Chapter 600: Pieces and Parts (2)

“Honestly, I’m a little surprised.”

Click!

Madam set a small teacup before Lennok, then leaned back languidly in her chair.

A dark, crimson liquid sloshed within the teacup.

Lennok pondered briefly what red liquid a vampire might offer, then carefully brought the cup to his lips.

Realizing it tasted similar to black tea, he took a few more sips before asking, “Why?”

“Because I never expected you, of all people, to bring up that story,” Madam replied, a smile hidden beneath her veil. “Not many even among us vampires know of it. This city is far too harsh to trust and rely on someone simply because they share your species.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

Lennok already knew that bonds between different species weren’t particularly strong in this world.

In a world where even humans were busy backstabbing each other, it was hard to place trust based solely on shared lineage.

It wouldn’t be strange, then, for Madam to filter out vampires who knew such a fact.

“It was Virgil, wasn’t it?” Madam asked, not waiting for Lennok’s reply. “He’s the only vampire with a connection to Adamant Thunder who would know such a thing.”

“…”

“It seems you put him in a great deal of debt. It’s something deeply connected to my master, so he would normally never open his mouth…” Madam chuckled. “Which is precisely why I never thought the secret would leak.”

“Are you talking about the fact that Olivera and Kaiser Bajour dedicated themselves to the same project?”

Madam sealed her lips at Lennok’s direct question.

She drained the remaining liquid from her teacup without hesitation.

Lennok didn’t believe poison or anything harmful was mixed in. Such petty tricks couldn’t harm him.

Rather, if Madam had tampered with the teacup, it could be used as leverage for her in this transaction.

“You said you were one of the oldest brokers in this business,” Lennok said, setting down the empty cup and lacing his fingers as he gazed at Madam. “Kaiser’s corpse. I respect the fact that you’ve hidden his demise for decades.”

“…”

“I want to settle this cleanly, with a transaction. If you have a price, it would be good to state it now.” Lennok lowered his head slightly, his eyes gleaming coldly. “I won’t accept refusal.”

From the start, Lennok had no intention of proposing a fair deal with Madam.

She was a broker who had lived for a long time, harboring many secrets.

It would be foolish for Lennok not to leverage the status and reputation he had built against such a being.

He didn’t care what price she might demand during the negotiation, but he could not allow Madam to refuse the transaction itself.

She, too, must have recognized this, which was why she had obediently summoned Lennok to her residence.

“Hoo…”

Lennok didn’t know the extent of the pressure a transcendent wizard exerted when facing someone directly.

No, to be precise, perhaps he didn’t know how strongly others felt that pressure.

The weight of the will Lennok expressed, and the level of power it reached.

And Madam seemed to know, to some extent, that Lennok had already transcended a certain Hierarchy.

Madam, extending pale fingertips to lift her teacup, let out a small sigh and spoke.

“Do you know why I haven’t been able to take your calls these past few days?”

“…”

“With the lifting of the quarantine in District 25, civil engineering and construction projects that were dying in the shadows have become active. Quite a few of those companies are ones I hold shares in.”

“So?”

“I’m not asking for much.”

Madam met Lennok’s gaze with her red eyes from behind her veil.

“The right to participate in the development projects of District 25. If you grant official permission for my side, I will provide you with information about Kaiser.”

“…”

Lennok, too, was slightly surprised by Madam’s calm proposal.

Information that Adamant Thunder had officially participated in the sealed zone operation hadn’t been released yet.

Yet, Madam knew that Lennok had not only participated in the sealed zone operation but also acquired land and business rights in District 25?

His contemplation didn’t last long.

Lennok took a business card from his pocket and placed it on the table.

“This is the contact information for Keegan Grimes, First-Class Administrator, who controlled the Kurbas Dam,” Lennok said, watching Madam silently take the card and read it carefully. “He’s officially set to retire from his administrator position, but he still holds most of the administrative authority around District 25, including the Kurbas Dam.”

“Hmm, a First-Class Administrator…”

“Mention my name and tell him the business sectors you need. He’ll inform you which regional development project permits he can grant.”

If she had been aiming for promissory notes or land, simply calling Jenny and having the brokers talk would have sufficed.

But what Madam wanted was for the companies she held shares in to secure a significant stake in the internal projects of District 25.

She probably wasn’t aiming for the land itself, but rather for an arrangement to widely spread her influence as a broker.

If the lifting of the sealed zone’s quarantine wasn’t a one-time event, there was a high probability that opportunities would continuously return to the contractors who first secured projects.

Madam had anticipated this when District 25’s quarantine was lifted, and she was seeking ways to expand her influence within the megacity in the long term.

“…Alright. This should be enough. I never expected you to introduce a First-Class Administrator.” Madam said, a satisfied smirk on her face. “It’s not easy to say ‘just mention my name,’ so have you gotten used to leveraging your status in the meantime?”

“Enough with the pointless chatter. Let’s move on to Kaiser,” Lennok cut her off. “I know you’re not currently managing Kaiser’s corpse. If you were, you wouldn’t still be doing broker work.”

“Hmm.”

“What I want to know is where Kaiser’s corpse is currently stored, and who is managing it.”

A blue magical light flowed from Lennok’s eyes as he stared at Madam.

“Even if you’ve stepped away from that task, you’d know who your successor was, wouldn’t you?”

“…”

Despite Lennok’s mana silently pressing in on her, Madam showed no signs of distress.

Instead, she simply gestured lightly outside, and a new teacup was brought in and placed between them.

She stirred the teacup gently with a small spoon, then leisurely opened her mouth.

“After Kaiser Bajour died with the failure of the project, there was no other reason for vampires to preserve his corpse.”

“…”

“Only those most knowledgeable about the hardening of human blood and flesh could preserve his body in an intact state. I, too, was there for that reason, but I relinquished all authority long ago.”

Did that mean vampires were only needed to preserve Kaiser’s body most perfectly immediately after his death, and over time, project officials who found a way to store his corpse had taken it back?

Before Lennok could even sink into his thoughts, Madam abruptly spoke.

“Kaiser Bajour’s tomb is in District 19.”

“District 19…”

A perilous zone, along with District 25, that was among the first in Vulcan to be designated as a sealed zone.

And unlike District 25, it was also a secret land where no information or environmental details had ever leaked to the outside.

Even among the megacity officials Lennok knew, none had ever entered it.

“But from what I know, Kaiser’s corpse isn’t stored within that district.” Madam shook her head. “The last two rumored candidates I heard were: Kundara, the Outer Tribulation City where long-lived species born with True Blood reside, and Yorta, the Military Spirit City, said to observe and curse the flow of all spirits in the world.”

She pulled out an old notebook and gently slid it across the table to Lennok. “It’s the only item left behind by the official involved at the time. He said he would leave a means of contact in case of the worst-case scenario.”

Watching Lennok pick up the notebook, Madam rose without hesitation, as if she had nothing more to say. “That’s all the information I have. Oh, and one last thing.”

A faint chuckle laced Madam’s voice as she pulled her veil back down. “If, by any chance, you make contact with them, could you tell them this isn’t my fault?”

An old, deserted downtown area.

Lennok sat on a shabby bus stop bench, where dusty exhaust fumes and wind constantly swirled, and pondered as he looked at his phone.

“A mid-to-small-sized city, home to long-lived species, that has continued for hundreds of years…”

The two cities where Kaiser’s corpse was presumed to be stored: Outer Tribulation City Kundara and Military Spirit City Yorta.

Unlike Military Spirit City Yorta, Lennok didn’t have much information about Outer Tribulation City.

“It’s located on the Eastern Continent, but it’s surrounded by unimaginably rugged terrain, making access difficult,” Davi explained, relaying the information she’d gleaned by navigating the city’s central network and the deep web as if they were her own home. “Most of the known information stopped at a level disclosed decades ago. Official activity completely ceased 20 years ago, and even before that, there was virtually no external activity.”

Davi, who had been curled up on Lennok’s lap, flicking her tongue, slightly raised her head as if she had found something. “Ah, but digging through the data, there’s one sole message from the past few years.”

“What is it?”

“On the day the previous Lighthouse Keeper Madrea Falcia died, a message was sent to the Pilenom Autonomous Region.”

“…”

Davi transmitted the message sent by the Outer Tribulation City to Lennok’s phone and showed it to him.

The message, written in a breathtakingly archaic, scrawling script, began:

=To the pioneer who has wandered, looking further than what is seen.

=Giving meaning to a life that has yearned for value beyond the time lived, is the duty of those left behind.

“…Is that all?”

“Yep.”

“…”

Lennok, stroking Davi’s perked ears, pondered for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

“It seems Outer Tribulation City has found its own way to avoid the coming destruction.”

“Huh?”

“Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent a message like this as a sign of condolence. ‘Those left behind who give meaning until the very end.’ This literally refers to the sender themselves.”

A condolence letter, minimalist in form, mourning the previous Lighthouse Keeper Madrea Falcia, with the sender revealing their identity at the end.

That’s why Lennok could easily surmise that Outer Tribulation City was originally built to avoid destruction.

Even the name “Outer Tribulation City” itself, meaning “outside the cycle,” was strikingly intuitive.

Had the long-lived species gathered to find a way to escape the impending doom?

If so, that method would undoubtedly be related to their vast lifespans.

It was clearly a topic Lennok could not simply ignore.

“I’ll need to visit Kundara someday…”

The problem was that as long as he didn’t know whether Kaiser’s corpse was in the Military Spirit City or Outer Tribulation City, he didn’t have the luxury of visiting both.

Even at this very moment, the Central Front, Eyes of Blue, Pandemonium, and the Guido Cult’s influence were rapidly shifting.

Unless there was a very clear purpose or reason, it was difficult for Lennok to leave his current location recklessly.

‘Considering issues related to the Incarnation, it might be better to visit the Military Spirit City first.’

While working with the Eyes of Blue Watchers, Lennok had vaguely grasped how to handle his own Incarnation, but to truly master that power, he would eventually need to visit the Military Spirit City, which observed all spirits in the world.

Having learned the basics of Super-Fusion from the twin Watchers, Jio and Piyo, hadn’t he been curious about what would happen if he fused with his own Incarnation?

Lennok, deep in thought, pondered for a while before looking at Davi and asking, “Davi, how much time is left until the Machina transport?”

“About 15 minutes until arrival. Master came out too early.”

The reason he was sitting in thought at the deserted, shabby bus stop.

Now that his appointment with Madam was concluded, Lennok had decided there was no reason to delay his journey to the Machine City.

After giving Jenny an excuse about taking a few weeks off, he had obtained unauthorized inter-city transport to Machina with Davi’s help.

While reviewing information about the Outer Tribulation City, Lennok waited for his path to Machina.

“Right. Then I might as well try it here.”

“Try what?”

“The notebook Madam gave me. I think I generally know how to use it.”

Lennok said, taking out the notebook he’d acquired through his deal with Madam and opening it wide.

The faded yellow pages inside contained no writing or drawings, but Lennok didn’t hesitate to pull a pen from his pocket.

“She said it was a means of contact, so perhaps it’s something like this?”

Holding the pen, he scrawled words onto the first page of the notebook.

“I have something to say about the transfer of Kaiser’s corpse.”

As he wrote the sentence in the notebook, the ink simultaneously vanished, as if seeping directly into the paper.

Lennok waited patiently, but no reply came.

Davi stared blankly at the notebook, then subtly drew up some mana. “Should I try feeding it some electricity, just as a test?”

“Are you going to keep saying strange things?” Lennok said, stretching Davi’s cheek. “It’s just a simple means of contact; trying to interrogate it will only make us look ridiculous.”

“The deep web said you should give them an electric massage if they read and ignore you!”

“If you learn one more weird thing from there, I’ll really install an internet usage limit app for you.”

“Hmph…”

Leaving Davi, who drooped with her five tails between her teeth, Lennok pondered, then raised his pen again.

But this time, the pen nib didn’t touch the old paper surface of the notebook.

Plop!

Lennok pricked his hand with the pen nib to draw a little blood, then brought it straight to the notebook paper.

Words, stained with blood, wrote the exact same sentence on the notebook as before.

“I have something to say about the transfer of Kaiser’s corpse.”

This time, however, the words didn’t immediately vanish into the notebook.

Instead, they slowly disappeared beyond the notebook’s paper, as if savoring, tasting, the blood Lennok had personally inscribed.

Immediately afterward, entirely different words began to emerge precisely where Lennok had written the sentence.

“I detect the scent of very ancient time and spirit.”

Just as Lennok was about to speak, taken aback by the suddenly high-flown reply, another sentence appeared directly below it, making him stop his hand.

“I greet the Transcendent who is worthy to challenge a great mission.”

“…”

At the notebook’s exceedingly respectful reply, Lennok stopped his pen with a bewildered expression.

Davi tilted her head, looking puzzled. “What is this paper lump saying right now?”

“Well. From what it’s saying, it seems to be mistaking me for a…”

“Ascendant. What do you wish to know?”

“…an Ascendant.”