Work Prophet
Chapter 89 - 5 Speculation and Inference

Chapter 89: Chapter 5 Speculation and Inference

The sight of the scales on Jude’s arm was initially lost on many, not realizing what it really meant.

After all, the events of that year were too distant for them, until Li Yu uttered a name.

"—Enríquez."

The faces of many changed color then, remembering the powerful family that had once ruled the western realm for a thousand years, causing great trouble for Alexander, the founding Emperor of the Empire, even gaining the upper hand during their confrontations.

Eventually, with the "Snow Claw" Earl Philip, the then Family Head of the Figrola family, rushing to the rescue from miles away, the family was annihilated in the battle later hailed as the Blood Dragon’s Lament.

It was said that upon breaching the Enríquez family stronghold of Dragon Flame City, Earl Philip immediately ordered the decapitation of every Enríquez family member within the city walls, regardless of age or gender.

This dreadful news, once it reached the front lines, drove the head of the Enríquez family, Joao, to despair, losing his usual composure, and soon after, he died in defeat.

From that moment on, the bloodline of the Enríquez family was nearly extinguished.

The few surviving descendants of the family were forced to turn to banditry, and after the Figrola family began ruling the western realm, they, along with their knights, persistently hunted down the remnants of the Enríquez family for hundreds of years.

To completely eliminate any future threat, the Figrola family listed a clear price, offering a hundred gold for the head of each Enríquez family member, and they specifically stated that they wanted corpses, not captives.

This bounty effectively turned the descendants of the Enríquez family into walking purses on legs, forcing them to live in constant fear, unable to find safety or trustworthy allies, always on edge.

Soon, the former lords of the western realm, the members of the Enríquez family, were either killed or forced to flee the western realm after enduring great hardships, never to return.

Nearly three to four hundred years have passed, and not a trace of the Enríquez bloodline has been seen in this land since then.

Ireya couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise, "No wonder you’ve always lived in the wilderness and barely interacted with others, it’s not because of the scar on your face, but because of your identity."

Jude said indifferently, "Snow Claw and his knights were quite ruthless; not only did they slaughter my people themselves, but also made their descendants continue the killing—it’s been over nine hundred years, and they still haven’t stopped. That bounty is still in effect to this day, so naturally, I need to be a bit more cautious for my own life."

After finishing, Jude turned to look at Li Yu, "I still can’t figure out how you discovered my identity."

Li Yu said, "At first, I indeed didn’t suspect you belonged to the Enríquez family, I simply thought you were an inside operative."

"How did you know I was the one who left the note?" Jude raised his eyebrows.

"Someone once said that when you rule out all the wrong answers, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. Indeed, you’ve been careful. Since the note was dropped over a month ago, you’ve stayed quiet without any further actions."

"It’s because of you," Jude didn’t hide it. "Others might not be aware of your capabilities, but I have witnessed with my own eyes your conversation with that supreme being behind you, your summoning of flying iron birds, your ability to control Thunder and light. I simply have no idea nor can I guess what kind of magical means you might use against me, so the best course of action was to do nothing at all."

"Hmm, that move is indeed very useful," Li Yu also admitted. "I was prepared, as long as you made another move, you’re definitely not escaping."

"But since I didn’t make another move, how did you manage to find me?" Jude couldn’t figure it out.

"I’ve been reviewing the footage these past few days, the gestures and images you all left behind. I wasn’t able to find any suspicious individuals, but it wasn’t fruitless."

Li Yu said, "I noticed something, that is every time Ireya meets with Knights or officials below, you have always been present."

"That’s an arrangement between Ireya and me," Jude said. "She pays me to, uh...put on a show for her, to help her intimidate those who disdain her for her youth and don’t take their duties seriously. What, is there something wrong with that?"

"Absolutely not, but then I remembered another thing: before the note appeared, Ireya was meeting with a Trinidad Knight, right? At that time, the Trinidad Knight, covered in dust, had rushed over from his Feud to report the movements of the lizard people, so you were there at the time, weren’t you?"

Li Yu didn’t give Jude time to answer and continued, "After the incident, Ireya was enraged. She gathered everyone in the castle for a thorough check, one by one, to see who had entered that room after she left. In the end, apart from Alisa, almost everyone else’s suspicion was ruled out."

"Then shouldn’t you suspect Alisa?" Jude said indifferently.

"I did suspect her, after all, she really did enter the room after Ireya left, but I just can’t find her motive," Li Yu said.

"So I asked Ireya to withdraw the guard that was keeping an eye on Alisa, to make the real insider anxious. But you’ve always been able to keep your cool. During that time, even some ridiculous rumors spread throughout the castle.

"The rumors said that the person leaving the notes could climb walls and fly over roofs, or that he was an invisible ghost because that was the only way to explain why no one saw him enter or leave the room."

"Of course, I don’t believe such rumors, so I need to find a reasonable explanation. When I reviewed the whole incident again, I found a detail that I had previously overlooked.

"The note was found under the table, which is quite illogical. When you want to scare someone, you’d obviously put the scary thing in the most conspicuous place, somewhere she would immediately see it to bring about the greatest fear.

"The reason the note was under the table, rather than on it, is likely because the person who wrote the note didn’t have the means to leave it on the table. And when I connected that the note appeared shortly after Ireya had met with the Trinidad Knight, a bold idea occurred to me.

"— Could it be that the note was stealthily dropped on the floor after the meeting ended? This would explain why absolutely no one saw the insider enter or leave the room, because he had left early with Ireya."

This time, Jude was silent for much longer before he finally spoke again.

"Is that when you started to suspect me?"

"Note, the accurate term would be ’took notice of you.’ Actually, at that time, my first suspicion was of the Trinidad Knight. You really disguised yourself well, a Wandering Warrior who became disfigured by accident, was aloof, and only recognized money, claimed to be the son of a farmer, with no one knowing you were actually literate.

"Compared to you, the evidently educated Trinidad Knight seemed more suspicious," Li Yu said. "Especially after I later asked Fosto, since those lizard people had arrived earlier than previous years, my suspicions toward the Trinidad Knight’s intentions increased, suspecting it was just an excuse fabricated by him to enter the castle to leave the letter and create suspicion and chaos here."