Chapter 236 Operation Begins
Port Beren’s daytime did not dispel the gloom shrouding the docking area. Sunlight struggled to penetrate the thick sea fog, casting dappled light and shadow on the slick stone pavement.
The Seventh Shipyard, located in the eastern part of Port Beren, was one of the few private shipyards in the port. What should have been a bustling place of constant labor was unusually quiet today.
A three-masted sailing ship, nearing completion, was docked in the massive dry dock, but there was not a single busy worker to be seen. Only a few “believers” in gray and white robes, with prominent red crosses embroidered on their chests, roamed idly inside and outside the shipyard. They had solemn expressions and a vigilance in their eyes that was out of place in their surroundings.
On the roof of a cargo warehouse not far from the shipyard, four dark figures, like roosting falcons, silently observed the movements below.
“Target area confirmed. Four external sentries, two hidden guards, distributed at the main entrance, back alley, and the south observation tower. Personnel flow within the shipyard is sparse, with most activity concentrated in the central main workshop. The energy signatures are mixed, making it difficult to accurately determine the number and level of transcendents.” Lena retracted her monocular, a faint spiritual shimmer of mana flashing on the lens. She reported the observed intelligence concisely to the captain beside her.
“A bunch of cowards hiding their heads, even mimicking regular troops with sentry posts,” Agnes said with disdain. “If you ask me, we should just rush in and arrest them all.”
“Agnes, haven’t you learned from your past mistakes of underestimating the enemy?” Edgar interrupted coldly without looking up. “Remember, our mission is to stop them from setting sail. Priority is to damage the ship or capture key personnel. The followers of the Divine Cult of Eternal Blessing are mixed with too many deceived innocents. Be careful when acting, but never hesitate in a crisis.”
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the youngest member of the team. “Philip, do you remember your mission?”
The boy who was named straightened his back, a blush of nervousness and excitement on his face. “Yes, Captain! I will maintain vigilance on the perimeter, provide support when necessary, and secure our retreat!”
Edgar gave a noncommittal hum. His gaze went past Philip, looking towards the eerily quiet shipyard. Some inexplicable force, like an invisible net, was forcibly pulling them away from their original mission trajectory. He disliked this feeling of losing control, but as a member of the Disciplinary Bureau, executing orders was his primary duty.
“Alright, enough idle chatter,” Edgar lowered his hat brim, the shadow almost completely obscuring his face. “Lena, begin the sweep; Agnes, you’re with me on the perimeter; Philip, watch our rear. In five minutes, we’ll rendezvous at the shipyard’s main gate.”
“Yes, Captain!” The three responded in unison, their voices low and uniform.
Lena took out a palm-sized, antique-looking brass box from inside her trench coat, its surface engraved with complex runes. She opened the lid, revealing a pigeon egg-sized shell emitting a faint white light.
“Dispelling shell, this is a new gadget issued by the headquarters’ alchemy department,” Lena explained softly, as if speaking to Philip, or perhaps to herself. “It’s ineffective against transcendents, but it can induce continuous, unbearable irritation in ordinary people within a hundred-meter range.”
She injected a trace of mana into the shell. The shell immediately emitted a high-frequency hum inaudible to the human ear, and the invisible sound waves silently spread out from the warehouse like ripples on water.
The changes began to manifest within seconds. Passersby, dockworkers, and street vendors who had been strolling near the shipyard almost simultaneously frowned. They seemed to have suddenly smelled an unbearable foul odor or heard an extremely piercing noise, their faces showing expressions of irritation and disgust.
“This blasted weather is unbearable!” a sailor, who had been mending a fishing net, cursed as he stood up, threw his tools to the ground, and walked away from the shipyard.
“My head suddenly hurts so much…” a vendor pushing a cart stopped, rubbing his temples with a pained expression. He glanced at the quiet shipyard ahead, felt an inexplicable unease, then unhesitatingly turned his cart around and hurried away.
More and more people began to exhibit similar discomfort. They weren’t panicking, nor did they notice anything unusual; they simply instinctively wanted to distance themselves from this area that made them feel uncomfortable. In less than three minutes, within a several hundred-meter radius of the shipyard, aside from the cult guards, there were no more unrelated civilians.
Philip watched, dumbfounded. He had never imagined that clearing an area could be so silent, so… “civilized.” It was completely different from his imagined swift and decisive law enforcement methods of the Disciplinary Bureau, yet it exuded a chilling professionalism and efficiency.
“Stop spacing out, kid,” Agnes patted the back of his head with considerable force. “It’s our turn to work.”
Before he finished speaking, Agnes’s figure slid down the edge of the roof like a phantom, silently blending into the shadows of the stacked wooden crates and sailcloth on the ground. Edgar followed closely, his movements even more concise and swift, landing without the slightest sound.
Agnes’s target was the two guards standing side-by-side at the main entrance. Like a hunting leopard, he used blind spots and obstacles to silently close the distance. The two guards, alerted and confused by the sudden dispersal of the crowd, were focusing their attention on the empty streets, seemingly completely unaware of the approaching shadows behind them.
One of the guards suddenly felt a pang of unease. He abruptly turned around, a flicker of vigilance in his eyes: “Who?”
Greeting him was Agnes’s face, which looked particularly stern in the shadows, and a hand like an iron clamp gripping his throat. The guard’s exclaim was choked back, only managing a guttural gurgle.
The other guard was stunned by the sudden turn of events. He opened his mouth to shout, but Agnes had already dropped the unconscious guard and lunged forward, striking the back of his neck precisely with his elbow. Before the guard could even grunt, his eyes rolled back, and he slumped down limply.
The entire process was fluid and clean, from the first move to the end, taking only half a second. Agnes dragged the two unconscious bodies into the shadows and then made a simple gesture towards the warehouse roof.
Meanwhile, Edgar had circled around to the south side of the shipyard. The hidden guard on the observation tower was a lean man carrying a short bow. He was vigilantly scanning his surroundings, occasionally yawning. In the shadow of the tower beneath him, Edgar’s figure slowly emerged, like ink seeping out of the darkness.
Edgar did not choose to climb directly. He simply raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
“Thump!”
A dull thud echoed. The hidden guard on the tower jolted and immediately poked his head out to look down, exclaiming, “What the hell? What are those guys doing down there!”
The moment he poked his head out, Edgar moved. His figure was as swift as an arrow, and by the time the hidden guard sensed the abnormal wind behind him, it was too late. Edgar’s hand was already on his shoulder, transmitting a gentle but irresistible force. The hidden guard’s vision went black, and he lost all consciousness.
The last hidden guard was concealed in a garbage heap in the back alley. He thought he was well-hidden, but he didn’t know that Lena’s “True Sight Lens” had already marked him like a bonfire in the night. Agnes was responsible for dealing with him. This experienced investigator didn’t even bother to sneak; he simply picked up a stone and casually threw it, hitting the back of the man’s head with pinpoint accuracy. The opponent immediately fainted.
Three minutes and thirty-seven seconds.
Edgar glanced at his pocket watch. The four of them regrouped in front of the shipyard’s rusty iron main gate. All external threats had been eliminated, the process was so quiet as if nothing had happened, and it adhered to the Disciplinary Bureau’s consistent principle of not using extraordinary power unless absolutely necessary.
Edgar raised his hand, signaling everyone to stop. He listened intently to the movements inside the gate. Vague voices and the low roar of some mechanical operation could be heard.
“The situation inside is more complex than we anticipated,” Edgar’s voice was low and calm. “Everyone, prepare to breach. Remember, whenever possible, try to capture them alive.”
He placed his hand on the cold main gate. A faint surge of mana flowed from his palm. A subtle anomaly occurred from within the door, as if something had melted away.
Then, the main gate silently widened a crack.
“Operation,”
Edgar uttered two words and was the first to flash inside.
