PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

464 Chapter 464 Visits With Hidden Intentions

(Kars City, Residence of Captain Sofia of the Internal Investigations Department. 5:20 a.m.)

In the life of a strong and successful woman like Sofia, who had managed to survive until today while protecting her daughters, there were a few things that could be considered her weakness; one of them was getting up early.

Gathering every piece of willpower within her body, Sofia pushed back the sheets that covered her body and stood up from the bed. With her vision still blurred, Sofia left the room on her way to the kitchen to prepare a coffee, something that had become a habit for her.

Humans were strange creatures, when they were inside their homes, they lowered their guard almost completely, but even so, within their daily lives, any small irregularity aroused an instinctive feeling of discomfort within them.

“I could have sworn I had closed the kitchen window.” Sofia mumbled still drowsily as she identified the source of her discomfort.

What Sofia didn’t expect is that she actually received an answer that came from behind her. “I apologize for that, it was a bit difficult to get in here without making any noise; I didn’t have time to close the window again.”

All the numbness that was once over Sofia’s mind went out the window as soon as that voice reached her ears. Turning around stiffly, Sofia saw someone standing on the other side of the kitchen with her body out of the light she had turned on in the kitchen.

A thousand and one questions ran through Sofia’s mind at that moment, but her body moved faster than her thoughts. The ground under the house began to shake more and more strongly, as a brown glow covered Sofia’s fists; but before she managed to do anything, the metallic gleam of a gun pointed at her face reached her eyes first.

“I’m afraid I’d rather not fight you miss Sofia, I know in advance that even if you’re not famous for your combat prowess, fighting a captain is too much for me right now. I would also prefer that my roommate in your daughters’ room didn’t have to do anything drastic.”

.....

Even a blind and a stupid person could see the hidden threats in what the person with the gun was saying, but Sofia was helpless; as soon as her daughters entered the equation the woman lost any will to fight.

Perhaps, in another position, Sofia would fight like an enraged lioness to protect her daughters, but in a situation where any sign of resistance could have her daughters killed, Sofia not dared to be reckless.

The floor stopped shaking as Sofia stopped resisting and administering mana, the hidden figure breathed a silent sigh of relief as soon as she saw this. With the stage and the actors prepared, the play was about to begin.

Stepping out of the shadows, Natalie revealed herself to Sofia. Well, not entirely, since Natalie was wearing a pink wig and the rest of her appearance had been changed greatly.

As soon as Natalie revealed herself, Sofia burned every neuron in her brain trying to place the face in front of her but failed to do so. Ignoring the furious look Sofia was giving her, Natalie calmly sat down at one end of the dining room table and pointed her gun at Sofia to sit at the other end.

With no choice but to follow instructions, Sofia sat on the other side of the table and asked spitefully. “What do you want?”

Natalie extended her hand bringing out a document from her backpack while the other hand continued to point her gun at Sofia. Throwing the document on the table, Natalie responded. “What I want is to help you of course.”

Even if Natalie’s smile wasn’t the fakest Sofia had ever seen in her life, the current situation made it impossible to believe such words were true. Natalie, of course, didn’t care if Sofia believed her words, all she did was point the gun for Sofia to open the folder.

Clenching her teeth angrily, Sofia opened the folder. To the surprise of the captain of internal investigations, there was information that she was quite familiar with. Drugs, gangs, arms smuggling, and human trafficking, it was information about multiple criminal activities in the city of Kars as well as the underground forces that carried them out.

Much of the information in the folder was already known to Sofia, she also knew that almost all the criminal organizations in the documents were wiped out a couple of months ago. These organizations disappeared overnight, completely annihilated by an unknown force.

The number of bodies was so alarming that regardless of whether it was only criminals who died, the army had to get involved in the investigation. In the end, due to the strength and coordination shown during the annihilation of these gangs, certain suspicions led to the files ending up in the internal investigations department.

Sofia was in charge of the case back then but she got nowhere, although suspicions that someone within the army was involved were never ruled out.

As Sofia progressed through the documents, some additional details of information began to appear, details that Sofia was unaware of.

“The Minora Family.” Sofia muttered to herself.

As if she had been implicitly asked for an explanation, Natalie spoke. “A force that almost completely dominates the underworld in Green Seed. Their criminal activities are quite varied but are mainly focused on drug trafficking. They may be a force in a border city but their monopoly over it has made them quite strong, enough to clash with the big forces inside the big cities without any problem. They have enough surplus manpower, drugs, and weapons to expand their influence into the big city; a thing they did after the fall of the old gangs. Currently, forty percent of the drugs on the streets of Kars come from the Minora family.”

Although the information in the documents seemed true and supported the claims made by Natalie, Sofia did not dare to believe them. It was too absurd to be believed, since, if what Natalie said was true, there was no way a force like that would develop in a heavily militarized border town without the person in charge is aware of it.

The above wasn’t even the main issue, even if it were true, which would already be scandalous, the concern here was the other party’s intentions in reporting the matter. Sofia still hadn’t forgotten that the other party snuck into her house in the middle of the night and took her daughters hostage, no matter how true this information was, Natalie’s intentions were suspicious.

Natalie didn’t need to see the word “Suspicion” written on Sofia’s face, she was aware of how all this seemed in the other person’s eyes. So when Sofia asked why, Natalie gave the answer that she had prepared beforehand.

“Say a spiteful old man up north found an opportunity to remind an old friend what a jerk he can be.”

The nickname immediately set off certain signals within Sofia’s mind, as there was only one person with such a name who happened to be the commander of the border town on the opposite side of country F. The person in charge of the northern border town, the Commander Elvan.

Although the name was familiar to her and even gave a lot of meaning to the situation, Sofia was not naive enough to take the bait just like that. “So Commander Elvan is behind all of this. I knew that man had a deep grudge against Rundert for making him lose a hand, but this seems a bit excessive, doesn’t it? ”

Natalie was in no way less intelligent than Sofia, plus she also came prepared, so the trick question didn’t take her by surprise. With a smile full of well-feigned disdain, Natalie replied. “Rather than losing a hand, Rundert caused him to lose a daughter. After what that pig did to our commander’s daughter, did he really think he would get away with it?”

This time, Natalie’s acting skills completely overwhelmed Sofia’s insight. The disdain and rancor in Natalie’s voice sounded incredibly real and deep. To top it off, Natalie seemed genuinely frustrated at her own slip as she called Elvan her commander in the heat of the moment. No matter where Sofia saw it, Natalie seemed to be telling the truth.

Almost looking angry with herself, Natalie threw off her facade and spoke directly to Sofia. “You understand, don’t you? Would you forget that kind of grudge if someone did something to your daughters?”

That was the last straw that broke the camel’s back and the last crack in the armor of Sofia’s mind that Natalie needed. All the chips were in place, the information was on the table; the hook was set and now that Natalie was finally done opening cracks in Sofia’s mental defenses, it was just a matter of pushing a little harder to get what she wanted.

That was precisely the terrifying part of facing someone who was fighting in the realm of the mind, when they really put their minds to it and take their time, what they can achieve is terrifying.

In Natalie’s case, her skills focus more on reading than mind manipulation, but given the necessary timing and pressing in the right places, it was only a matter of time before she had someone dancing in the palm of her hand.

“What am I supposed to do with this information?” Sofia spoke without realizing that she put herself in a passive position.

“Go to Green Seed to keep track of the Minora, some arrangements have already been made, you will find what you are looking for there.” Natalie answered as she prepared to leave.

Seeing Natalie about to walk out the front door, Sofia stopped her with a small cry. “Wait, what about the person in my daughters’ room?”

To which Natalie responded with a smile. “That person never existed. I just needed you to listen to me, I would never put a child in danger, my boss wouldn’t like it.”

Little did Sofia know that that was probably the only honest thing Natalie had said since she’d met her.