My Goddess is Good at Pretending

Chapter 24: Dark Secrets

Due to the presence of the sixth prince and seventh princess of the Imperial Family, no one dared to prevent the investigation team from breaking into the city lord's mansion.

Ely's core disciples scrutinized the entire area as they disguised themselves as priestess or holy knight at that time.

"I already said that all those rumors are groundless. My family can't do all those things, right?" The city lord tried to defend his innocence to the prince and princess.

"..." Princess Yan Fei raised her eyebrows as she couldn't just believe this city lord's words. She had to find the bottom of this incident.

"We found an entrance to a hidden underground dungeon!" Someone called out from a distance.

The surrounding experts immediately went to a secret warehouse. The hidden entrance to the underground passage had been opened and was heavily guarded.

"What's the situation?" Cao Yazhu felt suspicious about that secret entrance. He found the city lord's complexion turning pale, convincing him even more.

"A scout team has gone inside to check the situation, sir." The elite knight saluted.

"Let's go. We will catch up with them and check the situation in person." Cao Yazhu beckoned the others to follow him.

"Wait, this is the warehouse, and it is the passage to my secret wine cellar. I-" The city lord tried to explain the situation. Still, the Saint-level expert wanted to refrain from listening to any explanation. Everything should be thoroughly investigated.

Somewhere underground, Rafaela led her team into the deepest dungeon as she wished to see the truth with her own eyes.

Arriving at the destination, her expression became grim because she found no one alive. The subjects were killed, and the objects were obliterated to destroy the most gruesome evidence.

"They moved quite quickly, but we didn't give them time. However, who would have thought they would be so ruthless as to kill all the experimental subjects and bury them with all the failed subjects." Azrael crouched down and touched the ground to examine the secrets under the unusual mound of soil.

They were buried three meters underground, along with hundreds of bodies of failed experiments. Unfortunately, the ominous aura from those who died unjustly still lingered everywhere.

"There is a burial ground in the next chamber to dispose of the failed products of the past hundred years." Uriel cast magic and summoned several balls of light for illumination.

"We're late." Gabriella stared at Rafaela, waiting for what the leader of this operation would say.

"I want to kill them, but death would be too cheap for those evildoers." Rafaela stared into a particular iron prison.

She was once held there like a prisoner about seven or eight years ago. Her blood was taken day and night for a whole week.

The young her could see the sunlight again because she was almost dead. Regardless, her fate suddenly changed when the priestess from Holy Church who came to treat her also decided to recruit her. The young her was finally able to get away from this hell.

The Holy Church was admirable to her, but living there was unpleasant. If this family wanted her blood, the Holy Church desired her vitality. Both were terrible places to remember.

Fortunately, she now has a kind, benevolent, yet powerful master. Her Goddess Master. Everything else except anything related to her master was no longer essential.

"Then, we shall move according to the original plan. We have gathered enough evidence to demolish this family and overthrow the city lord." Gabriella put her hand on Rafaela's shoulder.

"Oh, right... Master entrusted this to us and asked us to give it to the authority, right? What do you think is inside this pouch?" The veiled girl took out a pet pouch. Her crystal-like pink eyes glistened with curiosity.

"Pet pouch? Perhaps, some evil ninjas are inside, Jophiel. Our master wants us to hand them over to the authorities? Isn't now the time for that?" Uriel's light purple glowed with sudden enlightenment. She understood her master's intention.

"Well, well! To think our master took the effort to capture them. We didn't think of this before. Lumina Family will be doomed right away and become a public enemy. Release them here, then. We will let them escape to the surface and let those knights handle them carefully, keke." Azrael couldn't help but laugh at that sinister plan.

The Lumina Family would be severely punished for being involved with those evil ninjas.

"Hmm?" Jophiel had just pulled on the pet pouch's string, but it twitched and shook fiercely. She was surprised and threw it away on reflex.

More than ten demonic cultivators jumped out of the pet pouch. However, they don't have any weapons or belongings attached to their bodies. Apart from their outfit, there was nothing else.

"Damn, where are we?"

"Tsk, we managed to escape. Where did that holy saintess go?"

"Did the other teams succeed in summoning our Demon God? It worked, right?"

"Dunno, but we need to get out of here soon. This looks like an underground prison."

The demonic cultivators looked left and right in confusion. They immediately noticed ten people on the other side of the passage.

"You people, hand over your belongings, and we will let you leave with intact corpses." The muscular ninja extended his hand. His weapons and belongings were gone, but he could loot from others here.

"It depends on whether you have that ability or not." Michael took out a short sword.

"An ignorant priest." The muscular ninja then made his move.

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*

A skirmish occurred between the Apostles and the demonic cultivators. However, the former purposely did that to create an act.

"A fight happened over there!" A holy knight shouted as he heard a commotion on the other side.

"As expected." Cao Yazhu frowned. He was already suspicious because this place had a thick dead aura, and it seemed that even more heinous acts than the rumors had been happening here.

The Saint-level mage led a team of influential experts to the source of the fighting sound. They were shocked to find about a dozen demonic cultivators engaged in a battle with the scouting team there.

No one said anything, as everything had become apparent. They immediately attacked the demonic cultivators, and defeating those evil ninjas didn't take a minute.

"What's the situation here?" Cao Yazhu pursed his lips while checking left and right. This place looked like a secret dungeon, but some facilities had recently been destroyed.

"This place is a secret demonic experiment ground, sir. We found that many experimental subjects were just killed about an hour ago under this mound. Their blood is still very fresh. Also, a burial ground buried thousands of experimental subjects in perhaps the last few hundred years." Someone from the scouting team reported the situation.

Azrael felt proud of that report.

"What!?" Cao Yazhu and the other experts were shocked beyond measure.

They then immediately checked the buried truth and dug into the ground. Cao Yazhu could already see what was buried there with his detection ability. Yet, it felt different when he saw the gruesome sight with his own eyes.

"Please prepare a proper burial for them. I'm afraid they are people who have mysteriously disappeared in recent years." The Holy Knight Commander offered a prayer to the dead. He then asked his people to handle the rest.

"Sir, a mass burial ground has been found in the next chamber, as reported. There are a lot of bones there, and probably some of them died hundreds of years ago." A knight saluted to report.

"The Lumina Family involved themselves with demonic cultivators! They will receive severe punishment and pay a heavy price for all this." Cao Yazhu clenched his fists.

At that moment, the ten Apostles had left the scene through another secret passage that led to the forest behind the mansion. They and the Guardian of Dream's members involved in this operation immediately took a safe distance as they just needed to let the other parties finish the rest of the tasks for them.

When the most gruesome dark secret hidden under the city lord's mansion was exposed with undeniable evidence, Prince Yan Hui led an operation to arrest all members of the Lumina Family without exception. Not even cats and dogs were spared.

Another corroborating evidence to complement the dirty dealings the family has been carrying out in the last decades was found in that mansion. Thus, that family was branded as criminals and escorted by a joint team from various backgrounds to be punished by Imperial Law.

"..." Rafaela felt lost because everything felt so easy and smooth, thanks to her master's plan.

She originally wanted to handle this matter by herself, but her master said it wasn't good for her mentally. The best action was to trigger the initial event and let the authorities do the rest for them. Lumina Family was doomed, and Lumina Family would be history starting tomorrow. Perhaps, all the family members would be executed like those demonic cultivators.

Even though those people shared flesh and blood with her, she didn't feel any empathy or sympathy at this moment. She looked at those who used to be called her family with a cold gaze. It was as if she couldn't see them as humans anymore.

A few moments later, Rafaela turned around. "The matter here is over. Let's leave."

Gabriella responded with a nod, then everyone left the scene. Their master also already left since everything was concluded.