Chapter 240: Wait...it’s not here--Oh there it is.
"Drugs? What kind of drugs?" Gwen asked.
Picklenose looked her straight in the eyes. "The bad kind."
Kai rolled his eyes. "No shit, smartass! I don’t think drugs of the good kind would warrant spying. What kind of drugs is she creating?"
"O-Oh. According to the reports I’ve received, it’s a drug that can boost mana performance, increasing one’s strength. Sorcerers always try to find ways to get stronger, but most know that taking drugs does more harm than good, so only the desperate ones use the drug. Torrents, on the other hand, take this drug like there’s no tomorrow."
"What are the effects?"
"At first, nothing. You’re literally just amped. But the moment you take the second drug, it’s a pill by the way, you get addicted. By the third pill, you can’t go without it, and once you take the fourth pill, you begin to lose yourself. Our latest report said that after taking the fifth pill, you become a mindless drone with only destruction in mind, and you get consumed by the demonic energy."
"And what does the church have to say about this?" Kai asked
"They’re currently investigating this as well. But they haven’t come up with anything. The person I had spying on my wife couldn’t get too much information. In fact, all he managed to tell me before dying was, and I quote....actually, I’ll just give you the letter."
Picklenose went into his desk drawer and pulled out a box. He opened it and handed Kai the letter.
"Wife...Demons...Drug...Dangerous." He read. "That’s it? How do you even know of the drug’s effects with this garbage piece of information?"
"It was recently when I ran into some pirates. They tried to take my valuables and ship. My guards were way too strong, but the pirates had those pills. We still managed to come out on top, capturing some of them, and I decided to investigate what the pills they took were. My people recently got back to me and told me everything they learned from interrogating the pirates."
"I see. So, what do you want us to do?" Sasha asked
"I want you all to follow my wife. She’s leaving the house today to meet up with her friends for "tea time," but I think that’s bullshit. Figure out what she’s up to. If you can find anything on her, then pass that information to me. If she’s innocent, then you’ll get your pay and we can consider this case closed."
"Sounds good. Where can we find your wife? And what does she look like?"
"At the clock tower in an hour. As for what she looks like, here is a miniature portrait of her."
"Cool. Peace." Kai teleported everyone back to the tavern.
"The clock tower isn’t too far from here. I saw it as we entered the city." Nadya pointed toward the clock tower. It was pretty obvious to spot, tall enough for everyone to know what time it was.
"Let’s go." All of them turned invisible and flew toward the clock tower, where they waited for Picknose’s wife to arrive.
Just as he said, after an hour, the wife was walking toward the bell tower. She leaned on it, as if she were waiting for someone, and looked at the clock to see what time it was.
Around ten minutes later, someone wearing a cloak that covered their body leaned on the tower next to the wife, but on the opposite wall. They spoke to each other and talked about their most recent experiments.
The wife nodded and followed the man a little bit after he left to avoid drawing any attention.
"Looks like she is working with them." Amaya was ready to confront her now, but she knew they needed more concrete evidence.
"But judging by the way they talked, it didn’t seem like they were working with demons. They didn’t even mention anything with the words demon or dark magic." Kyana pointed out.
Kai understood what she was saying, but that didn’t mean anything. "They’re in public. They probably want to avoid using such words."
"True. Let’s follow them."
They all followed the wife into an alley. At first, they thought it was a dead end, but then she touched the wall, and it opened, taking her to another section of the city, one that was underground.
They flew down to examine the wall.
"Looks enchanted," Nadya said as she brushed her hand against the cold stone wall.
"Can you break it?" Gwen asked.
"No, these aren’t human enchantments. They’re demonic enchantments."
Amaya punched her palm. "Let’s bust it down then."
"I agree." Sasha pulled out her hammer and prepared to strike
"No, I have a better way. Everyone, hold on to me and do not let go, no matter what." Kai held out his arms, and all of them hugged him tightly.
"You know, I wasn’t really talking about grabbing me like this, but that works as well." He stepped forward, passing through the wall using his phasing ability.
"Ugh, that felt weird." Gwen shivered.
"Stairs. They must lead down somewhere." Sasha pointed.
Kyana sighed, not liking where this was headed. "What are the odds we run into some sort of lab using people as experiments?"
"Oh, that’s most definitely going to be the case."
"That’s what I’m expecting."
"I’d bet my fortune on that."
"The probability is high."
"Sasha, it’s my fortune, not yours." Kai corrected her.
"Ours." She corrected him back.
"Fair enough."
They walked down the long flight of stairs, reaching the bottom of the stairwell, and opened the large doors that stood in front of them.
As the doors creaked open, they were met by...nothing. It was just an empty cave with nothing in it. No bugs, no animals, no blood, no prisoners, no nothing.
"What?"
"Are you kidding me?"
"My fortune!"
"I swear I was right on the nail."
"Guess we weren’t right this time."
Kai was appalled. This was the first time the world didn’t follow fantasy standards. He felt as if something was wrong. His fantasy senses were never off.
"There’s no way that..." When he walked into the cave, everything shifted, and the space around them revealed the true cave.
"Ahh, there it is!" He laughed
"An illusion!"
"They almost had us."
"My fortune is safe!"
"I knew I hit the nail!"
"Guess we were right."
What lay before their eyes was a large production line of drugs being created with tons of demons working there, with the screams of people echoing in the background.
"I’ll never underestimate my fantasy senses again."