Zach had already come to the same conclusion, but he wanted to make sure what the information was correct and came from the right source.
"It was one of the Hunter family's people who brought a scroll bearing the Hunter family insignia and the stamp of the current family head. I thought it was a call for truce since the Hunter family had miserably failed to stop the rise of the sugar industry and were afraid of our retaliation."
Violet took a pause and sighed as if disappointed that things weren't as she had expected them to be but then a solemn expression took over her visage and her tone grew heavier with each breath as she uttered the rest of her monologue in one go.
"But the contents of the message left me in shock. It stated that the Hunter family had Diana under their control, and they had conveyed several harsh demands to you if you wanted to see her alive again. I didn't know whether the contents of the message were true or not at first but the message it contained was bursting with confidence as if the Hunter family had gotten their hands on a legendary item. This got me worried and just when I wanted to keep the scroll as evidence of their evil intentions, the scroll burst into fire in my hands and was reduced to ashes within a few seconds. It turned out to be a magic scroll that could only be read once and would destroy itself upon being read once. Hogan is truly a cunning old fox who knows how to cover his tracks."
When Violet was finished, Zach was still missing the crucial information, so he asked her to repeat the message just like she had received by using her memory to the fullest.
Violet was born in a family famed for their brawling capability, but she was an intellectual at heart who could see things for what they truly were. She understood what Zach wanted immediately and narrated the message she had received to the best of her ability.
"The message was addressed to my father, but he wasn't available at the time, so I was the one who opened it in his stead. The message read,
'You probably think that you have won already but think again. I have someone that the dark mage would want to see very badly. This wife of his is really stubborn. She refuses to eat anything we give her even though it's been a whole day. Don't misunderstand; we don't intend to mistreat her, but I don't know how much longer she will last if she keeps rejecting our kindness like this. Hopefully, her husband won't be this stubborn.
As long as our demands are met, she won't be harmed in any manner but should you or that dark mage fail to comply with our demands, we won't be able to guarantee her safety any longer.
Stated under are our demands: -
1. The dark mage and his forces have to vacate Greenland immediately and permanently.
2. The sugar production factories being run by the Windsor family need to come to a halt. No transaction regarding the sugar business should take place after this message is delivered.
If the demands are met sincerely, we can discuss the exchange of hostage afterwards.
P.S Don't be stupid and try to use this as evidence against me because it would only make you look like a fool.'
This is everything I remember from the scroll, and I am basically sure that I have told you all the necessary details."
Zach didn't say a thing as he seemed to be thinking something.
Zach hadn't expected that the Hunter family would dare to openly make demands like this. There were several questions in his mind like what gave the Hunter family this kind of courage? What would they do if he refused to accept their demands and set out to annihilate their family instead? Would they dare to harm Diana while knowing that he was coming for them? And would they let her go once he complied with all their demands without question?
After pondering over the questions for a bit, Zach came to the conclusion that these demands were a test. The Hunter family was testing the waters for Zach's reaction and the extent to which he was willing to concede to their will because if he was in Hogan's place, he wouldn't have come up with such demands unless he was a fool.
Therefore, Zach believed that accepting and carrying through the demands would only give the Hunter family more power over him. Diana would eventually become the shield that would save the Hunter family from Zach's wrath, so it was improbable that Hogan had any intention of ever releasing Diana.
As a result, after carefully deliberating the problem, Zach decided to not comply with the demands of the Hunter family, believing that they would come up with even more outrageous demands the moment Zach agreed to these ones. This would also further strengthen their hold over Diana and consequently him and the Windsor family.
In such situations silence was truly golden. Zach could maintain a silent attitude that would keep the situation from regressing further. It would also give him enough time to deal with the Hunter family. After all the deliberate test, thrown his way by the leader of the Hunter family, was akin to an important negotiation in which Zach didn't want to be at a disadvantage.
Zach could be at ease because he knew that the hunter family wouldn't dare to make their move unless they were confident of Zach's stance. This would give him enough time to do what must be done to rescue Diana.
…
Although Zach didn't plan to give any response to Hunter family for the time being, he wasn't going to waste that precious time sitting around casually at Smith family residence.
Instead, he wanted to put in all the effort he could muster in order to employ all the methods in his repertoire to get Diana back.
Driven by determination, he swiftly acted on his idea, commanding the system into action. All available drones were enlisted for a thorough sweep across the city. Utilizing the system's technology, Zach divided the city into sections, like pieces of a puzzle. Each drone was assigned a section to search meticulously.
This tactical partitioning facilitated a synchronized search strategy, where each grid became a focal point for a dedicated drone. These drones, equipped with an array of sensors and sophisticated algorithms, embarked on their systematic reconnaissance, scrutinizing every nook and cranny with meticulous precision. The city, once a canvas of undifferentiated urbanity, now transformed into a network of interconnected sectors, each under the vigilant gaze of a drone programmed to sweep through with meticulous thoroughness.
Given the short time between the handing over and the time the Hunter family made the demands to the Windsor family, it was obvious that the Hunter family didn't have the time to send her somewhere far away. Therefore, Diana had to be somewhere within the bounds of the city or somewhere close by.
However, the result of the search shocked Zach to the very core. The combing strategy that had never failed before proved to be completely ineffective this time.
The enemy seemed to be fully prepared as well. They weren't playing games this time like they previously had. The surrounding areas all around the tactical positions of the Hunter family were covered and protected by some kind of forcefield that rendered the drones ineffective within their bounds.
As soon as the drones entered those areas, they immediately went out of control and crashed into objects like the trees or the ground after flying in random directions for a bit. It was as if something was interfering with the signals, jumbled them up and then fed that unrealistic witch's concoction of echoes as commands into their processing unit.
Zach noticed the effect and tried to find gaps in the range with the help of other drones but no matter what direction he used those areas appeared to be inaccessible from all directions.
At first Zach thought of the EMPs but the thought was instantly rejected by the logic system of his brain. The medieval era was thoroughly incapable of producing something that even the people in his previous world developed at the later stages of their scientific evolution.
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