"Well, we'll be going now."
After a tasteless breakfast, Silas and Cecilia gathered their things and walked to the entrance hall.
"Wait a moment."
Ms. M spoke softly, approaching the two of them and placing her hands on their faces.
Feeling Ms. M's pale fingers gliding across his face, Silas felt a wave of goosebumps rise along his back.
"Don't move."
Ms. M's fingers brushed past Silas's eyes and ears. He felt the lump of foreign flesh inside his body begin moving upward.
A bulge squirmed up to his face and dissolved. His eyes and ears immediately erupted in pain, bleeding.
"There we go."
Ms. M lowered her hand. One of her eyes had already changed, shifting from gold to deep blue, the same blue as the Londor siblings' eyes.
"You've shared our sight and hearing?"
Silas asked through gritted teeth, one eye streaming bloody tears. His heart gradually turned cold. Ms. M truly had methods to monitor them.
He looked at Cecilia.
Through his Secrets Suppliant eyes, he could see that one of his sister's eyes and ears was emanating a blood-red aura, red and corrupt, swirling around her head.
The other end of the bloody aura connected to phantom eyes and ears.
If he looked in a mirror right now, Silas would see the same thing in himself.
"That's right, so don't try saying anything to anyone." Ms. M smiled.
"I know you're not afraid of death, but you care deeply about your sister. As soon as I detect any tricks from you..."
She made an explosive gesture. "Your sister will become a flesh bomb."
"Understood."
Silas replied coolly.
"Good that you understand. Be careful out there. Oh, and remember to bring back the auxiliary materials when you return. We'll help you advance tonight."
Ms. M said, standing in the entrance hall, gently seeing them off.
Stepping out the front door into bright sunshine, Silas's heart felt heavy. He had to be extremely careful from now on, or Cecilia would truly be in danger.
---
"Good morning, Silas!"
At the Blackthorn Security Company, Rozanne greeted him cheerfully.
"Morning."
Silas forced himself to perk up.
"You've got dark circles under your eyes. Are you alright?"
Rozanne noticed the fatigue on Silas's face.
"Just didn't sleep well last night, that's all." Silas smiled.
"Oh, right, you went to see that play last night," Rozanne said enviously. "Going to bed that late, you must have had a great time."
Yeah, just a fantastic time.
Silas had no words. He changed the subject. "Where's the captain?"
"There've been several haunting incidents in Morse Town.
He, Klein, and Leonard took sealed artifact 3-0782 and left last night. They should be back around noon today."
Rozanne replied.
So no one's here.
Silas thought for a moment. "Then I'll go out and patrol as well, see if there's any danger."
That's what he said, but his real intention was to go to the underground market to purchase auxiliary materials.
Even though he was extremely unwilling, for Cecilia's safety, he could only endure it.
---
Taking a public carriage, Silas arrived at a street in the dock district, where the "Evil Dragon Bar" came into view.
On a weekday morning, even a dock district bar was quite deserted.
The boxing ring stood empty, with only two or three idlers already drowning themselves in alcohol at the crack of dawn.
But once he passed through the door behind the bartender and entered the underground market, the scene immediately became lively.
With a cold expression, Silas weaved between various vendors, buying materials one by one according to his list.
Wolfsbane powder, viper venom... Silas had just finished purchasing when he suddenly sensed a strange fluctuation to his left.
What's that?
Silas looked over and spotted a pale-faced young man leaning against the market wall, dressed in rough work clothes.
He looked desperate and terrified, trembling as he muttered to himself.
He has spirituality leaking from him... Silas frowned, recalling what Klein had told him about an orphan in the underground market who had one foot in the Beyonder pathway.
"Ademisaul?"
He walked over, calling out the name. "What are you afraid of?"
"Dead people, they're all dead, no one's alive in Tingen anymore! I'll die too, everyone will die, everyone will be eaten by her..."
He paid no attention to Silas, continuing to mutter to himself.
"Everyone will die? Be eaten? By her?"
Silas frowned, hearing something dangerous in Ademisaul's words. He reached out and pushed him. "Speak properly to me!"
With the push, Ademisaul involuntarily raised his head and met Silas's gaze.
"Ahhhhh!"
He stared blankly at Silas, then let out a terrified scream. His eyes, ears, and nose simultaneously gushed blood, like some kind of uniquely shaped sprinkler.
He covered his face, turned, and stumbled away in a panic, not daring to stay near Silas for another moment!
They'd made too much noise. People from nearby stalls looked over, but Silas's cold glare sent them back to their business.
What's wrong with this guy? He's even more sensitive than I am as a Secrets Suppliant...
Silas frowned and stood up to chase after Ademisaul. He hadn't gotten the answers he wanted yet.
However, the moment he chased out the back door of the bar, he heard a commotion outside, as if someone was causing trouble.
Leaving the bar, Silas saw a crowd gathered across the street, all looking up and shouting chaotically.
"William, don't do anything foolish!"
"Lord of Storms above!"
Silas followed their gaze upward. On the rooftop of the two-story building, the crowd surrounded, a man and woman were struggling.
The man held a dagger pressed against the terrified woman's throat, tears streaming down his face as he roared:
"Shut up, all of you get lost! She deceived me!"
The woman's screams, the man's sobs, and the jeering, mocking, and pleading voices from below mixed together in quite a spectacle.
Silas noticed that among the crowd was Swain, the owner of the Evil Dragon Bar.
"What's going on?"
He walked over to ask.
"Hmph, just an idiot who got played by a woman."
Swain's face showed disdain. It turned out that the man called William had been seduced by a prostitute, spent his entire fortune, and she'd immediately abandoned him.
Swain shouted up at them. "You bastard, get down here right now! Don't disrupt my business!"
So the man on the roof cried out a few more times, roughly saying he wanted to take the woman down with him.
"How annoying!"
Swain scratched his head and said to Silas, "Do me a favor. Keep an eye on him here while I bring some people up to the roof to restrain him."
"No need for such trouble. Leave it to me."
Silas shook his head.
He slipped out of the crowd, circled to the back of the building, and activated his jester puppet. His body suddenly became light and agile.
He grabbed onto windowsills and other protrusions, rapidly climbing to the rooftop and charging toward the man.
The man heard the jester's strange laughter.
The moment he turned his head, Silas was already in front of him, throwing a punch that struck his knife hand. He clutched his arm and screamed in pain.
The woman took the chance to escape. Seeing Silas's face, she said with infatuation, "Thank you..."
"Get lost!"
Silas said impatiently. "You want me to beat you up?"
Startled by his threat, the woman immediately screamed and ran down the stairs.
The man called William watched her leave without looking back. Despair showed in his eyes.
He turned and rushed toward the edge of the building, and amid the crowd's horrified cries, he leaped down without hesitation.