The Devil's Cage

The first light shone down on 1st Black Street.

Kieran was eating his breakfast in the study.

The smell of buttered bacon, toast and hot milk filled the room. The smell alone was enough for anyone to feel famished, let alone the delicious food.

Kieran was no exception. He was enjoying his meal at the tea table, fully savouring the delicious bacon and toast with his tongue.

The combination of smoked bacon and toast was astonishing, and the fact that the bread was smeared with butter took the flavour of the whole thing to the next level.

Even though there were cucumbers and cherries as a side dish, the flavors did not clash. Quite the opposite, the freshness of the fruit enhanced the flavor of the juicy meat and the aroma-filled bread.

The taste and overall experience was intoxicating, and Kieran was generous with his praise to Ferad, who had cooked the wonderful meal.

"What magnificent cooking!" Kieran said.

"Thank you, sir. Here is today's newspaper."

Ferad the spirit butler was communicating with Kieran through paper and pen.

Although Ferad could not speak, he excelled at other tasks, such as disappearing and reappearing with two newspapers in his hands.

One of them was the local newspaper of the city publisher, and the other one was a newspaper dedicated to special people.

"Special people have their own newspaper?"

Kieran was surprised when he saw the second newspaper. He had not expected it by any means. He was under the impression that special individuals lay low and tried to keep their existence a secret.

Although there were special cases like Nikorei, who often worked with ordinary people, and the Drifter Society, who was bold with their actions, the majority of special individuals tried to stay under the radar.

The existence of such a newspaper was unexpected, and it made Kieran reevaluate his original impression.

"We need to improve ourselves along with society. Nikorei used to be one of the chief editors of this newspaper, so we get a free copy every day," Ferad explained.

"Nikorei? That sure sounds like her." Kieran laughed a little as he picked up the regular newspaper.

He had no doubt about that.

A shaman needed to be on friendly terms with ordinary people, but they also needed to use modern technology to get information. Therefore, publishing a newspaper seemed normal for Nikorei.

Given her special clairvoyant abilities, Kieran found it very suitable for her to be a newspaper chief editor.

"Gas explosion at the police station, no casualties reported!"

Kieran read the title of the regular newspaper. He had no interest in reading that article, as he already knew the truth behind the incident.

He set that newspaper aside and picked up the special one. It was all written in special symbols and icons, and it was reporting the incidents of the previous day.

There were no pictures on the newspaper, and the symbols and icons were all scrambled. Even if an ordinary person got their hands on it, they wouldn't understand a thing.

"Nice way to keep it classified," Kieran thought.

[Mystical Knowledge] had built up an invisible, uncrossable wall between special people and ordinary ones.

Except by pure luck or coincidence, ordinary people would never get a chance to tangle with special people.

Kieran lowered his head and read the newspaper carefully.

It was also recording the incident at the police station.

The words ‘Drifter Society’ and ‘2567’ appeared quite often, but they weren't the words that were used the most in the newspaper.

That was 'Holy Knight'.

That was the phrase that appeared the most in the article about the police station. The middle part of the paper explained the term and speculated that ‘2567’ might be the last Holy Knight.

"The light of the Holy Knight has descended upon us again. It was what we had anticipated!"

"The Holy Knights were all killed during the Holy War before the Er era!"

"2567 might be a swindler! I still think we should pay this Sir 2567 a visit though. We must see the truth with our own eyes!"

After Kieran read through all the speculations, he automatically rubbed his temples to ease the swelling.

He had never thought that one batch of [Holy Water VIII] would cause such a commotion.

He knew that being mistaken for the last Holy Knight would mean nothing good for him.

The visitors coming out of admiration could expose the truth and taint his reputation. Kieran frowned.

There were also some good news that he had been longing for. His name was now known to the masses, so all the Hatch Heresy would have to do was pay attention to the news and they would find Kieran soon.

On top of that, after the battle the previous night, Nikorei’s fondness of Kieran had gone up again.

The Sub Mission he had unlocked was the best proof for that.

[Sub Mission Unlocked: The Shaman’s Package]

[Sub Mission: Your performance has made Nikorei the Shaman look at you differently. She now considers you a trustworthy assistant and has decided to let you handle more cases. Go to the Celestial Garden and look for Simones. He will deliver the package that you need to keep safe until Nikorei comes back.]

Nikorei had mentioned this task when Kieran had spoken to her on the phone after the battle.

No matter what dungeon he was in, Kieran's motive to explore all the Sub Missions and Title Missions did not change a bit.

Other than this seemingly vague good news, Kieran had also gotten some physical rewards from the battle.

The two cracked [Soul Shard]s he had earned plus the two [Soul Shard]s he already had in his lobby room made up a set of four worth 27,500 Points and 6 Skill Points.

After he'd counted the potential points, Kieran had decided that he would not mind running into the Drifter Society a couple more times.

It was only a pity that, even though he had tried hard to let one of his enemies live, Kieran had still not been able to get more information on the secretive Drifter Society.

The sinister guy was currently in a condition similar to Louver's. They had had a doctor check that he was not faking it. The guy had really suffered a mental meltdown.

The continuous occurrence of that particular kind of illness solidified Kieran’s guess about the Drifter Society members, yet it did him no good.

It was of no help to the case, even though both of them were currently staying at 1st Black Street.

Louver and the sinister guy had been temporarily transferred to Nikorei’s house after Schmidt had handed in his report to his superior. It was not too much hassle to move the special criminals to the special confinement area.

"Those high-ranking freeloaders were already scared after the incident!"

This was what Schmidt had said when he'd transferred the two men to Nikorei’s house.

Kieran had made no further comments on the station’s chain of command.

Suddenly, a white invitation card fell off the newspaper as Kieran was flipping through it.

The invitation had a black-colored pentagram on it and looked oddly lustrous under the light of the early sun.