roccoschili Chapter 38 The Silent Chapter: The Uninvited Guest Before the Battle
Chapter 38 The Silent Chapter: The Uninvited Guest Before the Battle
After finishing his business with Möbius, Ming left the café and strolled along the brightly lit streets of London at night, soon arriving at the gates of the Erdover Orphanage.
As soon as I arrived at the orphanage gate, I saw a woman with long brown hair, who looked very relaxed, leaning against the wall. She was about 21 years old.
When she saw Ming approaching, she glanced at him casually, a hint of surprise in her eyes, but she quickly regained her composure.
"You must be the SSS member who came to switch shifts with me, right? I am Octria Monica, the strongest magician in DEM Company besides those top magicians. Also, the first one is my surname, and the second one is my first name, understand?" The woman said arrogantly, flipping her hair.
Ming glanced at her expressionlessly, ignored her completely, and said, "You're blocking the way." Then he pushed Monica aside and walked into the orphanage.
Oceria Monica was surprised by Ming's attitude.
"How dare you ignore me! How dare you!" she thought to herself, wanting to teach Ming, who had spared her from any rudeness, a lesson.
She threw a punch, and Ming dodged it by sidestepping. But what followed was Monica's spinning kick, which Ming ignored and took a step back into the orphanage.
However, Ming seemed to have misjudged the distance, causing his gentleman's suit pocket to be scratched and a photo to be kicked out.
Monica quickly took the photo, glanced at it casually, and saw an ordinary, unremarkable girl with chestnut hair and double braids, the kind you see everywhere in Japan, smiling in the photo.
"What is this...?" she wondered, but a scalpel was already pressed against his neck in an instant, and the cold right eye of the person in front of her showed no attempt to hide his murderous intent.
"Give it back to me," Ming said in a emotionless voice, as if the scalpel could pierce his throat without regard for his position if he refused.
"Ah...I..."
"Shut up, give it back to me." Ming's scalpel slowly moved forward, almost piercing Monica's throat.
Monica swallowed hard, her whole body trembling as she handed the photo back.
Ming's expression softened slightly as he took the photo, carefully and gently placing it in his pocket. He then looked up, his gaze still cold.
"If there's a next time, don't blame me for being ruthless." Ming put away his scalpel, warned, and turned to walk into the orphanage.
Monica stood there, watching Ming's departing figure, her heart filled with doubt.
"Who is that girl? It's like if I touch her even slightly, she could chop my head off in a flash. No... her aura of oppression is ridiculously strong. Even though I'm wearing a [manifestation device], the moment I see her eyes, I feel like everything I do is superfluous..."
This was no illusion. In that instant, Ming's left eye, which was covered by the blindfold, suddenly flashed red light, ready to deal with the person in front of him at any moment.
Because Ming's body was completely affected by Mio's negative emotions, his mental state was like a taut string. As long as the lingering echo of her was gently touched on his chest, Ming would take the person's life like an arrow.
Perhaps Ming can understand Mio's persistence back then, but he certainly wouldn't agree that it was because of Mio that he missed out on that hard-won happiness. And so, that feeling, like a bright star in the night sky, continues to shine in Ming's heart after its loss, and the guilt of not protecting her surges like a tide.
Then, upon entering the orphanage, he encountered Princess Anslila. The princess was surprised to see Ming there, as he should have been killed by the assassins she had hired just a few hours earlier.
As soon as she came down, Princess Anslila looked at Ming with a face full of surprise and doubt. She couldn't believe that this man could appear before her unharmed, but she quickly regained her composure and greeted him warmly:
"Wow, it's the magician I met this morning. Good evening."
Ming listened to her expressionlessly, his eyes flashing with indifference, then walked past her to the large room on the second floor where he was ordered to guard the children's sleeping area.
Just as Ming passed by her, he spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear: "Don't try anything funny. Of course, you can try, but right now my only target is Htn. If I find out later that you have something to do with them..." Ming's voice was so calm it was frightening.
Wang Nu's face darkened. After Ming went upstairs, she picked up a communicator and called the person whose contact was labeled "DEM Company Board of Directors Perdorola".
A deep male voice came from the other end of the phone, "Your Majesty, how are things going on your end? I've already reached a cooperation agreement with Htn. How about your end?"
The princess said angrily, "Don't call me the Second Princess, call me the Future Queen! And what are those magicians you sent? They couldn't even handle a small, unknown magician. How can I believe you can help me seize the throne of England? I'm telling you, if I fail, I believe you'll have a very long way to go to become the Executive Director."
Perdorola's voice was apologetic: "I'm sorry, this was my mistake. I will send an even more skilled assassin next time."
Wang Nu snorted coldly, "No need. Just let those Htn guys kidnap him tonight to do some kind of human experimentation, and no one will know. We're both getting what we want." After saying that, she hung up the phone, put on her gentle smile again, and walked out of the orphanage.
Ming walked to the door of the room on the second floor, pushed it open, and the children inside glanced around casually. They found that the child from that morning, Sayiqi, was indeed not there. Ming sighed inwardly and thought to himself.
'Was she taken away? Well, at least he completely confirmed to me that the Second Princess was also the mastermind. But we're not related, so I'll help if I can, but... I have no intention of going against the British royal family.'
“And…the person who hid on the wall when I wasn’t looking should show themselves by now.” Ming said, throwing the scalpel from his sleeve at his head.
Startled, the person hiding above Ming quickly jumped down from the ceiling and then deactivated their optical camouflage. Only then did Ming realize that it was Fei Erduo, who had taken leave that morning.
"Wait! Little Klein, it's me, don't do anything!" He Ming explained in a voice that was trying not to wake the children in the orphanage, as Fildo, who had just jumped down.
Ming put away his scalpel, looked at her coldly, and asked, "What are you doing here? And why did you take the day off this morning?"
Because I noticed a few days ago that the orphanage was suddenly taking in more and more children, and the people who came to pick them up were usually masked men dressed in black and wearing glasses, I decided to investigate today. After learning about Htn, I thought I'd come and check it out under the cover of night…”
Fildo looked a little embarrassed. After learning from the children that the SSS would be protecting them today, she wanted to find an unfamiliar companion at night, knock her unconscious, and protect the children. She even used a military optical camouflage device for this purpose.
"So you were just trying to knock me out?" Ming looked at Fierdo speechlessly.
"Hehe, you came in too fast, I didn't expect you to be Klein's little brother." Fildo chuckled and scratched her head.
"And why didn't you choose to come along this morning? You could have joined the ranks of those protecting children based on your own abilities, right?" Ming asked, somewhat puzzled.
Philo shook her head slightly, a gesture that revealed a hint of helplessness and inner conflict.
She pondered to herself, who could possibly have sent that child away without anyone noticing? One possible figure after another flashed through her mind, eventually settling on two people—besides the elderly headmaster whom she regarded as her father, there was only the Second Princess.
“No matter who it is, if I want to enter in the normal way, they should be on guard, right?” Fildo analyzed logically, which surprised Ming.
"You were able to figure this out?" In Ming's mind, his senior, Fierdo, had always been quite oblivious, so he was particularly surprised that she could guess this.
“Hey, don’t underestimate me! Little brother Klein! How could I, who stood out in the British military and came to the SSS, not have any strategy?” As she said this, Fildo proudly tossed her short red hair.
After Fildo finished speaking proudly, Ming blinked, somewhat surprised, but nodded. Then, pointing to the two people behind Fildo who were also using optical camouflage, an unknown voice asked:
"So, the two who sneaked in while I was opening the door and not closing it were also there?" Ming said with a slight smile, but two scalpels were also slicing across Fierdo's cheeks, attacking from both sides.
"Klein! What are you doing..." Before Fildo could react, the two people behind her easily dodged to the side, revealing their figures. Their eyes were full of hostility, and they looked like assassins as well.
The two women looked almost identical, both wearing masks and with long hair. They each carried a standard-issue long sword and had empty, lifeless eyes. They appeared to be sisters.
"When?" the person on the left asked first, then turned to look at the person on his right.
"I don't know, sister, but it doesn't matter. Lord Salestos sent us here first to gather intelligence, or to take a few children away for experiments. He seems to be a guard." Another replied in almost the same voice.
He then slowly drew his standard lightsaber from behind him and assumed a fighting stance.
Ming casually glanced at the two men and asked himself, "Who are you? Judging from your clothes, you don't look like the DEM group. We don't have people like that in the SSS either. Judging from what you just said and the Salestos you mentioned, you must be from Htn."
Hearing Ming's casual self-answering, the woman on the right looked somewhat surprised. "Sister! This person seems dangerous. We haven't even revealed who we are yet, and he already knows."
"Nonsense, little sister, have you ever thought about how intimidating the name Lord Salestos is? They'll recognize it immediately!"
The girl on the left immediately responded to the question her younger sister had asked.
Ming narrowed his eyes slightly, a dangerous glint flashing within them. "So that's how it is. You're Htn's lackeys? Now that you're here, why don't you take me to see your doctor?" Ming's voice was icy cold, radiating a chilling aura.
"Sister, he's so intimidating! According to that DEM board member, should we hold out for at least ten minutes? And there are two of them too."
"Ten minutes? Hmph, I don't want to waste time. Of course, if you surrender, I won't fire the signal flare." Ming crossed his arms, looked around at the small doorway, and suggested to the other side.
"Impossible! We would never betray the Doctor!" the two girls shouted at the same time. Seeing this, Ming was afraid of waking the children, so he quickly deployed a soundproof [Freedom Domain] to cover the sleeping children.
“Then let’s go, Senior Fierdo, let’s fight two against two, just for the sake of your beloved orphanage and the children.” After Ming finished speaking, he put away the scalpel and took out the wire, trying to use the least amount of force to finish them off.