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Chapter 125: Stars in the Dark
It was finally getting dark. The gatekeeper Jonah finally adjusted the anti-magic device, putting all the indicators to the highest, and then yawned. For some reason, the number of people visiting Kenyatta in recent days had suddenly increased several folds and his workload had doubled several times. Jonah’s throat was burning with pain. His neck was stiff, and his legs were numb. As a bachelor, the iced wine in the tavern after his shift was his only support right now.
He would be liberated after sunset. Jonah coughed a few times and cleared his throat, trying to alleviate the swelling and pain that was like sand rubbing against his throat. Only two more. No, no, one was over. Then he’ll definite go to the tavern for a good drink. Maybe tonight he could be extravagant and order two more side dishes and treat himself who was too tired to stand right now.
Hell, he looked at people’s faces all day. Even if he closed his eyes, human facial features floated everywhere in the dark. Men, women, and children gradually became the same in his eyes. His life was about to be polluted by this damn job. Jonah roared angrily in his heart, trying to recall the beautiful waitress in the tavern for a few seconds, but found that her appearance that seemed to be engraved in his heart in the past had now become a blur.
He raised his eyes in frustration and looked at the gradually darkening sky.
The last person he had to deal with finally appeared in the thick night. The man had on a tan hood. He looked about 6.2 feet and with the cheap hood on, Jonah thought he was most likely one of those vulgar men. Jonah couldn’t help but groan to himself about how short he was compared to him.
The mood of the gatekeeper became worse.
He heard the unique bell of a corpse carriage. The corpse carrier couldn’t even afford a horse and instead had to use a fuller goat to pull the cart. There were about three to four corpses lying on the simple wooden car, and the materials weren’t high-end. A strong rancid smell rushed straight into his nostril and went straight to his brain.
Jonah almost cursed out in despair. The smell of corpses was not easy to dissipate and when he entered the tavern later, he would have to deal with the roaring of the owner. He resolved to give this plague god some trouble as this guy had ruined most of his last hope for the day.
“Face, identity, purpose,” the hapless gatekeeper roared with a hoarse voice.
The man obediently took off his hood.
As soon as Jonah’s next taunt was about to jump out of his throat, he swallowed it back and almost choked himself. What good luck, absolute good luck. The guard vague thought of the iced wine and the waitress’ yellow skirt disappeared from his mind. The annoying hallucinations that plagued him was gone in an instant, and he couldn’t remember any previous faces, let alone their fragmentary facial features.
‘God, he’s so beautiful,’ the gatekeeper thought. Jonah was positive that he liked women with soft body, but he was still involuntarily attracted by this abnormal beauty. For the first time, he felt what “stunning” truly meant. He carefully picked up the adjective from the column of “exaggeration” in his mind and put it into the category of “reality”…
It was a young man, with long blond hair hanging from his rough hood that glowed softly in the dark night. He smiled at the gatekeeper and caused his ice lake-like blue eyes to slightly bend, as beautiful as an illusion.
Jonah instantly blushed due to the smile that dazzled him for a few seconds. After the short shock, he immediately remembered his duty. “Proof of identity… Uh, your proof of identity and the purpose of entering the city, sir.”
This time his tone had ease a lot as he uneasily stared at the blond young man’s face repeatedly.
“I’m so sorry… I lost my identification documents, dear sir,” the blond young man whispered in a pleasant tone. His voice was low and soft, with a gentle Garland accent. “You see, our business tend to get messy— I just want to make some coin by sending these poor people back to their hometown.”
“Oh, oh.” Jonah glanced at the anti-magic device next to him faintly. Is this face truly not an illusion? Why isn’t it responding? “Then I’m afraid you have to show your certificate of employment, sir. We have to register you.”
The young man smiled at him again and took out a large piece of parchment paper from a thin copper tube and handed it to him with both hands.
“Well,” Jonah unrolled the parchment and looked at it. The seal didn’t seem to be forged. “Onefinal step. I have to ask so please understand… Have you ever registered for entry before?”
“Unfortunately, no.” The young man shook his head.
The other party didn’t have any recognizable proof of identification, so according to the rules, he can’t allow this person to enter. But outside of the city was barren and there were even a few wolf howls that sounded not far away— It was at least three hours away from the nearest transfer station and right now it was completely dark.
“I understand your difficulties, Mr. Guard,” the blond young man said pitifully, tucking a strand of blond hair behind his ear. “Sorry, I haven’t run a multinational business before so I’m not familiar with these procedures. What should I do next?”
“You have to go back to the country where you registered last time from the transfer station and get the certificate there. Then you can enter the city and go through the entry formalities…” Jonah’s voice became smaller under the gaze of the other party.
Just then a wolf howled in the distance.
“Can you be accommodating?” the blond young man grabbed the guard’s hand, and his voice sounded more distress. “These things smell very strong. They will attract wild animals! It’s not easy to make a living. I’m really not a dangerous person. Please.”
‘He indeed didn’t seem like it,’ the guard thought to himself. Such a person wouldn’t grow up into a wanted man. Jonah looked at the hand that held his left hand tightly— It was beautiful. He sighed again in his heart. He could even hear the sound of blood rushing to his eardrum.
“Oh, then you have to hurry up and get the procedures done,” he muttered as he blushed to the roots of his ears, completely forgetting the strong smell of corpses in the air.
“Thank you very much! By the way, sir, do you want to look at these coffins? I’ll open the lid for you—” the blond young man took out a crowbar from the back of the fuller goat and directly pried up the lid of the coffin.
It caused the smell of decay to rise into the sky.
“No need, close it quickly.” Completely forgetting about this, Jonah was almost choked into tears. “You can go into the city.”
There were few pedestrians in Kenyatta at night. The sparse few didn’t seem bothered by the smell. After the corpse carriage entered the city, the smell of corpses suddenly disappeared.
The dark bone ball on the staff stopped rotating, and the rotting spell that was drawn from the dead ground stopped. Nemo directly pushed away the thin coffin board in front of him and jumped off the corpse carriage.
“Good job,” Ann whistled. “You’re still a bit useful, Dylan.”
“I was the main contributor to the purchase of this corpse carriage,” Jesse said discontentedly. The harmless aura on his face instantly disappeared. “Don’t you have anything to say? Clearly a charm spell could be done—”
“You’re amazing,” Nemo said bluntly and gave a very reluctant clap.
Jesse huffed for a while and glanced at the knight commander.
“You worked hard,” Adrian said quietly. “There’s no other option. Garland must be looking for the three of us, and the anti-magic device is very sensitive to the charm spell. It’s not a bad thing to be cautious.”
“Will it cause trouble to the guard just now?” Nemo was silent for a while before he asked carefully.
“No,” Jesse smacked his lips. “We won’t stay here for long, or do you really want to slaughter a city today?”
Nemo unceremoniously flung his staff and hit Jesse on the head. He didn’t use much force, but it was definitely not a weak attack— the clanging sound was crystal clear.
Jesse screamed as he covered his head with both hands, “you attacked an innocent teammate!”
Nemo was stunned for a while, as if he couldn’t believe the speed of his hand. “I thought you could avoid… I’m sorry, Dylan.”
“I forgive you.” The blond young man glanced at Nemo angrily then grabbed Adrian. “Love, let’s go for a drink.”
Adrian didn’t resist.
“Nemo and I will find a suitable place to rest and communicate with you using the communication crystal.” Ann raised an eyebrow at the former knight commander and pushed the old wooden cart to the corner of the city wall.
“I… I have a personal matter, Ann.” Nemo poked his staff at the wooden cart at random. The wood that came into contact with the bone ball began to rot rapidly, and the rot quickly spread causing the wooden cart and coffin to turn into an inconspicuous black debris within a few seconds. “I’ll see you in the early hours of the morning. How about two in the morning?”
“The two of us may not come back at night,” the blond young man’s tone was lazy and ambiguous. “If we don’t come back on time—”
“See you at two at the latest,” Adrian interrupted Jesse coldly.
“Okay,” Ann didn’t ask much. “I’m going to find a place to stay overnight that doesn’t require identity registration and I’ll also replenish our supplies. Although the security here isn’t too strong, you should be careful.”
When she said this, she stared at Nemo worriedly. “I don’t want to lose another companion.”
“I will be careful. Thank you.” Nemo could sense Ann’s guilt, but his words were useless. He could only try his best to remain calm so that she wouldn’t blame herself too much. “You have to be careful too.”
He nodded at her and walked around the corner of the city wall.
The gray parrot stood on his shoulder. Nemo felt empty again, but the strange thing was that this time he no longer felt anxious or panicked. Oliver wasn’t here. His fragility seemed to have disappeared, leaving behind only a hard and dull shell.
This hard shell made it difficult for him to breathe.
The black shadow climbed up from his bare feet and condensed into a broad black robe. The broad hood covered most of his face and the rest of his skin was covered by a fog like shadow. The black-haired young man quietly melted into the night. The gray parrot flew up from his shoulder, hesitated for a few seconds, and finally opened its mouth.
“You… You… Damn it, what are you planning?” it cried while cranking its neck.
“Finding the people from the Abyssal Church,” Nemo replied softly, leaping lightly onto the roof of the nearest building. “They certainly won’t ignore this change. I think there are many people who plan to get through here.”
“Do you know how many people are in this city?” the gray parrot muttered. “You don’t really want to slaughter the entire city, do you?”
Nemo raised his staff threateningly and Bagelmaurus shrank into a ball like a quail, tossing out all its demeanor of a superior demon.
“I really don’t like this joke,” Nemo sighed and slowly closed his eyes.
After closing his eyes, he could see the stars.
He could feel countless pale spots of light flickering, with different strengths and weaknesses, of different size, but on the whole it was dim. Although Nemo didn’t know the reason, he believed he knew what they were…
Subordinate demons running around, sneaky intermediate demons, demon worshippers wandering in the shadows. There were no superior demons or demon warlocks here, so he could visit the relatively strongest among them.
In a relatively densely populated city, he didn’t dare split space casually, in case he happened to hurt some unlucky fellow. Nemo pedaled hard on the roof and moved as fast as a bird as he rushed towards a building in Kenyatta in the night.
Under the same dark sky.
Oliver didn’t use magic. He directly used the force from his sword to resist the violent magic attacks on the opposite side. The boots on his two feet stuck into the ground but he was still forced to retreat several steps abruptly.
The gaze cast by the opposite side didn’t seem to be looking at people, but more like someone looking at an inevitable prey. However, Oliver’s chilling attire worked. The bloodstained man circled around him like a beast but didn’t approach rashly.
Oliver stretched every string tightly, subconsciously protecting the assassin behind him. He looked intently at the enemy who attacked again. The bone sword split the air, as light as a feather in the wind, cleverly teasing the other party. The disparity in strength made the battle more like a one-way manipulation. After the fight, the enemy was farther away than when they first started.
From this angle, Oliver couldn’t see Randy’s complex eyes behind him.
“He’s not suitable,” Randy whispered, “he’s definitely not suitable there.”
“You’re right,” Mora’s voice passed through his bones into his brian, “so he’s destined to go to the Withered Castle. I can’t even watch anymore.”
The female killer let out a slight sigh, sounding sullen. “An upright person… I really don’t want to see him destroyed.”
“No,” Randy sighed, absently throwing out the heavy shield. “What was the saying, ‘There are only two kinds of people who can leave the Withered Castle— The dead and the murderous.’”
“Forget the dead, we’re already murderers, but he’s not.”
“…He’s not ‘yet’.”
The author has something to say：
Jesse made a great contribution and got lots of face. Are you happy, Jesse?