The Devil’s Cage

The sunset was like blood shedding over Rain City, and when it crossed the buildings, shadows were cast on the city.

The red and black intertwined. The figure outside the restaurant would move in the gaps of light and shadows quickly while still hidden, the figure even looked elegant, like a dancer shuttling between the darkness and light.

But, the technique wasn’t skillful enough.

“Flashy but not substantial,” Kieran commented in his heart.

Kieran didn’t purposely belittle the figure, but from his perspective, he was sure the figure’s undercover technique had reached at least Master level or higher. However, the figure infused some elegant movements in it, each step the figure took was as beautiful as dancing, and in Kieran’s point of view, the loss outweighed the gain.

An undercover technique’s purpose was to hide one’s presence and prepare one to approach or move away from the target. The main point was being hidden, and the secondary was speed.

Elegance?

Well, sorry. In Kieran’s mind, no matter how elegant or beautiful the action was, it would be meaningless if he was killed in one hit.

His mind started to simulate how the figure would approach and what would happen after the figure entered the restaurant in addition to how to deal with the situation.

Then…

A faint humming was heard.

The figure outside was humming as it moved closer.

It was quite pleasant even without lyrics and instruments, all it had was the voice of a lady, humming in a pleasant mood.

The soft humming was swirling like a stream and unconsciously seeped into one’s heart.

Eckart and Lyn Amie, who were eating, suddenly froze. They looked up with dull faces, placed their chopsticks down, and stood up, twisting their bodies clumsily, as if they were dancing in a trance, but actually, it was unconscious movements.

Their dull faces became blank, their eyes were also slightly out of focus.

Hypnosis!

Kieran squinted his eyes and slammed his hand on the table.

Bang!

The slam was quite powerful, even the chopsticks and bowls on the table shook, and the noise produced was also loud enough as it nicely embedded into the lady’s humming.

Eckart and Lyn Amie then stopped their movements; they looked up in a daze and didn’t know what just happened.

However, Kieran’s slamming on the table didn’t stop.

Bang Bang Bang.

Sometimes loud, sometimes soft.

It sounded without rhythm, like messy thumps, but each noise the slam produced interrupted the humming of the lady, disrupting the melody from her mouth.

The hummings didn’t stop though, the lady kept changing her tone, but it was ineffective, each tone change didn’t achieve what she wanted.

Maybe Kieran was a little unused to the humming at first, thus allowing the lady to get the upper hand, but once Kieran made noise, the tides changed utterly.

In the end, the hummings were messed up completely, the lady who was already in front of the door knocked on the glass quickly.

“Can I come in? I don’t mean any harm.” Her voice sounded rough, but not intentionally so. It was because she changed her tone rapidly throughout her humming just now.

She had to take a rest; otherwise, her voice would be in trouble, but still, she wanted a meeting with Kieran. It was for official purposes and also private matters.

The scene that went down at the soldier rehabilitation center astonished her quite a bit.

And now? After the disruption?

She admired Kieran even more; she admired Kieran’s attainments in melody quite a bit.

If both of them could have a good talk, she might improve her skills further.

“Come in,” Kieran replied with a slightly cold tone and allowed the lady in.

“Nuna!”

Eckart and Lyn Amie called out loud as though they were facing their greatest enemy.

After they came back from their unconscious state and reacted to what happened, both of them looked slightly surprised and panicked. If Kieran didn’t sit still in his chair, the two of them might have run away.

Engaging a person who could simply hypnotize people with their voice wasn’t something nice for the two of them. But since Kieran was with them and based Kieran’s performance for the past few days astonishing them, the two of them didn’t run and grab whatever they could as weapons.

Eckart took a folded tool, Lyn Amie took a kettle on the table with hot water inside.

Both of them planned to attack the moment Nuna stepped in: throwing the hot kettle at her first before Eckart rushing up for a beating.

However, when they saw Nuna, both of them kept away the things in their hands.

They weren’t strangers to Nuna as she was also a slightly famous shaman in Rain City, so she was initially a first choice invitation to the ‘Shaman’ show, but she rejected it.

It made Eckart think that she was nothing but a skillful con woman.

When Eckart saw her earlier that day, he was rooted in his beliefs even more and even labeled her as a woman who resolved in ‘despicable means.’

Anyone could tell what Nuna and Kaomu wanted to achieve back at the rehab center.

However, this Nuna at the restaurant seemed a little different.

Kaomu was nothing but an idiot, but Nuna…

“Who are you?”

Eckart asked after throwing a glance at Kieran and got permission.

“Nuna, Rain City’s shaman and…”

“The person-in-charge of the Rain City division of the Hypnotist Association,” Nuna said with a smile.

“Hypnotist Association?” Eckart jolted.

He had never heard of this association before, but it didn’t stop him from feeling the influence of said association from Nuna’s methods.

The person-in-charge of Rain City was able to hypnotize people with her voice, and throughout the entire Neo Union, there were more than 40 cities similar to Rain City.

There were at least 40 more hypnotists similar to Nuna?

And an organization like this would have many branches in different cities, so there must be a headquarters somewhere. Will those hypnotists at the headquarters be stronger?

Eckart’s heart was providing him with endless speculations, but he looked normal. His alert level was raised countless times over, he’d even moved his hand behind his back, signaling Kieran non-stop.

“A loose and free organization.”

“I came here today to invite 2567 to join us, of course, not forcefully.”

As a powerful hypnotist, Nuna knew what Eckart was doing by watching the moving folds on his coat. She even knew which fingers he used, but she didn’t expose him.

Her purpose was an invitation, not provocation.

As for her humming during her entrance?

The Hypnotist Association wasn’t a market, not every John Doe could enter, a real test must be held for each potential candidate.

“That just now is a test? Including the one earlier today?” Eckart reacted quickly.

“The humming was really a test, but not the one in the morning.”

“Although I saw 2567’s hypnotize abilities on TV, I didn’t believe it because actors made it a lot harder to determine the real from the fake in this world.”

“I am here… For the Bomber.”

Nuna said with a smile, but when Eckart and Lyn Amie heard it, they were shaken.