The martial law lasting several consecutive days meant that the personnel changes in the East-Haven Cardmaker Association didn't cause much waves in the city.
"Today is the day."
In the President's office, Russell couldn't help but frown slightly after taking a sip of the hot tea that Frieren had created out of thin air using magic.
Although this magic allowed him to drink tea anytime and anywhere in the wild, the taste really wasn't good.
Russell put down the teacup without changing his expression, asked the Shadowkhan to manually make a new pot of tea, and then picked up the phone on the table.
[Russell: Tell me when you get there.]
[Lucas: OK.]
A few days ago, after learning that Lucas would come to East-Haven to take over the position of Director of the Secret Realm Office, Russell had already contacted the young man with slicked-back hair and arranged a meeting place and time.
The scheduled time was today, and today happened to be the day East-Haven lifted martial law.
After all, there was no more to gain by continuing.
Ever since the incident that night, the Unification Sect had been hiding like a turtle again. Although the Association had successfully cleared out several of their strongholds, they were basically all limb-replacing monsters. There were very few cardmakers—not to mention the several main members who'd appeared that night.
As for the Spirit Begging Society...
Russell had asked Zayne to pick out some unruly antisocial elements and hand them over. Those who remained were basically more obedient.
He didn't feel any psychological burden for doing this. Maybe it was because of the saying that a son doesn't feel sorry selling his father's land.
Moreover, before Russell arrived in East-Haven, Regent Jin had said that if necessary, he could sacrifice the Society branch here to help him hide himself.
However, although the martial law was lifted, the intensity of patrols in the city was still much higher than during the Simon era.
Just as Russell was lost in his thoughts, the vibration of his phone brought him back to reality.
[Lucas: I'm here.]
[Russell: Wait for me.]
Putting away his phone, Russell asked the Shadowkhan to take him to the station.
The Silver-rank [Ghost Mask] was still his main means of transportation and storage.
If you didn't care about its combat effectiveness, it was really useful in daily life.
Russell felt it wouldn't need to be replaced for a long time.
"We're here."
The young man with slicked-back hair raised his hand to block the glaring sunlight.
Glancing at the sparse crowds around him, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Accustomed to the large flow of people at Southvale Station, he couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable coming to the small city of East-Haven.
The person who came was naturally Lucas Young.
He'd just broken through to Gold rank before the start of the school year at Southridge University, and therefore hadn't started job training at the beginning of his junior year.
In fact, under normal circumstances, if he'd made a breakthrough after taking up a job, he should have been promoted in his original city.
But he wasn't.
Therefore, after informing the school of his breakthrough, Southridge hadn't let him choose a position right away. Instead, they'd waited until Lucas made his first Gold-rank card before letting him choose from the selected positions.
Unlike Russell—who'd made his first Gold-rank card the same day he obtained the materials—Lucas had first sold his belongings and gone to the Gold-rank welfare secret realm to gather enough materials. He'd also conceived the card-making process for a long time and only completed the production of his first card not long ago.
As Russell's teammate in the Fighting Club, he naturally knew Russell was the Vice President of East-Haven.
There wasn't much to say. He'd chosen East-Haven at the first opportunity.
Originally, he'd chosen the position of Vice President of the Laiyang County branch under East-Haven. This position was more suitable for young people like him who'd just broken through to Gold rank. The burden wasn't heavy, and he could get familiar with Association affairs.
However, after waiting for a while, what he'd gotten wasn't the appointment letter for branch Vice President, but the appointment letter for Director of the Secret Realm Office.
Although his position was half a level higher, Lucas was a genius from Southridge University after all. The reason he hadn't seemed so outstanding before was only because of Russell's example.
After all, not everyone was a monster like Russell. Genius was just the threshold to meet him.
Therefore, the young man with slicked-back hair could barely handle the job.
"Long time no see, Lucas."
The sudden male voice brought him back to his senses.
Turning around, it was Russell.
"Not even a few months, Captain."
"It's called job title when working." Russell pretended to be dissatisfied and made a joke. "Come on, I'll take you back to headquarters. This isn't the place to discuss business."
Lucas shrugged and replied jokingly. "Got it, Vice President."
Hearing this, Russell shook his finger. "It's President."
"?"
In the President's office, Lucas was holding the hot tea in his hands in a daze, slowly digesting the information he'd just received.
It was only then that he realized the reason he'd been able to become Director of the Secret Realm Office was because the death of the original President Simon had resulted in a vacancy at East-Haven headquarters.
"Really." Lucas calmed down and took a sip of hot tea. "You're under a lot of pressure."
He didn't doubt whether the young man before him was qualified to succeed as President, but he felt the current situation in East-Haven wasn't optimistic.
Russell was a little noncommittal. "Regret it?"
But who would have thought that after hearing Russell's words, Lucas's face showed some seriousness. "How is that possible? I originally came prepared to help you."
"I just didn't expect the situation to deteriorate to this extent."
Russell was stunned for a moment. Then a smile appeared on his face.
"It's actually not as bad as you think."
Everyone knows their own business. Russell knew that the main pressure facing the East-Haven Association right now came from the Unification Sect.
The Society could now be considered to be in cahoots with the Association—of course, this was only limited to East-Haven.
However, the trouble with the Unification Sect couldn't be solved by just dealing with it on their side. The key still depended on the situation on the northern front.
If the war in the north didn't go well, things would probably only get worse.
Hearing this, Lucas nodded. "You're the President. You have the final say."
As a newcomer, he definitely wasn't as familiar with the specific situation as Russell, who'd been in East-Haven for a long time.
After the greetings between old friends, Russell sent a few messages on his phone. "I'll ask Luther and the others to come over now. You guys can get familiar with each other."
Soon, Luther and the other two arrived at the President's office.
"Luther, Vice President. Zayne, Director of the Public Security Office. Victor Hale, Director of the Human Resources Management Department."
"Lucas Young."
After briefly introducing both parties, Russell said to Lucas. "Vice President Luther was previously the Director of the Secret Realm Office. You can look to him if you're not familiar with anything."
Watching the four people in front of him communicating, Russell leaned back in his chair and began to think about making the next card.
Last month's salary of 10,000 points had already been credited to his account. With the addition of the 20,000 points rewarded from the previous incident on the coast, his savings had become abundant again.
In a mysterious space somewhere, Leo Shaw—whom the East-Haven Association had been looking for—was arguing with two demons.
"We already discussed this before, right?" The middle-aged man in the red robe said gloomily. "You help me disrupt the situation in East-Haven, and when you succeed, I'll allocate a piece of land in Eastmarch to you."
"Now you want to back out?"
Standing before Leo Shaw at this time were Dick and Menia—who'd appeared on the night Simon was assassinated.
Hearing Leo Shaw's question, the two demons looked at each other and said. "You didn't say this city was so chaotic."
"Besides, even Will is dead. It would be easy for Russell to kill us."
At this moment, Leo Shaw laughed in anger. "Aren't you afraid the person behind you will be angry?"
These words seemed to have hit a sore spot. The two demons stiffened all over. Then their faces turned bitter as if they'd eaten bitter herbs, but they still kept their mouths shut and said nothing.
Seeing this, Leo Shaw really wanted to point at their noses and scold them for being short-sighted.
But he couldn't.
Because he still needed their help.
After President Simon was assassinated, high-intensity martial law had been implemented in East-Haven City.
To prevent his plan from being exposed, he'd had to postpone his action.
But who would've thought that now that martial law had been lifted, his plan was still difficult to carry out?
It seemed the Association lackeys were targeting the Unification Sect, as if they were the ones who'd killed Simon—but it was obviously the Society who was the culprit!
When thinking about the Spirit Begging Society, Leo Shaw got so angry his head hurt. Those crazy people had really opened his eyes by stabbing him in the back. What "love and peace"?
Did they really think he didn't know what the Society had done over the years?
And if Simon—who'd been lying there that night—knew about this, he'd probably come back to life in rage!
Crazy. They're all crazy!
If those idiots had joined forces with us to clean up the Association lackeys, there wouldn't be so much trouble!
Unable to help but curse a few words internally, Leo Shaw suppressed his anger and forced himself to calm down.
Since the hard approach wasn't working, the only choice was the soft one.
If he wanted to make the two retreating demons before him take action, he could only continue to increase the stakes.
"If you continue with the previous plan, I can expand the area I promised to give you."
"I can even ask the demon army in the north to allocate a piece of land to you."
The latter sentence was actually bullshit. The demon army occupied a desolate and extremely cold place. They wished other demons would join them.
Seeing that the two still didn't speak, Leo Shaw took out his last bargaining chip. "If you need it later, I can also help you with something."
Hearing this, Menia and Dick secretly exchanged glances and finally decided to agree.
They weren't moved by Leo Shaw's conditions. They'd thought of the orders given by the Overlord before he descended.
If it couldn't be completed...
"Okay. We can continue to help you. The conditions are as you said."
Seeing that the two demons finally agreed, Leo Shaw felt relieved and put on a hypocritical smile. "Then I'll trouble you two."
"It's just a transaction."
The matter was settled. Leo Shaw didn't stay any longer. He turned and left this space, appearing on a beach.
"Finally."
"It's the last step."
With a flash, the middle-aged man in the red robe vanished from the spot, leaving only the fishy, salty sea breeze blowing and raising fine dust.
In the President's office, Russell—who'd been in a daze—was stunned. He noticed that Prison Blue had generated another prop card.
[Soul and Foreign Body Extraction Medium]
Rank: Gold
Quality: ???
Category: Prop
Trait:
[Non-Destructive Extraction]: The holder can use this device to extract foreign objects from the soul without causing any harm to it.
After checking the card information, Russell was confused for a moment.
The last time he'd used [Black Cloak] was when he'd faced Will. It had helped him hide his tracks and escape from the Emerald-rank demon.
What about this time?
Strange.
After thinking about it, Russell could only wonder if the Unification Sect was doing something big again. But East-Haven City had been calm the past few days, and nothing major had happened.
"Tsk."
Russell frowned, feeling vaguely uneasy.