The Devil’s Cage

Kieran never believed in coincidences.

A person with romantic nature might treat coincidences as blessings of fate but unfortunately, the environment that Kieran grew up in made him a vigilant and suspicious character.

Given his character, any coincidence in Kieran’s heart would only be enlarged infinitely and placed through repeated deliberation to make sure it wasn’t a trap of some sort.

When the previous “Herbert” coincidentally mentioned Sutherlin Castle was also where the Emperor’s Legacy was buried, Kieran’s original thought of “the Herbert before me is real but is being controlled by some despicable means” started to feel suspicious again.

No doubt befriending the likes of Kieran would be tiresome, any actions taken before him would be assumed as maliciously intended unless proven otherwise.

Other than Lawless the “not-so-normal” kind of person, hardly anyone could truly be Kieran’s friend.

The only fortunate thing was, Kieran’s suspicious nature wasn’t just worrying about self-imagined troubles.

Following the death of the first Mutant rider, Kieran knew he was right.

Perhaps the “Herbert” thought everything about him was flawless but with [Tracking]’s vision and Kieran’s outstanding Intuition, it was really full of flaws.

Whether was it after “Herbert” twisted the head off the rider with [Puppet’s Cord] and tried so hard to cover it up after boarding the wagon yet he was still tagged with a faint scent of blood or the shallow yet recognizable footprints of a male near the big crucible that they found, each arrow was pointing at “Herbert”, exposing him of his schemes.

And those Mutant riders who were hung to death by their own hair, it was true that their bodies were absent of outer wounds or poisoning but they passed out before they died.

Musou level [Medical and Medicinal Knowledge] and Basic [Potionology] allowed Kieran to easily tell what happened to the Mutant riders’ bodies who were hung to death.

The hairs? It was simple actually.

“Herbert”‘s men were not all short-haired like the Mutant riders, all they needed to do was shave the riders’ heads and choose hair with similar colors to pull the trick off.

That was also the reason why Kieran was certain “Herbert” had some device on him to communicate with his men, so he used Pride to tangle with him.

Kieran wanted to know what “Herbert” was after.

Why Kieran didn’t go with the High Demon [Bloody Mary] though?

Because of the presence of aura!

[Bloody Mary] could morph into anyone desired but for Kieran’s identity which he already claimed as a Royal, the presence of aura was slightly lackluster compared to Pride.

Everything unfolded just like Kieran had expected, the face and presence of Pride that was cut from the same cloth perfectly fooled “Herbert” and also informed Kieran of what “Herbert” wanted to achieve.

Lure the tiger away from the mountain!

“Herbert” had displayed his abilities to slaughter Sutherlin Castle with his own forces, so the point of using Kieran to fight Sutherlin Castle was invalid.

“Herbert”‘s goal was to lure Kieran away from Carlhart Military Camp.

Kieran was also certain, even if he didn’t send the riders after Carderweld, “Herbert” would still find some excuse to lure him away from the camp.

After all, he was the only one who knew where the Emperor’s Legacy was.

Though after a series of events, Kieran also grasped the general location of the Emperor’s Legacy.

It was too obvious, so he needed to make haste. He was running out of time!

Kieran strolled deeper into the castle and Contly behind him was stunned when Kieran asked her the question.

She couldn’t understand why Kieran would say such things.

The lady stood on the spot with furrowed brows and sank into deep thought for a while yet had no idea at all but not without results.

At least, when she thought of the previous scenes, Kieran seemed to be using her to numb the fake Herbert but being used by others wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience.

Even though the outcome was desirable, Contly couldn’t accept it.

She felt she didn’t get the respect she deserves, so Contly grunted angrily and walked up to Kieran.

Leaving angrily out of spite? Stop joking!

Her bounty hunter life and the identity of the new generation of Isogu guardian had already taught her to not act like a little lass. Contly was much more mature.

She would directly voice her opinions and emotions and keep it to herself, ranting and venting.

…

Sutherlin Castle looked no different than a common ancient castle from the outside.

Inside however has a world of its own. Even though most parts were humid and dark, some parts of it were warm and soothing, like secret chambers housing a certain important item.

After Kieran opened up the secret door in Carderweld’s study room, he was instantly blinded by the reflective shine of mountains of gold and gemstones.

The Creature of Desire even threw itself towards the only light source in the secret room but was quickly stopped by Kieran.

While neglecting the dissatisfaction of Creature of Desire that came from his heart, Kieran was shockingly looking at the faint white glowing “tree” with a height slightly taller than a common man and had white flowers growing all over it.

Calling it a “tree” was the only appropriate way because Kieran couldn’t find words to properly describe it.

The plant before his eyes had the trunk of a tree but the branches had many vines wrapping around with white flowers blooming.

Kieran was not a stranger to the white flowers.

[Aimida Flower]!

Kieran wasn’t surprised to find the [Aimida Flower] inside Sutherlin Castle but the really surprising fact was the amount.

Kieran originally thought a plant like [Aimida Flower] that could suppress the failing period of a Mutant would be precious, let alone rare, but the tree before his eyes held more than a hundred of them after a brief count.

With Kieran’s sharp sight, he easily noticed through the seams of the vines, there were many more small sprouts growing. He was sure if he allowed the sprouts to grow, they would eventually bloom into [Aimida Flower].

Though the other more concerning matter was, the Creature of Desire was craving it.

The Creature of Desire was not a picky eater, it would swallow everything that it killed but each time it actively wanted to feed, it proved that it was good stuff.

Kieran’s mind was picturing the relation between the Eye of Chimeras and the Neegor Dynasty.

Then, he went on to inspect the tree full of [Aimida Flower] and after he made sure there wasn’t any lurking danger, he plucked one down and threw it to the creature.

A small flower was nothing to the gigantic Creature of Desire, it already vanished when the flower got close to its mouth.

The cravings from the Creature of Desire became even stronger in Kieran’s heart.

Kieran then plucked another without a second thought.

When Contly entered the secret room, almost 50 of the [Aimida Flower] were fed to the creature.

After swallowing fifty to sixty flowers, Creature of Desire didn’t change in an obvious way but its “hunger” grew even stronger.

It wasn’t satisfied with Kieran feeding it, it wanted to eat by itself, even live human beings!

At the next moment, thousands of evil eyes glared at Contly.

Contly’s angry manner was forced to a stop right away and her whole body even stiffened up.