Chapter Volume 8, The Beginning No. 1: The City of Sin (1/2)

Volume 8, The Beginning No. 1: The City of Sin

Translated by Ever (proofread by Trespasserby; C/E edited by Taffygirl13 & lucathia)

I took a sip of black coffee. It was strong and bitter, which made me frown subconsciously, but cleared my head up quite a bit.

The secretary sat beside me, either typing or directly voice messaging. Although paper wasn’t used much these days, there were still mounds of documents piled up on his desk; how extremely busy he was.

“Kyle, report today’s schedule—”

“Ri Xiang Yan!” Someone hurtled in like the wind with a frantic expression on his face. Having not tidied himself in who-knows-how-long, his appearance would instantly fit in with the homeless if he were tossed out onto the streets.

How dare he call my full name again. I expressionlessly said, “Bill, drag him out and kill him.”

As always, Kyle did not lift his head from the computer monitor. As he dealt with the screen full of messages, he said, “Just based on how he made your bad habit of calling my name wrong reappear after it had finally been corrected, he deserves to die. However, he has not yet finished teaching the young master’s butler. So for the sake of the young master, please wait a bit more.”

Ah Ye… I frowned and asked crossly, “Not yet still? How long has it been already?”

“Less than half a year,” that damned Kyle reminded.

Half a year was indeed too short. No mistakes were allowed with Ah Ye, so even a decade of learning would not be enough.

“Ri Xiang—Ah, no, no, Sun Emperor, just listen to me!” An Te Qi waved his hands around, so excited that he could fly, as if he did not feel the murderous intent around him grow stronger and heavier.

Why is this guy getting crazier each day? Yet I can’t replace him… I growled angrily, “I don’t want to listen to you!”

“It’s about Ah Ye!”

“… Go ahead.”

“I’m guessing you won’t need a drink?”

Father Alex brought over a tray with a coffee pot and two cups, and then smiled at me as he said, “But if you have a needle for drawing blood, I can also provide you with such drinks.”

I smiled bitterly and tactfully responded, “I am not very used to conversing with someone while drinking their blood.”

Although I have done it before.

Alex laughed lightly. “That is true; if I had steak for lunch, I wouldn’t want to see the cow first.”

However, as soon as he finished talking, the “steak” calmly sat down beside the vampire and started brewing coffee. The room was immediately filled with the coffee’s strong aroma.

Father Alex was sitting beside me, and the smiling Father Yue was sitting across from me. Normally, it would have been enjoyable to chat over coffee with these two, even if they were priests.

But at the moment, I could only find it ridiculously bizarre. As a spy, how did I end up sitting down to have coffee with the target of my investigation?

“I thought Dark Sun had come,” Father Yue said as he looked at me with interest, “I hadn’t imagined it would actually be you.”

Hearing this, I suddenly remembered that Father Yue knew that the young master was Dark Sun. Then does Father Alex know?

“I know,” Alex stated without warning, yet he remained calm as he picked up the coffee pot and filtered the boiled coffee into the cups.

It took me a moment before I could respond. But, but how did he know? Was it my expression that revealed something… No, I was not particularly surprised just now. Although the young master always tells me that my eye brows or lips curved by a few millimeters, I do not believe there are many people with the ability to detect a few millimeters change on someone’s face.

Moreover, even if my expression did change, could one so easily guess that I was thinking about the young master?

“What do you know… Ah! Is it about Ah Ye?” Father Yue concluded before he finished his question. As Alex handed him the coffee, he grinned and said, “Alex does indeed know about Ah Ye, but it has nothing to do with me. If the high levels of the Church know, why would he not?”

I asked calmly, “So Father Alex is a high level of the Church?”

The other two momentarily froze, before Father Alex gave Father Yue a helpless look.

“Ah! Oh no!” Father Yue said apologetically, “I’m sorry, Alex, but Charles seems to have this special power that makes people want to tell him a lot of things.”

Father Alex had already regained his composure as he responded, “You’ve told me that before. It does seem that way at the moment. Such an unfathomable power, isn’t it?”

All Elysees butlers have this unfathomable power to some extent.

After finally receiving some useful information, I asked persistently, “Father Alex, who are you?”

Alex sipped his coffee helplessly and under Father Yue’s amused expression, he sighed. “Actually, I’m a spare.”

Spare? I asked in confusion, “A spare for what?”

Alex smiled slightly and said, “A spare for Sin.”

Sin’s… I slightly opened my mouth but did not know what to further ask, especially since Father Yue was currently looking at Alex with an expression of pity…

Alex glanced at Father Yue and the latter gave him a smile. He then went on, saying, “Around a hundred years ago, there was an unimaginably strong ‘Sin.’ It was said that he had really caught E.X. then, but E.X. later escaped.”

A hundred years ago? Was it the time that X went without a word for many years and left the mansion to me? His wordless farewell was because he had been captured? Or perhaps I am mistaken, since “around a hundred years” is too vague.

Alex indifferently described, “Although incredibly strong, the Sin at that time was still human after all, and would die of old age. As a result, the Church had always wanted to train successors that could match up to him. However, they were unsuccessful from beginning to end. At last, they decided that only that Sin could reach that level, so they—”

“Cloned?” I immediately blurted out. With the young master as an example, this was the first thing that instantly came to mind.

Alex looked at me curiously and said, “No, even now, clones have not been able to overcome the flaw of being unintelligent, much less a hundred years ago.”

Ah… That is indeed true. The young master had mentioned this before as well. DSII was also controlled using a microchip, so DSII was technically a robot that was modified from the young master’s clone—Although I have always thought that DSII is more human than many actual humans.

“I was mistaken.” I nodded to gesture for him to proceed.

“They simply thought that a son would do as well as the father, so perhaps this kind of power could be inherited.” Alex laughed. “So they used artificial insemination. But not all children are like their father, so there would be many candidates. They would pick the strongest one among the children to become Sin, and the rest—like me—would become spares.”

I understood now, and surmised, “So you are Sin’s brother, and he sent you here to get close to the young master…”

“No, no!” Father Alex stopped me and chuckled. “In order to prevent rebellions and the like, spares are excluded from the Sin Elimination Committee. It seems that there were some precedents in the past. And saying that I am his brother not quite accurate either. In reality, I’ve only seen him once from afar; all candidates received separate training.”

I remained silent for a while, as I could not find any gaps in his story. Furthermore, Father Yue was also present and had not refuted at all. Perhaps his statement of being a “spare” is true?

However, even if there was an explanation behind Alex not being Sin, this just made me even more confused. I asked, “Why are you telling me so much?”

“Why not?”

I did not expect Father Alex to respond in such a way. He then praised, “Charles, your hiding abilities are truly very strong. When you came in, none of our brothers sensed your presence. If it were not for this, I wouldn’t have dared to meet you in private, let alone explain all this. I do not have any ill intentions. I simply wish that you and Ah Ye would stop misunderstanding me.”

Being monitored? I frowned, “The Church treats you so…”

Alex laughed and said easily, “You’ve misunderstood me slightly. My brothers treat me very well. Although they don’t need me now, they ‘might’ need me in the future. Yet they did not lock me away from sunlight in some secret underground institute. Even when I asked to become a normal priest, they granted my request. What’s so bad about all this?”

“Yet they sent you after the young master.” I still could not believe that the Church would let a spare for Sin become a normal priest. The training alone likely costed them a fortune, and yet the result was becoming a normal priest? This was truly hard to believe.

“Please believe me, this was only a big coincidence.” Alex smiled bitterly, “My becoming the spokesperson of Daystar City was really a great mistake. Some brothers signed me up for fun, and after realizing that this was a great way to spread the gospel, they secretly helped me, which eventually led to such a situation.”

He said helplessly, “In fact, I thought I would definitely lose to Sunset City’s spokesperson. I’ve seen An Xiang Ye’s commercials before; he really is an adorable boy, befitting of the title Angel. So I let the brothers do what they wanted, thinking that as long as I didn’t get first place, this fame wouldn’t last long. In that case, why not use this time to minister to the people and let more of them accept the gospel? But I had not imagined that…”

Had not imagined that the young master’s identity would be revealed, and that the Sun Emperor’s reputation would instead help him up to the first place seat.

“Please believe me, the Church is also troubled by what the brothers did.” Alex said softly, “Sin isn’t really happy about this. He does not enjoy watching this ‘brother’ of his become too famous.”

I looked at Alex. His expression was very sincere. Up until now, there was also nothing suspicious about him. Should I believe him and stop investigating him, and spend my time on someone else?

It would be great if I could tell the young master all this. The young master would be able to deduce more conclusions. As for myself, all I felt was confusion, uncertain of what could be trusted and what was suspicious.

Taking a deep breath, I thought: Whether or not to believe Father Alex is not important, since I did not reveal myself because of him, but for someone else.

I turned toward this someone and said, “Father Yue, can I trust that you will not harm the young master?”

“Of course,” Father Yue said immediately. “How could I ever hurt that child? If I dared, even my wife would divorce me.”

I thought you two never married?

“But, what about X?” I stared at him, refusing to miss a single change in his expression. “The person the Church wanted was never the young master. It was X. Do you want to help them catch X, Father Yue?”

Father Yue’s smile faded, and his expression turned serious. He stared back at me, and without any intention of avoiding my question, sincerely answered, “Believe me, I have absolutely no plans to hurt E.X.”

I thought: Aside from believing, I do not have much of a choice.

I carefully walked into the hotel, as this hotel was more heavily guarded compared to the others. Since the young master and the rest of the cast lived here, the Church had sent people to guard its surroundings. Despite this, no one detected my presence. However, I still concealed myself to the best of my power, since the young master’s abilities were very astounding, and he was quite familiar with the way I moved.

The young master had once said that as long as I was within five paces from him, he would always sense my presence. However, he was not as confident if I was ten paces away, and was definitely powerless if I hid further than that. Thus, I decided to stay twenty paces away.

Before I left, Ezart had been staying in the room beside the young master. Since he also shared the room with Nitewalker, there was a possibility that I could be noticed by Nitewalker if I barged in rashly. It was also possible that Ezart was currently with the young master or Luo Ye right now, so going into his room was simply too risky.

I opened my phone and checked that no one had called before dialing, saying quickly and quietly, “Ezart, it is me.”

An “oh” came from the other end, and then he started talking to himself, saying, “I’m at my high school classmate’s place. Yeah, you know, that Angel, Sunset City’s spokesperson… Where are you?”

Ezart said a long string of words, roughly hinting that he was with the young master. I lowered my voice even further. “I am in the hotel, but I am afraid to go to the floor where you and the young master are staying.”

“Oh? I transferred some stuff to our base. Go ahead and take a look first. I’m not in my room right now so I don’t have a computer. I’ll meet you online later when I’m back. ‘Kay, I’m a bit busy, talk to you later!”

Having said so, he hung up the phone. I carefully thought about what he had said. First, it was “our base” and then he mentioned “room,” so did he mean he wanted me to go over to his room first and wait for him? What did he mean by “transferred some stuff?”

After pondering over this, I decided that Ezart was unmistakably hinting for me to go over to his room first. In that case, I shall head over.

I climbed the fire escape up to the floor where the young master was staying and slowly pushed open the door. Looking into the empty hallway, I began to worry if the young master would just happen to push open the door at the exact same moment. However, I then realized that it was a baseless fear, since such a coincidence could never happen. Moreover…

Using x-speed, I arrived in front of Ezart’s room in an instant, and at the same time, swiped the door key that I had already taken out. After the door unlocked, I immediately flashed in and closed it.

Even after accounting for the time that the sensor took to read the door key, the entire process only took three seconds. If even this would “just happen” to be seen by the young master, then being discovered would likely be unavoidable.

“Charles Endelis?”

I started, and raised my head immediately to see a light blue figure.

“Poseidynne! Why are you here…”

I had not yet finished my sentence before another person peeked out from behind Poseidynne’s back with an extremely timid expression on her face. This time, I was so shocked that I could not find any words.

Poseidynne being here was simply somewhat surprising, yet it was obvious that she was here for the young master.

For non-humans, Daystar City was very dangerous, and what the young master was currently doing was also dangerous. But Poseidynne was a powerful non-human, so even if Daystar City prohibited non-humans, there was a possibility that it was not as dangerous to her—as long as she did not try to confront the Church directly.

However, that person behind Poseidynne should not be here no matter what!

“I’m sorry, Charles-gēge.” The person lowered her head like a child apologizing and said, “I know I shouldn’t be here.”

If you know, then why did you come? I said helplessly, “Lady Briar, if you know, then why did you come here? Does the young master know that you are here?”

“Ah Ye-gē doesn’t know… Charles-gē, don’t call me ‘Lady’!” Briar said uncomfortably, “It sounds so weird. I’m not anything like a lady.”

I smiled slightly and responded, “Since you are the young master’s fiancée, I should address you as ‘Lady.’”

“And don’t use honorifics!” Briar looked at me aggrievedly and sighed, “Charles-gē, I don’t have a big brother, so I’ve always saw you as one. But now Gēge is calling me ‘Lady’…”

Gēge? I lowered my head to look at Briar. Although she was quite mature for her age, she was still a thirteen-year-old little girl. And right now, she was staring at me with wide eyes, appearing indeed similar to a younger sister—a younger sister who was being mistreated by her older brother.

“As you wish. Before Lady… Before Briar turns sixteen, I will not use honorifics, but after that I must, since this is my obligation as a butler. Is that acceptable?”

“No, at least until I’m eighteen!” Briar immediately refuted.

I felt as if I was bargaining at the market, with one of those extremely sharp vendors raising the price instead. Encountering this type of vendor typically only resulted in the basic twenty percent off.

I chuckled. “But are you certain that you will not become the young master’s bride before you turn eighteen?”

Briar finally cheered up and laughed. “Daddy said that I am not to even mention the word ‘marriage’ before I’m eighteen, or else he’ll shoot himself.”

Eighteen? I though Mr. Bramble would say at least twenty. I guess that over these past years, Mr. Bramble has also started to accept this better.

“I see. Eighteen it shall be then.” I asked sincerely, “If Briar is going to see me as an elder brother, then listen to your elder brother and return to Sunset City, okay?”

Briar widened her eyes at me and firmly declared, “No!”

Saying that, she hid behind Poseidynne. Poseidynne also stepped forward, as if saying: Try forcing the girl if you dare.

It would be fine if it were only Poseidynne, since she was a formidable non-human. If she wanted to stay in Daystar City or even go sight-seeing at the Church, I would not have any intention of stopping her. Yet Briar was different. She was merely a defenseless thirteen-year-old girl with no means to protect herself.

I took a deep breath and lowered my tone to warn, “Poseidynne, if the young master knew that you brought Briar here, he would be extremely upset!”

Poseidynne hesitated for the first time upon hearing these words. This made me sigh in relief. Thank goodness she still cares about upsetting the young master; otherwise, I truly would not know how to convince her to take Briar home.

Briar’s eyes reddened with tears as she shouted, “No! I’m not going back! I’m the only one who never gets to go. I can only watch Daddy leave for work, and sometimes he even comes back hurt. And now Ah Ye-gē too. He’s always hurt so very badly…. Ah Ye-gē said that he was very strong, but why does he still get hurt so much!”

I was shaken by the words that sounded so familiar.