CHAPTER 170: STEALING SOME THINGS

After leaving the place where Jeff was staying, Elliot walked to the bar he used to frequent, the one owned by Black Leather.

Today, it was empty because it was undergoing renovations, but as soon as Black Leather saw him arrive, he let him in immediately.

"Be careful when moving the bottles. I’ll be right back," Black Leather said to those working on the renovations before taking Elliot to a private room.

"I see you’re doing well," Elliot said after sitting down.

Black Leather smiled.

"The moment I saw you and knew you were SkyDome’s son, I thought things in Loen might finally improve. That’s why I decided to stop traveling and leave Zargo to come here. And now I see that I made the right decision," he said and sat down across from Elliot.

"It’s thanks to you saying nice things to your sponsors that my bar has now become the most elegant and exclusive in the area."

Elliot shrugged. "As long as it helps me get better information, then you have nothing to thank me for."

"Haha, that’s been up and running for a week now. At the end of December, the Bar’s information network started operating. We’ve gotten a lot of interesting things."

"Oh." His eyes sparkled. "Have you worked with the one I sent you?"

"Yes. He has a lot of information about the city and knows how to move around secret passageways, so he’s been a great help. So far, he hasn’t made any suspicious moves; he seems to be moving cautiously. Still, thanks to this, watch this." Black Leather took out a document and handed it to him.

Elliot read it carefully. There was a lot of information.

Like Jeff’s movements, but those were less important. He focused on information from the Clarks and the government itself.

A bar always has information networks, where it buys and sells to different bidders. Generally, the more distinguished the bar, the less information network it has because it could be easily discovered by the government, but in this case, it’s the opposite.

Elliot wanted to do it this way, precisely to avoid certain suspicious glances. That information network did not operate in the conventional way.

He had been hiring many misfits and some normal people with connections to Black Leather. Although they did not work exclusively in that field, they had highly sought-after identities.

Thanks to this, the information they received was good. Considering that Black Leather previously had contacts with another information network, the amount of information he received increased severalfold, allowing him to cover many more topics.

The information from the government and the Clarks increased, reaching even private matters that were heard among high-level drunkards who frequented high-end bars and restaurants in the city.

After reading all the information he gave him, Elliot smiled.

"That’s been a great job. Now I need you to investigate this. As much as you can. Any information is valuable," he said, handing him a small piece of paper with a few words written on it.

When Black Leather read it, he frowned.

"I think it will be more dangerous," he said.

"I know. That’s why any information is valuable. Don’t get too deeply involved in the situation. If you see that you can’t get something or that you could get it at a ’high cost,’ just back off."

"Okay." Black Leather nodded. "Then wait for the good news."

Elliot stood up. "I’ll leave you to avoid raising suspicion. We’ll see each other again."

After that, he went out the back door and headed toward his next target.

He ran across the city until he reached a special area.

Clark Group promotional posters were on every corner, while occasionally guards could be seen wearing clothing or insignia that revealed they were from the Clark Group.

’It’s been a while since I’ve been here,’ he thought.

He quickly made his way to the areas specified in the document.

He listened to things here and there as he studied the terrain before him.

When midnight struck, he jumped over some buildings toward some things and landed on the roof of one of them.

’Good, it’s just like the document said. There are no guards,’ he thought when he saw no guards in this area at this time of night.

Hidden, he took out his raven.

"Any work?" asked the raven as soon as it came out, yawning strangely.

"Shh, and do what I tell you to do. Fly," he said, and then Elliot began to manipulate it from within.

He had better control over his summonings now, so he didn’t need to close his eyes to manipulate it. All he had to do was stay still. It was a problem, but it was a big step forward since he could also see with his eyes.

At first it made him dizzy, but he got used to it little by little.

At this point, he had it very well trained.

Elliot sent his raven flying into the Clark Mansion. Because it was black and it was early morning, it was too difficult to notice that it was actually a summoned beast.

Even seeing it was quite difficult, although its flapping wings could be heard.

Perhaps he should find a way to avoid that sound, but that would have to wait.

The raven managed to get inside quickly, and thanks to the information he already had about Clark Manor from when he lived there and from Black Leather and Jeff, he managed to position it in key locations.

No one was talking; everyone was either sleeping or on guard. But there were many documents in one of Alexander Clark’s offices.

Many were useless to him, but others would work.

Documents about finances, the movements of the Family’s forces, and what they had been doing recently...

Elliot grabbed several of those documents with the crow’s beak before bringing it back. In similar feats that no one noticed, Elliot extracted several documents from two different offices in a full hour.

One of them was underground.

It was an incredible feat to send his crow underground, but the crow’s intelligence made it possible.

After that hour, Elliot noticed with his own eyes that the area was filled with guards. So he canceled the summoning and allowed it to return inside. There was one document he couldn’t bring back, but there was nothing he could do.

They were white and yellow, and if there were so many in the area, they were sure to be noticed.

After bringing his raven back, he listened to what the guards around the mansion were discussing.

"The Leveled Leagues seem very competitive this time, don’t they?"

"You can say that again. Have you seen the group of death we’ve been assigned to? God, we barely won today’s match."

"And to think that when Young Master Tyler was here, we could sweep all our opponents... sigh."

"You’re absolutely right. Now Young Master John is dead, and the ones who are left aren’t any good either."

"Well, connections are part of strength, guys," said the highest-ranking of those speaking. "Bringing in those foreigners is very difficult. We should be amazed that they could come here after the horrific loss of the last Tournament."

When he brought that conversation to the table, everyone fell silent.

"I heard he managed to win in less than 40 seconds."

"31 seconds. And they only needed to use three of their members. It was overwhelming," said someone who had seen the morning’s fight.

"How did he do?"

"He fought alone against two. He beat them very easily."

"..."

After a moment of silence, their boss smiled.

"Nothing our boys can’t handle. Broken Leaf made a lot of mistakes, and that bastard Elliot took advantage of them. In the end, the damn traitor hid his power and wanted to work for years as a Misfit rather than stay here. He doesn’t even deserve to be talked about," he said.

Although that sounded hypocritical to his subordinates.

It was no secret to them that he had been expelled, not that he didn’t want to stay in the family.

And the one who had been expelled and humiliated from the family, the one who had lost his loved ones at the hands of his own family, was now rising up.

With every step he took and the stronger he became, the more dangerous he became to them.

They all knew it.

Luckily, they had Tyler Clark. As long as he was here, the upstart Elliot wouldn’t dare do anything against the Clarks.

Just as they were talking about it, a man dressed in black came up behind them.

As soon as they saw him, they stepped aside and bowed.

"Lord Alexander is waiting for you," they said quickly.

The man simply walked into the mansion and headed toward a strange area—the courtyard.

At the back of it. In a place where there was only a wall, numerous trees, and nothing else.

Just as he arrived there, he frowned and turned abruptly—a spell shot out of his hand to attack a fixed point in the sky.

The ice javelin flew quickly and disappeared into the distance.

"Oh. Curious." He smiled.

-

In the distance, Elliot put his hand to his chest. His heart was beating incredibly fast.

’Too strong,’ he thought. Luckily, he had withdrawn his summoning just in time. Otherwise, he would have been discovered.

He looked back from a building and returned to the guild. He kept that place in mind to investigate later.