Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem-Chapter 464: Why

As they walked, Visla’s thoughts finally bubbled down to one question.

’Why?’

Why would someone on either or neither side do something like this to both a town of the Empire and a barbarian camp?

The following day, before they started moving, Visla opened her mouth and asked Zach that question. She didn’t think he had an answer. That wasn’t why she was asking. She just wanted to question the world.

"To stir up chaos probably."

However, contrary to what Visla had expected, Zach had an answer.

"Do you remember how you first reacted when you saw the camp?"

Zach’s rhetorical question was enough for Visla to understand.

Visla was actively working with Zach, a member of the longest-standing enemy of the Sesha, to try to establish peace between the two sides. Yet, when she came upon the scene of the burned camp, she had been about to throw that away due to momentary rage.

But what if she hadn’t been trying to achieve peace? What if she hadn’t been working with Zach?

What if instead she had been a hot-headed barbarian warrior who lived for fighting the Empire?

There was no way in hell she would ever hear out someone advocating for peace. They would be lucky if she didn’t cut them down. It didn’t matter that the same had happened to the town. It would just be their just desserts.

"This…How do we stop it?"

A small town and a small camp wouldn’t be enough to overthrow their peace talks. If the escalation of the war was their goal, they would continue attacking and decimating outposts of either side.

They also had to stop the escalation itself. They couldn’t let this trigger the Empire and the barbarians into intensifying their attacks on the other and using more brutal tactics.

"We catch whoever did it," Zach said as if it was a matter of course. He shrugged lightly.

"We should also leave a message in front of either site explaining what’s going on for when someone stumbles upon it."

Visla nodded in agreement. She wrote the message for the camp. She could use her identity to verify and authenticate the truth. It was the surest way to make sure the barbarians didn’t act rashly.

Zach could not do the same. If anything, trying to use his identity as Zacharia Evandiel to tell the Empire that the barbarians weren’t involved in burning the town would backfire since he was a traitor and no one would believe him except his friends.

He had to settle for an anonymous message. But he emphasized that they could check with the barbarians to see if the same had happened to them.

After they had written and secured their messages close to the sites of massacre, Zach and Visla regrouped between the town and the camp. Zach glanced at Mandra.

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"Did you find anything?" He asked, hopefully. Her Eyes of Truth was the best way to find any traces of whoever did this.

Mandra nodded.

"As you suspected, Master, this was not mundane fire. From what I can tell, it’s unorthodox magic. Based on the burn patterns…and so on, I think we’re dealing with someone or something who breathes fire."

Zach and Visla frowned at that. They were not familiar with any fire-breathers on either side.

"Can you trace them?" Zach asked.

Mandra nodded.

"I will have to push my eyes a little, Master, I hope you will allow it," Mandra said with a light bow. She could do it, but she hadn’t regained her peak strength yet, which meant she would have to put a little strain on her connection with Zach.

"Of course." Zach nodded.

Yanael put a hand on Zach’s back to keep him stable as Mandra closed her eyes and focused. Slowly she tapped into the bottomless well of magical energy in her core. She felt the chains of her connection with Zach limit and restrain it. They didn’t affect her other than limiting how much magical energy she could pull out and how quickly.

But when she did more than they allowed and forced the restraints to move, the weight of her existence was placed onto Zach’s vessel, making him bear it. It would have been fine with just a little since he had the world essence energy to restore his body almost regardless of what burdened it.

However, Zach’s world essence energy was dormant, and his body was not in a good state.

Mandra winced slightly when she felt the restraints rustle as she brought a stream of magical energy up and into her eyes.

She quickly opened her eyes, resolving to finish this as soon as possible. She just had to use her eyes to pick up the scent, and then she could do it without pushing Zach’s limits.

A heavy pressure slipped off of Mandra as she opened her eyes, prompting cold sweat and goosebumps all over Visla’s body. She instinctively felt that she couldn’t hide a thing from Mandra. She looked away.

But Mandra wasn’t looking at her.

She was looking at the multicolored fragments of light swirling through the air with and against the currents of the wind. She looked toward the sky and toward the town and the camp.

Over the town and the camp, the air was filled with orange, red, yellow, and black particles of light. The magical energy in those places was still affected by the unorthodox magic used by whoever had done it. The arsonist’s presence filled both places.

But those two places weren’t the only area where she found it.

After such heavy usage of that kind of magic, even the arsonists body would be covered in it. Even if he could usually hide it or control it to the point where the fiery magical energy was undetectable, there was no hiding it now.

An orange trail like the vestiges of a fiery ghost passing between the two places appeared before Mandra’s eyes. It led away from the camp deeper east. Stay tuned for updates on novelbuddy

Mandra blinked, dispelling the sight.

"I got it."