Chapter 141: Loose ends are best tied up or burnt to the ground
Draigo dropped the saber in his hand as he saw the violent combination unfold. He didn’t exactly have his heart set on removing the Marquis’s head himself, but it was mildly disorienting to see that he was beaten to the punch in such a showy manner.
“Apologies Draigo,” Zhen began to say in an casually polite manner,”but the Marquis had attempted to take advantage of a kindness we had given him and had to punished before he could enact his mischief.”
Zhen Liu gave a quick yet courteous bow to the old bard.
“I do hope you forgive this mild transgression of impediment.”
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<"Mild transgression"? Why are you talking like an Agatha Christie-no...Jane Austen, novel?>
‘Again, trying to be all enigmatic and shit here. Also, we’ve been bumming around a gothic horror knock-off mansion for like the past….hour or so? It felt necessary.’
[I thought it worked,milord], Hurricroak chimed in,[Although, I think he sounded more like…Gentleman Ghost.]
‘Thanks O-wait, why do you know that reference?’
[Will tell you later milord, Draigo-chan got something to say.]
‘Oh, right…wait, Draigo…chan?’
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Draigo was caught off guard by the unusual politeness coming from the young man before him, mostly because he just saw him effortlessly coordinate a bunch of monsters to execute someone in a violently spectacular manner.
The sudden shift from cold blooded killer to unusually polite reminded Draigo of the Marquis to an extent, but for some reason, he had the feeling the latter was closer to the Zhen Liu’s true personality than the former.
“It…it’s fine. I just regret…not doing the deed myself,” Draigo answered with slight hesitation. While he wasn’t exactly a bloodthirsty or violent man, Draigo couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed about not being able to exact revenge with his own hand.
‘Then again…I guess I can tell Wyvara in the next life that I didn’t kill anyone…or something like that,’ Draigo told himself as he let out a sigh.
Zhen Liu proceeded to pat the old bard’s shoulders.
“Don’t worry about it too much, old friend. Besides, now you can help me with the fun part.”
“…fun part?”
Zhen Liu had a big grin on his face, as Draigo could see greed in his eyes.
“We’re going to loot everything that isn’t nailed down!,” Zhen Liu informed Draigo matter-of-factly.
‘Nepherage, Hurricroak, take the Razor Maiden back to the main rooms and see if there’s anything that can be of use. Frosttusk, help me get the girls outta here, including the knocked out maid.’
[Of course, maestro!]
[By your will, milord.]
[Okay…]
Following their orders, Nepherage, Hurricroak and the Razor Maiden bolted out the door and made their way up the crazy amount of stairs from earlier. Frosttusk on the other hand, went to go and carefully carry out Jin Fang, Alicia and the knocked out maid.
When the four of them were out of sight, Draigo realized something important.
“Wait, there was giant door blocking us from entering, how are they going to-”
“Wait for it.”
[-Smash]
[-Crash!]
“CUT!”
“There it is.”
A loud explosion followed by the sound of rocks and mechanisms getting destroyed, echoed down the stairs and into the chamber. Evidently, that was all that Draigo needed for an answer.
“Now then, where do you think the Marquis kept his flammable stuff?”
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“And you’re positive that you saw this symbol at the Marquis’s Manor?,” Matilda asked for the hundredth time tonight.
“Yes I’m sure,” Zhen Hai answered again, “I maybe battle hungry, but I at least have a good memory.”
After having tied up the kidnapper that had almost killed them, Zhen Hai and Matilda had attempted to trace back their steps and see if they could figure out which way Zhen Liu had gone. On the way back however, Zhen Hai had suddenly recalled a weird detail about the silver coin that had dropped when the illusionary box popped: it has the exact symbol as the Marquis’s coat of arms. More specifically, Zhen Hai had seen that symbol above the Marquis’s gate.
Knowledge in hand, Zhen Hai and Matilda about face and moved as fast as they could to the Marquis’s Manor.
“The Marquis is an Aether Grandmaster. Are you sure we should be doing this without help?,” Matilda asked. She might have been a professional bodyguard, but even she had to back down in the face of absolute power.
“Pfft! He’s still a member of the Zhen Clan, and our motto is: No beast untamable, no challenge unbeatable, no opponent unbeatable and no prison inescapable, ” Zhen Hai reassured her, “if he can’t beat the Marquis, he will sure as hell figure out a way to escape.”
“If you say so…,” Matilda agreed, while mentally noting the Zhen Clan people were mildly meat headed.
Eventually, the two of them could see the Marquis’s Manor on the next street over and proceeded to speed up.
“We’re close! We just need to-what the hell?”
“What kind of fuc-Huh? Oh! Hey guys!”
Only to slow right the hell down to a stopwhen they saw Zhen Liu, sitting on a pile of random furniture and items, fiddling with a weird looking box. Additionally, they saw Alicia, Jin Fang and an unknown maid laying nearby in padded boxes, three of Zhen Liu’s “puppets” hauling stuff in and out of the Marquis’s mansion, and the old man that has assaulted them earlier that day just…sitting there. Watching the puppets do their thing. It made for a very confusing sight to Zhen Hai and Matilda.
“Uhhh…”
“Milady!”
Granted, the latter stopped caring when it registered in her mind that her liege was just laying there in her stolen showbox, snoozing without a care.
Zhen Hai on the other hand, made his was over to Zhen Liu to ask some questions.
“Uhhh, cuz? What’s going on here?,” Zhen Hai asked while gesturing towards… everything that was happening.
Zhen Liu ignored the question for a few seconds while fiddling with his strange box before promptly putting it down to answer said question.
“That depends.”
“On…?”
“Do you want the short version, or the long version?”
Zhen Hai was about to ask for the short version, until he saw a fourth aether puppet under Zhen Liu’s commands pour a trail of what smelled like lantern oil from the mansion, to a spot just behind the gate. Now he had to know more.
“Long version please,” Zhen Hai asked without hesitation.
“Well…”
