Marquis coughed once before looking at Renner again.

“Your highness, excuse me, but can you tell me the reason?”

“You would already know.”

“Look, younger sister. If you mentioned the subject…”

“You would marry my child, and actually make a child with Climb. My child would have a child with whomever he actually wants and that child would be his legitimate heir and you would go around pretending to be the mother. Is that what you are suggesting? It’s truly not a bad suggestion. Her highness can have a child with whoever she wants, and our house would be connected with the royal family, even if it’s all a lie.”

“I have no interest in titles or bloodlines. If you would just let me inherit a reasonable amount of wealth for my child, I won’t try to take over your household or anything.”

“I trust you on that.”

“...If it’s someone like Marquis Raeven, even father will be unable to stop it. The Marquis marries into the royal family, you can be with someone you love and I gain an additional supporter. Nobody loses anything, and if anyone betrays the others, all of us will go down together… It’s a perfect plan. But is this the kind of proposal you should be making to me…?”

“My, my, I already promised that I am going to help you. Plus, I think learning about this later would be even worse.”

Zanack could not answer because Renner was right. As long as they held on to each other’s weakness, it was an irrefutable proposal. Even if she was a little off in the head, a person with her abilities would be vital in ruling the Kingdom.

“Then your highnesses, I think it’s enough talk about ourselves… I heard you had a run in with the Eight Fingers? Even arresting the head of Slave Trade Branch.”

“Yes, it is just as Climb said. That’s why I want to launch an assault before they go underground. I managed to obtain information about the Eight Fingers’ hideouts around the Kingdom, so we will strike today. But there is one problem, we do not have sufficient manpower, so I was hoping you would be able to lend us your strength.”

Zanack and Marquis Raeven looked at each other. The first to speak was Zanack.

“Then where’s the place?”

Renner passed around the translated message she intercepted.

“Has this information been verified?”

“Of course, Marquis. I requested Lakyus to investigate it. I just received a report that it is indeed a hideout for the Eight Fingers. The problem is that the territory belongs to another noble.”

Calling it a policing act would be stretching it. If one moved troops inside another noble’s territory, it would be same thing as picking a fight with him.

“But I don’t expect any problems from it. Once we find the evidence that it is linked to the Eight Fingers, we can apply pressure on that noble.”

“Even if we don’t find the evidence, we can use that letter. Seems like everything is lining up.”

Three people smiled at each other, but there were no warmth in those smile.

“My sister, I have a small request as well.”

Zanack looked around. It was the first time he checked if there was anyone else around in the room. It meant that this was truly the important and secretive information.

“Truthfully, our older brother has been receiving some money from the Eight Fingers as well. I wanted to use this as leverage against him, so I went ahead and investigated if they had a safe house in the capitol. It seems they indeed do. I want to squeeze this place into the hit list as well.”

“It’s fine. This is the time to clean them out once and for all, and if we miss this chance, who knows if it will come once again. By the way, which Department is it operated by?”

“The Drugs Trade Branch.”

“Then it’s in a bit of danger zone. A couple of days ago Lakyus attacked one of the villages harvesting the drugs. If we don’t act quickly, they might flee.”

“What…? Marquis Raeven, so can you act immediately?”

“It would be difficult. I have my own list of nobles who might not be with the Eight Fingers. Even then, the only nobles we can completely trust are about two. I need some time to convince them. There’s also one other problem.”

“What is it, Marquis Raeven?”

“It might not be enough with just my household troops.”

Certain strong adventurers can sometimes take on an army alone. There were several theories why so many Adventurers were stronger than an average human being. The most likely theory was that when the body is in danger, the brain kicks into overdrive, producing effects similar to accelerated healing and ability boosts. Other theories included blessings from the gods, absorbing mana from monsters, but the common factor in all theories was that there is a sharp increase in mental, physical and magical abilities. This effect is more likely to occur when facing a strong opponent, so adventurers who have met all sorts of monsters would likely be stronger.

Against opponents like that, simple soldiers stood no chance.

“But if it’s your personal guards, wouldn’t it be enough?”

Marquis Raeven swayed his head at Zanack’s question.

“Indeed, they are all retired adventurers who were ranked higher than mithril, but the enemy is even stronger. The ‘Six Arms’ of the Eight Fingers. Every single one of them is able to stand toe-to-toe with an adamantium ranked adventurers. If they appear, it will become very dangerous. Though it would be a different story if only one shows up and we can overwhelm that person with numbers.”

“A-Adamantium…”

Zanack’s stuttering was understandable. The peak of adventurers, the adamantium ranked, were strong enough to take on thousands of men alone.

“Then we’ll ask Lakyus that each member of Blue Rose take on one place. I doubt more than two of the Six Arms will be at each place.”

“...Isn’t Blue Rose a five member party? The opponent has a total of six members, is it really wise to split our forces like this? There is no guarantee they will be in the capital either.”

“We want to get them all in one strike, but it will be difficult.”

Renner’s intercepted message mentioned seven different places. Including Zanack’s location, the total came to eight. However, there wasn’t enough manpower to spread it so thin.

“It’s a shame that we’ll have to leave three places untouched… but there is no other way.”

“How about sending those who finished their attack immediately onto the next three locations?”