Chapter 21 Flipping Coins

The car drove into Lundan, and Wayne abandoned it in a random alley, gifting the items in the car to those who were fated to have them.

The four hailed a taxi back to the Detective Agency, while Ronica and the others were anxious to return to the academy. They still had graduation theses to complete, as well as reports on the eradication of Death strongholds.

Before leaving, the three of them expressed their gratitude to Wayne. After all, he had saved them.

Once they were done with these busy days, they would bring gifts to the Detective Agency.

Chris warned Wayne not to go out unless necessary. Although the death aura on him had dissipated due to the Gate of Truth, turning misfortune into a blessing, there were still other Death Walkers in Lundan, and it was uncertain when he might be targeted again.

Chris valued Wayne greatly. She wished she could take him to the academy to go through the enrollment ceremony right away, but as Evanston was a women's academy, it was impossible to admit male students.

Chris remembered there was a night school specifically for training Mages. She needed to inquire about the details, and since the night school was a crash course with limited teaching content, she planned to tutor Wayne herself for the time being.

Once Wayne had completed his initial studies and accumulated a certain level of knowledge, she would then recommend a qualified tutor for him.

In this way, bathed in the Goddess's light, Wayne would surely embrace the moonlight's embrace.

This was a sure bet!

...

Wayne waved goodbye to the three and followed Chris's advice not to go out unless necessary.

He stopped a taxi at the door and headed for the apartment of the failed art student.

He wasn't supposed to go out unless it was necessary; he had things to do.

It was time to meet with the Resentful Spirit!

Wayne had signed a contract with the Resentful Spirit Hound, obtaining his first summoned beast. Previously, with zero magic power, he was unable to feed it and allow it to move freely.

Now it was different. Wayne felt like a youngster who had just gained supernatural powers and was extremely pleased with himself, eager to awaken his servile dependents.

In addition to the anticipation of his first summoned beast, he had an imperative reason to go: the Resentful Spirit had awakened, and if it didn't receive its master's magic power for a long time, it would fall into madness due to hunger, and the likelihood of it turning on its master was incredibly high.

As the sky grew darker, Wayne didn't want to delay and intended to make it quick, bringing the dog home before nightfall.

Of course, he wasn't completely unprepared; just in case, he kept a Bible that could suppress specters close to his chest.

And white gloves.

He was confident that even if he was unlucky enough to be targeted by Drifting Ghosts, he could turn the tables and chase them down instead, at which point it was anyone's guess who would frighten whom.

Times had changed; the boy wasn't poor... well, not as poor, and at least no longer afraid of ghosts!

—————

The taxi stopped by the roadside, and Wayne followed the guidance of The Book of Greed to look for the Resentful Spirit's resting place.

The Book of Greed could only capture the wailing of Resentful Spirits and could not respond to the wishes of the living, which vexed Wayne. Living beings were so much better; he could've signed a master-servant contract with a Magician Girl and achieved his goal in one fell swoop, undeniably smoothing his path as a Mage.

With The Book of Greed leading the way, Wayne felt like his name was in red, and he quickly arrived at his destination—an abandoned lot backed by a pet shelter, with a vet clinic nearby, where the barking of large dogs could occasionally be heard.

As the evening approached, the howling reminiscent of wolves, combined with the increasing mist, instantly created a chilling and eerie atmosphere.

It was indeed eerie. Wayne saw many green lights emerging from the ground, clustering together like phosphorescence and flickering with a ghostly chill.

"Damn taxi driver, definitely took a detour!"

Wayne complained about being late. After a few steps, he stopped in front of a soft, moist patch of earth. He closed his eyes to sense his servile dependents, calling out to his subordinate and transferring magic power to it through The Book of Greed.

The mushy, damp earth slowly rose, and a decaying limb emerged. The nauseating stench made Wayne cover his nose involuntarily.

Having a dog's nose wasn't necessarily a good thing; it shattered many illusions, for instance, the myth that pretty girls' farts smell nice.

A large, rotting dog climbed out of the ground, one eyeball grey and lifeless, the other eye socket contained a flickering green flame. Having received its master's magic power, the rotting flesh on its body fell off rapidly, leaving only a skeleton.

A hazy mist gathered and wrapped around the Undead Hound's skeleton, forming a translucent body that looked both evil and ferocious, yet somewhat majestic and handsome.

This was a Doberman, with a well-proportioned, compact frame standing close to seventy centimeters at the shoulder. The ears were not cropped nor the tail docked, so the floppy ears remained droopy.

The smell of decay in the air significantly dissipated. Four eyes met, and the Doberman growled, revealing its gums. In its eyes, Wayne could see a deep-seated resentment.

Series of images flashed by, revealing the Resentful Spirit's past.

The Doberman, as a pet, had been raised by a little boy who grew up and became a young man, joining the military and entering the army. The boy's family had no time to take care of the Doberman, so they left it at the pet shelter.

The shelter's staff didn't care much for the dogs, skimming off the fees to turn a profit, feeding them the cheapest, low-grade dog food, and sometimes even starving them. To bathe the dogs, they simply hosed them down in cages. Because it hadn't had its ears cropped, the Doberman suffered bacterial infections and was plagued by illnesses.

Later, the Doberman became pregnant and bore seven puppies.

The shelter's staff perked up, registering the seven pups and applying for more dog food funds. That money never went to the Doberman; it went straight into the staff's pockets. The seven puppies were killed in front of the Doberman by the staff.

That night, the fog was thick, and the Doberman went mad. After attacking a staff member, it was starved to death and buried in a hole in the wasteland.

Under this wasteland lay many other pets who had died from abuse. Every evening, lingering cold lights would rise eerily aloft.

"Damn it!"

Wayne felt a headache coming on as he sensed the Doberman's thirst for revenge and understood the meaning behind the name Resentful Spirit.

The Resentful Spirit's name wasn't random. For Wayne to gain its loyalty, he needed to let it accomplish its revenge. Only then would the Resentful Spirit be able to leave its past behind.

What a headache!

As a guy who loved both cats and dogs, Wayne despised animal abuse, especially by those paid by animal shelters who don't do their jobs—they deserved to be haunted by the Resentful Spirit.

However, Wayne believed human lives were more important than dog lives, so letting the Doberman have its revenge...

"Whoo, whoo, whoo——"

Sensing Wayne's hesitation, the Resentful Spirit became restless, its growling in its throat growing stronger.

"Don't fuss, I didn't say no," Wayne said, conflicted. He took out a coin from his pocket: "Let's do it this way, we'll flip a coin to decide. Heads, you go finish your revenge, tails, I take legal action to seek justice for you, how about that?"

The Resentful Spirit didn't like this arrangement, fixing its gaze on Wayne's neck as if contemplating the feasibility of biting its master for freedom of action.

Wayne felt his neck and said with a wince, "Good dog, I'm a detective, best at collecting evidence. With my involvement, those good-for-nothing bums will surely get kicked out of the shelter. Then I'll spend money to buy some viral attention, plasters it all over the papers, denouncing these inhuman scoundrels. The outraged public won't let them off easy."

The Resentful Spirit, not understanding, was eager to attack its master.

Wayne, helpless, felt that it was difficult to communicate with the Resentful Spirit and calmed it down by holding the Bible.

A man and dog stood in a standoff, and after a long while, night fully descended, and fog enveloped the surroundings to an exaggerated degree.

The Resentful Spirit's form, already condensed from the fog, blended with it, and two flickering cold flames intensified the pressure on Wayne.

Maybe, perhaps, very likely, he couldn't beat this dog.

"I'll give in a little, I'll take good care of you in the future, with the best dog food, the finest kennel. Give me some face, I'm still your master after all," Wayne said with a grave expression.

This time, the Resentful Spirit didn't resist. Perhaps it was the pleasant memories evoked by Wayne's description. It silently agreed to the coin toss.

"Man proposes, God disposes. Let heaven decide their fate..."

Wayne shrugged, flicked the coin into the air, and both man and dog followed it with their eyes until the coin stood upright in the mud.

""

Wayne was dumbfounded, and so was the dog. It wasn't heads or tails, how should they choose?

Coming back to his senses, Wayne contemplated, "If it lands on its edge, it's fifty-fifty. You bite them half to death, then I'll investigate and gather evidence, and run a story condemning their wrongdoing."

The Resentful Spirit didn't respond, torn about whether to flip again.

"Don't worry, I'm good to my own dogs. I guarantee to make this bunch lose their jobs and roam the streets. Once they find work again, I'll buy more attention to denounce the heartless bosses who hire them..."

Wayne got more enthusiastic as he spoke, realizing for the first time how wicked he could be: "You know, they'd have to sleep on the streets if they're homeless. You often roam about late at night. If you happen to come across them, keep biting, keep chasing, haunting them with never-ending nightmares of revenge from the Resentful Spirit Hound."

The Resentful Spirit's eyes sparkled, nodding in approval. Killing them outright would be too easy for those people.

You're such a bad master!

"I'm only bad occasionally, as long as you like it."

Wayne responded reflexively and then paused, realizing he could hear the other's inner voice.

"Go on, it's getting late, I'm waiting to go home!"

"Roar, roar, roar——"

The fog surged wildly, the turbulent resentment instantly erecting a ten-meter-high wall of fog, rolling with a cascade of green ghost flames, sweeping toward the animal shelter like a tsunami.

That night, screams and barks filled the shelter, completely shrouded in fear.

The next day, the newspaper published news about shelter workers attacked by a rabid dog.

The staff had horrific bite marks and were infected with a virus causing relentless fevers; the article ended with the reporter's lamentation, stating that a group of kind-hearted animal lovers didn't deserve such a fate.

The public also expressed sympathy, and some even visited them at the hospital.

After two days, the papers published startling text and cold photographs accompanied by condemnatory words, sparking a public outcry.

Buried bones were excavated from wastelands, and more photos entered the public eye—with the fervor continuing...

-------------

Nighttime at the Detective Agency.

Wayne put down the newspaper and his tea, looking around: "Huh, where did Ah Bin go, ran off to find someone to play with again?"

"Really energetic at night!"