for her to say? Thus, she could only offer a symbolic comfort to Lyon, who had stormed into her office late at night and immediately began cursing a colleague.

“Oh, come now,” Yuli said with a smile, pushing a cup of coffee towards him. “You know what kind of person he is. Why get so upset, right?”

She then inquired, “What has made you so angry?”

“Ugh…” Lyon shook his head helplessly, sitting before Yuli. “Honestly, I told him, I told him we should use that small organization as bait. But he insisted on taking people to wipe out the entire group! He was just relying on the information he’d squeezed out of those few surrendered rescue team members, desperate to claim credit!”

“Oh?” Yuli blinked in confusion, then asked, “When did this happen? Why wasn’t I informed?”

“About an hour ago, I suppose. He secretly took a team out to make arrests. I only just received the news myself, and it was the damn military police who informed us.”

Lyon grew increasingly exasperated as he spoke, losing all desire to drink the coffee Yuli had offered.

Yuli smiled awkwardly. This…

Indeed, his actions were inappropriate. They had clearly agreed upon a plan during the morning meeting, so why had Quidar suddenly changed his mind?

“Furthermore, this fellow is far too reckless, isn’t he? Taking action without even informing you, Sister Yuli? Isn’t that a bit too disrespectful of his superiors?”

This…

Lyon’s strategy was rather clever. Yuli felt inexplicably dragged into the situation and began to feel a surge of annoyance.

It was true. Quidar’s apparent disregard for her really was quite irritating.

Seeing the flicker of displeasure on Yuli’s face, Lyon continued his lament. “Sigh, arrests are arrests, I suppose. There’s nothing we can do about it now. But… that guy didn’t even catch anyone important!”

“Eh?” Yuli was surprised. “Didn’t he get all the information about the Patriot Alliance from the surrendered rescue team members? He even knew their strongholds and headquarters. How could he have missed the key figures?”

“Tsk––” Lyon shook his head, a wry smile on his face. “They aren’t fools, you know. As soon as they learned the rescue team was captured, they’d already planned their escape. According to the military police, they only caught a few liaison officers who remained in Purburg.”

He covered his face in frustration, sighing. “If it were a large organization, catching a few liaisons might have some value. But for a small group, capturing a few liaisons is far less useful than letting my informant continue to communicate with them, to see what happens after they move outside Purburg, and if they can connect with larger organizations.”

“Ahem, you’re too focused on your ‘fishing’ plan, but… it is a shame. That Quidar fellow has practically minimized the returns, hasn’t he?”

Yuli pondered for a moment, stroking her chin, then waved a dismissive hand. “Since that’s the case, there’s nothing more to be done. The people have already been arrested; releasing them now would likely mean they couldn’t reconnect with the small organization anyway. Perhaps… your informant could try to gather more information?”

“That’s all we can do, I suppose. Sigh… I had originally planned for my informant to monitor their headquarters’ movements. But now, Quidar has simply raided their headquarters, and he’s probably feeling quite pleased with himself. Truly…”

Lyon drained his coffee. As he set the cup down, a wave of regret washed over him. He had worried about being too angry to sleep tonight, and now he had drunk coffee, making sleep even more impossible.

Resigned to a night of painful insomnia, Lyon scratched his head helplessly.

Yuli, still contemplating Lyon’s words, suddenly remembered something. She frowned, tapped the table, and addressed Lyon, who had been drawn by the sound.

“Hey, speaking of which, didn’t your informant mention yesterday that… they had just received news that the Purburg Patriot Alliance was planning to relocate? And now they’ve all fled tonight? So quickly?”

“Who knows…” Lyon shook his head. His mood was at rock bottom, and he truly wasn’t in the frame of mind to delve into such details. He casually brushed off Yuli’s question. “Perhaps the informant saw the letter days after it was sent.”

“Oh… I see,” Yuli nodded.

Both fell silent. Lyon, having finished his rant about Quidar, still felt a strong desire to teach the man a lesson. He then revealed the true purpose of his visit to Yuli.

“Sister Yuli, if we don’t teach a person like him a lesson, he’ll never learn!”

“Hmm…” Yuli pinched her chin, glancing at the documents on her desk. She nodded thoughtfully, looking at the nearly completed files she had painstakingly written.

“Understood. I’ll report this matter. Don’t worry, Lyon, I know how to handle things properly.”

“Sigh, you see, Sister Yuli, that’s just how the world is nowadays. We follow the rules, but when we encounter such scoundrels, sometimes we just have to swallow our pride. I wonder if reporting it will even have any effect…”

Lyon stood up, waving his hand in resignation. Since Yuli had already stated her intentions, he could only temporarily suppress his dissatisfaction with Quidar.

“Alright, Sister Yuli, I’m done. I’ll be leaving now.”

Yuli nodded. Lyon turned to leave the office, but just as he reached the door, he suddenly remembered something. He turned back, pondering curiously for a moment.

“Hey, Sister Yuli, where’s your little secretary, Fran?” Lyon asked unexpectedly. Yuli twirled her pen, replying nonchalantly, “Heh heh, I suddenly wanted to try one of those long Francian loaves, so I sent Fran out to buy one for me, and some other snacks too.”

“I see…”

Lyon nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Hmm…

Turning, he began to ponder. He wondered if his informant might have been caught by that idiot, Quidar.

No, he had to try and contact his informant tomorrow. Even if the Patriot Alliance had fled, the informant might not be of much use in the future, but…

Having an extra informant was always better than none. Sigh, he hoped that idiot Quidar hadn’t caught the informant, and that they were safe and sound. If they fell into Quidar’s hands, tsk tsk…