The Devil’s Cage

Following Wu, Kieran reached the corridor connecting the inn and the living room behind it.

Wu stood under the only lamp. The dark red carpet was emanating a soft tender feeling under the dim light.

“Your cape is nice. The crow feathers are very dazzling,” Wu said slow.y

“It’s a mantle.”

Kieran frowned as he corrected Wu.

“Mantle? A mantle without a hood? It’s really something special, just like how I met you here… 2567, do you believe in destiny?”

Wu’s rough and low voice sounded got even slower, it seemed like she was reminiscing.

Kieran’s furrowed brows got tighter.

He clearly felt Wu purposely said that to draw out the word “destiny”.

Destiny?

Kieran didn’t believe in it, just like he never believed life was fair for everyone.

It may be cruel but it was reality.

However, Kieran didn’t like to discuss these matters with a stranger, nor did he want to fall into Wu’s tempo.

“So is that [Lucky Card] real? Or just a joke?”

Kieran deliberately considered his words as he changed “trap” into “joke.

Of course, if it was really a joke, even with Rachel acting as the mediator, Wu would have been blacklisted by Kieran.

Fortunately, it wasn’t. Wu stared at Kieran for 2 seconds, her stare was tense, it as if she was going to go through the system blur and see Kieran’s true face.

“It’s not a joke. I just want to talk more with you.”

As she spoke, Wu started a trade.

[Lucky Card] appeared in the trading column and Wu had already accepted the trade.

All Kieran needed to do was to confirm the trade at the moment and [Lucky Card] would be his for free.

It would be a gift instead of a trade!

Yet Kieran didn’t take it for granted.

After a glance at Wu, Kieran placed all the Points, Skill Points, [Danian’s Grip], and [Phantom Stinger] into the trading column; he then pressed accept.

The vigilance Kieran built up all after this time was suppressing his rash and stingy heart.

He didn’t know why Wu would offer the card for free but he knew how much it was worth.

He also knew both of them were just strangers with very few meetings.

However, the two points were enough for Kieran to behave properly. No matter how big the value or benefits, Kieran still knew how to behave in front of a stranger.

He could not accept a stranger’s gift without any reason, after all, it had exceeded the range of sympathy and giving.

More so, even if it was sympathy and giving, Kieran would reject it as well.

Why though?

His pride, his ego perhaps.

His pitiful, laughable pride and ego, it was the only thing Kieran had left and he tried not to lose it.

“The value might differ, but it won’t be much. If you are still not satisfied, I can compensate with more,” Kieran said.

“No need, it’s enough.” Wu shook her head.

“Um, see you.” Kieran nodded, turned around and walked to the door.

Wu gazed at Kieran’s back and saw him through the door before she muttered to herself, “Exactly the same, the same… is this the gift of destiny?”

Cards then flew out of Wu’s pocket when she muttered to herself.

12 cards surrounded Wu like dancing butterflies from the forest, the images on the cards kept changing as they circled her.

In the end, the 12 cards stopping moving and the images stopped shifting.

12 cards were separated in half and arranged themselves on the left and right respectively before Wu.

Starting from the left: cloud, river, forest, wilderness, peaks, dawn.

Starting from the right: famine, war, catastrophe, plague, darkness, chaos.

All of the cards were distinguishable from each other yet it wasn’t the end.

The 12 cards then swiftly overlaid on each other, shifting back and forth as their images changed again.

Amidst the new round of shifting images, there were; knight, devil, beast.

Other than that, there were; palace, scepter, crown.

When the shifting finally ended, the final image that was shown was…

…

As the door was shut, Kieran didn’t care about Wu anymore.

From Kieran’s viewpoint, Wu was just a player that he finished a trade with, nothing else.

After moving around the bar counter, Starbeck immediately jumped up from the floor.

“2567!”

“I…I…”

He wanted to explain the incident when he was drunk but as the words gushed up to his mouth, his awkwardness and shyness prevented him from uttering a sound.

Starbeck even shrunk aside after that, returning to his old harmless, cowardly look.

Starbeck during normal times was exactly like this, cowardly and shy, even describing him as small animals was an insult to the animals themselves.

However, Starbeck in his cowardly form was the Starbeck that Kieran was most familiar with, the same went for Lawless.

Lawless who was still wet from the ice pail on his head was sitting on the round bar stool, leaning on the counter with his arms on it as well. His mouth was chewing a cigar but it didn’t affect his speaking.

“How was it? How was it inside? That mean old Rachel didn’t want to let me in! Screw her rules!”

Lawless ranted.

“So so, not as good as this place.”

Kieran said while greeting the other few acquaintances around before he passed Lawless the bag of loot he got from his previous adventures.

“As usual,” Kieran said.

“Aye mate.” Lawless signaled an “OK” sign before contacting the buyers.

Starbeck, on the other hand, was looking at Kieran with a restless heart. He didn’t know what happened after he got drunk but he knew it was nothing good.

Whether it was his family or those hypocrite friends he had in real life, after that one time Starbeck got drunk, none of them allowed him to touch alcohol anymore, though his alcohol tolerance was very good…

“Let’s go,” Kieran said.

“Huh?” Starbeck looked up to Kieran, confused.

“Let’s go, I’ll send you home. The city may have the cyber law enforcers but its flaws are too big,” Kieran said as he walked towards the exit.

Starbeck looked at Kieran walking further away and got stunned for 2 to 3 seconds.

When Kieran touched the handle of the exit, it was only then that Starbeck came to his senses.

“Wait for me, 2567!”

Starbeck caught up quickly and both of them vanished beyond the exit.

…

Humming an unknown melody, a figure was walking in the streets with light steps as he was heading towards Harvest Inn.

It was a place he didn’t like but didn’t hate either.

“It would be great if I can go in and have a drink.”

The person muttered and the melody he was humming got happier, faster.

Even when the person saw Kieran and Starbeck come out from the inn, his mood didn’t change as if both of them were people of insignificance.

Both parties brushed off each other.

The person walked into Harvest Inn without pausing but Kieran paused his steps for a while.

“What’s wrong?” Starbeck asked.

“Nothing.”

Kieran frowned but he didn’t say anything else, he didn’t even look back and instead continue his walk.

Starbeck again followed tightly behind Kieran as they truly left.