Chapter 8: The Thief in One's Own Home is Hard to Guard Against

  At this time, the camera cuts to the other side, and after Lambert's three people left the town hall, they came to a house in the city.

  De Pere knocked on the door and it opened, a man cautiously poked his head out, took a closer look, and to his surprise, it was one of Pasteur's attendants.

  "Hasn't anyone followed you?" The man looked back at the three of them cautiously and asked.

  "Rest assured, this house is mine, no one will suspect a thing."

  "Alright, Lord Paiste is waiting for you." The man stepped aside to let the three enter the house and then closed the door.

  In the living room, Paiste was sitting on the sofa reading a book. Hearing the footsteps of the three people, he asked without lifting his head, "What did that woman say?"

  Fan Ning said in a hateful tone: "Charlotte is very stubborn and refuses to agree."

  "Lambert grunted, 'I knew it. Ever since that Raymond guy came along, she's been acting strange. Now she's mixed up with the Lovell Merchant Guild people... She must have received some kind of benefit. Haidington will eventually be ruined by these people.'"

  The three now regard Lowell's business association as the source of all evil, yet seem to have completely forgotten how eagerly they had looked forward to it at first.

  Paister closed the book calmly, raised his head: "However, Haidington still has three such knowledgeable scholars, I feel very pleased. Fortunately, there are you, I can know the bad situation here."

  It turned out that the whole thing was actually caused by these three people, no wonder Pyster came at such a coincidental time, just in time to stop Auston and Farak's caravan, and so familiar with Haidington's current situation. This also explains why he would be in Depero's house.

  No wonder the three people's behavior was so strange before and after.

  Upon hearing Pasteur's words, the three of them couldn't help but reveal their gratitude. Depeyre hastily said: "It's just a pity that we still weren't able to persuade Charlotte, disappointing your expectations."

  Paster waved his hand: "This can't be blamed on you, she's been completely bewildered by the Lovell Chamber of Commerce. However, things still need to be resolved, I wonder if you have any way to do it?"

  They exchanged a look, and Lambert said, "Don't worry, we've already got a plan. Charlotte's stubbornness in dragging the entire Haddington down with her is just too foolish. As long as we make her behavior public, it will definitely arouse the anger of all the residents."

  "When the time comes to remove her as mayor, we can slowly squeeze out the influence of the Lowell Chamber of Commerce and Raymond's gang."

  Paisete nodded indifferently: "Sounds good. However, doing it this way will take too much time and may alert them, who knows what they'll do then. So, we need to use a more swift and decisive method to thoroughly resolve this matter."

  "You mean..." Fan Ning asked tentatively.

  "Use brute force." Paster said coldly to the three of them.

  The three were shocked: "You mean, start a rebellion?"

  "Please don't get it wrong, they are the traitors. What you're doing is purging the Federation of its toxins. Afterwards, I will definitely apply to the Council for your merits to be evaluated at the next level."

  "Really... really?!" The three of them heard this and were overjoyed.

  The Lower Council is an institution that assists the Central Council in managing the administrative affairs of the Ravit Federation. Being able to enter the council is equivalent to entering the upper echelons of Ravit, and for the three people who can only live in the remote Haidington, it has an extraordinary appeal.

  "But we don't have any military power in our hands, the garrison has always been controlled by the town mayor, and we are not allowed to intervene. Moreover, Raymond's guard is also very difficult to deal with, it's really hard to succeed."

  Paisley said: "This is not a problem, using force doesn't have to be hard, as long as you can kill a few key figures, the rest of the things will become simple."

  As he spoke, he clapped his hands and two men entered the room. "This is Speer and Morgan," said Paister, "both first-rate assassins who will take care of Javert and Charlotte."

  "What? Are you going to kill Charlotte too?" The three were shocked.

  "Charlotte has already betrayed Luvette, and to prevent the infiltration of Lovell's guild, killing her is inevitable. This is all for the benefit of Luvette, I hope you can understand."

  Lambert and the other two looked at each other in dismay for a moment, then gritted their teeth and replied: "Alright, we'll do as you say."

  "Wait until she's dead, and the command of the guard will naturally fall into your hands. Then you can command the guard to drive away that man named Raymond, and if they dare resist, kill them without mercy!"

  "Understood, I will follow your instructions." The three of them had already been completely led by the nose.

  "Paiste said: 'In order not to alert them, I will leave soon and Speil and Morgan will stay to assist you. The specific time and plan for the action will be decided by yourselves, but I hope it can be done as soon as possible.'"

  "So I'll be waiting for your good news."

  Just as Pasteur was making plans to get rid of Charlotte, on the other hand, Charlotte also told Raymond and Javier about Pasteur's intentions and the outcome of the negotiations.

  Upon hearing Charlotte's firm refusal of Pester's request, Javier said: "You did the right thing. If you really drove us away, afterwards they would not have any interest in looking at Haidington again."

  "Moreover, those bandits are probably manipulated by Ravite from behind the scenes. Although their purpose is unclear, they definitely don't have good intentions."

  Charlotte nodded and said, "I understand. However, this time there was no triumph, the other side will definitely not let it go."

  "Will they make an excuse for a fight?" Raymund frowned and said.

  Charlotte shook her head: "It shouldn't be, this isn't the style of those merchants, they tend to use other means to solve problems. Besides, even if I privately cooperate with Lovell Chamber of Commerce and violate the alliance, it won't lead to armed conflict."

  "That's good," said Javier, "for now it seems they can only isolate Haidington, which shouldn't be too hard to deal with."

  He comforted Charlotte by saying: "Once the wharf is built, I will ask Mr. Reed to introduce more merchant fleets here, and Haidington will definitely get through the difficulties."

  It had come to this, and Charlotte could only think that way. After discussing some countermeasures with the two again, she bid farewell and left.

  That night, Raymond was in his own room reading some books about the customs and culture of the Veronica continent when he suddenly heard a knock at the door.

  "Who?"

  "It's me, sir." Outside the door came Freddy's voice: "I have something to report to you."

  "Come in," said Raymond.

  Since Freddy took the money to set up an intelligence agency, Raymond had rarely seen him. He suddenly came to his door in the middle of the night, obviously with something very important.

  Freddy walked into the room, even in the middle of the night, he still covered half his face with a wide-brimmed hat. He floated in lightly, almost more like a ghost than Bastar during battle.

  "What's up, don't tell me you're here to ask for money again?" Raymond joked.

  Freddie didn't crack a smile. He said coldly, "If I really needed money, I would come to you. I'm here because my informant found out some interesting things."

  "An informant?" Raymond was taken aback.

  "You don't think I've been doing nothing all this time, do you?" Freddy said with some irritation. "Although it's limited to Haidington City, I've already established a preliminary intelligence source system. You know there are many unemployed people in the city, and for just a little money, I can easily find people willing to work for us. Those guys are local snakes, nothing escapes their eyes."

  "Oh, what did you find?" Raymond started to show some interest.

  "Firstly, those people from the inspection committee went to a house after leaving the town hall, and according to my informant, it belongs to Depéro's estate."

  Lei Meng straightened his body: "The Inspection Committee just entered the city during the day, and you started following them?"

  "Are you going to make me repeat myself? Isn't this exactly why I set up the intelligence gathering system in the first place?" Freddie said angrily. "Those guys were clearly up to no good as soon as they entered the city, so I immediately decided to put them under surveillance and gather as much intel as possible. And then there was another discovery."

  Raymond no longer dared to underestimate Freddy, this man's efficiency was really frighteningly high.

  "Just then, Freddy said: 'Since I didn't have any professional hands available, I temporarily asked Basster to help. As a result, she found that among Paiste's followers, there were several thieves with quite good skills. And when Paiste left the city in the afternoon, two of them did not leave with him, in other words, they are still in the city.'"

  "Hmm..." Raymond finally became serious, this was indeed an unusual signal.

  "Besides," Freddie went on, "after Paister went into the house, it wasn't long before Depero and those three others also went in. They stayed for a good while before they left."

  "Wait, you're saying those three people are also being followed?" Raymond asked in surprise.

  "Of course," Freddie said coldly. "The first thing I did after setting up the organization was to send people to keep an eye on them. In professional terms, those three are absolutely the kind of targets that need attention."

  "That's a few things worth noting for today, if not for the fact that we've just been established and lack reliable manpower, let alone professional intelligence personnel, I would have discovered more. But this is still much better than being completely in the dark like before." Freddie said proudly.

  Raymond completely agreed that having his own eyes and ears was extremely beneficial, and Freddy had really made the most of the 100,000 gold coins he took away.

  Moreover, these three pieces of information are extremely valuable, revealing that Lambert and the other two have an unspoken relationship with Pastor; moreover, Pastor's visit this time is not as simple as it seems on the surface. Two top-notch thieves can accomplish a lot in secret.

  Although it was still unclear what the other party's purpose was, it was enough to arouse Raymond's vigilance.

  "What do you think?" Raymond asked.

  Freddie shook his head: "The current intelligence is still insufficient, and it's hard to make an effective analysis. However, one thing can be certain, the other side must be planning something in secret, Piste has already left, but he must be an important participant, those two thieves with unknown whereabouts are evidence."

  "Indeed it is a troublesome matter, can they be found?"

  "Let's give it a try," Freddie thought for a moment. "The other party should be coming to Haidington for the first time, so if they want to hide, they must need Lambert and others' help."

  "But they obviously wouldn't hide those two at home, so there must be another secret location. Starting from this point, I think there should be a harvest."

  "Hmm, then I'll send someone to look for it tomorrow. If necessary, I can lend you Bastier." Raymond nodded and said.

  But Freddy suddenly stood up and walked out with a cold face.

  "Where are you going?" Raymond was startled.

  "Stop kidding around, this can't be delayed." Freddie's voice came from outside the door.

  "I know where Bastet is sleeping, I'll go find her."

  "Ha..." Raymond shook his head with a mixture of laughter and tears, Freddie was indeed... swift and decisive. In a sense, he's also a headache-inducing guy.

  As expected, in no time, Bast saw a whirlwind-like figure rush into Raymond's room and loudly exclaimed: "Young Master, aren't you mistaken? People need rest too."

  Behind him, Freddy walked in unhurriedly. Ignoring the resentful gaze of his bassist, he spread out a map of Haidington on the table, with many locations already circled in red.

  "This is one of the results of my intelligence gathering during this period. I have marked out those three guys' industries in Haidington, just in case we need to turn against them one day and take action easily. But I didn't expect it to be useful so soon."

  As soon as she saw the dense red circles on the map, the cat girl immediately understood that her beautiful dream had been shattered. She still had a last bit of hope, looking at Raymond with her big, pitiful eyes: "Young master, I want to sleep..."

  Unfortunately, the ruthless master Raymond was unmoved. He threw the map at Bast: "Find them one by one according to the markings on it. Don't even think about sleeping until you find the person."

  Bastard muttered unwillingly: "Meow, what if they're not here at all?"

  "Unfortunately, that's just your bad luck."

  "Protest, you're totally cheating me!" The cat girl loudly protested.

  Raymond gave her a kick on the butt: "You haven't had anything to do lately, all you do is eat and sleep, you're almost turning into a little pig. Just in time to get some exercise, go quickly."

  Knowing she couldn't outdo Raymond, Bastet grumbled discontentedly and obediently took the map, leaping into the endless night.

  "Alright, this guy may not be very reliable, but now Hadinton's only one who can find those two thieves is her." After sending off Bastet, Raymond stretched and said: "Let's go back to sleep, we'll just wait for her good news."

  Bast actually did not disappoint Raymond, the next day she found those two thieves, who were hiding in a warehouse used by Fan Ning to store fresh fish.

  Then, Raymond ordered Bastar to closely monitor the movements of those two thieves and report back on whoever they met or wherever they went.

  This was a bitter blow to poor Bastet, the all-day surveillance didn't matter much, after all, she was doing just that. What's terrifying is that warehouse of fresh fish, for a cat girl, such temptation is no less than a greedy merchant seeing a mountain of gold, it's said that she almost sewed her own mouth shut, just to keep from pouncing on the fish in the warehouse, so as not to alert the enemy.

  And for the next two days, the movements of those two thieves also reached Raymond's ears one by one.

  Apart from meeting with Chuchu and Depero, the two thieves also snuck into Charlotte's and Javier's residence under the cover of night. Of course, they thought they were being stealthy, but in reality, everything was under Basco's watchful eye.

  At this point, if he still can't guess what the other side wants to do, Raymond might as well give up.

  "It seems that the other side plans to assassinate Charlotte and Javier. Moreover, judging from Paiste's recruitment of those three guys, he is likely to use them to control Haidington after the incident, drive out the Lovell Chamber of Commerce by force, and it is highly likely that they will also take action against us." Fredy analyzed based on the existing intelligence.

  In just a few days, Raymond had guessed Pastor's intentions eight or nine out of ten. If he knew, Pastor would probably be very regretful for ignoring their existence.

  "It seems that's how it is." Raymond nodded: "All along, the hardest to prevent are internal ghosts. It looks like Pasteur is well-versed in this way."

  "Should we warn Charlotte?" Freddie asked. "If we take the initiative first, it won't be difficult to get rid of those two thieves."

  "Hmm... sounds like it's not bad." Raymond said indifferently, "In that case, the Depelos should have been warned and shouldn't dare do anything now?"

  Freddy nodded: "As long as those two thieves are killed, Depelo's next conspiracy will naturally not be carried out."

  "Ah, what a pity..." Raymond muttered, stroking his chin.

  What a pity? If they could stop Lambert's conspiracy, it should be a good thing. Why did Raymond say what a pity?

  Realizing the implication of Raymond's words, Freddy said helplessly: "There is no way, now there is no direct evidence to prove their conspiracy, so as long as they do nothing, we are powerless against them."

  "Is that so? Those guys have been causing us a lot of trouble lately." Raymond said with a tone of regret, lightly tapping the back of the chair with his finger.

  "I also hate them," Freddie said, pausing deliberately: "unless... they actually start a rebellion, then we'll be in good shape."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Leave them be and the rebellion they desire will come naturally." A cold glint flashed across Freddy's eyes under his hat brim.

  "Hey, this is really something only you can say."

  "Sir, it's better to get the pain over with quickly rather than dragging it out. If we don't take care of those three now, we'll only run into more trouble later on in Haidingtown," Freddie said with his characteristic pragmatism.

  Raymond's eyes gradually narrowed.

  "I think it's totally worth it."

  After a moment, Raymond, who had been silent, slowly let out a breath, and his mind was already made up.

  "You're right, I've shown them enough kindness, but they seem to be unaware of restraint, and keeping such a petty person is of no benefit. Since they were the first to start the rebellion, then I'll take this rare opportunity to get rid of these troubles."

  A gleam of delight flashed in Freddy's eyes as he bowed deeply: "Unfettered by meaningless morals, sir, you have not disappointed me."

  At this time, Raymond suddenly said: "Freddy, from now on, we will be 'completely unaware' of their conspiracy."

  Freddie was taken aback for a moment, then nodded understandingly: "Understood."

  "Ah, right, what brings you here so late?" Raymond asked with a hint of surprise.

  Freddie also cooperatively said: "Nothing, just casual chat."

  "Oh, it's getting late, you should get some rest early." Raymond said considerately: "There have been a lot of things going on lately, don't overwork yourself."

  "Take care then, adults." With a bow towards Raymond, Freddy calmly walked away.

  Everything is just like nothing had ever happened.