13 Mink Street

Chapter 138: Slaughter

In a private room in a hotel, Reisen was eating a steak when an old butler walked up to him and reported, “Young Master, the people sent to investigate have returned.”

“Speak.”

“Apple Street 3-07 belongs to the Adams family, as does 3-06 next door. Mr. Adams is the Minister of Energy and Industrial Development for Swillen, and his son, Piaget, is the one who currently lives at 3-06. 3-07 should be vacant. Our people confirmed this in front of Piaget.

“However, there is indeed someone living in 3-07. That person stood on the second floor balcony the entire afternoon. You could see him just by driving past. He should be a sentry.”

“If I remember correctly, my brother Gerson’s cars were found at the end of Apple Street?”

“Yes, Young Master. After Young Master Gerson and the others went missing, we searched extensively and finally found the two cars they drove at the end of Apple Street.”

“Tadel went to a psychiatric clinic, didn’t he?” Reisen asked.

“Young Master, Piaget is the owner of that clinic. We now know that the traitor Tadel was influenced by Light Vermin, but at the time, Young Master Gerson and the others did not. Thus, I infer that Young Master Gerson and the others went to investigate Piaget’s home, and they disturbed the Light vermin living next door. Young Master Gerson and the others were likely attacked by those people.”

“A coincidence, a disturbance, and then attacked?” Reisen frowned slightly. “That seems a bit too coincidental.”

“Young Master, you mean?”

The butler had been the personal attendant of the family’s previous patriarch. After the man had been turned to ash in his study for no apparent reason, the Raphael family had fallen into internal strife.

The butler chose to support the patriarch’s eldest son, helping him to resist the power of his various uncles. That was because the butler had always believed this young master had the ability to lead the Raphael family and continue their development to achieve new glory. That was why he had never dared to ignore the young master’s opinions.

“Tadel booked an appointment at that clinic. While defecting, he was headed in the direction of that clinic. My brother went to investigate the clinic, and then went to check the owner’s home, and just happened to disturb someone living next door. Not a neighbor, but Light vermin living in a vacant house next door to the owner. The Light vermin then took action, killing my brother and the rest, leaving none alive, and you think this Piaget truly has no connection at all?”

“That- but the conclusion from the investigation was—”

Reisen indifferently continued, “Even if I went to personally investigate, I wouldn’t dare believe my own eyes, let alone someone else’s.”

“What about me?” A mass of black mist drifted into the private room. After a moment, Tirsen’s figure was revealed.

Reisen immediately rose from his seat and knelt on one knee toward Tirsen. “My lord.”

“I saw it with my own eyes. Piaget is nothing more than an ordinary man. He, and the two people with him, are all ordinary, and they are...” Tirsen frowned. “Three very disgusting, ordinary people.”

The butler, also kneeling to Tirsen, seemed to catch the implication and immediately said, “Yes. Yes, my lord. Young Master, Tadel did have such preferences. Many of his subordinates were aware of it.”

Reisen said, “So Tadel took a fancy to Piaget and he and Piaget were simply in a romantic relationship. That relationship may have lasted for some time. Tadel was a believer of the God of Light, so he helped arrange lodging for that group of Light vermin. His own businesses and residences were not convenient for hiding them, so he put them in a property belonging to his lover, Piaget.

“The Light vermin even specially sent someone to take away his son, proving that in the eyes of the Light vermin, Tadel’s status was not just another mere outer believer. In that case, everything makes sense, but—”

“That is precisely my view of matters.”

Reisen had wanted to add that a person being at the center of this vortex while all evidence insisted he was clean was highly problematic in and of itself, but Tirsen had already delivered his conclusion. Reisen did not dare argue further.

“The manpower, did you bring it?”

“As you instructed, my lord. Everyone I can mobilize from the Raphael family has been mobilized. They are already gathered in the hotel lobby and ready to move at any time.”

“Then do it.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Tirsen turned back into black mist that drifted out the window.

The old butler stepped forward and softly asked, “Young Master, the people you brought this time are all those in the family who support your faith system. If our next losses are too heavy, this will affect your plan to contend with the First Lord, Third Lord, and Fourth Lord for the position of patriarch.”

Reisen rose from the ground and patted dust off of his clothes. “Do I have any choice at all before that lord just now?”

“Young Master...”

“Don’t worry. Even if our losses are severe, there’s no need to worry. As long as that lord publicly declares his support for me as the next patriarch, my uncles will not dare disagree. In the eyes of members of the churches, those like us who follow family faith systems are nothing more than a swarm of cockroaches. However, if we can truly win their favor, we will become the most remarkable cockroach.”

“Yes, Young Master, you see far. But Young Master, I am still confused. Since this is an operation to eradicate Light vermin, why are we gathering so many people to participate?”

“First, because we need a certain amount of cannon fodder to test the strength of that group.

“Second, because that Light vermin have the secret of Bloodspirit Powder. That secret is something even that lord does not dare to openly reveal. He is unwilling, and also somewhat afraid, to request the Church of Order dispatch more manpower, yet the manpower under his personal command may be insufficient.”

“So that’s how it is.”

“If this matter is handled well, I will be the next patriarch. Alright, pass down the orders to set out.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

Reisen lifted a hand to his head and lightly scratched. “How strange. After killing them, they left the bodies intact, leaving them to be awakened? Were they silencing witnesses, or deliberately allowing the dead to deliver a message? And yet Lord Tirsen is so agitated that he is nearly losing his judgment. What could have made him suddenly so urgent?”

Reisen’s gaze tightened. “Could it be that the purpose of that pigpen being operated is not only to produce more Bloodspirit Powder, but that the Bloodspirit Powder itself is nothing more than another layer of disguise hiding the true purpose?”

***

“What else do you need?” Piaget carried a medical kit down the stairs.

Karon smiled. “It’s already thoroughly prepared.”

The Adams family’s small basement wine cellar was empty. On the other side, in the open area by the window, there was only a billiards table. Water and food were placed atop it at the moment, and Piaget had also set a medical kit on it.

“By the way, do you have guns?” Karon asked.

“No,” Piaget replied.

“After this is over, go get yourself a set of firearms and prepare a set for me as well.”

“Okay. I understand.” Piaget had come to understand just how poor his self defense ability truly was.

Bede looked at Karon and said, “I can have those delivered from home, even guns that can fire special bullets.”

He was implying that the Allen family had guns that could be prepared and delivered, so there was no need to ask anyone else.

“Do you remember what I told you?”

“Karon, it doesn’t have to be this thorough,” Bede tried to persuade him.

“I’m now a Divine Shepherd.”

Bede drew in a deep breath. He’s only been away from the manor for how long, and yet Karon has already become a Divine Shepherd?

“I understand.” Bede nodded. “Your path and your choices are indeed correct. Once this is resolved, I’ll arrange things at home, and I also plan to go out for a while and live as an artist selling paintings.”

“Mr. Bede, can I go with you?” Piaget asked.

Karon looked at Piaget, puzzled. “You aren’t going to run your clinic anymore?”

Piaget spread his hands and shrugged. “The moment the people from the Church of Light leave, my clinic will probably collapse on the spot.”

It seemed Piaget had already put certain things together.

“In that case, I’ll give you the clinic and you can run it,” Piaget continued.

Karon shook his head. “I probably won’t have the resources either.”

At that moment, they heard footsteps up above. By standing on the billiards table, they could see the garden outside through the basement window. Karon was standing on the table, as was Piaget. Bede calmly sat in a chair beside them, appearing to have no interest in watching this excitement.

“Piaget, did you lock the basement door?” Karon asked.

“It’s locked. I’m sure.”

To avoid being caught up in it, the three of them had chosen to enter the villa’s basement. They lost the best vantage point that was upstairs, but the basement remained the safest.

Through the window, they could see a number of men and women in black suits had already filed into the yard. In the house above their heads came the sound of windows breaking. In the process of moving to surround the villa next door, these people would certainly pass through the villa the three men were occupying.

They likely had no interest in smashing down a basement door to check.

“They’re about to start fighting,” Piaget said with anticipation.

Karon couldn’t help reminding him, “If you follow the path of the Wall God Church, you’ll probably never be able to fight. Think it through.”

Bede’s expression still did not change. “Sometimes the more you lose, the more it proves you’ll compensate for it elsewhere, doesn’t it?”

“That’s very reasonable.”

A sharp howl came from above, like an attack horn. In Karon’s view, many people in the yard began to display the abilities of their various family faith systems.

“Quite a rich variety,” Karon said.

Bede hadn’t stood on the billiards table to watch, but after hearing the commotion outside, he said, “The Raphael family is paying dearly for this, yet they’re simply being used as cannon fodder.”

Bede had personally witnessed how easily the Light vermin had slaughtered the Raphael family’s people before. Even though there were many more this time, numbers would be hard to overcome a true gap in quality.

“If things proceed smoothly and everything can all be resolved, then the Raphael family will also be finished. The Allen family won’t even need to do a thing,” Karon said.

The premise was the resolution of Tirsen and the others involved, knowing that if they were exposed, they would receive punishment from the Church of Order. With joint liability, the Raphael family, who had helped Tirsen’s group, would also be pulled into that punishment, though in the eyes of the great Church, the family might not even qualify to be listed.

There was a violent shockwave. Piaget was shaken to the point of nearly falling off the billiards table, but Karon steadied him in advance.

A second shockwave struck. The window shattered, and fragments of glass rained down, along with two arms and a head.

Another shockwave struck, this time, it hit up above. It sounded as if the second or third floor had been hit.

Karon and Piaget stopped watching and quickly moved into the empty wine cellar. They both crouched in a corner. Bede, who had been calmly sitting in a chair, also bent over and followed behind them.

“Will the basement collapse?” Piaget asked anxiously as dust kept falling.

Karon comforted him. “Even if it collapses, it’s fine. The wine racks will block some of it. We probably won’t be immediately crushed to death.”

“Karon, I really didn’t expect coming to Veyn would give me such a thrilling experience. What about you?”

“Me? I came to Veyn for the thrills.”

“Karon, aren’t you afraid?”

“Actually, what frightened me more was the thought that the the person upstairs might not have been repulsed, and might have instead chosen to stay and watch.”

“Oh. That is indeed more frightening.”

Another violent shockwave struck the upstairs of the house.

“They’re looking for us,” Bede said.

The Raphael family’s people were attacking the villa next door, but the battlefield had started in the villa where Piaget lived. Someone from next door had deliberately charged over specifically to find Piaget and Bede.

This was nothing for them to be moved by. The reason they were all hiding in the basement was not only to avoid being caught up in the battle, but also because they did not want to be found by the Light vermin.

Bertha had been courteous, but from the beginning, she had inserted herself into Piaget’s life and practically kept him under guard. It was possible for Piaget to feel fondness or develop an obsession when looking at Bertha’s face every day, which was so similar to Linda’s. Instead, he felt uncomfortable, and even angry.

It was the same for Bede. He was required to stay in the villa and paint with Piaget. Artists loved freedom most of all, and yet Bede was being confined.

Even the day when the two of them had arrived at Piaget’s doorstep and been ambushed by the Raphael family before being rescued by Elder Dock and the others, it had been because Bertha had deliberately told the people Piaget’s address in the first place.

Dust continued to fall. Cracks opened across the basement ceiling. The wine racks were bending to varying degrees. Many bottles rolled down and shattered on the floor.

Yet no wine spilled, because the few bottles in the empty cellar were only there for decoration.

“Karon, I feel like it doesn’t matter whether I locked the door or. It seems they don’t necessarily have to enter through the door.”

The next shockwave caused the basement’s ceiling to bulge downward. Blood dripped into the basement through the crack, creating what looked like a rain of blood. At the same time, streams of Order’s aura started to erupt up above. The Church of Order’s people had entered the fray.

Karon’s lips moved rapidly as he murmured, “O’ supreme God of Order, Order that judges all...”

He kept reciting, like a runner poised at the starting line, ready to provide either a protective Art for the all three of them, or to summon a Spear of Punishment.

The Church of Order’s people are fighting up there. If I secretly use a Church of Order Art in a bit, no one should notice, right?

Above, Vernon killed a man with a single slash of his sword. The power behind the attack was tremendous, and it carried the power of Light, which squeezed the man like a sponge, wringing blood from his body.

A layer of white glowing armor covered Vernon. This was the Armor of Light.

With the Armor of Light protecting him, he was more free to move around and kill these family faith system people more efficiently.

Another stone-skinned man was slapped away by Vernon’s sword. He crashed into a wall and punched a hole in it. After landing, both his stone skin and internal organs began to crack.

Outside the house, there was a burst of dazzling firelight. A row of men and women in suits let out shrieks as terrifying flames capable of burning a soul wrapped around them. Helen, holding a wand, dropped down and immediately cried in panic, “Ah, I messed up! What if they get burned to death by me too?”

A pitch black figure appeared behind the woman, and a whip snapped at the back of her head. Helen seemed to sense something, but for an instant, she forgot any proper reaction and only screamed.

A protective Light barrier appeared behind Helen, and the whip struck the barrier.

The barrier shattered, and the whip rebounded.

“So shameless! You actually used a sneak attack?”

Vernon raised his sword to help Helen, but a chant of Order came. “In the name of the Great Order, I invoke the Net of Order. Bind all who transgress against Order. Let them be extinguished.

“In the name of the Great Order, I invoke the Net of Order. Bind all who transgress against Order. Let them be extinguished.”

Eight members of the Order’s Whip squad, all clad in black robes, entered the battlefield. The moment they appeared, a dark lattice condensed above them and then crashed down. Vernon stood at the center of the attack.

Vernon did not try to withstand this attack directly. He leveled his longsword, and the holy radiance around him flared brighter. Then, he charged straight at one of the squad members.

The black lattice struck him, and the light shrouding his body instantly began to dissolve. A massive rent opened across the Armor of Light, yet his blade still drove cleanly through a squad member’s chest.

Vernon withdrew his sword and swept it to the side, aiming at another squad member. A layer of black defense appeared on that man’s body. The sword’s earlier momentum had been nearly spent, and while the strike sent the man flying, it failed to cut him.

The remaining squad members continued their chants. Given the circumstances, they had no alternatives. Only by maintaining their formation could they stand up to Vernon.

A second lattice of Order descended. Vernon raised his sword to face it, and at the same time, he slammed his foot down upon the squad member he had just knocked over.

The ground caved in.

The man was driven through the floor and into the basement. When he landed, he was covered in blood. His body curled in pain. He then saw the three figures hiding inside the empty wine cellar and froze.

Karon rose at once. “Permit me to borrow Your power, to punish those who defy Order...”

The first priests who to enter belonged to the Church of Order. They were almost certainly the ones who had killed Mr. Pavaro, so Karon showed no hesitation in striking them down.

Before Karon could complete his incantation of the Spear of Punishment, Bede bent down and picked up a shard of glass from a shattered bottle. He walked over to the gravely wounded squad member, crouched down, and drove the shard straight into the man’s chest.

A dull sound escaped and the man’s body stiffened, then went limp.

To ensure the man was finished, Bede struck a second time. The corpse did not react.

He pried the dead man’s mouth open and pulled out his tongue, severing it with the glass. He tossed it aside, and then he lifted the shard and stabbed into one eye, and then the other. Each time, Bede twisted the glass slightly outward before withdrawing.

When he finished, he discarded the shard of glass and dusted off his hands, saying, “Done.”