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.

teeth. "Nevertheless, their plan succeeded to some degree. I will surely be investigated

SHING!

summoned a Communication Crystal. "Might

looked at the officer in

wasn't visible due to

a bit. He still suspected the officer of being a traitor, but he

he had unveiled all the

what if this was just an elaborate

reported everything to the relevant authorities, it might be possible that a biased investigation would take place. It would have been possible that an innocent

He wanted to give the officer a chance to defend

soldiers listened as the officer

then, they heard the officer's superior blowing up in anger, but not at the thing everyone was

found a tunnel and

thorough tongue-lashing, the

officer only gritted his

with access to only my resources would reflect well

superior exploded once again, berating the

It was thoroughly humiliating.

under investigation!" the

there was

forward, I'll give you one week to get everything in order for your replacement.

you will wait near the tunnel until the Circle

the

looked helplessly to the

took a deep breath. Only now did

everything, Shang's suspicions lowered by a lot. He

like it was the right decision to give the officer a chance to

the mood to

didn't have to wait

minutes later, the new guards

five people in luxurious robes, each

looked over and felt Mana swirl around the new

What was a Circle?