Chapter 505 - The Dark Night’s Opportunity for Murder (1/2)

Chapter 505: The Dark Night’s Opportunity for Murder

The person who entered the study was a butler that had served Phocas for many years. His name was Reiner, and he was almost 60 years old. He could be considered advanced in age in the Ashlands, sans the people in high society.

Reiner’s hair was clearly mottled white. The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, lips, and forehead were relatively obvious, but he had a strong body and a mind in good shape. His blue eyes only showed reliability forged through time—it wasn’t ravaged by the vicissitudes of life.

“General, the bathwater is ready.” Reiner bowed.

Phocas’s yellow eyes swept across the butler’s face, and he nodded. “Alright.”

He slowly stood up and led the guards guarding the door to the second floor as he stroked the statues along the railings.

The guards remained at the bedroom door, and only two maids followed in to help Phocas remove his general uniform and enter the bathroom.

This general’s habit was to sleep after taking a bath at night. Nobody was to disturb him until he naturally woke up.

As usual, Phocas took a comfortable bath with a glass of red wine. After the maids cleaned up the bathroom, he immediately got into a large bed and covered himself with a velvet blanket.

As an old man, the mattress on this bed had already been replaced with a relatively hard one, helping him relieve the pain in his waist.

Every time he felt the hard support of the mattress, Phocas would always miss the early years.

Back then, his bed was very soft, and he felt like he could sink into it.

Back then, his wife was still alive.

As the curtains were drawn and the bedside lamp switched off, the entire room was drowned by thick darkness.

Phocas’s breathing gradually became drawn out.

After 15 minutes, the bedroom door quietly opened. It was unknown if the guards—who were supposed to stop anyone from disturbing the general’s sleep—had disappeared or were ignoring the intruder.

The person who entered the bedroom was of average height and wore a formal black suit. He walked in the weakly illuminated environment and walked to Phocas’s bed. Then, he took out a syringe from his pocket.

After pushing out a little liquid, the person hiding in the darkness bent down and aimed the needle at a certain vein in Phocas.

Tak!

The bedside lamp suddenly lit up. The originally warm, yellowish light was rather blinding for humans who were accustomed to the dark environment.

The person attempting to inject Phocas with poison couldn’t help but close his eyes. He straightened his body in horror and retreated.

After adapting to the light, the intruder opened his eyes again and saw that Phocas had already sat up. The latter’s yellow eyes stared at him coldly, and he looked imposing and abnormally dignified.

The person who had infiltrated the room held his breath subconsciously, just like every time he encountered such gazes over the years.

His hair was white, and his wrinkles were obvious. He was Phocas’s most trusted butler, Reiner.

“Why?” Phocas asked in a deep voice. He didn’t show any panic from the attempted attack.

Reiner overcame his fear and smiled strangely. “Because I’m Shepherd Bouillon.”

“You?” Phocas scoffed, but he didn’t say anything else. He calmly asked, “Why did you choose this moment, which isn’t really an opportunity to attack me? Have you also lost your intelligence?”

Reiner laughed. “The fact that you raised such a question means that I wasn’t wrong. In order to deal with a senior Mind Corridor-level Awakened like you and a general who can command the entire city defense force, being rash won’t solve the problem. I have to patiently observe the details and carefully gather information to find your weakness. Then, I’ll have to wait for an opportunity like tonight when the city defense forces are guarding the various areas but have lax defenses here.

“Fortunately, you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time[1]. I didn’t say this sentence, but it’s a famous saying from the Old World. It’s perfect for you. I didn’t sneak into your manor to find an opportunity to influence you. Instead, I flipped through the memories of the people around you bit by bit to find clues.”

Phocas laughed instead of being angry. “What did you discover?”

Reiner shrugged. “I realized that you have a habit that hasn’t changed in years. Be it commanding the army outside or facing chaos in First City, you have to sleep before 10 p.m. You absolutely can’t go beyond that.