“Hasn’t Chairman Clayton noticed? The problems currently facing Anvil City aren’t something that a single person can solve.”
Honestly, she was the one who had come to fish for information, so why did it feel like the roles had been reversed, and she was the one reporting to Clayton instead?
Fine, she would just treat it as an exchange of information.
Since Clayton knew things that perhaps only the City Lord should know, his network of connections was definitely unusual. By letting him understand the current state of Anvil City, she might be able to make use of the network behind him.
“What are you saying?”
“Has Chairman Clayton really not noticed? Long before today, the Abyss had already infiltrated Anvil City.”
the moment the words left her mouth, a look of sheer bewilderment appeared on Clayton’s face.
It seemed he truly didn’t know about this; he only knew that Anvil City might face an Abyssal invasion today.
Looking at it now, the information Clayton possessed personally wasn’t that important. What mattered was the network behind him. As long as she found out exactly who he was getting his information from, Yuri might be able to find a way to get information from that source herself.
She glanced at the little evil god floating beside her. She definitely couldn’t scout for information on her own; she would have to use Iris’s traits to steal it when the time came. However, if she simply asked for help, she would likely be rejected outright.
She really needed to think of a way to get Iris to help.
It was a pity the girl didn’t have a physical body right now. Otherwise, she could have gritted her teeth and sacrificed her charms to get her to help.
But the problem was that she lacked a physical form, so that path was blocked from the very start.
She decided to see how Clayton reacted first. From the moment she said those words until now, Clayton’s face was still stuck in a state of shock.
“Chairman Clayton? Everything I said is true. Anvil City has long since been infiltrated by the Abyss.”
“This… how is that possible?”
“A few days ago, I took a commission to go into the western sewers. Guess what I ran into down there?”
“What did you find?”
Clayton’s expression was very grim. After everything that had been said, anyone with eyes would know the answer to that question. It was impossible for Clayton not to guess.
“It was Abyssal monsters. And those were just the ones I happened to discover. Before I found them, how long do you think they had been infiltrating the city?”
“Is what you’re saying true?”
Yuri spread her hands. “I have no reason to lie to you. As for whether you believe it or not, that is your choice, Chairman Clayton.”
After a brief silence, Clayton nodded.
“Miss Yuri, I believe you. So, what you’re saying is that the barrier inside the city has already failed?”
“At a conservative estimate, it probably failed a month ago.”
Clayton’s expression darkened several shades further, yet Yuri’s verbal offensive continued.
“It’s impossible for the people at the top to be unaware that the barrier has failed, but you know what happened today. The barrier itself may have reached a state of total collapse, otherwise, today’s large-scale invasion simply couldn’t have happened.”
As her voice trailed off, the atmosphere in the room fell into a deathly silence.
This was a fact laid out right before their eyes; there could be no mistake.
If the barrier hadn’t failed, the Abyss would have been blocked outside long ago.
Perhaps… the time the barrier failed could be traced back even further. From the moment the Abyss began frequently harassing and attacking the borders of Anvil City, the city’s defensive barrier might have already been compromised.
“I understand. I will report this to him, though it’s impossible for him not to have noticed such a situation.”
Him?
Catching the keyword, a guess formed in Yuri’s mind. The person Clayton mentioned was probably the one who leaked the information to him. As expected, a network did exist. Perhaps the position of the person behind the scenes was quite high.
“I’ve finished speaking. Now it’s Chairman Clayton’s turn. I want to know who the information regarding the ‘big commotion’ came from.”
“Regarding that, I’m sorry…”
“It seems the City Lord was the one who revealed it to you.”
Hearing this, Clayton’s expression changed instantly.
“You… how could you know that?”
Ahaha… Yuri had actually just made a random guess. After all, that kind of information was something only the City Lord or his close confidants would know.
So she aimed high with her guess, and as it turned out, she hit the mark immediately.
“The City Lord, huh? No wonder you knew so much.”
Good grief… She had originally been guessing that the person behind Clayton might be some high-ranking official in the City Lord’s manor. It turned out to be the City Lord himself. That background connection was certainly solid.
Yuri definitely couldn’t get close to the City Lord on her own, so she would have to get Iris to help when the time came.
Getting her to help wouldn’t be easy. Since she couldn’t sell her charms, would she have to offer her body as a vessel in exchange?
No… Yuri wouldn’t budge on that point.
She would think about it more; there had to be a way.
“Fine, since you’ve figured it out, I have nothing left to hide. Bartor and I are childhood friends; we grew up together. It’s just that I yearned for freedom more, so I left Anvil City when I grew up to become an adventurer. I only returned to Anvil City in recent years to become the Chairman of the Adventurers Guild.”
“Stop right there. That’s not what I want to know. Let’s talk about City Lord Bartor. The fact that the barrier hasn’t been repaired has everything to do with him.”
“Bartor?”
Clayton rubbed his chin, pondering where to begin. After a long while, he seemed to have organized his thoughts and slowly began to speak.
“Miss Yuri, I don’t know how long you’ve been in Anvil City. Compared to a few years ago, Anvil City hasn’t changed much, except for its treatment of the Cursed. Back then, Anvil City was quite lenient toward the Cursed, allowing them to move freely within the city and find work to make a living.”
Compared to now, where they were forcibly confined in the Dungeon to wait for death, it was indeed much more lenient. Compared to other towns that treated the Cursed like venomous snakes or wild beasts, it had been considered very good to them.
So what exactly happened in the interim to cause such a change?
“Later, Bartor changed his attitude toward the Cursed and locked all the Cursed who were moving freely on the surface into the Dungeon. From that point on, his personality underwent a massive change as well.”
“What happened?”
When a person’s nature suddenly flips, it’s usually because they suffered some kind of trauma.
“It all stems from a tragedy three years ago. I don’t know the specific details, but I know that during that Abyssal attack, Bartor’s wife and daughter died at the hands of the Abyss. After that, Bartor’s personality changed drastically. Not only did he lock all the active Cursed into the Dungeon, but he also conducted a massive manhunt within the city, trying to find those who were hiding their identities.”
Because of his wife and daughter’s deaths, did he place all the blame on the heads of the Cursed?