Chapter 698: Chapter 698

“Now I understand why you asked me to do this. But don’t you have anyone else who isn’t male that could do it? I mean, there’s Emeko right next to you too.”

Since the Oracle was afraid of men, it made sense that Mira, who was a girl in body at least, would be a better bodyguard. But Mira still had some doubts. There were plenty of other females amongst the Twelve Apostles, so one of them would also be a good replacement.

Alma was the one to answer that question.

“Usually, that’d be the case, but I’m a bit short of hands at the moment.”

Alma nodded, agreeing with Mira’s opinion, but then explained why she could not do it this time. All the other Twelve Apostles other than Noin were busy with their own missions.

As she said that, Alma began grinning more, in an almost devilish way which was rather unbefitting of an empress, but in her mind, she was probably trying to smile in a more scheming way. Regardless, the confidence she beamed made Mira wait to see what more she would say, instead of urging her to get to the point.

“You see, I organized this tournament with a specific goal in mind. Which happens to be an important step towards taking down Ira Muerte!”

Mira thought she would learn what the other female members of the Twelve Apostles were doing, only for the conversation to deviate into yet another unexpected direction.

But because it seemed so unrelated, it ended up circling around to become connected again in some form.

“…So basically everyone else already has their hands full. And we two are also busy preparing the best stage possible.”

They were up against one of the biggest underground organizations in the continent, and even a large empire like Nirvana had a hard time dealing with them. So instead they prepared various secret plans to lure Ira Muerte into a better position.

In short, the tournament was merely a front to gather as many people from all over the world into one spot, which could be dangerous, but also would allow them to catch a bunch of Ira Muerte’s top members in one swoop.

“I see… So that’s why everyone is busy.”

Another part of that plan was to invite various important officials from other countries to the tournament as well. Not just any officials, but ones who had a secret in common, though it was only a superficial secret that could be found out with just a bit of research.

Namely, that secret was ‘They’re all important people who are working together to destroy the organization, and also conspired together to entrap August.’

So in other words, they had willingly painted targets on their back, and then decided to travel away from their home country to a more exposed place. They were pretty much begging to be assassinated.

The key point of the plan was to ensure someone would come after them. While dangerous, all of them had willingly participated in that mission, as they considered uncovering the organization more important than their personal safety.

“And that’s what everyone is busy with.”

Obviously, they were not just mere honeypots, as they were also surrounded with the means of capturing any assailants.

To be more specific, the Twelve Apostles were with them.

In total there were four of such officials, each of them protected by two of the Twelve Apostles, all of which were in disguise, hidden amongst the regular bodyguards of those officials.

That left four of the Twelve Apostles in Nirvana, three of which, including Esmeralda, were busy watching over the tournament, and the last one was Noin, protecting the Oracle.

The only female in those four was Esmeralda, who had to be present for the tournament, as people would constantly get badly injured, and the healing powers of her and the healer unit she commanded were necessitated all the time.

Doing all of that kept her too busy to be able to protect the Oracle as well.

“That seems like a reckless and dangerous path you’ve chosen to walk on…”

It was all a shocking revelation. That big tournament everyone was talking about all over the continent had been a lure for Ira Muerte all along.

Mira was still a bit taken aback by it all, but at least she fully understood why she was picked to be the new bodyguard.

Their enemy was an enormous organization, and while the Oracle was currently safe, there was no telling when someone exceedingly skilled would come for her. And when that happened, the Oracle’s bodyguard would need to be able to match that skill.

Noin would fit that role amongst those in Nirvana, except that he was impeded by the Oracle’s phobia against men, and the other Twelve Apostles were busy somewhere else.

That was when Mira came waltzing in. She had recently become famous as the Spirit Queen, and secretly she was one of the Nine Wisemen, who stood on equal footing with the Twelve Apostles.

On top of that, she also was a summoner, capable of raising an army if needed. It was almost like she was a godsend solution to all of Alma’s worries about the bodyguard.

There was something more Alma had done to make her lure more enticing. She had let it slip, on purpose, that the Oracle would go out undercover to watch the tournament as well.

That was the extent of things. Even the Oracle would become a lure.

“I planned all of that under the impression that Noin would be with her… Now I’ve been trying to cancel those arrangements, but it seems she was really looking forward to going out…”

With Noin at her side, the Oracle would have been safe enough to watch while munching on popcorn as a whole high level raid party attempted to take her. Sadly she could no longer get close to Noin, making that much harder.

To make things worse, Alma had already spread rumors about the Oracle’s planned outings, which Ira Muerte was sure to have intercepted, considering their information gathering abilities.

In other words, it would be impossible for her to go out and watch the fights unless she was under tight security. Hearing that had put her in rather low spirits.

“Hmm. Very well then, I’ll accept your request!”

Having heard the situation they were in, it did not take Mira much time to make up her mind. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ nοvelfire.net

She could easily assume that Ira Muerte would be hellbent on getting rid of the Oracle, who had put August in a chokehold that rendered his underground trading routes useless.

It was also evident that the Oracle was a brave girl, who chose to stand up against a powerful and evil organization that spanned across the continent. And more importantly, Mira wanted to cheer her up.

“Thank you, Grandpa!”

“Thanks, Mirako. We really appreciate it.”

Everything would have gone smoothly if Noin could still do it, but that possibility had been ruined in an unexpected way. Now that Mira had stepped in, it was like a heavy weight had been lifted off Alma and Esmeralda’s shoulders as they thanked her.

“But are you sure your plan will work out?”

Mira understood why they needed her help to guard the Oracle, but she was still a bit skeptical about the whole plan of using various lures to obtain more information about Ira Muerte, which Alma made sound easy.

“I’m sure you know that there’s plenty of people out there who will do anything in exchange for money. What if they employ such people to do everything, and once we catch them they turn out to not know anything about the organization itself?”

Nirvana’s power was well known, so Ira Muerte was certain to send the best assassins at their disposal.

Except that there was no guarantee that those assassins would also know about the inner workings of Ira Muerte. The whole plan would fall apart if they turned out to be hired hands without much information.

“Well, that’s just a fifty-fifty gamble we’ll have to take.”

For some reason, Alma looked rather confident even as she declared it was a fifty-fifty, and Esmeralda expanded on it as she said, “I guess it’s time we talk about the fourth head of Ira Muerte then.”