The Dark Guards created by “Chaos General” held an advantage over Alice when conducting reconnaissance work in that they were tools. This wasn’t just a saying. The Dark Guards truly were tools. They didn’t have any physiological functions that normal people had, so their bodies wouldn’t have to move because they needed to breathe and whatnot.
If one were to touch these Dark Guards’ bodies, one would find that these Dark Guards could literally stand still without moving. It’d be akin to touching an inanimate object. Even their mana would remain like a pool of stagnant water when they didn’t need to use it. This would reduce their chances of being noticed by the targets they stalked.
However, not all was sunshine and rainbows with the Dark Guards. The Dark Guards also came with a set of problems of their own. For example, the Dark Guards would never take the initiative to speak. Although they possessed relatively good intelligence that allowed them to carry out simple orders independently, they wouldn’t speak up unless requested. Even then, they would only respond curtly to the questions they were asked. So, if Alice failed to ask the right questions, she might miss out on important information.
Thankfully, I prepared for this situation.
Alice had naturally considered this problem when she decided to use the Dark Guards for reconnaissance work in the future. Hence, she bought some tools to help resolve this communication problem. So, after chuckling softly, she pulled out two small spherical cameras from her pouch.
These spherical cameras were made to look like eyeballs. Of course, they couldn’t actually be used to replace a person’s eyeballs since they only possessed a standard camera function. However, this was enough for Alice’s purposes.
Under Alice’s control, the two Dark Guards received her will and nodded. Then, both of their left eyes sunk into their eye sockets before eventually vanishing. Although the Dark Guards couldn’t freely change their appearance, Alice could still make minor modifications, such as removing an eyeball.
After seeing the loli and shota indifferently take the eyeball cameras and stuff them into their empty left eye sockets, Alice nodded in satisfaction. With this, the eyeball cameras could record all the information the two Dark Guards gathered.
“Go on. Make sure not to follow too closely. Just make sure you can capture the people they interact with on video,” Alice said to the Dark Guards.
Alice’s requirements weren’t much. She knew it would be too much to ask these two to obtain confidential information. So, all she needed them to do was to capture the people who interacted with Lilith and Collins on video. In doing so, she hoped she could predict their actions in the near future by looking at the people they interacted with.
For example, if Lilith was caught interacting with a thief, it might be possible to investigate and identify the thief she interacted with through Rosa or the internet. Then, Alice could potentially uncover the organization the thief was associated with to acquire more information about Lilith.
Although doing such a thing would make it seem like Alice did not trust Lilith, truth be told…they weren’t so close to the point where they could place their trust in each other.
While waiting for more information on Lilith and Collins to arrive, I’ll take care of the two other matters.
After seeing the loli and shota leave, Alice sighed and decided to take care of two other matters. She might look very free since she was at an anime convention, but she had many tasks she still needed to do in reality.
Among them, one of the more pressing matters would be to find a suitable location and bombard it with light and dark taboos. This was to create the illusion that the Hero and the Demon King had fought. Meanwhile, the sooner she took care of this task, the better. This was because the longer she dragged things out, the more anxious the Rhine Kingdom’s royal family and nobility would become.
After all, the Demon King was not only present in Icarus City, the Rhine Kingdom’s heart, but she was even hiding in Icarus City’s most important magic research facility—the Royal Magic Tower.
For the royalty and nobles who stayed near the Royal Magic Tower, this was akin to sleeping next to a ticking time bomb. If Alice didn’t resolve this problem quickly, nobody knew what these royals and nobles would do under pressure.
The other matter Alice needed to deal with was to find a block of Living Wood. Although this wasn’t a particularly urgent task, Living Wood was a rare and crucial alchemy material. Even if she had time to spare, getting her hands on one wouldn’t be easy.
To make things easier for herself, Alice decided that she would ask Andusia for help. After all, Andusia was the one who had stuffed her own soul into a block of Living Wood thousands of years ago. This meant that she had indeed gotten her hands on this rare alchemy material, so she might know some special means to obtain Living Wood.
Aside from these two tasks, there was one other task Alice needed to deal with: investigating the Rhine Kingdom’s Third Prince, Arcana Doyle. Although the little fellow was still in elementary school and shouldn’t have the ability to cause trouble logically, Alice still felt that she should check him out to avoid any unexpected situations. However, as she still had no idea how she should even begin investigating Arcana, she decided to shelf this matter for now.
Then, let’s go and ask Andusia for now.
Alice had no idea how she should even begin investigating Arcana, so she decided to put this matter on hold for now. As for Lilith’s and Doyle’s information, that would have to wait until her Dark Guards returned. In the meantime, she decided she would first figure out how to get her hands on a block of Living Wood.
Andusia was most likely being kept in Lilith’s house right now. Although the average person wouldn’t know where to find Lilith’s house, this was not a problem for Alice.
…
[Weapon: Brilliant Navigator Model XB-005]
[Quality: Not Bad]
[Effect: Agility +5, Control +8]
[Additional Effect:
Advanced Navigation (Active Skill. When activated, displays the map of the targeted area);
Advanced Positioning (Active Skill. When activated, displays the precise position of the searched target.)]
…
Alice snickered as she pulled out the navigator she had cheated…earned via relying on the Milu Rabbit. Although this navigator couldn’t search the entire continent for presences like the dogkins’ chief totem, it was very useful in accurately searching for people.