Level 1 Strongest Sage 1

Vol. 14 - Chapter 12 - Kiel and Information Broker

“...Seems like getting the support of someone influential failed, huh. The bugs I planted on the noobie adventurers had also been destroyed.”

Kiel muttered under his breath. He was in the cellar of a pub In a small obscure town in the borders of the Kingdom of Glendale.

Kiel was particularly found it unbelievable that the spy bugs he secretly attached to Keith and Aria had been completely destroyed.

The bugs attached to their targets function by absorbing mana from them. Moreover, it was extremely difficult even for those skilled in magical detection to discover them, because the bugs are completely synchronized to the mana of their targets. Visual detection is also impossible because of their ultra-microscopic size.

Until now, Kiel had been using these spy bugs in order to gather intel within kingdoms, He even dugged out the secrets of a certain royal family and extorted money from the king using a dark guild. However…

Someone who could render the spy bug supposedly capable enough to escape the eyes of the hidden spies safeguarding the royal family completely useless appeared.

Halt usually surrounded himself with a thin layer of mana at all times. This layer served as a deterrent against surprise attacks launched by demons and other beings that could hide their existence. Whenever that thin layer of mana detects something, mana would stretched out like tentacles from Halt and those feelers would gather information.

Halt had teleported to where Tina and Kikyou were. The thin layer of mana detected the existence of bugs on Keith. The moment the feelers touched the bug after they stretched out to gather more information —

The bug was destroyed.

The mana that forced its way into the bug was way above its capacity.

“What in the world was that?”

“What in the world, huh. Well, the only advice I can give you is to stop messing with them any more than this.”

The person sitting across the table facing Kiel was an information broker famous in the underground society. She didn’t bother hiding her face or anything, but Kiel couldn’t remember her face no matter what. She was using a skill, apparently.

No matter how much Kiel tried to extract information about her, the background of the woman remained a complete mystery.

However, it was true that she demonstrated unprecedented skill, given that she managed to hide her identity and any information about her from others in the underground society. Thus, Kiel trusted the information that she provided.

“I am interested in those people. Please, help me get information about them, and I guarantee that I would compensate you as usual.”

Kiel had started investigating about Halt and his family because Gad instructed him to prior to their battle. At first, he only meant to do it lightly, hand the information to Gad and call it a day.

However, as he gathered information in the underground society, Kiel became unable to tell which was true and which was not. That’s because every single piece of information was completely unbelievable.

“Heroine Tina, the Elf Kingdom of Alheim’s princess, the Beastkin Kingdom of Vestier’s princess, spirits whose levels are at par with the Spirit Kings are all gathered in one place. In their center stands Halt, the guy who sent a Kokuryuu flying with a single punch…”

“That’s not the only thing about him.” “What?”

“Well, we’re already on this topic, so might as well tell you something else. That esteemed person is a Bakemono capable of gathering countless majins and annihilating them all in one fell swoop, and could even tame a demon just because he took a fancy with her face and appearance.”

“Even a d-demon!?”

“That’s why consider this as my last warning.”

The information broker stood. Chilling bloodlust emanated from her.

“Don’t mess with Ernol.”

???????

“...Huh?”

When Kiel came to, he was already in the barracks of royal knights.

“I was pretty sure I was…”

Something was wrong. He couldn’t remember the last thing that he did.

Moreover, he felt strongly restricted in some way.

“Is this… Was I hypnotized?”

Normally, people don’t even realize that sense of discomfort at all. However, Kiel sensed it thanks to the skill that he possessed.

He placed his hand on his head and hypnotized himself.

“Ugh, no way. There’s still some left…. $@#^, I got myself in a dangerous mess, huh.”

Even as he uttered those words, Kiel’s eyes sparkled as he giggled like a kid who just gotten a new toy.

The hypnosis and brainwashing magic placed on him by the information broker has, for the most part, been forcefully lifted.

He could sense that there was something restricting him again, but he couldn’t stop his interest from being piqued.

“Well, I’m the type of person who becomes even more persistently curious the more you say no.”

That night, Kiel went to spy on the Ernol house. And though he was found by Halt, he still managed to flee unscathed.

His abnormal obsession with things that piqued his interest would continue to indirectly interfere with the affairs of the Ernol family, but he was unaware that it would become a significant factor that would change the world.