The Devil’s Cage

The five members of Silent Night Secret Society had completely calmed down after Bloody Mary’s vows.

They looked at Bloody Mary with bright eyes and nodded, one after the other.

“Me too!”

“Me too!”

…

They did not speak exactly in one voice but it was not in any particular order either.

The five of them looked at each other. A never before felt feeling of trust rose in their hearts.

It was trust that only appeared when people fought for a common goal and were able to disregard one’s life for the sake of their beliefs.

The five of them were strangers to this feeling but they did not dislike it.

Being able to trust others felt great! And being trustworthy to others felt even better.

Sensing the emotions and thoughts of all five of them, Bloody Mary smiled. It seized the perfect timing and said, “Guys, we are running out of time, we must seize the moment to recruit more to our cause and initiate the Council Meeting!”

“Understood!” replied the five of them.

Another glance at each other and a nod later, the five of them joined the never ending traffic of Edatine Castle’s street and swiftly disappeared.

Standing in the room, Bloody Mary heaved a breath of relief.

Although it was nearly undead, its abilities were not almighty.

Being in a higher position, controlling and navigating everything felt strange to it but with a successful experience under its belt, it represented the direction of where it would be going next.

It believed the next time would be a lot easier.

Now?

It has to compensate for the biggest flaw in Luncar’s plan on behalf of him.

It was not that Luncar’s plan wasn’t perfect enough, it was just that the plan had to be adjusted to various human factors.

What Luncar sought after was purely survival, therefore his plan was mostly stirring up a mess.

As for its boss?

He didn’t come all the way here just to mess things up, for it would be too easy and too few of a gain.

It quickly tidied up its attire and made sure it didn’t leave out anything, then walked out of the room righteously and headed to the street outside.

The place was the Lower Six Ring, the slums of the civilian district.

However, as the capital of the Northern Land, even the slums of Edatine Castle maintained a certain level of cleanliness and tidiness, not much of a mess present.

Fully armed patrolling soldiers even raised the sense of safety in people’s hearts.

As a matter of fact, speaking from a certain aspect, the safety in the Lower Six Ring was not much poorer than the Central Three Ring.

Due to the fact that the civilian district was near the city gate and the city guard station, many guards were stationed there.

Bloody Mary glanced over the civilians who had just finished work under the sunset glory.

Their faces were filled with delight due to getting paid after a hard day at work.

Even though the pay wasn’t exactly a lot and it was probably only enough for the day’s dinner, it might not even be a scrumptious meal, they were satisfied nonetheless.

In this world, nothing was easier to satisfy than these civilians.

As long as they were able to breath for another day, they would not resist.

After all, to the civilians, staying alive was the most important thing.

Bloody Mary saw a mother with two little girls, ages 7 to 8 years, walking beside the street with a giant wooden pail.

The wooden pail was big enough to fit a person, its weight anything but light.

The mother’s waist had suffered terribly because of the weight. The two young daughters were following their mother, reaching out a helping hand and hoping to ease their mother’s burden.

These two little girls knew this wooden pail was the most valuable item in their ‘home’.

Everything relied on this wooden pail.

Their youthful hands were a little swollen and frozen but they did not loosen up on the wooden pail a bit. It was because they were touching ice for a long period of time under such cold weather.

As for hot water?

It would cost a lot more.

The pay of a washer could not provide the mother and daughters the option of getting access to hot water.

It was obvious by looking at the mother’s frostbitten hands.

As a mother, she had to bring her child to work just so they could survive.

Enduring hardship for her children was the responsibility of a mother.

That pair of hands must hurt a lot, but the mother and the daughters showed traces of a smile because in the gunny sack beside the mother, there were not only two loaves of charcoal bread but also an egg.

‘If we save up properly, the bread can last for at least 3 days.

The egg… it can also provide enough nutrients for Erin and Ellie, but they can’t have it everyday.

I must work a little harder next week and make sure Erin and Ellie get an egg each!’

As they moved on, the extremely exhausted mother was thinking about her daughters.

Therefore, she did not notice there were a few figures in the corner looking at her daughters with gazes like a jackal.

Light reaches every crack and crevice yet darkness follows it like a shadow.

Light and dark are always together.

Even though this place was very close to the city guard station, some would not mind taking the risk for their benefits.

Human traffickers.

They existed in every single city, even in Edatine Castle, they were just a little more elusive here. They would not simply move on a target, they had to carefully choose it first.

A pair of young little girls who looked extremely mellow were great targets, especially since they were sisters. They would be sold like hot cakes!

Coincidentally, a certain duke had issued a heavy reward for a pair of youthful sisters right now.

When the mother brought her daughters away from the main street and turned into the alleys of the slums, the men made their moves. They already had a clear grasp on which route the mother and her daughters would take, they even remembered the address as if it was their habit.

The neighbours in the street were all loners like the mother and her daughters, some were old and ill and they would not offer much resistance.

Should something go down, all they could do was wait for the soldiers to arrive and deal with the problem.

Footsteps due to hurried running attracted Erin’s attention.

Ellie, the younger sister, immersed herself in the joy of getting an egg during dinner later; Erin, the older sister, already knew she was in a dangerous situation.

She raised her guard at the very first moment, but when she turned around for a look, she saw nothing but the sunset glory.

It was the first time Erin noticed how beautiful the sunset was; it wasn’t just red, it was gorgeous.

However, she was unable to have a prolonged gaze at the sunset. She still had to help her mother and take care of her sister. She turned around at the next moment.

The shadows of the mother and daughters were stretched under the glorious sunset, only going away when they turned away from the slum alley.

Pak!

Mimicking its boss, Bloody Mary snapped its fingers and released its illusion.

Behind it was the human traffickers, who stood there blankly, their faces looking rather twisted, as if they had experienced some horrifying things.

Bloody Mary didn’t make a direct move, it knew it wouldn’t solve anything and it wasn’t its style either.

It walked to the human traffickers and whispered, “Do you want to break free? Go find the person who gave you the orders and then… kill him. Only then you can be free from this horror, otherwise all of you will fall for eternity.”

In between the lines were techniques used for its strange illusions.

If Bloody Mary was a kind instructor to the five members of the Silent Night Secret Society earlier, it would be the harshest ruler now as it forcefully implanted the orders into the human traffickers mind.

It had completely messed up the human traffickers mind, forcefully implanting the orders and telling them to go back to the person who gave them the orders to kidnap kids.

Then?

The human traffickers would be ‘free’.

Was it too cruel?

Come on, it wasn’t human at all, why would it feel merciful or compassionate?

It was a demon, just a tad special.

Seeing the human traffickers wobble away, Bloody Mary turned around and left in a hurry.

It felt that gaze approaching quickly and an alley in the slums was obviously not a good place to fight.

Running like a rabbit, Bloody Mary ran through the city gate passageway without pause and reached outside of the city. It headed to the nearby stable and bought a strong… jade!

It was not that there were no other good horses, but it had no money.

The money that it used to buy the jade was the hard-earned money that he saved up from mission to mission.

As for applying for mission allowance?

Well… it didn’t want to die a dozen more times, so…

It hopped onto the jade and rode south.

The jade couldn’t gallop as fast as a horse, but it still managed to cover several kilometers before the sky turned completely dark.

Edatine Castle, which was as big as a mountain, was getting smaller behind Bloody Mary.

When Edatine Castle had completely disappeared into the night and from his sight, Bloody Mary jumped down the jade and tied it onto a dry stump beside the road. It waited patiently.

Four to five seconds later, a figure slowly came into Bloody Mary’s sight.

“Not going to run anymore?” the figure laughed.

“Can I?” Bloody Mary asked back with a smile.

“You can try again, I’ll give you another chance as a reward for surprising me.”

As the figure spoke, he walked out of the shadow and revealed the long robe that he was wearing. On top of his hoodless old face, wrinkles piled up together because of the wide grin, yet his bright eyes did not show a trace of a smile. All it had was a chiliness, as cold as the arctic wind and able to freeze anyone on sight.

Bloody Mary shrugged after being stared down by the man.

It didn’t say anything else, as if it had accepted its fate.

“You are nothing like yourself during normal times. During normal times, the more you are pushed into a life or death situation, the more you talk with your silver tongue. Why are you mute today?” asked Councilman Colipo with a smile.

Then, without waiting for a reply from Bloody Mary, the councilman continued, “Every single time I tolerated you, even if you were talking crap, I treated it as the truth because every time you stood in my position and thought for the sake of my benefit. I don’t mind getting deceived given that I could get enough gains, but why didn’t you do what you did in the past this time? Don’t tell me that you were unable to persuade me anymore! This isn’t your style! Or, should I assume that you’ve finally revealed the dagger you’ve hidden all this time, Snake Sect Demon Hunter who has infiltrated Silent Night Secret Society?”

Up until this point, Councilman Colipo’s smile grew even kinder, like he was someone’s kind grandfather with that smile hanging over his face, but the frost in his eyes grew colder as well.

The temperature of the surroundings seemed to have plummeted following his cold stare.

Bloody Mary acted like it didn’t feel the coldness.

It really wanted to tell the old man that Luncar really saw the bigger picture and more gains, he really thought he could no longer persuade the old man. Snake Sect was also a fictional story that its boss made up, it didn’t really exist but while it was thinking quietly, its silence was misunderstood by Colipo.

“What’s happening now? Did I get it correctly and frighten you? It’s not that hard to guess your true identity, more so when you exposed yourself!”

Colipo then sucked in a long deep breath.

The smile on his face started to fade and the coldness in his eyes started to get sharper.

“You saved the mother and her daughters earlier, right? The man that I knew would never do something like this. You are selfish and like to take pleasure in people’s misfortune. Everything you do has a very clear goal, yet you saved them. It’s obvious that the normal you is nothing but a disguise! I might have allowed you to deceive me for the sake of gains and benefits but I will not allow betrayal!”

The moment his voice subsided, the north wind whistled.

Fu!

The north wind whistled hard.

Bloody Mary stood in front of Colipo, frozen by the north wind, and a few breaths later, an ice statue appeared on the road of the wilderness.

Colipo looked at the ice statue, the hatred that was hidden deep in his gaze finally showing.

“You bastard! Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me? That bastard Kurtzargert had agreed and was eager to initiate the Council Meeting!”

A trace of mocking appeared between the lines when Colipo mentioned the Council Meeting.

“Hmph! Council Meeting? Those whom you bewitched are really a bunch of naive bastards! Do they really think Silent Night Secret Society is still what it was in the past?”

“The tenacity in the past has transformed into selfish battles, everyone would only fight for their own benefits! I am one of them and so is Kurtzargert and the other councilmen! Our methods might differ but… we are all the same!”

The councilman chuckled coldly and walked towards Bloody Mary.

He didn’t check on the ice statue because he firmly believed the person under the layer of thick ice was dead.

There was not a trace of life from within, what else would it be other than a dead person?

Even more so when he shattered the ice statue with a finishing punch, the councilman who hadn’t been in battle for several decades lost his last bit of cautiousness.

The body was shattered into smithereens, how could he still be alive?

Colipo grabbed the head with his hand. He wanted to bring it back and it was something he had to do, both officially and unofficially.

Officially, Luncar’s head would be able to calm this internal conflict. There were still several naive bastards who would throw a tantrum but they couldn’t do any harm.

Unofficially, how could he swallow the grievance if he did not torture the head?

“Fret not, I will turn your head into a vase and make an example out of you, how betrayers…”

Puk!

Before Colipo finished, he was stopped by a palm through his chest.

He looked down in utmost disbelief and saw the hand that crushed his head.

The hatred from his eyes almost materialized!

“DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH THIS?!”

The rigorous life energy did not kill Colipo right away after losing his heart. He put his hands on Luncar’s head and crushed it to smithereens.

But right after the head got crushed, it started to reform.

Colipo watched Luncar reform in front of his own eyes, unable to hold back his shock anymore and asked, “how?!”

Bloody Mary did not answer.

It raised its hand and decapitated Colipo, then sliced the whole body into many pieces and grabbed the gasolene from the jade, pouring it over the pile of meat and burning it.

A dead enemy was the best enemy.

It fully agreed to its boss’ saying, so it carried the saying out with utmost effort.

Amid the blazing light, Bloody Mary changed its looks again.

A moment later, Councilman Colipo, in his long robe, appeared again.

It looked at the burning body with a solemn look.

“Don’t worry, Luncar, you will not die in vain! I will finish what you’ve started! The changes to the society are inevitable, it will continue!”

Councilman Colipo then turned around and headed back to Edatine Castle.

After all that, the dinner at Horton Mansion had finally begun.