The Devil’s Cage

The content of the invitation was as followed:

To the respectful Mr. Drexton,

Alkender Charity Hospital has managed to complete its change of equipment with your help. The new ward has been completed. We hereby invite you to our opening ceremony at 18:00.

Director of Hospital: Penhar

Chief Nurse: Ellen 

TR12.9.5.

…

“Drexton wants me to go to this opening ceremony on his behalf? Is there a problem with the hospital personnel or the guests?” Kieran asked.

Drexton wasn’t the type that liked to trouble others. Moreover, Kieran was rather familiar with Drexton’s personality; the invitation was extended toward Drexton, yet he passed it to him.

If there wasn’t any trouble involved, Kieran would be the first to not believe it.

“Em. Drexton suspects that this Director Penhar is related to the Broken Fire Council! He meant it when he said he was going to help you. The big guy really went all out on this and then got what he was looking for!” Selina the Kat Lady exclaimed when Drexton was mentioned.

She had never seen someone this persistent and hold his stand firmly.

In short, he was an ally of justice!

“However, this might also be a trap, as the timing is a little too coincidental, so it depends on whether you want to go or not,” Selina continued.

“I’ll go!” Kieran said with an affirmative tone.

Even if it was a trap, there would be traces left behind.

Although he had thrown the bait into the sea, he wouldn’t mind going after more clues since they appeared.

“You are braver than meow thought! What are you going to do, meow?” Selina praised, the curiosity from her cat side pushing for another question.

Kieran didn’t answer. He agreed to go but did not say he would attend this opening ceremony himself.

A new place with potential enemies lurking in plain sight required a safer approach.

However, he did not explain this to Selina; he walked past her and went towards the dining table.

Selina’s eyes shined brightly when she saw Kieran’s movement, and the curiosity went away. She followed Kieran closely and swallowed her saliva without stopping.

“Are we going to have lunch?”

“Yeap.”

“Can meow join?”

“No.”

“Can meow sleep in your study room?”

“No.”

“Can meow always drop by?”

“No.”

Selina asked the obvious while sitting down on the chair like last time. She wanted to push it, but unfortunately, Kieran didn’t give her the chance to.

“Are you the devil? How can you reject meow like this?”

Selina pouted with puffed cheeks and glared at Kieran angrily.

“Yes, so I am going to throw you out,” Kieran nodded and said.

Selina submitted right away.

“Please don’t! Meow will eat less, meow will help tidy up the table after the meal, and meow won’t scratch your sofa. Meow will bring you presents on the next visit!”

Selina tried to push her head against Kieran’s hand again, but this time, Kieran didn’t just dodge it, but also flipped his finger on her forehead.

Pak!

It was loud.

Selina covered her forehead with both her hands, looking at Kieran with teary eyes.

She didn’t understand why her techniques, which worked every time before this, failed against Kieran!

She felt a grievance, and the feeling further enlarged when the dishes were served before her.

A whole roasted pork trotter was served to Kieran and Selina only got a small piece, probably 1/5 of Kieran’s size.

This time around, Selina dared not utter a word anymore. Her feline instinct told her that should she speak, she would be thrown out.

So she lowered her head quietly and started eating.

Pity!

Helplessness!

…Delicious!

The piece of pork was crispy on the skin and chewy in the meat, making her eyes shine.

The fatty part melted in her mouth along with the unique taste of the lean trotter meat. It made up for her grievance, and she felt like it was worth it.

Once the fatty part completely disintegrated in her mouth and she started to chew on the lean meat, Selina squinted her eyes and hummed controllably.

She was satisfied, very satisfied, in fact.

If she could have a bigger portion, it would be perfect.

After she finished her portion, she finally regained her senses.

She realized Kieran was on his third plate of whole pork trotter and was still going!

What confused her the most was that after eating that much, Kieran’s stomach never changed.

“You can really eat meow! Is there a bottomless hole inside?”

She recalled that Kieran had just finished a lot of takeaway food before lunch, yet he could still gobble down this astonishing amount. Selina couldn’t help but lick her lips.

She was almost full, but when she saw Kieran’s eating, she somehow felt hungry again, as though what she ate was air.

Selina then looked at Ferris with puppy eyes, emanating her pitiful presence.

“No more! The rest is saved for my lord! You should go clean the plates!” Ferris replied coldly.

His voice almost froze Selina.

Selina grunted to express her dissatisfaction; she wouldn’t mind the comments from a refrigerator. If it weren’t for Ferris’s cooking, she would have left claw marks over the refrigerator’s edges.

However, when she caught Kieran’s gaze at the next moment, she stood up quickly.

“I got it meow, I’ll wash!”

Selina then tidied up her plate and dining ware, and headed to the kitchen.

“I’ll help,” Emma Eddie said with a smile.

Odork and Goran then returned to their stations. Even without Kieran’s orders, everyone in the house knew what their duties were.

“My lord, do you need me to go to the opening ceremony with you?” Ferris walked over and asked softly after Kieran finished his pork trotter.

“No need. You, Odork, and Goran have other things to do,” Kieran said softly.

Ferris nodded respectfully. He left in a hurry after a while.

Kieran leaned back in his chair, squinted his eyes, and hummed an after-meal melody as the gears in his mind spinned rapidly.

The perfect plan did not exist, only the better plan through endless adjustments.

Kieran wasn’t truly a genius that could ‘see through’ all sides in a situation with a single glance and be able to handle it with ease, so all he could do to make up for his failings was spend more time preparing for what could happen.

On top of that was his vigilance and carefulness.

…

It was windy in the afternoon and the clouds above Alkender were all blown away, allowing the sun to shed its warm light on the land.

The warmth and refreshing atmosphere lasted until evening.

Fancy cars and common-looking cars drove towards Alkender Charity Hospital one after another.

The opening ceremony of the new ward building was a grand one. The hospital didn’t just invite Drexton, but some upper class folks as well.

Without those upper class people, Drexton alone wouldn’t have been able to complete the change of medical equipment of the hospital, let alone donate a whole new building for ward rooms.

Since the generous donors were arriving at the hospital, everyone in the hospital dared not be sloppy, and as a matter of fact, everyone had started preparing for the opening ceremony three days ago.

“Finally, it’s done! Thank you, Mark. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be able to make it!” Chief nurse Ellen praised Mark, a worker who did a job for 10 men all alone.

“It was nothing, I was just doing what I could.”

Mark was strong and rather big. He widened his mouth into a bright smile.

“You and Renner can rest early and treat yourself to a better dinner; there are a lot of kind-hearted chefs helping us with the catering of the event, but remember, no alcohol!” said Ellen, her kind look turning strict.

“Uh, o-okay! Got it!”

Mark scratched his head, laughed awkwardly, and held the bottle of alcohol in his coat pocket tighter.

“What do you have in your coat?” Ellen, obviously noticing Mark’s little action, asked out loud immediately.

“N-Nothing! Nothing at all!” Mark said nervously.

“Nothing? Show me your hands, let me see them!” Ellen’s tone turned strict.

“It’s really nothing!” Mark argued and started to step back.

Further away, another hospital worker, Renner, was watching the scene.

Although it wasn’t the first time, Renner was dumbstruck everytime.

The famous Extraordinary of Alkender City, Herzker the Wine Barrel, was nervous in front of a common nurse?

“If those criminals who fear you as if you are some monster saw you now… I bet they would kill themselves. Is this love?” Renner exclaimed with a puff of his cigarette, but he quickly shook his head.

The chief nurse Ellen wasn’t pretty at all.

In a more serious tone, she looked normal, but her long, narrow face was somewhat ugly and stiff. How could a woman like her win over the Wine Barrel’s heart, one of the most powerful Extraordinaries in the city?

Not even a novel would be this bizarre.

‘Why though?’ Renner wondered.

“Renner? Renner!”

A sweet voice sounded behind him. Renner quickly dumped the cigarette, turned around, and showed a smile.

“Here, Rosy!”

Renner saw a young nurse running over to him. Her pinkish-white uniform plus her sweet smile elevated her looks further, making her look cuter than ever.

This particular nurse, Rosy, was the most popular nurse in the hospital. She ran to Renner and passed him a paper bag.

“I bought you new clothes and shoes since there’s a dinner happening later, so remember to put them on,” Rosy said with a little flush.

Her face was pinkish because of the running and shyness.

“Oh, oh, okay.”

Renner unconsciously scratched his head like Herzker, nodding in a dumb, blank way.

When Rosy the cute nurse saw Renner’s dumb reaction, she smiled sweetly and the shyness flew away instantly.

“Idiot!” she said out of embarrassment before she ran away..

No professional groups were hired for the opening ceremony of the new ward building, so nurses like Rosy had to help a lot. Rosy already did her best in sneaking out to deliver the clothes and shoes to Renner.

Now she had to go back and get ready for the event.

Renner saw Rosy run off from his sight; he then looked down at the clothes and shoes he was given.

Average attire, nothing branded, but it would use up a month of Rosy’s salary.

The salary at Alkender Charity Hospital was low, that was publically known.

Warmth started to fill Renner’s head.

As far as he could remember, other than the childhood he purposely buried deep in his heart, Renner had never felt such warmth, but after arriving in this hospital, the warmth appeared very frequently.

Even though the food here was bad and the uniform was rough, it was better than those days that he deemed glorious yet danger-filled by a lot.

At first he was ‘physically’ persuaded by Herzker to stay at the hospital, but as time went by, the comfort and peace made him discard thoughts of running away.

And when he saw Rosy’s smile, he even forgot his initial goal to blow the hospital up.

Thankfully, he failed, otherwise…

Renner gratefully took a deep breath. He subconsciously reached for his lighter and pack of cigarettes, but upon pulling them out, he stuffed them back.

Rosy disliked the smell of tobacco.

‘I guess I’ll have to stop.’

Renner then threw the pack of cigarettes and lighter into the trash can.

“Hey, Bomber Maniac, don’t waste it!” Seeing Renner throw away the cigarettes, Herzker ran over and started to search through the trash can.

“Don’t call me Bomber Maniac anymore, it’s Renner!”

“I know, Bomber Maniac.”

Herzker agreed verbally but still called Renner by his old title. He smiled brightly when he found the lighter and cigarette.

Renner stepped away from Herzker when the cigarette lit up. He even placed his bag of clothes and shoes on the air vent.

“Tsk! I have one, too!”

Herzker took out a suitcase, which contained new clothes and shoes. They were a gift from Ellen, and the size was… XXXXXXXL!

“How’s the preparation?” Herzker asked after a puff.

“Some bastards are wasting air by staying alive.”

Renner thought of that bastard doctor who just came back from a visit and his perverted eyes on Rosy. A fire lit up in his heart and the veins near his temples popped. He knew what those eyes would lead to since he used to lurk in the dark side.

If it weren’t for Herzker, he would have smashed that bastard into pieces.

“Agreed. So let’s end it, once and for all, tonight. Get changed and follow me,” said Herzker.

“We are going into battle, right? I don’t think we should put on our new clothes,” Renner suggested.

“Right! Those shitty bastards! They better not dirty the clothes Ellen gave me!” Herzker was stunned for a moment before he nodded.

The two of them vanished from the corner of the hospital.

Meanwhile, at the entrance, car after car drove in, and Director Penhar and Chief nurse Ellen welcomed the VIP guests.

“It’s great that you could come!”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

“Please, this way.”

Penhar, at his prime age, wore a handsome suit and had waxed hair that was combed backwards.

His smiles reached the guests before his greetings as he skillfully welcomed them.

On the other hand, the always strong chief nurse, Ellen, was not used to this kind of situation, so all she did was smile awkwardly.

As the clock ticked towards the opening ceremony, the parking lot filled with cars and guests filled the venue.

Everyone formed their own social circles, and the director purposely arranged seats for the guests so that they could mingle around while sitting down.

Therefore, the guests waited patiently for the opening ceremony to start, especially for the cutting of the ribbon.

Seconds turned into minutes and there was still an empty seat in the front row, raising curiosity.

Whispers amongst the guests started as they wondered who the missing guest was.

Some with better intel networks acted proudly like fish released back in the sea. They told the other guests who the seat was reserved for, and after the news spread, some were scared, others showed disdain, but many more showed further curiosity.

Time flew by as the mixed thoughts moved around in their heads.

When the hand of the clock almost reached six, a weird sound came from further away.

It sounded like wheels rolling on asphalt road.

Under the many gazes of the guests, a black wagon basking in the sunset entered the hospital.

The wagoner, dressed in black, stopped, jumped down, and respectfully opened the carriage door, allowing a young man to step down.

When the young man placed his foot on the group, the clock struck sharply at 6 p.m.

Dang Dang Dang!

As the bell rang, the young man looked up and showed a sleepy smile.