The Devil’s Cage

Sou Sou!

Two flying daggers broke the air as they flew through the grave, a cold glaring trail was drawn in mid-air.

“Careful!”

John shouted out and instinctively blocked the middle-aged man behind him.

As for Kieran, since John had seen what Kieran was capable off, he wasn’t worried about Kieran at all and on the contrary he was more worried about the one who threw the daggers.

In fact, things were exactly as he thought. Kieran’s figure vanished on the spot along with the two flying daggers.

John widened his eyes yet he didn’t catch a glimpse of Kieran’s movement. All he saw was Kieran reappear with the two daggers in one hand and an unfamiliar man in the other.

If John couldn’t even catch a glimpse, the middle-aged Wayne was not to be mentioned.

“What? What happened?” The man cried out in panic.

“Nothing, just a little accident,” John comforted the man before going up to Kieran and checking the man he grabbed.

The attacker was in a lightweight black outfit, his wrists and ankles were tightly tied with some thin rope. There were two more daggers on his waist and a sheated short sword.

On the other side of his belt was a satchel, inside it was a hand crossbow, a flintlock plus some liquids in test tubes—another dagger was hidden in his boot.

When John saw the weapons on the attacker, he frowned hard.

A common man wouldn’t bring such an arsenal with him in the night and of course, the ones who appeared in the grave wouldn’t be commoner either.

“Who is this guy? He followed us?” John asked.

“We still need to ask who he really is but he might have been here before us.”

Kieran threw the captive on the floor and said with an affirmative tone.

First, Kieran had absolute confidence that the attacker had been waiting inside the grave before this, otherwise with his Intuition, he wouldn’t have not noticed they were being followed.

Second, this attacker should have nothing to do with Wayne family, whether it was his outfit or his actions, he looked more like some man from a more hidden faction.

Some shady men had interest in the Wayne family who was facing a decline?

Kieran quickly went up to the spot where the attacker hid himself.

With [Tracking] activated, the traces the attacker left behind were clear, which means the attacker only arrived a little earlier than them.

“The Revival Society was just eliminated and someone else appeared… interesting!”

Kieran with one of his hands under his chin was looking back and forth between the captive and the first Duke Wayne’s grave chamber.

“How is it?” John asked.

“If he is not just here to raid tombs, then I guess we might have accidentally caught ourselves a big fish,” Kieran replied.

Kieran then went up to the first Duke Wayne’s grave chamber, it wasn’t hard for him to locate the switch to open it though.

Gak!

After the loaded spring was turned around, the door to the chamber slowly opened up.

When Kieran opened the chamber door, the middle-aged man opened his mouth, trying to say something but when he saw the jaw-dropping scene inside the chamber, he was rendered speechless.

It was a simple living space yet fully furnished. The coffin inside the chamber was absent, let alone the first Duke Wayne’s body.

There was a bed, a desk, chair set, and a carpet made out of animal skin.

Judging from the messy plates and bowls on the floor, there was at least 7 to 8 people who lived inside before.

“Th-This…This…” The man stuttered hard and couldn’t utter anything properly.

“This is that bastard Gateli’s hideout!” John grunted coldly.

Although Gateli died for real this time, John still couldn’t find anything likable about Gateli since he participated in the spread of the plague.

“Bu-But, the remains…” The middle-aged man was having a hard time trying to convey his thoughts.

“They might have been cleared out as well.”

John said with an uncertain tone when he saw Kieran walking back and forth inside the chamber.

He didn’t forget what Kieran said just now though, “Big Fish?”

John looked down at the unconscious captive and the gears in his mind spun fast.

The chief officer was trying to connect the things he heard and saw, but ultimately got nothing.

“So what is going on here? What do you mean by big fish?” John went into the chamber and asked Kieran who was also in deep thought.

“Look at this grave chamber.” Kieran gave an irrelevant answer.

“It’s normal, except for the missing remains,” John replied.

“Then where do you think the coffin and the remains that are supposed to be here went?” Kieran asked again.

“Shouldn’t they be dealt with or like cleared out? After all, Gateli had whole bunch of his men is here, it’s not really comfortable for them to stay here with a dead man’s remains!” John stated his guess from before.

“Yup,” Kieran nodded.

He didn’t deny John’s guess because it was the most reasonable explanation, given that there really were traces left behind, but there was none!

According to the grave stone’s carving, the coffin with the body inside should have stayed inside the chamber for at least 40 years, so even if the ground was made up of rocks, marks or traces would have stayed behind, let alone the humid and gloomy chamber.

If there really was a coffin placed inside the chamber, aside from the marks from the coffin, the moss that grew around it wouldn’t have been so easily “cleaned up” by Gateli and gang. There would be at least some washing marks left behind but the chamber was absolutely clean like the coffin never existed within.

“A grave chamber without a coffin and body?”

Kieran was muttering in his heart, he didn’t further discuss it with John but went over to the middle-aged man.

“How did the first generation Duke Wayne die?” He asked.

“He died of a sudden illness, someone said it was the plague so his body and coffin were rushed into the chamber after he died, to prevent further infection. The man answered.

“Did you see it with your own eyes?” Kieran asked.

“That’s 40 years ago, how can I seen it with me own eyes? Our elders told us the stories since young. Those who really saw the burying would have survived but after that bastard caused an internal conflict, a lot of them died a wrongful death,” the man smiled bitterly.

“Is that so?” Kieran muttered.

He seemed to have discovered more unusual things in the Wayne family.

Following the second generation Duke Wayne’s death…

No, it seemed like someone intentionally pushed second generation Duke Wayne to his death.

It shouldn’t be Gateli since he was just a pawn but someone who was hiding deeper from common sight.

A person or a party that targeted the Wayne family and the Church of Dawn together.

“Who would that be?”

Kieran sat back in the wagon and was thinking about the question during their journey back.

His eyes unconsciously looked at the captive who had already woke up.

When the captive caught Kieran’s gaze, he turned his head down right away but at the next moment, the captive lifted his head up to Kieran.

“Forgive me for having to meet you in such ways, 2567.”

The captive looked at Kieran with a turbid gaze and said as though he was sleep talking.