Chapter 1576: They’re Gone!
A/N: Hi guys~ If you have extra golden tickets, do send some this way~ xD I was hoping this story will not to drop off from Top 10 golden this year. xD
Thank you, everyone~! And extra hugs to the voters/golden ticket givers~!
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Bleumrick had made a territory-wide announcement before. Except for those assigned to guard the outer walls, all wind elementalists shall gather in the Sephon Family villa.
By this time, most of the two or three dozen wind elementalists were already there and were now being threatened by the Lord to do their jobs properly.
This made the elementalist suck up their cowardice to finally help out. After some minutes, a ball of smoke was finally concentrated. It was a lot, and the compressed smoke was as big as several people holding hands to embrace it.
"Earth users, dig a hole!" Bleumrick yelled, and the earth users stepped forward outside the condensed smoke to dig out. Bleumrick was an earth user—the most powerful in the City—but digging a hole himself was something he didn’t consider.
(It was just a perspective of many ’masculine’ and ’old school’ people in this world. A powerful elementalist was too prideful to use their elements in things other than battles with peers or powerful beasts.)
"Wind users! Keep just enough for the alchemists to study later! Bury the rest!" They condensed the thick and heavy smoke into a ball a few meters in diameter, condensing it further, which was possible only because there were so many wind users working on it.
The smoke...was heavier and denser than anyone expected. It was probably how it affected people just by skin contact.
Boom!
Another explosion resounded in another part of the mansion, but this time the elementalists had no choice but to push through, even if they were shaking so badly.
The cleared smoke also provided Bleumrick a better view of the so-called explosion.
There were sounds, yes, and maybe a bit of smoke, but his eyesight could see there was no fire or damage at all!
When he thought about the possibility, he felt like he was going to have an aneurysm.
There was no explosion at all! They were simply sounds! If so, then the same ’bomb’ could be making sounds at different times!
It was definitely a distraction. To poison more people, perhaps? He saw the line of victims, and there were not a few. About a dozen of them were unconscious and appeared half-dead, while the others seemed to have lost all blood on their faces.
He looked at his cronies as the ’ball’ of poison was buried, surrounded by earth that was made as dense as possible. "Have the pharmacists and doctors been called?"
"Yes, Milord," Epicos, the patriarch of the Sephon family, said with a bow. He was pale and shaking.
What a disaster!! How could this have happened! Who would dare attack their family like this!?
When he captured them, he’d chop up their limbs and feed them to the beasts!
Soon, a team of alchemists arrived, led by a Class B alchemist working directly under Bleumrick. Behind him were Class Es and Ds, and about a handful of Class Cs.
The other Class B and above alchemists would be too above themselves to take on-call duties, and they could only go to them later if the current ones couldn’t handle the problem on their own.
The group headed to the site with masks and waterproof suits, aiming to study the smoke. There were also those who went to the people poisoned, checking their situation and perhaps determining an antidote... if they were still alive, of course.
Some of the alchemists recognized one of the people nearby. "Aetat!"
"Is he important?"
"He’s a toolmaker! Of course he is!"
Aetat still had bubbles in his mouth and was shivering. People wondered how he was still alive. One of the doctors kneeled down and checked on him, with many others watching the process.
Then, they saw him flinch and freeze, making the passerbys and people around question him. "Is he dead?" They asked. The question was much less of a concern than that of curiosity.
The doctor looked confused. "He’s alive... and healthy."
"What?"
At this, more and more of the victims started moving, some faster than others, and some groggy, while some were just a bit dizzy.
"What’s going on?"
Bleumrick felt something was even more wrong than expected, and he didn’t like it. He went to the pharmacists who gathered some samples from the smoke.
"We can’t determine it, Milord," one said.
"Our assessment skills cannot comprehend it."
"I feel like it has various raw materials—but also.. elements. I do not know how to explain it."
The leading pharmacist there, the old Class B one, walked to the Lord, appearing a bit awkward. "I think we’ll have to call Master Hoffen for this."
Bleumrick’s jaw clenched. As much as possible, he really didn’t want to call that old coot.
However, it seemed like there was no choice in the end, seeing as the rest of them were being useless.
While waiting for Hoffen, the atmosphere in the crowd, especially around Bleumrick, was naturally extremely tense. They investigated the setup and discovered a great number of anomalies.
For one, while there were a few bombs that caused a bit of damage, it was definitely much less than the explosions people ’heard’.
They came to a conclusion that some were just... sounds. What was worse was that they couldn’t find a single clue! There were no traces they could recover at all!
Bleumrick’s jaw was hardened, and the atmosphere around the entire villa was heavy, with many people in their level 20s wanting to kneel under the pressure.
The Lord looked at Epicos. "It seems like the Sephon family has fallen so low."
The Sephon family’s eyes widened. "Milord!"
"Do you have any idea how humiliating this is?!" he bellowed. "How is your family going to pay for this?!"
The family kneeled down, begging.
"But milord! This is a plan from another City!" Evicos screamed, blaming others by default. "We can’t be divided now, milord!"
Ewan, the heir, immediately supported his father’s claim. "Yes, Milord! This is obviously a heinous plan to get us kicked out, perhaps destroy an important marriage!"
It was as if the marriage that happened was so important to Bleulle. It wasn’t, but it did plant a seed.
"Milord! Please! Calm down! There is no way we’d ruin such an important event on purpose!"
The other higher members of the family quickly butted in in support. "They knew we were still balancing the scales after the Golds were eliminated! They are definitely trying to take advantage, Milord!"
"Yes, yes, Milord! And we have lost so many forces before, we need everyone! We can make new oaths, Milord! Please give us a chance to remedy the situation!"
Bleumrick was wondering which one of them to kill to sate his anger when the guards sent out to get the insufferable alchemist returned.
They were extremely pale as they approached, and there was no Hoffen behind them.
Bleumrick narrowed his eyes. At first, he just thought the damned old coot refused to come with them. "Where’s Hoffen?"
No one spoke. It was as if something was blocking their throats.
"Did he refuse to see you? Tell him he could have this mansion if he gets here!"
"...Milord, it is not that," the team lead said, preparing himself for the worst.
"Master Hoffen....He’s gone!!"
Bleumrick felt like all his 90 years of living had finally caught up with him.
"WHAT?!"