"Hermes Melt."
In the dilapidated tavern of Moros, Tiran and Aya sat on high stools in front of the bar. Little Mo, who hadn't grown a centimeter taller, pushed a heavy folder towards them, "Based on the information you provided, that guy who attacked the castle is ninety percent likely to be this person."
"Thanks." Tiran took the folder and handed over a pre-loaded coin card to Little Mo.
"Happy cooperation, huh." Little Mo touched his hair and chuckled.
However, Tiran didn't immediately open the stack of intelligence files. Instead, she looked around and sighed heavily, "I mean, can't you renovate this place properly? It feels like even the rats don't want to come here."
"Don't mention that, it's killing me! If the princess is willing to sponsor some money for renovations, I wouldn't mind." Little Mo gritted his teeth, annoyed that she had to complain every time she came.
"Uh, sorry, let's not talk about that. Little Mo, have you grown taller again recently?" Tiran remained silent for a moment before asking.
"...Forget it, let's talk about the renovations... Ah, no! Weren't you here to ask me about the attacker?"
"Come to think of it, that seems to be the case."
Aya coughed twice, as if it really was the case. Ah, that little one, Juju, was taken away! It should be a matter of great urgency, so why couldn't she feel any anxiety at all?!
Sitting up straight on the high stool, the master and servant adjusted their moods.
"Let's start with this person's background first." Little Mo opened the first page of the folder, and on the slightly yellowed paper was an intact seal.
Circular in shape, but the elements were not like the sword, shield, and staff of the Magic Guild Knights Association. Instead, it was a machine - even though the lines were deliberately simplified for easy carving on the seal, it was still apparent that it was a quite complex machine, not comparable to simple combinations like levers and water wheels.
"The shape of this thing looks familiar..." Tiran wondered, a steam engine? But this world doesn't have a country advanced enough for an industrial civilization. If there were really technological advancements from the industrial era, at least the human countries would have undergone significant changes, if not unification.
Aya also felt that the seal looked familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere.
"This is a Magitech device." Little Mo pointed to the seal and said, "It is the origin and foundation of all products in the Kingdom of Sains. In a sense, this seal can be considered the emblem of the Kingdom of Sains."
The Kingdom of Sains?
No wonder it looks so familiar. Aya felt a deep sense of disgust. When she was first captured, the 64-bit hexadecimal password locks in the dungeon and the later sealing collar were all products of this damn Sains Magitech technology!
Does the person who took Juju away have a connection to the Kingdom of Sains? Aya clenched her fist, her face twisted. Her initial hunch was right - she was definitely destined to clash with this technological kingdom.
"Understood, so it's definitely the mad scientist of that kingdom who saw Juju's cuteness and took her back for experimentation, right? Let's go and smash that place." Aya rubbed her hands together.
"Sit down." Tiran forcefully pushed this person back into her seat. "Listen first."
"Can I continue?" Little Mo looked at the two of them and, after receiving an affirmative answer, turned to the second page. "In my records, his identity is actually very mysterious. All I know is that he is a member of a secret organization in the Sains Kingdom's Magitech technology, but the official information doesn't mention his specific position or research in The Realm."
"But you must have collected more than just this, right?" Tiran tapped the table. "If you're charging thousands of gold coins for just this little information, isn't that a bit too much?"
"Of course not. I am a reputable intelligence merchant. I would never cheat my customers, let alone His Highness and me being friends." Little Mo quickly waved his hand. As an intelligence merchant, if he couldn't collect information through normal channels, he could always use various means to obtain it indirectly.
"The Kingdom of Sains is a very peculiar kingdom. Although they claim to be a 'kingdom' to the outside world, in reality, their king is just a figurehead with little actual power. They advocate transparency and knowledge supremacy, and as long as a researcher makes a contribution, they will never be buried."
"So I investigated the member list of the latest research achievements in Sains Magitech technology over the years. Although it's clear that someone deliberately erased the name Hermes, I still managed to dig up most of the research results associated with that name."
Xiao Mo flipped through several pages, and they were filled with densely packed project names.
"I won't read them one by one. Based on the timeline, I analyzed this guy's research, The Realm. It started with Magic Mechanical The Realm, then gradually transitioned to Mechanical Bionics. The final project involved both The Realm and the aforementioned two."
"There's also something strange. According to the intelligence my friend from the Kingdom of Sains sent, Hermes' name hasn't appeared on any research member list since three years ago. No matter how we search, there's no trace of him. We can only assume that he stopped doing research after that."
After speaking at length, Xiao Mo took a breath and poured himself a glass of water, gulping it down. "For now, this is all I can gather."
"Although it sounds impressive..." Tiran's forehead had three black lines hanging down. "I don't see how it's useful."
"Agreed." Aya raised her hand in agreement.
Xiao Mo's movement of raising the cup to drink water stiffened for a moment, and he put it down awkwardly. "Alright, let me remind you again... Of course, this part is just a guess based on the intuition of an intelligence merchant."
"According to what you've said, the attackers didn't deliberately kill or cause extensive damage to the castle. They only wanted to capture the child named Jiu Jiu, right?"
"That's correct." Tiran seemed to realize something.
"Then you're telling me that the child was rescued from the core of the slain Mountain Giant, so the answer is already obvious, right?" Xiao Mo gently shook his finger.
"No wonder... I felt something was off about that Mountain Giant at the time." Aya also understood. A Mountain Giant capable of firing a lattice cannon was certainly not an ordinary one. In fact, they had speculated before that it might be the work of some crazy alchemist, but after a few months, they had gradually forgotten about it.
It's not hard to understand why that guy called Jiu Jiu a "personal item."
But on second thought, Jiu Jiu was originally snatched from someone else's hands by them, so it was somewhat reasonable to take her back... Not really! That lunatic actually wanted to use such a cute little girl as a puppet core? It's simply outrageous! Its stupidity is on par with making the most beautiful woman in the world pull a cart and spend the night with the strongest horse.
Most importantly, when did anyone have the right to easily snatch away the little girl in the arms of Lady Silver War Maiden? I've only seen myself snatching from others, but I've never seen anyone dare to snatch from me!
