The Devil’s Cage

Just when the man that shared a resemblance to the attacker in room 704 started to bow to the other man before him, an invisible power suddenly slapped his face fiercely.

Pak!

The man was sent rolling on the ground by the slap, stopping only when he hit the fence at the edge of the rooftop.

“I’ve said it before, you people cannot interfere in this matter,” the man on the rooftop said coldly.

“My lord, I am doing it for the family…”

The man tried to explain himself, but before his sentence could even form, the invisible power hit his body again, even more severely than the first time.

Pang!

The fence on the rooftop produced teeth-numbing screeches from the impact as his body shrunk like a cooked shrimp from the beating.

“I hate excuses. I hate excuses without any bit of believability even more. Did you find it?” The man on the rooftop spoke in an even colder tone.

After having suffered two continuous beatings from the invisible power, the other man’s body was trembling. He realized the man on the rooftop was even more unreasonable than rumoured and much more powerful!

What kind of attacks were those?

Why couldn’t he see any signs?

Damn it!

Those bastards must have hidden something!

The cursing in the man’s heart did not show on his face. Instead, he replied with a humble tone.

“No, my lord. We were deceived by that guy. The thing wasn’t in his room at all,” he replied honestly.

“Is that so? You are really useless.” The man on the rooftop sighed.

“My lord, spare…”

Gark!

The intense killing intent the man felt changed his face for the worse. Instinctively, he wanted to beg for his life, but before he could even say “life”, the invisible power appeared on the man’s body again, far greater than the previous times and it landed precisely on the man’s neck.

After the clear neck-breaking sound, the man’s head spun twice on his neck.

The thickness of what was a normal man’s neck was twisted into a slim line swiftly. The muscles around the twisted neck then started to break, the bone that was crushed no longer able to provide any purpose to the head at all, and in the end, his head fell on the ground.

Puk!

Blood gushed out from the opening of the man’s neck, splashing over his restless dead face.

Looking at the hideous face, the man on the rooftop smiled coldly in contempt. He wanted to leave but when he turned around, his body shook.

A black figure somehow appeared behind him without his knowing.

The black that bathed under the afternoon sun provided a dazzling sight to the man.

“Who are you?” the man asked heavily.

At the same time, that invisible, formless power appeared again.

Had he really been asking?

What a joke.

Striking to secure an advantage was the true path to victory.

However, a moment after the invisible power gathered, it dispersed all of a sudden.

The remaining power blew at Kieran like a breeze, fluttering the crow mantle. A sharp, long rapier flew out from the shadows and brought the man’s head to Kieran as it returned to him.

Similar to the man he killed before, the man on the rooftop died a restless death. His dead face looked like he couldn’t believe what had happened.

Even until his death, the man on the rooftop didn’t know what kind of attack he had taken.

Kieran grabbed the man’s head and sized it up carefully.

Similar to the attacker in room 704, he had pale skin, white hair, deep eye sockets and bloodshot eyes.

The difference was that this man was a lot stronger and provided Kieran with quite the amount of clues.

Still, it didn’t stop Kieran from squatting down, carefully checking the two bodies in the area.

While Kieran was examining the bodies, light footsteps resounded on the stairs.

Mier was very careful as she traced the commotion that attracted her attention to the rooftop.

When she saw Kieran on the rooftop, she heaved a breath of relief, but when she saw the head in Kieran’s hand, she cried out in shock.

“Ries. K? It’s really him!”

Mier rushed over to Kieran and carefully checked the head before she was assured. Then her eyes on Kieran showed an unusual shine.

“Ries. K, a Blood Kin, one of the members of the House of K. At least three confirmed murders are related to this guy—and that’s just what we know, what we don’t know is nearly uncountable. This guy wasn’t honest and didn’t follow the rules like other Blood Kin, being reckless and bloodthirsty.”

Without even being asked, the young lady provided Kieran with what he wanted to know.

“Rules?” Kieran raised a puzzled brow.

“A lot of Blood Kin in Eiders follow our rules in exchange for a stable life. We, too, accept them, despite the unstable variables that follow. But a lot more of them think that they should follow their natural way of living. The House of K is the biggest Blood Kin family in Eiders. Almost one-third of the house choose a stable life but the other two-thirds are even more ruthless, Ries. K here being one of them. In addition, they treat ‘traitors’ in even more brutal ways—slaughtering them!”

Mier’s gaze on Ries. K’s head showed a sense of disgust and hatred when she mentioned him, but soon enough, the negative emotions vanished, leaving her in deep thought.

“Are the Blood Kin also involved in this incident? Or did they abduct Smith? This firefighter, Smith, obviously didn’t want to die, thus the rescue signal.” Mier then looked at Kieran.

The young lady hoped to get her hands on more pieces of information, and this time, Kieran didn’t stay quiet.

He told her what he knew about the incident because he needed more information in exchange.

The ‘also’ Mier mentioned did not escape Kieran’s attention.

It seemed like the Blood Kin weren’t the first to show themselves in this incident.

Who were the first then?

Kieran automatically thought of the conversation that Mier and Wier had in Stove-grilled Fish last night, which had been untimely interrupted.

Kieran dusted his hands before he stood up. Since he couldn’t find any valuables on the two bodies, he decided to go straight down.

He wanted to double check some other things that he had in mind.

“Wait for me!”

Mier grabbed the two heads on the floor before chasing after Kieran.

Ries. K had quite the bounty on his head.

As for the other attacker?

It might not be much but Mier didn’t want it to go to waste either.

Since Kieran walked fast and she had two heads to carry, Mier wasn’t able to catch up to him.

By the time Mier returned to room 704 in her ugly state, Kieran had already finished almost half of his search.

“You are looking for that thing? Impossible, it’s definitely not here,” Mier said when she saw Kieran looking for something.

“Do you know what it is?”

Kieran had no trouble picking up the clues between the lines, so he asked her this as he continued his search.

“A little bit. But sorry, I can’t tell. Like you Monster Hunters, we have our own rules, too.” The young lady looked at Kieran with an apologetic expression.

Kieran didn’t even bat an eye at her, as his attention was wholly focused on the search.

Ultimately, his attention was placed on a single item.

“Found it.” Kieran grinned.