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

The one who introduced the business deal to the agents of chaos wasn't just anybody; it was an undercover operative from the Sulemu Forest, a middle-aged man who was far from ordinary. For generations, his family had mingled among intermediaries, and this should have been an excellent opportunity for multilateral collaboration — they would earn their intermediary fees, the Sulemu Forest would gain favors from many parties, the Northern Army would receive free medicine, and the North of the Elven Territory would see fewer chaos-bringers crossing the wilderness.


As for those agents of chaos, those fiends aren't even human; their deaths would be a boon.


Unfortunately, they collided with Anta, who was enforcing family law.


Chapter 31: Reasonable