Volume 8, The Beginning NO.4: That Which Hides in the Darkness… (1/2)
Volume 8, The Beginning NO.4: That Which Hides in the Darkness…
Translated by TaffyGirl13 (proofread by Trespasserby & EvlNabiki; C/E edited by lucathia)
“Ah Yan…”
“It’s Sun Emperor!” I furiously glared at the other person. One of the two secretaries is impudent after staying for so long, while the other, though he obeys commands, is impolite because he lacks the ability to differentiate personal and professional matters. Neither of them is satisfactory!
Bai Lian Yue said in a grieved voice, “I simply wanted to ask what you wanted to eat for dinner.”
“You won’t be here by dinnertime. I’m going to have you go over to Ah Ye later.”
“Did you request for me to come here just to dispatch me to your younger brother’s side—” Bai Lian Yue immediately burst out. However, he realized his own mistake midway through his words. “No, Kyle is not by your side, so you wouldn’t send me out as well.”
Definitely disobedient. But, as expected of a secretary I had personally chosen, he was still on the more intelligent side. I ordered, “Of course. Go handle the matter with Ah Ye in the afternoon and return here for work at dawn.”
“You…” Bai Lian Yue’s expression fell as he said, “Never mind. You have always thought that secretaries do not need to sleep. Kyle has really spoiled you! What do you want me to do with Ah Ye?”
“P29’s criminals escaped. Ah Ye will not just let it go.” I looked at the secretary with a frown. “Kyle said P29 is an organization under your management. What did you do there?”
“I did not really do much. Most of it was research-related to see if any of those abilities could be replicated. However, there have not been any results yet. I have already cut the expenditure as much as possible, only continuing with a small amount of research and drills. The worthwhile people are brought out to be used, but there are not many of them. Nearly all of those people have issues. The majority of them truly are criminals. P29 is a failing business, yet it has to continue, hmph! Fortunately, I was able to gain quite a decent subsidy from the government to help break even by threatening to release all the criminals.”
I sneered. “Anyone with power would want to use it, thinking that they are absolutely unrivalled. How many people are as good and honest as my Ah Ye, who possesses the greatest strength and support yet has not become corrupted?”
“Yes, yes, yes, your Ah Ye is the most lovable, most powerful, and most compassionate—So my task is to prevent Ah Ye from hunting down those criminals?”
“Ah Ye will not do as he is told.” I spoke somewhat gloomily as I tossed a binder down. “That is why I want you to take this film project and distract him with it. If the criminals indicated in there are located, let Ah Ye go and deal with them.”
“Understood.” After agreeing, Bai Lian Yue thought of something else and quickly asked, “Wait, Ah Ye’s authority is higher than mine in the Sun Alliance. It will be too difficult to hide anything from him.”
“No need to hide it from him. There are no lies in the plans. It not only involves the Church, it also points to criminals that are all dangerous.”
Bai Lian Yue stared at me curiously as he inquired, “You are really willing to do this?”
I was silent for a moment. “I’m not. But rather than letting Ah Ye charge into unknown dangers, it’s better to have him go capture targets that he is more than capable of dealing with. The Church must have their apprehensions about me, which makes them much better than those absolutely disgraceful things that have recklessly knocked a blow on me before. The Church will not rashly make a move against Ah Ye.”
“That’s reasonable.” Bai Lian Yue nodded. “However, why not just have me deal with the Church? There is no need to get Ah Ye mixed in.”
“That will not do.” I calmly replied, “I want Ah Ye to get mixed in.”
Bai Lian Yue’s eyes widened. I could understand his shock. If it weren’t for An Te Qi’s report, I definitely would never have allowed Ah Ye to get involved in any trouble—
“You…you are definitely not Ah Yan. Who are you? You dare to disguise yourself as the Sun Emperor?!”
“…”
“Another hotel. Why can’t they find a more abandoned place to hide?”
The young master’s voice carried some resentment as he angrily huffed, “If we break into a fight here, it would be impossible not to draw the Church’s attention!”
“It might be those Church guys that actually captured your wife, you know!” Ezart plainly stated, “They obviously would not be afraid to draw their own people’s attention.”
The young master first retorted, “Not my wife yet,” before adding, “They shouldn’t have been the ones who took Bri. We are still collaborating on the film. Plus, it’s unlikely for them to actually turn hostile. I have my gē backing me, so I doubt they really want to open war. That’s why I don’t think they would kidnap Bri.”
Ezart replied with an “Oh.” He then raised his head to glance up the long staircase as he asked, “Is it okay for us to just casually stroll up? Although this is the fire escape, won’t we still be discovered?”
“I was originally going to take the elevator.”
“I see…”
“But I was afraid they would blow up the elevator. If we cause too much of a disturbance, it won’t go well.”
I was grateful that the young master had not taken the elevator. If the young master and Ezart had done so, I would have had to stay back to first watch what floor the elevator stopped at before instantly racing up by myself, rather than continuing to follow them closely as I was currently doing.
The emergency stairs were spacious and sealed; however, the slightest noise would be greatly amplified. This forced me to stay extremely cautious. Everything would be fine if I could continue following the young master.
“When they took Bri, they didn’t try to specially avoid the surveillance cameras, which means they wanted us to follow. They might want to discuss conditions.”
It was no wonder the young master did not seem to be in a rush. If the other party was planning on discussing conditions, they would not harm Briar.
The young master hesitantly said, “I think it might be Lieder that took Bri. The person was wearing a long, khaki trench coat that looked similar to what Lieder wore before.”
“Ah Shou? Then don’t worry. That guy might have a few loose screws in his head, but he sticks pretty closely to his principles. He won’t hurt your little wife. Tch, it seems like finding a little girl to be your wife wasn’t bad at all.”
“I already told you she’s not my wife yet!” The young master sounded somewhat annoyed. “Lieder has done so many bad things, yet you’re speaking up for him!”
“How am I speaking up for him—”
At that precise moment, the young master spun around sharply and swung a fist in Ezart’s direction. With a miserable cry, a person heavily crashed into the wall and collapsed nearby…
Ezart remained in the same upright standing position, staring in disbelief at the figure that had appeared only after being knocked down. He roared out indignantly, “Invisibility? That’s breaking the rules!”
“That’s why I hate these kinds of annoying abilities the most!” The young master ground out through gritted teeth.
Ezart sent another kick flying at the person, who let out a faint groan, and could not even let out a shout before falling unconscious. Ezart then turned to ask, “How did you notice that guy? Damn, he’s only wearing socks on his feet. I bet his footsteps didn’t even make a sound!”
“He was too close. I could hear his breathing.”
The young master lowered his head to look at the unconscious person. After some hesitation, he stomped down strongly on the person’s calf. The crack of the shattering bone accompanied another scream. However, the victim’s scream did not last long before he fainted from the pain once again.
I should truly focus on maintaining a distance of ten or more steps.
“You’re not killing him?” Ezart frowned, “Invisibility is a pretty annoying ability. If he fired a gun from a further distance away, even you wouldn’t have been able to notice, right?”
“A lot of people escaped from P29. There are too many that would need to be killed.” The young master shook his head and stuffed something into the person’s clothing as he continued, “Kyle-gē will come and take this person back to P29. This person might not have done anything bad yet. Maybe he just escaped from P29. Since he needs to run around and seek refuge, he likely didn’t have any time to do much.”
“Your heart has gone soft.” Ezart clicked his tongue as he said, “In the past, you would kill anyone that harmed your brother or the people around you even faster than someone chopping up radishes.”
The young master furrowed his brows at these words and asked with hesitation in his voice, “This doesn’t seem to be a good thing?”
Ezart instead replied, “Nah, it’s pretty good.”
The young master glanced at Ezart without much of a response. Instead, he said, “Put your knuckles on. There are others.”
“Mm, more ability-users?” Ezart frowned.
The young master’s voice turned cold. “No, they’re vampires!”
Not good, I have been discovered!
As Ezart removed the knuckles fastened to his thigh, he asked, “How do you know they’re vampires?”
“Their style of movement and hiding places are very similar to Charles’.” The young master then let out a “hmph” as he added, “But they’re much worse than Charles!”
… So the vampires the young master is talking about do not include me?
Just after Ezart put his pair of knuckles on, a mass of shadows descended from the ceiling. There were approximately a dozen or so people total. They did not wear the “standard vampire outfits,” instead sporting simple black clothing. However, the fangs at the corners of their mouths indicated they were indeed vampires.
“Didn’t you say this city doesn’t have non-humans?” Ezart growled, “What are those then? Humans with teeth modifications?”
The young master did not respond, only murmuring, “As expected, it wasn’t the Church that kidnapped Bri. But who dispatched so many vampires?”
Ezart slammed his knuckles together with a resounding clang as he shouted, “Who cares! Anyways, we need to wait until we snap their legs first. Then we can find your wife and take our time asking the questions.”
The young master did not reply any more, simply extending his silver claws without a sound.