Chapter Volume 7, The First Step Toward the End: Sin, the Original (1/2)

Volume 7, The First Step Toward the End: Sin, the Original

Translator: Raylight (proofread by Trespasserby & Minthe; C/E edited by lucathia)

“Hey!”

A black shadow loomed over me with a can. I took the can with a smile, thanking the other, “Thanks, Ezart.”

If Ri Xiang Ye knew that I was currently on an adventure with his best friend, would he immediately charge into the ancient tomb? If he really were to charge in, I guess adventuring together with him wouldn’t be too bad either?

“You have a high opinion of me, right?”

“What do you mean high opinion? Can you not talk as if I’m interested in you? I don’t lean that way!” The other person grumbled uneasily, and then admitted straightforwardly, “There’s a bunch of investors who insist on coming along on the expeditions, but very few of them actually have any combat abilities. Most of them are just a burden. You’re actually pretty strong, not too shabby!”

As expected of a battle manic. Even his standards for judging people are so simple.

“Oh yeah, Ah Shou, what exactly are you looking for?” asked Ezart as he scratched his head. “This ancient tomb looks like there’s nothing in it at all.”

“If I tell you that I actually don’t know either, will you beat me to death?” If I were hit by this person’s full strength, I would definitely be sent flying and splattered on the wall—that was not a speculation, but something that had already happened multiple times.

Ezart raised an eyebrow at that and replied, “What would I beat you up for? Whether you find it or not is none of my business. You’re paying me either way!”

“Do you really care about the money? These kinds of ‘adventures’ are so dangerous that if you slip up, you won’t be alive to spend the money.”

“I still got to make a living somehow!” Ezart snapped back.

I looked at him, with a ghost of a smile on my face.

“… And adventuring seemed interesting.”

“Young Master, welcome home,” I said as I handed over the towel for wiping his sweat.

“Charles, what happened?”

Unexpectedly, the moment he finished wiping his sweat and raised his head, he noticed from my appearance that something was off. His ability to read faces was still absurdly high, but this time, he did not need a reply from me.

“Ah Ye,” Secretary Bai greeted and stood up.

The young master froze and shouted, “Ah Yue-gē, why are you here?”

… Ah Yue… gē?

“I came to have breakfast together with you!” Secretary Bai said with a smile.

The young master’s eyes widened a little, which I believed was his expression of disbelief. However, he did not comment on it, and merely turned to tell me, “Then Charles, go and prepare breakfast first. I’ll shower after breakfast.”

“Understood.”

I first served the appetizers for everyone to enjoy before I went on to prepare the rest of the food.

“What is this?” Secretary Bai stared at the two appetizers without holding back any doubts.

“Jellyfish salad and chilled radish pickled with plum juice.” In the end, I still decided to make both dishes, though I was not sure if our guest liked spicy food, so I decided against the spicy jellyfish.

Seeing that our guest still had doubts about the menu, I introduced each dish in detail: “The jellyfish’s bell is rich in collagen, which has beautifying effects, as well as giving it a chewy texture when eaten. The other dish, radish pickled in plum juice, has a slightly sour taste, which is good for stimulating one’s appetite.”

As per usual, the young master’s eyes immediately sparkled when he saw food he had not tried before. He swiftly picked up his chopsticks and took a bite of the jellyfish, exclaiming, “Ah! This is so chewy, and so delicious!”

The young master appears to like chewy textures. I should make a note to use more of such ingredients in the future.

Secretary Bai tried a piece of the pickled radish and appeared to like it, soon taking another. However, the jellyfish was left completely untouched. Secretary Bai did not eat anymore after two pieces of radish and questioned, “Ah Ye, were you thinking of looking for those escaped criminals?”

The young master, who had been happily enjoying his food, froze in place. Though I was extremely interested in the continuation of this conversation, I had to go back to the kitchen to prepare the rest of the breakfast. Once back in the kitchen, I used x-speed to chop the vegetables, then chopped the beef that was to be the main dish later, and put it into the oven…

Within a minute, I served the second dish, romaine lettuce salad with smoked salmon, together with freshly toasted milk buns.

When I walked into the living room, Secretary Bai was in the middle of persuading the young master, “Ah Ye, rather than going on a wild goose chase, why don’t you give me a hand?”

“What do you need my help with?” The young master asked doubtfully.

After putting down the plate of salad, I had to return to the kitchen, and hence prepared the rest of the dishes with x-speed. I assembled the main dish of beef and vegetable skewers, and then put the brick toast for the honey toast into the oven. Once that was done, I came out with the freshly grilled beef skewers and various drinks.

“Act in a movie?” The young master seemed not to comprehend as he inquired, “What does acting have to do with catching criminals?”

Movie? Though I did once hear from Lin Ding that someone wanted to ask the young master to act in their movie, there was no talk of it afterwards. To think that Secretary Bai is the one requesting the young master to act in a movie now.

Thankfully, the brick toast would still take a while longer to finish baking, so I would be able to stay in the living room for a short while.

“Have you heard of Alex Simon?” Secretary Bai abruptly brought up someone unrelated.

The young master nodded as he answered, “He is the representative of Daystar City.”

“I intend to ask him to star in this movie together with you.”

“Oh?” The young master’s curiosity was piqued as he asked, “Who will he be playing?”

“A priest.”

Is Alex’s profession not already that of a priest?

The young master seemed to have thought of that too, as he inquired with a smile, “Then, who am I going to play?”

“A beautiful youth.”

The young master is also a beautiful youth. It seemed as though there was no need to act for the two leads of this movie. Though, speaking of which, a character setting like “beautiful youth” did not seem to require any acting.

“This is the movie project plan. Take a look and see if you are interested in it first!”

Secretary Bai passed the plan over and started eating the milk buns. It seemed as though compared to the cold appetizers and raw salads, “he” preferred food that was piping hot.

After asking him for his choice of beverage, I poured a cup of freshly squeezed apple juice with milk for him. This was a little surprising for me, as I could not have imagined that he would pick the same beverage as the young master. From his behavior up until now, I believed that he would ask for a glass of table wine. It was fortunate that he did not though, for we only had cooking wine at home.

The young master looked at the plan, and then reflexively read it out loud: “The Hunting of a Vampire.”

…

“Pft!” The young master laughed as he asked, “Who named this?”

Secretary Bai shrugged with both hands up, saying, “Isn’t it Ah Yan? Who else could it be?”

Hearing that, the young master’s smile faded. He asked in suspicion, “Could it be that Gēge told you to stop me from doing something dangerous?”

“Aiya! Are you doubting me?” Secretary Bai’s eyes turned wide. He was not expecting the young master to actually nod his head though, so he could only helplessly explain, “The plan to shoot this movie has long been in the works, so we decided to simply make use of it for the sake of the investigation. Under the pretense of borrowing the fame of the city representative contest, we will invite the first and second place winners, Alex and you, to be the lead actors. This way, not only will it appear less suspicious, the movie is also more or less a sure hit. No matter what, it’s a good deal!”

The young master still did not quite believe him. He shook his head as he inquired, “Investigation? What’s there to investigate about a movie filming? Ah Yue-gē, you’re still lying to me to get me to stop pursuing the criminals, right?”

Secretary Bai glared with both eyes, exclaiming, “Ah Ye, am I that unreliable to you? Fine, I understand. Stop nodding your head so fast, like I have no credibility at all! Sigh, to be honest with you, Alex Simon is no ordinary priest.”

Up to this point, it appeared that they were equally matched. Indeed, Secretary Bai had seemed to be trying to divert the young master’s attention to other matters, so that he would not go and hunt down the P29 criminals. Naturally, the young master would not agree to that, and was instead trying to fish out some information from Secretary Bai.

“Within the Sin Elimination Committee of the Church, there is one person whose main job is hunting down E.X. The person in that position is called “Sin Simon.” I strongly suspect that Alex is related to that Sin Simon. Even their surname is the same. Therefore, he most likely will know some information about the criminal that the Church wants.”

Secretary Bai glanced at me and continued, “Ah Ye, you are friends with the Church’s nemesis, E.X, right? If that is the case, the criminal that you want to hunt down the most must be the one that the Church desires. Isn’t that so?”

“So that’s how it is. That’s why you’re trying to get me to star in a movie with Father Alex!” The young master then asked without batting an eyelid, “Then, who is the criminal that the Church wants?”

Secretary Bai shrugged, innocently saying that he “didn’t know,” not revealing any useful information.

The young master stared at Secretary Bai, his eyes full of mistrust.

Secretary Bai blinked—to think that even mechanical eyes have eyelids for blinking—as he said, “Didn’t Kyle already give you a list of all the dangerous criminals? Did you manage to guess which one of them it is?”

The young master shook his head.

“If even you can’t tell who it is with your capabilities, Ah Ye, then how am I to know who it is?”

The young master frowned, as though he was not sure whether to believe him or not. However, with his ability to “read faces,” he ought to be able to tell if Secretary Bai is indeed lying, right?

Secretary Bai sighed as he said, “The rest of the criminals are dangerous, sure, but Ah Yan is not to be trifled with either. The adjudication squad is pretty useful in their pursuit and capture, too. The most troublesome one is the one wanted by the Church!”

At this point, he took another beef skewer and elegantly bit off a piece of meat. He seemed very calm and composed in the midst of all these matters as he chewed, and only when he was done did he continue, “With the Church protecting that criminal, we definitely won’t be able to find him! So, we can only work on the assumption that the Church might want to use this criminal to pursue X. However, the Church is extremely thorough in their protection of Sin Simon. It is entirely impossible to find out who he is.”

Following that, he said no more and did not even look at the young master anymore, completely engrossed in eating the beef skewers. Even though he was the only one eating in the entire living room, he was just as content. He appeared not to mind the young master who was deep in thought, not to mention Mr. Bramble and the others. The three of them practically did not dare to touch their breakfast, and even the young master’s words to sit down were of no avail.

I lowered my head and requested, “Young Master, may I interrupt?”

The young master nodded and said, “Speak!”

“Actually, Sin Simon is not a person, but a position: a position that is mainly responsible for capturing X. Regardless of whoever became ‘Sin,’ he would from then on change his name to ‘Sin’ and keep only his original surname.”

Secretary Bai’s eyes widened as he exclaimed, “If that’s true, there’s a possibility that Alex is Sin Simon himself.”

“Indeed, such a possibility exists.”

X had once mentioned to me that it had taken three hundred years before he finally realized that the people hunting him down had already changed several times. When I had heard that, I felt a little sorry for those “Sins.”

It was unclear whether it was due to having lived too long, but X was not mindful of many issues. He often claimed that anyways, those humans and issues were short-lived and would disappear in time, so there was no need to spend the effort to remember them.

“Sins” especially were short-lived. Many were killed, and even if they were not, their lifespans were mysteriously short. Generally, they departed this world at the age range of forty to fifty. Having to hear yet another hunter’s “first meeting spiel” every once in a while made X extremely fed up, and he would even spare Sins’ lives because of it, so as to avoid hearing another new Sin’s declaration.

“If that’s so, then that’s even more reason to investigate!” shouted Secretary Bai.

“That can’t be right!” The young master shook his head and shouted, “If Alex is Sin Simon, then since he has finally gotten his hands on that criminal after a lot of difficulty, of course he would go after X. Why would he agree to star in a movie?”

“That’s why we have to get you there!” Secretary Bai explained as a matter of fact, “You are acquainted with X, and your butler is very close to him. No matter how busy he is, he probably isn’t willing to let go of such a lead.”

Once the young master heard that, he shouted unhappily, “So Ah Yue-gē, you intend to use Charles!”

I quickly cut in, “Young Master, it is my sincere wish to be of help to X.”

The young master then relaxed a little, but still appeared to be largely discontent with Secretary Bai.

Secretary Bai quickly assured, “Aiya, Ah Ye, don’t be nervous. The entire film crew is mine. Nothing will happen!”

“I don’t believe you!” Unexpectedly, the young master responded with no trace of politeness, “You and Kyle-gē are both the same. Both of you would absolutely never betray Gēge! How am I to trust you two?!”

Secretary Bai exclaimed, “Didn’t Kyle give you the information on the criminals? You already trust his information, so why don’t you trust me?”

“Kyle-gē was willing to give me the criminals’ data because he knew that if he didn’t give it to me, I would be able to find it myself. I have the highest access rights possible in the Sun Alliance and can get into any database. That’s why he just tidied things up and passed it to me, so that I wouldn’t rampage through the whole database looking for it.”

The young master asserted, “So Gēge must have asked you to stop me from hunting down those criminals, and the movie is just a pretense!”

However, Secretary Bai burst into laughter, as he said, “Do you think that Ah Yan is not willing to let you go hunt down criminals, but is willing to let you go confront the Church? Those are the strongest people of the Church, people who are hunting down a thousand-year-old vampire. Would they be easier to deal with than the criminals?”

The young master froze, his brows furrowed, deep in thought.

Secretary Bai softly spoke, “Ah Ye, what I was thinking was that rather than letting you run around recklessly till we can’t find you, which will make Ah Yan worry till his heart and stomach hurts, I might as well give you a mission. Not only can we make use of your strength, we can also keep you under our eye. That really would be more reassuring!

“Sigh, but I know that persuading you is just as hard as persuading Ah Yan. You two brothers sure are similar. What a pain!”

The young master’s face flushed red. It was not the first time that he was told that he was very similar to the Sun Emperor, but it just so happened that the person who was the most headache-inducing for the young master was also the master. Thus, this fact would always make him feel a little awkward.