Morning in Igwinte, Upper City.
This was a quiet street with sparse foot traffic. At the entrance of a small alley, a carriage was parked by the roadside. Inside the carriage, Dorothy sat calmly, facing the expressionless Mr. Brandon.
"Phew… it seems things are progressing quite smoothly. I wonder how things are going with Grego? But with such detailed information provided, there shouldn't be any major issues, right?"
Letting out a long breath, Dorothy murmured. Based on the current situation, although her plan had encountered a small problem, it was still proceeding, roughly halfway to success.
Ever since using pendulum divination to pinpoint the Holy Communion Society's ambush location at Sunken Wharf, Dorothy had rushed there without delay to scout. There, she unexpectedly but logically encountered the Holy Communion Society's leader and members who were also scouting the area.
To plan an ambush, it's impossible not to scout the location beforehand, make deployments, and determine positions. This gave Dorothy another chance to catch the Holy Communion Society red-handed, and this time, she caught a whole bunch.
At Sunken Wharf yesterday afternoon, the hidden Dorothy quietly observed the Holy Communion Society's preparation and deployment work from various angles. After observing for several hours, Dorothy had completely memorized the enemy's defenses, including ambush points and hidden sentry points, all crystal clear. After using the Knower's memory to forcefully memorize the entire bird's-eye view of Sunken Wharf and the Holy Communion Society's deployment information, she went back and drew a detailed map. Early this morning, she entrusted a flower shop to deliver the map along with flowers to the An Yin Bureau.
Dorothy knew the time the Holy Communion Society would send flowers, so she specifically arranged for her flowers to be sent half an hour earlier. This way, the An Yin Bureau would receive her map information first, and by the time the Holy Communion Society's flowers arrived, the Hunter Squad would have already been dispatched. Simultaneously, Brandon, the mole lurking within the An Yin Bureau, would also begin his actions ahead of schedule. Dorothy's target was him.
Dorothy also considered what would happen if Brandon noticed the time was off and notified Buck using that 'dream anchor' thing. But in fact, even if he notified, the impact wouldn't be significant. The Hunter Squad, having gone with caution, wouldn't be ambushed. At most, Buck would cautiously order a retreat, and the Hunter Squad would come up empty-handed. And Brandon himself still wouldn't waste this opportunity when the director and Hunter Squad were absent, choosing to steal things and escape. Dorothy, who had already prepared, could still intercept him. Although the Hunter Squad wouldn't achieve any results, they wouldn't be severely damaged by an ambush either, and Dorothy would have more or less achieved her goal.
Moreover, during her previous eavesdropping, Dorothy had already heard that Buck had told Brandon to only notify him if the Hunter Squad didn't move or delayed their departure. Therefore, Dorothy judged that Brandon would likely not notify. The flower shop getting the time wrong was a completely plausible excuse that could be easily thought of. This half an hour wouldn't cause much variation in their plan, and there was no need to waste a rune to notify. Besides, even if he notified, it wouldn't change much.
"Finally got the stuff, but unfortunately… there was a slight accident, quite a bit less." As she spoke, Dorothy shook the blood-stained briefcase placed in front of her. The contents inside were much less than Dorothy had expected.
'Who knew that old lady could be so fierce, shooting without a second thought? The An Yin Bureau is also full of hidden Dragons and crouching tigers…'
Dorothy thought with emotion. She hadn't expected the old lady, whom she had originally seen as just responsible for receiving flowers, to suddenly display such power. Six shots helped the An Yin Bureau recover a large portion of their losses in one go, but it also significantly reduced Dorothy's own gains.
"But thankfully… today's gains won't be limited to this…" As she spoke, Dorothy looked at Mr. Brandon sitting in front of him.
"Then I'll be relying on you, Mr. Brandon."
"Of course, Miss."
The Corpse Puppet Brandon said, then turned and picked up another briefcase, opened the carriage door, and walked out, heading into the alley.
...
Carrying the briefcase, Brandon sped through the alleyways, his expression panicked, his breathing ragged. He kept looking behind him, as if fearing someone was chasing him.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
Panting, Brandon ran forward anxiously, carrying the briefcase. He weaved through the city's alleys, finally emerging from a small alley onto a quiet, deserted road.
A carriage was parked quietly by the roadside here, with a coachman standing beside it.
"You're here? How is it? Where's the stuff?"
Looking at the breathless Brandon, the carriage coachman quickly spoke. Brandon, after standing still and taking two big breaths, replied.
"Huff… huff… It's all here. Quickly take me away, they could catch up at any moment. By the way… do you have bandages? I'm injured…"
"There are bandages and medicine in the carriage. Get in quickly, we're leaving immediately." The carriage coachman finished speaking and immediately climbed onto the coachman's seat. Brandon didn't say anything else. After pulling open the carriage door, he got into the carriage and opened the prepared medicine box to start treating his wounds.
After Brandon got into the carriage, the carriage coachman began driving the horses forward, heading towards one end of the deserted street.
Not long after Brandon's carriage left, another carriage slowly approached from the other end of the street. The driver was the Corpse Puppet Edrick, while Dorothy sat steadily inside the carriage.
At this moment, Dorothy was sensing the location of the Corpse Puppet Brandon while controlling her carriage to follow at a distance.
The carriage Brandon had just boarded was a carriage specifically sent to pick him up. In Brandon and Buck's plan, as soon as Brandon shook off any pursuers, he was to immediately come here to take this pickup carriage to the Holy Communion Society leader Buck's stronghold, where he would wait for Buck and the others to return victorious.
And now, Dorothy also intended to use this carriage to go to Buck's stronghold. Although she had roughly confirmed the location of that stronghold during her anti-tracking efforts after scouting the wharf beforehand, having this carriage as cover would allow her strength to infiltrate the stronghold better.
According to Dorothy's plan, the Holy Communion Society's leaders should currently be engaged in a fierce battle with the Hunter Squad at Sunken Wharf. With detailed enemy intelligence, the Holy Communion Society there might have already been completely wiped out. Buck's stronghold happened to have no Extraordinary guarding it, so she could take this opportunity to directly take it down, then rummage through it and scrape out some extra spoils of war.
This would perfectly make up for the losses caused by that front desk old lady.
Dorothy believed that with her current strength, dealing with a stronghold without Extraordinary would be quite easy. If Buck died at Sunken Wharf and the An Yin Bureau clarified his identity, following the clues all the way to raid his home, then she wouldn't have any pickings left!
Therefore, this kind of thing must be done early, otherwise, it would be too late.
Just like that, Dorothy followed the carriage picking up Brandon, traveling through the city, all the way to the Holy Communion Society leader Buck's stronghold.