The Devil's Cage

When the elder sensed Kieran’s gaze, he bowed before slowly walking over.

[Sister Reid Statue]’s power followed his footsteps as he walked into the hospital, causing the doctors, nurses, and patients to neglect the happenings.

The scene was familiar to Kieran but slightly different.

It felt a bit more tender.

The previous one felt like a strong push away and the current one felt like politely asking one to leave.

The strong manner of the former was worth being cautious at but the silent manner of the latter was worth being cautious over even more.

Kieran understood the saying "boiling a frog with warm water".

Kieran held [Interrogator Knife] and [Dark Venom Dagger] in each of his hand, he didn’t mind expressing his alertness with his stance and when the elder was 4 to 5 meters away, he said: "Hold it right there!"

"I mean you no harm, young hunter!"

The elder’s voice sounded exactly the same as the elder that Kieran met before, the meaning of his words were almost identical as well.

The weird feeling caused Kieran to raise a brow.

"I am Gannett, the Chief Friar of Marulyn Church!"

The elder introduced himself and pointed at the charred body.

"That is one of the Twenty Hounds, Damien. He wanted your body so he took the risk of infiltrating St. Reid Hospital. After all, with your memory loss in addition to possessing an excellent body as a hunter made you a great target for this Mr. Hound here."

The elder didn’t waste time with his words and told Kieran everything he wanted to know directly.

Still, it didn’t put Kieran at ease.

"How did he have his eyes on me?" Kieran asked.

Kieran had quite the confidence in his own Intuition, despite a -3 debuff, it was still at S+ rank.

Although he couldn’t be like a clairvoyant that could see thousands of meters away to expose every detail, he would surely notice any malicious gazes towards him.

However, since he entered this dungeon world, he didn’t notice any gazes from the so-called Damien of the Twenty Hounds.

"The moment when the evil spirit formed. No need to doubt, the moment that poor lady turned into an evil spirit, she had become the best ears and eyes for Damien," Gannett replied.

Although it made sense and sounded reasonable, Kieran was skeptical.

"So you just let Damien have it his way?"

"Young hunter without memory, if your memory was intact, you would know your doubts are unnecessary. A huge organization like the Elder Council is definitely not some small church like Marulyn can compare with. Even when Madam Saint Reid was alive, all she could rely on was the Union to oppose the Elder Council."

"I know it’s hard for you to believe my words. There are quite a few mystical realm gathering points around Edland City, you could very well head there and get an update on any relevant information."

Gannett finished his words with a bitter smile and waved his hand.

One of the friars within the environment saw the scene and came over to Gannett, passing him a pen and paper.

Gannett quickly wrote down three addresses and gave them to Kieran.

Donna Bar, Mecathy and Borjane Books, and Ximi Candy House.

"The people in the three places are all friendly and easy to get along with. Quite the amount of people gather over in those places, especially Donna Bar. I couldn’t have paid off everyone in the city, could I?"

"And of course young hunter, you must remember some of the gathering points are quite dangerous. Especially after you’ve defeated one of the Twenty Hounds. The bounty on your head will be priceless and gazes will lock tight on your head."

Gannett told Kieran who was still skeptical.

"Any more advice?"

Kieran asked after checking the paper and made sure it wasn’t trifled with.

"That will be all! Good night!"

Gannett shook his head and headed towards the other direction of the hospital hall.

Kieran looked at Gannett’s back and squinted his eyes.

Gannett didn’t tell the truth, or more precisely didn’t tell him the entire truth!

It wasn’t just Kieran’s intuition tingling but also the system notifications.

[Discovered sub-mission: Unworried Blood Debt]

[Unworried Blood Debt: The lunatics from the Elder Council don’t really care about their own men’s death but are quite fond of stronger individuals joining them. So, a heavy bounty has been placed on your head. You will face a total of three hunts and your opponents might be any one of the Twenty Hounds but if you survive through the three hunts, you will have the chance to join the Elder Council and become a new member of the Twenty Hounds!]

Gannett didn’t tell him how many times he would be hunted or what he would encounter if he avoided the hunts.

Perhaps it might be a worry, but more than that?

Kieran lowered his head and looked at the three places on the paper.

Three hunts, three places. Could it be a coincidence?

Kieran never believed in coincidences.

After a couple more friars cleaned up the scene, Kieran went back to his ward without batting an eye at them.

The situation inside the ward was different than what Kieran experienced in the illusion.

Hoskin was watching TV while sitting on the chair and although Teresa was hiding behind the door, she didn’t point her gun at Kieran.

"Damn, it’s much better than just now!" Kieran muttered to himself.

"What?" Teresa was baffled.

"Nothing, just encountered something bizarre. If I have the chance I’ll tell you but right now... We are in trouble." Kieran shifted the topic.

While he hadn’t truly grasped the mystical realm of the current dungeon world, Kieran was not ready to drag the natives that had the potential to be his allies into his mess.

It would surely cause a lot of unpredictable changes, such as doubts of disbelief or death due to curiosity. Therefore, the final decision was to keep it a secret from both of them.

Fortunately, after Kieran explained the situation with Ryan Sulfose in detail, it caught Teresa’s attention completely.

She didn’t even care about Kieran shifting the topic and slammed the cupboard beside the bed as she considered corrupt officials as deadly foes.

"Fricking bastard!" She shouted.

The young Hoskin was even filled with righteous indignation.

While both of them were being filled with emotion, an emergency news broadcast suddenly popped up on the tv.

’We interrupt this program to bring you an emergency news broadcast! About ten minutes ago, our station has received the news through a reliable source, stating that Ryan Sulfose, one of the mayoral candidates, has just been shot in his own house!’

’This is the second assassination on a mayor candidate following the first of Symende Augen a day ago! Currently, the police have identified the shooter as Edland City ex-heavy crime unit leader, chief office Teresa! According to what we understand, ex-chief officer Teresa is also closely related to Symende Augen’s murder!’

’We...’

Before the news could finish reporting, Hoskin switched it off immediately.

He turned around and looked at Kieran and Teresa in an anxious face.

"What should we do now?" Hoskin asked.

Teresa frowned hard and looked at Kieran who was smiling.

"Don’t tell me you are thinking what I’m thinking?"

"If you are thinking about finding Symende Augen out, then I think we are thinking of the same thing," Kieran said.