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.

surely be investigated

SHING!

officer summoned a Communication Crystal. "Might as

soldiers looked at the officer

expression wasn't visible due to his

the officer of being a traitor, but he

was why he had unveiled all

what if this was just

would take place. It would have been possible that an innocent Late

unveiled everything. He wanted to give the officer a chance to

the officer reported everything,

blowing up in anger,

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

tongue-lashing, the superior demanded an

only

with access to only my resources

exploded once again, berating the officer for

It was thoroughly humiliating.

the superior shouted through the

was

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

wait near

the superior hung

only looked helplessly to the

that a Circle would arrive, they took a deep breath. Only now did they

listening to everything, Shang's suspicions lowered by a lot. He still had some

it was the right decision to give the

was in the mood to talk, so everyone

didn't have to

later, the new guards of the

people in luxurious robes, each colored

over and felt Mana

What was a Circle?