Who hid My Corpse!

Alright, let's get to work.

Lair put away the bell and strode forward, making almost no sound, like a cat prowling in the night.

So, Lair arrived at the edge of the small town and waited in an empty house.

Before long, he saw a large convoy slowly approaching under the moonlight, and he held his breath immediately.

So they came, the intel was accurate.

Lair thought silently to himself.

The wagons of the convoy had no insignia, and only a few black-robed guards accompanied it. In this borderland, such an arrangement seemed like an invitation for robbery.

But Lair knew that no one dared to rob them because under those black robes, the guards had short swords engraved with the Rhein insignia.

Yes, this was a convoy of the Rhein Church, but the kind that couldn't be made public.

A few guards stretched and walked out after the convoy stopped. Lair could still hear their chatter.

"Damn, finally arrived."

"Guarding this pile of treasure without being able to touch it is pure torture."

"Haha, the mission's complete anyway. Leave it to those guys and go rest."

"Who's the priest here again?"

"Valens."

"It's that sly bastard! Oh, my sword can barely hold back."

"Keep it down! We can't reveal our identities!"

"Got it, Captain."

Lair watched those guards walk away jokingly and breathed a little sigh of relief.

Those were Rhein Knights. If they caught him, he would be in a world of trouble. As a black market merchant, he was all too aware of the true nature of those Rhein Knights, who were impeccably dressed.

Once he confirmed they were far away, Lair immediately leaped out of the house, quickly running towards the convoy without making a sound.

This convoy was his target for the night.

There are three ways for a black market merchant to expand their product list. The first is to buy directly from headquarters, such as Visas' fake Corpse Blocks and various contraband from major churches. The second is to make their own. Many black market merchants are excellent magic pharmacists. However, neither of these methods worked well for Lair because he was too low-ranked and poor to buy anything worthwhile from the headquarters, and he couldn't make magic potions himself. Even the lubricants and aphrodisiacs he sold were fake.

Therefore, he could only rely on the third method to acquire goods, which was the most common method for low-ranked black market merchants—stealing.

Either steal from peers or steal from the Church, whether Orthodox or Esoteric Buddhism, it doesn't matter.

Of course, the more valuable the item, the harder it is to steal, and with his ability, he usually wouldn't dare target Rhein's goods.

But tonight was an exception.

Lair quickly arrived in front of the largest wagon and glanced at the lock on the carriage door. He immediately took out a short magic wand from his cloak and pointed at the lock.

After silently chanting a spell, the lock clicked open, and Lair's face lit up with joy.

As expected! The Rhein Church didn't dare use their standard equipment, which means they're indeed transporting something not meant for the public!

On the surface, the self-proclaimed righteous Four Great Orthodox Sects have been cracking down on black market merchants and goods, forbidding believers from using forbidden items. But this doesn't mean they don't use them themselves. They even directly trade with the high ranks of Esoteric Buddhism to avoid letting black merchants earn the margins.

But such trades would never be public for Rhein. So they avoid using their equipment to prevent accidents.

And this gave a half-baked mage like Lair a chance. He unlocked the door with basic Lock Opening Magic.

Come on! Let me see what's inside!

Shadow Binding Furnace, Dream Powder, or Happy Beans.

Lair thought of the high-priced items while opening the carriage door.

And then his expression froze.

Because Lair saw countless eyes inside, almost scaring him into shouting out, thinking he'd been set up, with Rhein Knights waiting for him.

But he quickly realized they weren't. Inside the carriage were... children.

Countless children, both boys and girls. They were bound hand and foot, their mouths taped shut, crammed like livestock in the small carriage, looking at Lair with terror in their eyes.

Lair peered inside and saw many children had fainted, their condition uncertain.

What the hell, so this is Rhein's cargo.

Lair always knew the Rhein Church collected children around the world for mines, brothels, and priest reserves. He never expected to stumble upon it.

"Tsk." Lair cursed under his breath, "What bad luck."

After cursing, he intended to close the door. He couldn't sell these children and needed to quickly check the next wagon for goods.

If they were all children, he'd have come for nothing tonight.

Just as he was about to close the door, a little boy rushed up and wedged his shoulder into the door, looking at him with pleading eyes.

What the hell? Want me to set you free?

Don't dream, I have business to attend to!

Lair kicked at the boy to push him away and lock the door, but the boy held on tightly, shaking his head vigorously, making "mm-mm" sounds, trying to say something. The other children snapped out of their daze and began to squeeze forward, panicking Lair.

If these kids caused a commotion, not only would he be unable to do anything, but the Rhein Knights would surely find him!

Damn it, can't you have some spirit of helping others and not drag me down!

Lair gritted his teeth and pulled out a dagger, slashing it into the boy's shoulder.

Blood splattered on Lair as the boy cried out in pain and fell back, giving Lair the chance to lock the door at once.

Darkness quickly swallowed the children's hopes, but Lair remained unmoved and firmly shut the door.

In the final moment before the door closed, Lair saw the wounded child look at him with despair, sending a sharp pang through his heart.

But he still closed the door and quickly reset the lock.

All was silent.

Lair took a deep breath, pushing that strange feeling out of his heart, and muttered, "Blame Rhein for selling you," while running to the next carriage.

He didn't have much time to waste. The only reason he could easily succeed tonight was due to Wildfire causing trouble elsewhere, and a sudden disruption among the Rhein Knights under the North Bishop, causing some chaos at the North Church, allowing him to slip in.

If he missed this chance, who knows when the next would arise.

With that thought, Lair rushed towards the next carriage.

He didn't believe such a large convoy would transport only children. There had to be other things. As long as he found one or two such items, his night wouldn't have been in vain.

But with so many wagons, all locked, how could he know which one had something?

Lair was getting anxious when he suddenly saw a carriage ahead with its door open, and inside weren't children but goods.

After a moment of surprise, Lair rushed over.

Jumping onto the carriage, he found it full of goods. Boxes of Dream Powder and Happy Beans worth a fortune were stacked everywhere.

But more than half were opened; clearly someone had been here!

At this moment, Lair sensed something, abruptly turning his head to see someone dressed just like him, but with a covered face, holding the goods and watching him.

A fellow thief?!

Upon realizing Lair was watching, the person smugly waved their magic wand.

A massive explosion followed, and countless guards burst out in shock, simultaneously looking towards the only open carriage, where Lair stood.