The rest of the people in the other rooms weren't even on the Arch ranks, this branch of Blaktr was special since Pablo was the one running it, no one above the Lord realm was allowed to enter, with the exception of Pablo and his bodyguard who was a Half Stellar ranked.
The pirates were also Arch ranks, unfortunately for them, since Thea was the one who barged in, with Daimon giving her the "coordinates", she just used her spear to tear through space and appeared inside the club.
It was as if they left a wolf loose in a herd of sheep, a slaughter took place, they didn't even had the chance to scram before Thea killed the lowest ranked ones and knocked the others unconscious, as for the Half Stellar she directly ripped his head of with her spear, because he has some annoying treasures that could cause them troubles if he had the chance to activate them.
'I didn't notice it before, but what she used earlier wasn't "Space Shift", she pierced through a certain range of space with her spear', thought Daimon as he stole a gaze at Thea who was giving some potions to her friend in hopes that she recovered faster.
Thea has the habit of using her spear to open the portals required to use Space Shift, originally Daimon thought it was just a personal preference, but apparently it had a reason, maybe it's because she is used to whatever ability she used to ignore the restrictions in the space of this place, what she did was similar to blink.
In the meantime the girls sat on the couch with Daimon, while he read the report made by Horals, apparently the story goes like this.
A long time ago, some unknown "benefactor" gave Pablo a hint on where to find a girl from the angel fish clan, one who wasn't happy with living in the Maelstrom Sea, so it escaped from Marlene's crew, who is completely conformed by women from the angel fish clan.
Pablo approached the woman and presented himself as someone from an extremely strong organization, supported her and ultimately offered her a chance to become stronger by becoming an assassin.
Having no resources and no other option but to hide her race, the woman accepted the deal and started training to enter Black Wave, because apparently Pablo didn't want to use his connections to help her join before accumulating enough merits for her, as there was a chance of the higher ups in Black Wave that will be making him the favor, to demand getting a share of the woman.
Having read this far Daimon raised an eyebrow, the maid Rita killed wasn't ugly by any means, but nothing special, any of the girls in this room surpassed in beauty terms by far.
'Are they really that horny for the members of the angel fish clan, or maybe it's because they believe that story of one of the previous kings getting luck and prosperity after having taken one as a lover?', thought Daimon.
Anyway, continuing with the story, this benefactor of which Pablo talked, told him there will be a day when he will have to do him a favor, as his silence is what allowed him to monopolize that woman from the angel fish clan, and that was the last thing he got to know of that person.
Daimon of course related that benefactor to whoever was behind the pirates and Skelefiends, and that was a big revelation, since it meant Black Wave wasn't under that guy's command, or at least the branch in the Mermen Sea isn't, Pablo was probably a pawn prepared for when the time of attacking the Clear Water kingdom came.
Why was Pablo selected for such a big "honor" you ask, the answer is simple, Pablo's mother is the leader of this sea's branch of Black Wave, his only son on top of that, Blaktr was a gift he got from his mother, it was also his alibi as one of the vice leaders.
'Nepotism and a dark organization, what a bad combination', thought Daimon, this also explained why he had a peak Half Stellar ranked bodyguard.
What surprised Daimon for a moment is that if the leader of the branch spoiled Pablo so much, how come she wasn't here in the Blaktr he personally supervised, but that doubt was solved a second later, according to Horals's information, the four leaders of the four branches and the strongest members in other words the vice leaders had to attend some kind of secret meeting.
Neptune was changing, and those who have been hiding in the shadows, those with high ambitions have started moving too, Black Wave is one of the ones that actually has the power to become an independent variant in the upcoming conflict.
Pablo was left behind because who knows if the meeting was a trap, ultimately the four branches had their own leaders with their goals and that led Daimon to think, the mastermind behind the pirates and Skelefiends had prepared ways to bring the four branches to its side, though as always taking advantage of ones weaknesses and desires.
'What a scheming bastard', thought Daimon.
Unfortunately, that was all the information regarding the origin of the maid that tried to attack him, and also everything he knew about that benefactor, with the intel network of the whole branch at his disposition now that his mother left him in charge, he by himself got a wind of rumors of a slave with "similar" characteristics to the ones of the woman he was preparing to join Black Wave and his efforts paid out, when he found Marlene, though it was a mixed race, unlike the one he already had, Marlene was pure, so he was over the moon about his discovery.
By what one would normally call a "coincidence", the shipment in which the slaves were being transported to enter the kingdom, was discovered by public defense forces, in other words the guys that worked for the Blackfin family.
Obviously the shipment was confiscated and the slaves were going to be freed, since none was of a high value on the surface, but Pablo who has ample network of connections contacted someone from the Blackfin family and directly asked for Marlene to be send to him, he was too nervous about losing her that he showed how much he desired her.
Which of course ended up getting to the ears of the Blackfin Duke, who in exchange asked for a favor as well, he wanted someone to spy on the guests the Trident Marshal would be receiving, that's how the female assassin ended up working as a maid for Vincent.
Surprisingly on the records, there was no proof od who interviewed her for the position, as probably every document was disposed to not leave traces.
Daimon frowned, Pablo was the one who sent the woman to spy on them, but Horals made emphasis in the part that she tried to kill Daimon all of a sudden, something that Pablo denied having done.
Meaning the maid had her own agenda, or not her exactly, Brandon was with her the whole day, according him she only received a call from a disposable mirror plate and it was from Pablo, so she either took that decision on a whim, or she was ordered by someone to do it before she was sent by Pablo, as those were the only moments Brandon wasn't with her.
'I'm sorry young master, I shouldn't have directly killed her without your permission… it's just that I had a huge bad premonition when she jumped towards young master', said Rita with an anguished voice.
Daimon inwardly shook his head.
'Don't worry, we have her corpse so it's not like she there is nothing we can get out of her, you did instinctively it to protect me, despite knowing all the safety measures I have on me all the time, so there must be something else to it, I was the one who ordered you to do so anyway, so if there is someone at fault it would be me'.
'Mm, thanks young master for his grace~', Rita happily nodded from within Daimon's shadow and then returned to be silent.
Daimon didn't blame Rita, she and Horals are different than the others that were tied to him through the terror contractor skill, they are closer to have a category for themselves in the system according to Evangeline.
Which explained they completely not being like what their species is supposed to be, Evangeline was only allowed to help Daimon directly if he was in a life-or-death situation due to the restrictions of the system, so even if she knew what was up with that maid, she wasn't allowed to say anything or act if it wasn't a life or death crisis.
But Rita and Horals were different, in their words they existed to protect Daimon and it was their mission and joy to do so, so when it were things related to their young master, their senses were incredibly sharp, to the point that Daimon had to order them to tone them down to only detrimental things that could affect him, since they were literally warning him about bad weather, pebbles that could make him trip and other miscellaneous stuff.
In other words, if they ignored the chain of command and directly killed an enemy or acted on their own, it was a special case, it's just that Rita didn't notice anything once she killed the maid, so she thought it was just her letting her emotions control her and that's why she apologized to Daimon, ultimately she is an undead as well, unlike Horals she is more civilized as she acts as her young master's daily helper, she considers herself more of a maid or caretaker than a soldier like the bone general, but her nature is still slightly unstable just like Horals, she just has a better control over it.
In any case, leaving the thing with the maid aside for now, it's not like he hasn't won anything, all that information helped him get a better idea of what the guy behind the pirates and Skelefiends plan's was.
Those who frequented Blaktr might be the black sheep of their families, but they are still nobles, and they were stupid enough to be manipulated, not to mention those who belonged to high ranked families mostly didn't like the queen who was the one that from Daimon's point of view truly protected the people of the kingdom, the public opinion has a big weight in the wellbeing of a reign after all, and the commoners respected Annete, that's one of the reasons as to why Triten didn't dare to pull any tricks and instead wanted to woo her in to his side as a wife, that and of course the fact that she had Vincent's backing.
Daimon suddenly smirked.
'Destroying the balance, creating a revolt and then taking over, you have become complacent', he thought.
Though he still lacked some pieces, he already had the gist of that guy's plan and that being the case, it was easy to mess with it, for him who learned about scheming for eight years under the wing of the most cunning woman of a galaxy.
Daimon turned to see Pablo and then said.
"Your contact with the Blackfin family, tell me who it is and also arrange a meeting, just tell him you found something outrageous which made you lose one of the actives you sent, but the second one made it through and brought intel to you, I want to have a nice "chat", with whoever wanted to spy on us".
Pablo shivered feeling Daimon's aura, it was the same he felt when he was dragged to be tortured, also the fact that he mentioned one of the actives he sent was dead made him feel his heart sinking.
Something Daimon of course noticed, unfortunately for Pablo, Daimon didn't have an ounce of pity for him, instead he had a little experiment to do, Brandon was relatively innocent so he was left of the hook, but Pablo deserved to suffer.
"That woman tried to kill me so she was crushed to death, but I would advice you not to suffer, since she didn't obey your orders, then that means she already had another guy to which she wanted to cling".
Daimon's sharps words pierced through Pablo's ego, it's not like he loved the female assassin, she was his "property" so the fact that she probably was being ordered by someone else drove him mad, so much that his face twisted.
It was then when he received a rope to help him climb back from the bottomless pit in which he was drowning right now.
"If you understand then cooperate to the best of your capacities, because when I find the one who is pulling the strings from the shadows, I will tear him to pieces, wouldn't that be the perfect ending for the one guided me to this place, the one responsible for you losing everything you had?", said Daimon with a convincing voice, the aura of the overlord's pride leaked out of his body.
Pablo nodded with a hatred filled expression, which made Daimon inwardly smile, the method of the carrot and the stick was as useful as always, sure he can order Pablo around, but unlike his terror contractor skill where there is literally no way for his slaves to disobey or affect him, the contract made by Thea did have a way out, the flaw that all other contracts also have… death, if he had enough guts he could think on betrayal and the contract will kill him, which is a lose on both sides to a certain extent.
But now that Daimon has directed Pablo's hatred towards the one who used him, then he will perfectly fulfill his tasks, without the idea of dying to escape, also Daimon wanted to see if now that he had a contract, he could somehow turn it into a terror contract with some work, who knows something good might come out of it.
Horals returned to the room and then kneeled down in front of Daimon.
"I have fulfilled my task young master, I found this on their treasury, I beg young master's pardon as I wanted to personally present it to you", said Horals as he extended his right hand in which a lime colored badge laid.
Daimon grabbed it and after a quick inspection he nodded satisfied with the finding, it was an incomplete Elemental emblem, which lowered the amount needed.
"Good job, put all the prisoners in one of the rooms and clean up, we'll be getting some guests coming here soon", said Daimon, to which the bone general proudly nodded.
At the same time Pablo who was given a disposable mirror plate he had in the ring Daimon confiscated, finished sending and receiving some messaged with it.
"It's done, the guy will be coming in half an hour, I demanded a large amount of crystals as the price for the information and the life of the active who has it as well as a physical meeting, the other party agreed without hesitation".
Daimon nodded and then said.
"Miss Thea, please bring Brandon here, the rest of us will hide, it's time to go fish a fish who thinks himself to be a shark".
"Mm", the girls nodded and then everyone put hands to work.
