Volume 8, The Beginning NO.10: King’s Game (1/2)

Volume 8, The Beginning NO.10: King’s Game

Translated by TaffyGirl13 (proofread by Mangomochi & Faren; C/E edited by lucathia)

“Where is Charles?”

Ah Ye’s hands were pressed against Ezart’s abdomen, restraining him against the wall. In addition, I had just personally caught sight of Ah Ye extending his metal fingernails.

He fiercely threatened, “If you don’t say it, I’ll tear your intestines out!”

Ezart grimaced in pain and ground out through clenched teeth, “I’ll say—say that the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life was getting to know a bastard like you!”

He dared to talk like that to Ah Ye?! I quickly glanced at Ah Ye, whose expression was as cold and unfeeling as before. However, his eyes had widened significantly, as if he was making a supreme effort to endure the pain…

“Ah Ye!” I hurriedly shouted, “I think he really doesn’t know. There’s no need to press him further.”

Ah Ye remained indifferent.

I gritted my teeth and commanded, “Dark Sun, I order you to release him!”

Ah Ye went rigid. I was starting to worry that he would choose to continue extorting him for a confession because of the supreme doctrine of “hunting down all my enemies.” This was not a part of my prepared plans. Ezart could not get pulled into this matter. He is the final insurance and cannot become involved!

Fortunately, Ah Ye chose to let go. As soon as Ezart was freed, he let out a cold snort and turned to leave with his arm clutching at his bleeding stomach.

“Where are you going?” Ah Ye asked.

Ezart viciously replied, “Going down to see if your bodyguards are all dead!”

Ah Ye stared at Ezart’s back. After a moment of silence, he said, “If you think knowing me is terrible, you can actually leave, Ezart.”

Ezart stopped in his tracks for a brief moment before continuing forward, not even turning his head as he huffed angrily, “Want me to get lost? Too late! Don’t even dream about it! You owe me so much, I’ll never let you weasel your way out!”

Ah Ye watched Ezart leave. Only when he could no longer see the other person’s figure did he turn to face me. “Gē, what exactly do you want to do?”

It’s here! I calmly answered, “Mainly eliminate Luo Ye, while using the chance to also force out the hidden strength of the Church and Elysees, particularly the latter. That butler’s family is too skilled at concealing themselves. I originally hadn’t paid them much attention, until I recently discovered that they were actually quite complicated.”

“Is that so?”

As I saw Ah Ye’s probing gaze, I suddenly felt my scalp go slightly numb. I immediately answered, “Of course! The fact that I have the adjudication squad was made public ages ago. How could I let them continue hiding their forces!”

Ah Ye calmly asked, “That’s not it, Gē. I meant to say, ‘Is that it?’”

I started, then showed an injured expression as I helplessly replied, “What else should I be doing? Are you suspecting me? Do you think I’d harm you?”

Ah Ye shook his head and stated, “Gē obviously wouldn’t harm me.”

“It’s good that you know that.” I’m always doing what’s good for you. Everything is for your sake, Ah Ye…

But right now, “letting Ah Ye trust me” was not a part of my plans either.

“That damn butler actually tried to kill me. Stay by my side for the time being. If he appears again—”

“I’ll kill him!” Ah Ye’s tone was so cold that I felt goosebumps form on my skin, and I once again wondered if I was truly gambling on too much this time.

An Te Qi, you’d better be successful. If you fail and let Ah Ye… I’ll seriously make sure you know what wishing for death means!

***

“You killed Luo Ye?”

I stared at Melody as I felt a pain in my heart. Protecting Luo Ye for the sake of the young master or killing Luo Ye for the sake of protecting themselves. The situation was just like the choice I was faced with, of being forced to either betray the young master or betray X.

Seeing as they were all still alive and Luo Ye had disappeared, I thought it likely that they had chosen to protect themselves. While the young master might not truly blame them, could he truly be without grudge toward Melody, Bramble, and the others?

First, it was forcing me to choose between X and the young master. Now, it was forcing Melody and the others to choose between the Sun Emperor’s orders and the young master’s orders. Why does the Sun Emperor feel the need to go as far as trapping us all in this dilemma?

“No.” Melody’s expression was somewhat peculiar. “Before we could even make a decision, Ezart came back.”

“Did the young master return?” As soon as I spoke these words, I sensed something was wrong. Did Melody not just say Ezart had returned?

If the young master had also returned, Melody definitely would not have said that Ezart had returned. Even if Ezart had been walking in front of the young master, their focus would always be the young master, not Ezart.

I watched Melody grin with a smile that did not reach her eyes. What does that reaction mean? I truly cannot understand.

“You called him ‘Young Master’ again.”

I started, then hurriedly explained, “It was a mistake due to habit.”

“Why force yourself?” Melody sighed and said, “I really don’t know what would’ve happened for you to fall out with the young master. Whatever, forget it. Just listen to me finish, then quickly tell me what happened.”

***

“Hey—You guys aren’t dead yet, are you?”

Melody and the others blankly stared at the doorway. They could recognize Ezart’s voice, but really did not know how to react this time.

Ezart dashed over and instantly spotted DSII. He froze and said, “Ah Ye, how were you faster than me… No! Who are you?”

“DSII.” This time, DSII openly admitted it.

“Ezart, where is the young master?” With the young master still nowhere to be seen, Melody was starting to feel like crying. Right now, the only person that could save them still had not appeared.

Ezart frowned at the Death Scythe in DSII’s hands as he replied, “Don’t know. Right when we arrived at the hotel entrance, he suddenly shouted that he ‘needs to go save his gē’ and then ran off.”

The Sun Emperor was attacked as well? Melody was stunned. She truly had no idea what the current situation was. Could it be that the adjudication squad hadn’t attacked them on the Sun Emperor’s orders at all, but rather, that the Sun Emperor had been forced to issue that document?

The more she thought, the more confused she got. In the end, she decided to stop caring. If the Sun Emperor did not want to kill them, then everyone would be fine. If he really did want to kill them, then they could only see if the young master could protect them. If he couldn’t, she could only go and see her beloved.

“DSII, did Ah Ye tell you to come protect them?” Ezart began walking over toward Melody and the others as he said, “You came so quickly. Ah Ye didn’t mention you had arrived.”

DSII stopped him and declared, “Ezart, there’s no need to go over.”

Ezart shot him a sideways look and asked in discontent, “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You do not need to make a choice.” DSII raised his scythe and pointed it at Melody and the others. “But they need to choose!”

Choose? Melody was starting to sense something was not quite right. DSII was essentially no different from the adjudication squad. He could not act on his own initiative; he could only obey commands. If he had received the order to kill Luo Ye, he would have directly done so. Yet he was currently demanding for them to make a choice… Don’t tell me the Sun Emperor is testing us to see whose words we would listen to?

Then, whose orders should we choose to follow as the correct choice? The Sun Emperor’s? Or the young master’s?

“What choice?” Ezart stood between DSII and Melody’s group.

DSII grinned. “If they kill Luo Ye, I won’t kill them. If they refuse, I’ll kill them. This is their choice!”

“Oh.” Ezart nodded in comprehension, then suddenly smashed a fist at DSII while roaring, “Then I choose ‘get rid of you’!”

Melody felt a surge of joy in her heart, to the point where she almost wanted to run up and kiss Ezart. She quickly dashed forward to support Ezart, attacking with great force and not holding back in the slightest against DSII. She had seen the young master behead DSII before, only for it to get reconnected! So rather than getting her head cut off, she would rather DSII’s head get cut off. His could be reattached, while hers could not.

As gunshots boomed, Bramble and the others also made their decision. They had originally still been conflicted over what to do, but the choice that Ezart had brought up wasn’t bad at all. Melody did not hesitate in the slightest as she charged forth. They refused to believe they could not defeat a single DSII if they all combined their strength together!

***

“So, you won?”

I really wanted to know what had happened afterwards, since Melody standing here now indicated that they had indeed won. If that was the case, then there was no need to hear about the course of the battle; I did not particularly want to hear about how they had beheaded DSII. In the current circumstances, that would just remind me that my final ending might not be much different from DSII’s.

“Yes, we won. DSII is still far inferior to the young master. It might have been different if he had brought an energy weapon, but he was only carrying the young master’s Death Scythe, which was completely useless! That’s why he wasn’t too hard to defeat. Poseidynne used a stream of water to make it impossible for DSII to stand, Nitewalker slashed at his body who knows how many times, and in the end, Ezart broke his neck.”

At this point, everything had been explained; however, there was still one thing that had not been answered—What about Luo Ye?

I looked at Melody. She seemed to know what I wanted to ask as well and directly stated, “We also thought everything had come to an end, but then the adjudication squad appeared again. They still wanted to kill Luo Ye but didn’t ask us for our choice again. Even though we could defeat each one, there was no end to them, so the fight wouldn’t end.”

“The injuries on your bodies are from that moment?”

“Mostly, yes.” Melody nodded and simply answered, “Their firepower was too great, and their weapons were extremely diverse, impossible to effectively defend against. Fortunately, they didn’t want to kill us. They just wanted to kill Luo Ye. As a result, nothing too extreme appeared.”

Such as missiles? It was a pity that they were unaware that the reason a missile had not been used to blow up the hotel was because the Sun Emperor had been on the level above them.

“The hotel staff did not do anything?” Considering how both sides had come to blows like this, even Sunset City’s police would have made an appearance. Is it possible that Daystar City’s public security falls short of Sunset City’s?

Melody clicked her tongue. “At the time, many of the floors above and below were all sealed off. They said to the hotel staff that they were ‘filming a movie,’ and since there weren’t rocket launchers and such, nobody paid any mind.”

A production cast and crew claiming to film a movie is truly a flawless excuse…

“When the battle was at the point where we were starting to think twice, Ezart actually answered a call and said, ‘I need to go save Ah Ye,’ and ran off. We nearly spat blood. Fortunately, Poseidynne and Nitewalker didn’t run off with him, or else we might as well have slit our own throats.”

“Save the young master?” I urgently asked, “When I left, the young master was not in any danger. Is he all right? Is he injured—”

My words abruptly came to a stop. Why did I…

Fortunately, Melody did not notice this. She merely continued, “Don’t panic, let me finish. Someone then appeared right after we had disposed of a wave of adjudication squad members all at once.”

Melody took a deep breath and said, “The instant he arrived, he shouted, ‘Don’t move,’ and then we really could not move. I think he’s probably the person that controlled the young master before…”

I furrowed my brows and shot down this conjecture. “No! It is not Josh. I believe that was Lieder. He obtained an unusual ability that allows him to copy others’ special abilities. Was he wearing a cream-colored windbreaker and a pair of glasses?”

However, why would Lieder want to take Luo Ye away? He should not have had crossed paths with Luo Ye at any point.

Melody shook her head and answered, “He wore a large, dark jacket and a mask… Oh right, there was also an inverted cross symbol on the forehead.”

It was indeed Lieder.

“That bastard commanded for us to hold the adjudication squad off as he grabbed Luo Ye and used the opportunity to escape. Soon after he left, we discovered we were free of control, so we did not continue attacking the adjudication squad. Since they did not see Luo Ye there, they did not continue fighting either. While we were still hesitating about whether to run away or not, Ezart returned with a wound on his stomach.”

Melody raised her head and smiled grimly. “Although Ezart wasn’t willing to say much, he did mention that the young master was fine.”

She did notice after all. I was slightly embarrassed.

“Now it’s your turn.” Melody calmly asked, “What exactly happened that caused you to have a falling out with the young master? I’d sooner believe that the apocalypse was tomorrow than believe that you and the young master became enemies.”

“We indeed did not become enemies.” I could not help but refute this first.

Melody simply gazed at me without a question, quietly waiting for me to speak.

I took a deep breath and said, “It was the Sun Emperor. He used X’s whereabouts to pressure me to kill Luo Ye. The alternative would have been him revealing X’s tracks to the Church.”

“Another choice?” Melody frowned as she muttered this to herself. She then asked, “What did you choose?”