13 Mink Street

Early in the morning, Karon pressed a hot towel to his face. After a long while, he removed it and looked at the bloodshot lines in his eyes in the mirror. This was the result of too little sleep. This really was a prison. The longer one stayed here, the more haggard one became.

Fannie and Paige were dressed the same as yesterday. They were just as full-figured today as well. With this, even though they might occasionally tease him in a rather suggestive way, Karon found it difficult to feel any real dislike toward them. After all, stuffing a large amount of food beneath one’s clothes could not possibly be comfortable, yet they had taken the initiative to bring enough for all of them, and there was no need for Karon to stuff food into his own clothes.

Once he had finished straightening his clothes, Karon opened the door and saw Delius standing in the corridor. By old habit, Karon would normally be the one to knock and wait for him to come out. Delius was the one truly serving time here. Without Karon and the others accompanying him, he would not even be able to get into the elevator, much less leave this floor.

“Sir, are you ready?” Karon asked.

Delius nodded.

Karon led the way, and the group entered the elevator. This morning Richard was wearing a silver mask on his face. Although it was impossible to see his expression, the tension in his body made it clear that, because of that mask, his heart was even more stirred and surging than before.

When they reached the floor where the conference hall was located, the group entered the meeting room. The time was seven-thirty.

Delius went straight to the negotiating table, while Karon, Fannie, and Paige sat down in their usual places. People from both sides filed in one after another. Karon noticed that many of their priest’s robes bulged strangely, and quite a few were bulging most noticeably at the stomach, making it look as though the meetings had left a great number of them pregnant, regardless of gender. Clearly, two days of lessons had taught everyone to be flexible. There were many ways to go meet the gods, starving to death just wasn’t a very polite one.

Leon and Larry came in carrying document boxes. Presumably, those boxes contained more than just documents. After sitting down, the two of them even looked over at Karon and grinned.

In short, the details of the entire hall gave the whole scene a faintly absurd quality. Up at the table, the negotiators on both sides were arguing passionately for the life and death of the Church of Pamireth, while those seated below were each finding their own ways to ensure their personal survival. The reason for this phenomenon was still the imbalance created when security regulations, meeting regulations, and all manner of other regulations were operating at the same time. It was impossible to provide enough food for everyone on the floor, yet at the same time, no one except document custodians were allowed to bring boxes or bags inside.

The final result was that everyone sneaking food in had to do it like thieves, all while bearing a heavy burden of image and mentality.

But were the big figures seated above the table really unaware of this problem? They were certainly aware of it. It was simply that they were provided meals, and since it did not affect them, they were too lazy to adjust those regulations during the meeting. In any case, the people participating in the next negotiation might not even be them.

Karon even felt that when those seated above saw the personnel below starving to the point their chests clung to their backs, it probably gave them a certain sense of satisfaction.

As eight o’clock approached, both sides had fully assembled, and the meeting was about to begin, but just then, Delius stood up and left the negotiating table, heading toward the doors of the meeting hall.

Karon and the other two immediately rose and followed him out. Their protected target was entitled to privacy only while within his own quarters. Once he left that room, his close protection detail needed to follow him and could not allow him to leave their sight.

Many people inside the hall were puzzled by the sight.

Leon asked Larry beside him, “What’s he doing?”

Larry replied, “Maybe he realized right before the meeting started that he forgot to use the toilet?”

***

Delius did not head to the restroom, but in the opposite direction. There were two smaller side conference rooms here, though they were not actually used for meetings. They were used for communication arrays.

Both doors were tightly shut, but Delius walked straight to the door on the left. His figure twisted slightly, then passed directly through the door.

Karon, Paige, and Fannie followed him in. Once inside, Karon saw a ritual array on the floor, with more than a dozen blue gems floating above it. Several Pamireth priests were sorting through documents on a table beside the ritual array. When they saw Delius enter, they immediately saluted him, and the one at the front stepped forward and said, “Divine Progeny, we just activated the ritual array and were preparing to receive the feedback on the preliminary treaty draft submitted last night. The ritual array on the council’s side should already be active as well.”

“Send a request to the Pontiff. I require a personal audience.”

“Yes, Divine Progeny.” The Pamireth priests began adjusting the communication ritual array. “Divine Progeny, the request has been sent.”

Not long after that, they heard, “Divine Progeny, the Chief Executor has approved your request.”

“All right. You may all leave.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.” The Pamireth believers withdrew from the room, but Karon and the two women with him remained where they were.

Under normal circumstances, this kind of awkward situation would not arise. Usually, the protected target could simply have subordinates handle communication on his behalf. But this time, Delius wanted to personally conduct the audience. He could dismiss his own people, but he had no way to dismiss Karon and the other two. Even though it was inconvenient and made no sense at all, it was still effectively unavoidable.

This was just like how so many people in the conference hall had gone hungry for two days in a row. Once security regulations, meeting regulations, and the like collided, strange situations like this naturally emerged.

At the center of the ritual array, the gems emitted blue light, gathering into the image of a woman. Her projection was somewhat blurry, revealing only her general figure and clothing. She had long hair and a long dress. She was very tall, had a very slim waist, and a chest so enormous it bordered on the absurd.

Karon looked more closely before realizing that there were likely blue gems floating in front of her as well, directly in front of her chest, which caused the projected effect to simply overlap with them.

“Divine Progeny.”

“Chief Executor, please wake the Pontiff for me. I need a private audience.”

“The Pontiff just fell asleep. Is this urgent?”

“Yes. Very urgent.”

“All right. Please wait.” The woman in the ritual array stepped away, and about five minutes later, an old man’s figure appeared in the ritual array. Strangely, when he appeared, the image grew unbelievably clear, almost as though the real person had descended.

Karon was startled. His hands instinctively clenched, and Paige and Fannie made the same motion.

“Divine Progeny, I have read the preliminary treaty draft. You did very well. Do not concern yourself with what others think. So long as you hold to your original heart and do what you believe is right, that is enough.”

“Pontiff, I must report to you that someone is trying to sabotage the spatial prison. I believe there is a mole from the Church of Order inside the team maintaining the spatial prison ritual array.”

“Is this information reliable?”

“Absolutely reliable. They are preparing to destroy the spatial prison.”

“For what purpose?”

“I do not know.”

“I understand. I will immediately have the Chief Executor replace the ritual array maintenance squad.”

“Pontiff, it is also possible that the mole is inside the very squad that is about to be replaced.”

“Is that so...”

“Because it is very possible that even this matter of me reporting to you is already calculated into the enemy’s scheme.”

“What do you mean?”

“Withdraw the ritual array maintenance squad.”

“Then we lose control over the spatial prison. Without our concealment in place, the Church of Order’s Seventh Regiment inside will be able to contact their own people. At that point, they can simply return through the established teleportation array. Our bargaining chip... would be gone.”

“Pontiff, our Church of Pamireth never truly held much of a bargaining chip to begin with. Since the preliminary treaty draft has already been completed, it is time to allow the Seventh Regiment to leave.”

“But if this is only a preliminary draft, will the Church of Order refuse to acknowledge it and demand another round of revisions?”

“Even if the treaty were finalized, it would still be very easy for the Church of Order to deny it, because we are, by nature, unquestionably the weaker side.”

“Yes. You are right. I will immediately order the ritual array maintenance squad to withdraw. As for the negotiations, I can only trouble you to continue shouldering that hardship.”

“I will. For Pamireth!” Delius dropped to one knee.

“I am deeply gratified. Your devotion will pass into the letter, and in the end, be laid before the great Pamireth.”

The communication ended, and the old man’s figure vanished. Delius stood and walked toward the door. Karon and the other two followed closely behind him, and the group returned to the meeting hall. Delius returned to the negotiating table up top, while Karon and the other three sat down in their original places.

In front of the negotiating table, Wolfram was holding a document, which should be feedback from Order’s upper ranks regarding the preliminary treaty draft, but because Delius had occupied the communication array earlier, it was nearly ten minutes after his return before the Pamireth priest Karon had seen in the communication room finally delivered the feedback draft to Delius.

The man began reviewing it, and once he finished, he passed it to the other negotiators on his side. After they had reviewed and recorded everything, Delius looked at Wolfram, the Archbishop of the York City district, and said, “We may begin.”

Wolfram cleared his throat, lifted the document, and said, “Then let us go through the clauses one by one again and see where the two feedback drafts differ?”

Delius’s gaze swept over the negotiators seated across the table. However, when his eyes reached Bishop Byrne, they lingered for a little before he replied, “All right.”

And so they began to once again review the clauses one by one. After listening for a little over an hour, Karon saw Leon and Larry stand and leave for the restroom. Both of them glanced toward him. Hungry already?

Karon felt that they had likely not even eaten breakfast. Although Karon was not especially eager to curry favor with the two young masters, and though he understood the obvious gap in status between them and did not entertain any delusions about becoming true friends, it was still good, from the standpoint of the future, to deepen the impression of fellow inmates. Once they were all out of prison, those ties might turn out to be useful.

So Karon stood and left the meeting hall. There was no one at the restroom entrance, so he walked to the storage room and pushed that door open. The two men were sitting inside with several packets of fragrant food spread out on the table before them.

All of it was luxury food that could only be purchased with credits. Karon had eaten such meals just twice before, both times when he had managed to get into a banquet. This was definitely not part of Ankara Hotel’s standard reimbursable food supply. These two had unquestionably spent their own credits to order it.

So although Karon had eaten breakfast and was not yet hungry, he still sat down and started eating on account of the food itself.

Once this mission was over, he would have to spend some credits on high-end ingredients like these and cook something for Richard. After all, Richard was still Karon’s younger cousin. As the older one, he naturally had to take a little extra care of Richard. Once Karon spoiled the boy’s palate, Richard would then go buy the ingredients himself and come begging Karon to cook for him.

Karon remembered that the late-night snack Richard had gone out to buy when Karon went to his house had been fried chicken and chicken wraps... That was simply far too plain. It did not suit the noble young master of the Gorman family at all.

“What was the Divine Progeny doing in the communication room?” Larry asked, in a tone that sounded very casual.

Karon noticed that Leon had slowed his own chewing. His fingers even touched the napkin placed beside him, as though he was preparing to step in and smooth things over if Karon looked troubled and remained silent for too long.

“He held an audience with the Pontiff and informed the Pontiff that there is a mole in the squad maintaining the spatial prison that was trapping Elder Sithe and the Seventh Knight Regiment. The mole is prepared to destroy the ritual array and trigger the collapse of the spatial prison.

“He advised the Pontiff to recall that squad and not replace them at all, but to instead remove the concealment so that Elder Sithe and the Seventh Knight Regiment can contact our church and return through the teleportation array.”

“...” Leon.

“...” Larry. The two young masters silently stopped eating and simply stared at Karon, who after saying all that, was still calmly enjoying the food with obvious relish.

Leon smiled. “You really are something.”

Larry nodded too. “Yes. That’s right. A friend.”

It was clear that Karon’s directness and frankness had completely thrown the two of them off. They had intended to pry the information out of Karon.

Larry looked at Leon and asked, “Should we go tell your grandfather?”

Leon shook his head. “No need. The negotiations won’t change simply because Elder Sithe and the Seventh Knight Regiment have regained their freedom. At this stage, it can even be counted as a measure of goodwill on their part. To overturn yesterday’s treaty now would actually be even more inappropriate.”

“That’s true. Once Elder Sithe and the Seventh Knight Regiment come out, notification will arrive here immediately anyway. I already noticed it earlier; Your grandfather was deliberately dragging out the pace of the meeting.”

Leon glanced at Larry. “Isn’t the other side doing the same? The real question now is, which side’s power does that mole belong to?”

Karon glanced at Leon and shook his head. He did not say, “The mole is sitting in the meeting hall right now, beside your grandfather.”

The three soon finished eating. Since Karon was not actually hungry, he only sampled a bit of each dish. Leon and Larry, meanwhile, ate quite a lot.

“How should I put it? The atmosphere at today’s meeting, when I was sitting below, I almost wanted to laugh,” Larry said.

Karon said, “On the first day they were newlyweds, practically eager to wrestle and tangle together all night long. On the second day it was five years into the marriage; They still bickered, but were already weighing gains and losses, knowing that neither side could leave the other, because leaving would make it hard to find anyone with better conditions.”

Leon picked up the thought and said, “So today they’re preparing to divorce and are handling the final division of property?”

“Hahaha!” Larry burst into laughter. “Careful, if your grandfather hears you talking about him like that, you’d better watch your backside.”

Leon stretched lazily. “All right, let’s head back and see how far they’ve gotten in dividing up the divorce assets.”

The three walked out of the storage room together. Just as they were about to reach the entrance of the meeting hall, they saw two Order priests in robes running toward them with letters clenched tightly in their hands, fury written plainly across their faces.

Behind them were two Pamireth priests in blue robes, also clutching letters as they ran, but the expressions on their faces were ones of sheer terror.

The three young men exchanged glances, and all saw the same meaning in each other’s eyes: something had happened.

They returned to the meeting hall and sat down in their respective places. Inside the hall, the loss of composure shown by the two groups of communication priests when they rushed in earlier had cast a very heavy atmosphere over everything. The progress of the negotiations had been completely interrupted.

Wolfram and Delius were both reading the letters delivered by their respective communication priests. Once they finished, the letters were passed to the other representatives beside them.

Next, all those seated below saw only two sharply different emotions, ones that matched the expressions worn by the communication priests when they had entered. Quite a few negotiators on the Church of Order side clenched their fists, their faces full of fury.

On the Pamireth side, however, one after another wore expressions of shock and horror. Several of them were even in tears. Just how despairing did one have to be to react like that?

Karon noticed that Delius seemed to have gone still, almost as if he was staring blankly. But the direction of his peripheral gaze was aimed exactly at the opposite side, at his own father.

Then, the second and third batches of letters were delivered. Those below could only whisper and murmur among themselves, completely ignorant of what had actually happened.

“What’s going on?” Paige whispered.

Karon said, “I think... something happened to the Seventh Knight Regiment.”

“Huh? Huh!” Paige’s eyes widened.

At that moment, the communication priests from both sides each brought in another letter and respectively handed them to Wolfram and Delius. After reading the letter, Delius stood and said, “I need to explain and clarify this matter.”

Wolfram raised a hand. “That won’t be necessary.”

The man then also stood. With an imposing gaze and a stern expression, he declared, “The Church of Pamireth has destroyed the sincerity of these negotiations. Using Pamireth’s spatial divine artifact, Silentium, they collapsed the space in which our Seventh Order Knights Regiment was located.”

Those words saw the expressions of the priests from both sides who sat beneath the negotiation table changed drastically. On the side of the Church of Order, nearly all of the priests rose to their feet in anger, glaring at the Pamireth delegation seated opposite them. If not for the presence of the Archbishop up on the dais, the priests from the Church of Order might already attacked.

On the side of the Church of Pamireth, every priest had fallen into shock and despair. Quite a few even slid straight off their chairs and onto the floor, their faces ashen, their expressions hollow with hopelessness.

Everyone present knew exactly what this incident would lead to. Once Order was truly enraged, the Church of Pamireth would have no chance of withstanding it.

Delius spoke again, “Regarding this matter, I must offer an explanation.”

“The divine artifact, Silentium, what standing does it hold within the Church of Pamireth? Divine Progeny, do you require me to explain this to you?”

At that moment, another communications priest from the Church of Order hurried in, clutching a letter. He ran forward and handed it to Wolfram. He opened the letter, and then spoke, “A divine decree from the Senate of Order.”

Everyone present, the negotiators of the Church of Order seated behind the table as well as all the priests below, rose to their feet. They stood upright, placing both hands over their chests, and spoke in unison: “We await the decree!”

Wolfram glanced at Delius across the table, then began to recite in a voice of absolute authority, “In the name of Order: from this moment onward, Pamireth is judged to be a heretical god, and all worship is forbidden.

“From this moment onward, the Church of Pamireth is judged a heretical cult, all preaching is forbidden.

“From this moment onward, let it be known: Order is at war with Pamireth!”