Ah Bo’s heart skipped a beat. A faint cold light emanated from his eyes as he took a careful look at the figure sitting in the shadows.
In the city of Lundan, light and darkness coexisted; for every bit of light, there was just as much sin.
As a popular dumping ground for concealing the evidence of murder, the Themes River witnessed an influx of population yearly. Ah Bo’s emergence from among the multitude of concrete barrels demonstrated that he was no ordinary person.
The heavy fog had triggered his latent bloodline power, and Super Vision was the best proof of that.
His eyes were extraordinary, capable of capturing details invisible to ordinary people, mages, or even scientific instruments. In his view, the man before him had countless indistinguishable facial contours, each one as real as the next.
Making eye contact with him was like making eye contact with thousands of people at once—the silent, deathly attention sent shivers down Ah Bo’s spine.
Whether he was a devil or not was hard to say, but his strength was unquestionable.
No, this wouldn’t do.
Bringing such a person before his master could spell trouble if this newcomer were an enemy; wouldn’t that make him an unwitting guide?
Ah Bo furrowed his brows, "Leave your name, and I will relay it to my master. Return in three days for the news, as to whether my master wishes to meet with you, I cannot give you a definitive answer right now."
"Tell your master, the Demon God from Hell calls himself the Thousand-Eyed Demon."
As the shadowy figure finished speaking, its body disintegrated, and millipedes crawled out the window, some burrowing into the crevices of the walls, others disappearing into the damp entrance of the sewer.
Ah Bo’s face twisted in disgust. He woke up the sleeping staff of the Detective Agency, instructing them to buy a large quantity of insecticide the next day and to spray it every evening after closing, making sure every inch of the Detective Agency was clean.
He went over today’s files, took a backup of the investigation records, and handed them over to his former boss, Officer Green.
The Dawn Detective Agency’s commissioned investigations covered a wide range, but ultimately, they all boiled down to one word: ’injustice.’ When the scales of law tilted, it only meant that there was a vast disparity between the statuses of the defendant and the plaintiff.
Usually, such cases were beyond the police’s jurisdiction, and even if they made the headlines and stirred public interest, the outcome was often delayed.
It was all about following procedures.
Windsor had always been !
Officer Green was able to take the fall because someone higher up had tacitly allowed the Dawn Detective Agency to exist—a signal so unusual that Officer Green still hadn’t figured it out.
Who dares to accuse me before this court?
If your reasoning is sound, come, take me down.
It was not just unusual—it was preposterous!
There had to be a reason for its existence. Ah Bo attributed all the irrational things to his master, the Death Knight. Being immensely powerful, concessions were made by all parties to appease him.
From the bottom of his heart, Ah Bo respected his master. Although the Death Knight was not human and the beliefs surrounding death were often linked with evil, the truth lay plainly before his eyes. He firmly believed his master was a good person.
He was just dead, that’s all.
This occasion was no exception. Faced with the devil’s request for cooperation, his master would certainly reject it immediately.
"Oh, he wants to form an alliance?"
In the spacious floodway, Wayne received the news from his underling. Mounted on his Death Warhorse, he appeared, momentarily unsure of what expression to wear upon learning that the Thousand-Eyed Demon had come knocking on his own.
Bad news: The Thousand-Eyed Demon wants to join forces with the Death Knight.
Good news: He is the Death Knight.
Hours earlier, Wayne was puzzled over the whereabouts of the Thousand-Eyed Demon, the world being so vast that he had no idea where to look. Now, with the demon coming to him, there was no reason to turn him away.
"Bring him directly to the Grand Cemetery in the West District at the same time, three days from now; I will be waiting there for his arrival."
Wayne said cheerily, "The belief in death is suppressed by the Life Alliance in Lundan, and the devils from Hell have been driven out by the Heavenly Father’s Court. There is indeed potential for cooperation between us."
"But, my master, he claims to be a devil."
Ah Bo, not wanting to disobey his master’s orders, said stiffly, "I do not mean to question you, but... he doesn’t seem like a good person..."
"Nonsense, of course a devil can’t be a good person."
Wayne waved his hand dismissively. Without explaining why he was meeting with the devil, he simply said, "But so what, do I look like a good person to you?"
You just don’t look like one!
Ah Bo opened his mouth as if to speak, but eventually, he followed the command and left.
"The master, guided by the Divine Decree of the Goddess, has brought equal death and absolute fairness, with everything proceeding in an orderly fashion. The image of the belief in death has greatly improved, and choosing to cooperate with the devil must have some other purpose."
Ah Bo imagined all the possibilities, trying his best to maintain the master’s glorious image. He quickly convinced himself, "Exactly, that’s it. The master will use the Thousand-Eyed Demon as a breakthrough to bring the fairness and justice of death to Hell."
After taking a stroll outside, Wayne returned to find that Philark had finished tallying the accounts. Jewels and books were categorized: the former sent to the warehouse, the latter moved to the library.
Wayne glanced at the ledger, told Philark to rest early, and took the Holy Grail with him to the library.
There, the knight Valkyrie was browsing through ancient history books, hoping they would help her deduce the era of her existence and remember her true name.
It was wishful thinking, to say the least.
Valkyrie’s memory had faded with the death of her body. The remains of her consciousness persisted only due to the curse’s form. In simple terms, she hadn’t just thrown files into the recycle bin—she had thrown out the recycle bin itself.
Valkyrie held onto hope because she would occasionally remember certain things during daily conversations. These memory fragments required external stimuli to be brought forth. The historical books treasured by the cathedral were undoubtedly a good choice.