The Devil’s Cage

Few people lingered in the tavern, yet they were far from being sober.

The bartender and the waiter had started to clean up the mess from last night, urging their drunk customers to leave the tavern. Seemed like both sides were quite familiar; the customers were not dissatisfied. Even though they were ranting loudly, it was more of a delightful rant.

So, Kieran seemed to stand out from the crowd when he appeared in the tavern.

After Kieran had slightly sized up his surrounding and gotten a general idea of where he was, he walked straight out the tavern without pause.

Though when he was at the tavern exit, he couldn’t help but halt his steps.

The wall beside the exit had wanted notices pasted all over. All of the wanted individuals were ferocious looking, except for the one in the middle, the one with the highest bounty.

”Herbert?!”

Kieran was shocked.

After looking carefully at the facial features and name on the wanted notice, Kieran confirmed that it was indeed the main mission target he was supposed to protect this time around, Herbert.

”Trouble again!” Kieran muttered in a low voice.

Not only because his protection target was at the top of the wanted list, attracting tons of mercenaries and bounty hunters on his trail, but also because Herbert would purposely hide himself away from the public, to the extent that even Kieran, the protector, would have a hard time locating him.

Kieran never doubted Herbert’s wisdom. Moreover, with his age and sufficient knowledge from years of reading, Kieran was sure that Herbert would definitely find himself an extremely secluded place to hide.

However, Herbert was still in danger, and it had started to endanger his life. The main mission had stated everything.

”I must hurry up my search!”

Kieran quickly left the tavern when his words subsided.

Since he had some better channels to acquire information, he was not keen on probing information from a couple of bartenders and waiters that had been through a whole night shift.

He wasn’t sure how accurate the information would be with their exhaustion from work.

Of course, if Kieran paid up a sufficient amount of money, he would definitely get what he wanted to know, but it was too troublesome, not just the process, but also the unwanted attention it would bring to himself.

Kieran understood the saying, ”never reveal your gold and silver” a long time ago.

It would also be a joke to expect those who lingered in a tavern to possess high moral values and educations.

Although Kieran didn’t sense it on purpose, but the blood stench from the alley beside the tavern already told Kieran what happened there.

After all, this dungeon itself was dangerous on its own. Under the disguise of peaceful towns and city, mercenaries, bounty hunters and even the Night race were lurking in dark corners.

Now, even more monsters that were unheard of popped up since the last incident.

Before locating Herbert, Kieran had no intentions of attracting more problem. However, things always went the opposite of how one wanted it to unfold.

Just when Kieran realized the city he was in was Herl City, the one he visited before in [Ancient City Foreign Matter] dungeon and close to Herbert’s place, two police officers in full black uniforms appeared before him when he wanted to purchase a newspaper to get more information.

”2567?”

The taller officer said after taking out a portrait for comparison.

Kieran shrugged but did not deny it. Although the portrait was quite unrealistic, but still bore a 40% to 50% resemblance to his face; it was not something he could easily deny.

”We mean no harm! We just need to understand some things!”

The shorter officer explained.

The taller officer beside him made a ”please” gesture, directing Kieran to a wagon not far away that had a tightly shut carriage door and a couple of tall, buffed, and fully-armed bodyguards around it. Kieran could sense that there was only one person inside the carriage.

No doubt, the person inside was the one really looking for him.

The two police officers were just for show but were enough for Kieran to have some guesses.

Being able to simply give orders to police officers, having multiple armed bodyguards and even precisely locating and identifying Kieran within 20 minutes after he entered the dungeon; every signs showed that the person inside the carriage was not some simple John Doe. Otherwise, they wouldn’t possess so much influence.

Among the people who resided in Herl City with such an influence and were eager to meet him, there were only a handful.

”Harold followed his professor and went into hiding as well?” Kieran thought in his heart.

Among Herbert’s students, Cohen was the poorest, Joanna was in the middle class and Harold should be the wealthiest. Kieran could easily tell from their manner of speech and behavior.

After excluding every other possible outcome, all that was left was a single one.

As for the possibilities that they came for Herbert’s bounty?

The sight of the wagon, the horses and the bodyguards said it all. If they really were after Herbert’s bounty, they wouldn’t pose such a grand arrangement, even though Herbert had a 10,000 bounty on his head.

Kieran didn’t reject the request to board the wagon.

When he clearly saw the person in the wagon, it verified his speculations from before.

The person before Kieran was a middle-aged man. Although he was not at his youthful years, his facial features were almost identical to Harold. His body was also quite tall and big, plus his suit was exceptionally tidy and neat.

A quick glance from Kieran showed what Harold would look like in the future.

”Sir 2567? Good day, I am Harold’s father. You can address me as Lander. My son, Harold and Professor Herbert have left Herl City for a while and haven’t been heard of since. After the gold rush camp slaughter incident, I’ve sent my men for Harold, but none of them returned, until you came by…”

”If it’s not too much of a trouble, can you tell me what happened? I don’t believe Professor Herbert would do such an outrageous deed, slaughtering a whole camp of gold rusher? Only a fool would believe a scholar could perform such malefic deed!”

It should have been a questioning session, but the man spoke in an extremely affirmative tone; he didn’t even try to hide his intentions. Instead, he came straight to the topic.

However, he didn’t sound forceful but instead was very well-mannered, displaying his well-educated background.

At the same time, Kieran understood why Herbert was being wanted by the authorities.

Slaughtered a whole camp of gold rushers?

Truth be told, when Kieran heard such accusations being planted on the elderly scholar, he became very agreeable to Lander’s comment.

Anyone who took the accusation for real was a fool.

Why would such an outrageous wanted notice be sent out?

Other than the corrupt nature of the authorities, there was no doubt the Night race was involved in adding fuel to the flames. Even more so, everything might be plotted up by the Night race.

Which made Kieran realize that the influence and corruption of the Night race in human societies, or more precisely, Herl City was much more serious than he had initially thought.

So…

Kieran looked at Harold’s father, then raised his hand and extended it to grab him!

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

”Ojisan, daisuki!”