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

Durin dismounted from the carriage just as Louis Pozo was sitting in his mansion.


Old Hannibal's quickdraw team had just entered, giving everyone present a moderate shock.


So, as Durin alighted from the carriage and entered the hall, he immediately saw a captain whom he had once met in the trenches of Genoa.


"Mr. Durin, what is going on here?" he asked anxiously, clutching his comrade's torso.


Durin shook his head, took two scrolls of leather from the old man, and placed them in front of old Louis, "When your son flayed that pair of siblings, he never thought that just five days later, he would have to watch his twin daughters meet the same fate."


Durin turned his head, and the Mage Hand, acting on behalf of its master, viciously slapped an old woman nearby, "Kneel down, answer when I ask."


A Detect Lies circle appeared at her feet.


"The Venetian merchants conspired with pirates, did you know?" Durin asked.


"What's it to you!" the woman screamed.


Chapter 152: Cutting the Gordian Knot with a Swift Blade