Chapter 52

Lakis thought about how to deal with this woman.

The voice he heard earlier was familiar and it was easy for him to guess that she was the next-door lady who brought Yuri snacks. But even if that was the case, there was actually no reason to think about it. The cleanest way would be to kill her and get rid of all evidence.

—Just get it over with, Lakis.

The bug in his head seemed to think the same.

The next moment, Lakis' hand stretched towards Anne-Marie. However, his hand didn't go for her slender neck.

The last thing Anne-Marie saw before his hand covered her eyes, were his brilliant, cold eyes.

"Forget everything you just saw."

And a chilling, emotionless voice pierced her ears.

"Otherwise, you're dead the next time I see you."

Up in the sky, the moon shone brightly into the night.

* * *

Lakis left an unconscious Anne-Marie in front of her house next door, then he entered Yuri's house through the window at the back of the building.

He initially stretched out his hand to kill but right then, Yuri's face flashed in his mind for some reason and he changed his mind. He quickly reached for the locked door to find something to cover his face.

Flap!

"Arachne…!"

That very moment, something black flew in through the window that Lakis had just used. Lakis' hand instantly seized it.

"Squawk!"

With a hand that flew out like lightning, Odin was caught before he even know someone was there. He instinctively tried to force his feathers to materialize but Lakis' grip did not loosen at all.

Instead, the blood flowing from his hand moved like it was alive and bound Odin's body completely.

'W-What is this!'

Odin was shocked.

He didn't know what had happened, but he wasn't able to humanize since he was bound. Even if he left his crows somewhere else and wasn't in perfect condition right now, he shouldn't be overcome so powerlessly!

Meanwhile, a light flashed in Lakis' eyes as he watched the black crow tied up in his hand. The crow was definitely speaking when it flew in earlier. On top of that, it had said 'Arachne'.

Like 'Odin', that was also a name Lakis had heard of before.

"You must be the crow, Odin."

Similarly, Odin was looking at Lakis' face and sucked in a breath.

"L-Lakis Avalon?"

Odin's eyes were bulging at the fact that the man he had seen in Carnot only a few hours ago, was now in front of him. He didn't how the heck that had happened. Feeling completely astonished, Odin made a choice…

"Caw!"

Which was to pretend to be a normal crow albeit, it was already too late. Of course, such an act wouldn't work with Lakis.

"What the hell is this stupid act now?"

"Caw! Caw!"

Nevertheless, Odin continued to act like a crow and finally, a terrifying smile emerged on Lakis' face.

"Okay. You're going to keep acting like a bird. I get it."

Odin trembled at the chill that instantly fell over his body.

Lakis stared at the crow with an icy gaze. He wanted to deal with this arrogant twat of a bird right now but….for now, there was something more urgent than Odin's informal visit.

Lakis clicked his tongue and tied the crow up even more. A while later, he left Yuri's house after hanging up Odin, who was cawing out pitifully.

* * *

–

The bird flew around a certain building a few times then it flew off into the distance. I realized the bird had stopped being controlled so I took back my thread.

I guess this is the building.

The security looked pretty tight. After looking around for a while, I noticed something akin to a large wagon with a lock on it.

"Merchandise is coming in!"

When the man at the front yelled, the door behind the building opened. While that happened, the man opened the lock on the wagon. The locks on the wagon were doubled over and there was even an iron gate with dense iron bars on the outer door.

After opening it up, the man went inside and dragged out a chain.

"Will you hurry it up? These little—!"

"Oi, don't hurt the goods!"

A row of people began to come out of the wagon. Their hands and feet were connected by shackles and chains. Some tried to escape after getting down from the wagon and were beaten as an example, while others were crying.

It wasn't a strange scene to me.

This was a slave trading ring, where people were bought and sold. But unlike Carnot, slavery was illegal in the east. In other words, this was an illegal black market, or I suppose, an illegal slave trade.

I frowned and examined the situation below then I moved.

~La La La…

There was a very faint song coming from the inside of the building. This voice was similar to a miniscule wave so it was inaudible to normal ears, but as expected, it was a familiar sound to me.

Is she trying to guide me?

To be honest, I was a little dissatisfied with Siren for cutting off connection to the bird. If you're going to send a bird to guide someone, why not do it to the end? Wasn't it irresponsible to invite someone up to this point, then suddenly cut off on the way and leave them on their own?

However, I was now certain of one thing.

This was not a formal invitation. But then, why did she have to call me secretly?

I decided to follow the sound of music for now. Although the security was quite thorough, it wasn't hard to infiltrate the building quietly on my own. Above all, I'd been to this slave trading ring before for a request.

It wasn't much, just an average request to look for someone about a year ago. So I had a rough idea of the internal structure of this slavery ring.

Using the darkness as cover, I shot a thread at the small door next to the building. There was only one guard there, and fortunately, the man for the next watch had just opened the door and was coming out.

Killing was the easiest and simplest method but…I still didn't know Siren's purpose.

"Hey, it's time to switch."

"Ohh, you came at the right time; my bladder is about to explode."

Fwip!

My thread coiled around the man's wrists and ankles. Then I twitched my finger.

"Eh, eh?"

Thunk!

One of the guards moved according to my will like a puppet on string, grabbed the other man and fell down together.

"F***, what the hell?"

"N-No, I couldn't control my hands and feet all of a sudden…"

"Bloody hell, if you trip over yourself, fall on your own, why'd you grab me?"

I grasped the opening and went into the open door. It only took a moment, so the men didn't notice I had moved above them.

~Lalala…

Once I entered the building, the faint song became a little clearer. Honestly, I was wondering if I should follow the song first or search for Leo's whereabouts instead. But I let my instincts chose and decided to follow Siren's song first.

Siren's singing was just as beautiful as I remembered; at the lab, I listened to it till I was sick of it.

However…

As I drew nearer to the singing voice, I couldn't help but frown more. Why did her voice sound so weak and spiritless? It was so weak that in a way, it was almost like the eerie sound of the winter wind on dry branches.

The voice was coming from the center of the building. The deeper I got into the structure, the fewer people I found moving in the halls. None of them seemed to be able to hear Siren's singing.

I remained hidden and arrived at the room where the song stopped without being seen. The door to the room was shut tight.

Let's see…there's two locks, three, four…

There were as many as seven layers of locks.

Haa, I sighed a little. Geez. If someone was in there, they were 100% locked up.

What, so she called me here to help her.

Then why take Leo in the first place? There was still some mysteries yet to be solved but apparently, I had to get in there first.

Depending on what kind of locks these were, doing the wrong thing could trigger an alarm or even traps. Which explains why there was no one else guarding the door. If an unauthorized person came here, it wouldn't be easy to reach their goal.

Of course, although opening this door might be difficult for me, it wasn't impossible. But honestly, it was a bit annoying.

I came all this way because Siren called but do I just ignore this and go look for Leo?

*BOOM!*

Right then, a thunderous explosion blared into my ears. I turned to where the sound came from.

*clangclangclangclang!*

The sound of alarms began to fill the building.

There's another intruder?

Boom!

The explosion didn't stop at one and continued to go on. People were screaming at the top of their lungs and you could hear them rushing around.