"Understood, Master Mentor. I will take action immediately."

After pondering for a moment, Koranda couldn't think of any better plan and ultimately decided to follow Loren's orders completely.

"Do you have any other instructions? We plan to execute this now."

"Remember to copy the runes I provided and send them to other countries. We can't be certain where the next attack will occur."

"Understood!"

After acknowledging the order, Koranda left. Sometimes Loren felt it was quite good to have subordinates like this.

Although they were a bit prone to looking down on others, they handled matters efficiently.

"Movila, keep an eye on her."

Loren was worried Koranda might try something underhanded, so he added an extra layer of insurance.

"Yes..."

After Koranda left, a crow followed behind her.

Ever since the disaster caused by the God of Hatred last time, the number of crows in the Royal Capital had increased significantly. After so much time had passed, people had long grown accustomed to them and naturally wouldn't be wary of a few passing crows.

Movila followed Koranda all the way. Koranda didn't even wait until she returned to the Church; she casually bought some paper and a pen, personally copied the contents of Loren's note several times, and ordered her subordinates to deliver them.

There was even someone who directly rode a Magical Beast toward the direction of the Nofica Theocracy. She truly took the task Loren assigned seriously.

In another location, Movila was also observing Caroline's situation. Caroline had done nothing these past few days. During the day, she wandered around casually while buying groceries, and at night, she simply holed up in the small house she had rented.

Her life was quite impoverished, to the point where she never ate out, instead buying ingredients to cook at home.

Loren wasn't clear on her purpose for coming here. Logically, a witch would be safest under the protection of the Secret Witch. There was no reason at all for her to come here and take risks.

Since she had come here, it definitely meant there was a reason.

As for her reason for coming here, Loren had a guess. She had probably also learned about the Greed Worshippers, felt their methods were very similar to her own Arcane Ability, and thus decided to investigate personally.

The Witches' Church cared deeply about the safety of witches and was unlikely to let her come alone. However, Movila hadn't seen Caroline make contact with anyone else. Either she had run away secretly, or the Witches' Church was currently short-handed.

If she wanted to investigate the Greed Worshippers, going to the Nofica Theocracy would be a better choice. Yet Caroline still chose to come to the Gedlan Kingdom.

Therefore, Loren guessed she must have received a revelation from the Secret Witch, indicating that the key to investigating this matter lay within the Gedlan Kingdom.

What Loren needed to do next was find an opportunity to clarify things with Caroline. However, this wasn't so simple. Even if Loren went to her with other witches, given her level of wariness toward Loren, she would probably imagine it was something Loren had forced them to do.

But this wasn't urgent. The top priority was resolving the Greed Worshipper issue.

After chatting with Movila for a bit, Loren returned to the laboratory. Now he needed to research a more reliable method.

...

By nightfall, Loren had developed a new method. However, this method was somewhat difficult, requiring the entire city to be enveloped with specific runes in advance. So the moment he finished the research, Loren sent Gwen to inscribe the runes across the Royal Capital.

He estimated Gwen would be mostly done by the next morning. Her self-healing ability was strong, so the blood needed for inscribing the runes would definitely be sufficient.

Loren yawned as he walked out of the laboratory, only to see Movila, who had been waiting for him at the door.

"It's so late. Is something the matter?"

"Koranda has made a new move..."

"She didn't act according to my instructions?"

Hearing Movila's words, Loren began to feel glad that his decision to have Movila monitor Koranda was truly the right choice.

"No, she handled the tasks you assigned very well. It's just that now she is doing something I don't quite understand..."

"What is she doing?"

Movila had piqued Loren's curiosity. Loren really wanted to know what Koranda had done that, without harming Loren's interests, could make Movila pay such close attention, even waiting for Loren for so long.

"She is... acting out a play with her subordinates?"

"Acting?"

Loren was dumbfounded, but he thought it was normal for these high-ranking figures to have some strange hobbies. Some liked killing pigs, some liked watching Dwarves solve math problems. Compared to those who liked eating people, Koranda's hobby of acting was relatively normal.

"Yes, at night, she and her subordinates are acting out scenes in those dark alleys. She plays the role of a young woman about to be assaulted, and her subordinates play the roles of the assailants..."

"What? What is she trying to do? Refining the 'Guaranteed Research Admission' pill doesn't require going this far...

"No, wait, she's basically already climbed to the highest position. Refining that pill wouldn't be of much use anyway..."

If she truly wanted to advance further, the only target would be Loren, but targeting Loren was undoubtedly seeking death.

While pondering, Loren walked toward his Bedroom. Looking at the neatly made bed cleaned by Mirrorheart, Loren suddenly thought of Luna and then understood something.

"I think I get it... She wants to lure certain people out...

"Given the social climate of the Gedlan Kingdom, even if someone is truly being victimized, others are unlikely to step forward to help. Helping not only puts oneself in danger, but the person being helped might also turn around and bite the helper.

"So, in such an environment, the only ones who would choose to step forward and help her are those who are both naive and have a strong sense of justice."

"Who is both naive and has a sense of justice? Do such people really exist?"

Movila voiced her doubt. She didn't believe such people still existed in this world. In her eyes, Loren was the most righteous person, but Loren wasn't naive, so even he didn't fit the description.

"Of course there are. They are the Witches."

Previously, Luna had acted as a superhero in the Royal Capital for a period, asking for no reward, only to be ultimately betrayed by the very people she wanted to help.

"Witches?"

Movila hadn't expected Loren's answer. It was normal for her to think this way, as witches were so naive they never considered their own character to be particularly noble.

Some of the higher-ups in this world were quite clear about the true nature of witches, yet they would still persecute witches with all their might.

Those who falsely accuse you know better than you how falsely accused you are.

So much so that even Koranda had started exploiting the kindness of witches to lure them out.

Recalling how Koranda kept steering the conversation toward witches when talking to Loren earlier, Loren strongly suspected Koranda knew something.

At the very least, Loren was quite certain Koranda knew there were witches present here.

Just as Loren was deep in thought, the Bedroom door was pushed open. Entering were the adult woman and teenage girl versions of Movila.

"..."