Having confirmed that there were no traps around the perimeter didn't mean it was going to be easy to sneak in. At least for normal people, they would have been stopped by the high brick walls and thick iron gates. And yet, the only thing keeping this gate closed was a padlock which Kaguya easily picked open.
"Nothing on two. Click on three...and there we go." Kaguya said as she opened the padlock in about five seconds, "Man, I haven't picked a lock in forever. I might've gotten rusty."
"That was rusty?" Roko muttered.
"What a...peculiar skill for a princess." Hirudo coughed.
"You need some survival skills if you live in Fuyuki." Kaguya twirled her set of lockpicks around her finger, "No matter what class you belong to."
Stepping through the heavy gate, they were left in a courtyard where lines of carriages were left standing in orderly lines, ready for the next day's deliveries. Crossing this courtyard, they picked another lock and entered the main production building. There, crates of wrapped and prepared foods sat around the front. The production lines were empty, though they could follow it to where the raw supply of their products were stored. The facility was large enough that everyone agreed to split up to try and find the poison on their own. Though Roko had a good idea where it was already. Up several flights of stairs was the boss' office that stuck out from the wall to overlook the entire facility. The door to which was locked but by climbing up onto the room's roof, opening a vent panel and squeezing past the fan blades, Roko was in with relative ease. Once on the grounds, Roko rummaged around the office looking for anything that could be a safe, finding exactly that built into the boss' desk. It had a keyhole which Roko would've needed Kaguya for...if not for the fact that it also had a 4 digit scroll wheel. Now, Roko wasn't sure exactly how his spells worked but they certainly gathered a lot of information for him in a short amount of time. Which meant that whatever research they preformed could skip over tedious methods and arrive at the results. And what could be a more tedious way to find information than a brute force trial of all number combinations?
"5068." Roko muttered as he silently thanked his spells for their assistance.
Cracking open the safe, there was a shelf of documents that Roko didn't bother to read, at least, not quite yet. Since the main attraction was clearly the line of test tubes that had a strange sort of clear liquid in them. Picking one up and Analyzing that as well confirmed it was the Tafosuranus Polykefalis venom they were looking for. Although...this was apparently a custom strain, a modified one. And one that was unlike the strain poisoning the populace as they speak. At least, that's what Roko's spell told him. It may not be the exact strain but maybe it could prove useful somehow. So Roko pocketed it and turned to quickly flipping through the documents.
Said documents predicted the events that had been unfolding in Mulapin in scarily accurate detail. Use the given strain of Nessus among the food given to the Earthbounds in low enough doses to induce feverish states. Through slow exposure, the poison would eventually render all the rebels unable to fight, even killing some of them. It was all expected to go how it had historically gone. Cause a little bit of poisoning, call it an illness and allow it to "spread". The Earthbound's own charity would cause the symptoms to spread to the poor folks of Mulapin, further supporting the illusion of a pandemic. Meanwhile, the same rumor would be spread among the people of Muldingirmus, the story of a deadly virus but as there was no contaminated food being fed to the public of Muldingirmus, it would only remain a rumor, though there were apparently people set up to create fake stories about how a friend of a friend or an uncle's niece's dog was sick with the new disease.
All this proof and all this planning...and yet Roko could not find Sirius' name on it anywhere. That is, there was no name anywhere to pin any new co-conspirators. It was a disgusting plan that Roko didn't know if any of the people of Mulapin would have been able to discover on their own. If he revealed the truth to everyone...everyone on Mulapin side would probably accept the idea of Sirius sabotaging them alongside the rebellion. But would Muldingirmus believe it? Would they do anything if they did? Questions for later.
The rest of the documents were of business records and deals. Innocuous at first glance but perhaps Roko could eke out some sort of information about any collaborators out of them if he had the chance to sit down and read them. Having no time to do such, Roko just stuffed them back into the safe, taking only one of the vials and the written orders. Finally, stepping back up, Roko looked down at the factory floor to check on his companions.
Hirudo was wandering around the assembly lines, looking over the larger components for any sort of poison. Aranea was shuffling through some supply closets. She couldn't reach the higher shelves but she's trying. Kaguya and Mikado were nowhere to be seen, Roko assuming they had entered some of the side rooms out of sight from the manager's office. More important than what his friends were doing were the people coming out of the door to the factory and trying to sneak up on Hirudo and Aranea. They were dressed in a strange armor that were molded to appear part business suit as well. An armband denoted some sort of position, probably of even higher authority than Alphard. That would be no surprise after coming so close to Min al Az'al. Roko sighed and picked up a receiver that was wired to the desk.
"All factory workers, please be advised; we have intruders."
All at once, Hirudo and Aranea spun around to spot the knights at the entrance and quickly ran back together to group up. Mikado stepped out of one of the side room and rejoined them, having found a pitchfork to use as a weapon. Roko put down the receiver and quickly made his way down the stairs back to the ground floor to address the intruders intruding on their intruding.
"You're under arrest! All of you!" One of the knights were shouting angrily, "You're all trespassing on private property!"
"Alright." Roko sighed as he finally rejoined the rest of his group, "What did I miss? Did they identify themselves yet?"
"Not really. That one man's been screaming his head off since we got here." Hirudo coughed.
"Are you their leader?!" Said man screamed, "You're under arrest! All of you are under arrest!"
"I heard you the first time, loud man." Roko winced, "How about you introduce yourselves first? I want to know who it is I'm beating today."
"Ha! You think you thieves can make demands of us? We don't have to tell you anything!"
"Wow. You guys aren't the smartest bunch are you..." Roko said.
"Of course we're smart! We're the Starry Knights! The private military corporation that works under Sirius himself!"
"Sirius cannot be having this hard of a time finding competent work outside of the Planetary Stars..." Roko muttered to himself as he put his head in his hand.
"We're not only smart, we're also really strong!" The loud Starry Knight talking flexed his fancy armband at them, "So I just dare you to oppose us!"
"I'm getting tired of talking to them. Hirudo, do you have any information on these Starry Knight people?"
"Um...unfortunately not. I haven't really ever taken any missions in Muldingirmus because of my health so I don't know much about how Muldingirmus works, especially this close to Sirius' own home."
"I suppose we should be glad that Sirius himself isn't coming." Mikado shrugged.
"Okay but then why hasn't a Planetary Star shown up?" Roko frowned.
"Maybe it's past their bedtime?" Hirudo shrugged.
"Whatever." Roko sighed, "I guess I should be glad that we don't have to deal with Kajou. I don't think we can beat her right now."
"Are you thieves done talking?! You know it's only because we Starry Knights are so nice that we're even allowing you to converse in front of us!"
"Yes, good on you for having basic human decency. I'm sure your mother must be very proud."
"My mom is more of a woman than you ever will be!"
"That's fine, since I'm a man." Roko muttered.
"Now come quietly you thieves! It's night so we mustn't make too much noise for the sleeping folks!"
"You're the only one being loud." Roko scoffed, "And to be clear, we're not thieves. We're rebels."
"What?! The Earthbounds?! Here?!"
"That's right. We're here to drag you back down to earth." Roko snapped his fingers, "Attack!"
At his words, the fight began, Mikado and Hirudo lunging forward at the Starry Knights. The knights drew their sword and prepared to fight back.
"What the hell?!" One of the Starry Knights cried as he blocked Mikado's jab with his sword only for Mikado to twist the pitchfork, catching the blade in between its teeth and throwing it out of his hands, "This man's surprisingly skilled!"
"And this man's kind of light." Another Starry Knight held up his sword, blocking Hirudo with barely any effort as the sick man struggled to pin the man down with his strength.
When it became clear he wasn't going to overpower his opponent, Hirudo drew his sword back and pointed its tip at the knight's body.
"Sword of Times! Era Ending Strike!"
Hirudo thrust his sword forward, barely tapping the Starry Knight in the chest but throwing the knight off his feet and sending him spiraling back into a crate of cabbages.
"What the hell was that?!"
"Get the smug one!"
Roko was standing there with his arms crossed, no weapons in hand. Aside from the magic seal he had been forming while they were talking. The Starry Knights surrounded Roko with swords pointed at him from a wary distance.
"Surrender now, foul cretin!"
"Do you even know what a cretin is?"
"It's like a muscle powder isn't it?"
"That's creatine."
"No, it's like a fold in your clothes!"
"That's a crease."
"You know what, we didn't come here to get tested by you!"
One of the knights stepped in to try and capture Roko only for him to almost step on Aranea.
"Oh! Sorry little girl! Um...you should get away from he-"
Kick him.
Aranea kicked the man's shin, instantly collapsing the man as he grabbed his leg while howling in pain.
"Aw come on man, you can't be howling like that in front of a kid."
Another knight walked forward to try and pick up Aranea but Aranea grabbed him by the wrist and threw him over her shoulder into another knight.
"Holy shit, this kid's legit!" The knights cried as they readied their blade against Aranea.
The small child glanced towards Roko nervously, still not quite used to battle but Roko remained calm as ever. Even as he observed the knights' movements, he was communicating telepathically with her using the call function of the Master's Seal.
'Strike away from their armor.' Roko instructed in her mind, 'I can modulate the upper bounds of your strengths but you can still hold back where necessary. Use only as much strength as you need. Try not to get into too complex a fight. I need time to measure what kind of stats need to be focused on at the moment. Not that it seems like you'll need it.'
Aranea was numbly dodging around these elite knights, slipping out of their hands and in between their legs as she threw remarkably powerful attacks into exposed heads, necks and stomachs, felling them just as easily as Malus. Which according to his scans, this elite squad working directly below Sirius...was exactly as strong as Malus. Roko wasn't sure if he should be impressed by that or depressed by that. Fighting these people were only distracting them from their real mission, finding a poison sample. If these knights weren't here to stop them, then what are they for other than distracting them?
"...Analyze map."
Roko sent out a pulse, scanning the entire environment as everyone fought. And he spotted a blip. Hiding right behind the entrance to the factory that they had entered from.
"Aranea! On me. Mikado, Hirudo, Take care of these knights in the meantime."
"Got it." Mikado replied, swinging his pitchfork around to slash down a couple of knights.
"Wait, really?" Hirudo coughed, "These guys are kind of hard to deal with on my own!"
"I got you." Mikado said, "Give Roko some space to do his work.
With only a small girl to protect him, Roko strolled through the fighting to the factory entrance where a man in the suit was peering inside from the side of the door.
"Come on, come on, just get them already..." The man said anxiously.
"Can I help you?" Roko asked.
"Gah!" The man cried, surprised but didn't move to see him. In fact he didn't seem to me moving a single muscle, "Who are you?"
"Who are YOU?" Roko asked back.
"I don't have to answer to you!"
"That's fine. I only asked out of courtesy. Lichas."
"Oh you think you're so smart because you can make simple conclusions! I'm not impressed!"
"Great." Roko said, not particularly listening to this man's screeching, "Tell me. Why are you here?"
"What do you mean why?! You guys are stealing from me!"
"Okay, we'll take it from the top. How did you know we were here? I don't think we triggered any traps that exposed us."
"That's what you think! My safe has been trapped with a very subtle trapwire that you triggered!"
"No it wasn't."
"Yes it was!"
"No it wasn't."
"YES IT WAS! What do YOU know about my safe?!"
A lot actually. If the safe was truly tripwired, his analyze spell would have caught it. If it had any physical mechanism in place or some security spell on it, analyze would have told him about it. But it didn't. So there was only one conclusion Roko could see. There was no trap. Lichas was hiding something. Come to think of it, these knights did seem to react pretty quickly. They had barely had any time to snoop around and there were no guards helping out, no police to arrest them. Just a private army that mobilized very efficiently if what they said were to be believed. And Roko didn't believe that. So that meant...Sirius was behind this? That was the only conclusion he could think of. Sirius somehow knew or detected their intrusion in advance and rallied his personal army and informed Lichas after they arrived. So Sirius was aware of their presence. So where were the Planetary Stars?
"So why aren't you moving?" Roko asked as he moved around to behind Lichas.
"That's all your fault!" Lichas cried, still unable to move to see Roko, "One of you bastards sneaked up on me and nicked me with a poisonous blade so I can't move!"
Kaguya. She WAS notably absent from all the fighting. Roko just thought she was hiding out but it seems like she was still working in the background.
"What did she ask of you?" Roko asked.
"What else?! Where the poison is!"
"Thanks for saying that. Now I've got it all recorded as proof."
"You bastard!"
Roko had no such recording but it didn't hurt to jostle this man around a little.
"Where is the poison?"
"I'm not telling you too!"
"Well, that's fine. My friend will find it sooner or later. I'll just leave you here and look for her. If only I knew where she was going, I'd go straight there. Maybe even ask her for an antidote but since I don't, I guess I'll have to search the entire factory."
"T-The Inspection Center! We use it to inspect and ensure the quality of any incoming products!"
"And that's where you poison the food? How ironic." Roko scoffed, "Whatever. You just wait here while I get that poison. The antidote can wait."
"Why you little! Guards! Guards! Get this man, he's their leader!"
"Leader?! I'm on it sir!"
One of the Starry Knights ran forward to try and capture Roko only for Aranea to leap up and punch him in the face, sending him stumbling back as Roko continued on without even acknowledging them.
Walking to the back of the factory, below where the supervisor's office was the loading bay. Said loading bay was empty, a statement to how efficiently they worked. And over in the corner of their loading bay, was a small room labeled as the inspection center Roko was told about. A glorified office room with transparent windows to show off the inspectors working. Only at this time of night, there was nobody around. At least least until Roko stepped into the office and spotted Kaguya rummaging through some low cabinets.
"Find the poison yet?" Roko asked, walking up to the princess.
"In a way." Kaguya held up a small vial with clear liquid in it, not even looking up as she addressed Roko and focusing on shuffling through the cabinets contents, "Here is the venom they've been injecting all their produce with."
"But…?"
"But it's exactly what they're injecting their food with which means it's diluted. I'll say that only 0.78% of this vial is actually venom."
"Not good enough to help find a cure?"
"Not hardly."
"So we're looking for the non-diluted dose right now..." Roko sighed, "How is it this hard to track down one venom?"
"Any luck on your end?"
"I sneaked into Lichas' office. Found a dose but it turns out it's a different strain. An upgraded one. Don't know how useful that is."
"Hmmm..." Kaguya stood up, "All these poisons and still nothing of the original dose. What's going on?"
"Is it being supplied at diluted doses?" Roko mused, "Is that why the base venom isn't available?"
"Maybe." Kaguya crossed her arms, "But then how are they upgrading the venom without a clean sample to work off of?"
"Mmmh."
"Hm?" Roko looked down at Aranea who was pulling on his pants leg, "What's wrong?"
"Mm." Aranea held up a small brown bottle that was pretty big in her small hands.
"What's this?" Roko knelt down and took the bottle from her.
"I don't know..." Aranea looked down sadly.
"Where'd you find it?"
"Over there." Aranea pointed to the main inspection table where its drawers had been ransacked by the small girl, "It says 'Do Not Eat'."
"You read that?" Roko said, "Good job."
"Aww..." Kaguya smiled as Roko patted the small girl on the head, "So what is it?"
"Let's see..." Roko turned the bottle over to see it's label, "...Thallium."
"Thallium?" Kaguya said, "That's a dangerous find..."
"True..." Roko frowned as he stood back up, "What's a groceries packing factory doing with Thallium?"
"Hmmmm..." Kaguya said, an idea seeming to have sparked in her mind.
"Figure something out?" Roko asked.
"...Components probably?"
"Components?"
"Something Scabius taught me...well...on the side."
"Alchemy then?" Roko guessed.
"Yes. He didn't tell me about remaking venoms in particular but he did teach me about components and mixing them using alchemy to create new substances."
"So you're saying..."
"The base strain we're looking for might be alchemized and then diluted." Kaguya nodded, "The deadlier strain you're holding might be one of the base components."
"And Thallium the other?"
"Perhaps. We'll have to look all over for any further components before-"
And that's when the factory started exploding.