The Devil’s Cage

Inside “Distributions of underground factions of Naveya City”, Emerald Rock was a gang faction whose main operation was assassination, their main base of operations was in a mill in the common district.

Kieran and Starbeck left the temple district and returned to the wealthy district. They passed through the market and finally reached the common district.

Just like how Atrina commented, that city guard commander Delinkt was really not much of a formidable character.

Although there were outposts set up at the two ends of the market which connected the common and wealthy district, there were too many blind spots in between.

One didn’t even need professional skills, even a commoners= with quick feet would easily slip through unnoticed, let alone Kieran with above Transcendence [Undercover] and Starbeck with Musou level.

However, when they entered the common district, Starbeck trembled in fear again.

Kieran didn’t hold back his plans from Starbeck, so he knew what they were going to do next.

Trying to “negotiate” with a bunch of native killers.

Of course, with Kieran’s style, such “negotiation” would be anything but a pleasant process.

When Starbeck thought of the potential danger ahead, he couldn’t help but feel extremely anxious.

However, when they entered the mill, his heart was relieved because there was no one!

Though Starbeck immediately realized something and he quietly took a glance at Kieran.

When he noticed Kieran wasn’t angry at all, he then truly heaved a long sigh.

Kieran, on the other hand, didn’t care about Starbeck’s petty movements, he went ahead and checked the entire mill.

“Things are messy and other than the necessities, most of the living supplies are still here. This means the killers of Emerald Rock evacuated the place without a second thought after getting the news.”

“Seems like that person didn’t only have constant surveillance on Atrina but has quite the influence on Emerald Rock as well. If that’s the case…” Kieran touched his chin and a new theory formed in his head.

Then, he went for a second check around the mill and made sure he didn’t miss anything before signaling Starbeck.

Starbeck who was eager to leave didn’t question further; he followed behind Kieran closely and returned to Charging Stable Inn.

After they entered their room, Starbeck uncharacteristically went straight to their “goods”.

He took out each and every one of the goods, checking them meticulously.

Kieran glanced over Starbeck’s behavior but didn’t say anything.

He knew Starbeck would assume they could find some useful information in the goods but when Kieran had decided to disguise as the itinerant merchant, he has already carefully checked the goods yet none of them were noteworthy.

In addition, when Kieran related the matters to the “specifically targeted” order that Mizelle received, the more he assumed the identity of this traveling merchant that he posed was the key to the problem.

“Who is this merchant exactly?” Kieran frowned as he pondered upon the question.

Although Pelker did mention the itinerant merchant was a common one and even his two followers were imposters, Kieran didn’t think of it that way.

Why was someone so eager to kill a common merchant?

In addition, that someone wasn’t any John Doe either but a person affiliated to the temple factions and has connections to a killer organization.

Starting from that point, the traveling merchant became unusual but it was an undeniable fact that the merchant was indeed weak.

Of course, there were possibilities that the merchant escaped like a cicada sloughing its skin and the one that Pelker killed was just an imposter.

“If that’s the case… Things will get much more interesting!”

“The stolen Holy Thorn Grail, a temple deacon that has ties to a killer organization and a traveling merchant from the north…”

Kiera sat on the sofa, his fingers were knocking on the sofa’s arm lightly.

As he thought over the matters, his fingers suddenly stopped. He realized that he has been missing a single party.

The unknown attackers! The ones who intercepted Atrina to prevent her from sending her servant out!

Judging from the situation, these unknown attackers should be an extra faction.

“An extra faction eh?”

Kieran squinted his eyes.

…

The night flew quickly.

A moment before dawn, Starbeck finally went to sleep with a heavy heart after getting no results from his search but soon enough, he woke up.

Starbeck saw Kieran who was sitting on the sofa as though he hadn’t changed his posture since last night. He then directly ran to the kitchen.

It was true Starbeck was a coward but he knew how to observe the situation.

He realized other than spoils of war, Kieran had quite the interest for food.

Coincidentally, Starbeck had quite the cooking skill.

In fact, not only cooking but gardening, planting, raring animals were all his forte but they were all kind of useless for this current dungeon.

Still, it didn’t stop him from trying to use food to exchange more fondness from Kieran.

Half an hour later, Starbeck returned to the room with plates.

Sausages, vegetable salad, and freshly baked cornbread with hot milk.

The sausages were crunchy on the outside and chewy in the inside, Starbeck must have applied butter on it while grilling with a strong fire. Together with the vegetable salad, not only did the greens remove the oiliness of the butter, it enhanced the freshness of the vegetables as well but what intrigued Kieran the most was the freshly baked cornbread and its crust.

It was more than it met the eyes. The seemingly whole cornbread had something going on inside the bread itself.

“It’s stuffed with cheese and butter?” Kieran asked.

“I bought extra milk and cheese from the cooking maiden,” Starbeck answered.

“I see.” Kieran nodded. He took out the two spoils of war from last night and placed them on the table.

“I’ve used one of your contracts on Atrina, so according to market price, these two items can compensate the difference nicely. Don’t refuse if I tell you to take it! Spoils of war should be distributed according to contributions but it doesn’t mean I can simply take from you without conditions.”

Kieran enjoyed the cornbread while he told Starbeck in a serious manner.

“O-Okay,”

Starbeck blankly took the equipment on the table.

The two equipment were not high leveled by any means, both were at Magic rank with nothing really special about them.

One was a pair of blades that could enhance attack speed and the other was a leather armor with decent defense.

If he were to compare the two items with the ones he was wearing, the difference would be heaven and earth.

But…

It was the first time Starbeck acquired items in a dungeon.

In all his previous dungeon, he had to give up on all the items because of the contract terms, this time was no exception either. So Starbeck had no hopes in getting any rewards but he never thought Kieran would compensate his contract with his spoils of war.

Thinking about how Kieran’s style was cool and a bit of overbearing all the time, Starbeck shifted his gaze between the equipment in his hands and Kieran.

His gaze started to change but at the next moment, he returned to his normal self.

“I’ve found some honey in the kitchen just now. If you don’t mind, we can have honey roasted meat for lunch,” Starbeck said.

“Sure,” Kieran nodded without objecting.

He was always passionate about food, so he tended to be more lenient to someone who could cook good food. He decided to let Starbeck’s disgusting gaze at him just now pass.

Then, he patiently waited for lunch and also the visitor that would be arriving soon.