Translator: Wuxia Dog Editor: Wuxia Dog
When a woman dressed in a long purple dress gracefully came in, the room paused. They sat there calmly and leisurely. Though Sunier was embarrassed, no one saw her expression behind her mask.
“You are…” Han Jin stood up while smiling, and cast a glance at the woman and the guards behind her. She looked dignified, delicate, and appropriately dressed, but the guards looked weird with their heavy armor and iron helmets like knights. This was not a fighting ground, and such outfits only aroused vigilance.
“Are you Young Marshal Reg?” the woman asked in a blunt tone. “I am Gloria, granddaughter of Woodrow, the chief sheriff of Beit City.”
Han Jin was shocked. The woman named Gloria continued, “Three days ago, your knights attacked my family’s trade caravan. I come here today to get an explanation!”
Upon hearing this, Han Jin didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The plot he had imagined was totally different from this. Woodrow was a shrewd man, so his son, Chasel, should have more or less inherited his wisdom. Since Berger was still being controlled by them, it was normal for Chasel to send someone here to inquiry about the situation. But his daughter, his messenger, should have at least tried to find out whether Berger had already confessed or not from their negotiation, instead of being so frank the moment she stepped in.
Han Jin had disguised himself as Reg, because he was afraid that Reg would give away the game. Han Jin’s plan was to deal with the visitor courteously but without any sincerity. No matter the extent of the negotiations, the fact that Berger had confessed everything should never be leaked out. Only this way would Woodrow still think that his plan was undisclosed, and thus wouldn’t take any drastic actions.
Han Jin was not afraid of meeting a clever one, but it was nothing to negotiate with a fool. The atmosphere turned awkward. He was still thinking about how to deal with her by polite formulas. She had already directly exposed her intention, which was as if she had just stripped herself bare in front of them. Such frankness was just like Berger’s confession, or even worse; at least Berger hadn’t said anything until he was tortured. Now, even if Han Jin still wanted to play the fool, he couldn’t do so as the more he tried to hide, the higher the possibility of more information being exposed.
Not only was Han Jin stunned, but Reg, Sunier, and Cessacioun were all stunned as well. Reg cast a glance at Han Jin as if telling him that such an idiot was nothing to be afraid of!
Thinking that had she had forestalled her opponents by a show of strength, the woman revealed a wisp of cold light in her eyes. She continued in a slow tone, “And my brother, Berger, is he being held hostage here? I want to see him! Humph… you better make sure that he is not hurt. Otherwise, you will pay the price! Don’t forget that my grandfather Woodrow is the chief sheriff and a tenth-grade archimage!”
Han Jin looked at Sunier and the others, and they also looked at him. They had confusion written all over their faces. The saying ‘Like father, like son’ was definitely not always true. Woodrow was not a territory owner yet. Even if he had controlled the entire Beitman, he should have at least tried to avoid any internal contradictions among the ruling class.
“Shame on you!” Keeley suddenly cursed. Woodrow had robbed all of the wealth that had belonged to Morgan Commercial Corp. It was understandable for her to be frustrated.
“What?” The woman called Gloria raised her eyebrows and shouted angrily. “I dare you to say it again?”
“A pheasant is desperately flapping its tail to show off its gorgeous feathers. Have a guess, what will you see?” Moxinke narrowed his eyes and asked.
“What?” Cessacioun asked curiously.
“An asshole! Ha ha ha…” Moxinke laughed carelessly.
The whole room broke out in a riot of laughter, and even Han Jin and Sunier couldn’t help laughing. The woman’s face alternatively turned blue and white. “It seems that you have made your decision to go against us!” she icily said.
“Does your grandfather or your father know that you came here to negotiate with us?” Han Jin asked in a sympathetic tone. Even a stupid playboy would not do such a stupid thing. Han Jin didn’t know how to describe the woman standing in front of him. An Idiot? Or a fool? He used to think it was an exaggeration to describe a person to be more foolish than a pig, but now he knew that everything was possible.
The woman did not answer him. Her vicious eyes glanced at the laughing Moxinke and Cessacioun. “You will pay the price for this!” she said word by word in a slow tone, trying to frighten her enemies and brand her words deep in their hearts and even their souls. Her mouth forcefully opened and closed, while her teeth gnashed.
“It’s indeed very alike,” Reg suddenly said.
Though his words were hard to be understood literally, all of them knew what he was talking about when they looked in the direction that he was referring to, and saw the blood-red little mouth of Gloria. Laughter burst out again throughout the room. Moxinke was even out of breath and punched Reg on his back. Sunier and Keeley thought that the men were too rude and vulgar, but they still couldn’t help laughing.
The woman trembled with anger. Han Jin doubted whether she knew what they are laughing at or not. Maybe she was just angry at their discourteousness.
“I hope you know what you are doing!” Her voice trembled too. “You have offended the wrong person! I can assure you that the anger of Woodrow, a tenth-grade archimage, is not something you can bear!!” she said with her teeth grinding. The only reason for her arrogance was that she had a strong and powerful grandfather, but if Han Jin and the others still showed no respect for her, all she could do was play with her lips, which were exactly what they are laughing at.
“Then go back and tell Mr. Woodrow that we are eager to see his anger outburst. He will have to vent it through other ways if bloody knight General Gerald comes.” Cessacioun laughed. He despised those who strutted in borrowed plumes, and therefore mentioned the name of the General to return the favour.
The minute the name ‘Gerald’ was mentioned, the guards behind Gloria all froze. They were all afraid of him – the most well-known general of Dismark and a bloodthirsty man. A tree has its shadow, and a man has his name. But Gloria just loudly sneered, “Bloody knight General Gerald? I don’t care who he is!”
Han Jin let out a sigh and stood up, shaking his head. No matter how patient he was, he couldn’t continue to talk with such a brainless woman anymore.
“I shall go back to rest. She’s all yours,” Han Jin said to Reg.
“You said you would deal with this. A man should fit his deeds to his words,” Reg refused.
“Alas… it’s so funny that my stomach aches from laughing.” Moxinke lazily stood up but dashed forward all of a sudden and put his giant sword on Gloria’s neck.
His attack was too fast for them to react. Before they realized what had happened, the sword was already resting on her neck. The guards immediately unsheathed their swords and roared, “What are you going to do? Let Lady Gloria go! Bastard…”
Moxinke said nothing but turned his head to look at Han Jin. Han Jin kept quiet as well. About a minute later, he made a clear snap. Cessacioun immediately understood it and waved his hand. A thorn popped up from underground. The guard who had attacked, quickly moved backwards and dodged it. He didn’t dare to fight back, but said in an icy voice, “Lord Reg, we have come here to negotiate! We can continue if it goes on well. Otherwise, we will leave. Don’t you think it is too contemptible to do this?!”
Han Jin still kept silent. After a long while, he said, “You may go now.”
Moxinke took back his sword and regained a lazy look. The guards immediately stood in front of Gloria and moved backwards toward the door, step by step. “Don’t bother. If we really wanted to kill you, it would be no use even you came crawling back, so don’t bother with the ridiculous gait,” Han Jin said to them smilingly.
The guards cast an icy glance at him, turned around and left.
“Do you sympathize with these idiots?” Moxinke laughed.
“What’s wrong, Raphael? You look different!” Reg asked.
“Whatever you do, you must do it to the most appropriate extent. Otherwise, trouble will come,” Han Jin said. “Have you ever seen such a stupid woman?”
“No. You mean the woman…”
“Do you know the word ‘subconsciousness’?” Han Jin moved on in a slow tone. “For example, when you are walking down a street and a carriage suddenly dashes toward you or your beloved family or friends, you will dodge or protect them at top speed. You won’t even know what you did after the fact. But if the carriage was dashing toward someone you don’t know or care about, your reaction will be much slower. This is called the subconsciousness – something that is beyond your control.”
They all listened carefully. What Han Jin explained was something that they had never heard of. Even if they had similar experiences, they didn’t have the systematic knowledge to explain it.
“The guards reacted too slowly when Moxinke attacked the woman, but it was different when Cessacioun released the thorn.” Han Jin paused. “So…”
“So what?” Moxinke asked curiously.
“We should take action now.”
“But…” Sunier hesitated. “If there is really something wrong, what is their purpose? To let the woman leak out all of their secrets to us?”
“Secrets?” Han Jin showed a smile. As a detective, he knew better than anyone about ratiocination. When a situation hits its bottleneck, the detective must put forward as many assumptions as possible in search of inspiration. “If they already know what has happened here, is it still a secret?”
“You mean, we have hidden traitors here?” Ronning suddenly stood up.
“Rudolph has been here for a long time. How would it be possible for him not to have fostered his own followers?” Reg said in an icy tone.
