The Devil’s Cage

Amid the tremendous explosion, everyone in the council hall was captivated by it, especially Bloody Mary!

Using Kurtzargert’s face, Bloody Mary showed a horrified, dreadful expression.

The next moment, it dashed out of the council hall without saying anything; Horlaika followed tightly.

The rest of the councilmen looked at each other before they said, “Follow them!”

Immediately, the 14 representative field agents immediately grabbed the prism crystal and dashed outside.

When the 14 of them came outside, they saw a smokey spot in Silent Night Town. Horlaika was running towards it and Councilman Kurtzargert was already there.

Without any further orders, the 14 of them, with the prism crystals, ran towards the smokey spot.

Then, the 14 of them saw Kurtzargert standing in the middle of the blast point, looking down at the body on the ground with a heavy, gloomy look.

The 14 representatives saw it, as did their respective councilmen.

“Who is the body?” asked the anxious councilman.

Kurtzargert didn’t reply, signaling Horlaika with a wave of his hand instead.

When Horlaika started to push the surrounding crowd backwards, the other councilmen who watched the scene through their spells reacted sourly.

Horlaika’s reaction, Kurtzargert’s heavy look, and the words spoken just now…

A bad premonition appeared in their hearts.

What happened next seemed to happen just to prove their guesses correct.

Kurtzargert didn’t say anything, and with a sour and heavy look, he returned to the council hall.

Everyone else also returned and went to their respective seats, and other than Horlaika maintaining order outside, everything was the same as before.

“That place is where Ludus was held captive. He was watched by Colipo’s right hand man, Luncar!” Bloody Mary spoke after it sat down.

Its voice was heavy, it had a sense of never before heard seriousness.

When they heard what Bloody Mary said, the 14 councilmen instantly looked sour.

They weren’t idiots, so they understood well the meaning behind those words.

The problematic one wasn’t Colipo, but Ludus!

Kurtzargert’s investigation discovered those unusual inklings, so he worked with Colipo to go along with the plan and capture Ludus, and from there, they initiated the Council Meeting.

However… It seemed like Ludus was much more powerful and influential than they thought.

Colipo should be dead, as was Luncar.

The explosion that went off earlier was to ‘inform’ them of that and at the same time a necessary move to remove any traces left over.

It was to provoke them, it was to show them disdain.

With such thoughts gushing up into the 14 councilmen’s representatives’ minds, they felt anger in the bottom of their hearts, but most of it was fear, because they understood very well what Kurtzargert said earlier.

‘Did every one of you forget how things unfolded into the current state?’

The 14 representatives understood it, as did their respective councilmen, probably understanding it better than their subordinates.

After all, that matter had a vast influence, to the point that they were unable to leave their respective ‘turf’.

“Kurtzargert, I… We need a detailed explanation on this,” The councilman who first displayed goodwill spoke.

This time around, all the other councilmen didn’t do anything extra, all of them looked at Bloody Mary en masse.

“Explanation? It is exactly what you think, but… it’s too late.”

Bloody Mary didn’t have the intention of replying to the councilman. It laughed instead, it laughed a laugh filled with heavy self-mockery.

With the laughter going on, Bloody Mary continued, “I’ve set this up for so long, but I never thought I’d fall short of my efforts. But compared to that Colipo, I’m much better, at least I’m still alive. Everyone! We have reached our most critical moment—a new and unknown God has appeared before us. He has allied himself with the God of War and might even originate from the latter. The God of War was helpless against Calamity before this and it’s obvious that he is unhappy with it. That’s why he chose another way to overcome this. I don’t know about the details but a new and never before met God has appeared in Edatine Castle. And he is hostile! If we don’t do anything, we will be welcoming our death.”

Bloody Mary started to spew lies based on Kurtzargert’s memories.

Its lies obviously had a major flaw, to the point that any councilmen in the council hall would easily find it out with some investigation, but unfortunately for them, all the councilmen present couldn’t leave their own ‘turf’, even that Lady Calamity couldn’t leave.

As for the representatives?

Bloody Mary had a ton of ideas to make them believe. They wouldn’t just believe, they’d be utmost certain about it after this.

‘Thank you, the backup of Wolf Sect Demon Hunters!’

Blood Mary thought in its heart quietly while its face maintained self-mockery.

It didn’t spare the chance for the councilmen to speak.

“I need help. If all of you can’t provide me with aid, I will choose to surrender to the new God,” Bloody Mary was being very direct.

“Kurtzargert!”

Including the hot-tempered and the gloomy councilmen, many of them bellowed en masse.

There were some who didn’t say anything but they, too, were looking at Bloody Mary with a furious gaze.

“What’s there to be surprised about? Why so angry? If, and I say IF, all of you were in my shoes, what would… you do?” Bloody Mary asked back in a casual manner.

Right away, the 14 councilmen went quiet.

It was obvious that when they thought of the method they’d take if they were in the situation, it seemed like it was the same as Bloody Mary’s.

However, the necessary criticism was still a must.

“Kurtzargert, don’t forget your initial oaths!” said the gloomy voice.

“I did not. Did you? Then why don’t we swap it around?” Bloody Mary wasn’t at all courteous.

Through Kurtzargert’s memories, it was clear that there was no friendship or relationship between the councilmen. Such things might have existed when Silent Night Secret Society was first formed but with the arrival of the Black Cataclysm, everything had changed.

Betrayal, setups, those were the new norm between the councilmen.

If it wasn’t for the restrictions, Silent Night Secret Society would have collapsed due to the internal conflict.

“Hmph!”

The gloomy voice coldy grunted and went quiet.

What followed was a long period of silence.

Bloody Mary didn’t say anything, it knew very well not to overextend.

Now, it had already opened up a decent start, and as for the rest? It was up to the councilmen to think.

And Bloody Mary was very certain that these councilmen had already started to imagine things.

Otherwise, why would they contact each other under the table?

The communication that it saw was definitely not the only one.

When the councilmen decided to send their representatives to Edatine Castle, they ought to keep a spare one beside themselves just so they could contact each other, and probably more than one way.

Some might join a group alone and some might join multiple groups altogether.

There were 14 of them, splitting up into 16, 17 groups was a normal thing to happen.

Bloody Mary was sure of it.

It didn’t require any of its deduction or whatnot, it was just that this was human nature.

Therefore, Bloody Mary was very patient.

Seconds turned into minutes.

2 more minutes later, the councilman who displayed goodwill to Bloody Mary spoke.

“What do you want?” he asked.

There was no need to beat around the bushes anymore in this kind of timing.

“Aid! Manpower, money, all sorts of special resources! This place will become a war zone! And I’m defending the frontline… if I fall, all of you would be next,” Bloody Mary was even more straightforward.

It knew what its boss preferred.

So it didn’t mind getting something extra along the way while it was completing its mission.

It didn’t surprise the councilmen though.

“How much?” It was still the goodwill councilman who spoke.

“The more the better!” Bloody Mary demanded a great deal.

“Are you extorting from us?” The gloomy councilman couldn’t hold back his question anymore.

“Then can you tell me what we should do in front of a true God?” Bloody Mary kicked the ball back to him.

The heavy breathing of the gloomy councilman echoed in the council hall.

No one would doubt how furious the gloomy councilman was right now.

Everyone was certain that if the gloomy councilman was sitting opposite Kurtzargert right now, a big fight might have gone down.

The relationship of the councilmen of Silent Night Secret Society was much worse than expected!

Bloody Mary got even more confirmation of that point.

“But there must be a limit!”

The goodwill councilman also sounded harsh from this point onward.

“I don’t know what’s the limit, because until now, I’ve never truly gone up against that God. What’s his divine authority? I only have guesses, so I don’t know,” said Bloody Mary.

This time around, several of the councilmen couldn’t help but nod a bit.

They, too, understood the Gods.

They might even be the humans who understood Gods the most, speaking from a certain aspect, but it was because of that that they understood how scary a divine existence was.

If they had an option to not face the Gods directly… they’d never face them directly.

Although doing as such would cost them, it would still be better than going up against the Gods themselves, right?

On top of that, with the first line of defense, which was Kurtzargert, they too seemed to have the space to turn around.

Of course, the smaller the cost, the better.

Another short moment of silence later, the goodwill councilman spoke once more.

“We will try our best to provide you with aid, but they will be overseeing the whereabouts of the resources delivered. Only the resources, not you. Other than that, they will be yours to command,” emphasized the councilman.

Bloody Mary feigned being in deep thoughts, then nodded.

“Deal,” it said.

The other councilmen also nodded in agreement.

The proposal to send aid to Edatine Castle had been passed. Next, it would naturally be the intense discussion and preparation for said aid.

Watching the projections go off one after another, Bloody Mary sat there without moving a muscle, as if it was thinking how it should handle the upcoming situation.

The 14 representatives dared not even breath loudly at the moment. They heard what their respective councilmen told them clearly.

Now, they were all temporarily Kurtzergert’s subordinates.

Even though it was temporary, something must be maintained.

Moreover, which war wouldn’t last for a long time?

Therefore, the field agents who weren’t idiots quickly corrected their attitude.

“Bring Horlaika in.”

More than 10 seconds later, Bloody Mary gave a new order to the 14 of them after it reported back to its boss.

“Yes, my lord,” one of the field agents replied right away.

Soon, he returned with Horlaika.

“Bring two of them with you to confirm the lead that Luncar got. The rest of you, split into 3 groups. One will be stationed in Silent Night Town, the other will go to the slums in the Lower Seventh Ring to monitor those Snake Sect Demon Hunters. Remember, your task is to monitor and monitor only. The last group will be responsible for receiving the aid resources.”

After quickly splitting up the field agents into groups, Bloody Mary waved its hand.

Horlaika then brought the 14 of them out of the council hall.

The grouping was simply made, there was a lot of room for control but it wasn’t something that Bloody Mary had to be concerned with, neither would Horlaika, they were the options for the ‘outsiders’.

Bloody Mary believed these people would provide it with a satisfying answer.

And itself?

It would have to proceed with the next step of the plan.

Silent Night Secret Society had stepped into the setup, but how could it work without the response from War God Temple?

…

Kieran watched the entire meeting and did not object to Bloody Mary’s report.

To Kieran, his natural vigilance made him want to repeat the previous scene over and over again because he needed more details, albeit he already got access to Kurtzargert’s memories.

Fortunately, with the talent [Memory Palace], it was enough for him to replay it.

Kieran half leaned back on the pillar of the corridor, a soft cushion behind his waist—it was sent over by the palace servants attentively.

The breeze blew softly, absent of the slightest cold.

The palace’s secret spell turned the spine-chilling wind into a warm one, as comfortable as the breeze of early summer.

With the comfortable breeze blowing, Kieran squinted his eyes at the flowerbed further away, which the lamp shed light over, his mind replaying the Council Meeting from earlier.

Kuer Horton stood beside him.

He looked at his friend with a complicated expression. He never thought his good friend would have such a complicated background, nor did he expect that he would have to tell his good friend his secret under such circumstances.

Embarrassment, awkwardness, and all kinds of other emotions gushed out, wave after wave.

Kurt Horton was somewhat lost, he didn’t know what to do.

He stood there blankly and looked at Kieran, who was in a trance with his thoughts.

At first, the young noble was out of words, hence the blank stance beside his friend, but as time flew by, the young noble suddenly realized his friend had an unusual charm while he was thinking.

The concentration… was very attractive, it was like the joy from the bottom of his friend’s heart when there was food placed in front of him.

Now he too concentrated himself wholly in his thoughts.

‘Maybe this isn’t such a bad decision after all.’

With that thought in mind, the young noble cleared his throat.

“Ahem, Colin, I have something to tell you. I am a… she. I didn’t mean to lie to you but because of my background, it is destined that I must pay the cost while I enjoy the resources of my family. If I frightened you, I hope you can forgive me, I really do not mean it.”

The secret buried deep in the heart was uttered out with hesitance, the young noble explained intuitively right after the revelation.

Especially after a while when he… she didn’t get a reply from Kieran, the young noble started to feel anxious.

Amid the anxious explanation, Kieran looked up with a calm look on his face and said, “I know.”