I Can Contract Beauties-Chapter 194: Pursuit

"How is your preparation for the opening ceremony competition tomorrow?"

Now that their two month long break has ended, the students studying in Blazing Academy of Grimoire Users and Martial Artist must now return and continue their study.

Students who have gone on a mission, and those who trained in some place should have already returned by now.

As per the academy’s tradition, every time the school reopens, they will hold a competition that every student can participate in.

This competition not only serves as an eye opener to the new students to broaden their horizons, this could also gauge the strength improvement of their students during the break.

Those who were hardworking and grew strong would naturally stand out in the competition, gaining bountiful rewards to aid them even further in their journey. Those who were lazy would be ranked at the bottom and would not receive any form of reward.

Erika was already in her third year of attending the academy. She had already experienced such competition twice, and each time, she would shine brightly like a diamond. It was also during this competition that her potential was discovered, allowing the Red Family to mark her as one of their young generation genius.

Erika nodded her head upon hearing his question. It was not a secret that she would participate in the competition so she was not surprised that she knew.

If it was before, though, she would have surely convinced Miguel to join as well.

After all, reaching the top ten in the competition meant receiving a powerful beast as a reward. They can either contract it, or use it as a sparring partner, their choice.

"Ok, it’s good to be prepared. Anyway, let us continue acting this way and let everyone know that we are only keen on pursuing the bandits and the assassin group," Miguel stated with a nod.

"Speaking of the assassins, have you found any information about their headquarters yet?"

A few days ago, Miguel was attacked by one of the Dark Snake Assassin who was the master of the Dark Veil Beast.

After that, Miguel immediately inquired Erika the information about the Dark Snake Assassin.

Erika shook her head in dismay upon hearing his question.

"No. Aside from the few information I have gotten before and the one I told you about, I don’t have any additional information about them," she said.

Miguel nodded his head upon hearing that. He did not say anything and merely recalled the information that Erika shared a few days.

The Dark Snake Assassin’s were active in Blazing City. They can be recognized with the snake mark emblem on the back of their hand. Their real location was unknown and that if you want to hire them for something, it must be through a middle-man that was also unknown at this moment.

In other words, there was no useful information that he got from her at all.

However, Miguel did not dwell with it too much.

Erika was ultimately just a teenager. Even if she has some connections, it would not be to the point that she would know everything going around in Blazing City.

After Erika left, Miguel and the two did not stay in the villa for long as they decided to travel down to Maras Tavern to eat.

This has become their hobby during the past few days as well.

The mercenaries frequenting Maras Tavern also knew of their identity already and it was already spread in the city that Elder Journey and his beasts liked to eat in Maras Tavern.

This indirectly caused the tavern’s business to bloom, but at the same time, it also made the place a little too crowded.

In front of the table, Maras served them their usual meal with a spirited look on his face.

After doing the deed for a few days straight, his complexion had already begun to return to normal and he felt as though he was regaining his youth.

Eternally grateful for solving his predicament, Maras swore to personally cook and serve Elder Journey everytime they go to the tavern to eat.

As he ate, Miguel did not beat around the bush and asked if Maras knew of any informant, or better yet, if he knew of the Dark Snake Assassin group.

"Of course I know of that bunch of bastards that only know how to sneak attack," Maras stated coldly and boldly.

As a tavern owner, Miguel knew that Maras knew a lot of information in Blazing City. The only reason why he did not ask before was because he wanted Erika to work, to deceive the others into thinking that they were still hot in pursuit of the bandits.

Without waiting for Maras to follow up his words, Miguel directly asked if knew of the middle man, or the way to contact the Dark Snake Assassin group.

Maras was curious about the reason why Elder Journey was searching for the Dark Snake Assassin group.

However, after thinking for a little bit, he seemed to recall a certain information and immediately realized his motive for inquiring about the Dark Snake Assassin.

Maras did not talk too much anymore and immediately divulged all he knew about the group.

His voice was neither loud nor soft. In this packed tavern, only Maras, Miguel and the two women by his side were able to hear his voice.

"As far as I know, the Dark Snake doesn’t have a fixed location or headquarters even though they are the most known assassin group in Blazing City. They received their mission’s through their leader’s Thousand Snake contracted beast, a Level 5 Silver Grade Beast."

"As to how one could contact them to issue a commission or a bounty, one could simply post a notice in the Mercenary Guild and the informant would inform the issuer with a location for a meeting to discuss the deal. Usually, I can hear the notice or bounty getting posted in Mercenary Guild taken by them, however, that seemed to have stopped a few days ago as there were now a lot of requests piling up on the board without anyone accepting them."

Miguel listened attentively as he ate. Although he may seems unfocused, Maras knew that he was hearing all of what he said so he did not worry and continued speaking.

"The Dark Snake relied only on the beast of their leader to transmit information from members to members, hence, they don’t have a fixed location or headquarters. They have a well-known gathering spot, but it became deserted just a few days ago," as he said that, he subtly glanced at Miguel, as though implying that he was the cause of it.

Miguel sensed it and immediately connected the dots. They might have probably abandoned the site afraid of his retaliation.

"So they have been laying low, afraid of me?" Miguel asked directly.

"This is just my speculation, but that seems to be the case. Elder Journey, if you want to obtain new information about them, I know just the right person. However, you need to pay the price for the information that you need," Maras stated.

Even though he was well informed, Maras knew of his own limitations as well. Compared to real information broker’s, what he knew was merely a grain on the sand.

Miguel nodded his head upon hearing that. He knew of the existence of such people as well. They were experts in gathering information and it may seem as if they had all the information that one needs.

Seeing him nod his head, Maras immediately revealed the person that he was talking about.

"Go to Grain Street and enter the Swine Bar. Tell the waiter that you want candy, and that person will immediately come to entertain you," Maras said.

Miguel nodded his head in understanding.

In order not to make it seem like Elder Journey was easy to bully, he decided to pursue the Dark Snake to teach them a lesson.

He also did not forget that they might know of the culprit that ordered the assassination of Erika and the others.

Of course, afraid of the enemy becoming alert due to this, they could not investigate the Dark Assassin thoroughly upon their return to Blazing City as they had already made it clear that it was the bandits who hired the assassin and not anyone else.

However, with the infiltration of one of their members a few days ago, Miguel, as Elder Journey, now has a clear justification for pursuing them without arousing any form of suspicion from whoever it was pulling the strings from the dark.

Miguel even deliberately just let Erika investigate it in order to slowly spread that she was tasked by Elder Journey to investigate the whereabouts of the group.

This would lead the people around to speculate the reason why so they would surely investigate and share the result to their superiors.

The assassin group, who knew of their members would surely realize that one had fallen to his grasp.

If Elder Journey retaliated, it would no longer be about the incident involving Erika and the others, but instead a personal matter. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Now that the diversion was created, Miguel did not waste anymore time and immediately rode a public horse carriage toward Grain Street.

The Grain Street was not that far from where they came from as well.

They arrived at the Swine Bar around twenty minutes later while riding the normal horse carriage.

Miguel did not waste anymore time and immediately entered the Swine Bar along with Edith and Aaliyah.