13 Mink Street

A massive blue flame rose from the passenger ship. Only a moment later did the shockwave from the explosion reach them, together with layered waves.

Whoosh!

The waves slammed against the dock, sending up huge geysers of water. A protective wall appeared above Karon, shielding both him and the two women behind him from the falling seawater. It was a spontaneous manifestation of an Art, because Karon had not chanted. At this moment, he had no mind to worry about keeping his clothes dry.

After the explosion, the passenger ship began to tilt. But at that moment, two more bursts of blue flame erupted from the ship, followed by two more deafening booms.

Boom!

Boom!

When the waves crashed over again, Karon raised his hand. This time, the protective wall was summoned deliberately, blocking the seawater again. He could see that the passenger ship had been split at the middle. The bow and stern began to sink, forcing the center section upward.

The two coast guard boats which had been moored nearby started moving, heading out for the passenger ship.

Karon turned back and looked at Fannie and Paige behind him. “What do we do?”

Fannie took a deep breath and said, “So long as the person hasn’t come ashore yet, the handover hasn’t been completed. Anything that happens before the handover isn’t our responsibility.”

Karon nodded, yet none of the three felt any sort if relief. This kind of self-deceiving comfort was only ever used to fill the silence, and served no real purpose. Because this wasn’t about assigning blame, but about something that had already entered within their reach slipping right through their fingers.

From the first explosion to the double explosion in the second round, very little time had passed. In that brief span, there had been nothing Karon or the other two could do except stand on the dock and watch.

As the two coast guard boats gradually drew close to the sinking passenger ship, the Sea God’s Armor appeared over Karon’s body.

“I’ll go take a look. Hopefully that Divine Progeny jumped into the sea in time.”

“Be careful,” Fannie reminded him.

Paige pressed the shell at her ear and said, “The captain has already ordered boats to carry out a rescue search. At the same time, he’s reminding us to stay alert, because there may still be danger in the sea.”

“Understood.”

Splash. Karon jumped into the sea.

Another characteristic of the Sea God’s Armor revealed itself once underwater. Karon could barely feel any resistance at all while he submerged, and his swimming speed was extremely fast.

Paige and Fannie did not follow him into the water. They remained at the edge of the dock, watching both the half-sunken passenger ship and Karon’s position.

At that moment, Karon broke the surface again and returned to the dock.

“Paige, notify the captain to stop the sea rescue. We’re returning to the hotel at top speed.”

“Back to the hotel?” Paige asked in surprise.

Splash... A blue rectangular barrier emerged from beneath the sea surface. Inside it stood a young man in a blue priest’s robe. He held a bead that gave off white light. Behind him were more than ten attendants, all of whom looked rather bedraggled.

The barrier rose from the sea, reached the dock, and then dissipated.

The young man turned and glanced at the passenger ship, which was more than half submerged by now, and then at Karon, who had just returned to the dock. “Order’s people?”

“Yes. May I ask who you are...?”

“I am Delius. I now require security protection.”

Delius as the name of the Church of Pamireth’s Divine Progeny.

“Please get into the car. We’ll get you to the hotel immediately. Your attendants will be taken care of by others. We need to prioritize your safety first.”

Fannie opened the car door. Paige sat in the driver’s seat. Delius entered the car. After Karon got in, he shut the door. Paige pressed a finger to her earlobe and said, “Captain, the Divine Progeny is in the car. We’re moving out now. Destination: Ankara Hotel.”

After reporting in, Paige started the car and immediately pushed the car’s speed to the limit.

Fannie took out two towels, and then handed one to Delius and the other to Karon. Delius accepted the towel and began drying his hair. There had to be ritual arrays in his robes, because by the time he dried his hair, his clothes were already dry as well.

Karon was not wearing priest’s robe, so he could only casually dry his head and hands. He could not be bothered to keep working and would simply change once they got to the hotel room.

After leaving the dock, they pulled onto the bypass, but after driving just a short distance, Paige seemed to receive new instructions from the captain. She directly smashed through the guardrail, guided the luxury car in a slide down the slope, and then drove onto a smaller road.

After that, they changed lanes repeatedly, even taking longer routes for the sake of doing so.

Half an hour later, Paige finally slowed the car and drove more steadily, which meant they had already managed to escape the danger zone, and Ankara Hotel could already be seen up ahead.

Karon ended his vigil out the window and turned to seriously study this Divine Progeny of the Church of Pamireth.

To begin with, the man was very young, likely not even thirty. His face was fair and clean, though somewhat long. He had clear, sharply defined features and blond hair. He somehow gave off a feeling of melancholy and depth. “Hello, Lord Delius. I am the leader of your close protection team during your negotiations in York City. You may call me Karon. My squad and I will be responsible for your safety during your stay in York City.”

Whew... he had actually thought that he would never get the chance to say his prepared introduction.

At the same time, Karon silently added, What happened on the ship just now has nothing to do with us, because your feet hadn’t yet stepped onto York City soil.

Delius gave a slight nod. “You must have found that laughable.”

Laughable? Karon immediately understood what Delius meant and asked, “Sir, was the attack on the ship just now from someone at your side?”

“Yes. One of the elders accompanying us betrayed me. He wanted to bury me at sea.”

Clearly, that elder had failed.

Karon began estimating the strength of this Divine Progeny. That treacherous elder definitely would not have made a public speech before triggering the explosion, and if Delius had known beforehand that the elder had betrayed him, he would never have allowed him onto the ship at all, let alone conveniently waited until they were about to dock to be attacked.

That indicated that the likely situation was that the elder had suddenly attacked just as the ship was about to dock and everyone’s guard was at its lowest. Despite that element of surprise, Delius had still managed to get ashore completely unharmed, and even brought a group of people in tow.

“In that case, to guarantee your safety, any contact between you and members of your own team will need to be arranged and prepared in advance by us. This may affect your talks with our side to a certain extent, but please rest assured, it will only lengthen the procedures a bit, and will not affect the overall direction of the negotiations. Please trust in Order’s sincerity.”

“I trust you, and I am willing to follow the arrangements.” Delius was easy to speak with and agreed immediately.

Karon asked again, “Do you have any need to visit friends or relatives, or any desire to go sightseeing somewhere? If so, please tell me now. I will submit a request upward, and if it is approved, my squad will be responsible for your travel security.”

During the previous protection mission, Ophelia had asked to visit Allen Manor, and something had indeed happened during their return journey.

Of course, strictly speaking, that incident had had nothing directly to do with Ophelia, since she had not been the target, but as security personnel, Karon still hoped that the one being protected would obediently stay in his hotel and would not try to go out.

Delius replied, “I have no such needs. I hope the conference schedule can be accelerated as much as possible.”

“Understood. Thank you for your cooperation. If you need anything else, please inform me in time.”

Delius took a magnetic card out of his robe pocket and handed it to Karon, who reached out and accepted it. This kind of card functioned somewhat like a bank card. Every orthodox church issued similar cards. As for the members of a church, they simply used their own credentials.

The card bore the mark of the Church of Reincarnation and depicted a reincarnation stone statue, human-headed and wolf-bodied. It was the loyal hound said to guard hell, according to the Church of Reincarnation’s mythology.

It was an anonymous card, which meant that whoever held it could use it. In fact, even a named card would not matter much, since no church wanted its credits to only circulate internally. However, if it were a named card, then any spending or purchases that were inconsistent with the identity attached to that car would inevitably draw scrutiny from within the issuing church, though such scrutiny would never target outsiders.

That was why Karon’s own credits would never be stored in his personal account. The other members of the squad were the same. Everyone preferred to spend their money on the black market.

However, Karon now had his younger cousin Richard. In the future, if he wanted to spend through proper channels, he could have Richard do it for him. With Richard’s family background, even large expenditures would make sense and wouldn’t raise any suspicions. That probably counts as money laundering... no, better to call it credit laundering.

“There are 100,000 Reincarnation credits on this card. Treat yourself and your teammates to afternoon tea.”

100,000 Reincarnation credits, exchanged on the black market, was worth close to 80,000 Order credits.

Naturally, the Church of Pamireth also issued its own church credits, but their circulation range was certainly narrow, and the variety of things that could be bought with them was certainly much smaller than what the orthodox churches could offer. That granted them low recognition on the credits market.

Most importantly, once news got out that the Church of Pamireth was going to merge into the Church of Order, the value of credits issued by the Church of Pamireth would definitely plummet. In the worst case scenario, their purchasing power might eventually not even compare to the rels of the nation of Veyn.

So, whether from the perspective of gift-giving convenience or sincerity, giving credits from an orthodox church was the best choice. Karon did not put on a show of refusing, and simply accepted the card. “Sir, on behalf of my entire squad, I thank you for your generosity.”

“You are too courteous.”

Suddenly, the Divine Progeny turned sharply toward the driver’s seat, no, toward the road ahead through the windshield. Karon sensed something too. There seemed to be a presence ahead that made his heart seize in alarm.

“Stop the car!”

“Stop the car!” Delius and Karon shouted almost at the same time to Paige, who was driving, but she did not step on the brakes. She maintained speed while explaining, “The captain’s order is to keep advancing.”

Buzz.

Several black cracks suddenly appeared in midair up ahead of them. Then, the area around those cracks twisted and spun, forming a black hole roughly ten meters in diameter.

A pale white hand reached out from that black hole. It stretched one finger out to press down upon the car below!

That single finger was as thick as a utility pole, and carried a terrifying chill. If it truly touched the car, it would definitely cause a major accident.

The Sea God’s Armor immediately surfaced over Karon’s body. After being dyed black from the power of Order, it looked much less conspicuous than before.

Blue light appeared in Delius’s eyes, and his aura climbed rapidly. Before that rising aura, even with the protection of the Sea God’s Armor, Karon felt little sense of any real safety.

Paige trusted the captain unconditionally. Even after seeing the enormous finger descending straight toward her driver’s seat, she still did not touch the brakes, nor did she even turn the steering wheel.

At that moment, a black figure appeared in front of the car.

It was Nio!

Black flames surged from his body as he used himself to ram into the enormous finger.

Bang! Nio was knocked flying, but the black flames spread up along the finger in a continuous surge. Vaguely in the distance, Karon seemed to hear a woman’s scream. The enormous finger quickly withdrew into the twisted space, and the fully formed distortion vanished along with it.

Phew...

Karon withdrew the Sea God’s Armor, and Delius’s aura also receded.

Paige said, “The captain says he’s fine. We go straight into the hotel.”

Very quickly, the luxury car entered the grounds of Ankara Hotel, and as soon as they passed the hotel security checkpoint, it meant that Karon and the others could finally let out a slight sigh of relief.

The car stopped in front of the hotel, and Karon led Delius into the lobby, where they began the check-in process. The front desk worked efficiently and had everything settled in half a minute, after which Karon led Delius to the elevator.

For security reasons, every floor had its own dedicated elevator access, which ensured the cleanliness of a given floor. If someone tried to reach the upper floors through some alternative method, the defensive ritual arrays throughout the building were enough to make most intruders despair.

Ding...

The elevator doors opened, and Karon saw standing inside, dressed in hotel attendant clothes... Richard. Fannie really did arrange for him to be an elevator attendant?

Richard gestured for them to enter, and after Karon and the others were in the elevator, Richard pressed the button for the correct floor. The doors closed, and Richard placed both hands before himself, adopting the same posture as Karon and the others.

From the side, it was obvious that Richard’s expression was very serious; His facial muscles were all taut from tension.

By the time they arrived at their floor, the veins on the hand Richard used to hold the open-door button were visibly bulging.

After Karon led Delius out of the elevator, he deliberately turned around and nodded to Richard. The young man nodded back with force, then closed the elevator doors.

Fannie opened the door to Delius’s suite. After entering the room, Karon picked up the in-room phone and requested dining service, while Fannie had already poured Delius a cup of coffee.

“Sir, your team will also be staying in this hotel and will be arriving shortly. May I ask if you need to receive any of them tonight?” Karon asked.

“No, no need.”

“Understood, sir. The welcome banquet is scheduled for tomorrow morning. According to the preliminary itinerary, the first round of talks will begin the following afternoon.”

“Very well, I understand.”

“Food and drinks will be delivered shortly. These have all undergone our second round of inspection, so you may enjoy them without concern. Also, if you wish to order anything additional, please allow for three hours’ notice. Preparing the food and conducting our inspections both take time.”

“I understand.”

“We are staying in the suite opposite yours. If you need anything, you may ring the desk bell.”

“Very well, thank you.”

“Sir, please rest. We’ll take our leave.” Karon withdrew from Delius’s suite, along with Fannie and Paige. They returned to their own suite, and the moment the door was closed, Paige smiled. “This Divine Progeny seems pretty easy to talk to.”

Fannie nodded. “He’s very eager for the talks.”

Karon sat down on the sofa. “I suspect that this annexation is something he has strongly advocated himself, and he must be encountering enormous resistance within his church. Right now, he probably wants to finish the talks as soon as possible and lock in the merger strategy, so that he can borrow the power of our Church of Order to suppress the opposition within his own church.”

“Mm, that makes sense, but that’s not anything we need to think about,” Paige said. “So who wants to shower first? Oh right, Karon, your clothes got wet, so you should go first.”

“Alright.” Karon did not refuse. Standing up, he added, “Next time I should probably just wear a priest’s robe.”

“You already can, but only if we maintain a unified style. If we wear them, then we all wear them together,” Fannie said.

Karon opened the bathroom door, but then paused and asked, “How’s the captain?”

“The captain’s fine.” Paige tapped the shell at her ear. “Please have a little confidence in him.”

Fannie said, “Wynn is the most senior one in our team now. I once asked him about it, and he said he couldn’t recall a single time our captain has ever been at a disadvantage while facing an individual opponent.”

“But the time the captain met Miss Elisa...”

“That was him being surrounded and attacked,” Fannie replied. “That’s all I know, as I joined later, but quite a few former team members died that time.”

Karon nodded thoughtfully. Just as he was about to go shower, Paige suddenly said, “Archbishop Byrne is already in the elevator. He’s coming up to see Delius.”

Fannie explained, “Archbishop Byrne is one of our church’s representatives for these negotiations.”

Karon was no longer in a hurry to take his shower. Paige and Fannie went to inform Delius, while Karon walked toward the elevators. Just as he arrived, the doors opened and Archbishop Byrne, with his white goatee, stepped out. “Take me to the Divine Progeny of the Church of Pamireth.”

“Please show your identification.”

Byrne nodded. Although it was clear that he was in a hurry, he still patiently handed over his credentials to Karon.

Karon took them, verified them, and then returned them with both hands. “Please come with me.”

Karon led the way. When they reached Delius’s door, Karon knocked lightly.

“Come in.” The door was unlocked, so Karon simply opened it. After Archbishop Byrne entered, Karon followed him inside.

When Delius saw Byrne, a flash of emotion appeared in his eyes. He then looked at Karon. “I want to speak with Archbishop Byrne alone.”

Karon shook his head. “I’m sorry. According to security regulations, even when you meet with personnel from our side, there must be at least one member of your close protection detail present.”

Archbishop Byrne smiled. “Rules are rules, you know. Our Church of Order has a great many of them. Besides, I trust the quality of this Hunting Hound squad, so we can speak openly.

“Most importantly, our time is limited. I don’t have time to apply for a private meeting.”

“Really?” Delius asked.

“Of course it’s true.” Archbishop Byrne pointed down at the floor beneath them. “This is Ankara Hotel, a hotel named after the daughter of the great God of Order. You, I, we are both absolutely safe here.”

The next moment, Delius moved in a flash, appearing directly in front of Archbishop Byrne, grabbing the man by the collar and glaring at him viciously.

“Sir Delius, please—” Karon was startled by the reaction, and he immediately prepared to step forward, only for Archbishop Byrne to extend a hand towards Karon, signaling for him not to approach.

“Our Lord Delius needs to vent a bit of emotion. It’s alright. Please don’t stop him. He won’t harm me, because he is the same as you.”

Karon stopped in place. The same as me?

Delius practically pressed his face against Byrne’s, the younger man’s expression savage and agitated as he said, “Count it yourself! From the day you arranged for me to enter the Church of Pamireth until now, how many years has it been? How many years have passed already?

“All these years, I asked again and again to return to the embrace of Order, and every single time you blocked me with one excuse after another!

“Archbishop Byrne—no, Father—Do you know what your son has lived through these years?”

Archbishop Byrne allowed Delius to keep a hold of his collar while answering with a smile, “Look, isn’t everything very good now?”

“‘Very good’?” Delius laughed. “You call this ‘very good’?”

Byrne nodded and asked again, “Isn’t it?”

“Father, what did you tell me back then? You said you were only sending me into the Church of Pamireth for two months, just for me to see a different kind of scenery. But the infiltration lasted twenty years! Do you perhaps still find that regrettable? After all, your son has managed to infiltrate his way into becoming the Pamireth Church’s Divine Progeny. If not for a few uncontrollable accidents, and given a few more years, maybe I could have infiltrated my way all the way to becoming the Pontiff of the Church of Pamireth.”