The Devil’s Cage

The black wagon stopped in front of Randletine Street 17th.

Drexton, who was waiting inside, was astonished by the arrival of the wagon. He knew the wagon was something different with a single glance, and when he saw Kieran come down from the carriage, he smiled wholeheartedly.

He was grateful that he befriended Kieran; the feeling extended from the moment he saw Kieran until the incident yesterday.

His friend wasn’t just powerful, but it also seemed like he possessed some kind of unique charm that attracted many people with extraordinary talents to him endlessly—like the wagoner and the wagon that vanished on the spot, plus Kat Lady.

Once Drexton thought about how Kat Lady tried to approach Kieran from time to time, he couldn’t help but curl up his lips.

One needed to know that Kat Lady was infamous for her proud attitude; even when it came to him, he could hardly order her around, but of course, he wasn’t a bossy character.

In Drexton’s eyes, everyone shared the same rank, they were equal, and there was no such thing as ordering people around, only cooperation.

This was the reason why he appeared in Randletine Street 17th: cooperation required payment, after all.

“Morning, 2567,” Drexton said with a smile.

“Morning.” Kieran nodded and sat on the sofa. He spotted a few paper bags on the tea table and some luggage under it.

“This is the deed to the two shoplots in the center of Smorewill Street. I know they might not be very useful now, but give it around six months, and the street will prosper and shock everyone. Please don’t reject me, this is what you deserve. As a matter of fact, compared to what you’ve done for the city, these two shoplots are really nothing. I would have liked to pay you more, but rebuilding Smorewill Street requires too much funds, so I can only provide you with these in the meantime. I’ll find a way to make it up to you,” Drexton said in an apologetic and sincere manner before he moved the piece of luggage under the tea table on top.

The luggage wasn’t big, a standard 24 inch luggage bag to be exact, but when it was placed on the tea table, the thud it produced was heavy.

Drexton didn’t keep Kieran guessing; he opened the luggage bag right away.

Inside the luggage were three wooden boxes; one big, two small. The big one was at the bottom and the small ones were on top. All three boxes were locked by chains.

“I heard you were looking for secret texts and single books about the papal era, so I asked someone to search for them. This is the key to the locks. Don’t worry, although they are not complete yet, I’ll try to get more for you,” said Drexton.

Kieran didn’t reject them.

Compared to the two shoplots, he was more concerned about the three ancient tomes. He received the key from Drexton and opened the boxes up.

Drexton, too, smiled brightly after Kieran accepted his gifts without a second thought. He admired the honesty in Kieran, unlike someone else who sought the gifts so badly, yet pretended they didn’t care by making small talk.

A few minutes later, Kieran finally flipped through the tomes.

No problem at all.

The papers were aged, and the contents and writings on the tomes were a little different from modern words, but it wasn’t a huge problem for Kieran.

He placed the paper bags with the deeds into the luggage bag with boxes and passed it to Emma Eddie.

Emma Eddie pushed it to the study room, closing the door after she went in. Kieran then started to speak.

“How’s the investigation on yesterday’s incident?” Kieran asked.

Kieran didn’t hide anything about the incident. Printon City, the interrogators, Dark Gold and that so-called demon—Kieran told Drexton everything because he knew he couldn’t hide it forever.

As long as Drexton started his investigation, he’d know very soon.

Rather than anticipating the problems in the future, might as well say it properly to prevent one from happening.

“I’ve sent all my men on the case but… nothing! I’m sure those criminals who assaulted the city are just some pawns, but I’m not sure who the person behind the chessboard is,” Drexton said seriously.

After hearing the news from Kieran, Drexton was overwhelmed by shock. The Fist of Justice dreaded Printon City like none other, let alone the interrogators who got lost in history.

As for Dark Gold and the demon, it caused more headache to Drexton.

He felt like he was dragged 600 years back into the papal era because those words only worked in that time.

“Try your best. We are running out of time. Alkender City has become a target for many now.” Kieran was surprised.

Although the Hero Alliance was influential and possessed an outstanding intelligence network, Rome wasn’t built in one day; they couldn’t have gathered all the intel about the assault in one night. It required time, and unfortunately, what they lacked most now was time itself.

Drexton understood what Kieran meant, no doubts. A slight pause later, he continued. “I’ve contacted Colossal Arm and listed his security company into the city defenses. On top of that, Colossal Arm is familiar in training securities. Given what we already have, he can train more men and add them to the security forces within a week. Besides that, I’ve suggested to the mayor to rearrange Alkender City’s defenses. With the mayor’s agreement, the station and fire department are all under our defense line now.” Drexton smiled as he delivered the good news.

The conversation that followed became light-hearted as well, and it lasted for 15 minutes before Drexton left.

As the leader of the Hero Alliance, he was exceptionally busy in times like this. His job required him to not only contact the superheroes, but also to liaise with the armed forces of the civilians too.

Once Kieran thought about Chief Officer Pudder’s attitude, he knew Drexton’s task wasn’t easy.

It was common for people with authority to behave like that though.

Deers were hunted for their antlers.

Superheroes were no exception either.

Their extraordinary powers causing them to stand out from the commoners, they had to endure jealousy from others, got pushed aside by the crowds and had to bear all those dark thoughts.

A lot of the time, the Extraordinary individuals ended up as criminals.

They weren’t born bad but were forced down the path.

Drexton met a lot of similar cases, but he managed to keep his bottom line. He hoped the other superheroes could do the same; therefore, he could not afford to stop.

He had to move forward, he had to give it his best.

The door shut. Drexton sat in his car and vanished into the rain.

Kieran accepted the tea from Emma Eddie, took a sip and looked at Goran.

“My lord, everything is normal. There are no watchers around, and no one followed you back,” said Goran as he walked out of the shadows.

“Is that so?” Kieran placed the cup of tea on the tea table lightly.

The reaction from the enemy was slower than expected.

No, the enemy must have chosen a more secretive and safer approach.

Coincidentally, Kieran was now easily targeted by such an approach, but he wasn’t worried.

Quite the opposite, he preferred the enemy to approach him this way.

However, out of caution and habit, he had to add a layer of insurance on himself.

Pak!

Kieran snapped his fingers.

“Boss, at your service.”

Bloody Mary appeared following the snap of fingers. Without further instruction from Kieran, it already knew what Kieran wanted it to do.

“I’ll try my best,” said Bloody Mary before vanishing from the spot.

The air was cold as the rain fell, but Ferris felt nothing.

He held a black umbrella as he entered a coffee shop.

After being welcomed and rejecting the warm towel from the waiter, he walked to the corner.

As the infamous Freezer in Alkender City, the coldness from the rain was like child’s play in his eyes, nothing to be concerned about.

If he didn’t care about the person he was meeting for a trade, he would have chosen a wider place, not a warm coffee shop.

Although the coffee shop had warm lighting, appealing music, and nice coffee, compared to the safety of a wide place, Ferris could have given all those up.

Comfort would lower one’s guard and might cost him his life, at least in his own opinion.

Of course, his old statement was built on the absence of Kieran’s orders. After he received the order to search for more ancient texts and unique books on the papal era, he switched his standpoint to Kieran’s.

He’d still remain vigilant, but he’d place his priority on completing Kieran’s orders first, hence he started to care about the person he was meeting.

At least with the comfortable environment, Ferris assumed that it would help increase the success rate of the trade, and as a matter of fact, it did…

“Hello sir, good day! Is it you who published the message?”

A middle-aged man had entered the coffee shop and started looking around. When he saw Ferris, he smiled warmly and walked over. He also received a warm towel from the waiter and wiped his hands as he sat down.

“Having services like this in this kind of weather is really great. I have a unique copy of a book on the papal era. It’s a little broken, maybe only 70% left of its original content. Do you want to have a look?”

The man then took out a book wrapped in tarp.

Ferris took the package without saying a word, and the middle-aged man didn’t stop him.

The reason he showed up for this trade alone and spoke his mind was because he had confidence in himself, plus the person he was trading with, Ferris, had quite the reputation in the city.

Never violate deals, always honest. That was, of course, if the deal went well, otherwise…

Going missing in the city was not something that would get attention.

“Em.”

After a careful check, Ferris took out a cheque book and wrote six figures on it—it was the price he offered when he released the news.

The numbers would fluctuate depending on the completeness and rarity of the product but not drastically.

The middle-aged man received the cheque and showed a satisfied smile after he saw the numbers.

“Oh right, I have some news on another similar book—consider it a service. Some guys found an ancient tomb in the outskirts not long ago, and it should belong to some nobles in the old age. I heard it has a lot of precious stuff inside, including many rare books. Do you want their contact info? It’s not free though,” said the middle-aged man with a smile.

“How much?” Ferris went straight to the point.

“10K.” The middle-aged man made his offer and waited for Ferris to negotiate on the price, but to his surprise, Ferris had zero intentions to do so. Another cheque was written and given to the man.

After acquiring the gold from Mr. Ghost, Ferris had no need to argue on the price anymore. He deemed it a waste of time.

Pak!

The man flicked the second cheque before putting it away carefully. He then took out a pen and paper, and wrote down a phone number for Ferris.

“It was great doing business with you. Hope we meet again sometime.” The man nodded and headed out of the coffee shop, but before he pushed the door open…

BANG!

A gunshot sounded. The man’s head was blasted to pieces.

The headless body wobbled and fell to the ground as blood sprayed all over the place.

“Aaaaah! Someone died!”

The customers in the coffee shop screamed in panic and started to run to the exit.

The shooter didn’t stop them. He allowed the customers to leave as he took his gun to Ferris.

Pak!

The shooter flung his gun on the table, pulled the chair, sat down and looked at the table.

“I heard you are looking for ancient text and unique copies of the papal era?” the shooter said frivolously.

The shooter’s words caused Ferris to disperse the chilly air that gathered around his fingers.

“Do you have any?” Ferris asked.

“Of course! We discovered some nobles’ tomb at the outskirts and planned to raid it, but some passerby here kept spreading news about us, making it hard for us to do our job. So, he was on our kill list. This is a warning to those parties who had their eyes on us. Don’t even dare step on our tail!” said the shooter, overflowing with killer intent.

In Ferris’s eyes, the shooter was fierce on the outside and timid on the inside, but it did not concern him. He was here to complete Kieran’s orders, not teach people a lesson.

Ferris had zero interest in things other than his orders.

“Where are the books then?” Ferris asked.

“In a secret place. You have the balls to come with me?”

As though the lack of fear on Ferris’s face disturbed the shooter, he immediately provoked Ferris.

“Lead away.” Ferris stood up and walked to the exit.

“Hope you can be this calm when you get there.” The shooter didn’t cover up his voice behind Ferris.

Both of them then left the coffee shop one after another.

No one cared about the dead man though, because dead men were the safest, or at least should be.

A moment after the two left the coffee shop, the body moved.

The broken head and splattered brain started to wriggle toward the headless body as though they had memories of their own.

Ten seconds later, the middle-aged man regained his head.

After coming back from the dead, the man tapped the dust away from his body and showed a strange, freaky smile.

“You took the bait! Hmph,” the man muttered softly and grunted frivolously. “Trying to kill me with a single bullet? How naive you are! I am an undead!”

The man wanted to leave the coffee shop as he stood up, but after the first step, he heard a voice behind him.

“Oh? Undead? What a coincidence!”