The next day, Rhode handed morning training over to the President and went to the Council to clock in himself.
Mainly to ask about work progress.
As soon as Mest saw Rhode, he grabbed Rhode's arm and activated Teleportation Magic.
In the blink of an eye, the two of them appeared in an inconspicuous corner outside the Council.
Before Rhode could ask anything, Mest mysteriously opened his mouth and said:
"Recently, we've already arrested over a thousand members of the Black Magic Sect, and yesterday we even captured a cadre named Abel.
"He's a short guy wrapped in a turban with clown makeup on his face, and the Magic he uses is Cursed Doll.
"Our operations have already alerted the Black Magic Sect. To prevent them from taking extreme actions, we'll be launching a total attack soon.
"Also, the Council's investigation into the Western Continent has made a bit of progress, but I haven't been able to see the latest documents yet."
"…" Rhode looked at Mest with a sympathetic gaze.
Mest scratched the back of his head a little awkwardly. "Sorry, this is all the intel I have for now. Next time I'll…"
"Sigh…" Rhode patted Mest on the shoulder. "I get what you're going for, but we really don't need to run off to some secluded place and talk this quietly."
"…" Mest froze. He suddenly realized that he didn't seem to be an undercover agent anymore, so there were things he should just say openly.
Besides, it felt like as long as Rhode went to the office, he could find out all this intel Mest had just told him anyway.
Awkward.
Thinking about how he'd 'swiftly' brought Rhode here just now, Mest's face turned bright red.
He vanished from in front of Rhode with a swish.
Rhode opened his mouth, intending to say something comforting, but in the end could only sigh:
"No manners at all—dragging me all the way out here and not even bothering to send me back… truly worthy of our Guild."
Mr. Luo sighed over how fickle people's hearts were and strolled back to his own office.
On the way, he observed that everyone's spirits seemed pretty good, which showed that the Council's work was flourishing.
At the very least, there didn't seem to be any widely circulating bad news recently.
Back in the office, Rhode flipped through the latest work records.
Skipping over the miscellaneous stuff, the important matters were generally what Mest had mentioned: they'd captured a cadre of the Black Magic Sect.
The whereabouts of other high‑level members had also started to come into focus.
Then there was the new intel from the Western Continent. The Council had found three more names of the Twelve Shields.
They were: "Nation‑Crusher" Brantish, "Winter General" Inbel, and "War Consort" Tima Liya.
Among them, Brantish could turn into a Giant and stomp enemies to death like ants.
Inbel could turn the battlefield into a world of ice and snow, freezing an army into ice sculptures in an instant.
Tima Liya was a female knight clad in armor, but on the battlefield, no one had ever managed to see how she attacked.
Therefore, the intel officers speculated that she probably used Speed Element Magic—speed taken to the extreme.
"Is this Brantish supposed to be the opponent prepared for the President? Inbel is almost certainly meant for Gray.
"Tima Liya… her Magic looks like it'd match Jet… which is probably impossible. A female knight getup—then she should be handed over to Erza?"
Rhode did a quick mental calculation and found that, judging from this bit of intel alone, these people didn't seem all that terrifying.
He just didn't know what their Magic Power was like, or how advanced their Magic actually was.
After flipping through a few more files, the office door was knocked.
Rhode casually set the file down and said, "Come in."
Lahar pushed the door open and came in. "Mr. Rhode."
"Have a seat." Rhode gestured at the chair opposite his desk and asked, "The report from a few days ago mentioned strange movements from the Black Magic Sect. Have you found any leads?"
Lahar replied, "Yes. Because of our large‑scale arrest operations, the Black Magic Sect reacted quickly.
"At first, they wanted to become more covert and wait out this period. But we kept taking out their branches one after another and even captured a cadre, which made their strategy change.
"Recently, it's like they've completely forgotten what 'staying hidden' even means. They've started recruiting members in huge numbers and have totally skipped the screening procedures they used to have.
"We suspect that this reckless expansion of their ranks indicates they're planning to start their so‑called 'purification' plan ahead of schedule."
Rhode nodded. "That's indeed possible. What are you planning to do?"
"Of course, we're going to intensify the interrogation of the cadre we just captured, notify all the Council's branches to step up the manhunt, and strive to completely uproot the Black Magic Sect within two weeks!"
At this point, Lahar's expression turned strange as he said, "Actually, Dolanbart… proposed that we take advantage of the Black Magic Sect relaxing their member screening and send people in undercover…"
"…" Rhode strained to keep a straight face so he wouldn't laugh. "Don't tell me he volunteered himself as the undercover?"
Lahar said helplessly, "…Yes, but I rejected that proposal."
Rhode agreed. "Good call rejecting it."
That idiot—Rhode was genuinely worried he'd erase his own memories to infiltrate the Black Magic Sect, then in order to earn credit for the Sect, infiltrate the Council again…
Seeing that Mr. Rhode supported him, Lahar let out a breath of relief. It seemed his judgment had been correct; they absolutely could not let that moron run wild.
Rhode thought for a moment and said, "How about this: I'll send Lucy over in a bit to help with the interrogations. That'll make things go faster."
Lahar was a little surprised. "Miss Lucy? Not Miss Ibarglin?"
Rhode gave him a strange look. "Do you have some weird impression of Ibarglin?"
Lahar gave an embarrassed laugh.
That "instructor" with such a strong Queen vibe had left too deep an impression on the Council's rookies, to the point where he often heard strange rumors.
Some perverts even said they wanted to be stepped on by Miss Ibarglin or something…
How did they even say stuff like that out loud? Lahar felt embarrassed on their behalf.
...
A few minutes later, Lucy—who had just finished morning training and was sprawled over a table waiting for breakfast—was dragged off to the Council and personally escorted into the prison by Rhode.
Though not as a prisoner.
"I haven't even had breakfast yet…" Lucy complained.
Rhode waved his hand. "It's fine. You just Summon Gemini, and then you can go back to eat. It won't even delay your meditation training."
Lucy grumbled, "This is exploitation!"
Looking at the handcuffs on each prisoner, Rhode suddenly had a realization:
"I just thought of something: we can have you all wear Sealing Demon Stones during training! That'll be more effective for boosting your physical fitness and willpower."
Lucy stared at him in shock. "Devil!"
Lahar suddenly felt that Mr. Rhode was a little scary. Was he really this ruthless toward his own Guild members?
Even Mr. Uluvheim, when giving the Strong Detention Team special training, hadn't gone this far!