Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Surrender?” Han Jin faintly smiled and glanced at Hogan. He then shifted his attention toward the sky where swarms of gargoyles still hovered in the sky.
Cessacioun would have loved to be there. He was not only a magician, but also a bard. In some ways, he would even prefer the latter. Ever since he was little, he had been interested in all kinds of stories; be it epic tales of heroes or suspenseful adventures, a good story would always enthrall him. He admired the heroes in those magnificent poems and dreamed to be part of their team, even if he only played a minor role.
Unfortunately, Cessacioun was not present to witness this scene, or he would have been even more excited than Sunier.
He chatted with the girl he escorted as they walked together. After some time, the girl suddenly ran to the side, grabbed a fistful of snow, and rubbed it on her face.
“What did you do that for?” Cessacioun said in a surprised voice.
“My mom will be sad if she sees the bruise on my face.” The girl started to rub the snow even harder. Since the air was frigid and she didn’t wear much, her face had already turned red from the cold. It was a wonder that she even had the resolve to rub more snow on her face, but judging by her grimace, it wasn’t a great feeling.
The girl then ran back and asked while pointing at her own face, “Can you still see the bruise?”
Cessacioun closely looked at her face. The five bruise marks from the slap formed a stark contrast with her otherwise red face, and they were impossible to miss.
Before Cessacioun could speak, the girl noticed the bruise on her arm as well, and immediately ran back to the side with a yelp before starting to rub her arm with snow.
“Evil men…”
“Those damned…”
The girl muttered as she rubbed. Though she chose to stay silent in the face of violence, it didn’t mean she did not hate. She simply could not show it at the time.
Cessacioun suddenly remembered he still had magic scrolls for healing with him – the ones that Yalina had made with a few other deacons. He quickly waved his hand at the girl. “No need to go through all that trouble. Come here, I’ll help you.”
The girl stood up with doubt in her mind and walked toward Cessacioun while blowing into her hands. At this point, her hands were as red as her face.
Cessacioun flung out the scroll, and a flash of white light landed on the girl. However, it was met by a surprised shout from the girl, “No….”
Cessacioun was startled as well, but the scroll had been activated and there wasn’t a way to stop it. “What’s the matter?”
“I… I don’t have the money to pay you,” the girl timidly said.
Cessacioun didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. “I’m not going to charge you! Why are you so afraid?”
“You won’t charge me?” The girl’s eyes turned suspicious. She quietly took a step back and unconsciously crossed her arms in front of her chest as if to protect herself.
Her alertness was very much necessary, and although it might have appeared rude, she had her reasons. Ever since her family had fallen into poverty, other men had offered her help before, but all of them had their own motive. The Dauncy that had beat her up today was a classic example. She had firmly refused his advances, which was why he had started to find every opportunity to make her life hard in the first place. Growing up in such a vicious environment, she had matured quite fast. In her mind, no one was ever sincere in this world, and there must be a price for everything. This was why she had subconsciously grouped Cessacioun in with everyone else that had already tried to take advantage of her.
Living at the bottom of the society and only dealing with men of little power but great egos, it was natural for the girl to think like that. She had not yet learned that, sometimes, when being generous cost close to nothing, there were indeed people willing to help. Besides, not everyone was after her looks – at least, Cessacioun wasn’t.
Sunier and Yalina were both world-class beauties, and Edwina and Julia were pretty as well. Even though Cessacioun wouldn’t be more than a friend to them, his standard had naturally been raised higher as he had become accustomed to being around girls like that. It was truly unfortunate for him too. Where would he find a pretty girl that wasn’t surrounded by a crowd of suitors? Cessacioun’s future relationship was bound to be a stiff struggle.
Cessacioun shrugged. “Hurry up, my captain is still waiting for me.” He noticed the change in the girl’s face and decided he might as well explain everything: my captain made me escort you, so you have nothing to worry about.
“Oh,” the girl softly said. She then thought of something, “Please be careful! Dauncy’s uncle is an evil man!”
“Him?” Cessacioun coldly smiled. “He’s irrelevant!”
“Is your captain… really powerful?” the girl cautiously asked.
“He might just be the most powerful in this city,” Cessacioun smiled. He said that because he was confident in Han Jin. How powerful was Han Jin when they met? How powerful was he now?! He had faith that what he said would eventually. become a reality
“Liar!” The girl shook her head. “Is your captain even more powerful than Master Dwightsteel and Master Winston?”
“Do you know who Dwightsteel and Winston are?”
“Of course I do! Everyone in Isolated Cliff City knows them!”
“Then do you know who stepped up to help you today?”
“…” The girl blinked her eyes in confusion.
“The last two to speak out were Dwightsteel and Winston.”
The girl was immediately embarrassed. She rarely boasted, neither did she have chances to boast, and when she finally saw an opportunity to do so today, she was immediately exposed. It wasn’t a good feeling… All she wanted to do now was to dig a hole in the snow and never come out.
“Haha… Let’s go,” Cessacioun said with a laugh.
The girl started to act more chatty and comfortable around Cessacioun after that, and after about fifteen minutes, she pointed at a house with a big courtyard and said in a soft voice, “That’s my home.”
Cessacioun blanked for a moment. Judging by the girl’s clothing, she was living in poverty, but that courtyard did not look like something a poor family could ever afford.
“That is your home?”
“Mhm.”
“Why not sell the house, then… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude, it’s just…”
“I understand.” The girl whispered, “Mother didn’t want to sell it. She said father grew up here, and she could see his memory everywhere she went. It’s just… she didn’t believe that father had left us. She always said he would come back one day, and if we sell the house, he wouldn’t be able to find us.”
“Your father is a mercenary?”
“Mhm.” The girl slightly nodded. “You men… like to lie, right?”
“Huh? What is that supposed to mean?” Cessacioun wearily smiled.
“My father was always kind to me, but he also lied! He said… he would accept one last task to save money for my marriage, but… but he…” The girl couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence as tears flowed out of her eyes.
Cessacioun sighed. Saying that one would take on a ‘last’ task was a taboo among mercenaries. Of course, he must have had his reasons too. If a task was so tempting that a mercenary was to leave retirement to complete it, the reward, and in turn, the risk involved, were bound to be abnormally high. Death in such a mission was probably something to be expected. At this point, Cessacioun had already painted a scene in his head: An old mercenary with greying hair sitting at a bar and promising, ‘Deal, this will be my last mission!’ Usually, people who said that did not return.
The girl had already walked up to the door. She turned her head and said, “Sir… would you like to have some water? Please forgive me, we don’t really have anything else left to show our gratitude.”
“No, I…” Cessacioun was about to refuse when he noticed something odd. Footprints littered the snow in front of the door, and all of them were too big to be that of a woman. The girl had said that she and her mom were the only ones who lived here, so where had those footprints come from?!
The door was suddenly kicked open, and Cromwell appeared from behind. He grabbed the girl’s hair then roughly pulled her in.
Cessacioun was instantly enraged. He had never expected Cromwell to be so despicable to the point where he would attack a girl. But just then, two more shapes appeared by his side, and two glistening knives promptly touched his throat. “I wouldn’t move if I were you.”
Cessacioun froze. He was here to escort the girl and hadn’t prepared for a battle at all. Such was the lethal and unavoidable weakness of a magician. After all, no one could live in a constant state of alert. Besides, the two thieves were at least as powerful as Gibran, and it would be trivial for them to take care of Cessacioun.
Cromwell coldly smiled as the two thieves pushed Cessacioun into the door, and a few mercenaries from the Mercenary Association tightly shut the door behind them. The girl was still screaming and struggling, which seemed to have annoyed Cromwell. He gave her stomach a kick, and the girl’s red face instantly turned pale. She curled up on the ground, and although her mouth was still moving, no sound came out.
Cromwell again grabbed the girl’s hair and dragged her into the living room. Dauncy and a few other mercenaries were there, as well as an elderly woman with white hair who sat weakly in the corner.
After she saw the girl being dragged in, she somehow found some strength and fiercely dove toward her. “Release my daughter! What more do you want…”
Dauncy had been venomously staring at the girl ever since she had appeared, and the elderly woman’s shout finally ignited his anger. He abruptly stood up, grabbed his stool, and swung it at the elderly woman’s head. This wasn’t the main street, so he could do whatever he wanted. Besides, they were here to murder in the first place, so what did he have to worry about?
The stool connected with a bam. The elderly woman was sick to begin with, and had no way to defend herself. She blacked out on the spot, but Dauncy didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping and even went on to smash her head even harder. Bam… bam… With a few hits, blood streamed out from her head and covered the ground.
“Mom…” The girl jumped up as if she were struck by lightning. Flinging her arms and charging forward with her hair unbound, she looked like a complete lunatic.
Dauncy sinisterly smiled and swung the stool at the girl. After a sickening bam, it slammed into the girl’s chest. Her whole body shook from the impact as she fell backward onto the ground, her face and mouth covered in blood.
“Mom… mom…” The girl spent her last shred of strength to flip herself and crawl toward the elderly woman.
“Tie her up and gag her. I’m tired of her screaming,” Cromwell coldly said.
Witnessing all that violence first hand, Cessacioun shook from anger. Through gritted teeth, he pushed out a sentence word by word, “Are you… beast or human?”
“Ha…” Cromwell laughed but didn’t speak.
At that moment, someone pushed open the door to the living room. A mercenary hurried in and reported, “My Lord, something’s wrong!”
“What?” Cromwell blanked.
“The sky… the sky is covered by an army of gargoyles! They seem to be going toward the arena!” the mercenary said while catching his breath. “All the mercenaries in the city are going there with their weapons. My Lord, should we…”
Cromwell considered it for a moment. “Master Juventus is at the arena; what could go wrong. Besides… haha, if everyone’s distracted by that, wouldn’t it benefit us?” After that, Cromwell glanced at Cessacioun with interest. “Bloke, no self-introduction?”
Cessacioun’s face was livid as he coldly stared at Cromwell.
“I don’t have time for nonsense,” Cromwell slowly said. “Tell me, where did that girl flee to?”
“What girl?”
“Don’t make this hard on yourself!” Cromwell’s face darkened. “You know which girl! The one that claims to be the heir to the Morgan Commercial Corp!”
Cessacioun had no idea what was going on, but he quickly caught on. In fact, Cessacioun was an intelligent man, but since he spent most of his time with Han Jin’s group, it wasn’t immediately obvious.
“So… you were tracking us,” Cessacioun coldly said.
“Smart of you.”
“And what is it that you want? The girl? Or the heir’s seal?”
“Both.” Cromwell smiled. “That’s the answer to your question, so now it’s your turn. Where is Lady Keeley?!” Han Jin had humiliated him so much today that he had lost his reputation. Combined with his mission, he had plenty of reasons to seek revenge!
It was really a twist of fate. If he hadn’t chosen to go down that street, he wouldn’t have met his nephew. If he didn’t hadn’t met his nephew, he would be in the arena helping Juventus keep order, and when he eventually witnessed Han Jin’s extravagant display of power, who knew if he would even have the courage to continue his mission? But unfortunately, he just had to go down the same street Han Jin had!
A year ago, Moxinke and the rest were ordinary mercenaries, and it was logical to assume not much would have changed in a year, hence why although Cromwell had his doubts. He still wrongly concluded that these people only knew Gibran and the rest by chance, which was the only reason why he was able to keep his confidence and continue to talk down to Cessacioun.
Cessacioun remained silent, but he was rapidly trying to come up with a solution.
“Kid, there’s no need to lose your life for someone else! You can go as soon as you tell us where Lady Keeley went. We will keep this secret for you; your friends will still be your friends, and no one else has to find out. Do you understand?” Cromwell attempted to tempt Cessacioun. “I’ll give you some more time. Carefully consider your actions!”
Cessacioun kept his silence. He didn’t want to anger Cromwell, and he planned to try his best at stalling. Cromwell stayed silent as well, because he thought he had the patience, and besides, it was impossible for Cessacioun to escape.
However, after a long time, Dauncy lost his patience. He approached Cromwell and whispered something. The latter considered it for a moment before nodding with a smile.
Dauncy let out a weird laugh and dragged the tightly tied up girl onto the table. He started to rub and pinch her body, but wasn’t satisfied since she couldn’t make any noise. In the end, he decided to simply ungag her.
The girl stared lifelessly at the ceiling. In truth, she couldn’t even feel Dauncy’s hand, because her mind was on the verge of collapsing. She didn’t even scream as Dauncy ungagged her, and only muttered ‘Mother… Mother…’ over and over again.
Dauncy again grabbed the girl’s breast and gave it a sudden twist, which finally made the girl scream.
“As long as you are still alive, haha…” Dauncy’s smile became even more triumphant.
“Kid, let me tell you a secret, my nephew… is not only into girls, but he also likes men. You know what I mean?” Cromwell smiled.
Dauncy blanked but quickly understood what his uncle had in mind. He purposefully put on a lustful face and started to look Cessacioun up and down as if he was about to force himself on him, which made Cessacioun shiver in disgust.
Suddenly, the sound of a giant explosion came from afar, and the ground even shook a little. Dust rained down from the ceiling – probably because it hadn’t been renovated in a long time.
The sound startled Cromwell. “What… what was that?”
The men in the room looked at each other, but no one knew what had happened. But before they could say anything, they heard a tsunami of cheers wash across the city.
“You two, go check out what happened,” Cromwell ordered, before looking back at Cessacioun. “Kid, have you made your decision? I have to warn you, I’m running out of patience!”
“Honestly, I…” Cessacioun slowly said. He was trying his best to earn himself more time. Han Jin was bound to get suspicious if he didn’t return, but he had to stall long enough for him to realize he was missing and find him!
“What?” Cromwell asked expectantly.
“Please give me more time. I need to carefully think.”
Cromwell hesitated but eventually nodded. “Alright! I hope you won’t disappoint me, or else… haha!”
Dauncy wanted to be done with this whole thing as fast as possible, but upon seeing the look on his uncle’s face, he knew what he should be doing. With a perverted laugh, he went back to twisting and pinching the girl to make her scream in an attempt to provoke Cessacioun.
