The Rise of the Black Plain

Three days later...

As Minos and his wives were preparing to act, having already begun to watch their targets, a Spiritual Emperor from the local Church post came to them with information.

They were currently drinking spiritual tea in a store where one of the subordinates of the local royal family came every afternoon. In this place, they were at a table next to a glass window that overlooked the avenue in front of this establishment.

And just at this place they had been visiting for the past three days, the member of the Church who had talked to them about what they were looking for stopped beside them with a worried expression.

"What is it?" Abby asked as she looked at the man, who had an unfriendly expression and was holding a black envelope.

Minos and his other two wives also looked at this man, curious about this unusual visit. "Do you have something to talk about, or are you just here for attention?" The masked man asked, causing that individual to swallow his saliva and look at him.

"The investigation I had promised, about attitudes... Cough! Cough!" He coughed and then began to speak more quietly as he crouched beside that table. "About that family's strange attitudes. We've already had results regarding that!"

"Oh?" Minos opened his mouth in surprise. "What did you guys find out to make you so alarmed? Is it as we thought? Is something wrong?"

"Yes, there is a strange situation." He said, drawing the attention of those four, who at the moment simply began to ignore the person they were watching.

That Spiritual Emperor then handed the black envelope to Minos and said. "We have not been able to find anything about the fugitive you are after. But that family seems to have had some strange movements in the last few years."

"Our investigators were not sure whether or not this could have any bearing on what you are looking for. But since our branch had promised to investigate strange acts by this family, we are handing you the results."

"The rest is up to you..." After he finished saying that, he looked at those four once more and left that place as quickly as he had arrived.

But Minos and his wives were not bothered by this. On the contrary, they soon turned their attention to the target in that store, while he opened the envelope and read the information compiled there.

"Hmmm." Minos made a brief sound with his mouth closed, attracting the attention of his wives.

"What is it? What's in those documents?" Gloria asked as she looked out the window next to their table, observing in the direction of those chasing them.

Minos and his wives knew that people were chasing them or, more accurately, watching them. After all, such a thing was already expected to happen, and their opponents had tremendously underestimated the abilities of the four of them.

As people with Golden-grade techniques, talents of at least Silver, and many resources at their disposal, they noticed the three people 'following' them whenever they left the local temple.

Because of this, Gloria watched these individuals while her two harem sisters kept an eye on their target.

Minos heard the question from his pregnant wife and, like her, did not change his focus, as if he was reading a newspaper while having a quiet moment in this store.

He then answered. "There have been abnormal movements of low-level Spiritual Saints and high-level Spiritual Emperors from this family in the last four years."

The Church recorded the movements of the high-level forces in the places it was located in case that kind of information was needed in problematic situations. Because of this, when the investigative group that produced that document began their work, they used such information and analyzed it according to the problem reported by Minos.

"Some low-level Spiritual Saints are away from their normal duties, presumably in seclusion. But some of them, when they appeared in public in recent years, was always at the Crown Prince's side..."

"Before these strange movements, one of these Spiritual Saints was seen meeting with a group coming from the Flaming Empire and then returned with a ship full of resources days later," Minos said in a grave tone.

The Flaming Empire did not do business with any of its enemy kingdoms. As such, it was highly unusual for trade relations between powers from those states to happen.

It was even less common for someone from the royal family of one of those states to agree to get involved with people from the empire!

These states were mortal enemies, something that went back to their primordial days. At that time, an ascendant force, the leader of the state formerly located in the central part of today's Flaming Empire, attacked the four kingdoms to the north and took large portions of their territories.

Since then, battles motivated by revenge or attempts to recover these taken lands have taken place in these areas.

Eventually, the opposing side also lost many people and began to seek revenge and complete domination of these enemy states.

Because of this, many wars had already taken place in these areas, and the hatred that one side felt for the other was not so simple that deals were made as casually as described on the papers in Minos' hands.

Something could happen, but great reasons would have to be behind it. Whether they were risks or opportunities, something big had to be behind a 'fraternization' action between old enemies who would normally kill each other at first sight!

Because of this history, that information was somewhat strange and aroused suspicion from the investigators who noticed this record and Minos.

"On the other hand, there was a recent situation where several high-level Spiritual Emperors from that family were reported killed in an 'accident' while the Crown Prince's group was hunting..." He finished telling his wives what was in that dossier.

<anno data-annotation-id="a63dd30b-6c81-9790-5ab0-5daf81ee939a">"A file burn?</anno>" Ruth asked as she thought about the tone Minos had used to speak the word 'accident.'

"Maybe. Anything can happen in a hunt, but considering the dubious history generated by this fellow, it's not unlikely that this is a file burn..." Minos said as he remembered that he and his wives had learned about the local rumors.

The local underworld and high-level organizations, such as the Spiritual Church itself, took for granted that Abe Vogel was ambitious, ready to act towards his goals.

Because of this reputation, many said that sooner or later, he would act more loudly to achieve a higher-level position. That is, of course, if his father did not gently make room for him by handing him the throne.

Even a 'wing' of the local royal family was already siding with the Crown Prince because, supposedly, King Vogel was a weak person in terms of personality.

He had power. After all, he was a high-level Spiritual Saint. But he was supposedly too 'nice' for his leadership role.

Because of this, evil tongues attributed quite a track record to Abe!

"Anyway, there are a lot of coincidences here, from the period when our troubles started and the end of that sect in Albano..." Abby said in a low voice.

"Hmm, so what are we going to do now? That person probably doesn't know anything, or he would have been erased along with the others..." Gloria looked at their target and then turned her attention to the street again.

Minos then said. "We don't have a choice. Our suspicions are not enough to play the Church against them. So, we can only go ahead with our plans!"

"At worst, nothing will happen. At best, they will not stand still and show themselves!"

...

<annotations style="display: none;"><ol class="tinymce-annotation-container"><li data-annotation-id="a63dd30b-6c81-9790-5ab0-5daf81ee939a">In Portuguese, 'queima de arquivo' = 'file burn' is used to refer to the murder of people who knew too much. I don't know if there is an English expression for this, so I used the literal translation.</li></ol></annotations>",