The Devil’s Cage

The wagon was sprinting off Herl City.

When it rode through the outskirts, the bumpy path caused the carriage to jolt uncontrollably.

Even though the wagoner tried his best to control the wagon’s speed, his efforts were next to nothing. Lander had to extend his hand to grab the handle beside to maintain his balance.

Still, his gaze was locked at Kieran opposite him.

Lander had too many questions to ask Kieran.

In fact, Lander did put effort in clearing the questions, but Kieran’s persistence far exceeded his expectation.

If Lander hadn’t had a conversation before with Kieran, he would have considered him mute or deaf.

”You collaborator or employer must feel very safe with your service. Your mouth is even more secure than any safe I know of!”

Lander commented, but not with a mocking tone or upset tone.

”Thanks.”

Kieran replied with a smile.

Lander was showing a helpless face instead. Kieran could notice Lander had given up on pressing the topic for the time being, which relieved him from the bottom of his heart.

Kieran was not good at lying and performing tricks, especially in front of an anxious father.

If he really knew where Harold was, Kieran might have spilled the answer after Lander’s relentless pressuring.

After a short silence, Lander spoke again.

”Although I don’t know much about Professor Herbert’s situation, why would you ask me to send my men to the tavern? Perhaps you want to pick a fight with the bounty hunters, mercenaries and Herl City’s high ranking officials? That would be delusional! Those rascals who would chase you down to the ends of the world for the bounty reward are nothing but a tamed hound in front of Herl City’s officials!” Lander spoke out without reserve.

Kieran couldn’t deny Lander’s words because it was the truth.

”They are not really hounds, but vultures and coyotes, to be accurate.”

Kieran briefly corrected Lander’s statement.

”Are we arguing over a metaphor here?” Lander replied with his question, feeling upset.

”Of course not! Coz we’ve arrived!” Kieran stretched his words while speaking.

Then, before Lander could utter another word, Kieran opened the carriage and jumped off.

Lander then followed tightly behind.

The moment he came off the carriage, he pressed on with his questions again.

”Where’s Harold! Where’s my son?! Where… This is… Professor Herbert’s place? I’ve sent men to turn this place over before, but they’ve found nothing! 2567, don’t tell me everything that happened was a joke! Or else…”

Lander couldn’t help but raise his tone when he saw that his surroundings were Herbert’s place that had been burnt down a couple of months ago.

There was even a sense of rage within Lander’s tone when he spoke; he assumed that he was played by Kieran.

Though, a moment later, his words stopped abruptly.

Kieran suddenly grabbed Lander’s collar and pulled him away from the spot he was standing.

It was not because Kieran was agitated by Lander’s words but…

Sou!

An arrow was passed through the spot where Lander was standing a moment ago, and plunged into the ground far away.

Lander’s face went pale.

His decent sight and intelligence clearly told him that if he was still standing at the spot, his chest would have been pierced through by the arrow.

”Tha..Thanks!” Lander forced himself to calm down and express his gratitude after being saved from the verge of death.

”No need for thanks. All the dangers you are facing are because of me, so it’s just the right things to do! Though, I’d suggest you to stay with your bodyguards from now on, and be careful of that one with the beard!”

Kieran purposely lowered his voice at the end of his sentence, so that only the two of them heard it.

Then, Kieran turned his attention to the darkness afar, where the enemy he had been waiting for had arrived.

Using Herbert’s name as bait really lured out the enemies that harbored malicious intent, however…

Their numbers were not quite as expected!

Not too much, but it was lesser than Kieran’s expectation.

With Kieran’s sharp sight and hearing, he could clearly feel there were a team of at least thirty men appearing in the dark far ahead.

Doubts and confusion lingered in Kieran’s mind.

”If it’s the Night monsters, they should know my strength since they fought me before. These numbers would just be a suicide attempt! Unless they aren’t the Night race or… have some new tricks up their sleeves!”

Kieran heightened his vigilance as the thoughts wandered his mind.

According to his own theory, if the one behind the eavesdropper was indeed the Night race, they should have brought forth a larger scale of troops while mixing a couple Night monsters within and would not send smaller troops to face Kieran.

There must be something fishy when things were out of the norm.

With even more vigilance, Kieran held the box with [Arrogant Word] in his left hand, allowing his right hand to draw the greatsword anytime.

At the same time, the gears in his mind were spinning fast. The out-of-the-blue scene before him made him realize that he had missed out something crucial.

Dak Dak Dak!

The footsteps in the dark on the opposite side were getting clearer.

After the futile arrow ambush, the attackers had no intentions of hiding themselves anymore. The group walked out from the dark directly, showing their faces!

Each and every one of the ”people” walked out from the darkness with burnt and rotten skin. They were donned in black long-robes and held all sorts of weapons in their hands; the bulging eyes in their eye sockets gave out an extra sense of eeriness.

Lander was frightened and scared to a retreat when he saw the Night monsters’ true face.

The bodyguards behind him raised their flintlock pistols without a second thought, pointing them at the monsters.

However, the Night monsters were not even a bit concerned about Lander and his bodyguards.

All of them were focused on Kieran; their eerie eyeballs were filled with an undisguised hatred for their target.

”2567!”

A sharp cry came from the leader of the bunch. It was wielding a sword that was pointed towards Kieran.

Promptly after the cry, a hidden box behind them was brought out by a couple other Night monsters.

The box was 2 meters long and had a width and height of 1 meter.

It was a coffin!

Although the ratio was a little off, but the first glance at the box told Kieran that it was indeed a coffin. Kieran’s attention was also attracted by the odd coffin because he could clearly pick up sounds of breathing from within the coffin.

The breath was on and off, but it was enough for Kieran to confirm that there was a living being held inside.

Moments later…

Tsssk, Tssk Tsssk!

The wooden coffin gave out a teeth-souring screech and started to shake uncontrollably, until the lid was pushed open.

A pitch black palm, with only the slightest flesh and skin attached, extended out from the coffin.

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

Guess who it is