Chapter 76: Sending Lakyus Away
Renner set down her pen and pushed the completed sheet lightly toward the center of the round table.
"Done."
The gesture was small, but all three people in the room turned their eyes to the paper at once.
Sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows and fell across the page, setting each neat line of text in sharp relief.
Lakyus reached for the sheet and let her gaze move across the list of place names.
Her brow pressed together faintly. Her lips drew into a line. Lucian recognized that expression immediately — it was the face Lakyus made whenever she was working through something difficult. She had made it every time she got stuck on her lessons as a child.
"These are..." Lakyus looked up at Renner.
"Seven locations within the capital, plus a handful of others elsewhere in the Kingdom."
Renner's voice was light, unhurried and calm. "My guess is that most of these are hideouts or intelligence drops belonging to Eight Fingers' other departments."
She paused, her gaze moving across the listed names.
"The fact that this cipher document was found in a drug-department village already tells us something. Eight Fingers may be one organization, but the eight departments don't have a particularly amicable relationship with each other. Deliberately leaving the other departments' intelligence there — that was done so that if outsiders ever got in, their attention would be pulled in different directions. Use the others to absorb the damage."
Tina tilted her head. A trace of comprehension moved through those wine-red eyes.
"...I see. So it's bait."
"Bait would be generous. Scapegoats is more accurate."
Renner's voice was gentle, but what she said was cool and precise. "Trade the other departments' hideouts in exchange for the drug department's safety. That level of calculation is probably standard practice inside Eight Fingers by now."
Lakyus put the sheet back on the table. Her fingertip came to rest on one of the names and pressed.
"This brothel..." Her voice dropped. Something that sounded like suppressed anger had entered it.
"Tina's team looked into it. It's the only illegal brothel still secretly operating in the capital. The person behind it is most likely the head of the slave trade department — Cocco Doll."
The pressure of Lakyus's finger increased slightly. A faint line appeared in the paper where her fingernail met it.
"Every service you could imagine is available there."
When she said it, the corner of Lakyus's mouth pulled downward. Something unmistakably contemptuous flashed through those pale green eyes.
No need to think hard about what that meant.
What was certain: quite a few people, regardless of gender, had been killed there for someone else's entertainment.
Lucian looked at his sister's profile. Light caught her golden hair and lit up that small section of it.
His sister was nineteen this year. She was no longer the little girl who would step back when he told her he was "purifying a demon's soul" and needed her out of the way.
She was the captain of an Adamantite-rank adventurer team. She had her own convictions, and things she had decided she needed to do.
And this — she would do this. He knew her too well to think otherwise.
She was the same girl who had once run barehanded into an alleyway to save a commoner child she had never met, reciting lines from a knight novel at a baron.
Faced with an organization like Eight Fingers, she was not going to look the other way.
Blue Roses going after Eight Fingers.
The odds were low, but he was still afraid something might happen to Lakyus in the process.
Things were already different from the original story.
Lucian's gaze moved from his sister's face to the sheet on the table — place names in neat rows, the sunlight giving the paper a faint yellow warmth, every stroke of writing clear and sharp.
He had another plan originally.
Have adventurer Momon handle Eight Fingers. Get connected to Ainz Ooal Gown and eliminate Eight Fingers all in one move — two outcomes for one course of action.
But the Bone King had chosen to pull back. Even the adventurer identity had gone quiet. The Momon route was closed off for now.
No reason to keep waiting, then.
He had a small regret about it — losing the chance to give Eight Fingers one final use before being discarded. But looked at from the other side: if this garbage organization genuinely caught Ainz's interest and ended up folded into his plans, that would be its own kind of problem.
In the original story, these dregs had attached themselves to Nazarick and ended up with better fates than most ordinary people in the Kingdom. People who shouldn't have died, did. People who should have died, kept right on living.
He had no desire to watch that happen a second time.
So. Wipe them all out.
Lucian raised his gaze and looked at Renner with calm, level eyes.
"Regarding Eight Fingers — I'll lend a hand."
Renner held his gaze for a moment.
Something moved faintly in those deep blue eyes, the particular quality of someone making a quiet confirmation.
Then Renner smiled — pure and bright as the first flower of spring.
"Having Lucian's help is truly wonderful." Her voice was light, carrying clear delight. "Though... won't this cause difficulties for the Aindra family?"
When she said it, her gaze held something that looked like genuine concern, as though she truly were thinking only of Lucian and his family.
Lakyus turned to look at her brother as well.
Lucian waved a hand.
"No concern there."
His tone was easy, as though this were something of no particular consequence. He leaned back in his chair and let a faintly self-deprecating smile settle at the corner of his mouth.
"I've already done plenty of unconventional things over the years. One more won't make any difference."
The corner of Lakyus's mouth twitched slightly.
She was thinking of her older brother's track record — particularly the Dragon Kingdom business, sending support all the way there for that loli queen.
Renner gave a soft laugh.
"Wonderful." She turned to Lakyus. "Lakyus, could I ask you to go notify the rest of Blue Roses to make their preparations?"
At that, Lakyus rose from her chair. But she didn't move toward the door immediately.
She stood and turned to take her leave. "Renner, we'll go prepare then. Tina — let's go."
"...Understood, Ghost Boss."
Tina sprang from her chair with fluid ease and fell in behind Lakyus as she moved toward the door.
Lakyus had taken two steps when she realized she wasn't hearing a familiar set of footsteps behind her. She stopped and turned back.
Lucian was still in his chair.
"Elder brother?" Lakyus's brow pressed together slightly. "We're leaving."
"You go ahead." Lucian's voice was easy. "I have something to take care of."
Lakyus's gaze changed in an instant — sharp and precise, nothing like the face she'd worn while working through the cipher. Two entirely different people.
Lucian held her eyes without looking away. The understanding that passed between them in that moment was the particular kind that exists only between siblings.
Lakyus's expression settled.
"...All right." She gave a single nod, and she and Tina walked out.
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