The Devil’s Cage

Kieran sized up his surroundings while sitting in a restaurant.

Similar to the narrow alley outside, the restaurant was small, old and broken.

Fortunately, it was still clean enough, although the customers only amounted to a handful.

Other than Kieran, only Great Swamp was present, as he was the inviter.

Throughout the meetings, Great Swamp presented himself as a mature and steady character. He could even be considered as a profound existence in a certain perspective.

However, spanning from the last phone call to the current meeting in the restaurant, Kieran’s impression of Great Swamp had changed significantly.

To be more precise…The impression crumbled.

“What? Do I look weird?”

Great Swamp looked at Kieran after he passed the menu to the simple, honest middle-aged man that was also the waiter cum cook of the place.

“Um.”

Kieran nodded without concealing his feelings.

“Commanding a city is much more boring than you can imagine, especially after the initial prosperity and anticipation, where what’s waiting for you is only endless torment.

“So anything interesting that happens in the city will instantly pop up on my radar,” said Great Swamp.

“This place is considered interesting?” Kieran sized up the restaurant again.

However, other than the old, broken decorations, he couldn’t sense anything “interesting”.

As for the food?

With Kieran’s current Intuition, a sniff from his nose allowed him to determine how good the food was; it wasn’t exactly delicious, at most at an above-average level.

Too much sugar in the milk.

Too much oil when cooking the bacon.

Too little oil when frying the egg.

The toast, soggy.

The sauce in the fruit salad, unreasonable, but the fruits fresh.

However, none of these was “interesting”.

Doubtful, Kieran looked at Great Swamp, as he didn’t believe Great Swamp, who should be anxious, had the leisure to take him out to breakfast after appearing before Kieran the moment he stepped into Flame City.

“Interesting. It’s much more interesting than you imagine.”

Great Swamp signalled Kieran to be patient and to watch quietly.

Kieran had good patience, especially when there was food in front of him, regardless of whether it was tasty enough.

With the chopsticks, he held the bacon over the fried egg and poked it open with the tip.

The bacon was then dipped into the half-cooked egg yolk and then placed on the toasted bread, a beautiful warm color instantly smearing over the bread.

Kieran folded the piece of bread before eating it. He chewed slowly so that he could enjoy the combined texture of the toast and bacon dipped in egg yolk.

He stuffed some fruits into his mouth from time to time and drank a mouthful of warm milk.

The way he ate his breakfast, it was like he was soaked in happiness.

Great Swamp looked at Kieran, slightly surprised.

He never thought the breakfast set could be eaten this way.

He had been eating his breakfast like every other customer in the restaurant, which meant to say, by placing the egg and bacon on the bread and making it into a sandwich instead.

“Is it nice?”

Great Swamp asked this out of instinct when he saw how immersed Kieran was in his eating.

Kieran didn’t utter a word, instead choosing to nod.

Great Swamp quickly mimicked the way Kieran ate.

Whether it was just his own thinking or not, when Great Swamp mimicked Kieran’s way of eating the breakfast set, he felt it was much more delicious than usual.

“You’ve come here before?”

After a mouthful of milk, Great Swamp didn’t hold back his question after Kieran ordered two more servings of the same set.

“First time.”

“Really?”

It was a little unbelievable to Great Swamp.

Since he was able to discover this interesting place, others would be able to as well, and if the “others” was Kieran, Great Swamp wouldn’t be at all surprised.

During their first meeting, Kieran had left a deep impression on his mind.

The feeling of familiarity made him take extra notice of Kieran, and until their next meeting, Kieran’s skyrocketing power level shook him.

Even for a God of a city, he never thought a person’s power level could increase multiple times in such a short time.

His memories about inheritance and the rumours that he heard never had cases like this at all.

So when Kieran suggested working together, Great Swamp agreed without a second thought, and it proved to be nothing but the greatest choice he ever made.

Perforation Sting, the thorn in his heart, was wiped out just like that together with the loathsome God of Forest City.

Therefore, when Kieran showed notice of this interesting restaurant, it didn’t come as a surprise to Great Swamp.

Kieran shook his head at Great Swamp’s prying gaze.

“Instinct,” he answered.

Kieran didn’t bother about Great Swamp anymore after that, and he started to size up his surroundings in a more meticulous way.

Under his focused observation, Kieran soon discovered something.

Traces!

There were no traces in the restaurant!

The customers that walked in didn’t leave behind any traces, but the waiter cum cook, plus Great Swamp and him, did leave some, including footprints, handprints, etc.

“Ghosts? No, that can’t be, as there’s no negative energy present. Then some kind of fiend?”

Kieran shook his head again amidst his guesses. The customers in the restaurant weren’t that many. Including Great Swamp and him, there were only six to seven other people at most, but throughout the morning, there were at least 30 customers who came.

30 similar fiends weren’t simple fiends anymore; it could be a fiend pact or something else.

When Kieran looked outside the restaurant and noticed customers starting to leave traces on the ground after they left, his gaze froze.

Almost out of reflex, Kieran turned to the restaurant owner.

Kieran and Great Swamp were able to leave traces, and so was the owner, but not the other customers.

Why?

The only difference between him, Great Swamp and the other customers was their power level.

Deducing from that onwards…

“It’s fine, he is different from us, just a common man. The difference is this place.”

Great Swamp interrupted Kieran’s guesses to point, with a smiling face, at the floor with his knife.

“The restaurant itself?”

Kieran squinted his eyes and stopped sizing up the place.

He had already memorized the whole restaurant and its structure in his mind, so there was no need for further inspection, but because of that, he was more alarmed than ever.

He hadn’t noticed the differences in the place at all!

“Don’t be nervous! This place is safe, there aren’t any threats here!” Great Swamp said with a smile.

“You know the reason?” Kieran asked.

“I don’t! That is why it is interesting—as the God of this city, I didn’t notice the differences in this place either. In fact, even after coming in and observing for quite a long while, I still can’t tell why this is happening!” Great Swamp shook his head straightforwardly.

“So…you are planning to kill your time here?” Kieran frowned.

For Kieran, an unfamiliar, strange environment always required his vigilance.

And if the environment had some unknown existence, the vigilance would peak and he would be the utmost careful about it. If it had happened in his own turf, he would never be as leisurely as Great Swamp was.

Correct, Great Swamp was taking the situation leisurely! Kieran was sure of it.

Other than that, Kieran was also sure that Great Swamp was quite fond of the current situation.

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Kieran said softly.

“A cat has nine lives, and I have one more life than a cat.” Great Swamp smiled.

There wasn’t anything wrong with joking; it was much similar to how friends would while chatting. With his and Great Swamp’s current relationship, such ridiculous jokes didn’t matter much.

But Kieran had the feeling that something wasn’t right.

What was it?