Half-step Purgatory

Durin stroked the black cat on the armrest of his chair, sitting on the black leather sofa. Through the glasses perched on his nose, his gaze passed over the long table in front of him and settled on the man kneeling on the carpet:
"I understand, you've made money in Naples, your business has been very successful, and you've led a happy life. You've had those secret police, friends in both the law and the underground, and even the Royal Family speaking on your behalf."
"You don't need a friend like me, I know that. You're afraid of owing me a favor, and you don't want to get involved in troubles."
"But now you come to me and say, 'I beg you, Mr. Durin of the Corleon family, please help me seek justice, so that my life and my family will not suffer and sink into despair.'
Yet, in your eyes, I was nothing more than a second-rate artist involved in movies and music. Even at the brink of death, you still show me such disrespect, not even willing to call me by my title... Keeper of Secrets."

Durin's Diary

Higgins received the autopsy report and the transcript of the conversation with his friend's corpse just an hour later than the bigwigs of the Northern Kingdom's Copenhagen Police Department—all thanks to a planted piece from the Yutari family within the ranks.


Scratching his chin, the Yutari crime family's young man looked at the cause of death of Harold Nash on the report and then turned his head to the large figure of an Oso behind him, "Uncle Yuri, can you kill a man with a pencil?"


"Yes, but it's difficult unless you hit a vital spot effectively. A pencil isn't a knife or axe; it's too fragile. If the target has a Supernatural Ability to harden their skin or possesses items like a Stoneskin Spell scroll or Stoneskin Potion, a pencil would be impossible to kill them with."


Chapter 38: Betty's Eta