NOVEL NEXT Chapter 125: Outbreaks
Claudia wasn't afraid of the pain, but she came to a realization a while ago about something horrifying.
The slave collar torture actually affected her recovery ability. She was able to begin recovering and could potentially reconstruct her shattered magic circle.
If so, then the slave collar could also be broken through if she tried harder.
Therefore, she couldn't afford to receive the same torture that delayed her healing.
With that in mind, it brought us to the current situation where Claudia was very obedient in answering every doubt in Leonard's mind.
"The Wrathbane Extract shouldn't even exist when it was still in the development process. So I don't know how it leaked to the public either. Or maybe the substance is similar to the extract." Claudia said in a crisp voice.
While Leonard nodded his head in agreement and concealed the command he placed on Claudia, the remaining two were dumbfounded.
"What kind of sicko would develop this kind of substance?" Mirelle's eyes glinted in a cold light.
She couldn't understand why some people could just be so vile and disgusting as to develop such substances that would only cause chaos.
With such talents, shouldn't they be using them to promote greater prosperity and benefit for the people?
Why were they so damnable and used such talent to create this kind of vile substance?
"A sicko who clearly wishes to change the dynamics in Velastra." Leonard coolly said.
After this series of incidents, he had a suspicious person on the list. And it wasn't someone he had met yet.
But rather, someone he had only briefly heard about.
The noble faction representative, Darius Melton!
Claudia mentioned this name to him previously, and Leonard had kept the name in mind. But he soon forgot about this person after receiving the sudden invitation from Wesley.
Initially, he thought Wesley was the most suspicious person among them in wanting to dominate the city for himself.
His desire to separate Velastra from the reins of noble control was pretty obvious, especially with that banquet of his prior to the Crown Prince's banquet.
Unfortunately, the banquet ended in disaster with these berserk slaves on the loose.
Not only was his authority going to be challenged, but there would also be doubts and questioning of his capability to manage the city in the aftermath.
And who else benefited the most with Wesley's fall from grace?
The noble faction, aka Darius Melton, had long been in a heated, influential war with Wesley as to who held the biggest voice in the city.
Besides this suspicion, Leonard also began to wonder if Darius was also the mastermind behind this assassination attempt against him.
After all, if a crown prince were to come to Velastra, he was destined to be buried under whose influence was bigger. For the noble faction, it was a no-brainer for the nobles to cozy up to the Crown Prince, even if they might have pledged their allegiance to other powerhouses.
While Leonard seemed to have most of his confusion cleared up, they continued to advance their path.
But a few seconds later, there was a particular construct that took their attention.
"What is that doing here?" Mirelle raised an eyebrow and pointed at the construct. "I don't see any animals around, so why is there a feeding pit built?"
"Why ask something that you already know the answer to?" Before Shirley could respond, Leonard coolly interrupted.
The feeding pit design was clearly different and allowed access for humans. The leftover food in the pit also depicted that it was for human consumption.
In other words, these feeding pits were most likely the eating place for the level 1 women.
For it to be built so publicly and exposed in all corners, it was pretty obvious what the intent behind such a placement was.
"The level 1 women could only eat scraps in this area, and sometimes, they would be whipped while eating. As for those who couldn't even eat, they'll be dragged to the dark alley over there and…" Shirley didn't finish her words, but there wasn't a need to.
BOOM!
All of a sudden, the feeding pits exploded in place.
"You do realize you have just sabotaged the scene for investigation, right?" Leonard glanced at Mirelle and said.
"Punish me then," Mirelle hissed.
He shook his head and sighed.
"Impulsiveness won't get you anywhere. Rather than angrily destroying them, you need to investigate and study them properly. What's the point of destroying these when it's not the root cause?" His eyes soon narrowed coldly.
"You mean?" Dumbfounded, Mirelle held some anticipation. Without a doubt, his mentioning of the root cause meant that he planned on destroying these types of inhumane practices.
Leonard didn't confirm anything and simply gestured his hand for Claudia to proceed forward.
He didn't need to learn more details of this Slave Coop to know it was a disgusting place.
Sometime later, the group arrived at the training section.
Almost immediately, the foul stench intensified, nearly penetrating through the isolation device.
Mirelle reacted instantly and arrived next to Leonard. She then injected her pure mana into the device, increasing the device's potency.
"What happened here?" Shirley's eyes twitched in horror at the scene. Everything in the area was a mess, and corpses were scattered across.
"Seems like this is where one of the outbreaks happened." Leonard stepped forward and inspected a few corpses. Their eyes were filled with shock, but showed little to no resistance.
In other words, their death came very abruptly, to the point where they couldn't even comprehend what was going on.
Shifting his attention from the corpse were the plates of dishes on the far end of the corner. The women here were of a higher level, so the food and treatment were also slightly better.
His eyes glinted in a cold light when he spotted some white substance on the food.
'Doesn't appear to be salt or sugar.' He thought. He was about to trace his finger on the substance to check it out when Mirlle suddenly slapped his hand away.
"Please avoid doing such risky actions!" Mirelle warned sternly.
The consequences of his being affected by the Wrathbane Extract were a horrifying imagination for them.