Chapter 151.2: Influence and Countermeasures (Part 2)
The woman from the Fifty Bells bowed slightly nervously, and Kagura's severe expression from earlier vanished giving entry to a bright smile, and then looked at the couple behind her.
「Sorry for the late introduction, I'm Gates, the chief of the Warrior's Union here.」
「I'm Debora, chief of the Spellcaster's Union. We wanted to thank you personally for taking care of Chimera Clauzen.」
The couple stood up and introduced themselves, they were the chiefs of the local Unions. At closer inspection, they were clearly wearing higher class clothing, and their gazes were sharp, showing they were no common folk. The woman from the Fifty Bells was not only nervous because of Kagura's presence, but also because of those two.
「Please, there's no need to thank me for that. I only did that because I wanted to do it. I feel like I should be thanking you instead, for listening to our request and allowing us to use your facilities.」
Kagura faced the two and said, 「Thank you very much.」 Meanwhile Mira had grabbed a nearby chair, throwing herself on it and simply watching comfortably.
With their introductions complete, they began exchanging information. But first, Kagura asked if the Union workers could leave, then told the chiefs, 「I'm truly sorry, but I have to make sure of something,」 explaining about her hypnosis skill and that she wanted to make sure they were not part of Chimera Clauzen. The two did not seem uncomfortable about that at all, instead praising the skill. Still, they looked saddened when Kagura refused to teach them how to use it.
With that out of the way, they could finally converse openly. Kagura provided the Unions with the location of all of Chimera Clauzen's bases, as well as the story behind Sentopolly as a country. All information she had already verified.
「I can't believe it... the entire country was theirs.」
「I guess we have a lot of work ahead of us then.」
What shocked them the most was finding out that Chimera Clauzen had created the country of Sentopolly itself.
Chimera Clauzen was very thorough when concealing information. They only hired people who knew nothing about Chimera Clauzen when building the city. Even if some suspicion were to grow, the people at the top they had instilled had a pristine track record. It was almost impossible to trace anything back to Chimera Clauzen.
That was why the two, who had lived in Sentopolly for a long time, were shocked hearing that revelation. It was the country they called home after all.
「Err, I can't say I've fully processed that yet, but I understand. We'll take care of keeping public order here. You can count with full support from the Union.」
「I'll brief the Unions in other countries as well. This entire situation is of deep importance to us, so I'm sure everyone will offer to help.」
「Thank you very much, that'll help greatly.」
「We're just helping each other.」
Chimera Clauzen was burrowed into the backbone of the entire country. Once they began removing their influence, it was hard to calculate just how much of an effect that would create inside and even outside the country. Kagura was fully aware of that, and knew the Fifty Bells could not take care of such an undertaking on their own. That was why this short exchange would be a great help soon enough.
There was a second, slightly less obvious reason why Kagura was telling them that. Namely, the bounties the Unions had placed on Chimera Clauzen.
The number of Chimera Clauzen they had caught were enormous, so the total bounty fetched by them would also be a hefty sum. But rather than taking all that money, Kagura chose to request their help.
Kagura's worries would be alleviated, the Union would not have to worry about losing most of their budget, making it available to deal with this situation that neither side could ignore.
That benefitted both sides.
Now it was time for the Unions to share some information as well. They had all the testimonies from the captured remnants, as well as the organizations and firms they were involved with, and the names of any nobles related to them as well.
「We were only able to have such a reliable source recently. Writing out all of this in just a few hours was back breaking work.」
Gates smiled tiredly as he offered all the documents. All the Unions' workers had been hard at work compiling all of that since the moment the announcement of Chimera Clauzen's defeat was made. Kagura's men needed to focus on hunting down the remains of Chimera Clauzen, so they asked the Unions to help with documenting everything instead. In exchange, they offered to let the Unions take part of the credit for capturing Chimera Clauzen's members, even though it was mainly done by the Fifty Bells.
「Thank you for your hard work, dealing with Chimera has always required a lot of swiftness. Let me read through it a bit.」
Kagura accepted the documents with a bright smile before she began leafing through the papers.
Their roots spread throughout the continent, and their contacts included people close to royalty in some places. There were details of extremely secretive connections, close to state secrets, mentioning even underground deals between major characters of various countries.
Usually the Unions would feel hesitant to even touch such information, but they were dealing with Chimera Clauzen and punishing their crimes. Crimes that violated some of the Three Gods' Countries most essential laws. Disclosing such information could sully the reputation of some people, but that was a far better outcome than facing the wrath of the Three Gods' Countries by keeping it secret. The crimes committed by everyone involved were far too terrible. Refusing to share the information would be a rather stupid choice.
On top of that, Alispharius' international affairs minister had recognized the Fifty Bells as a lawful actor in capturing Chimera Clauzen, so they had no reason to withhold information from them.
「This is incredible. I'm sure we'll be able to capture a large portion of the remaining members with this.」
Having skimmed through the documents, Kagura asserted with a confident smile. Hearing that, Gates and Debora let out relieved sighs and relaxed their shoulders.
「I'll go store these documents, you can go home ahead Grandpa.」
The moment they left the Union, Kagura said that, and without waiting for Mira's answer, she switched places with a shikigami in the Fifty Bells' headquarters. Instead, the Yatagarasu shikigami that Kagura had named Yatakomachi, which looked like a small crow now, landed on Mira's head like it was the most natural thing to do.
「Speeding through life like always...」
Mira sighed as she said that as she began walking through the street, the street lamps started to turn on as the sun disappeared below the horizon. Then she stopped, trying to remember exactly where the Prime Minister's residence was.
Everyone involved with Chimera Clauzen's defeat was not only invited for lunch, but also a large dinner party to celebrate. Mira had been part of the announcement as well, so she was invited too, she just needed to remember where to go.
Mira quickly began looking through her map, then climbed on Pegasus with exaggerated movements and took off onto the afternoon sky.