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

Facing the gun and Durin's stern expression, the plump man screamed, "We buy kids to train them as servants! Mr. Durin, let's talk this through; we really aren't traffickers!"


Durin nodded slightly—since Shiyi and Big Orange both admitted you weren't lying, Durin reluctantly accepted you guys as somewhat decent.


"Then why did you and your people run so fast?"


"They said you would hang traffickers from the streetlights on sight, and we saw it happen on our way here. Weren't we just afraid you would act without asking?" another merchant, freed from the Paralysis Spell, said in a still shaken manner.


Alright, although not good people, you're not merciless murderers either, Durin thought as he paid to buy the children's freedom and then let them return to the camp with their siblings.


However, before heading back, Durin still asked for whom this merchant group was working.


Chapter 18: Ambition