The Devil’s Cage

The noise subsided.

Kieran and Anderson stood up together, but rather than dashing into the bedroom like Anderson, Kieran looked outside.

Cleaning up and changing into a set of fresh new clothes, Tandeker fell off the bed and onto the floor. The little fall made the once famous Demon Hunter cry like a baby.

Even more so when he saw Anderson rush into the sleeping area, the crying getting louder and snot coming out from his nose, making his clean clothes dirty.

“It’s fine, Tandeker. It’s fine. Everything will be over soon, you will eventually remember who you are. Your name is Tandeker, Colossal Beast Tandeker,” Anderson comforted his friend by uttering his name and title softly.

With comfort from Anderson, the child-like Tandeker finally calmed down.

Watching his friend go back to bed, Anderson showed helplessness on his face; when he saw his other friend, who was confined in a mummy state, a trace of rage was shown on top of the helplessness.

Quickly enough, Anderson kept his emotions in check—he would never let this go, he ought to take back everything for his friends.

Turning around, Anderson walked out.

“Noticed anything?” Anderson asked Kieran.

“Mm. Someone is looking at this place, with malicious intent. He should have felt it just now.” Kieran pointed at Tandeker, who had just gone to bed.

Kieran had sufficient understanding about the allies Anderson brought into the hotel from Bloody Mary.

The one who was confined in a mummy state was Miers.

The one whose mind was damaged was Tandeker.

Both of them were once titled Demon Hunters.

Anyone among the Demon Hunters who had acquired titles were the strongest among the powerhouses.

Even though Tandeker’s mind was damaged, he still felt the malicious intent.

Though it was also possible that Tandeker was under someone’s control, he resisted control.

It seemed like Anderson also realized it. He nodded at Kieran.

“Don’t worry, I’ve taken enough precautions with him. He is clean, but it would be hard for him to recover to his former self. Damn Silent Night Secret Society!” cursed the old Demon Hunter.

Kieran didn’t further comment on the atrocious acts of Silent Night Secret Society. Likewise, he had sufficient trust in the old Demon Hunter’s professional skill set.

Everything was very obvious.

As a foe, Silent Night Secret Society’s strangeness and powers were undoubted.

Not only Kieran, even Anderson the old Demon Hunter acknowledged the fact.

“They are powerful. We failed to realize it before, what we dealt with in the past was just the tip of the iceberg—deep down, what they hide behind, those are the scary things.”

As Anderson spoke, he started to search for a wine cellar.

He preferred to have a glass of liquor whenever a heavy topic was being discussed.

Most of the Northerners had a similar habit, including the Demon Hunters.

Kieran wasn’t fond of alcohol, but he liked to observe.

He knew what the old Demon Hunter wanted by looking at his face, he passed him a cup of water instead.

“Thank you. A good habit I see.”

The old Demon Hunter raised a toast at Kieran as a token of respect.

“Holuff once mentioned that Wolf Sect had a spy back then,” Kieran nodded then returned to the topic.

“Mm,” The old Demon Hunter sucked in a deep breath before he said, “That spy was someone that we least expected. That was why I gave up on the training base and stashes of the Demon Hunters, because it might be a trap!”

“Can you tell me about the spy?” Kieran asked.

He was very interested about the spy sent to infiltrate the Wolf Sect Demon Hunters by Silent Night Secret Society.

“Sure. We were once mates.” The old Demon Hunter took a sip from his cup, the tastelessness making him frown a little but it didn’t stop him from spilling more words, “He was just a civilian back then, at least he was when we saved him from the pagan’s mouth. He was extremely talented. He passed the training that would take a normal young man three years in three months, with flying colors too! In fact, he wasn’t just talented in learning, he was also great in completing missions. He was able to carry out tasks alone and also performed great in teams—back then, many people liked to team up with him. He had an indescribable charm on him which made people love to be around him. However, the most terrifying thing was that all that he had shown was just the disguise! It was his disguise that led us into Silent Night Secret Society’s trap,” said the old Demon Hunter.

The way Anderson described the spy struck a sense of familiarity in Kieran: the spy felt very similar to a player!

A player who entered the same dungeon world at a different time period!

“Do you still remember what he looked like?” Kieran continued his question.

“A little, but it’s very vague. My memories are damaged to a certain extent, I only remember his voice, not his face,” Anderson smiled bitterly.

Kieran frowned. It was not good news, or in short, it was too coincidental.

Kieran wasn’t a person who believed in coincidences.

He intuitively looked at the direction of the bed.

“I assure you they are not who I described. Besides, that bastard wouldn’t put himself in such a dangerous place,” Anderson uttered his assurance as he knew instantly what Kieran was thinking.

“Which means we have to be cautious at the dagger from behind when we deal with those pagans in the future?” said Kieran.

“You mean the black barrel of a musket? A musket is usually stronger than a dagger in common people’s eyes,” Anderson emphasized.

Then, he pulled out his dagger from his boot.

“What I promised you before: some dagger techniques,” said Anderson.

“Let’s do a rain check. I have to deal with what just happened,” Kieran pointed outside the window.

“They are too far away by now, and they would never leave any traces behind. If Miers is conscious, she might be able to find something but…” Anderson shrugged weakly before he even finished. The answer was self-explanatory.

“She’s good at tracking?” Kieran halted his steps.

“Miers the Tracker, you should have heard of her title before. Any kind of trace could not escape her eyes,” Anderson was proud when he uttered his friend’s title.

“Really?” Kieran replied without actually commenting on the topic.

Anderson immediately understood the meaning behind Kieran’s words.

“She’s good at tracking traces, not people’s thoughts and minds. No matter how good she is at tracking traces, she can’t see through people’s hearts. Just like you can never stare at the sun for too long. Besides, the betrayal had quite the impact on her too. Otherwise she wouldn’t have ended up like this,” explained Anderson.

“They were close?”

This time, Anderson did not answer Kieran’s question, he waved his hand to express his intention to leave it behind.

Kieran didn’t walk out from the door, he jumped out of the window instead.

His heart took note of the name Miers the Tracker.

Miers was close to the traitor in the past.

Compared to the damaged Tandeker, this Tracker was much more suspicious.

It wasn’t malicious suspicions though, it was just habitual.

Kieran always had the same amount of vigilance and cautiousness against all strangers.

That was the main reason why he had only a few friends.

Fortunately, the handful of friends he had were reliable and trustworthy.

Anderson the old Demon Hunter?

Not among the trustworthy list.

After Kieran jumped out of the window, Anderson quickly shut the window.

The night wind during winter in the Northern Land was no joke.

Anderson would be fine under the cold, but not his two friends.

Turning around, he sat back in front of the tea table and started to think and arrange the knowledge that he shouldn’t know.

He resisted the knowledge from the pagans.

It wasn’t just because of his identity as Demon Hunter, which put him on the opposite side of the pagans naturally, it was also because every time he accessed these knowledge in his mind, it would remind him of the torturous days in the dungeon.

But now?

He didn’t care anymore. He was almost certain that normal means would never heal his two friends.

All he could do was rely on the knowledge that normal people didn’t have access too.

Without giving up hope, he wanted to give it a try.

Hmph!

A painful grunt later, Anderson’s face flushed and veins popped up on his forehead.

Strange blabbers started to echo in his heart, skipping his ears.

He relied on his powerful willpower to resist the blabbers then started to arrange the knowledge hidden in his body.

It was slow, it was difficult, he had to concentrate. Due to the concentration, he did not notice Kieran, who hid in the shadows after he came back.

Seeing with one’s own eyes might not be real but listening from somewhere else would surely be false.

Kieran completely hid in the shadows right before Anderson got used to the blabbers.

He was able to confirm something.

As for more? With Anderson around, he knew he couldn’t infiltrate without a sound.

He couldn’t, but that didn’t mean others couldn’t as well.

For example, his undead companion who was loyal and reliable, bearing burden without complaining and could exist until the end of time as long as it wasn’t dead.

Of course, it needed a chance.

Now was not the time.

With [Tracking] activated, Kieran scanned the air for traces left behind.

The traces faded off very quickly though.

It was obvious that the traces were carefully dealt with in a professional way.

Had it been any other normal means, Kieran would get nothing, but his [Tracking] was special to begin with and he leveled it up all the way to Transcendence, it couldn’t hide everything from the skill.

Right before the traces vanished, Kieran located the whereabouts of the culprit: a two and a half story independent bungalow located in Upper Seven Ring.

Despite the fact that it was winter, the garden in the bungalow was filled with greens with high resistance to the cold, the snow in the premise cleaned up neatly. Someone must have always been cleaning.

This bungalow should be the permanent base of the culprit, Kieran deduced.

The culprit was confident that no one would find him, therefore he returned to the bungalow—which gave Kieran a chance.

…

“Those damn Demon Hunters!” Ludus cursed out loud in his study room.

He wasn’t worried that he was overheard by others.

Firstly, his study room was specially built, the noise isolation was excellent.

Secondly, everyone in this bungalow was his ally, there was no need to worry.

So Ludus vented his anger brazenly.

He had been in this field for so many years, yet this was the first time that he was noticed before he truly got near.

It was an insult to him.

He could already hear the laughter and mocking from the other bastards, especially Kurtzargert and Colipo.

Those two were restless in recent years, Ludus knew exactly what they were after.

As one of the councilmen, he too sought bigger authority and power.

The authority and power he sought weren’t the normal kind, not the kind that normal people would understand.

Or more precisely, power in Silent Night Secret Society wasn’t just about the so-called faction influence, it was the very essence of power!

That was why he involved himself in all this mess, otherwise he wouldn’t care at all.

Wasn’t accumulating strength through honest steps the right way and the best way to go?

Yet the accident that happened just now made the councilman furious and showed no signs of slowing.

That’s right, it was an accident!

How could a bunch of almost annihilated Demon Hunters notice him?

He was just careless! It was his carelessness that caused all this!

“Bunch of bastards coming back from the ashes! All of you are nothing but grass!” Ludus mumbled softly.

He then pulled his drawer and took a piece of parchment out.

Dipping his quill pen into the bottle of ink, he started to write on the parchment.

When the last word was written, Ludus blew the parchment to dry it and showed a delighted smile.

“Since these grassy bastards want to initiate a Council Meeting, how can I not agree to it? This time, I will make sure to uproot every single one of them! Total elimination!”

The thought ran through his mind as he stood up.

Unlike the tall and buff Northerners, Luds wasn’t just skinny and weak, he was also short. He might not be as short as a dwarf but he was almost there, his height far shorter than a normal man.

However, not a single person would dare to underestimate him because of his height.

The fact that he was able to become one of 17 councilmen of Silent Night Secret Society had proven it all.

If that fact wasn’t enough to prove himself, Ludus would be glad to personally converse with anyone who doubted him, very harshly at that.

Ruthlessness was the signature of this particular councilman.

Therefore, after the order was given to a member of the secret society, the member dare not delay it any further and brought the secret letter straight to Silent Night Town.

Turning around, Ludus went back to his study room.

He wanted to carefully and quietly think about how to increase his gains in the upcoming Council Meeting.

He knew his opponents very well, every single one of them were as cunning as foxes and as dirty as jackals.

The slightest misstep would cause him to be devoured completely, not even his bones could escape the deadly fate.

With that thought in mind, Ludus walked into his study room.

He didn’t close the door himself because the door had a pivot installed, so it closed on its own.

However, before the door completely closed, the figure of a man slowly took shape.

The figure lifted his hand slowly and quietly approached Ludus’ neck from behind.

When the fingers were millimeters away from the neck, Ludus noticed an unusual sensation all of a sudden.

But it was too late.

The hand had completely seized his neck, followed by a cold, nonchalant voice.

“Don’t move.”