Chapter 1062: Mystery and Danger (Part One)
Granello moved the elites of Imperial Patrol and many soldiers to do the city-wide net-style search.
The appearance, bone size, and skin of Barcelonans greatly differed from Zenitians. Also, these 50-or-so Barcelonan spies who snuck into St. Petersburg probably weren’t familiar with the buildings and terrain, and they didn’t have hideouts.
Normally, these spies should be easily spotted. However, until the morning of the second day, Granello still didn’t get any clues or leads.
This discovery made everyone confused.
Emperor Yassin asked Imperial Patrol to find those Barcelonan spies as fast as possible. Although there was no set time limit, Granello still felt a ton of pressure.
On the one hand, Granello strengthened the protection of hundreds of magic nodes in the city. On the other hand, he increased the number of people who were searching for enemies all over the city.
After a morning of zero results, Granello couldn’t sit back anymore. He had to risk disturbing the Second Prince who was still healing from his injuries and went to Dominguez’s estate.
“Did you encounter something difficult?” The Second Prince who looked healthy only judging from his complexion walked to the grand hall under Demonic Woman Paris’ assistance and met up with Granello.
Except for Demonic Woman Paris, there was also Strategist Old Aryang of Chambord.
Without daring to hide anything, Granello told these people about what happened in detail.
However, the Second Prince didn’t look surprised. It was clear that even though this prince didn’t leave his estate since he was healing up, he knew everything that was going on outside
“This is the first time in more than ten years that Royal Father got that angry, right?” Dominguez leaned back in his chair and pondered.
“That is true. Ever since I followed Your Highness, I have never seen Emperor Yassin so angry. The Fourth Prince overdid it. Even in such a dire situation, he continued to go against the rules and killed close to 1,000 elites of Zenit. His Majesty… got so angry because he loves his children!” Although Granello despised the Fourth Prince, it seemed like he returned to his normal self before Dominguez. He seemed logical and chose words carefully like a low-profile and intelligent commander.
Dominguez nodded and didn’t say much.
In the prior battles, he was injured by the residual power of top-tier masters. Although the injuries had healed, the distorted laws of nature still existed in his body. It was fortunate that this condition was discovered early, and Emperor Yassin healed him personally. That cured all lethal injuries and didn’t allow the distorted laws of nature to harm Dominguez’s core energy. However, the Second Prince still had to rest and recover, and he couldn’t battle with others. Therefore, he was forced to stay in his estate by Emperor Yassin, and he didn’t join the defense battles.
Granello opened his mouth several times, but no sounds came out.
Dominguez was pondering to himself. When he looked up and saw [Red Beard] Granello behaving like this, he smiled and said, “Tell us what you want to say.”
Granello looked at the Demonic Woman and Old Aryang, and he finally asked the question that troubled him for a long time, “Now that the situation in St. Petersburg is this dire, how come Elder Prince Arshavin who is known as Zenit’s God of War and Elder Princess Tanasha who is known as Goddess of Intelligence still haven’t appeared? Also… also…”
“Also what?” Dominguez asked with a smile.
Second Prince Dominguez’ attitude made Granello calm down a little, and he asked, “Also, in the last two years, the empire recruited many soldiers. Just the number of main battle legions under the Elder Prince’s command reached 20, and there are close to one million soldiers. However, fewer than 400,000 soldiers remain in St. Petersburg, including the 100,000 royal guards and the defeated soldiers who retreated from the southern region battlefield. It means that less than 200,000 regular soldiers are guarding the Capital. Where are the other 800,000 elite soldiers?” Granello asked all the questions on his mind without stopping.
“Yeah, where did Royal Brother and the 800,000 elite soldiers go? They should be in St. Petersburg. I’m also curious about that,” Dominguez murmured to himself. It seemed that even he didn’t know where Zenit’s God of War went.
A shocked expression appeared on Granello’s face.
Chapter 1062: Mystery and Danger (Part Two)
“The official statement is that the Elder Prince is inside the Imperial Military Headquarters making plans, and Elder Princess is recovering from her illness inside her estate. However, many pieces of evidence show that the Elder Prince isn’t in the Imperial Military Headquarters, and the Elder Princess isn’t in her estate. The two of them aren’t inside St. Petersburg, and the 800,000 elite soldiers that should be inside the Capital already secretly left St. Petersburg before the Barcelonan invaders arrived at the bay of the Byzantine Kingdom. This process was secretive, and almost no one discovered it.”
Demonic Woman Paris finally spoke, and what she said shocked Granello.
After a pause, Paris giggled and said, “Only one person can allow 800,000 soldiers secretly pull out of St. Petersburg and not let anyone notice.”
“Emperor Yassin His Majesty?” [Red Beard] wasn’t a fool, and he instantly understood what Paris meant.
Since the conversation got to this point, it couldn’t continue anymore. It involved His Majesty, so they shouldn’t try to guess and doubt the ideas of the supreme ruler. For a moment, the atmosphere was quite subdued.
Second Prince Dominguez smiled and broke the silence, and he said with a faint smile, “Those 50-or-so Barcelonans are interesting. With their clear features, they are still able to hide from the massive search efforts. Could it be that they transformed into Zenitians?”
“Your Highness mean…” Granello’s eyes lit up as he thought of something, and he said in joy, “Your Highness, I got it now! Thank you for your advice!”
After saying that, Granello cupped his hands and bowed at Paris and Old Aryang before saying farewells and leaving.
Dominguez and Old Aryang looked at each other and smiled.
“Paris, you need to speed up as well and try to get ready as soon as you can,” Dominguez said lightly as he closed his eyes.
“Your Highness, don’t worry. I got this.” Paris nodded, and her expression rarely looked this solemn.
…
Time quickly passed by.
Soon, two days had passed.
Barcelona’s sieges and attacks grew more and more aggressive. The four demi-gods of Barcelona appeared from time to time to harass, and supreme masters on the side of Zenit such as Emperor Yassin were ready and fought back.
The good thing was that both sides had great self-discipline and followed the ancient traditions of war that were unwritten rules on the Azeroth Continent. The supreme masters all didn’t attack ordinary soldiers.
Granello’s investigation and capture operation finally obtained some results.
On the afternoon of the second day, the masters of Imperial Patrol finally caught a Barcelonan spy.
Zenitians were shocked to find that this spy wasn’t a Barcelonan or a Zenitian; he was a member of the Eindhoven Empire! After receiving special training from Barcelonans, he snuck into St. Petersburg.
Since the Eindhoven Empire was adjacent to the Zenit Empire, the citizens of the two empires had similar features and weren’t too different from each other. No wonder the prior operations didn’t yield anything.
Now, the situation seemed even more difficult.
The people of Eindhoven, A.K.A Eindhovenans, had a tightly-managed and strict system in St. Petersburg, and they colluded with Barcelonans.
Granello wanted to strike the iron while it was hot, and he sent out even more soldiers to search through the neighborhoods. Although his orders were fast, they had limited results; they only caught about a dozen insignificant people.
These captured spies were all sent to Imperial Patrol to be interrogated, but they all seemed extremely tough and stubborn. Even when a portion of their flesh was turned into meat paste, they didn’t reveal a word.
Granello got more and more anxious as time passed by.
When the sun was about to set, the interrogations finally yielded results.
After hearing about the whole plan, Granello sweated profusely, and cold sweat appeared all over his body.
While sending people to inform the Royal Family, the Imperial Military Headquarters, and the Second Prince, Granello rushed toward the direction of the No.1 Magic Tower in the center of the city.
The core of the [Goddess of Earth’s Protection], which was a magic array that was protecting the entire city, was located in that magic tower.
If this magic tower were destroyed, the entire magic array would stop working, and Zenit would fall into an unimaginable disaster.