The Devil’s Cage

It didn’t surprise Kieran when Roshen mentioned that he knew where Herbert was.

In fact, it was within Kieran’s expectation.

There was no need for excessive speculations and guesses; a simple reason allowed Kieran to know that.

This was only the fourth special dungeon difficulty. So it might be a little hard to locate Herbert, but the system wouldn’t send Kieran searching for a needle in a haystack.

If the dungeon did so, it would be a dungeon difficulty of at least two digits.

So, Kieran was confident that even if Herbert was not within Herl City, he should be around the city. But out of his expectations, Herbert was in jail.

”I accidentally discovered Herbert’s location, and I thought I would reveal it at a more appropriate time. But compared to those benefits, I value our friendship more!”

Roshen returned to his humble businessman mode, talking to Kieran with a smile in his eyes in the new wagon.

Kieran nodded, declining to comment.

”Appropriate? What kind of appropriate?” Kieran thought in his heart.

No doubt Roshen was after a better price to reveal the secret, but after that incident, Roshen thought highly of the abilities Kieran displayed.

Kieran knew what Roshen’s motives were.

”I think we will have the friendship that you wanted so much!” Kieran emphasized.

Kieran accepted the favour from Roshen, and replied with assurance.

”Thank you very much!” Roshen said with a big smile.

The completion notification then popped up in Kieran’s vision, and just like the description said, everything had become clear.

Kieran only had the mood to explore other sub-missions and events when Herbert was nicely protected. Otherwise, regardless of how many sub-missions he could get, it wouldn’t be enough to compensate for the main mission.

The wagon continued on and finally stopped at the suburbs of Herl City.

With Roshen leading the way, Kieran reached the prison that was holding Herbert without any hindrance.

It was not some prison to hold major criminals with tight security like Alcatraz Prison, but instead was just a few cells around a small corridor. Each of the cells had two prisoners within, but only Herbert was alone.

Herbert had also changed his name to Zeon. As for his crime: forging famous paintings.

An average charge that was not too eye-catching yet wasn’t neglectable since it could be settled by bribing. If the victims didn’t press charge, everything would be fine.

Obviously, Herbert did his preparations when he chose to settle in the prison. He went over every aspect of the prison, from the prison guards to the prisoners, just for his own safety. Thankfully, he was in great shape.

While recalling the information that Roshen had given him, Kieran was walking through the corridor and finally saw Herbert in person after a long time. He nodded secretly to himself.

Herbert was not was bad as he had pictured. No dishevelled hair or dirty face, not skinny and weak. Instead, he was clean and tidy, his hair and beard were neatly shaved, face was pinkish and he looked energetic.

Herbert even had a book in his hand, which was not the treatment for the common prisoners.

”If everyone could be as free as you in jail, I bet it would become a great getaway for many!”

Kieran opened his mouth when he saw Herbert was in his trance reading the book.

Divided by the iron bars of the cell, Herbert raised his head in astonishment.

When he saw Kieran had appeared before him, he quickly stood up excitedly.

”2567! You’re alive! This is great news!” Herbert said in delight.

”Of course I’m alive and kicking!” Kieran said with a smile.

Beside him, Roshen had taken the cell key from the chief guard who was rather nervous and opened up the cell gate, waiting to help Herbert out.

Though, the elder scholar needed none of those. He ditched Roshen aside and went straight up to Kieran and inspected him in detail. Herbert also used his own method to confirm Kieran’s identity, and Kieran did the same.

After both of them had made sure that neither of them was some monster in disguise, the elder scholar shook Kieran’s hand and tapped his shoulder.

”It’s been a while!” Herbert said.

”It has been a while!” Kieran replied with a smile.

...

The wagon dashed off once more.

Kieran was sitting with his huge backpack. Herbert and Roshen were on the other side.

”So much has happened!?”

Herbert let out a long sigh after listening to Kieran’s story.

Then, Herbert made a hand gesture quietly to Kieran. It was the gesture that they had made up during the expedition to Isogu City, to prevent the eavesdropping of the Nights.

The meaning was, ”Is it safe around here?” or ”Is Roshen reliable?”

”Felt just like yesterday! Herbert, youcan take a good rest now, leave the rest to me!” Kieran nodded and said.

The words sounded without weight but were enough to notify the elder scholar what was going on.

Roshen was not reliable!

Even though the newly appointed chief officers had some traits that Kieran admired, but it didn’t go as far as trusting him completely.

For a person like Kieran who was always suspicious of everything, without any life and death events or the passing of time, every relationship was fragile.

Roshen didn’t seem to notice the little gestures or the meaning behind them.

The chief officer maintained his smile, glancing between Kieran and Herbert and eventually stopping at Kieran.

”Sir 2567, although there has been some deviation, but our first collaboration could be considered quite successful! So I’d hope that you can lend me your aid once more. I wanted to continue the victorious pursuit of our enemy, cleansing all the monstrous infections of Herl City…”

”No!”

Before the chief officer could finish, Herbert halted his words.

”You have no idea what kind of monsters you are facing! Everything you witnessed was just the tip of the iceberg. Roshen, you could never imagine how scary they are! If you had ten thousand fully armed men, I could accept your suggestion. Otherwise, I would suggest you to be careful!”

Herbert was looking at Roshen with utmost seriousness; Roshen, however, had a face filled with disbelief.

Even without getting in contact with him before, Roshen had heard about Herbert’s reputation. He knew that Herbert was a man who was strict in delivering knowledge and seeked the truth from facts, but when he heard what Herbert said, it was still quite unbelievable.

”With all due respect, did you say an army of ten thousand fully armed men?”

Roshen couldn’t help but repeat the questions with emphasis.

”That’s right! Aside from that, the soldiers have to carry heavy artillery with them!”

Herbert nodded and said in assurance.

Roshen went silent.

He was indeed a newly-appointed chief officer, but he was not a general that commanded real troops from the military, where could he muster up ten thousand heavy artillery troops.

All he ever had were around a dozen men. After the bombing incident, he was left with seven to eight men.

It would be out of the question, requesting seven to eight men to deliver the efforts of ten thousand.

Aside from that, the important point was that even the closest military base to Herl City didn’t hold ten thousand men, at most around two thousand.

Kieran went silent as well. He believed Herbert wouldn’t say something without a reason. Since he mentioned such conditions, there must have been some reasons to it.

”Are there so many monster lurking around? Or are they that strong to require such firepower?”

Kieran wondered in his heart. He kept quiet until they reached Lander’s mansion.

When they entered Kieran’s temporary guest room, Herbert opened his mouth before Kieran, after the unrelated people left the room.

”We made a huge mistake back in Isogu City!”

The elderly scholar spoke with a face full of guilt, blaming himself.

Translator’s Thoughts

Dess Dess

Boom revelation