The Devil’s Cage

Starbeck’s voice wasn’t loud or soft but it was audible enough for the people around him to hear him clearly.

Right away, the people around him laughed.

“Hey, young master! Come, I have the Holy Thorn Grail!”

“Don’t listen to him! The real Holy Thorn Grail is with me!”

Similar words of mocking sounded from a few of the men at the same time.

“Shut it!”

Kieran shouted just at the right moment and stepped up in front Starbeck, blocking him from the others. His aura that once terrified the gatekeeper appeared and enveloped the place again.

Compared to the gatekeeper, these men before him were even worse.

Each of them was frightened as if they were rabbits being hunted by a tiger; no one dared to even move a muscle.

Until Kieran brought Starbeck away, only then did men fall to the ground with sweat erupting from their bodies.

“Terrifying aura!”

“How many has he killed before?”

“A butcher down to the bones!”

The discussion about Kieran’s presence didn’t stop even after Kieran brought Starbeck away; quite the contrary, the discussion became fiercer and it was only natural that more and more people noticed Kieran and Starbeck.

After all, it wasn’t the first time a young master or young missy from a big family appeared in Oak Hand’s turf, nothing was out of the blue.

Sometimes, these men presented themselves as ferocious thugs but most of the time, they knew who they should bare fangs in front of.

While feeling the gazes moving away from him, Kieran looked at Starbeck and nodded silently.

The mimosa performed better than he had expected. Not only were the people who participated in the black market gathering fooled, but even the organizer was also fooled.

Oak Hand’s supervising personnel weren’t just limited to that hunchbacked gatekeeper, there were a few more guard-like men mingling in the crowd.

The moment Kieran entered the small hall, he instantly sensed the alarmed gazes that were focused on him and until Starbeck pretended to be naive according to plan, the gazes only faded away.

“Young master, as you see, there is really nothing here. If you may, let’s get away from this place as fast as possible. If the master realizes you are gone, you are not just being grounded!”

Kieran played his role of attendant, butler, and bodyguard very well but it also acted as the secret code between them, meaning: the first step was clear, proceed to the next step.

“Let’s wait for a little while, I want to have another look. Don’t worry, I’ll time our trip, we will get back in time.” Starbeck pretended like there were too many things for him to see and didn’t want to leave.

Then before his loyal attendant said anything, the young master ran to a booth and picked something up, starting to chat with the owner.

The owner of the booth didn’t reject the chat though, despite Starbeck’s questions being childish and most of the things he would ask being general knowledge for the people who dealt in the black market.

But didn’t it perfectly suite Starbeck’s identity as an ignorant young master?

Besides, swindling an ignorant rich young master was easier than negotiating with some experienced veterans.

At the end, when the booth owner received a golden pearl as big as his pinky, his grinned from ear to ear.

When the people around saw the golden pearl in the booth owner’s hand, they started to believe Starbeck’s identity as some rich young master; likewise, their eyes at him started to turn hot as well.

With Kieran, a powerful attendant beside Starbeck, they couldn’t really utilize any special means but they could trade fairly as well.

Therefore, whenever Starbeck stopped in front of a booth, the booth owner would treat him with the utmost hospitality.

Basically, the booth owner would answer anything that the young master asked.

Soon enough, Kieran finally understood the incident of the stolen Holy Thorn Grail that he was so concerned about from the many conversations between Starbeck and the booth owners.

The incident had big ties to Kieran to the point that if without Kieran, the thief might not have been able to steal the Holy Thorn Grail.

“Last time when I arrived in Naveya City, those patrolling guards with all those deliberate planning were obviously waiting for the thief but they ran into me! And after I attracted their attention, the real thief successfully stole the Holy Thorn Grail and I was assumed as his accomplice, but…”

“Was it pure coincidence that I appeared at that timing or is this Tiki’s poor taste in pranking me?”

Kieran’s gears in his mind were spinning fast. He who never believed in coincidences tended to lean towards the latter.

If it was the latter option, it’s natural that the thief might have unsevered ties with Tiki.

“Who is it? And what is this place to Tiki? Or Nikorei?”

Countless thoughts entered Kieran’s mind but guessing blindly without enough evidence would bear him no fruit.

After a slight gasp, Kieran suppressed the messy guess, for the time being, his gaze returned to the surroundings, focusing on the things at hand.

He already had a general understanding of the incident, so the next step would be locating temporary lodging, planning his next step.

As for living through 28 days peacefully, it wasn’t what Kieran wanted, even if he had to carry Starbeck.

Kieran knew how important the special dungeon was, so he wouldn’t just simply give up on any dungeon, let alone this special dungeon that was the fourth sequel of [The Shaman’s Partner] where its rewards would only get better and better.

Before entering this dungeon world, Kieran had briefly explained it to Starbeck.

Starbeck, on the other hand, had no objections to Kieran’s motives but of course, even if he did, his level of courage wouldn’t allow him to voice them, just like how he was trying his best to obey Kieran’s orders, putting the performance of his life.

“Young master, do you need a sculpture of the Hero Algor? It only cost a single gold pearl!”

As the words echoed in their ears, a booth owner went over to Kieran and Starbeck with a sculpture.

It was a sculpture of a head; without a body or arms.

However, even with only a head, anyone who saw it could already feel the stern unyielding manner of this Hero Algor and together with the contour of the face structure, it granted the sculpture an extra sense of valiant.

No doubt the sculpture was the craft from a master, otherwise, it wouldn’t look so lively.

Starbeck didn’t give a second thought and took the head sculpture in his hands; he signaled Kieran to pay up but Kieran didn’t follow his orders like before.

“Young master, we already have a lot of Hero Algor’s sculptures in the manor, why add another to the bulk? Please return the sculpture to this sir here.”

Although it was just plain asking, Kieran’s tone sounded stern.

Starbeck instinctively pushed the sculpture back to the man but the man didn’t take it back, he turned around and ran without even asking for the gold pearl.