The Devil’s Cage

The bedroom before his eyes was different from the typical one.

The candlestick on the wall was out of candles but it was still there, including a ridiculous heavy closet that should be abandoned.

Even without [Tracking] vision, Kieran could notice the tricks in the room’s unusual settings.

He reached towards the candlestick and pushed it inwards slightly.

Cak!

The spring inside the wall snapped and the heavy closet moved outwards and revealed a passageway that led down to the basement.

The lights along the passageway then lit up, expelling the darkness within.

Kieran sized up the bedroom he was in before heading downwards.

After around forty steps downward, Kieran reached a well lit small hall.

A thick layer of leather pelt covered the floor, two roundtables together with eight chairs each were in the middle and a row of sofas lined up at the wall.

Opposite the wall was a wine cellar and a bar. There was some food and wine on the bar table and inside the wine cellar were many neatly lined up wines, opened and unopened.

Undoubtedly, the place was the gathering point of the mystical individuals but it wasn’t what Kieran was searching for.

He was looking for the bookstore owner’s bedroom.

The one on the surface was only a cover-up because it was impossible for a mystical individual and a spellcaster to not have any casting materials, related books, or notes in his bedroom.

Kieran was reserving his opinion about casting material but he was eager to locate the potential books and notes in the bedroom.

He had too much information he wanted to know about the current dungeon world’s mystical realm. Getting the information from someone else would be wasting too much time and effort and Kieran didn’t have the luxury of time to verify their words.

That was why he took the owner’s place for himself. He needed to use a more direct way to get the information he sought, such as the real Marulyn and the Elder Council.

Activating [Tracking] once again, Kieran’s eyes were all over the wine cellar’s side, there were a lot of traces around the place.

When Kieran triggered one of the wine bottles inside the middle section of the cellar, another spring contraption was activated. Similar to the previous heavy closet, the wine cellar opened up like a door.

Behind the wine cellar was a flight of stairs leading upstairs. It wasn’t very high despite there being a lot of flights but each flight of stairs was low.

Kieran easily leaped over five to six flights with a single step and after two big steps, he reached the room behind the wine cellar.

There was a big experiment table with all sorts of experiment instruments on it.

Modern glass beakers to ancient stone containers plus a variety of wooden dishes. Opposite the experiment table was a bookshelf leaning on the wall.

The shelf was one and a half men tall and all ten sections of it were stuffed with books.

Beside the shelf was a sofa chair. It was common looking, looking no different than the bed beside it.

The room was a combination of a bedroom and an experiment room for a spellcaster.

Kieran inspected the place and made sure there weren’t any sudden booby traps before swiftly heading towards the bookshelf.

After a general glance over the collection of books later, he picked one out and began reading with intense concentration.

…

The sunlight was slightly scorching during the afternoon.

Hoskin and Teresa had reached Mecathy and Borjane Books’ entrance.

The bloody stench was already replaced by a faint detergent smell after a meticulous cleaning.

A sign was hanging over the bookstore’s glass door.

‘Closed!’

Teresa glanced over the sign and pulled out her phone.

A while later, the glass door was opened from the inside.

“Good afternoon.” Kieran greeted the duo with a smile.

Kieran was in a good mood. Not only did he find reliable records about the current dungeon world’s mystical realm, but it was also because when Teresa reached the bookstore, the sub-mission related to her, [Slander], had been completed and the system awarded him with an extra three days.

It was two days more than the previous sub-mission, [Accident].

Kieran longed for more time for him to find his main mission, it was already the third day since he entered the dungeon world.

Despite during the first day, he entered the dungeon world in the evening, the system indeed notified him it was already the third day.

Ten days time to find his main mission and one-third of the time had passed. The anxious feeling lingered in Kieran’s heart.

Kieran moved his body aside and invited Hoskin and Teresa in.

The young Hoskin smiled and entered the store happily, Teresa was hesitant at first but eventually went in.

Kieran was clear why Teresa was hesitant.

Her attitude and character couldn’t accept her clearing her name through Anne Aldrich Augen because, in Teresa’s point of view, Anne Aldrich Augen was a criminal. Yet she had to regain her position as a chief officer to continue the investigation.

The ambivalent feeling caused the hesitation in her heart.

Kieran pulled over two chairs and sat both of them down.

“I thought you will scold the hell out of me,” Kieran said while looking at Teresa.

“I really wanted to and was even tempted to give you two hard punches to your face! But your deal with Anne Aldrich Augen wasn’t your idea alone but the collected decision between the three of us. I couldn’t push all the responsibility to you,” Teresa said.

“Well, at least you can walk the streets during the day now,” Hoskin said.

The young Hoskin was very satisfied with the current situation.

He didn’t mind achieving the outcome through Anne Aldrich Augen because he had gotten what he wanted. Still, the young man wasn’t fond of Anne Aldrich Augen at all, if it was possible he wouldn’t mind putting her behind bars.

Kieran glanced over at the young Hoskin who played a pivotal role in the agreement between the three of them and agreed to echo in his point of view.

“The Teresa who can walk the streets when the sun is out is the real Teresa and I, 2567, with whom you have been through some hardship with has new information to provide. Among the five bodies found in Winchester explosion, other than Symende Augen and Rudal, one of the other two remaining bodies was Tonita, Symende Augen’s driver and bodyguard. The other one was an archeology professor from Yuda State and I guess trying to find his identity wouldn’t be too hard for Teresa right?”

“Perhaps we can find out who the last body is through this professor and also piece together the puzzle of that mysterious guy, plus the deal between him and Symende Augen,” Kieran said.

As Anne Aldrich Augen provided him with more valuable information, Kieran formed a new theory.

Symende Augen knew Barney the Jackal were disposing of the stolen goods in Winchester House and the mayoral candidate was the one who purposely lured him because Symende Augen wanted Barney to cover for him.

He wanted to fool the outsiders into thinking that he went there to buy some valuable treasures from the museum.

No doubt, Symende Augen’s methods were flawless and he definitely didn’t expect there was really a peculiar item among the batch of museum treasures, neither did he think of losing his life there.

“I’ll go look into it immediately!”

Teresa stood up right away and stormed outside when the lead related to the case was mentioned.

“Hoskin, why are you still dazing off? You really want me to transfer you to guard the storeroom?”

Teresa stood at the entrance and yelled at the young Hoskin who was still sitting still on his chair.

Hoskin quickly stood up with a bitter smile and ran out after bidding goodbye to Kieran.

The two left in a hurry, Kieran also sent them off with a smile.

When the cruiser went off, Kieran put away his smile.

He turned his sight towards the direction of St. Reid Hospital.

Coldness appeared in his gaze. No one liked to be lied to, Kieran was no exception.