13 Mink Street

Nio focused on arranging the white roses atop the grave. After standing there with him for a while, Karon turned and walked away, leaving the place to Nio and Elisa.

When he returned to the groundskeeper’s hut, Saman, who had just finished washing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, was cleaning his pipe. When he saw Karon walking back, the old man smiled and greeted him, “Oh? You made it back alive.”

Karon stood where he was and once again carefully sized up the elderly groundskeeper.

“What are you staring at?” Saman irritably asked.

Karon sat down on the steps. He looked around, and then asked, “How long have you been working here by yourself?”

“Almost thirty years.”

“That couldn’t have been easy.”

“I don’t think so. These thirty years have been very steady.”

“Retiring soon?”

“Yes, soon.”

“No children?”

“None.”

“That’s rather sad.”

“That’s not necessarily true. A lot of people with children are actually more pitiful in their old age.”

“That’s true too.”

“Why are you asking all this?”

“Pavaro Funeral Home could use an extra hand. Once you retire, you can come work there. The job isn’t demanding, and the pay is good.”

Saman immediately shook his head. “No, no, I’m done. At my age, and you’re still thinking of squeezing labor out of me?”

“Some old people feel physically worse after retirement, as they have nothing to do. I’m worried you won’t be able to get used to it.”

“I’m not going; definitely not!” Saman shook his head firmly. “Retirement is retirement. I want to rest properly. I don’t want to keep wearing myself out.”

“Fine then. You look rather pitiful, so I’ll come make dinner for you every night from now on.”

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Saman’s mouth. He turned his head to look at Karon, only to find the young sitting there, head tilted back as he intently stared up at the night sky. “Heh, so this was all just you laying the groundwork? You’ve started coveting my old furniture and old appliances in the hut, eh?”

“No. My hands just itch and I want to cook for you.”

“You’re a handsome enough boy, but how can your skin be so thick?”

“I can’t help it. I constantly have to reject young ladies’ confessions. After enough time, it’s hard for my skin not to get thick.”

“That’s truly shameless.” Saman asked suspiciously, “Are your elders like this too?”

Karon thought of Pu’er’s evaluation of the young Tiz. “My grandpa was the same when he was young.”

“No wonder. It’s inherited.”

“Probably.”

“And now? Is your grandfather still the same as before?”

“He’s old now, so he naturally isn’t like this anymore.”

“Yes, youth is still better. Back then, there weren’t so many thoughts. As you get old, it looks like you’ve let go of many things, yet when you want to pick something back up again, you find that your waist hurts so badly that you can’t even bend over.”

“What would you like to eat tomorrow? I’m very good at making fish.”

“Really?”

“My cat likes it very much.”

“Heh. If you had agreed right away when I asked earlier, it would have been much more interesting, rather than trying to make up for it now. It always feels like something is missing. How should I put it? It’s like it’s not as natural and there’s more deliberate effort.”

“It’s hard to make food taste good without seasoning.”

“That seems true too. But that person really let you off just like that?”

“What else? Did you think he’d simply kill me?”

“I originally thought there was a strong possibility of that, because what you did was very serious. It was practically slapping the dignity of a church.” Saman chose to be blunt about things.

“How did you know? I don’t think you were that familiar with Pavaro.” This was because in Mr. Pavaro’s work notebook, there was no mention of this old man. Given Mr. Pavaro’s meticulous work habits, if he had discovered anything special about Saman, he definitely would have made a note of it. Even Lemar’s Pottery Studio had been recorded in the notebooks.

“I’m the property manager here, while they are the residents here.”

“But they’re buried underground.”

“Do residents living in apartments never go outside?” Saman asked in return.

“That sounds more like a line I should be saying. You also believe in Order?”

“To a certain extent, yes. What I believe in is the beauty of overlapping space. Of course, the orderly arrangement of space is also a kind of beauty.”

“Space...” Karon suddenly thought of something.

Saman placed both hands before his chest and said sincerely, “Praise Pamireth.”

Karon fell silent.

“So, you know the Church of Pamireth?”

“A very great church.”

“Hm?” Saman seemed puzzled. “Words like that shouldn’t come from the mouth of someone who believes in Order.”

“Does Nio know your identity?”

“Of course. Why else would he come here every night?”

“Oh, I see.”

“Reassured now?” Saman smiled. “Were you just afraid of me?”

“A little, but not too seriously.”

“You’ve also seen which way the wind is blowing?”

“I subscribed to a newspaper recently. That’s where I saw it.”

“Yes, I also saw it in the newspaper.” Saman patted the dust off his pant legs. “Funny, isn’t it? If I hadn’t read the paper, I wouldn’t even know I’d already become so dangerous.”

“Perhaps there will still be a turning point. Right now they’re only letting out a bit of wind.”

“That will be difficult. Since they’ve already stirred up the wind, if they don’t actually do something, they’ll lose face.”

Karon nodded. The spark had already been struck. If it ultimately failed to ignite, the authority of the Church of Order would suffer because of it, and the whole purpose of lighting this fire was to rebuild that authority. “So when you said retirement, that’s what you meant?”

“Something like that.” Saman lit his pipe and took two puffs. The tobacco within the bowl glowed and dimmed. “That Nio is very interesting, and you’re also very interesting. Then again, interesting people don’t kill interesting people. Still, you ought to thank me properly. Every time he came over these last days, I’ve said quite a few good things about you to him.”

“Thank you.”

“Make some fish. I actually like fish very much.”

“Alright.” Karon turned back and pointed at the hut. “And the things inside?”

“Once all the food you brought this time is eaten up, that refrigerator won’t be of much use anymore. You can take the fridge back with you. It still works if you plug it in, it just makes a lot of noise.”

“You’re old. Your sleep definitely isn’t very good.”

“So?”

“My house was just renovated, and we replaced the appliances. Tomorrow morning, I’ll have someone bring over my new refrigerator and swap it with your old one, so that you can sleep well.”

Saman quietly stared at Karon without blinking. Karon still returned the old man’s gaze with an open, calm smile.

“I’m very curious; How do you manage to be both so proper and so shameless at the same time?”

“You’ve been slandering my concern for you all night.”

“My temper has gotten better these past years. If it were the younger me, upon meeting a little brat like you, I’d probably have thrown him into a wooden barrel, and whenever I got bored at night, I’d open the lid and make him chat with me to relieve the tedium.”

“I think you could choose somewhere with a bit more class.”

“You really are different from Pavaro, and that fellow who comes over every day to freeload food is also different from Pavaro.”

“Mr. Pavaro didn’t know your identity, did he?”

“Of course not. Though he did help repair this hut several times. That man looked greasy, as though he didn’t much like bathing, and he didn’t pay much attention to his appearance, but he had a good heart.”

“Yes.” Karon remembered the rels Mr. Pavaro had stuffed into his hand to pay Alfred’s hospital bills after the tram explosion.

“If he had been a bit more like you, he wouldn’t have died so early.”

“I’ll take that as a blessing you’ve given me.”

Saman suddenly leaned in toward Karon, his fingers settling over two holes on the flute tucked against his chest. In the next instant, a piercing note burst forth, and the surrounding space was cut off by the burst of sound. “Be careful of your captain, because I can sense that he is skirting the edge of derangement.”

Karon’s head snapped up and he stared at Saman.

Pop! The melody dispersed, and the surroundings returned to silence. The old man took two more puffs from his pipe, and then blew out a stream of white smoke. He coughed once, and then spat onto the ground. “My life has clearly become very meaningless, yet I’ve never had any thought of wanting to die. On the contrary, I need to live with even more enthusiasm than before.”

“Absolutely?” Karon asked.

“Of course not absolutely. But I can sense the signs in myself. It feels like I’m no longer living for myself, yet when compared to when I lived for myself, I am even more proactive and resolute. Heh heh, there isn’t even the slightest bit of confusion. Do you think I’m sick?”

“Can it be treated?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t know. The residents lying here have no need to hire doctors, and I don’t understand it either. In this world, who can say anything for sure. What if... there is a miracle? Of course, you can also take this as me sowing discord. I certainly have sufficient motives to do that.”

Karon shook his head.

“Oh? You trust me that much?” Saman seemed rather curious.

“Are you trying to drive a wedge between me and him because you’re too full and have nothing better to do?” If a person wanted to sow discord, they needed to at least do it between two parties of roughly similar scale. If the gap between them was too obvious, then what was the point of stirring trouble only to be slapped to death?

“Hiss... True, that does make a lot of sense.” Saman smiled. “But do you know what the clearest point is?”

“What?”

“She lies here, while you sit here.”

Karon fell silent.

“Of course, you can also interpret it as her lying here changed him, which in turn allows you to sit here. But that kind of change wasn’t simply for your sake. It’s like if someone frequently gets unexplained nosebleeds, then the problem probably isn’t just with the nose. There is another possibility, a possibility that can only exist in theory.”

“What possibility?”

“It looks like she changed him, but theoretically, didn’t you also appear when something happened to her? And you, brat, are indeed quite good-looking, so...” A teasing smile appeared on Saman’s face. “So, could it be that contact with you is what changed him?”

Karon rolled his eyes at Saman. “We’re going to eat a late-night meal in a while. Save some room for yourself.”

“Mhmm, indeed. I’m not fond of that sort of thing either. The posters of glamorous female stars covering my bedroom walls can testify for me.”

Karon ignored the old man and silently looked back at the steps in front of him.

Saman also said nothing more and quietly smoked his pipe. This continued until Nio emerged from the darkness in the distance. Karon stood up and asked, “Captain, shall I prepare the late-night meal now?”

“Yes.” Nio nodded.

Karon went into the kitchen and began preparing it. Before long, he brought the food out. It was a simple meal, consisting of three large bowls of chili oil noodles. He had brought the noodles with him, while the rest of the ingredients had been in the hut’s kitchen.

The three men sat around a small table and began eating noodles. Saman took the initiative to say, “This brat has agreed to come make me a meal every night from now on.”

Nio nodded. “Before slaughtering poultry, one naturally fattens it up first.”

Saman ran his tongue along his teeth, his lips moving nonstop toward Nio, silently cursing the man.

Nio did not care and simply continued eating his noodles. After finishing, he stood up and looked at Karon. “Shall we head back together?”

“Alright, Captain, I’ll drive you.” Karon was about to get in the driver’s seat when he saw Nio move to it first, so Karon could only circle back around to sit in the passenger seat.

After Nio drove the car away, Saman walked over and closed the cemetery’s rusted iron gate. He rubbed his belly. “Those noodles were good, but there just wasn’t enough. That brat didn’t even know to make more.”

Cleaning up the table, Saman returned to the kitchen and saw that there was still one bowl of oil-splashed noodles there, prepared and with several peeled cloves of garlic placed beside it. He couldn’t help but smile. “That brat.”

***

“He told you everything?” Nio asked while driving.

“Yes. He said he is a believer of Pamireth. So, Captain, are you scouting in advance?”

“He won’t run,” Nio said.

“Then you...”

“But he has the ability to help others escape, so I come to watch him every day.”

“And if orders come down from above?”

“Then he will be our squad’s first target,” Nio stated very calmly. “You don’t need to be unable to bring yourself to strike, because he will choose to attack you first.”

“That’s... not bad.”

“In any case, everything waits until official orders come down from above. It’s been a very long time since the church issued such a divine decree.” Although the Church of Order had long stood alone at the top during the current epoch, the period when it had been the most active had actually been during the previous epoch.

In the previous epoch, once the Church of Light had designated a church as being heretical, the first to respond and the first to act had often been the Church of Order. In the mythic narratives of many churches there is a sentence recorded: “Light awakened Order.”

Yet there was actually another sentence beneath that line. However, with the elimination of Light in the current epoch and the true rise of Order, even other orthodox churches had no choice but to remove it out of deference to Order’s authority.

So in the previous epoch, this part of the narrative in many churches had actually been: “Light awakened Order; let Order protect Light.”

Nio kept driving, and only after quite a long stretch of silence did Karon take the initiative to ask, “Captain, don’t you have anything you want to ask me?”

“What would I ask you?” Nio shook his head. “I already told you that every person in my squad has their own secrets. I also said that I won’t actively investigate your secrets, and even that I trust Inquisitor Pavaro’s choice.”

After a pause, Nio asked, “Are those reasons still not enough? Do they still need supplementing?”

“They’re enough, more than enough.”

“The arrest operation will take place in two day– Oh, it’s already past midnight now, so one day from now. The location is an inconspicuous smuggling dock. What is your reason to insist on participating?”

“Mr. Gray said that what I need now are real fights to improve.”

“Tell me the truth.”

“To avenge ‘Light’ and ‘the tenderness of the sea,’ I suppose. I want to do my part.”

“Bringing that kind of personal emotional factor into an operational plan is extremely foolish, as it interferes with setting the optimal battle-loss ratio and profit ratio.”

But Captain, you already agreed, didn’t you? Karon did not ask that directly. If the captain was looking for a reason to change his mind, that would be troublesome.

At that moment, Nio glanced at Karon and continued, “What you should say is that you now have something like the same impulse as at the gas station when you fired your gun and drove those two pitiful fellows into following you into the little forest. Aren’t you already impatient to try something again?”

“Yes.”

“Mm. That’s a fitting reason, because it serves the involved interests. Understand?”

“I understand, Captain.”

“Because this isn’t an operation involving the whole squad, there won’t be a unified assembly. Tomorrow night at eight, Marone Dock.”

“I’ll remember it, Captain.”

“I’m almost home and will get out here. You can drive back yourself.”

“Alright, Captain.”

Nio’s figure turned into black mist and flew out of the car window. Karon got out of the passenger seat, walked around the front of the car, and climbed into the driver’s seat. With one hand resting on the steering wheel, he spoke to the empty passenger seat beside him, “I have something to do first, Alfred. You can drive the car home by yourself.”

After saying that, Karon’s fingers kept twitching as he stretched them out the car window.

Then he laughed to himself. Pu’er was right. Once he became an Inquisitor, he absolutely had to learn that Art first.

He restarted the car. Upon looking around, he realized that he was not far from Santor Tower, which meant that he was also near the psychology clinic where he used to work. “So the Captain lives in the city center.”

Karon drove onto King’s Avenue. He hesitated a little, and then turned into Second Street. Since he was already so close, he might as well stop by the pottery studio. He had already instructed Allen Manor to sell raw materials to Lemar, so the cooperation should have already been settled.

He parked in front of the studio, got out and walked over. He pushed on the door, only to find it locked. It was so late that the place had been closed for a long time.

Just as Karon turned to leave, the light inside suddenly came on, and Serena, dressed in a cute pink nightgown, happily came running over to open the door. “Ha ha! Karon, you came to see me, right!”

“Of course...”

“You knew my brother isn’t home tonight, so you purposely came this late to see me, right!”

“Of course not.”

But Serena just grabbed his arm. “Come on, come on! Come in and play! My brother went on a date with a councilman’s wife tonight. He told me to stay in his workshop and help him organize materials. Come on, Karon, I’ll take you into my brother’s workshop for a look.”

“That doesn’t seem appropriate, does it?”

“It’s nothing. My brother recently got a supply of materials from some family, so his hands are quite flush right now. Come on, come on.”

Pulled along by Serena, Karon was brought to the basement workshop. The moment he entered, Karon’s attention was drawn to a doll of a little boy. He had the feeling that when he entered, the doll was already looking at him.

“Come here, I’ll take you into my brother’s collection room.” Serena opened a door, revealing a very deep space inside. “Come in, Karon.”

Karon bent low and walked in. After going deeper, the space suddenly opened up. There were many dolls on the floor. Most of them were already quite old, and some of them even had age spots growing on them. When he approached a young doll, he could sense its vitality. When he approached an aged doll, he could experience the feeling of decline in old age.

That was despite the fact that all of these dolls stood completely motionless.

Serena kept introducing her brother’s collection to Karon. When they reached a row of framed portrait paintings of human faces, Karon stopped. “Serena, are these portraits of your ancestors?”

“No, no. These are portraits of my brother’s clients. My brother is very bad. When he makes masks for clients, he keeps an impression of one face and puts it here for his own appreciation, and the masks that cost more and consume more effort to make, he puts the client’s portrait to the front. My brother is very snobbish, so I’ve always felt he isn’t an artist at all, even though he insists he is.

“Look! Look! Second in the first row, that one’s a portrait of the mask my brother made for you last time, Karon.”

Karon saw Mr. Pavaro’s portrait hanging there. He then looked at the portrait ranked first, and his expression instantly changed.

Seeing where he was looking, Serena immediately said, “No, no, Karon, please don’t misunderstand. The materials my brother used for your mask were very good, and I personally checked them. The only reason it can’t compare to the first one is because back then, someone used my life to threaten my brother into making him a mask, so for my sake, my brother had no choice but to use the very best materials to make it. That’s why his portrait is ranked first. And that’s also a very important reason my brother has always disliked the Church of Order.”

Karon’s gaze froze.

The face in the portrait was Nio’s.