Trafford’s Trading Club

Chapter 1296: Chapter 23: Citywide Riot (Part 1)

Retaliating… is impossible, Chen Peter quickly slipped away—there’s no choice but to leave, his ear was really hurting from the burn, urgently needing some burn ointment.

Maid returned to the room, where Boss Luo was spreading out the light screens he used to observe food.

Several different light screens were arranged in a curved shape before his eyes.

“This thing called reality is really quite fascinating.” Luo Qiu suddenly sighed.

You Ye scanned the images on the light screens, understanding that her master was talking about the events occurring at the social work center.

“These two little guys probably don’t want to trouble you anymore.” Maid smiled, “After all, to them, the master is still too mysterious, causing fear and worry… Hmm, who is this?”

Hearing Maid’s slightly puzzled voice, Luo Qiu glanced at the furthest left light screen—a matter related to a helicopter.

“Do you know him?” Luo Qiu asked curiously, “I just unfolded it according to the concept of ‘related’… Who is he?”

“[Mordred],” You Ye pondered and replied, “One of the Twelve Knights of the Knight Agency and one of the war survivors from a century ago. In the initial period after the war, he was bestowed the title of hero, and his name was widely spread among the Non-Human world of the Oth Continent, hailed as the strongest knight in history. His power even surpasses the original [Mordred].”

“Did you ever engage him?” Luo Qiu asked curiously, tilting his head up.

Maid shook her head, “No, the previous store owner created a place with the concept of ‘castle,’ as the ‘base’ for the Black Soul envoy. The war happened within this castle. The previous store owner stayed in the hidden layer of the castle… Unfortunately, they didn’t manage to breach the hidden layer in the end but rather massacred the batch of temporary low-quality Black Soul envoys transformed by the predecessor.”

“How did they consider themselves victorious then?” Luo Qiu was even more curious.

Maid smiled slightly, “Because guarding the entrance to the hidden layer were number 31 and Kintaro. At the time, the expedition force suffered over half casualties before pushing back number 31 into the Covenant Chest. Although wounded, they still had fun, but the expedition force’s overall strength had decreased to less than 20%. Seeing it wasn’t much fun, the predecessor ordered Kintaro to retreat. Afterward, the expedition force destroyed the castle, collected some items, and then declared victory.”

Hmm…

It seems that predecessor’s certain evil tastes exceed mine by quite a bit.

“Spoils of war?”

“Just some trinkets cleared out to make room from storage, not particularly useful… of course, to make it more realistic, the predecessor placed a few treasures. It seems the expedition force’s few masterminds divided these treasures among themselves. So basically, there’s no real loss, master, don’t worry.”

Luo Qiu skipped the topic without changing his expression, “Then this [Mordred] knight?”

Maid looked again at the light screen showing a helicopter flying through the night sky, recalling, “He probably passed the Transcendents’ threshold. Back then, he could spar a few rounds with Kintaro. Oh, I remembered, his real name is Farael, strictly speaking, a guy with no inherent talent but worked incredibly hard.”

“Hmm… Later on, why was he confined inside the castle?”

Still focused on the furthest edge light screen, but now the screen’s timeline began to trace back… Everything started rewinding, returning to the moment the night before, in front of an island castle, when Farael broke through the door with the Mind Witch.

“Because three years after the war, Farael suddenly slaughtered more than half of the Knight Agency’s members, including two Twelve Knights who were severely injured at the time and had to choose retirement… thus, he transformed from a celebrated hero into the most vicious and wicked knight in history. Actually, in the post-war period, Farael’s powers further improved, roughly transcending the initial stage of transcendence…”

So saying, Maid thought her master might lack concept understanding, so she directly used a measurement unit, “If considering an independent scenario, three years post-war Farael might possess the strength to confront the Heroic Spirit summoned by Miss Lucifer… without considering humans with special bloodlines, within the realm of ordinary humans, Farael Knight might be the only regular person comparable to Hua Country’s Fiery Cloud Evil God.”

“Why did he slaughter his companions?”

Maid said, “How should I put it… Post-traumatic stress disorder, if described using modern science, this is the closest. He didn’t think the war was won, instead, he felt the war was lost and even suspected all companions around him were already eroded by the Black Soul envoy. Companions even transformed into Black Soul envoy… victory was merely fabricated—of course, he guessed that right. But everyone around considered Farael delusional, calling him ill. As Farael’s illness worsened, there came one night of massacre… When dawn came, he had a brief moment of sobriety and realized what he did, then voluntarily accepted imprisonment as a way to atone. He should’ve been sentenced to death, but later people used his wartime merits to offset the crime, resulting in roughly eight hundred years of imprisonment… Actually, it was the Knight Agency’s reluctance to abandon Farael, as they believed time is the best remedy for wounds, and prolonged imprisonment might allow Farael to cure himself. They needed Farael’s extraordinarily powerful overturning power.”

“Suddenly, I’m quite interested in meeting him.” Luo Qiu smiled slightly, “I wonder what kind of person he might be…? Oh right, later provide me a list of survivors from that battle a century ago in the expedition force? Given that transcendent powers were involved, should there be survivors?”

“There are indeed some.” Maid nodded, “Once master takes a rest, I’ll organize them.”

Still as an alchemical automaton, Maid naturally doesn’t need sleep.

Luo Qiu waved his hand, temporarily shutting off the farthest left information light screen… scanning toward the central one.

Social work center.

…

…

“…Yes, it’s me, Klein. Thank you, Mr. Nick, for sending the items to this address… No need, I think I should be able to handle it.”

After this, Knight Klein put away the phone, feeling troubled as he looked at the scene before him.

Here, Will and his two colleagues, along with Cheng Yiran, stood together, while on the other side were the Beastman Miss who attacked him and her brother.

Beastman Miss was enduring the gaze from the social work center team, some fearful, some curious… She was long accustomed to such gazes, appearing rather composed.

But Oga seemed somewhat nervous, glancing at Will from time to time.

This was a brightly lit but unusually quiet activity room within the social work center… Klein knew he needed to break the silence first, so after a couple of gentle coughs, he slowly looked at Will and the others, “I understand that explaining some things can be quite difficult. But please believe me, I’m not a bad person… and both myself and those like me exist to address these events… Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I know! Like the Avengers League, right?” Will’s colleague exclaimed ‘cool’ twice, then gazing brightly at Beastman Miss, “Is it really a Beast Ear Girl, not a cosplayer, but the real deal! Oh heavens, can I take a picture? Can I touch your tail?”

Faced with Beastman Miss’s grimacing expression.

“Don’t be so rude!” Will had no choice but to hold back his companions, then began to use both hands and mouth to explain something to Miss Beastkin—finally, he gave up on body language and took out his phone to use a translation app.

Should I say it’s nerves of steel, or incredible adaptability?

Klein smiled bitterly to himself. He had heard from many seniors who had become official knights capable of taking on tasks alone, mentioning that sometimes they would encounter ordinary people who didn’t resist non-humans at all but instead excitedly asked questions… this time, he met one.

The young knight was still pondering how to handle the situation—luckily, because of Will and his group’s sudden appearance, he and Miss Beastkin didn’t actually end up in a fight.

He later explained his background—thus, under Miss Beastkin’s doubtful attitude, everyone was able to be in this event room together.

The main reason was that Oga whispered some things about what happened yesterday in her ear, saying this Klein should be a good person too.

At this moment, unlike them… Cheng Yiran, although surprised by the existence of beastmen, wasn’t too panicked after the initial shock—he was carrying a guitar that couldn’t be explained by common sense.

But he just quietly stood aside, not intending to draw anyone’s attention.

Miss Beastkin suddenly stood up, faced Klein, and softly spoke into the phone Boss Luo gave her. Soon, a mechanical female voice from the translation app sounded.

“Can I really trust you?”

Klein used the same method to communicate with her, “Miss, please trust me. I truly mean no harm. In fact, yesterday my companions rescued a group of beastmen kidnapped by beastman traffickers at the dock, but in the chaos, some beastmen got lost. I believe you might be one of them. Now, I’m having my associate bring one of the beastmen, and I think once he arrives, he can prove everything I said.”

Miss Beastkin suddenly nodded and said a few more words to her phone.

“Okay, I’ll trust you for now.”

Klein felt somewhat relieved and quickly said, “Thank you very much for trusting me… In addition, may I ask why you’re willing to trust me? Was it my sincerity that moved you?”

A knight must be sincere—that’s valuable advice given by Mr. Gareth!

“I can hear the sound of people’s heartbeats,” Miss Beastkin said calmly, “People lying have subtle changes in their heartbeat… I can tell.”

“…just like that?” Klein was a bit disappointed… so it wasn’t his sincere gaze?

Is my training still lacking after all?

This time there was no translation; Miss Beastkin just nodded.

Klein showed an awkward smile and then came to stand before Will and his group, “Mr. Will, I’m really sorry for startling you tonight. If possible, please accept my apology.”

Will and his group looked at each other… To sum up, this biker fellow seemed somewhat stiff.

“No no, it’s nothing.” Will shook his head, “Actually, I think if last night’s bunch were like you, there wouldn’t have been so much trouble thereafter.”

“I am truly sorry!”

Seeing this biker knight bow ninety degrees to apologize, Will and the others felt a bit overwhelmed.

Will just had to wave his hand and say, “By the way… how about we get some food? I think everyone might be hungry?”

Saying this, Will quickly made eye signals to his companions and Cheng Yiran, implying for them to leave now—it was clear he didn’t really mean to get food, but just wanted them to use the excuse to leave.

“Oh… right, I’m hungry too. How about we go get some food? Let’s go, Cheng, give me a hand!”

The companion was about to open the door.

Unfortunately, at that moment, Klein suddenly moved to block the doorway, apologetically saying, “I’m sorry everyone, but for now, I can’t let you leave my sight. According to the Knight Agency’s protocol, any ordinary people involved in non-human events must undergo our supervision. Of course, we won’t infringe on your personal property or safety. So, please cooperate with me.”

Fighting… is out of the question, so they had to return awkwardly.

After this, the event room suddenly became quiet.

Cheng Yiran suddenly walked up to Will’s side and softly asked, “Will, is this the kid you told me about last night, the one with a lot of talent?”

Will nodded, thinking this might ease the tense atmosphere, “Yes, you’ll find it incredible, this kid is truly a genius!”

Suddenly, Oga left his sister’s side, and under the surprised gaze of Miss Beastkin, walked to Will’s side and lightly tugged at his clothes.

Will looked at him, utterly surprised.

Oga seemed to say something, and seeing Will’s puzzled look, he finally took out a harmonica and quickly played a tune.

“You want to learn the whole song from last night?” Will seemed to understand a bit.

Oga seemed to understand as well, so he nodded lightly, his face slightly red, shy and bashful, his eyes hopeful.

Will swallowed hard, while telling himself loudly—this is a boy! A boy! BOY!!