The Devil’s Cage

Kieran entered the living room through the little corridor and saw Rachel panting heavily.

Although there weren’t any visible wounds on her, Kieran sharply sensed how weak she was at the moment. He raised his hand and a warm light shone, trying to envelope Rachel.

“Don’t! You are disturbing my process! I scarcely came in contact with this kind of relentless energy that can destroy my surface defense.”

Rachel waved her hand and stopped Kieran after she saw the white light, knowing what Kieran was trying to do.

“Even if you are testing your limits, it’s best to know your current condition,” said Kieran.

He knew what Rachel meant by ‘grinding’ and also understood why she did what she was doing.

“I’ll begin with the simplest contract rebounding force.”

Rachel leaned back on the sofa without too much concern for her image, saying “Our situation right now is a little bad.”

It sounded without start or end but Kieran wasn’t caught off guard by it.

“Is it because of that windy breeze?” Kieran sat down opposite Rachel and asked.

“Not just ‘that’ one, but everything ‘that’ one represented.”

Rachel said in a muffled voice to prevent leaking more information and suffering the rebounding force from the contract.

Although she didn’t mind grinding herself, she’d choose a proper way to gradually reach there.

Had she chosen to grind herself at hell from start, it wasn’t ‘grinding’ anymore, It was suicide.

“What it represented?” Kieran’s left index finger had started tapping again.

A while later, Kieran took a deep breath.

“Understood,” he said.

“What do you understand?” Rachel was surprised.

She thought she did not reveal any key points in her words but if Kieran could tell what was happening with this limited information, she would like to dissect Kieran to see what was in his mind.

“I understood what you said,” Kieran then stood up, walking outside and waving at Rachel as he walked.

“One little reminder, do recover first before further ‘grinding’ yourself! If you hurt your roots, reaching rank V is meaningless,” Kieran’s voice came through the corridor.

“My knowledge of rank V is no lesser than you! It is I who should remind you, don’t die of carelessness.”

Rachel pouted and didn’t further comment on her condition, instead giving a clear reminder to Kieran.

Kieran didn’t reply.

Careless? Maybe.

No one could guarantee being vigilant and careful at all times, not even Kieran.

Therefore, he tried his best to reach his limit and factor in the several safety measures he kept.

After getting out from the back door of Harvest Inn, Kieran was greeted with dark clouds above the city sky.

The moment he took a step out, the sky started to drizzle.

A dash of burning red glided over the rainy sky, a reserved frost aura flashing over in the shadow, further away.

Kieran did not stop and vanished into the rain.

…

After Kieran left, Rachel rested for a couple more minutes on the sofa before standing up.

Rachel was already weakened and now she had to suffer the repulsion from the contract. Even if it was mostly insignificant damage, it was torturous for the inn owner.

“You Goddamn bastard, you really don’t know how to die…”

After two slow steps forward so that her body could get use to the repulsion, Rachel started to think about everything that had happened recently, a sigh coming out from her mouth uncontrollably.

Then, she contacted her friend Wu.

If she had the choice, she wouldn’t drag her friend into this, but this time, she had to.

She didn’t contact Wu alone, even the Swordsmith Alisritter was summoned.

The Swordsmith had owed her a debt of gratitude more than once; it was time for him to pay his debt.

Although Alisritter was contacted after Wu, he arrived at the living room earlier than Wu.

“I still need some time to prepare the three Advance Rank items and equipment,” Alisritter explained the moment he stepped into the living room.

Based on previous experiences working together, Alisritter had first hand knowledge of how fierce the lady before him was. Rather than hiding the facts and suffering a knife in his back at the end, he might as well come clean at the start, seizing the chance to stop the conflict.

“Em. I am not asking you about that, there is something else,” Rachel nodded.

Alisritter unconsciously heaved a breath of relief when he heard it wasn’t about the equipment he owed her, but what Rachel said after that raised his alarm.

“What’s the matter?” Alisritter asked carefully.

“Some little matters. I need a favor—tell everyone, every organization you can get to, tell them to be careful of the unusual occurrence lately.”

“Just that?” Alisritter was stunned.

‘Was it that simple? It didn’t fit Rachel’s image!’

“Yes, just that. But if you want increased difficulty, I don’t min-”

“No, thank you, I’ll contact them at once.”

Alisritter than stormed out of the living room, as if he was being chased by some fierce beast.

He only heaved a breath when he got out of the living room, but quickly frowned.

“What happened? What caused the lady to search for someone like this? No, this ain’t right, it’s not just a simple search for a certain person, there must be more details than this! It should be… restrictions! Yes, she must be trying to restrict something or someone! The people and organizations that I contact will not be careless, and even if they want to brush me away, they’d play along. What kind of powerful enemies has she come across?”

Not a single renowned player in the big city was an idiot.

Perhaps Alisritter was nervous when he thought Rachel was asking for ‘payment’, but after he calmed down, the Swordsmith could relate and think about a lot of key points.

Still, he did what Rachel told him to do and soon enough, messages were sent off, one by one.

When Alisritter was at the end of his friends list and saw that last name, he hesitated in sending the message. He ultimately shook his head and gave up.

“Why would that guy care about all this?”

As he talked to himself, Alisritter strode towards the train station without much care about the rain, which was getting stronger.

The train stopped at the station and Wu, in her thick mantle, walked down.

Wu and Alisritter walked past each other at the train station, Wu suddenly stopping.

She turned around and looked at Alisritter, who was boarding the train. She saw a heavy ‘death presence’ on him and it was swiftly gathering above him.

‘But…what does it have to do with me?

He is not 2567!’

Wu pulled out a card from her sleeve, seeing the golden raven on the card, as dazzling as ever.

She smiled and happily walked towards Harvest Inn.