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

Upon noticing his captain of the guards pushing open the door, Sora looked up from the bowl of Chang Tang wontons in front of him.


And his captain of the guards pointed toward the entrance, "Secretary, they have returned."


"Let them in," Sora replied as he quickened his pace of eating. Finally, just before the first young man entered, he swallowed the remaining few wontons.


The diet of the Changtangians is truly interesting, far much diverse than those fried, baked dishes in the Western Lands, and the taste is also good; the spices used are eclectic. The High Elves always say that eating Changtangian food will make one fat and even shorten one's expected lifespan.


Chapter 242: Monologue