Work Prophet
Chapter 403 - 21 This is very much in Ireya’s style

Chapter 403: Chapter 21 This is very much in Ireya’s style

The Dragon Slayer Hero Statue was the birthday present the Welch Family had gifted to Ireya.

Made of bronze, it stood as tall as the Lady herself, but with a better figure, clad in armor, foot standing on a dragon’s head, a sword in hand, and a resolute gaze; Miss Rabbit was quite fond of it.

Of course, it would have been even better if it were made of gold.

Like the other gifts, the bronze statue was inspected by the guards of the Arias Family when it was first brought into the castle, and they found nothing unusual.

Now, it rested in Miss Rabbit’s treasury, and there were plans to showcase it at the upcoming banquet so that all the guests could admire her majestic presence.

"How did you know there was something wrong with that statue?" Greta asked.

"That’s just the style of Hirodod; he used to lead the defense squad of the Silver Moon Church and didn’t like to confront people directly, preferring to engage in conspiracies and tricks."

"You sound very familiar with Hirodod, which makes you even more suspicious. What exactly is your relationship with Hirodod?"

"He once killed a master of mine, and afterward, I did some work under him for a while."

"And now you have betrayed him?"

"I chose to turn towards the light."

"A traitor is a traitor; there are no excuses," Greta said flatly. "It seems I need to reconsider whether to believe you."

"You are a follower of the Life Goddess, yet you work for the Double Rest Sect. Please, at this time, do we really need to keep arguing over this? Or are you saying..."

"What are you trying to say?"

"As a member of the Life Church, deep down, you might also hope that Ireya is taken out by people from the Blood Moon Association."

"You’d better watch your mouth," Greta said with a hard look at Ruby. "Your pretty little face, I’m sure you wouldn’t want it nibbled off by rats in the middle of the night."

Ruby shivered uncontrollably upon hearing this.

Fortunately, Greta did not threaten her further. "Back to the previous subject, assuming what you say is true, Hirodod enjoys his deceitful schemes, but why are you so sure it’s that bronze statue?"

"Good question, the Blood Moon Association’s recent attacks all had planned escape routes, which indicates they have limited manpower, or rather, not many core operatives to carry out the attacks or surprise assaults, which isn’t surprising, since training a qualified assassin takes a considerable amount of time, and hiring from the outside doesn’t guarantee loyalty..."

"Get to the point."

"The point is that these assassins are precious to Hirodod, and he’d surely want to reuse them, but with the current defensive strength of Teacup Castle, once an assassin makes a move, it’s almost impossible to leave the castle alive."

This time, Greta did not interrupt Ruby and listened quietly by her side.

"So, the only way for an assassin to survive is to escape before the assassination."

"Escape before the assassination?"

"Exactly," Ruby said. "I went to the southwest tower to ask the guards who have been on duty the past few days if any family had someone leave halfway through, and it turned out that only the Welch Family and the Frederiksen Family did.

"The Frederiksen Family left abruptly because a plague had erupted in their territory; Lord Kayo sent an advisor and a squad of cavalry with his own handwritten letter to seek help from the Silver Moon Church in Duolin City.

"As for the Welch Family... it is said that they sent a guard to find out what was happening in a village that was robbed by bandits, and this guard just happened to ride the second fastest horse in the stable, and he left just this morning."

"If the assassin had already left, how could the assassination have occurred?"

"Mechanism." Ruby said without hesitation, "As long as certain conditions are triggered, a mechanism can take the murderer’s place. Back in Duolin City, Hirodod had gathered many craftsmen and sent over half of them out of the city ahead of time.

"I looked over the gift list this morning, and there was nothing more suitable for hiding a mechanism than that bronze statue."

"You deduced that there was a problem with the Welch Family based on these scattered clues?" Now Greta was somewhat looking at the little maid with new respect.

Ruby nodded, "But it seems someone has already discovered this before me."

"I’m not as smart as you. I only focused on that short, fat man because my mouse told me that he had been acting very nervously ever since he stepped into the territory of the Arias Family, and he had a sleepless night last night."

"Let’s save the mutual flattery for after we’ve validated our conjectures. Do you have a way to get close to that statue, like having your mouse dig a hole in the ground and quietly steal the thing?"

"That’s impossible. That greedy Lady clearly values her treasure chamber a lot. It’s the most heavily guarded part of the entire castle, with no windows, only one large door connecting to the outside, and four guards stationed outside all year round. Plus, ever since I’ve got here, she specifically had the mouse holes blocked," Greta said expressionlessly.

"Ha... that does seem very much like Ireya’s style of doing things."

"But no matter, we can go find the old knight."

"Alfred?"

"Yeah." Greta said, "Although the old guy can’t enter the treasure chamber, didn’t you say that the bronze statue would be pulled out for display at the banquet? Once it’s pulled out, we can check it first."

"Will Alfred agree to our request?"

"I don’t know. But he’s aware of my identity and knows that these past days I’ve been entrusted by Merlin to assist in the protection of Ireya. I’ve done my duty and issued an early warning. If he doesn’t listen, Merlin can’t blame me."

"..."

Ruby didn’t know what to say for a moment, but luckily Alfred was not a stubborn man. After hearing Greta’s analysis, he pondered for a while and agreed to let the two of them check the bronze statue first.

This time, Greta deployed her mouse companions, and eventually, they found an almost imperceptible seam in the left eye of the statue.

"This should be able to open and close." Ruby leaned in for a closer look and said, "But how do we trigger the mechanism?"

Greta’s gaze swept over the statue, from top to bottom, and finally settled on the ferocious dragon head at the feet of the Lady.

A mouse with a severed tail, following her command, burrowed in, and not long after, scurried back out, squeaking sharply.

"There’s definitely something wrong in here. But it’s such a hassle to reach in to trigger it," Greta frowned.

With a flash of inspiration, Ruby asked everyone to step back, then held her breath and stepped on the dragon’s head.

The next moment there was a click, and the left eye of the bronze statue sprang open, shooting out a black crossbow arrow.

It flew over the little maid’s head and thwacked into the wall!