Sword God in a World of Magic

The soldiers didn't want to show it, but they subconsciously became wary of their officer.

Everything pointed to the fact that he was a traitor.

Shang could have kept the suspicious information a secret and could have passed it along to the relevant authorities.

Yet, he had unveiled all the suspicious information without censoring it.

He was essentially publicly accusing the officer of being a traitor without saying it directly.

The soldiers became very nervous.

If their officer were truly a traitor…

Then, would he just kill all of them to silence them?!

"They were smart," the officer said.

Shang and the soldiers only looked at him.

"Remember, no plan is complete without a backup plan for when the primary plan backfires," the officer explained. "By sending nine people, their primary plan evidently was to wake the True Path Stage beast."

"But if they fail, their backup plan was to get rid of me," the officer said.

The officer gestured to the corpses.

"They are most likely criminals on death row," he said. "Duke Mithril has a policy that criminals can gain freedom as long as they accomplish a deadly mission. The criminals have to take a poison to which only Duke Mithril's soldiers have an antidote."

"If they flee, they die. If they fail, they die. They can only survive by completing the mission."

"You told me that they threw the Firebombs into the lake without concern for their life," the officer said.

Shang nodded.

"This means near-certain death for them. Normal soldiers don't just throw their lives away like that. Only someone with no way out would consider doing something like this."

"Criminals are not part of Duke Mithril's main force," the officer explained. "The fact that they sent criminals means that they, to a certain extent, have expected this mission to fail."

Shang didn't say anything.

officer gritted his teeth. "Nevertheless, their plan succeeded to some degree. I will surely be investigated by the higher-ups after today, no

SHING!

Communication Crystal. "Might

soldiers looked at the officer in

visible

a bit. He still suspected the officer of being a traitor, but he wasn't

was why he had

was just an elaborate

possible that a biased investigation would take place. It would have been possible that an

wanted to give

soldiers listened as the officer reported everything,

heard the officer's superior blowing up in anger, but not at the thing

shouted through the Communication Crystal. "You found a tunnel and didn't report it?! You put us all at

thorough tongue-lashing, the superior demanded

only

access to only my resources would reflect well on

superior exploded once again, berating the

It was thoroughly humiliating.

the superior shouted

there was

since you took the initiative to come forward, I'll give you one week to get everything in order for your replacement. I want you to

wait near the tunnel

then, the superior

looked helplessly to the

would arrive, they took a deep breath. Only now did they truly realize how

He still had some doubts, but he wouldn't accuse the

right decision to give the officer

one was in the mood to talk, so

have to

the new guards of the tunnel

five people in luxurious robes,

and felt Mana swirl

What was a Circle?